Loss.jpg

Made by yiyangg, Carolyn Cai and mdemko

Created: September 26th, 2016

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Intention

Throughout this process, we wanted to take a fairly well-known meme and see how far we could abstract it and remix it with other memes, while still trying to preserve its recognizability. This mimics how the meme has actually been treated throughout its run on the internet.

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Layer #1

Carolyn

I combined two memes, "loss.jpg" and "little grey cat." I mimicked the basic composition of Loss with the positions of the cats using 1) an exploitable (transparent png) of one of the cats, and 2) the original images of the other cats. The work was done in Photoshop and Paint Tool SAI. The result is an image that can only be understood if one knows the contexts of both memes, which is often a result of meme-mixing.

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Layer #2

Miso 

I wanted to add something geometric as an overlay only, without having to touch the original images for this round. This would involve shape and color, and then I began thinking representationally. Immediately after a yellow rectangle representing cheese I thought of pink circles representing bubble gum. I thought the latter was funnier, unamused cats blowing and eventually popping big bubble gum bubbles. It was a very leisurely gesture and one that I think expanded their personalities as we understood them.

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Layer #3

Yiyang

I featured the geometric components in the previous layer. I feel the introduction of digital touch to analog images provides spreadability and remixabilty. Also, I kept and played around the comic style form throughout layer 1 and layer 2. I strengthened the scenario by zooming in the main character (unamused cat) in the comics with geometric shapes. 

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Layer #4

Miso

Almost any meme requires text in the standard Impact font. This was a step of conformity and declaration. This was the essential step that declared, "this visual is a meme." The text as a whole visual unity speaks more to that effect more than the meaning of the words, which is of secondary importance. Also, I wanted to reflect the art for art's sake mentality which is why one of the words in the text I included was "internet." This follows the phenomena when content is intended to go viral in its conception: compare a home recorded video that unexpectedly gains attention with a video where the video recorder is recording a scene saying, "this is going on World Star" or "we're going viral." 

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Layer #5

Yiyang

The first thing I saw in the work from the previous layer is the words on the top and the bottom. I am inspired by the effect of the word visuality rather than words' meanings. So I chose to replace the words with even more meaningless ones. I chose sound words that are often rendered in comics.

At the same time, I was intrigued by how the comic strip form constructs a scenario from really random images. This drew me back to the loss.jpg again, Ctrl-Alt-Del comic strip, which later became a meme that was reproduced based on such absurdity. So I used the composition of loss.jpg. And in terms of the scenario, I was inspired by the condescending, sarcastic cat in the previous layer. I linked this to another meme – knife cat. I remixed the knife cat with the grey cat. The compatibility of these originally irrelevant memes demonstrates some of the common features of internet memes.

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Layer #6

Carolyn

I shifted the focus to the first panel. The knives are still in the shape of loss.jpg, and the image evokes "knife cat" more strongly. The image then resembled a famous scene from the anime/manga Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Part 3) in which the main character is attacked by a lot of knives, so I added some artifacts from that series: the character's hat, dramatic lines, and sound effects. At this point, at least 4 sources have been fused into one image.


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Approach/Process

Our approach was primarily to take the composition of loss.jpg and use it to play around with other memes and pieces of art or media. We primarily drew inspiration from other image macros on the internet, seeking to relate the current image to some other artifact, and taking elements from that artifact to place into the image.

To rework media in a collaborative way, we established communication on Slack and discussed about possible directions our "volleys" could take. In this way we tried to stick to a somewhat coherent theme instead of simply introducing one non sequitur after another.

Our greatest challenge was communication since, of course, we're all busy students. It helped that we discussed ideas for the "next image(s)" beforehand so that we could prepare for when it was each person's turn.

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Reflection

While working on this project, we were able to realize the extent to which an image from the internet can be altered as time goes by and as it changes hands. We can think of this activity as a microcosm of the internet, journey of spreadable media, or meme culture in several ways. Just like how an image macro changes and adapts to people's senses of humor as it circulates throughout social media circles, our original image gained and lost (lol) multiple features as it was passed around, sometimes intersecting with other memes. This is rather paradoxical in that, while the original image gains more appeal, it also evolves such that subsequent edits may target increasingly niche groups. Ultimately though, loss.jpg and its various edits have become so recognizable that even if one does not understand its other contexts (i.e. little grey cats), one can still understand that it is indeed loss. 

Ultimately, working on this project was quite interesting. Personally, I (Carolyn) wonder what would have happened if I had chosen something else to start with, since our final result is quite specific to loss.jpg. It would be fun to do it again sometime. 

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62-150 Intro to Media Synthesis and Analysis

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New creative industries are empowering new modes of collaborative consumption, creation and reuse of media. This often relies on successful collaborations between cross-trained artists, designers a...more


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