In 2010, the New Museum presented New Style Curators, a panel organized by Rhizome for the New Silent series:

A year previously, The New York Times had proclaimed, “The Word ‘Curate’ No Longer Belongs to the Museum Crowd.” This panel, organized by Joanne McNeil, examined “curation” online and how the word applies to social media and internet use. New-media companies sometimes hire “curators” to filter the web for specialized information and data - but missing from this analogy is the importance of context and preservation. Are we all curators of the web? How are sites like Tumblr and Delicious contributing to this trend? Does the internet even need curation? What can social media learn from the art world? More importantly, with everyone busy curating, who is making the original content online?

The New Silent was a series of programs, presented by the New Museum and organized by its affiliate organization Rhizome, that explored contemporary art engaged with emerging technology and examined the ways digital technologies alter our lives and experiences of urban spaces. The series comprised screenings and performances, as well as a critical conversational strand, which brought together leading scholars, artists, critics, and public figures to illuminate the complex interactions between technology, culture, and creative practice. Named for the generational theories of Neil Howe and William Strauss, the New Silent presented artists working at the furthest reaches of technological experimentation as well as those responding to the broader aesthetic and political implications of new tools and media.