attrib'd cred
Whe working creatively with the static medium, I prefer collage. If there are cinematic aspects involved, I enjoy montage. With storytelling & other interactive elements, one may even develop aspects of game theory!
I also dig graffiti, détournement, & culture jamming in general, which have been around for quite a lot longer than "image macros," but are similar in many ways. In fact, thanks to folks like the Discordians & the SubGenii, creating memes which combine words & images generated by computers has been going on for quite some time, in one format or another. Another recent related phenomenon can be observed in these:
Demotivational Posters
RPG Motivational Posters (on multiple pages)
RPG Motivational Posters (all on one page)
This article, Critical Mass, by David McRaney mentions, "The culture of the Internet seems to fall macroscopically into three strata: ... Users in the middle stratum remember when the Internet was just a cluster of BBS enthusiasts. They remember when computers featured little more than green text on black screens, and they still used them back then to connect, share, collaborate and download dwarf porn. ... Users on one end grew up text messaging, having a Myspace account and are wholly unfazed by Goatse. Users on the other end were turned on to email by their children or needed to learn how to use a computer at work. ... The "lolcats" phenomenon started in the middle stratum, the old-timers and people who were taught by the old-timers. Most agree it began at 4chan, an imageboard populated by the hardest of hardcore netheads."
Unfortunately, in yesterday's post about this topic, I was attempting to segue between information references which were somewhat unfamiliar to me, and I believe that I misconstrued & misunderstood some things. Although, Wikipedia mentions that, "In Japan, the imageboard is a much larger cultural symbol." Thanks to lancehunter, I do see that the name "image macro" came from the Something Awful Forums
If I may attempt to interpret this... perhaps some of the "lolcats" of 4chan are a more recent breed than most "image macros" of SA? ...and before SA, there were other message boards & Newsgroups! ...& at the dawn of computing, they still had propaganda in ASCII Art on BBSes!
D'ye dayr seyk fyrthyr evydense?
Even Wikipedia does mention that "The name, image macro originates from the Something Awful Forums." And, according to LURK MORE, "While first image macros were created on the Something Awful Forums, these did not include the now ubiquitous Snowy Owl image macro." WikiChan also confirms this report concerning the "O RLY?" image macro, "Whilst it was originally used by /b/, it swiftly caught on in Fark, ytmnd and SomethingAwful an other smaller forums. As it became popular elsewhere /b/ started to realize it wasn't cool enough for them and dropped it swiftly, although it makes an occasional appearance." (hush has a great entry about exploration of /b/: "This was my time in /b/. What I saw in this community were artists, comedians, idiots, geniuses, and perverts. It felt like a cross section of Anytown, USA - but where everyone was allowed to do anything they wanted without fear of consequences.")
WikiChan also mentions that "The term (image macro) stems from the forum software practice of using wordfilters as macros, expanding the filtered word or phrase into the image."
YTMND clarifies this note: "The name image macro originates from the Something Awful Forums, where for a time the use of a preset 'macro' text (such as [img-timeline], resulting in the now-bannable Timeline of history) would insert into the post a corresponding image."
For instance, in FireDrop2, the Python Blog Client, "Macros allow you to use a shorthand for often-used text or HTML."
But apparently, it seems that the development of the actual Image Macro memes were somewhat rampantly simultaneous across many image boards... so much so that, even according to Wikipedia, "In some forums, use of image macros outside of certain subforums is seen as annoying or disruptive, and may be prohibited."
According to LURK MORE, "Image macros became so prevalent that they are now banned from all boards except /b/. While the ban was initially enforced rather strictly, it eventually fell by the wayside and now macros are posted almost with impunity throughout 4chan. Even if the macro isn't even related to the subject of the board." [this account contradicts itself, but there is still this Global Rule @ 4chan: Do not post the following outside of /b/: Trolls, flames, racism, off-topic replies, uncalled for catchphrases, macro image replies, indecipherable text (example: "lol u tk him 2da bar|?"), anthropomorphic ("furry"), grotesque ("guro"), or loli/shota pornography.]
