An American artist is undertaking a crowdsourced art project involving a seemingly impossible task – printing out the entire internet.

Kenneth Goldsmith's exhibition opened Friday in a room with 8-metre high ceilings at the Labor Art Gallery in Mexico City.

So far, it consists of 10 tonnes of paper that has been mailed to him from contributors all over the world and assembled into a giant pile.

The printouts include "lots of porn, of course," people's email inboxes and thousands of pages of source code, among other things, he told CBC's Carol Off, co-host of As It Happens.

Goldsmith talked about his inspiration for the project, why he thinks the environmental cost is justified and how he thinks it will be viewed in the future.

The exhibition runs until Aug. 26, and Goldsmith is still accepting submissions.