Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

by Kyle Chayka

Curation begins with responsibility. The etymological ancestor of the word curatore was a term for ancient Roman “public officers,” according to an 1875 dictionary, positions that predated the emperor Augustus, whose reign began in 27 BCE. They managed various aspects of the city’s upkeep: there were curatores of the Tiber River, the purchase of foodstuffs, the aqueducts that carried water into the city, and the hosting of public games. In Latin, curare meant to take care of, and curatio indicated attention and management. Over the centuries, the word’s meaning became less mundane and more spiritual, but still related to caretaking. By the fourteenth century, the noun curate referred to a person working as a religious guide. In the 1662 English-language Book of Common Prayer, a curate was the deputy priest of a parish, guiding his parishioners and looking after the “cure”—care—of their souls. Since at least the mid-nineteenth century, curator has specifically described the manager of a museum and its collections, whether artworks or historical artifacts—a steward of objects instead of people.