At this point in my career, I can’t really see myself organizing much of anything as it is time I don’t seem to have. But after I saw Memefactory, I decided that it was well worth my time to get these guys and their computers to NYU. With help from a string of organizations at NYU, Memefactory will be performing a souped up, updated version of their masterful performance tour of Internet memes on October 9th. It is SO worth checking out. (ps, we remixed this poster though we did not get much of the bling)
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If one were to assume there might be any kind of end to the meaningless drivel on the web, one would be wrong. For this very reason, we present MemeFactory NYU. We’re lucky enough to have been invited by NYU to present our second, full-length MemeFactory during which we wax philosorapsophical about the state of popular (and some unpopular… and some überpopular) internet media.
That means about one and one half of one hours of 3 projectors, 3 gentlemen, more pictures of cats, videos of fails and power ratings over 9000 than any previous MemeFactory. We’d call it bang-for-your-buck, but damn… this shindig is $Free! So don your pancake hat – or your furry suit, we wont judge – and get ready to Get Down, get WeeGee’d and of course… Crank That.
http://wwksf.com/nyu
To recap:
WHEN: October 9 7:30-9:00.
WHERE: Warren Weaver Hall RM 109, http://cs.nyu.edu/web/Location/directions.html (Free and Open to the Public)
WHO: What We Know So Far http://www.whatweknowsofar.com/NYU
WHY: Because it is not another academic lecture but lively performance filled with nothing but insight and humor for die-hard Internet memeologists and newbies alike. Take the plunge with the memefactory!
SPONSORED: NYU @ Free Culture, Council on Culture and Media, Center for Religion and Media, NYU ACM’s Chapter
The talk on memes and especially cross-cultural memes at open video conference has been great. Def worth watching.
I am sure many have seen this video pirates. drugs. gay marriage and I think it speaks for itself. But I have to say, this video caught be off guard early this morning when I am first exposed to the day’s viral videos, memes, and other savory and unsavory delights. Though I have been consuming and digesting this stuff for awhile now, I am still amazed by the craziness, creativity, outrageousness (often offense) that circulates every day, without fail, on the internets.
Most of the stuff, even if pretty low brow can be said to be artistic in one classical sense of art: ”l’art pour l’art”, with the aesthetics being focused on some combination of shock, irony, and humor.
But how about the political activists? They are not dipping into this genre enough and it’s high time they use start using these tactics/viral videos to shock/shame their opponents, using the sugar coating of humor and raw audacity to spread their message.
I have found myself, at least on a few occasions, talking to a person whose relationship to the Internets is much thinner than my own, trying to explain the nature of certain Internet memes. I find this a pretty tough task to pull off as I tend to make memes sound really infantile (and perhaps that is just what they are).
To explain this world to the uninitiated, I either: 1) very quickly give up and move onto some other less obscure 2) go into semi-professorial lecture mode and give a mini-low down on memes, some of the early examples, a small theory of self-referential irony, 4chan, rickrolls, encyclopedia dramatic etc etc and then show a bunch of memes as really you can’t do it justice without the audio visul component.
Now, I can just point people to the Meme Factory –to three youngish guys from Brooklyn who put together a **fantastic show**** a few weeks ago on, yes, Internet Memes. It was a dazzling ride into the (sometimes very obnoxious) territory that is memeology, addressing and displaying both the happy-cheery-cute side of memes as well as its darker side.
The video they have on their site documents their presentation and the word is out that they will soon craft something more like a stand-alone video-essay about Internet memes. As we wait for this next step in their project, this video is an amusing watch (though the interesting stuff starts about 3 minutes in).
