Tag Archives: meme

Project HyperEssay III: To Set Up a Memorial

The current plan requires a space to allow projection onto a largely clear surface to simulate a memorial plaque. A laptop computer wil be present to allow viewers to input their contributions into the plaque. It could be anything from a phrase to a paragraph.

FloorPlan

 

Initial location. ADM 1st Floor Lobby.

FloorPlan02
N
ew location at ADM B1.

Also below the surface the projection is screening on, there is another space where a flowerbed will be. This is to simulate the space of offerings for a memorial.


Memorials come in many form. They can be solid material.


Intangible light.


Or projection on solid surface.

This work will involve audience participation in order to achieve the idea of a memorial mourning for the meme. An instruction will be given to request any audience to offer anything into the flowerbed. It could be an item, a phrase (print out), or simply flowers.

To achieve this, I will need a projector, laptop, materials to build the enclosure (for both the plaque and offerings), and maybe some flowers or soil (optional).

Anything the audience leave behind is something they wish to pass onto. From death comes new beginning. A meme is something that is pass from one person to another. Through this work, a space is created for people to send off a meme of themselves, so that others can receive the meme.

 

 

Project HyperEssay II: Cyber Surrogates

Meme spreads virally. But that does not mean it’s a virus. Rather, I consider meme a cell. A cell that replicates rapidly in the Third Space. As far as meme goes, it evolves like a cell as well. It can turn from something simple, to something grand. Similar to how a super low budget game indie hit like Flappy Bird turn million dollar profit overnight unintentionally.


There are tons of video on Youtube discussing Flappy Bird’s success. But any subsequent attempt fail to replicate its success.

Despite being a carbon copy in terms of concept and art style. It fai to garner as much attention as Flappy Bird.

Take a look at all the other most successful meme. Lolcat, Nyancat. LittleKuriboh, Rebecca Black, Rageface, etc. What is their common characteristic? There are all the “first” in their time and any subsequent imitations fail to reach as high popularity. The second common characteristic they share is that they are all unintentional. Lastly, they are all fundamentally different thematic subject matter that it is impossible to find the “success” formula to a sure popular meme. (Nyancat and Lolcat are virtually different kind of memes despite about “cats”. One is a picture of a cat smiling and one is an animation of a poptart rainbow cat creature running in space.) In conclusion, there can never be an intentional meme and there is no way to find a sure-win formula. It’s entirely arbitrary. They are practically like living beings in the sense that there is no way you can predict what comes up next!

Fundamentally, what constitute to the success boils down to the viewers. Us, the surrogates. We humans help the memes to grow. We are like bees to flowers’ pollen grains. Without surrogates (us), memes cannot populate and survive in their natural habitat (internet). As much as the material use in the work, the viewers are as much the medium as the materials themselves.


A work such as Telegarden can be consider a work that involves viewers as surrogate guardians for the plants. In my case, viewers play similar role for memes.

As a poetic representation of the concept of memes as cell. My idea undergo a cellular evolution as well.

Previously I propose the idea of memetic portraits. But those alone does not justifies what memes are. So I look into creating a physical Third Space where the audiences are literally plunged into it to come into physical contact with memes.

The viewers — aka the surrogates. Will become part of the work. They will be the “new medium” in my project that I have yet to resolve a direct solution to. The current idea is probably to introduce holograms projection screening memetic imageries — anything that is possible to make the viewers feel like they enter the “internet”. And they have to perform some sot of activities before they can be released from the Third Space.

To put it simply. It will likely be a interactive installation that requires light projection, a screen, active viewers. In other words, a physical third space where the memes are in their “natural habitats” and we the surrogates have to perform something ther natural habitat to facilitate their cellular growth. The viewers can be anyone and they do not need any specific qualification. They simply need to be there as surrogates.

 

Project HyperEssay I: We are One and Many

“A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

Who are we? And why do we exist? I often question whether each of us is truly unique. We define ourselves through the way we dress, the actions we perform, the friends we make, or the way we think. Yet how much of this self-definition actually caught on to the people around us? A criminal who is a loving family desperate to make ends meet. A hero who is secretly a tyrant. A girl who is actually a guy. There are always two sides on a coin. But only one side can be visible at any one time. Whatever goes on behind the scene is hidden to us. It is impossible to define everyone for who they truly are. Thus, we define people around us with what we know about them and vice-versa. In other words, our very own existence define by memes.

Internet meme is one of the most popular term in Third Space. Internet memes tend to be cheeky images or catchphrases that serve to only entertain. When we discuss internet meme we thought of Nyan Cat or the Forever Alone Guy. But memes can also refer to the concepts of subliminal messages, open sources scripts, shareware, adverts, or personal avatar. Memes practically define what the internet is. As long as we are using the internet, we can never escape from exposure to memes. Memes are what help us identify the websites we are visiting, the people we met online, the program we use, etc.


You know this video is going to waste your time thanks to meme.

Without meme, the internet will be a blank dimension. Without meme, each of us will be walking without faces.

My idea for the collaborative project is for everyone in the class to define each other using memes.  We will use images, videos, codes — anything we can find in the internet to define our peers. Each of us is going to be cyber Da Vinci. Our canvas is the internet, and our paint brushes the memes. The product of this project will be a gallery of portraits in the Third Space.


Some artist choose to use rap music and abstract ideas to identity themselves.

Some uses abstract grafitti.