310 lines
16 KiB
Markdown
310 lines
16 KiB
Markdown
Memes as Means
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Report by Sepp Eckenhaussen
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Meme culture can be situated and investigated within a history of online
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visual culture and the senses of community in it: selfie culture --
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video culture -- meme culture. The notion of 'means' adds several
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dimensions to this longer research trajectory, according to Inte
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Gloerich, researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures. Apart from
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referencing a whole body of dank memes for Marxist teens, it addresses
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memes as having financial capacities, and as 'means to an end'. What
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kind of (activist) strategies can memes as means inform today? Should we
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use them in every way we can, because ends justify means, or can we
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employ memes with laser point precision?{width="3.4442016622922136in"
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If memes are considered to be means, the question of their meaning is
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given new urgency. What kind of meaning is implied in the means-being of
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memes? How meaningful is it to decipher their ever-changing meanings and
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to partake in the land-grabbing of symbols? Can we hold public figures
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accountable for their adherence to memes, as if they represent some
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fixed meaning? Is it possible to start creating online digital symbols
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anew, and if so, how?
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There are also questions of authorship and ownership over these means.
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Crediting meme-makers (or Memelords) becomes more widespread on the left
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flank of the political spectrum, which suggests that memes are no longer
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considered as post-author entities. What does that mean under the rule
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of Article 13? What will be the relation between more severe copyrights
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and the anonymous army? Is there a chance of meme revenue models, of
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being paid for previously unpaid work? Is it time to unionize meme-work?
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Is meming a matter of being professional or of fighting a trench war?
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**Article 13**
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Evelyn Austin, who works at [[Bits of
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Freedom]{.underline}](https://www.bitsoffreedom.nl/) and [[The
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Hmm]{.underline}](https://thehmm.nl/), considers digital human rights
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such as freedom of publishing and distributing in the context of Article
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13. The internet has always carried the promise to empower the
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powerless, and indeed it does empower. But as it usually goes with means
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of empowerment, the internet also empowers the already powerful -- and
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this latter group is catching up.
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Many examples show the hampering of communication of suppressed groups
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by those in power: Facebook took down pictures of Femen in Yemen on
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basis of nudity regulations; Dutch pro-choice organization WomenOnWaves
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were blocked in Ireland four times in the run-up of abortion referendum;
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YouTube videos with the word 'trans' in their titles are systematically
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categorized as 'adult'.
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This shows that there is a need for different modes of publishing and
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for alternative platforms, but also for new strategies of communication
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and distribution. We need good, strong, and wide networks of digital
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rights organizations and journalists. What we got is Article 13.
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{width="2.5104166666666665in" height="4.625in"} So,
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what exactly is Article 13 again? The article (which in the end turned
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into Article 17) makes platforms and other 'hosts' accountable for what
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users are saying on their site. An individual's speech on a company's
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website is automatically the company's speech. This is of course
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threatening to companies, and there are two solutions to the threat:
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1\. Licensing agreements with rights' holders (however, so many
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different users use so much different and often mixed content in so many
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ways, that it would be nearly impossible to come to sufficient
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agreements in all cases).
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2\. Upload filters (but, making filtering software is hard and
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expensive). This means that all of our content will be monitored and
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filtered, with the result that one's speech is from now on only free
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online insofar as you can prove that it's allowed to be, instead of the
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other way around. With this new regulation, governments are allowing
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companies to discipline citizens in a way that they're not allowed to do
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themselves.
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Thus, we find ourselves in a complicated situation. We can try to
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abandon the big platforms and go to alternatives, but not everyone is in
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the privileged position to do so. Realistically, we're stuck with the
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big platforms for now. This means there will be loads and loads of
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frustration about filters of 'possible' terrorism, child abuse, nudity,
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etc. At the same time, \#gamergate, as an example of how heteronormative
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white male power was in the end subverted, shows that we have to remain
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critical and that we do have the means to change things even in
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mainstream media.
