Arkenbout, ChloëWilson, Jackde Zeeuw, Daniel2023-02-172023-02-1720219789492302779https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/critical-meme-reader-global-mutations-of-the-viral-image/https://mediarep.org/handle/doc/20456Beyond the so-called ‘Alt-right’ and its attendant milieus on 4chan and Reddit, memes have passed the post-digital threshold and entered new theoretical, practical, and geographical territories beyond the stereotypical young, white, male, western subject. As they metastasized from the digital periphery to the mainstream, memes have seethed with mutant energy. From now on, any historical event will be haunted by its memetic double. Our responses to memes in the new decade demand an analogous virtuality. This Critical Meme Reader features an array of researchers, activists, and artists who address the following questions. What is the current state of the meme producer? What are the semiotics of memes? How are memes involved in platform capitalism and how do they operate within the context of different mediascapes? How are memes used for political counter-strategies? Are memes moving beyond the image? How can memes be used to design the future? Will there ever be a last meme in history? Together, the contributors to this reader combine their global perspectives on meme culture to discuss memetic subjectivities and communities, the work of art in the age of memetic production, the post meme, meme warfare, and meme magic – varying from reflections on real-life experiences to meta meme theory.<ul> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=11'>Chloë Arkenbout, Jack Wilson and Daniël de Zeeuw: <i>Introduction: Global Mutations of the Viral Image</i></a></li> </ul> <h4>MEMETIC SUBJECTIVITIES AND COMMUNITIES</h4> <ul> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=21'>Anthony Glyn Burton: <i>Wojak’s lament: Excess and Voyeurism Under Platform Capitalism</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=30'>Idil Galip: <i>The ‘Grotesque’ in Instagram Memes</i></a></li> <li><a href <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=43'>Sabrina Ward-Kimola: <i>‘A Vaguely Erotic Mime’: Mimetic Text vs. Optical Tactility</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=52'>Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: <i>Praise Gopod: Weird Tales and Memetic Lore on the WELL</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=61'>Crystal Abidin and Dr. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye: <i>Audio Memes, Earworms, and Templatability: the ‘Aural Turn’ of Memes on TikTok</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=72'>Yasmeen Khaja: <i>Memes in Kuwait as Coping Mechanism for a Lack of Infrastructure</i></a></li> </ul> <h4>THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MEMETIC PRODUCTION</h4> <ul> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=81'>By Max Horwich: <i>Masks, Monsters, and Memes: In Conversation with Scoobert Doobert</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=92'>Clusterduck (Silvia Dal Dosso, Francesca Del Bono, Aria Mag and Noel Nicolaus): <i>Le Meme d’Auteur, or: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Original Content Memes</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=104'>Laurence Scherz: <i>Making poetry babies in an online world</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=121'>By Martin Haßen: <i>‘The Disturbingly Humanoid Face of the Lamb of God Has Shocked Many’: Visual Strategies in Internet Memes on the Restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=133'>Anahita Neghabat: <i>Ibiza Austrian Memes: Reflections on Reclaiming Political Discourse through Memes</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=146'>Saeeda Saeed: <i>Dear Mr.BoneSaw your face smells like a chicken shawarma: A Clapback to Saudi Arabia’s Electronic Army</i></a></li> </ul> <h4>FROM PEAK TO POST MEME</h4> <ul> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=157'>Grant Bollmer: <i>Mimetic Sameness</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=168'>Scott Wark: <i>A Postdigital Angel of History? On ‘Meme Theory’</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=179'>Åke Gafvelin: <i>On the Prospect of Overcoming Meme-Culture, or, The Last Meme in History</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=190'>Geoffrey Hondroudakis: <i>Deeper and Higher: Memes as Scalar Abstraction</i></a></li> </ul> <h4>MEME WARFARE</h4> <ul> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=201'>By Aarushi Bapna and Ajitesh Lokhande: <i>Post-Truth Design Tactics in Memes in India: Decoding Malicious Design Practices in Right-Wing Meme Factories</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=220'>Andy King: <i>Weapons of Mass Distraction: Far-Right Culture-Jamming Tactics in Memetic Warfare</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=239'>Sarp Özer: <i>Your Feed is a Battleground: A Field Report on Memetic Warfare in Turkey</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=251'>Anirban K. Baishya: <i>It Lurks in the Deep: Memetic Terror and the Blue Whale Challenge in India</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=264'>Stephanie Boulding: <i>SILICODEFORESTATION</i></a></li> </ul> <h4>MEME MAGIC: SPECTRES AND DEMONS</h4> <ul> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=272'>The Trans Bears: <i>An Ambiguous Utopia</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=292'>Caspar Chan: <i>Pepe the Frog Is Love and Peace: His Second Life in Hong Kong</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=310'>Luther Blissett: <i>Meme Tarot</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=333'>Ivan Knapp: <i>Genes, Memes, Dreams</i></a></li> <li><a href ='https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/20456/INC-Reader_15_Arkenbout_ea_2021_Critical-Meme-Reader_.pdf#page=341'>Lesley Nicole Braun: <i>The Contagious Other: Virality and Anxiety in Congolese Memes</i></a></li>engMemeCriticismInternetPolitics30010.25969/mediarep/19281