KIDCAT

Layer #1 

Jessie Li

The original photo was to create an image of putting two different kinds of memes together. Both of these memes are quite popular (kid pumping fist and Pusheen the cat), but one is loved for how much it describes certain feelings (kid pumping fist) and the other everyone loves because it's a cute and a fat cat. However, both a child and a cat are quite commonly seen on a sofa; I thought it would be an interesting contrast to see two wildly popular memes put in on the most regular, ordinary thing imaginable, of which, the first thing I thought of was a plain sofa.

I used Photoshop to cut and move out both the kid and Pusheen around so they were proportional to the sofa. I purposely made Pusheen "sit" on the sofa (a regular thing cats do), but the kid was harder to do because the meme is just of his upper body. It was difficult to proportion correctly and at the correct location; I settled on his location in the picture above because I thought the kid and the cat could be sitting next to each other, or cuddling, as humans are apt to do with pets, and the point of this piece was to put the "extraordinary" with the ordinary.

Layer #2

@shangdal by Shangda (Harry) Li

The picture I received consists of only one sofa, one child and one cat, so I intended to add some elements to extend what this picture can possibly mean, as I know my second layer will be passed to the next person and we have 4 rounds left. I depict the child thinking about milk while the cat thinking about fish, because I want to show for these two main characters, even though they are physically close, what they are paying attention to are distant.

Layer #3

@tianjunm did layer #3

With everyone's effort on making interesting alternations to the original photo, I identified the action of revising & spreading meme photos. Since there's a real object in the photo, I start to relate the object with the spread of memes. Using the satirical way to describe an action just as what popular memes do, I added some texts to criticize people who spread photos of their properties in a way that hides their intention to show off.

Layer #4

@shangdal

I want to reinforce the kind of satire @tianjunm (who did the last layer) mentioned, that is, the cheap and massive reproduction of meme in a flawed and unholistic manner. Moreover, I want to imply that when people are spending too much time on internet being entertained by memes, they become "couch potatoes" of this new media.

Layer #5

Jessie Li

What was the 'volley' you served? What did you create and how did it respond to the previous material? What is it composed with (materials, shapes, forms)? Describe the textures, colors, etc.

There was already a theme of mass reproduction and marketing in the meme; the newest iteration added on to that theme with all the baby bottles. I thought it was appropriate to the original idea (blending ordinary and extraordinary), that started in the original picture, carried through the thought bubbles, and showed up in the words, which is mocking, both of itself and of commercialism. 

I thought about how, oftentimes, reproducing a work has many problems; you often change what the original author meant, how they wanted the work to feel, and often times the reproduction is lacking in technical skill; something gets warped along the way. I decided to implement these ideas by making the kid cry (which was against the original purpose of the kid, which was to express satisfaction) and I reproduced Pusheen, but missing its tail and some whiskers and it's feet. I placed the reproduction next to the original, to emphasize the changes and to emphasize the feel of reproducing imperfectly. 

Layer #6

@tianjunm did layer #6

I'm in charge of the last edition of this group meme. I created several other cats turning their backs against the audience. And I drew a very noticeable butt of of the cat with corresponding texts. The derogatory butts of the cats(from viral mobile game kitty collection) imply the awkward situation when one craves for something while the other completely ignores it. This also embodies an attitude in a picture that could possibly go viral since memes are supposed to express certain attitudes toward certain groups of people.

Approach/Process

Outline your approach to the project? How did you approach reworking of media in a collaborative way? What challenges were encountered and how did you resolve them?

Jessie: I approached working on this process with excitement; I think, oftentimes, when you work on your own, it is hard to come up with ideas, and when you do, sometimes you become fixated on that idea, and become incapable to work around it. Working in a collaborative way, that shouldn't (and didn't) happen. I started the volley, thinking it would go one direction, and when I got the work back on layer 5, it took me a while to understand what everyone else was trying to do and how they had interpreted my message, but when I did, it was surprising and exciting and in a direction I had never thought of taking it before. 

Shangda (Harry) Li: I laughed a lot when I saw how my previous work got transformed by other group members. It's fun and meaningful to learn about what other people are thinking about, and sometimes "misunderstanding" can lead to serendipitous outcome. My approach is to look at the previous layer first, wondering what the previous person wants to express, and then to think myself wildly, trying to give the work more potential, more possibilities of different way the work can evolve later through other team members. The technique I used is mostly photoshop.

Tianjun (Jun) Ma: There is a brainstorming process when I receive previous works of my teammates. I examined all of the previous works and tried to find the correlation between them. After that, I conclude what elements are lacking and aimed to supplement my ideas for those that need improvement. For example, in response to @shangdal's milk and fish idea, I found that even though they represent some interesting thoughts, they lack the spreadability as a meme. So I added texts that conclude the photo to transform it into such media.

Reflection

Reflect on the process of making this project. What did you learn? How does it relate to what you know about spreadable media? What would you do differently?

@tianjunm: 

Jessie: I learned a lot from this process; one being that you can never predict what anyone else is going to do. This is kind of a reflection on digital media as well; the original content of a meme is almost never what it ends up being famous for. Sometimes you have an idea, but people can grossly misinterpret that idea, and that gross misinterpretation leads to unintentional ideas that spread like wildfire. Something I would do differently is to maybe discuss the works while we are working on them; it was interesting to see the jump from layer 1 to layer 5 immediately, but it might have been a more in depth work if it had been true collaboration, instead of a semi-simulation of spreadable media. However, that does defeat the purpose of learning about spreadable media; I guess it depends on the purpose of your project, then.

Shangda (Harry) Li: The rule that we have to create something upon the previous person's work makes this process interesting and meaningful, as you are going to handle unexpected sources of inspiration and determine how to take advantage the current progress further. I learned to read the previous person's intention, and got to know strategies of adapting my ideas into pre-existent elements. I agree with Jessie that perhaps the purpose of doing this assignment is to personally experience how spreadable media grows, so I think it's acceptable that our final outcome is not an in-depth piece of art.

Tianjun (Jun) Ma: The process of team meme enabled me to appreciate the act of re-examining and conducting dialogs with others. I never examined a popular media such as meme as carefully as I did for this project. I learned to actually delve into a funny, sometimes absurd media and try to figure out the value and selling point in it. The work of team development also appeals to me because it puts me in the shoe of meme makers and it challenged my ability to "generate" popular ideas. This is a valuable experience that gave me a more in-depth understanding of seemingly superficial contents online.

Sources

Cite and attribute any sources you used directly in your project. Document this carefully: be very clear about what media you worked with, where you found it and how/where it was incorporated.

Images used: 

http://s.quickmeme.com/img/e8/e849d91ad0841af515b0b1d55acf5877b1bef22f8121aad8ac5137ccc2871dcc.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/458794430200152064/XdQULww6_400x400.png

https://ul-a.akamaihd.net/images/products/94427/sofa_listing/Apollo_Infinite_FNSF51APMI30000SAAAA.jpg?1467964020