I'm Elias. In 2015 I wrote my undergraduate thesis, "Postmodern Analytic Memetics". I studied philosophy and mathematics, which shows in the text. I should caveat that I no longer really agree with the argument I was making in that paper which is a very sort of optimistic Hegelian take. My current interests are largely in ancient philosophy and history and political philosophy. I'm much more of a meme-pessimist now.
I also used to run a number of Facebook meme pages, most notably Dialecticz Still Wilin (RIP) and groups like Dialectical Dialecticsposting for Big Others and Negated Absolutes (since renamed as Dialectical Bananaposting for Big Bananas and Negated Bananas). I still prefer Facebook groups to other platforms.
My main hobby outside of books is making music, which has it's share of memes.
Welcome, Elias! Good to have you here. I enjoyed your thesis when you first released it in 2015, as well as your memepages and groups. I think we are all a bit less naive than we were 6-7 years ago when it comes to memes. Pessimist or no, you're quite right to have pointed out in your thesis that we need a standardised and coherent way to cite memes. We should revive the initiative and develop a standard!
Hi everyone! Just gave a quick glance around this thread and the forum and it already looks so great
I am a visual artist from Mallorca (Spain). I'm now also working as a web designer and I teach painting lessons to old women at a social center.
My interests and artistic practices are really diverse and I haven't figured out if that's a blessing or a curse. I'd say my main focus has been digital culture and technology, but for the last few years I've been also working about tourism (coming from a place like Mallorca and having lived until recently in Barcelona, two places very affected by tourism), aiming to read the local perception of this economic model mainly through Mark Fisher's work.
About memes, I've been intermittently developing a series of artworks for some years now, they're sort of meme-collages based in internet meme aesthetics dealing with media and meme theory. I've barely posted any of it (posting anxiety maybe?), so not really memes if we define them through circulation. From this background, I'm now preparing a creative contribution to the second Critical Meme Reader published by the Institute of Network Cultures. I'll share when I'm further in the process.
My memes come from facebook and twitter, though I feel the content from fb has been gradually getting worse for me, maybe all the pages I liked have died and I haven't bothered looking for new ones. TPM is the most interesting place to me.
Last meme in my phone depicts an elden ring encounter a friend of mine just played the other day so I sent it to him
I am a lawyer and PhD student, I have a personal and professional interest in both memes as a medium/conceptual understanding (we are pretty close to getting it universally), and how they may be regulated automatically or through law in the future and currently.
Are you working on any projects relevant to meme studies?
I wish. Maybe later, I think applying law really boringly to it is fun.
Do you have a hobby or interest with a related memeculture?
Nah, but have been following intensely along from the sidelines for many years, but the less free time I get for this, the more boomer I become (was one already probably).
What’s your favourite platform to observe memes on at the moment?
The dark hellscapes as always, and nowadays very much /r/NonCredibleDefense/ and associated stuff.
Favourite from this week (but the rate they move is insane):
Hi, I'm Jacob, I was fairly active on several facebook meme groups as an effortposter, and some of my own art has memetic elements within it. I am mainly interested in memes as a kind of uniquely subconscious art form.
The last meme I have saved is one I made in a facebook groupchat:
I don't actually have any experience related to meme studies other than really enjoying lurking in the TPM group on Facebook. I'll probably mostly be a lurker here, as well.
I think Facebook and Discord are probably my favorite platforms to observe memes at the moment. The former because a lot of OC (surprisingly considering how few of my peers use it) gets generated there and tiny group subcultures generate shit tons of in-joke memes, and that's really fun and interesting to see; the latter because I'm in enough active Discords that the sheer volume of memes I see in a day makes it an easy memestream platform.
Hi my name is Adrian, I am from Australia and I am in the process of finishing my PhD in the School of Design. My study is about vaporwave, specifically how we can use co-design as a research methodology to gain a better understanding of it as a living culture instead of constructing grand political narratives that exaggerate its subversive potential. I am interested in how participatory creative projects can create shared spaces for researchers and community members to explore lived experience of culture/community online. And in theoretical terms I am interested in how theories of affect can help us frame the significance of everyday lived experiences as political by studying how participating in internet subcultures manifests new material, social and creative possibilities for people.
In addition to my academic interests I make weird plunderphonic glitchy noise music out of viral junk media/memes and I help run a Twitch channel called Headless Blood Idol that puts on regular streaming event showcasing a pretty diverse range of cool and interesting internet music weirdos. We also release an annual compilation featuring out friends and associates.
