While some believe that meme culture is not an art form, I argue that it is. Boomers and Karens argue that memes and its uprising culture offer no real symbolism and are void of emotional impact.

But that’s exactly what they do. They are symbolic and target an emotional impact.

If you Google the definition of art, it says ‘Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.’

Memes alike are creative and require imaginative talent to express emotions or ideas. We can even argue that memes are indeed beautiful in their ability to make people laugh and build a relationship based on relatability. Memes connect people that relate on certain topics.

They are highly praised in Internet culture as we know it and have become a staple of communication. Not only are they cultural ideas but they’ve become an inside joke of society. Memes can refer to topics from anything like politics to cultural experiences and even to random distorted images with no context that are somehow still funny.

These are some of my own:

Learn more here:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/what-is-a-meme/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/crosswords/what-is-a-meme.html

 

 

Week #6 – Assignment #4 – Digital Storytelling Project Flexibility

There is A LOT of CT101 Digital Storytelling Project Flexibility..

**the video recordings & tutorials for this assignment / project can be found at the bottom of this post**

Professor Michael Smith introduced me to the DS106 Assignment Repository many many years ago.. I am glad that he did! 

Now that we are getting comfortable with publishing blog posts to our class website, embedding media like images, GIFS, videos and hyperlinks, its time to push things further with content creation and deciding on how you will go about it.

Prof. Smith wrote the following in a blog post from a previous semester;

“In CT-101 you will have the opportunity to create many, many different pieces of media throughout the semester. Inspiration for these projects can come from a number of places. Two are websites that inspired this class and are hosted by a digital storytelling class at the University of Mary Washington.

One is their ds106 assignment repository which has project prompts that are categorized by a variety of media types (visual, design, audio, video, mashup, writing, fanfic, and animated gifs). You can browse through and sort by most examples completed, most viewed, newest, and more.. 

The second is also a site known as the daily create which gives a daily project prompt to “make something” using various media.

Finally you can also find a particular site that has a media piece and/or project type of interest to you (Tumblr and/or Reddit can be fun for this – Photoshop Battles is a favorite of mine. Do you know of one? If so, share that link!

*The ASSIGNMENT – In a New Blog Post –

Browse through the mentioned sites above and find two projects that you think you would like to do. One that you believe you already have the skills to do or you believe you could figure out on your own. And another (hopefully of a different media type) you don’t know how to do yet and would like to learn. Working from the DS106 site, the Daily Create site or otherness – select, describe and hyperlink to two assignments/project ideas and tell us why you’ve chosen them. What do you think you’d need learn to do them? How many of these kinds of projects do you think you should be doing in this semester so that you might learn and build both emergent storytelling skills and use new tools to create them? Why do you think these skills are or are not important? Be sure to narrate your steps and support your descriptions with screen shots of the process. Be sure to actually complete one of the assignments and add it to your blog post.

***Also, be sure to leave a comment or two on one or more of your classmate’s blog posts! Prof. Seslow will go over a example in our class time and screen record the process.

Here is the video example and class tutorial from 3/3:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/FG5TqOZeM91L5uueFlMVcfx4D_U5a2U_0aCPIcap-RRcsH23mpAp-cxFkxEqmcrN.ffX-A2p96U_KExSH 

Passcode: ?Cy9sev@

 

Here is the video example and class tutorial from 3/8:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/r4Z3FqcXWPcyMv0dEScA4iAnGr0Pw-BZKOLwOKCmCgqgtJrTxEecJbP5PkBG3-ML.IpyUJ6klnbYDBx3B 

Passcode: Mn6le%+C

MEME’S WILL ALWAYS BE AN ICONIC SOURCE OF ART

When I think of memes I think fun, creative expression or freedom. Memes are meant to be taken as jokes and not something super serious. Most people see memes as trivial or nonsensical because they offer no necessary information. But that isn’t the point, the point is to have a laugh in a humor less situation.

To me there is no point defining a meme as anything but if I have to it’s definitely a form or art. The way people are able to “notice that something is special, they’re the ones who are able to help bring it out into the context of the art world or the gallery world”(Art Zealous). As Bubu a meme artist stated he first made memes for friends to laugh but he created art with some convincing to make an exhibit. Art is for people to admire so who says meme can’t be admired like a Picasso or DaVinci.

