In May 2019, the New Museum’s affiliate Rhizome and journalist Katie Notopoulos hosted the ninth edition of Trail Blazers as part of a day-long celebration of web surfing, presented in conjunction with the group exhibition “The Art Happens Here: Net Art’s Archival Poetics.”

The Trail Blazers web-surfing competition pit contestants against one another to navigate a trail from one website to another only by clicking links—no logging in, no searches, and no back button. Developed at Merz Akademie in Stuttgart by artist Olia Lialina and her study group Beautiful Zeroes and Ugly Ones with Dragan Espenschied, the competition challenged users to find pathways through the walled gardens of the contemporary web. DJ Molly Soda provided the soundtrack.

Presented alongside “Arcangel Surfware @ Rhizome x New Museum”, which included a pop-up installation by Arcangel Surfware and a talk with artist Cory Arcangel, critic and curator Ed Halter, and Rebecca Cleman of Electronic Arts Intermix. Prizes for Trail Blazers #9 were offered by Arcangel Surfware.