http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/7/3005044/roflcon-when-memes-go-mainstream What is ROFLCon? It's a biennial convention (this year was its third) held to celebrate and discuss internet memes and the celebrity that is often created alongside them. This year's invited guests included Chuck "Nope" Testa, Antoine Dodson, who became famous when he appeared on local news after a home invasion, Paul "Bear" Vasquez, AKA the "Double Rainbow" guy, and "Tron Guy" Jay Maynard. There are also internet celebs of a different ilk — people who have created loved and admired "works," like Chris Torres, creator of Nyan Cat, Matt Oswald, creator of the "Me Gusta" guy, or film editor… ]]> Tue, 08 May 2012 14:17:47 -0700 http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/7/3005044/roflcon-when-memes-go-mainstream http://gawker.com/5887697//how-i-found-the-human-being-behind-horse-ebooks-the-internets-favorite-spambot Who. Is. @Horse_ebooks? http://t.co/qNjElABb ]]> Sun, 26 Feb 2012 10:21:11 -0700 http://gawker.com/5887697//how-i-found-the-human-being-behind-horse-ebooks-the-internets-favorite-spambot http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2011/05/05/a-medium-for-the-masses/ The word “meme” first appeared in Richard Dawkins’ 1976 book “The Selfish Gene.” Dawkins defined a meme as being any sort of idea that spreads from person to person within a culture and catches fire. It played on the notion of a gene, as both genes and memes multiply with human-to-human contact. As UC Santa Cruz computer science professor Gerald Moulds put it, “Every idea that manages to self-replicate is a meme.” Internet memes are much the same thing. They spread from website to website, from community to community, from user to user across the Web, mutating and bonding together,… ]]> Mon, 06 Jun 2011 02:25:06 -0700 http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2011/05/05/a-medium-for-the-masses/ http://www.slate.com/id/2270819/ GIFs (the name stands for graphics interchange format and can be pronounced with either a hard or soft G) began life in the mid-'80s, image files so efficiently compressed that sluggish Internet connections (which is to say, every connection back then) could download them speedily. When most people use the term GIF today, however, they mean it as shorthand for animated GIFs. Animated GIFs are synonymous with the Internet's mid-'90s, pre-Flash era, when individuals and major corporations alike festooned Web sites with flickering borders, banners, and graphics, all playing on tight, endless loops. More recently, animated GIFs became key chintzy… ]]> Tue, 17 May 2011 02:46:40 -0700 http://www.slate.com/id/2270819/ http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/186002 I'm writing a paper on (animated) GIFs and am trying to track down some of the most (in)famous. I suppose I am talking memes, but I'm more interested in the GIF as an archaeological reference point. I frequent sites like dump.fm, tumblr etc. so am quite tuned in to the glitchy/kitschy side of GIF culture. How theoretical have people got on these wonders of the web? How does one trace the history of an animated GIF? I have a personal take on this (my paper is only short), but would love to find some well recognised, well lauded… ]]> Mon, 16 May 2011 08:17:15 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/186002 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLHh9E5ilZ4&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:00:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLHh9E5ilZ4&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.artfagcity.com/2009/12/31/the-best-of-web-2009/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ArtFagCity+%28Art+Fag+City%29 Here’s a better model for year-end link lists: Only chose one link! I asked 18 of my favorite professionals to do just this, leaving the subject matter completely at their discretion. The format doesn’t solve the inevitable difference of taste issues between readers and linkers — one person’s trash is another person’s Titian – but it at least eliminates the impossible chore of having to rate 20 unrelated items. It also creates a list in which each link is special to someone. For me, that creates a year-end list worth reflection. ]]> Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:59:00 -0700 http://www.artfagcity.com/2009/12/31/the-best-of-web-2009/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ArtFagCity+%28Art+Fag+City%29 http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/87272 Corey Arcangel is perhaps the internet's most infamous hack, masher-upper, digi/net artist. His work stands for a growing culture of artists who run wildly through animated GIF landscapes populated with corrupted data-compressed bunny rabbits and tinny, MIDI renditions of Savage Garden ballads. As the Lisson Gallery, London, opens its archives to Arcangel's curatorial eye, could digi/net art be set to infect the real, fleshy world, like a rampant Conficker Worm? Has YouTube become the truest reflection of our anthropological selves? Are… ]]> Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:44:50 -0700 http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/87272