Meme Aesthetics

To present a special issue of Representations on “meme aesthetics” may seem funny, irreverent, a lot of heft for something slight, veering on gimmicky, #cringe. But if so, this also describes the current cultural zeitgeist, because the meme has proven to be one of the more illustrative signs (and sh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRepresentations (Berkeley, Calif.) Vol. 168; no. 1; pp. 1 - 23
Main Authors Best, Stephen, You, Mia, Damon Ross Young
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berkeley University of California Press Books Division 01.11.2024
Subjects
Aesthetics
Information
Lebenswelt
Social interaction
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Summary:To present a special issue of Representations on “meme aesthetics” may seem funny, irreverent, a lot of heft for something slight, veering on gimmicky, #cringe. But if so, this also describes the current cultural zeitgeist, because the meme has proven to be one of the more illustrative signs (and shapers) of our time. The meme certainly belongs to what Byung-Chul Han, following Vilém Flusser, calls “non-things”: “We are today experiencing the transition from the age of things to the age of non-things. Information, rather than things, determines the lifeworld. We no longer dwell on the earth and under the sky but on Google Earth and in the Cloud.” For Han, information is neither knowledge nor truth, even as it might dominate our perceptions and determine our material and social interactions; it is “relevant only fleetingly. It lives off its capacity to surprise. Information’s fleetingness alone can account for the fact
ISSN:0734-6018
1533-855X
DOI:10.1525/rep.2024.168.1.1