One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age

(first published Sep 12, 2019)

This workshop offers participants the opportunity to explore the early web through the unique interface of the GeoCities Research Institute, under the guidance of Olia Lialina, net artist, vernacular web researcher, and keeper of the archive.

The day  begins with a short introduction to web history, methodologies for web history research, and, in particular, the notions of “Small, Weak and Stupid” as a productive and respectful approach to the digital vernacular.

Participants are be invited to examine a particular collection from the archive in search of answers to an open question. They have several hours to research and document their findings—and to immerse themselves in the material, resurfacing with even more questions.

The goal is to resist distant reading, abstraction, and algorithmic excavation, relying instead on human time and memory, interpretation, and serendipity.

Participants are asked to bring their own laptops and to have the Firefox browser installed.

The workshop  concludes with a recorded conversation that will become a reference for future research.

# 3 
If you’ve been following One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age Photo Op for some time —

or perhaps for all 12 years!—you may have noticed that the content and flow changed dramatically in early 2026. It is no longer chronological. A page clearly from 1996 might appear after one from 2000, followed by a genuine April 2009 site, and then something from 2005. Sometimes you can tell a page’s age from its content or style, or simply because the webmaster included a “last updated” date on the page. It’s quite a roller coaster: Backstreet Boys fandom (2001) next to Frames No Frames (1997), next to Goodbye GeoCities! (2009).

The reason is a mistake that occurred during the archiving process. Around 50,000 pages were mistakenly marked with the date they were archived, rather than the date they were last updated.

During this workshop, we will examine the pages incorrectly labeled “Last Updated April 27, 2009” and try to determine their actual age.

Date: September 17, 2026
Place: The Photographers’ Gallery, London
Time: 10:00–14:00
Participants: 5–15
Registration: …
Collection: “Last Updated April 27, 2009”
Small question: What is the real date of the page?
Bigger questions: How do we recognize the age of a website? What is “old” on the web? How many internet years are in between 1996 and 1997?

# 1
Date: 23rd of October  2019
Place: Merz Akademie, Stuttgart
Time: 10:00 — 17:00
Participants: 6 freshmen of Design Art and Media, students of “Go as deep or stay as shallow” group.
Registration: Not my student? Send a few words about yourself and why would like to take part to olia.lialina@merz-akademie.de
Collection: “dog”
Small question: What dog bread is the best webmaster?
Short answer: German Shepherd
Bigger questions: What does it mean to make a web page?

# 2
Date: 26th of October 2019
Place: The Influencers festival, Barcelona
Time: 11:00 — 17:00
Participants: 4-8 people
Registration: Send a few words about yourself and why would like to take part to talk@theinfluencers.org
Collection: “dove” (1– 120)
Small question: What did dove.gif stand for?
Bigger questions: What does it mean to make a web page? How did images from free collections got spread and interpreted.

# 2.1
Date: 1st of November 2019
Place: Impakt Festival, Utrecht
Time: 11:00 — 17:00
Participants: 4-10
Registration: Send a few words about yourself and why would like to take part to workshop@impakt.nl
Collection: “dove” (121 —
Small question: What did dove.gif stand for?
Bigger questions: What does it mean to make a web page? How did images from free collections got spread and interpreted.

4. 
Date: …
Place: …
Time:
Participants: 4-8
Registration: olia.lialina@merz-akademie.de
Collection: “lair”, “realm”, “world”
Small question: What’s the difference between “Cyber Realm” and “Cyber Lair”?
Bigger questions: How did early web users imagine and describe their cyber habitat?

4.
Date: …
Place: …
Time: …
Participants: 4-8
Registration:  olia.lialina@merz-akademie.de
Collection: “Portal”
Small question: How many external links an average page had in 1996?
Bigger questions: How did web grow? How could a personal page be a catalog, a portal, a search engine?

Related questions:
What did peeman pee on? 2014
What the sky is? 2014
What is behind the wallpaper? 2016