Edited by Chloë Arkenbout and Laurence Scherz

Happy to share the recent publication by the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam (INC). The INC Reader series is derived from the Institute’s conference contributions and ties together many academic and non-academic thinkers dealing with the (political) power of memes beyond virtual images. This collection emphasizes the ability of memes to serve as tactical “weapons” in times of conflict. The multimodal novelty of memes has proven its efficiency in mobilizing people in the Capitol riots, sparking memetic violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and playing a substantial information role in the Ukrainian war. It seems that in times of conflict, memetic warfare becomes more immediate and accessible than real-life demonstrations, and the distinction between the virtual and ‘real life’ no longer applies, or perhaps was never there? 

This collection deals with many of the current instances that were led by memetic responses moving through digital infrastructures, policies, regulations, and bodies. Furthermore, this collection envisions memetic tacticality as a generator of cultural revolution while asking what kind of labor that would require? What kind of tools and principles would we need? And what if the memetic logic of spreading information were applied to spread progressive ideas for a possible future?

Get the full book here (PDF)

BOOK CONTENTS

Preface

Geert Lovink 

Introduction 

Chloë Arkenbout and Laurence Scherz

MEMETIC AMMUNITION

Political Meme Toolkit: Leftist Dutch Meme Makers Share Their Trade Secrets

Chloë Arkenbout

Benevolent Edgelords: Specters of Benjamin and Memetic Ambiguity

Pierre d’Alancaisez 

Semiotics of Care and Violence: Memetization and Necropolitics During the Brazilian 2018 Presidential Elections in the Action #MarielleMultiplica

Isabel Lögfren

SUBVERSIVE MEMES TO THE RESCUE

‘Let’s Go Baby Forklift’: Fandom Governance in China within the Covid-19 76 Crisis

Jamie Wong

Playful Publics on TikTok: The Memetic Israeli-Palestinian War of #Challenge

Tom Divon 

Memes as Schemes: Dissecting the Role of Memes in Mobilizing Mobs 106 and Political Violence

Bhumika Bhattacharyya

Like a Virus

Daniel de Zeeuw, Tommaso Campagna, Eleni Maragkou, Jesper Lust and Carlo De Gaetano

CRITICAL MEME READER II MEMES AND (MENTAL) LABOR

I’m Not Lonely, I Have Memes: The Cognitive (Disembodied) Experience of 140 Depression Memes

Laurence Scherz

EVERY MEME MAKER WE KNOW IS EXHAUSTED

Anahita Neghabat and Caren Miesenberger

Not Like Other #Girlbosses: Gender, Work & the #Gatekeeping of Meme Capital

Christine H. Tran

A WORLD CRITICIZED THROUGH MEMES

Memes in the Gallery: A Party Inside an Image Ecology

Marijn Bril Get in Loser 

We’re Criticizing the Art World: Memes as the New Institutional

Critique Manique Hendricks

The Rise and Fall of Web4U (2033-2063)

Jasmine Erkan and Emma Damiani

Oprah Memes, or Dis-articulations of Affect

Katrin Köppert

Speculate — or Else! Blockchain Memes on Survival in Radical Uncertainty

Inte Gloerich

AT THE END OF THE ROAD, THERE’S MEMES

Memeing Reading // Reading Memeing

Jordi Viader Guerrero

You’ll Never Feel Alone — Thoughts on Relatability

Florian Schlittgen

The Promise of Memes: The Case of Fotonski Torpedo

Mariana Manousopoulou

‘Then We Could Explore Space, Together, Forever’: On Hope and Memes

Savriël Dillingh