Digital Archaeology, an exhibit that is being billed as the first ever archaeological dig of the Internet, made its U.S. debut at Internet Week New York this week. Made up of 28 forward-thinking websites and curated by Jim Boulton, Story Worldwide’s Deputy Managing Director, the exhibit serves as a map of the web’s progress. It’s an interesting collection whose main purpose seems to be reminding us all that every technological endeavor serves as a stepping stone to an even greater one.

From a distance, the rows of mismatched monitors gives the exhibit the look of a community college computer lab. But once you step up to the first one, you realize that in an inspired touch of contextualization, each site is displayed on an era-appropriate machine. Next to the each keyboard you can also find a corresponding back issue of Wired as well as a popular technological artifact such as a bulky cell phone or an early-model iPod. Viewers can also take part in a digital poll by voting for their favorite site via a QR code. The results were posted on a large screen in the back of a room.

The timeline starts out with what was simply dubbed as The Project. In 1989, Tim Bernerts-Lee of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) created an information system using hypertext that would make communication easier. This led to the creation of a browser-editor that Bernert-Lee dubbed the WorldWideWeb. This piece of the exhibition features a black and white website describing the creation of this information system, aka The Project. This site is considered the first ever, the great-grandaddy of all the places you visit online today.

Some parts of the exhibit will be more familiar to the highest level of digital design junky, while there are other sites that everyone will remember. For instance, there’s the 2000 Barney’s consumer site that was considered a significant leap forward. Boutlon praises the project–done by Kioken and developed by Joshua Davis and Eric Wysocan–for having a “depth and emotional quality” that was lacking on the digital landscape.

Another 2000 site also promoted mood over functionality. Hi-Res! was the the creative force behind the promotional site for the film Requiem For a Dream starring Jared Leto and directed by mood-master Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Wrestler). What they created is something straight out of the nightmarish last half of the film. The website was designed to feel broken with images and text flashing rapidly across the screen. As the user goes on, the fractured quality only increases, creating a sense of panic and disorientation quite similar to the feeling one has after watching the movie. It’s a compelling look at the beginnings of digital movie marketing, and a surprising but sensible choice on Boulton’s behalf.

In a particularly chilling example of digital’s ongoing tendency toward cultural prescience, Boulton has included “Flight 404,” a site that was originally conceived as a digital portfolio for developer Robert Hodgin. The site is a Lost-like collection of clues about a fictional plane that disappeared over the Atlantic. The images are both riveting in terms of narrative and design, but Hodgin’s foresight has nothing to do with J.J. Abram’s primetime drama. According to the exhibit’s description, the site was set to go live on September 10, 2001, but didn’t because a programming glitch. Hodgin decided to launch the site two weeks later, despite the huge unmoving shadow cast by 9/11. The project led to a variety troubles for Boulton, including an arrest, but its inclusion here serves as a sort of vindication for his narrative skills and ability to hone in on the pulse of modern anxieties.

As I moved through the exhibit of firsts–the Subervient Chicken site, the Ikea Dream Kitchen–I found myself wondering where I would end up. What has been super-positioned at the top? When I finally got there, I felt silly for not guessing it.

The Arcade Fire’s suburban anthems have always felt like they were made solely for the purpose of pulling at heartstrings, so when it was announced last year that their video for “We Used to Wait” would allow viewers to take a soundtracked tour of their childhood homes, it made perfect sense. I’d never taken the journey, but standing there in front of the final screen of the exhibition, it seemed clear that I had to. Unfortunately, street views of my childhood home in Iowa are not yet available on Google Maps, but my Brooklyn apartment made a fine substitute.

The primary strength of the exhibit is that it doesn’t try to make any predictions about the future of the web. Instead, it allows the viewer to make their own theories by highlighting significant advancements and touchstones. For me, it felt telling that the final experience in the exhibition was one that was meant to both intensely personal and emotionally universal. Boulton should be commended for his choices, all of which had that special quality of feeling both surprising and inevitable.