[Air-L] Meme Tracking

Erwin Verbruggen everbruggen at beeldengeluid.nl
Tue Jun 20 05:22:41 PDT 2017


The Library of Congress just announced the release of the Web Cultures Web Archive Collection <https://loc.gov/collections/web-cultures-web-archive/?loclr=blogloc>, a representative sampling of websites documenting the creation and sharing of emergent cultural traditions on the web.

A New Collection Documents Web Culture: Remix, Slang and Memes
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2017/06/remix-slang-and-memes-a-new-collection-documents-web-culture/ <https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2017/06/remix-slang-and-memes-a-new-collection-documents-web-culture/>

Kind regards,
Erwin


> On 13 Jun 2017, at 13:54, fiona andf <fiona.andreallo at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Ok
> Thomas will can send you some references for Fish tomorrow. It's too late
> for me now. More than that you'll have to wait to
> Look at my thesis ;)
> My Phd supervisor is Prof. Theo Van Leeuwen and he also talks about
> community in ref to Fish. You might be familiar with his work ?
> Will send you an email
> Tomorrow.
> Fiona
> Fiona Andreallo
> Lecturer, USYD
> 
> On Tue., 13 Jun. 2017 at 9:49 pm, fiona andf <fiona.andreallo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Tue., 13 Jun. 2017 at 8:48 pm, Thomas Ball <xtc283 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> *"My idea of community is the one FIsh talks about..."*
>>> 
>>> Fish? Please clarify the reference.
>>> 
>>> Thank you,
>>> Thomas Ball
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 11:20 PM, fiona andf <fiona.andreallo at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> re; Meme tracking.
>>>> I am an inter-diciplinary digital visual culture scholar and I submitted
>>>> my
>>>> thesis a few weeks back focusing on digital memes and selfies(UTS,
>>>> Sydney;
>>>> 'The semeful sociability of digital memes'). I am interested in visual
>>>> social interaction and communication in social media.
>>>> In my thesis I relied heavily on Shiftman's work to investigate memes as
>>>> what might be described a form of vernacular creativity (Burgess).
>>>> 
>>>> I think this thread was originally about tracking digital memes so I want
>>>> to go back to that. Milners( Supervised by Baym) thesis might be of
>>>> interest when considering tracking as he investigated memes across a
>>>> number
>>>> of platforms. Many scholars have thought for a while that vernacular is
>>>> based in the platform that the activity takes place. In my thesis I
>>>> focused
>>>> on the concept of digital meme communities in the context of evolved
>>>> place
>>>> and space in online contexts. ( my idea of community is the one Fish
>>>> talks
>>>> about)
>>>> 
>>>> Shifman highlights  that digital memes are always groups of content. So
>>>> I
>>>> guess what I am getting at is that you are considering tracking the
>>>> movement of memes through online spaces then I think it would be
>>>> essential
>>>> to track groups and spreadability in some way rather then tracking a meme
>>>> because the conversation is essentially part of the community the memes
>>>> and
>>>> to remove a meme from its context then also changes the meaning.
>>>> 
>>>> Hope that is of some help when thinking about tracking digital memes.
>>>> 
>>>> Fiona
>>>> 
>>>> Fiona Andreallo
>>>> Lecturer USYD
>>>> 
>>>> On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 9:00 AM, Jean Burgess <je.burgess at qut.edu.au>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> As the images posted to this list for the LOLs illustrate, these issues
>>>>> are very well rehearsed among vernacular experts. But they are very
>>>> well
>>>>> rehearsed among scholars of internet culture as well.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I second the recommendation to read Limor Shifman’s book on the
>>>> subject,
>>>>> and if nobody else posted it, see also the Culture Digitally Festival
>>>> of
>>>>> Memeology, which features many of the leading meme scholars
>>>>> http://culturedigitally.org/festival-of-memeology/
>>>>> 
>>>>> The “festival” includes “Memeology Festival 05. Memes as Ritual,
>>>> Virals as
>>>>> Transmission? In Praise of Blurry Boundaries” also by Limor Shifman,
>>>> which
>>>>> is a very short piece that covers many of these questions.
>>>>> http://culturedigitally.org/2015/11/memeology-festival-05-
>>>>> memes-as-ritual-virals-as-transmission-in-praise-of-blurry-boundaries/
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 12/6/17, 6:47 pm, "Air-L on behalf of Taylor-Smith, Ella" <
>>>>> air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of
>>>> E.Taylor-Smith at napier.ac.uk>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>    Hi all
>>>>> 
>>>>>    If we are interested in studying what people are doing on the
>>>> Internet
>>>>> (what they think they're doing etc.), then we can't ignore that people
>>>>> share images -especially images with words in -that they call memes.
>>>>>    The books coming out of the Why We Post project take this line and
>>>> are
>>>>> rewarded with all sorts of insights about the contemporary use of
>>>> memes in
>>>>> various cultures. E.g. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/why-we-
>>>>> post/discoveries/14-memes-have-become-the-moral-police-of-online-life
>>>>> 
>>>>>    Miller and Sinanan's book about Facebook use is a good place to
>>>> start
>>>>> Miller, D. & Sinanan, J. (2017). Visualising Facebook. London: UCL
>>>> Press.
>>>>> http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/visualising-facebook
>>>>> 
>>>>>    If we're interested in the relationship between Dawkins' ideas and
>>>> the
>>>>> concept of an internet meme, I have a couple of pointers that might
>>>> help.
>>>>>    It seems to be that media scholars use the term meme to study how
>>>>> content spreads across the Internet, by focusing on the content of the
>>>>> content -virality, while virality is a metaphor -people do the
>>>> spreading,
>>>>> not the content.
>>>>> 
>>>>>    For Dawkins (in the meme) "the idea of purpose is only a metaphor"
>>>>> (The Selfish Gene).
>>>>> 
>>>>>    When Godwin introduced the Internet meme idea, he seemed to be
>>>> taking
>>>>> this concept of virality in order to introduce a counter-meme
>>>> (Godwin's Law
>>>>> of Nazi Analogies). In this case, the meme's purpose is Godwin's
>>>> purpose.
>>>>>    https://www.wired.com/1994/10/godwin-if-2/
>>>>> 
>>>>>    Many definitions of meme emphasise humour
>>>>>    e.g. “a piece of culture, typically a joke, which gains influence
>>>>> through online transmission.”
>>>>>    Davison, P. (2012). The Language of Internet Memes. In M. Mandiberg
>>>>> (ed.), The Social Media Reader (pp. 120–34), New York: New York
>>>> University
>>>>> Press
>>>>> 
>>>>>    If we lose our sense of humour while studying or discussing memes,
>>>> we
>>>>> will not be able to understand them at all.
>>>>>    Probably best not to underestimate the role of humour in any
>>>>> communications, but especially online.
>>>>> 
>>>>>    Hope this helps.
>>>>> 
>>>>>    -Ella
>>>>> 
>>>>>    Dr Ella Taylor-Smith
>>>>> 
>>>>>    School of Computing
>>>>>    Edinburgh Napier University
>>>>>    10 Colinton Road
>>>>>    Edinburgh, EH10 5DT
>>>>> 
>>>>>    Email: e.taylor-smith at napier.ac.uk
>>>>> 
>>>>>    http://www.iidi.napier.ac.uk/e.taylor-smith
>>>>>    http://about.me/EllaTaylorSmith
>>>>>    @EllaTasm
>>>>> 
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Erwin Verbruggen
Project lead R&D

T +31 35 677 16 91 | M +31 6 153 603 71
Skype: erwinverbruggen

Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
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