As this photo illustrates art is subjective anything you pour your imagination deserves to be seen and enjoyed by the masses. Even the greatest art in the world is weird but so different from the rest you can’t help to admire it, that’s how I view memes because something that allows me to convey a joyful emotion is a great thing.

Memes are so simple yet amazing because it can unite people to a common feeling. In many words memes are art because “Art evolves using its moderate, and has continued to do this from the online age”.  Owity.com sees memes as more than something people diss but how they can enjoy because of how they can be made so fast.

This a meme I found today which I whole heartedly agree with so much. Every time you find a moment of peace someone tries to ruin it. Kind of like when your parents call your name but never answer and make you look for them only to do something dumb. The way memes are able to make me chuckle shows how fun they can be and allow communication between people because I can DM it to a friend on IG. It will allow us to talk about other relatable stuff memes can illustrate just like these.

Now time for a MEME premier made by ME- JUAN CARLOS MEJIA

I created this meme because I was shocked that CT 101 was going to be fun and a creative class when most classes turn out to be boring with the work and lectures.

I created this meme because I feel like I have to sprint just to find good memes for my post because there are never enough to convey all my points across.

BYE GUY’S HOPE YOU LIKE THIS POST.

Where did memes come from?

This website I found had a bunch of popular memes and a description of where all the memes originated from and the lore of each meme. The website even provided examples of how each meme gets used.

My favorite memes:

Some of my favorite memes are the Pikachu shocked face because it’s literally how I act sometimes and Pikachu looks very adorable in the meme. As well as I like the SpongeBob meme where he’s getting up from his chair, I enjoy this meme because when things get too awkward or crazy I’ll be the first to want to head out.

 

Should memes be considered art?

I think memes should be considered art because its a way to express ourselves and at the same time make others laugh. I saw this site where everyone discussed why memes should be considered art; someone in the website said “Memes should be considered art because they convey meaning through the use of visual stimuli and they normally contain things that are universally relatable and human. Some art conveys sadness, some frustration, and some exists for the sake of existing, and I can find a meme to represent each of these concepts.” – Katherine Kaczmarski

Can memes be used for storytelling?

Memes can be used for storytelling because memes resource in visible storytelling since they’re essentially images and pictures are worth a thousand words; The viewer can see the meme and reflect on it and even use the same meme to tell their own story.

Are memes simply just forms of self-expression? Or are they more? well, why or why not?

I think memes are a way people can express themselves but it’s way more than that, we use memes as a way to communicate with each other and people even use memes to speak about serious topics and it becomes a discussion amongst everyone.

CT101 Memes:

 

 

If I’m being completely honest, I’m not sure what I was hoping for on the first day of CT 101. I enrolled in this class at the very last minute, in desperation of meeting the 12 credit minimum for the semester. Out of the classes left, this one, despite its ambiguous name, seemed like the most tolerable (after consulting with Rate My Professor of course). 

         

After about 10 minutes into the class, I was smiling from ear to ear because I was so pleasantly surprised by both the professor and the course itself. Over the last few years I’ve come to think of myself as a non-artistic artist (hold on, I promise it’ll make sense). I always have these great ideas but never the skillset to execute them properly. Hearing about the course and how creative I’d have to be with assignments and sort of figure out how to give life to certain thoughts/concepts was amazing.

It’s only been a few weeks into the semester, but I can wholeheartedly say that this class has got to be my favorite one I’ve ever taken. I have been considering taking more CT classes in the future because of it. In comparison to my other courses, this is the least content heavy, yet the one I’ve learned the most in (crazy I know).

Like I mentioned before, I think this class gives me a chance to simply just voice my thoughts through different mediums of art, the possibilities are truly endless. Not to mention I get to witness everyone else do it as well. Although we all have the same assignment, everyone does a great job at making it their own, I really enjoy reading the other blog posts.

As a Computer Science major I am absolutely thrilled to learn more about the internet and its endless wonders. Hopefully I can take all that I will learn in this course and continue to build on it to create some pretty awesome stuff in the future. So far I’ve been introduced to Giphy and Imgur, two great gif repositories. After playing around with both, I prefer Giphy more because I found it easier to navigate and find content that I liked.

 

◊ Hi there lurkers, readers, peers, wanderers, the professor- bah I want be unique so I’ll address whoever see these as Reader or Wanderer- just to be different! I’ll probably forget to do that.. welp!  ◊

What did you think on the first day of the CT101? Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?