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**Trolling Together**
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Cultural worker and avid troll Clara Balaguer has been occupied with
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online troll wars against the rise of authoritarianism in the
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Philippines for years. Two years ago, it became untenable to do critical
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cultural programming in the Philippines for under-served communities and
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Clara decided to come to the Netherlands. In the inevitable comparison
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of these two countries, it is clear that the levels of 'urgency'
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generally felt in the Netherlands are much lower than those in the
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Philippines, because of the cloudy cuteness, order, and privilege we
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have here. Reflecting her experiences as troll in the Philippines, Clara
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shared five aphorisms with the predominantly Dutch public:
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*1. Nobody gives a shit about your kerning, but graphic design is
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important. *A lot of activists are hold-overs from the 70s (baby boomers
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trying to understand what's happening online). We have to understand
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that memes should not look like professionally designed (and paid-for)
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posters, because that makes them less trustworthy. Making 'nice'
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stuff does not work anymore. Professional designers: demodernize and
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decolonize!
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{width="4.530627734033246in"
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*2. Trolling is a ladylike pursuit. *The idea many people hold of the
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troll is a neck-beard guy trolling for the lulz in his mom's basement.
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But when ideology comes into play (political trolling), the
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alternatively gendered and women become way more active. Pro-Duterte
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trolling in the Philippines is dominated by female and non-conforming
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voices. This success is because the purple-color workforce controls pop
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culture language and is used to role-switching (in terms of gender,
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etc.).
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*3. Outside of the echo chamber, check yourself (you are not immune to
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neurolinguistics programming). *No-one is immune to dogpiling,
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especially when it's a durational process. Never assume that you're
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above the narcotic effects of being outside of your echo chamber. Still,
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also from a position of privilege, we have to engage. Let the energy
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course through you. Use the troll as platform. There has to be that
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counter-voice, which protects those who feel depressed and alone in a
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toxic environment. This is where the organic discourse is made.
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*4. Meatspace is just as important as cyberspace for the troll
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farmer. *Don't stick to fingertip activism but go to conventions and
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meet-ups. You have to be present physically as well. We can troll
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together, run organic troll farms. Trolls are not feeding on the
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opposition, but on their own community. They will grow. So, we should
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also get communities involved. Families that troll together will survive
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together.
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*5. You are what you eat, a.k.a. trolling is an embodied, physical
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experience. *Trolling is exhausting and stressful, and it can be
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harmful. Consciousness about food and drink consumption influences the
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troll experience. Learn when to stop. Learn how to exit the vortex.
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Confuse yourself.
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**Meming Back**
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Isabel Löfgren, a Swedish-Brazilian artist and educator currently based
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in Stockholm, took up the theme of memefascism vs. autonomous zones of
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resistance in Brazil. The fact that memes are a serious means is very
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clear by the fact that Jair Bolsonaro has been elected president thanks
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mostly to 'bolsominions': an army of trolls campaigning for Bolsonaro
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through WhatsApp. Because of this politicization of WhatsApp, everyone
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started creating an enormous overflow of public political expressions.
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Jair Bolsonaro has even claimed to be, next to president, the official
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controller of memes.
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This situation also shows us something about the so-called post-truth
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condition. Studies show that half of the troll messages during the
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election campaign came from WhatsApp family groups. This signals that,
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first, it's not about truth but about trust, and, second, that the
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crisis of authority in relation to truth effectively splits families and
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social structures as we know them.
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A family that is certainly not split is the Bolsonaro family. Father
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Jair and his three sons are in power together, all four of them
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fulfilling elected positions. One son, Carlos, is fully occupied with
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the control of all social media accounts connected to the presidency. In
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the presidential palace, there is even an official social media farm.
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The most successful bloggers and vloggers from the campaign are hired to
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work here for Bolsonaro's official PR bureau. Together, they effectively
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create a bombardment of disinformation.
