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Moving Image Memes (working title)
Veröffentlicht am 22.10.2024

Edi­tors: Till Heil­mann (Ruhr Uni­ver­si­ty Bochum), Laura Nie­b­ling (Uni­ver­si­ty of Re­gens­burg), Kevin Pau­liks (Phil­ipps-Uni­ver­si­ty Mar­burg), Jana Zündel (Goethe Uni­ver­si­ty Frank­furt)

 

Whe­ther on social and video sharing plat­forms, in pri­va­te chats or blogs: In­ter­net memes are ever­yw­he­re and un­avo­i­da­ble in con­tem­pora­ry media cul­tu­re. As easily re­pro­du­ci­b­le and ad­ap­ta­ble for­mats, they have es­ta­blis­hed them­sel­ves as an in­te­gral part of di­gi­tal image re­per­toires and our “cul­tu­ral le­xi­con” (Jour­nell & Clark, 2019, p. 109). Howe­ver, the term “memes” no longer only de­scri­bes spe­ci­fic image-text com­bi­na­ti­ons, but va­rious pheno­me­na and media prac­tices in online cul­tu­re (Pau­liks, 2023, p. 119). This de­ve­lop­ment has both ex­pan­ded and un­sett­led our un­der­stan­ding of the sub­ject as de­fi­ni­ti­ons of what a ‘meme’ ac­tual­ly is (or can be) are con­ti­nuous­ly chal­len­ged and blur­red. At the same time, memes face cri­ti­cism due to their am­bi­gui­ty and open­ness to in­ter­pre­ta­ti­on, making them – and, thus, the moving images they re­fe­rence – vo­la­ti­le in­stru­ments for any cul­tu­ral, com­mer­ci­al, social, or po­li­ti­cal agenda (Tuters, 2019, n.p.). With meme­tic for­mats ser­ving as a lingua franca in ever­y­day di­gi­tal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on (Milner, 2016, pp. 79–110), meme cul­tu­re trans­forms the way we think about, engage with and ul­ti­mate­ly re­mem­ber moving images.

 

Me­meing, i.e. extrac­ting (moving) images or sound­bi­tes from their ori­gi­nal source, al­te­ring and ap­pro­pria­ting them to new con­texts – social, po­li­ti­cal, com­mer­ci­al or other­wi­se – has become a common prac­tice that is si­gni­fi­cant to di­gi­tal film cul­tu­re(s). Memes in­vol­ve and con­fi­gu­ra­te moving images in a wide va­rie­ty of for­mats, plat­forms and dis­cour­ses. Thus, the ‘me­me­fi­ca­ti­on’ of filmic in­gre­dients (e.g. scenes, motifs, cha­rac­ters, quotes, ge­stu­res and ex­pres­si­ons) is an on­go­ing and ever evol­ving pro­cess of cul­tu­ral re­pro­duc­tion and pre­ser­va­ti­on. While moving images are both ma­te­ri­al for me­me­fi­ca­ti­on and memes them­sel­ves, their mul­ti­fa­ce­ted role in meme cul­tu­re is rarely sci­en­ti­fi­cal­ly dis­cus­sed beyond po­pu­lar dis­cour­se such as in case of 2023’s ‘Bar­ben­hei­mer.’ This collec­tion looks at the in­ter­sec­tions and in­ter­de­pen­den­cies of film cul­tu­re and meme cul­tu­re, framing memes as moving images in a triple sense.

 

1. Memes of moving images: Since any re­a­son­ab­ly ex­pres­si­ve image from a film, a series, or a video can be picked out and ‘mas­hed-up’ in a va­rie­ty of com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ve con­texts, memes of moving images become a medium for per­so­nal ex­pres­si­on, in­ter­per­so­nal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and sto­ry­tel­ling in po­pu­lar cul­tu­re. Today, the suc­cess of new film re­lea­ses par­ti­al­ly relies on their ‘me­me­a­bi­li­ty’, i.e. the po­ten­ti­al for imi­ta­ti­on and (fle­xi­ble) reuse of spe­ci­fic scenes or shots, quotes, mo­ti­ons or facial ex­pres­si­ons of cha­rac­ters, on plat­forms such as Ins­ta­gram, X, Reddit, TikTok or YouTube. Thus, many con­tem­pora­ry movies might al­re­a­dy an­ti­ci­pa­te their own me­me­fi­ca­ti­on, de­li­be­ra­te­ly pro­vi­ding memes in po­ten­tia­lis (e.g. a funny mo­ve­ment, an out­lan­dish cha­rac­ter ap­pearan­ce, a dra­ma­tic clo­se-up, or a spec­ta­cu­lar visual). At the same time, moving image memes are not li­mi­ted to movies, but also ori­gi­na­te in newer au­dio­vi­su­al media such as te­le­vi­si­on and web series, games, or short-vi­deo for­mats such a Reels or Tik­Toks. All of these ma­te­ri­als might cont­ri­bu­te to a com­me­mo­ra­ti­ve film cul­tu­re, re­co­ver­ing, re-enac­ting and pre­ser­ving ci­ne­ma­tic ge­stu­res or mo­ments (most no­ta­b­ly, but not ex­clu­si­ve­ly, from silent movies) for old and new au­di­en­ces.

