Bcm101 Week 8 Viral Video - Memes Slides

BCM101 New Media Histories/Industries/Practices Week 8 – April 29, 2009

Memes (Or I can HAs CHEEZBURgER?)

"...the gene, the DNA molecule happens to be the replication entity that prevails on our planet...” Richard Dawkins (1976), The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, London. Any cultural entity that an observer might consider a replicator can be a meme: tunes, catch-phrases, fashions, etc.

Language seems to 'evolve' by non-genetic means and at a rate which is orders of magnitude faster than genetic evolution. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation (Dawkins, 1976, p.189). http://www.flickr.com/photos/ynse/1531699476/sizes/o/

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992) The franchise and the virus work on the same principle: what thrives in one place will thrive in another. You just have to find a sufficiently virulent business plan, condense it into a three-ring binder - its DNAxerox it, and embed it in the fertile lining of a well-traveled highway, preferably one with a left-turn lane. (pg. 178)

Meme: a unit of cultural transmission

sleeveface.com handwriting meme A History of Internet Memes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lemonad/2217510074/sizes/o/

Imitation: Imitation how a meme replicates Longevity: Longevity varies significantly http://www.flickr.com/photos/culturecat/483024542/sizes/o/

Fecundity: Fecundity the ability to spread Fidelity (copying): memes are not high-fidelity repliators

I HAZ PROBLMZ WID UR META4 Agency Utility

Henry Jenkins takes issue with the biological metaphor of viral video and the concept of the meme.

Spreadable Media

Spreadable Media - empahsises the act of spreading and reconsiders the relationship between value (as a system of economic exchange) and worth (sentiment and social gesture).

BCM101 New Media Histories/Industries/Practices Week 8 – April 29, 2009

Memes (Or I can HAs CHEEZBURgER?) 1

"...the gene, the DNA molecule happens to be the replication entity that prevails on our planet...” Richard Dawkins (1976), The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, London. Any cultural entity that an observer might consider a replicator can be a meme: tunes, catch-phrases, fashions, etc.

Language seems to 'evolve' by non-genetic means and at a rate which is orders of magnitude faster than genetic evolution. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation (Dawkins, 1976, p.189). 2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ynse/1531699476/sizes/o/

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992) The franchise and the virus work on the same principle: what thrives in one place will thrive in another. You just have to find a sufficiently virulent business plan, condense it into a three-ring binder - its DNAxerox it, and embed it in the fertile lining of a well-traveled highway, preferably one with a left-turn lane. (pg. 178)

3

Meme: a unit of cultural transmission

sleeveface.com handwriting meme A History of Internet Memes

4 http://www.flickr.com/photos/lemonad/2217510074/sizes/o/

Imitation: Imitation how a meme replicates Longevity: Longevity varies significantly http://www.flickr.com/photos/culturecat/483024542/sizes/o/

Fecundity: Fecundity the ability to spread Fidelity (copying): memes are not high-fidelity repliators

5

I HAZ PROBLMZ WID UR META4 Agency Utility

Henry Jenkins takes issue with the biological metaphor of viral video and the concept of the meme. 6

Spreadable Media

Spreadable Media - empahsises the act of spreading and reconsiders the relationship between value (as a system of economic exchange) and worth (sentiment and social gesture).

7