Memes at an Exhibition: Consumer Interpretations Of Internet Memes
Have you ever participated a virtual exhibition that is made up of memes? If not, it is high time. Our research subjects put together virtual exhibitions of memes and their explanations as guides. Our projective exploratory research focused on internet-li
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Introduction
Have you ever participated a virtual exhibition that is made up of memes? If not, it is high time. Our research subjects put together virtual exhibitions of memes and their explanations as guides. Our projective exploratory research focused on internet-literate consumers’ choices and interpretations of internet memes. We recorded 95 respondents’ narratives about 125 different memes, altogether 281 memes. Our article takes the metaphor of an exhibition tour, where memes are the reframed pictures of the exhibition. This is Mussorgsky’s Pictures of an Exhibition reloaded in Bakhtin’s (1984) approach to folk culture of laughter. 2
Exhibited Objects: Memes (Theoretical Background)
The study of memes isn’t new at all (Tresilian, 2008). Their presence on the internet, their impact on online communication calls for its further investigation (Shifman & Thelwal, 2009). The internet meme is a phenomenon that can be a notion, text, image, textimage combination, which spreads on the internet like fashion; its content can be a joke, gossip, picture, website, reference or a fake piece of news they suddenly appear and then vanish. Internet memes with slight or big modifications may float on the internet for years, but most of them last for only a few weeks or months (Dawkins, 1976; Gelb, 1997; Veszelszky, 2013). Object and meaning create a sign together, and these signs are summed in the newer and newer communication representations in different subcultures. As a result, when the bricoleur relocates the former object to a new position, or uses the same system of signs, or the object is put into another form: a new message is formulated. (Clarke, 1976). To illustrate, if we take the usual signs of the business world - e.g. suit, tie, collar, short hair - these might be used by other subcultures, who deprive these from their original meanings - e.g. performance, ambition, conformity - and they create new meanings, objects that are valued for their own virtue or just become empty fetish. 1
This study is part of the “Unveiling Creativity for Innovation in Europe” (Cre8tv.eu), A multipartner and multi-disciplinary project, 7th FP, Theme 4.
P. Verlegh et al. (eds.), Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. VI), European Advertising Academy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-10558-7_5, © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016
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Horváth and Mitev
The bricolage well explains the logic of meme-creation and has a strong connection with surrealism as it connects two obviously unrelated notions. Objects may be twisted on their corners by connected and signified with new names. (Breton, 1929). Memes portray actors, stars, situations, objects that are taken away from their original context and in the online space and get new connotations. Visual elements and simplified text combinations depart a chain of associations among its audiences. This is a cavalcade of pictures, snapshots, phrases that the audience selects, contributes to, modifies and forwards. 2.1
Internet Memes: Root in Bakhtin’s Folk Culture of Laughter
In medieval times communi
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