Y U No Giv Eulogy is multi-media project that explore the idea of meme cycle.

Meme at its core is about transferring of information, and the internet is the most prolific medium. But its advent also cheapens the true value of memes. When memes are mentioned today, people will think of joke images, witty catchphrases, or cats. While that may be true, it is not what meme is all about. In essence meme can be anything as long as it is transfer from one host to another. Think of it like a virus or cell. It replicates and move on from one body to another. Imagine the internet is a giant gene pool, and memes are the micro-organism swimming in it.

Memes are created everytime and become obsolete as soon as it trend were over — ending up in the internet archives. This cycle greatly resembles the life cycle of all living beings. We as living beings were born, then spend a lifetime worth of existing, and then return to the soil — leaving behind a grave as part of history. In essence, we (living beings and memes) are fundamentally similar in nature.

There are a couple of idea of I can go about executing this. Using light projector, I aim to create a virtual memorial/tombtone. And below the grave, I will be creating a physical grave to complement the virtual memorial. Audience are required to leave behind something at the grave, took a picture of the item and upload it somewhere (Instagram, Flikr, etc). The image will then appear on the virtual memorial. This follows the aforementioned concept of cycle. Create a meme (leave something), let the meme live (upload it), and celebrate its death (archiving it on the virtual memorial). The reverse sequence is also true depends on how abstract one wishes to ponder upon it.

Direct link between the memorial and the grave is subtle. I have receive suggestions about making it more obvious to the audience that the both are connected. One way to go about it is for audience to leave offering that matches what is shown on the memorial. But it may not be practical. One reason being I allow audience to put any image on it. If someone put a **** on the memorial, I don’t think it’s a good idea for a **** to be offered. For now, the compromise was to do it the other way around.

To put it simply, it is a project where I encourages people to celebrate the idea of life through practice of virtual creation and burial. Mourn the short live span of meme/fad/trend while at the same time have fun doing it.