♦ On the first day of CT101, I was a bit- or a lot.. nervous (as I am with the first day of any class honestly). While searching for a class to enroll into, I was told by a peer that this class make blog posts on a website and my immediate thought was “Cool! I do that often enough!” But then reality came crashing down on me and I realized that I may have quotas or word counts involved. (Hoo boy not the word counts!) But after a few minutes of listening to what the professor had to say I honestly thought “Wow this guy is pretty chill!” After taking creative writing last semester, I’m excited to be able to write freely and expressively, plus the addition of using gifs and other tools from the web like Giphy and Imgur is going to make posting very dynamic. So I think this class is going to be very fun!

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes?

♦ Last semester I took ENG286 aka creative writing, so I feel like I’ll be able to have the same freedom to write how I feel for the most part hopefully. Compared to most classes that I have now– I am surprised this is a question because it is like night and day! I have more breathing room with the way I’d like to write and express how I feel. You can’t really do that with other classes right? Academic writing has to be formal.. and there’s word counts.. and it isn’t easy. This class has the advantage of being digital as well, so it feels like a whole different world compared to my other classes.

What are the potentials of this class? How do you feel about learning new skills that use Internet tools?

♦ I feel that this class has the potential to bring out the inner journalists in us- or the inner blogger that we may have inside- honestly I don’t know the word that can fit what I am trying to say. But I feel that this class can allow us to open our minds more to different possibilities. Being in school for so long I think over time we lose that sense of creativity- or maybe I am overthinking it and I am just crazy, or am I just projecting..? Nevermind. Besides that, I think learning new tools on the internet can also help us unlock a greater potential in this class. The internet is such an important resource in this day and age that I think it will help us all grow in the long run. Its fun and easy to use and can be applied in a lot of places.

 

 

♦ Fun fact: I didn’t know gif meant Graphics Interchange Format until.. five minutes ago!. Thanks for reading, Readers!

 

 

What did you think on the first day of the CT101?

The first day was incredibly fun especially getting to know the professor and seeing all the cool and creative content that we will be doing every week. I also like the fact that there are instructions and video on knowing how to operate the website. It’s even cooler knowing we will be working with GIPHY and IMGUR.

Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?

I heard great comments about this course before enrolling and I felt at peace because I’m always worrying about having bad courses. Therefore, I loved all the creative content that is being offered, it boosts my creativity to produce eye catching content. I am so excited to learn new materials as the weeks goes by.

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes?

Comparing to my other classes that are so stressful, this class makes me relax, and motivated. I don’t feel any pressure when completing any assignment unlike the other classes. When I have this class, my mind is free, I laugh more especially when on GIPHY. It’s just a breath of fresh air.

What are the potentials of this class?

This class can open a lot of opportunities for me being the fact that technology upgrades every day, more jobs are looking for people that are proficient in areas like digital storytelling to promote their business and if I have these skills, it would be beneficial. So far, I am learning things I did not know how to do so I can only imagine by the end of the semester what I will be able to do.

How do you feel about learning new skills that use Internet tools?

It feels great learning new skills! I enjoy learning new materials each day, and when it comes to the internet its more exciting. Often, I see creative content from businesses, commercial and youtubers and I always wonder how but most are materials we are learning in this class. This course will definitely make me think deeper when creating a content and I am better able to assist anyone that needs creative idea when promoting online businesses.

 

 

What did you think on the first day of the CT101? 

On the first day of CT101 I felt a bit nervous. I did not know what to expect. It is something completely out of my field, but I thought it would be an interesting course to take as an elective for my final semester. Come to find out I have a chill deaf professor, the first professor I have had that is deaf and even taught us some greetings in sign language. It is nice having a professor that makes students comfortable to express themselves and my nerves were gone by the end of class, I was left thinking this is going to be a cool class. 

 

Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel? 

What is missing from a lot of courses is the ability for a student to express themselves and on this course, there is a lot of creativity and I love it. It is a space where I can just express myself and not have to be stressed like in many of my other classes. 

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes? 

This class is a breather from many of my other courses. My other classes I must stress over assignments, exams, and due dates. This class I get to express myself through gifs and memes. I get to tell stories and learn how to use digital tools to express myself freely. There is no comparison to other classes, this class is top 1. 

What are the potentials of this class? 

The potential of this class is limitless. Storytelling has no limits and being able to learn how to tell them through different digital tools. It is always exciting and fun to learn new skills. 

How do you feel about learning new skills that use Internet tools? 

