Issue 63 / December 2025
eds. Birgit Mersmann and Hauke Ohls

Paraverse. Digital Transformation in Curating, Exhibiting, and Collecting

Based on the world-theoretical model of the paraverse, the issue explores which parallel worlds of curating, exhibiting and collecting art have emerged in digital spaces, and how these can be situated in relation to the familiar physical-analogue world of exhibiting and collecting art — whether as an extension of existing institutional practices or a parallel-world phenomenon of a subversive, institution-critical digital culture.

How does the practice of curating art — pre-digital, algorithmically generated and minted art — change through its migration into virtual spaces, cross-realities and automated scenographies, and what is the impact of generative AI imaging on it? What new display, participation and mediation possibilities do digital and net-based exhibition formats offer? How are public and private collection strategies and practices changing through the introduction of NFTs and blockchain technology?

The Paraverse issue brings together diverse theoretical, practical and empirical perspectives from researchers, curators, and artists. Under discussion are the digital image politics of curating, showing and mediating art and cultural heritage, the blockchain-induced decentralization and commoning of exhibition-making, collecting, and art sales. In addition, the issue addresses the potentials and risks of artistic value creation and value preservation in the collective space of virtuality, and the future of art-curating in the age of artificial intelligence.