Clusterduck
An Investigation of Memes as Art and Art as Memes

Workshop
WED, 19 May 2021
3:30 pm–6:30 pm
Online

The workshop is full!
The registration is not available anymore.

Language: English
Max. number of participants: 15

Aimed at:
academics, activists, art historians, designers, web lovers, visual cultures scholars and whomever may be oriented to an unorthodox approach to internet memes studies.

The workshop is part of Meme Manifesto, a transmedia project about Internet Memes that explores the occult meanings and communicative potentials of memetic symbology, where Clusterduck is investigating different aspects of meme culture through various media: an art book, an interactive website, a physical installation and a participative workshop.

Clusterduck will introduce the ubiquitous tools and practices used by the members of the collective to explore the world of memeology and subcultural internet studies. Clusterduck will then assist the participants during a session of field research into the depths of the social media web. The goal of this session would be to unravel the relationship between Internet memes and contemporary Art. Can a meme be considered art? What do memetic forms and art forms have in common? Are some types of memes influenced by artistic movements such as Dadaism, Cubism, Minimalism and Abstractionism?

During our three-hour meeting, we will split the participants into groups to delve further into the research and examine the same object from multiple points of view. We will use Telegram chats and other messaging platforms to share inputs, findings and contributions while drawing connections and producing analyses of the phenomena we encounter. The final part of the workshop will involve mutual work on a digital collage, inspired by the work of Aby Warburg, to resume your research and thus include it in the “Detective Walls” panels of Meme Manifesto.

THE AUTHORS

Clusterduck is an interdisciplinary collective working in the fields of new media studies, design and transmedia, investigating processes and actors behind the creation of Internet-based content. It curated the online exhibition #MEMEPROPAGANDA, hosted by Greencube Gallery, which was presented at The Influencers Festival (Barcelona), Tentacular Festival (Madrid), IFFR (Rotterdam), Urgent Publishing (Amsterdam, Arnheim), Radical Networks (Berlin) and others. Clusterduck is currently developing Meme Manifesto, a transmedia project that collectively explores the occult meanings and communicative potentials of memetic symbology. The first stage of the project has been developed at IMPAKT (NL) during this year’s EMAP/EMARE residency programme and presented at ARS ELECTRONICA 2020. Clusterduck also created the participative exhibition #MEMERSFORFUTURE, investigating the role of memetics in the global climate justice movement. The exhibition has been shown at re:publica 2020 and IMPAKT FESTIVAL 2020.

༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

RELATED EVENTS

Valentina Tanni et al.
Tactics & Practice #11: MemesteticA
Conference
19 May–2 July 2021
Various locations

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Clusterduck
Meme Manifesto
Exhibition
19 May–4 June 2021
Aksioma | Project Space, Ljubljana
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The Detective Wall Guide
Publication