MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design has acquired the @ symbol into its collection. It is a momentous, elating acquisition that makes us all proud. But what does it mean, both in conceptual and in practical terms?

The acquisition of @ takes one more step. It relies on the assumption that physical possession of an object as a requirement for an acquisition is no longer necessary, and therefore it sets curators free to tag the world and acknowledge things that “cannot be had”—because they are too big (buildings, Boeing 747’s, satellites), or because they are in the air and belong to everybody and to no one, like the @—as art objects befitting MoMA’s collection. The same criteria of quality, relevance, and overall excellence shared by all objects in MoMA’s collection also apply to these entities.

I would like to think this is an April Fool’s Day joke that got posted too early, but it would appear that MoMA is serious about its “acquisition” of the @ symbol … in general and on the whole. I would like to thank MoMA for giving me yet one more reason to chuckle in their direction.

Also, today I acquiring the œ, and æ symbols into my collection, but do feel free to keep using them.