My favourite platforms to observe memes are probably Twitter and Reddit.
Hi everyone, my name is "Grace O'Malley" a.k.a The Prankquean. I have a Masters in English with a fair amount of Visual Art / Culture stuff mixed into that background. I specialize in Modernist literature/arts in general and James Joyce in particular. I currently teach high school TOK in the IB program, and next academic year I'm shifting back to teaching IB English.
As for Meme Studies related projects I have two major interests / hobbies
Firstly, I'm interested in memes as a learning tool. I've used memes in my TOK class in the past (without much success, if I'm being honest), and I'd like to try again in my English classroom next year. I have lots of thoughts about the value and potential of memes in the classroom that I'd love to share and discuss, and of course I'd like to learn from you all as well.
Secondly, I run a Finnegans Wake meme page on Instagram (@real_finnegans_wake if you'd like to check it out). I see this as both a hobby of mine and, in its own strange way, as a research endeavor. I see a lot of opportunity to explore how the Wake functions using similar principles of communication as memes. But it's also just fun to shitpost what is arguably the most sophisticated Literary Shitpost:tm: of all time
I mostly look at memes on Instagram, since that's the platform I use to post my own memes. The handful of Discord servers I'm in also tend to share good memes, so I'll check on those channels too.
Hello! My name is Conner and I am a PhD student at the University of Stirling, Scotland. I'm originally from the US, but I've been in the UK now for several years.
My field is linguistics and my postgraduate research has been all about memes, trying to reconcile memes with established linguistic conventions and approaches. There so much interesting stuff around memes and meaning construction and modes of communication!
I've actually just recently submitted my thesis, which proposed a linguistically-based theoretical model for defining memes. Hoping to spin off some of that research into individual papers I can publish!
I love film, tv, video games, etc., and they all have their associated memes, which are great I've really gotten into DnD memes lately.
My primary sources for memes are probably Facebook and Discord (with my friends doing most of the legwork on finding new memes). I've been avoiding getting into TikTok (I'm an old man at heart), but I think I'm going to have to take the plunge given all the meme-content it's produced.
Congrats on your submission. I also just submitted so now commences the nail biting wait for examiners comments. Good luck, may your assessment report arrive swiftly and your examiners be kind to you!!!
Hi memers, my name is Helen. I'm a doctoral student at York University in Toronto, Canada. Like many of you, I study memes, but from the perspective of graphic design. (yes, I think memes are designs!) I'm currently trying to combine education theories with design making, encouraging design non-majors to start making designs by making memes in the classroom/studio.
Here is a meme persona I create for myself. You can also find my work on Instagram @nihilistpotata
My name is Eduarda. I'm based in São Paulo, Brazil. I'm graduated in Visual Arts and currently on a Master's on Artistic Processes and Methodologies. My current research is on how memes can naturalize political content (ideology) through humor. Since I think there is a strong interest in memes on humanities in general, overall in Brazil (and I think in Europe and US to a certain extent) approaches to memes have been based mostly around sociological, anthropological or cultural studies frameworks. I'm interested to develop a systematic approach that draws from aesthetics, which tends to be rather overlooked in most researchs. I think Art History might be illuminated through memetics, and meme studies can be better analyzed looking at their forms, how they are visually presented and sort of establish a peculiar visual vocabulary. My project is going in the direction to devise if it's possible to have a basic visual syntax to images, elaborated by aesthetics and memetics in conjunction.
My research draws from Warburg and a tradition stemmed from his thought and practice (maybe the most popular form of his thought can be traced to Gombrich, in an academic case Panofsky's iconology). I'm particularly interested in structuralism, philosophy of the mind and consciousness and ideology. I've been looking for more systematic approaches to memes, so if anyone has any readings or ideas on this, I would be love to be sharing and discussing them! I am hoping to build an archive/plataform for meme studies in Brazil as well, so fellow brazilians are more than welcomed to talk about this so we can articulate it together!
My favorite plataform to observe memes are niche facebook groups. I also use Discord Servers and feel that there interesting production there, but I feel it's harder to follow and navigate through it. I'm curious about Tiktok memes but I don't use the plataform that much. I keep an eye on Instagram, especially for the theorygram accounts, because I'm curious on how philosophical ideas and concepts are treated by memes, even though the approach is usually more traditional or not that creative as it could be.
Hi, I’m Lucie I’m a data analyst with a passion for memes.