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{width="4.5in"
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However, Bolsonaro's disinformation and repression of minority voices is
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not unbreakable. When, during carnival, black, poor, and gay voices let
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themselves be heard on the streets, Bolsonaro [[started tweeting about
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golden
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showers]{.underline}](https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/president-bolsonaro-shocks-brazil-golden-shower-tweet-n980476),
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subsequently asking: What is a golden shower? He was met with cunning
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and humor, when Twitter and Facebook accounts named Golden Shower
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started asking: What is Jair Bolsonaro?
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{width="3.242240813648294in"
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In fact, this type of humorous grass-roots mobilization is a consistent
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trend in Brazil. Already during the election campaign, women, black
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people, and other minorities repressed by Bolsonaro came together in the
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Not Him-campaign (\#elenão), which was huge and powerful.
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\#elenão was followed by a storm of other resistant trends and movements
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on social media, including \#MarielleFranco, \#éalei, \@coleraalegeria,
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\@PretaLab, and \@Designativista.
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Bringing the point back to memes as means, it is clear that the
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far-right kidnaps forms and thereby subverts democracy, but that
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counter-meming can be a powerful means of the Left, too. The questions
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that rise for the audience of Urgent Publishing include: How to level
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out this battlefield of meme-wars? What is the role of poetic justice in
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memes? How can art collapse meaning and contribute to meming?
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{width="3.375774278215223in"
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**Memes Will Be Memes**
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A last contribution to the panel was made by Silvia dal Dusso and Noel
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David Nicolaus, as representatives
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of [[Clusterduck]{.underline}](http://clusterduck.space/), a hypergeeky
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online environment for the study, production, and exploration of memes.
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{width="2.2319444444444443in"
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height="3.125in"}Memes cannot be reduced to a consistent explanation, as
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mainstream media often try to do. For example, the narrative of the
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American election running from alt-right fascist sentiments living on
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social media, to Trump endorsing these memes, to Hillary falling into
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the troll trap, to Russian bots intervening in the campaign is as nicely
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linear as it is wildly inaccurate. Have we completely forgotten that
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there were also Berniepepes? To really understand memes, we have to go
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deeper into the actual images and see how they're currently used as
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means.
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There are a ton of major stories in meme history that remain almost
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completely unknown to the wider public. We know the Great Meme War,
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Gamergate, 4chan, and maybe LeftBook, but hardly anyone knows about
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phenomena like Gondola or Griffy. (For more information, check Jules
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Durand's [[Meme
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Manifesto]{.underline}](http://www.iamthefamous.me/fame-and-power.html),
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which will be published by Clusterduck.)
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The history of memes is a history of exodus, in which meme communities
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migrate from one medium to another. The most recent major example would
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be memelords changing to Instagram after Tumblr changed its terms of
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use. (Side note: why don't we migrate from FB?)
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Even though there seems to be some agency in this mobility of
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communities, it is a complicated issue. At present, there is an on-going
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effort to make a memers' union, to start protecting the authorial rights
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of meme-makers from expropriators like fuckjerry. The initiative went
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viral and was picked up on by the media. And it's not just a prank:
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there is an actual, functional website, where anyone can join the union.
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However, despite media coverage, the union itself has not been very
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successful in terms of members. And even when large numbers of users
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change their behavior, such as during \#thezuccening, this might still
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have very little impact on the megascale of social media today.
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{width="1.3076388888888888in" height="5.75in"}The
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discussion around memes as means comes down to one lesson, which is as
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powerful as it is simple: democracy is not a given. Fascism is a
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reality, which has to be faced. It is time for the Left to stop being
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disdainful to the means of memes, to co-opting, and to organization,
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because this why the Right is winning right now. The Right organizes,
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has money (which comes with being in power), doesn't claim a moral
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high-ground, and is willing to accept pluralism. We should not give in
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to the instantism we're being pushed into by dominant modes of
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knowledge-producers, but start taking back initiative, and: start to
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troll.
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