I am always excited to learn new skills. Especially with how much we use the internet these days why not learn how to use some internet tools to express yourself. Learning how to use hyperlinks and how to make gifs was cool and interesting to learn and I cannot wait to learn more.  

 

ARE MEMES ART?

A meme is intended to describe an artistic impression on something, commonly it would be pop culture. Taking this into consideration, I would argue memes as a form of art, anything artistically expressed is considered a form of art. Memes parallel Andy Warhol art which appropriated images from pop culture. 

MEMES ARE HERE TO STAY… BUT IS THIS GOOD OR BAD FOR ART?IS THIS GOOD OR BAD FOR COMMUNICATION?

Memes are great for communication as it is a different, unique, and more modern art form. Older generations might place less value in it, but we have to go with the times, and that means, we use memes. Memes express a shared experience/ reference that travel throughout social media.

ARE MEMES SIMPLY JUST FORMS OF SELF-EXPRESSION?OR ARE THEY MORE? WELL, WHY OR WHY NOT?

Memes go beyond just a form of self-expression. Yes, I would consider it a medium for self expression however, we can look at memes as a prism of communication for understanding pop culture

CAN MEMES BE USED FOR STORYTELLING?

Yes, traditionally storytelling requires us to use our imagination to visualize a scene. Memes aid in visual storytelling as they images, and graphics to have the reader engage and think about the general idea based on a small medium. A meme is essentially a graphic worth a thousand words. 

 

 

 

 

I Scream Food!!!!           

I love watching food channels on YouTube. This week I was scrolling and saw a food channel by the name of “Best Ever Food Review Show.” A guy by the name of Sonny that is from the US but lives in Asia for ten years started making food and decided to do travel videos and keeping documents of each experience.

I find this remarkably interesting and helpful because we the viewers will be eager to travel these places to capture our own experiences.

What caught my eye about this video is the fact that he was in my country trying all the local authentic food including our national dish which is Ackee and Saltfish.

He also dives into one of our hottest and most popular go to food in the summer which is Crab. I love Crab

One of my dreams in life is to travel different countries and try other authentic food, so this video is very inspirating to me and I anticipate upcoming videos from this channel.

What did you think on the first day of CT 101?

The first day of CT 101 was really great.  The class was fun and relaxed, and I‘m also excited about this class since it will motivate me to learn sign languages. On the first day of our class first time I got to learn working with GIF. It is fun to work with GIFs.

Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?

The course content is make to so excited. It really fun to work with GIfs and memes. Before the taking this course I didn’t even know that their is lot of other site to find GIfs. To be honest, The first day of class make me feel like “Not what I was expecting from Communication Technology”. That the first class I ever get to change to do my assignment with funny GIfs.

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes?

Comparing to my other classes CT101 give me more freedom. It the one of the most enjoyable class I ever had. This course giving me to opportunity  to learn how to tune with this internet world.

What are the potentials of this class?

This class would able to become confident communicators and media producers using digital storytelling, which incorporates 21st-century skills.  I think the most potentials of this class to creative use of technology. It would help to focus on one specific topic and feature a particular point of view. So I’m really excited to learn more about this.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT LEARNING NEW SKILLS THAT USE INTERNET TOOLS?

I Feel learning new skill that use internet tools is so important. In last decade  modern technology and internet change so much that If we do not how to use those internet tools we could not better understand of this world. Instance, if someone don’t know who to use Facebook or some other application, might be he couldn’t realize what is happening in Ukraine. 

What did you think on the first day of CT101?

On my first day of CT101, I was curious about what the course would offer in terms of skill and materials. I was interested from the beginning because I heard this course is fantastic, and since that statement, I got even more curious and couldn’t wait till the class started.

Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?

I logged into my first day of CT101, which was interesting to me, but I also realized how this course would be a fun experience because it would allow me to try new things, making me look forward to upcoming classes and projects.

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes?

CT101 gives you more freedom and a calm mindset compared to other classes. It’s a course that provides you and your mind to express your ideas and feelings in good yet funny ways. CT101 is what brings our creativity to the fullest. 

What are the potentials of this class?

This class will provide us with the knowledge and information to help us learn then master the arts of design through technology. This course will also make us tap into our more creative sides and think of ways to design something.

How do you feel about learning new skills that use internet tools?

Skills that use internet tools will help me expand my knowledge about computers and software. This time around, people worldwide use the internet to communicate, research, shop, etc., in their daily routine, which is why it is very important to stay up to date and learn as much as possible.