I created my website www.memeologica.com to try and document my ad-hoc research into memes and meme culture. Although it’s had to take a backseat recently because I just started a new job, it’s still very much an ongoing project!
My favourite kind of meme is absurdist memes, and the platform I use most frequently to keep on top of meme trends is Twitter.
Here’s the most recent meme I had saved on my phone!
nice to meet you eduarda! very interesting & broad array of interests you have. i'd be delighted to get your opinion on my developing work. i'll post a draft of my thesis very soon!
Sup yall! I'm rowena I use the handle rohuina online, it's a mixture of my english and chinese names.
I'm a PhD student at Concordia University's Humanities program! Still figuring out where the research is going to take me, but I'm interested in the intersection of technocultures x normies x g*mers x internet id and how that creates social and cultural change. I'm specifically interested in memes and games as sites of resistance to late-stage capitalism--wondering how, if at all, the changes will spread to the rest of the internet. I like scraping data and doing a hybrid approach to research, backing up qualitative assertions with supportive qualitative information and using computational tools to make it easier to do that en masse. My research background is a mixed bag: lots of cultural/media studies stuff, research-creation and creative writing, and misusing the tools of communication studies. Some critical theory too but I prefer to mess with it than take it too seriously.
Right now I look at memes on mostly Reddit, Facebook, and gaming communities. Sometimes I look at Twitter but I kind of hate it so I normally just scrape to see what's going on. Call me a hardcore lurker though.
I do some creative writing (I have an MFA, lmao seriously fuck that) and use that as a jumping off point to explore, so thought I'd share my substack here: https://rohuinac.substack.com Some stuff on memes has already been posted, more is probably yet to come? It's a real mixed bag though.
Hey! Name's Luca. Am studying Information Science in Norway.
I'm interested in a wide range of topics, mostly regarding digital stuff. I am currently occupied by thinking about AI and its implications on different aspects of society.
I have been producing music as a hobby for around 8 years, and have newly started playing around with image creation/manipulation, using programming/AI models.
I'm not working on anything specific to meme culture now, but am nevertheless immersed as an observer/consumer of memes, and am fascinated by how/what they express and the impact they have on us.
I am interested in shifts/evolution of memes, culture, memeplexes etc. I love observing the collective movements of meme culture, how it flows, branches out, merges, develops, etc. One of my favourite things to do is look at how irony is used in memes, and how meme irony evolves.
I get most memes i see nowadays from my friend group's discord, although the best memes i see usually come from chance encounters across the internet (social media, imageboards, chatrooms). Quality memes never seem to come from predictable places.
Cheers! Let's experience the unfolding of society.
Hi! My name is Elliot and I’m a PhD student in Visual Studies. My background is in Philsophy and media studies but I also attribute a lot of my current work to my experiences growing up on tumblr/deviantart/early youtube/etc. A lot of my work is focused around experimental interactive media and topics of failure.
Right now I’m primarily working in games more than memes (as a tech for a GTA adjacent research project).
As for hobbies, I’m an artist and game designer (though not a particular good gamer). And I’ve recently developed a deep love for defunctland and amusement park history. So a lot of my meme interests are coming from YouTube and games.
My go to for memes is tumblr and Twitter right now, especially with the recent “Twitter migration” (?). And the last meme I have saved is also GTA related and a very specific joke I was sending to my advisor.
Hey hey, this is Helen. I am a Media Studies (or more precisely, New Media and Digital Culture) student who currently bases in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I had a background of Journalism in my BA when I was back in China.
My research interests include convergence culture across media, the shifting power relations on digital infrastructures like platforms, sino-imperialism and the weaponization of Orientalism in globalized pop culture, the political economy of video games (more focusing on video games as commodity instead of text/artistic expression), Marxist Feminism and the global feminization of poverty and so on.
Currently, I am not really working on memes. I am now writing my thesis about the political economy of Steam, and how the gaming storefront well demonstrates Negri and Hardt's Empire in its transnational cultural corporation practice. In a way, this whole thesis of mine is rather memetic, just like one of my favorites from hard drive news.
My recent hobby which can be considered as related to memeculture is to collect thesis writing memes (obviously). And I most often collect memes from both the English-speaking and Chinese-speaking Internet. Reddit has become my go-to place recently.
This is actually not my most recently saved meme but I digged it up few days ago while browsing the recent Activion/Blizzard diversity controversy, so here we go:
I've really gotten into DnD memes lately.
I’m a data analyst with a passion for memes.