From Everything2 comes this description: "We all know that Macro means large, but it can also be interpreted to mean visible. Macros typically scream visibility, with attention-catching pictures (a kitten in a beer mug, Arnold Schwarzenegger, goatse.cx, etc), and large, bolded text with a bright border to make it stand out even more. Many a flamewar has turned into a war of macros, and many many seconds have been lost to long pageload-times.
Macros are also called macros because they are typically pre-made responses-- shortcuts, if you will, to a certain kind of situation, and the reason they catch on is because there are so many lamers out there."
In computer science, the term Macro refers to "a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of characters) should be mapped to an output sequence (also often a sequence of characters) according to a defined procedure." The term can also be understood similarly, in a socio-linguistic sense, to reference a great deal of information in an extremely compact way.
Yet, I see that we have reached another such level of low signal to noise ratio as more & more people attempt to transform it into a pop public phenomenon!
Depending on our audience, people have different capabilities in terms of when we communicate in simple text, often much of the message can be lost, depending on the audience's capacity to interpret one's chosen communication system (visual, auditory, even kinesthetic) &/or bandwidth. Image macros could be used beneficially in a number of ways. They can act sort of like emoticons, to assist in the delivery of the warm & fuzzy part of an electronic message, which can often be misunderstood without cues like facial expression, tone of voice, & body language. They can be used as a creative/artistic outlet for those with multi-media tendencies. Or they can simply be cute & funny. And they can even be mysterious & thought provoking. Too much or the wrong kind of information can overload people's capacity to understand a message. I am fascinated with novelty, obscure references, encryption, unfamiliar complexity, surrealism, & absurdity; while some other people may be annoyed by such information. I certainly prefer strange loops & recursion in general to redundancy.
--
I have also uncovered more curious linguistic analysis of Image Macros & other related stuff & things:
05.29.07 | im in ur programmz, codin in ur dialect: LOLCode and Feline Dialectology
02.07.07 | im in mai blog, postin’ bout cats: The Cuteness of Grammatical errors
MACROmaniacal: a central hub for all things image macro we could all use to keep up with the phenomenon as it evolves.
This is the end of the internet
Star War The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West
What Is Web 2.0? ...Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software
my own image macros, created for loltheorists
I also dig graffiti, détournement, & culture jamming in general, which have been around for quite a lot longer than "image macros," but are similar in many ways. In fact, thanks to folks like the Discordians & the SubGenii, creating memes which combine words & images generated by computers has been going on for quite some time, in one format or another. Another recent related phenomenon can be observed in these:
Demotivational Posters
RPG Motivational Posters (on multiple pages)
RPG Motivational Posters (all on one page)
This article, Critical Mass, by David McRaney mentions, "The culture of the Internet seems to fall macroscopically into three strata: ... Users in the middle stratum remember when the Internet was just a cluster of BBS enthusiasts. They remember when computers featured little more than green text on black screens, and they still used them back then to connect, share, collaborate and download dwarf porn. ... Users on one end grew up text messaging, having a Myspace account and are wholly unfazed by Goatse. Users on the other end were turned on to email by their children or needed to learn how to use a computer at work. ... The "lolcats" phenomenon started in the middle stratum, the old-timers and people who were taught by the old-timers. Most agree it began at 4chan, an imageboard populated by the hardest of hardcore netheads."
Unfortunately, in yesterday's post about this topic, I was attempting to segue between information references which were somewhat unfamiliar to me, and I believe that I misconstrued & misunderstood some things. Although, Wikipedia mentions that, "In Japan, the imageboard is a much larger cultural symbol." Thanks to lancehunter, I do see that the name "image macro" came from the Something Awful Forums
If I may attempt to interpret this... perhaps some of the "lolcats" of 4chan are a more recent breed than most "image macros" of SA? ...and before SA, there were other message boards & Newsgroups! ...& at the dawn of computing, they still had propaganda in ASCII Art on BBSes!
D'ye dayr seyk fyrthyr evydense?
