Miri's XPUB2 proposal draft

What do you want to make?

I want to research the possibilities of memetic strategies for artistic interventions and the potential of "memefying" daily life. My project should combine my two interest:

   Infiltrations of public spaces
   My whole field of interest and artistic practice is based on the concept of thinking of public spaces as stages, to look at their surroundings, their purposes, and perceive them as a place of open communication. When I say "stage", I do not (only) mean the traditional podium but "stage" as an abstract term for every place of (performative) happenings and actions, whether these are public outdoor and indoor spaces, the medial or the virtual space. I am interested in invading existing and functioning systems with their own rules and rhythms, to examine and criticise these rules and fathoming them out. I like to take things out of a specific context, change them a bit and put them back into their context and look at the outcome. These infiltrations of public spaces can work similar to pranks.

   (Internet) Humour
   As a comedian, I am very interested in how internet humour (as well as humour in general) works, what jokes actually are and how they can open up a political dimension, the role of the context in which the joke is made and how to step into a dialogue with the audience of a stage. 

So I want to examine meme patterns and memetic behaviour and translate them to interventions in public spaces (operate artistically in a non-art context). The format is a performative one but the medium is not determined yet. The final project outcome really depends on the intervention I am going to do, it can be one big intervention, a collection of projects or even something like a "handbook to memefy your life". I will do more research and experiments to get a clearer idea.

How do you plan to make it?

I want to combine doing research and experimenting along the process. The theoretical research will include reading into meme history, internet culture, media activism and tactical media. For the experimental research: I work a lot with the strategy of imitating things (this can be anything: posters, supermarket items, social media accounts, political campaigns, websites, ...) then changing them a bit and placing them back into their original context. I noticed that this strategy is actually quite similar to the process of replicating memes, so I also want to research this more and find parallels. I know that I work the best when I implement ideas as fast as quickly and then reflect afterwards. My starting point is often a "You know what would be funny?"-approach and then I just do it.

What is your timetable?

   October:

• Hackpacts and experiments
• Reading the book "Memes in digital culture" by Limor Shifman

   November:

Hackpacts and experiments Reading "The Meme Machine" by Susan Blackmore 18 November - Graduate Proposal Deadline 18 November - Thesis Outline Deadline December Know the outcome of the project Have finished reading all the main research books by the end of December 2 Dec - Deadline First Chapter January Work on thesis Work on project February Work on thesis Work on project 17 Feb - Deadline First Draft Thesis March Finish up thesis Work on project 17 March - Deadline Second Draft thesis 31 March - Deadlines Second readers' comments April 14 April - DEADLINE THESIS Work on project April - June Finish project