What did you think on the first day of the CT101?

BRRRRINNGG BRRRRINNGG BRRRRINNGG. Still asleep, my body rolled over to the other side of the bed on its own, grabbing my phone, twisting and turning it in all directions until it was right side up. I managed to open my eyes just enough to press the snooze button but also enough to see the time and realize I had pressed snooze one too many times. It was 7:04 and I was still lying in bed questioning if my education was worth being sleep deprived while I was supposed to be getting dressed and heading to school to make it on time for my 10 am. I know what you’re thinking “but Safiya, CT is online” which may be true but I have classes right after leaving me no time for travel. Even though I could’ve slept in a little later and entered class on my phone and not really pay attention, I wanted to pay attention and find out what the course was about since I couldn’t figure anything out from the name which piqued my interest. I made my way to school and connected to the wifi waiting for class to begin. I wasn’t very fond of the whole 10 am sitch but you win some, you lose some. I didn’t have many thoughts about the course beforehand only thing I knew is that it would be a hit or miss and within the first five minutes, I declared it a hit and as my new all-time favorite class. For the whole hour lecture, the only thought in my mind on a loop was this is the coolest class ever.

Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?

Hearing about the course and its creative content brought me so much joy because it was like I finally had time to do something that I love without having to worry about school because this is my schoolwork. Whether it’s making blog posts or gifs, I’m here for it all. I felt for a while that I was lacking a creative outlet and this class came at the right time which is why I was so happy. Although it may not be the usual drawing or painting I am into, I love exploring and practicing different parts of the creative world, how they work, and making work of my own.  This was the only class ever besides English where I have been excited and eager to do my assignments because I knew that I would enjoy it. This professor is great I thought to myself the whole day after class and proceeded to rant to my one and only friend about how much I love this course and how fun it’s going to be despite only having it once a week.

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes? What are the potentials of this class?

Compared to my other classes, I feel as if CT is my most breathable course right next to English because I like both equally. They both give me space to voice my opinions whether it is verbal or written, appropriate due dates, and just enjoyable and not stressful at all which are the elements that make a class enjoyable. This class being digital-based leaves many potentials such as discovering or obtaining a new skill or interest of mine which could lead to something much more. Another potential of this course is that since we are going to be creating our own websites and learning how to blog properly, we can create a name for ourselves out there that can branch out to new opportunities. 

How do you feel about learning new skills that use Internet tools?

Personally, I feel like learning new skills using the internet is fun, frustrating, exciting, and very much so necessary. I feel this way because I love to learn new things which are exciting and can be fun when things I like are incorporated-such as memes. However, the internet and its tools are infamous for making me lose my mind from time to time. I get so angry sometimes when my laptop acts up or something is not working or I just can’t seem to figure things out. Besides that, I have no beef with internet tools because I think learning new skills regarding internet tools is crucial in this day and age especially s we advance into the future. This is because we use the internet every single day for a variety of things and have become so dependent so the least we can do is figure out how to use it beyond the bare minimum. 

What did you think on the first day of the CT101?

Well, I thought it was going to be an intense boring class filled with information regarding exams. But however, after the first day of CT101, I felt extremely happy knowing I would learn to express myself using the internet and working with GIFs.

Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?

I am extremely excited because Memes and Gifs are the new trends of fun on the internet. It can also test us on how creative we can be. Before signing up for this course there was a different feeling of anxiety thinking it’s the same basic course but seeing the content and opportunity to be able to create content I am jubilated.

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes?

NO COMPARISON! after the first day of CT101 I already rank it #1 class in my book

What are the potentials of this class?

Getting to work with a generational tool like GIFs and IMGUR. Creating content, sharing it with others to express my feelings on certain matters also, content can be competitive because students view the Thursdays classes work also. When viewing multiple students’ work can help me create my post. When viewing some students’ work can motivate me to do as much or even better because sometimes, we have to push ourselves for perfection.

How do you feel about learning new skills that use Internet tools?

GIFs can help boost the effectiveness of your social media and content marketing. Because of the way the brain works, the information presented within or alongside GIFs is more easily retained by consumers due to its association with the GIF. GIFs can help your brand come to life. Engaging with your community on social media is one of the best practices for social media success. It humanizes your brand, which encourages interaction. Interaction, in turn, promotes the growth of your community by introducing you to the communities of those with whom you are interacting via their timelines.