A Strange New Frontier: Hieroglyphics and Memes

-
Image result for memes and hieroglyphics

       The World Wide Web, as it’s called (and not called anymore by anyone below 30), was invented in 1990, and opened the world to a new, parallel world: one which doesn’t exist in the physical space, and which operates primarily through unseen forces and faceless users.


       In such a subspace, few people have face-to-face conversations, and in this social struggle was born a new solution: images and lines which convey a meaning all their own, only understood by the initiated. With the rise of social media, this need for a more robust symbology to convey emotions difficult to describe in casual settings, as well as a desire to separate users into “in” groups and “out” groups, caused memes to explode.

       In this way, memes almost serve as a social litmus test. Cruel as it is, a young child may not recognize or understand the meaning behind certain meme reaction images, nor an older person. In this way, like heiroglyphics, memes communicate with those who recognize it, and smoothly cast aside any who lack understanding.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Russian Constructivism and Collage

-
Image
Reflecting on more traditional techniques for creating graphic art, Russian Constructivism overlaps somewhat with collage, as they seem to result in a similar independence of shapes and colors. With Constructivism, as with collage, each element can only be deliberately placed, as they’re individual objects being brought together to form a cohesive image. Their marked differences come to bear in just how deliberate they are. In most cases, collage as a technique is an art form in itself, but with Constructivism, the process isn’t nearly as important as the finished product. Collage incorporates not only shapes which can be difficult to form in the first place, whether by scissors or knife, and colors which are often already applied. Collage can be a more casual form of art-making, in which the process and its rough edges can be just as valuable as the finished piece. In some cases, adding to the collage, taking from it, and generally treating it like a boon by nature of being a
Read more

New Objectivity and Expressionism

-
Image
I found New Objectivity particularly interesting, as it sought, in a strange reversal, to rebel against Expressionism by emphasizing the mundane. In this regard, I believe Expressionism represents a romantic lens through which to view daily life, whereas New Objectivity seeks the truth of daily life. In this pursuit, they weren’t necessarily pessimistic, just as Expressionism isn’t necessarily more optimistic. I will seek to first break down the differences in tactics between the two to portray their meaning, and then I will break down the differences between the meanings themselves. In Expressionism, it distorts daily life through several avenues: warping forms, dulling or brightening colors, or simply portraying impossible situations in which to frame the emotion they seek to portray. Overall, Expressionism deals in emotion and the metaphysical: curiosity, doubt, lust, and fury all inflict themselves on the surroundings first and foremost, shaping the world and thereby the moo
Read more

Futurism and the Cyberpunk Genre

-
Image
  With the Industrial Revolution came the miracle and paradox of the 20th century. Never before in human history has technology reached such a state of rapid, clamoring, and all-encompassing advancement, to the point that with every new generation, the gap between the technologies they each grew up with only widens. With such a rapid shift in lifestyle, most notably towards the end of the era of massive population migration into cities in the early 20th century, many people had many responses. While some despaired, lamenting the loss of humanity’s connection to its roots, other movements took the shift in stride. I will focus on one such group, and juxtapose it against a similar, yet distinct modern movement known as the “Cyberpunk” genre, popularized by such films as Bladerunner, The Matrix, and Ghost in the Shell. Futurism had a bit of an identity crisis when it first emerged. Critics of the movement declared it hardly distinct from previous movements, such as Impressionism, a
Read more