On the Language of Internet Memes

an arts-based educational research dissertation in arts & visual culture education

Category: Research

February 14, 2014

Remix [Art Crit & GIFs]

In remix terms, Art Crit and GIFs draws heavily from Mark Amerika’s (2011) idea of source material everywhere,

which gets me to thinking that the idea of

a rich and mysterious and new [my emphasis] set of related experiences

…

triggered by the making of things

or as I would prefer the remixing of data

may be a fallacy

not in a negative way

but in a fallacious way

let’s call it the Novelty Fallacy

(locs. 280-288).

By acknowledging the novelty fallacy I hope that the visual artifacts that make up Art Crit and GIFs are able to access

…the Source Material Everywhere

not as ideas or things

but as intertwingled agitations of force

(locs. 1944-1946)

that will in turn engage and agitate subsequent users into finding yet more source material to remix and create new visual artifacts of their own.

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February 12, 2014

Literacy of the Meme

  • Developed in conjunction with Dr. J. David Betts, for his upper-division/graduate-level course New Literacies: Computers in Education (LRC 430/530) in the Learning Reading and Culture department at The University of Arizona.

  • Target audience was the students registered for the class.

  • Nine participants consented to be part of the study. All nine generated data to be analyzed.

  • Participants were introduced to the Internet Meme phenomenon, with an emphasis on Image Macros and Animated GIFs. They were then asked to generate digital content that related to their professional, academic and research practice.

  • Ran from October 16th-30th, 2013 as part of a class’ unit on visualization.

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February 10, 2014

Phase I [Researcher as Student]

Responding to class assignments, readings and visualizing research through The Language of Internet Memes:

Art Crit & GIFs

Literacy of the Glitch

Internet Memes: What if we’re not just gags and we’re actually meaningful visual culture artifacts?

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February 10, 2014

Internet Memes: What if we’re not just gags and we’re actually meaningful visual culture artifacts?

A visual essay composed of Image Macros reflecting on their perceived role as the quintessence of throwaway culture and the possibility of transcending it.

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PDF: Internet Memes Not Just Gags

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March 21, 2013

Art Crit & GIFs

A series of animated GIFs that samples pieces of contemporary art and remixes them with critical theory to explore notions of stagnation and elitism in what is otherwise meant to be understood as socially engaged discourse and art production.The individual pieces of digital content that make up Art Crit and GIFs were disseminated through social media in hopes of infiltrating public discourse around topics like Occupy Wall Street and religious iconography all the while incorporating contemporary aesthetics into the ongoing conversations.. I presented a poster and spoke briefly about it at Wikepedia Academy 2012:

Poster_ArtCrit&GIFs

Wikipedia Academy – Lightning Talks from Wikimedia Deutschland on Vimeo.

EveryStateAllTheTime

TheseIgnitedEstates

OkupasBig

PassionOfThePissChrist

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November 20, 2012

Literacy of the Glitch

Literacy of the Glitch is an Arts-Based Educational Research (ABER) project that examines  the glitch and the potential it presents in terms of a learning experience related to new media and practices associated with them.

It’s build entirely out of Animated GIFs and features seven glitch portraits each touching upon different, but interrelated aspects of the glitch that can serve as vehicles to explore otherwise imperceptible qualities of the digital realm. It is hoped that these type of observations may offer new insights into the underlying nature of information and design systems that must account for the potential of error. The visitor is encouraged to investigate each portrait at length as some hyperlinks are made evident while others may not be so apparent at first sight.
Annotated bibliography.

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