 

2. Memes as moving image for­mats: The re­per­toire of meme­tic for­mats, i.e. a stan­dar­di­za­t­i­on of imi­ta­ting and re­pro­du­cing au­di­to­ry, visual or au­dio­vi­su­al frag­ments from exis­ting (di­gi­tal or di­gi­ti­zed) con­tent, is con­stant­ly ex­pan­ding, now with social media plat­forms even fa­vo­r­ing moving images over still images. While for­mats such as image macros, pho­to­shop, panel or label memes remain stap­les of meme cul­tu­re, GIFs, Tik­Toks or mash-ups push the evo­lu­ti­on of di­gi­tal (moving) images even fur­ther and si­gni­fi­cant­ly extend the sci­en­ti­fic scope of memes. They are also cen­tral to da­ta­ba­ses (Giphy), blogs (Tumblr), in­stant mes­sen­gers (Signal, Te­le­gram, Whats­App), or video sharing plat­forms (TikTok, Vimeo, YouTube) as means for cul­tu­ral re­pro­duc­tion, in­ter­per­so­nal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on, per­so­nal and ar­tis­tic ex­pres­si­on. As af­fec­ting and ac­tivat­ing for­mats, moving image memes give films cul­tu­ral re­le­van­ce and le­gi­ti­mi­ze them for a me­dia-sav­vy au­di­ence.

 

3. Memes as images on the move and images that move us: Fueled by the wi­de­s­pre­ad ex­pan­si­on of film re­cep­ti­on through social media and vi­deo-sharing plat­forms, memes cir­cu­la­te films in count­less (audio-)visual snip­pets across mul­ti­ple he­te­ro­ge­neous plat­forms, thus en­for­cing the frag­men­ta­ti­on of au­di­en­ces. This calls for a dis­cus­sion on how moving image memes may gather and mo­ti­va­te social media users to engage in film cul­tu­re across plat­forms, thus ge­ne­ra­ting new spaces for dis­cour­se and cul­tu­ral debate. Users can ex­ploit these mobile for­mats for va­rious pur­po­ses ran­ging from in­ter­per­so­nal amu­se­ment and movie mar­ke­ting to com­mu­ni­ty buil­ding and po­li­ti­cal cam­pai­gning. In a net­wor­ked film cul­tu­re, memes are then part of the on­go­ing strugg­le for in­ter­pre­ta­ti­ve sover­eig­n­ty over moving images and their legacy.

 

We wel­co­me cont­ri­bu­ti­ons that engage with one or more of these ap­proa­ches. Sub­mis­si­ons can con­sist of full essays of a ma­xi­mum of 6.000 words, or shor­ter for­mats (e.g. brief ana­ly­ses of a spe­ci­fic meme, short com­men­ta­ries on meme cul­tu­re, etc.) of a ma­xi­mum of 2.000 words. Please send your cont­ri­bu­ti­ons ac­com­pa­nied by an author bi­blio­gra­phy of a ma­xi­mum of 100 words by April 25, 2025 to Zu­en­del@​tfm.​uni-​frankfurt.​de.

 

All sub­mis­si­ons, if ac­cep­ted by the edi­tors, will un­der­go a dou­ble-blind peer review, pro­jec­ted for mid-2025. Re­vi­sed and final ma­nu­scripts are to be sub­mit­ted by Oc­to­ber 31, 2025. We aim for an open access pu­bli­ca­ti­on with meson press (“Con­fi­gu­ra­ti­ons of Film” series) in early 2026.

 

Re­fe­ren­ces:

 

Jour­nell, W., & Clark, C. H. (2019). Po­li­ti­cal Memes and the Limits of Media Li­ter­a­cy. In W. Jour­nell (Ed.), Un­packing Fake News: An Edu­ca­tor’s Guide to Na­vi­ga­ting the Media with Stu­dents (pp. 109–125). Teachers Col­le­ge Press.

 

Milner, R. M. (2016). The world made meme: Public con­ver­sa­ti­ons and par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry media. The MIT Press.

 

Pau­liks, K. (2023). Ein Me­ta­bild von Memes: Per­spek­ti­ven der Meme Stu­dies auf Bild, Text und Praxis. ME­DI­EN­wis­sen­schaft Re­zen­sio­nen | Re­views, 40(2), 119–137. https://​doi.​org/​10.​25969/​MEDIAREP/​19661

 

Tuters, M. (2019). Rude Awa­ke­ning: Memes as Dialec­tical Images. https://​non.​copyriot.​com/​rude-​awakening-​memes-​as-​dialectical-​images/ (last ac­ces­sed 21st August 2024)

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