Hover on or click terms to unredact them.

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 [email protected].

A breakdown of my services is available here.

My CV is available here.

              ོ
🪨𓆑෴


Read my blog here.

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

Knowledge, Ideas, Words




 What happens when we let digital matter die? This participatory session explores the practice of digital composting—a ritual for facilitating the decomposition of digital objects, ideas and identities. By acknowledging the impermanence of online material and rejecting the pressures of preservation, we will allow them to become fertile ground for something new to grow.

This 30-min participatory session explored the practice of digital composting, featuring a collaborative Digital Compost Bin on Are.na.

Read more on my blog, Dig.site, here.



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˚෴

In-person (hosted by NITESKÜL)
Date: 3 March 2025
Location: Apt 200, Toronto ON

Online
Date: 23 March 2025



 “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.
This website is updated every so often. Last updated on 15 May 2025. All contents are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Thanks for visiting :)