Introductory Post

 Hello! My name is Dio.

I am a 22, soon to be turning 23, year old Junior at NJCU. I currently live with my dad in Hoboken, but I was born in East Harlem, NYC.

I am a queer person, so this class truly stood out to me when I was choosing my courses. I want to branch out into more activist projects with my artwork, so I thought learning about activism through a class rather than just relying on what I see would greatly help me.

I draw a lot of original character art, fantasy work, worldbuilding, and symbolism, so I feel like the main themes of this class are right up my alley.

I'm very excited to see what this course can offer.

Some art that I made:

 

My art is very media-driven and has 'unsettling' themes. I love making viewers go "Hey I remember that!" and "Oh my...that's...scary"

I LOVE unsettling memes and often feature them in my artwork. I find it funny when people look truly stupefied at memes about taboo subjects that I find average.

----excerpts from What Memes Owe to Art History----

Quotes:

"Memes resist today’s norm-culture in the same way the performative turn of the 1960s disrupted Modernism. Like performance art of the ’60s, memes are hardwired with an unpredictability and a “hackable” interface or template that can be easily appropriated and overwritten—anyone can make a meme" 

“Memes aren’t an innocent process—they carry serious political weight, and not always of the activist variety,” Wershler said, citing the website 4chan’s politics board and other alt-right cyber-communes where hate speech has festered in the form of memes."

My personal thoughts: 

I think memes are a form of graffiti. Its widespread, can be done be anyone, can be beautiful or offensive, and more. Authority figures don't always like them unless they make them themselves, they can be used to send messages, and can be created to voice a minority. Comedy is the easiest language to understand, so people are often more willing to listen/are more likely to understand the message behind the meme if it makes them laugh. That's just how humans are. Memes are also extremely influential, especially to today's youth. Many kids can simply change their opinion from seeing one meme. They communicate several messages at once, so it makes sense that people use them as a form of protest or political promoting.