User:Miriam/Final presentation

Individual contributions to the Special Issues

SI16

My role

Worked with my subgroup on the code for the language filter of "...and I wish that your question has been answered."
Creating altered versions of our origin text
Printing and binding of the "...and I wish that your question has been answered." zines
Organisation and set up of the launch with the launch event team
Proof-reading publication texts

Subgroup project

...and I wish that your question has been answered. https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si16/projects/and-i-wish-that-your-question-has-been-answered/

Our tool is a filter to process and alter texts. By targeting specific words and replacing them, either for another word, for specific characters or for blank spaces, the reader or user of the tool can change the text in many ways. The tool includes three functions The function “respell” receives as input a text (string type) and substitute all the occurrences of a target word with a replacement chosen by the user. The function “stitch” is very similar to the previous one but replaces all the occurrences of a target word with a single character (it can also be a blank space) that is repeated as many times as the length of the target. The third function “reveal” also works very similar but deletes all input text except the target word(s) and replaces the deleted text with blank spaces.

SI17

My role

Taking care of the SI17 finances
Creating a card game as well as a collection of life hacks for the loot box content
Creating the loot box reveal audio track: File:Loot Box Reveal (online-audio-converter.com).mp3
Making a game music playlist for the launch
Organisation and set up of the launch
Creation of Fage Not Pound timezone with Kim, Emma, Chae: Fage Not Pound

Final project

This box found your for a reason: https://issue.xpub.nl/17/index.html

SI18

My role

Final project

Development of reading/writing practice across the 2 years

Development of prototyping practice across the 2 years

1st year

2nd year

My thesis

Miri's XPUB2 thesis outline
In the beginning, Memes amazed me by the way they replicate, go viral, and serve as a way of communicating. I wondered if it might be possible to define a set of rules for memetic success that could be applied to activist strategies; using the power of imitation to reach most publicity. Then, I went down the rabbithole and learnt that the dissemination of memes is already very much a political tool on its own - but mostly used by far-right extremists. My thesis and project got more specific. I asked myself:

What can we learn from the alt-right's meme war and how can we counteract?

File: PDF thesis
Screenshot thesis
Screenshot thesis
Screenshot thesis

Thesis structure:

Introduction
The definition and concept of memes
The Great Meme War of 2016
Counteraction strategies - From a leftist, for leftist.

Grad project

Research

Miri's XPUB2 proposal draft

The original idea of making a guide to memefy your life was dead but it transformed into the idea of making a guide for leftist meme-making and eventually became how to be a social justice warrior.

I didn't want to publish a set of ultimate rules on how to be activist. Rather, I wanted my publication to be a collection of multiple things: activist strategies, educational material, interviews, memes, trolling experiences, interesting stories, book recommendations,... One big potpourri that serves as a source of inspiration instead of dictates one right way.

Research on Swiss leftist meme makers

Interviews with leftist meme pages:

@linkefotzen
@linksversifft
Petarde

At that point, I still thought I am working towards a printed publication, a small book. But it didn't seem right to print memes. So I was looking for alternatives...

Is it a book?
Your world of text/Is it a map?
Mural/Is it a map?
Is it an Instagram account?
Is it a box?

Is it a book? Is it a map? Is it an Instagram account? Is it a box?

In the meantime, I started experimenting with text-based photos about the topic. There's this memetic trend on Instagram, that activists use this text-based "pastel panel" slide-show aesthetic. Regardless of what the format of the project will be, I wanted to talk in the native language.

With those poppy colors and the catchy text, I decided that this aesthetic only works digitally. I didn't want to deal with the politics of other platforms, so I knew that if I want to have an independant platform, I need to make it myself. That's when I decided that the format will be a website. howtobeasocialjusticewarrior.com was born!

I started making more of these text-based slide-shows, memes, and the website. I used very mainstream softwares and tools as this made the most sense for a project on memes.