Even Wikipedia does mention that "The name, image macro originates from the Something Awful Forums." And, according to LURK MORE, "While first image macros were created on the Something Awful Forums, these did not include the now ubiquitous Snowy Owl image macro." WikiChan also confirms this report concerning the "O RLY?" image macro, "Whilst it was originally used by /b/, it swiftly caught on in Fark, ytmnd and SomethingAwful an other smaller forums. As it became popular elsewhere /b/ started to realize it wasn't cool enough for them and dropped it swiftly, although it makes an occasional appearance." (hush has a great entry about exploration of /b/: "This was my time in /b/. What I saw in this community were artists, comedians, idiots, geniuses, and perverts. It felt like a cross section of Anytown, USA - but where everyone was allowed to do anything they wanted without fear of consequences.")
WikiChan also mentions that "The term (image macro) stems from the forum software practice of using wordfilters as macros, expanding the filtered word or phrase into the image."
YTMND clarifies this note: "The name image macro originates from the Something Awful Forums, where for a time the use of a preset 'macro' text (such as [img-timeline], resulting in the now-bannable Timeline of history) would insert into the post a corresponding image."
For instance, in FireDrop2, the Python Blog Client, "Macros allow you to use a shorthand for often-used text or HTML."
But apparently, it seems that the development of the actual Image Macro memes were somewhat rampantly simultaneous across many image boards... so much so that, even according to Wikipedia, "In some forums, use of image macros outside of certain subforums is seen as annoying or disruptive, and may be prohibited."
According to LURK MORE, "Image macros became so prevalent that they are now banned from all boards except /b/. While the ban was initially enforced rather strictly, it eventually fell by the wayside and now macros are posted almost with impunity throughout 4chan. Even if the macro isn't even related to the subject of the board." [this account contradicts itself, but there is still this Global Rule @ 4chan: Do not post the following outside of /b/: Trolls, flames, racism, off-topic replies, uncalled for catchphrases, macro image replies, indecipherable text (example: "lol u tk him 2da bar|?"), anthropomorphic ("furry"), grotesque ("guro"), or loli/shota pornography.]
From Everything2 comes this description: "We all know that Macro means large, but it can also be interpreted to mean visible. Macros typically scream visibility, with attention-catching pictures (a kitten in a beer mug, Arnold Schwarzenegger, goatse.cx, etc), and large, bolded text with a bright border to make it stand out even more. Many a flamewar has turned into a war of macros, and many many seconds have been lost to long pageload-times.
Macros are also called macros because they are typically pre-made responses-- shortcuts, if you will, to a certain kind of situation, and the reason they catch on is because there are so many lamers out there."
In computer science, the term Macro refers to "a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of characters) should be mapped to an output sequence (also often a sequence of characters) according to a defined procedure." The term can also be understood similarly, in a socio-linguistic sense, to reference a great deal of information in an extremely compact way.
Yet, I see that we have reached another such level of low signal to noise ratio as more & more people attempt to transform it into a pop public phenomenon!
Depending on our audience, people have different capabilities in terms of when we communicate in simple text, often much of the message can be lost, depending on the audience's capacity to interpret one's chosen communication system (visual, auditory, even kinesthetic) &/or bandwidth. Image macros could be used beneficially in a number of ways. They can act sort of like emoticons, to assist in the delivery of the warm & fuzzy part of an electronic message, which can often be misunderstood without cues like facial expression, tone of voice, & body language. They can be used as a creative/artistic outlet for those with multi-media tendencies. Or they can simply be cute & funny. And they can even be mysterious & thought provoking. Too much or the wrong kind of information can overload people's capacity to understand a message. I am fascinated with novelty, obscure references, encryption, unfamiliar complexity, surrealism, & absurdity; while some other people may be annoyed by such information. I certainly prefer strange loops & recursion in general to redundancy.
--
I have also uncovered more curious linguistic analysis of Image Macros & other related stuff & things:
05.29.07 | im in ur programmz, codin in ur dialect: LOLCode and Feline Dialectology
02.07.07 | im in mai blog, postin’ bout cats: The Cuteness of Grammatical errors
MACROmaniacal: a central hub for all things image macro we could all use to keep up with the phenomenon as it evolves.
This is the end of the internet
Star War The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West
What Is Web 2.0? ...Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software
my own image macros, created for loltheorists