How memes have become a 21st century artform
One of the most important developments in recent art history is the inception of the internet meme. Materially and conceptually, the meme is the first truly new and distinctive artform to emerge in the 21st century.
This is likely because a meme cannot exist without three things that were invented in the late 20th century—the physical infrastructure of the internet, digital imaging technology, and social networking. Without this holy trinity, a meme would not be able to flourish, spreading like an intellectual virus to minds worldwide.
Merriam Webster defines a meme as “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” The term was invented by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in the late 1970’s, when he was proposing his theory of gene-based evolution. In his work, he uses “meme” to describe genetic traits that spread or are transmitted beyond the physical body.
In the internet world, memes spread far beyond the confines of their creators’ bodies. They can be videos, images, sayings, hashtags, intentional misspellings, or anything else that is copied and shared.
A single posting can result in a meme being shared millions of times and circulated internationally, an effect that has been used to do everything from marketing goods to influencing elections.
In our most recent presidential election, memes played a significant role in the outcome. Many a fertile young mind was impregnated with right wing and centrist ideas by skilled propagandists, many of whom were hired to pull votes away from the left.
An example of this is the alt-right’s appropriation of Pepe, a cartoon frog who was created by San Francisco artist Matt Furie. Much to the artist’s chagrin, this lovable character from the comic “Boy’s Club,” became a symbol of white nationalism and racial intolerance.
Appropriation has been a mainstay of modern art since the 1960’s when Marcel Duchamp introduced his “Readymades,” the most notable of which is a urinal bearing the signature “R. Mutt.”
By taking an object, image, or idea, and changing its context, an artist is able to add their own meaning to it. This process, also known as “recontextualization,” is at the very heart of meme creation. This past week, local musician and video artist Nick Lutsko gained internet fame by recontextualizing a series of statements by Alex Jones.
In the video (visible on Facebook at Superdeluxevideo) which immediately went viral, Nick uses some of Alex’s conspiracy theories as song lyrics, singing them in the indie folk style of Bon Iver. In less than a day, the video had been viewed over five million times, and even garnered a response from Jones himself.
Nick is surprised by the overwhelming response to his work, telling us “The attention this thing has gotten is surreal. It’s pretty amazing how you can take two totally unrelated things and make something that resonates with so many people.”
“The first step to making one of these videos is finding compelling footage,” he explains, detailing his process. “This takes the most time, and is the least fun. Luckily, I had a lovely intern at Super Deluxe help out with compiling footage for this latest Alex Jones video. Once I appropriate all of the clips from YouTube, I arrange them in a cohesive way. After that, when I have the ‘lyrics’ in place, I begin writing the music. Then the song is recorded, and imported into iMovie 9 and I synchronize the footage to the music by slowing things down and speeding them up.”
The hilarity of Nick’s video is an example of why most people make memes. The most common memes out there are funny images with words applied to them.
Local meme expert Fry Jacob tells us, “In its raw form, a meme is an inside joke we are all in on—but it’s more than jokes over a funny picture. There has to be a common human connection for a meme to exist. It can be niche, but as long as it rings true for most of the intended audience, then it’s a meme. I think some people are using the term meme too loosely and calling every image macro with an unfunny, unoriginal, or unrelatable joke a meme.”
He continues, “They are beyond relevant. A meme is an idea shared by a group—It’s human nature. The earliest meme I can think of is everyone doing the “Wassup” Budweiser frog thing after a super bowl. Everyone enjoyed hearing and doing it, and It would take more than a psychologist to tell us why that phenomenon exists. Really, it’s just for the lulz.”