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My name is Matthew Prebeg, and I am a multidisciplinary artist, designer, researcher, and technologist. 

There’s this old saying, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” (1) This can mean something positive or negative, depending on who you ask. See, my dilemma is that I like gathering moss, but I also like rolling. I have moved around a lot, currently residing in Toronto, ON. My practice dynamically weaves disciplines and constantly changes, depending on my current interests or the direction the wind is blowing. I am a lifelong learner. You can think of me as a rolling stone in a moss garden.

Currently, my art practice explores digital culture, techno-ecology, and ephemera. My professional practice is centred on designing services and translating knowledge in health research. These, too, are bound to change. I am open to chatting and collaborating—you can contact me at hi@mattprebeg.com.

My CV is available here.

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Read my blog here.

Say hi on Instagram, Are.na, TikTok, LinkedIn, or Chess.com.

Knowledge, Ideas, Words




 The internet is an ecosystem—living and evolving, shaped by both decay and regeneration. In this lecture, we’ll explore how digital spaces function as habitats that grow and persist, and how hidden networks sustain and shape our digital world. As “digital field researchers,” we’ll uncover what resilience looks like in the age of tech giants and algorithmic sameness. We’ll map our own digital biomes and forge a path to a softer, brighter internet. 𖠰𖥧˚෴
Host: NITESKÜL
Date: 3 March, 2025
Location: Apt 200, Toronto ON
Contents: 60min lecture/Q&A, followed by a workshop where participants map their own digital ecosystems




 “How can sharing your work online feel less scary? We explore how to navigate social media as part of a wider creative practice in ways that feel authentic, energising, and meaningful.”

In this article commissioned by It’s Nice That for their 2025 Forward Thinking series, I wrote about how creative people can foster positive relationships with social media. I illustrated a set of diagrams to break down material, and interviewed Hayley Mortin and Ali Sheikh to share their thoughts and experiences on the topic.

Read the article here.
I put together this spreadsheet as a living resource for websites and digital places that reignite feelings of joy, excitement and curiosity while exploring the internet. Somewhere along the road, corporations and recommendation algorithms made the internet feel loud and unescapable. I like to think of the internet as a place where you can build a digital home that feels right for you.

View the spreadsheet here.

Creations




 "If computer memory is like anything, it is like erasable writing; but, if a penciled word can be erased because graphite is soft, a computer's memory can be rewritten because its surface constantly fades." (Hui Kyong Chun, 2008)
Digital decay refers to the gradual obsolescence and degradation of digital data. It could have many culprits; outdated formats, hardware failure, data corruption, cyber threats. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun distinguishes between memory and storage in The Enduring Ephemeral, or the Future Is a Memory, highlighting how all of our data requires constant regeneration-it's erasable, it's forgettable, and it's most definitely not permanent.

So what happens when hyperlinks die? when Internet archives are fragmented versions of events? What happens when we forget?

Video here.



Where did all the microsites go?

As a kid, I used to love exploring the Internet. It felt like a game of “what is the most bizarre, interesting, funny website that I can find?”

With the rise of social media and recommendation algorithms, and the death of web hosting services like Geocities, the Internet changed. I think many of us are sensing this “sameness” of the the current web, as more folks are drawn to websites like Are.na. I wonder what place folk programming has in the next era of the Internet.

Visit the Community Garden here: communitygarden.neocities.org/



A volvelle, or wheel chart, is a type of slide chart considered an early example of an analog computer. They exist for a variety of subjects, from astronomy and medicine to bird calls and fortune-telling.

When I was first introduced to Are.na, Good Sign Offs was one of the first boards I contributed to. I was enamoured by this collaborative and algorithm-free platform for collecting and organizing hyper-niche ideas. It felt like all my years of tracking mundane (and perhaps useless) information in spreadsheets and notes apps have prepared me for this moment.

An ode to hyper curation. Video here.



They say you can hear the ocean in a seashell. That was the first thing my Baka said when she handed me this conch from Podgora, Croatia. When I visited Podgora a few years ago, I heard the ocean. I heard the crashing of waves against the pebble beach.

While “seashell resonance” may be a folk myth, I hold onto this idea, well into adulthood, that a seashell connects me to the same waves my grandmother swam in as a child.

I ran a Python script to convert a .WAV audio file of the crashing waves on the beach in Podgora to binary code. I painted each zero and one on the inside of the conch until there was no space left.Whether or not you, too, can hear the ocean in a seashell, I think there’s value in holding onto these experiences even when they shift form.They say you can hear the ocean in a seashell. That was the first thing my Baka said when she handed me this conch from Podgora, Croatia. When I visited Podgora a few years ago, I heard the ocean. I heard the crashing of waves against the pebble beach.While “seashell resonance” may be a folk myth, I hold onto this idea, well into adulthood, that a seashell connects me to the same waves my grandmother swam in as a child.I ran a Python script to convert a .WAV audio file of the crashing waves on the beach in Podgora to binary code. I painted each zero and one on the inside of the conch until there was no space left.

Whether or not you, too, can hear the ocean in a seashell, I think there’s value in holding onto these experiences even when they shift form.

Videos here.



Hieroglyphic (from the Greek word for “sacred carving”) refers to a system of writing consisting of pictoral characters as symbols for objects and sounds. Originally, "hieroglyphic" referred exclusively to Egyptian monument writing. However, since the late 19th century, the term has been extended to encompass the writing systems of other cultures, provided they utilize pictorial symbols as writing characters.


This website is updated every so often. Last updated on 25 February 2025. All contents are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Thanks for visiting :)