An incredibly dorky art project...
I'm cranky. For the 4th time in 2.5 years, our hot water tank has gone belly-up. This time, the flame won't stay lit. I will not have a hot shower tomorrow AM, and I'm ready to go after GE and Rheem with a torch and pitchfork...
So, by way of stress relief, I decided to engage in one of my long-term art projects. If such can truly be called "art." You see, I got into a conversation about 4 months ago about Internet memes. Conventional wisdom is that such things are fleeting and ephemeral. They show up, everybody laughs, and then they fade into nothingness. By the time next year rolls around, fully 90% of the Internet won't even know they ever existed.
I disagreed. While, true, memes and the copycat works they inspire are meant to be cultural throw-aways, so too were more traditional art pieces in the past. A Rembrandt portrait, hastily done. A still-life found buried under old boxes in a French apartment. How many artists never achieved fame until long after they were dead?
Someday, something that started as an Internet meme might become art. An image that lasted for less than 2 hours on 4chan, might end up hanging in the Louvre.
To demonstrate how this might be so, I took a famous work of art and started incorporating some Internet memes into it. Just as a gag... but then every once in awhile, someone would resurrect it and I'd go home and add something else.
Well, 4 months later, and I have something that's actually pretty funny, IMHO... Click on it to see the large version, which is kind of necessary to really spot all of the details thus far:
Appropriate responses may be:
1) Ha! Win.
2) WTF? I don't get ANY of this.
3) I see what you did there... you should add X to it.
4) Dude. Too much free time, apparently. You suck.
Internet statistics would suggest 90% will go for #2, 6% for #4, and maybe a 2%/2% split between #1 and #3.
#4's, you can bite me. My water heater is broken again, and this is stress relief. I don't need your pity. ;)
So, by way of stress relief, I decided to engage in one of my long-term art projects. If such can truly be called "art." You see, I got into a conversation about 4 months ago about Internet memes. Conventional wisdom is that such things are fleeting and ephemeral. They show up, everybody laughs, and then they fade into nothingness. By the time next year rolls around, fully 90% of the Internet won't even know they ever existed.
I disagreed. While, true, memes and the copycat works they inspire are meant to be cultural throw-aways, so too were more traditional art pieces in the past. A Rembrandt portrait, hastily done. A still-life found buried under old boxes in a French apartment. How many artists never achieved fame until long after they were dead?
Someday, something that started as an Internet meme might become art. An image that lasted for less than 2 hours on 4chan, might end up hanging in the Louvre.
To demonstrate how this might be so, I took a famous work of art and started incorporating some Internet memes into it. Just as a gag... but then every once in awhile, someone would resurrect it and I'd go home and add something else.
Well, 4 months later, and I have something that's actually pretty funny, IMHO... Click on it to see the large version, which is kind of necessary to really spot all of the details thus far:
Appropriate responses may be:
1) Ha! Win.
2) WTF? I don't get ANY of this.
3) I see what you did there... you should add X to it.
4) Dude. Too much free time, apparently. You suck.
Internet statistics would suggest 90% will go for #2, 6% for #4, and maybe a 2%/2% split between #1 and #3.
#4's, you can bite me. My water heater is broken again, and this is stress relief. I don't need your pity. ;)