Antimemetics
education
prevention
treatment
FILE : Antimemetics — nodebox.py FONT : Meme city grid Extrablack OTF font
Sounds:
successful memes might prove detrimental to their hosts
I see many memes as being harmful and distracting, taking the victim further away from nirvana. Zen meditation, in the form of a soft audiovisual projection, can act as a countermeme: a white spell to banish rampant, distracting memes, that could be harmful to the host. This work aims to keep the mind clear from memollution (meme pollution). Keep your city clean!
WARNING! Like traditional drugs, my version of antimemetics also has side effects: irritation, drowsiness and anxiety.
Background
Must a meme-eating machine necessarily be chaotic / undefinable / transmuting? Because it must not be a meme in itself: otherwise, a meme is only replaced, and no space is freed in the mind. What kind of an attack of signals, of words, symbols and meaningless noise could have a strong core, strong enough to be more powerful than a meme, to override a meme? It cannot be expected, that all memes would succumb to one type of countermeme: the medication needs to be administered and prescribed, the dosage needs to be right: and the treatment’s duration appropriate.
1. the city
The font: a building grows based on every character typed. Buildings in the background are hidden by the buildings in front, in a basic ortographic grid of 4 x 5. The city floats in space in light pastel colours : a soft, soothing view with no harsh detail.
Antimemetics
2. soundtrack
A speech synthesizer picks phrases from the list, a random selection, with constant interval and speed. Every 30 seconds, a longer delay, and a new voice is picked …. another 30 or so seconds, and the poem begins again.
‘A universe in a grain of sand.’
-adapted from Blake
I sensed it in the streets.
evolution can by physical, or cultural.
Therefore, I do not talk about memes.
invisible things grow in silence.
And so we become one.
A shooting star, or an entire city.
Memes are god.
Non-existing, but all powerful.
Of things you cannot talk about, you must remain quiet.
A universe in a grain of sand.
An idea can be a starting point, but it only ignites the meme.
Fighting for survival.
See it for yourself.
Anything could be called a meme.
Anything can be a meme.
Memes do not exist.
Religion is a power meme.
Something you must be fast to forget.
…
a soft analogy :: in medicine
Do we have a responsibility to stop disease? When we see another person, succumbing to the illness … do we have a responsibility to stop harmful memes from spreading? What if preventing disease/memes actually interferes with natural evolution? What do we want, as a species?
Natural —> or ArtificiaL || || evolution?
Memetic inertia increases when the meme transfers along with mnemonic devices, such as a rhyme, to preserve the memory of the meme prior to its transmission. So, an effective anti-memication could be a sound without a rhyme (or rhythm), a thought without corners …
-miko 14.2.2007
“… If it’s possible to generate effective counter-memes, is there any moral imperative to do so? When we see a bad or false meme go by, should we take pains to chase it with a counter-meme? Do we have an obligation to improve our informational environment? Our social environment?”
— wired.com