Are LOLCats and Internet Memes Art?
We've all seen and shared a few LOLCats and Internet Memes in our time, but is it possible that these images and videos are actually a new form of art? Idea Channel takes a closer look at how memes function in our new interconnected culture and consults the wisdom of artists past and present to see if these Internet creations truly should be considered "art."
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Are Holograms Nostalgia or a New Form of Art?
You might have heard about the debut of Hologram Tupac at the music festival Coachella earlier this year. But with Queen's recent announcement of a Hologram Freddie Mercury and TLC's plans for a Hologram Lisa Left Eye Lopes, it looks like Hologram stars are here to stay. Is this hologram mania just nostalgia, or is it part of an art movement called "New Aesthetic" that blends art and technology?
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The Bronies Phenomenon
You might assume that the animated TV series "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" is for little girls, but Bronies - adult men who sincerely LOVE the show, and aren't afraid to admit it - would differ. Many people are baffled, even angered, by Brony culture. With their unabashed appreciation for "My Little Pony", are Bronies are challenging our perception of gender roles?
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Is Twitter the Newest Form of Literature?
Everyone is familiar with Twitter, the uber-popular micro-blogging site, which limits the user to 140 characters. The tweet is perfect for sharing your favorite links and updating the world about your life, but it might also be the newest literary form! This massively constrained communication, which has remarkable similarities to the Haiku, has inspired creativity worthy of the name "literature."
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Is the Web Browser Replacing the Art Gallery?
For the past 200 years, the gallery has been the home of new and cutting-edge art, a place where the art community can come together and share new ideas. In the era of the internet, however, you can view remarkable art from the comfort of your laptop. Is the web browser replacing the gallery as the best place to view amazing, cutting-edge art?
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Are Mashups the End of Music Genres?
Some of the best things to be found on the internet are music mashups! It's a strangely pleasing experience to listen to totally unrelated artists commingling on the same music track. Mashups are awesome because they break genre expectations, which makes us think: why have genres at all? With so much cross-pollination in music and art, does genre matter anymore?
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What Do Santa and Wrestling Have In Common?
People love Santa. Christmas is the largest holiday in western culture, and Santa Claus is the centerpiece of that holiday (sorry baby Jesus). But even though our understanding of Santa changes as we mature, we still maintain and cultivate our culture's love of him. And to understand why this is, we had to ask: Is our relationship with Santa similar to wrestling?
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Do We Want the World to End?
The so-called Mayan long count calendar predication of the apocalypse is based a fundamental MISUNDERSTANDING of Mayan calendars and society. It's so far off base that scientific and anthropological experts can dismiss it with laugh. Yet, if it's so fundamentally wrong, why do we keep hearing about it? Why are there movies and news casts and websites dedicated to this non-event?
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Will Space Travel Save Us All?
Space, also known as The Final Frontier, has been in our collective dreams and fantasies for decades. Who WOULDN'T want to blast into space, experience zero gravity, or walk on the moon?! But with limited funding to NASA, the day that had been promised to us for years, seems no closer now than it did 30 years ago. BUT WAIT! Could private research and funding be the future of galactic exploration?
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Is Instagram Revolutionizing Photography?
With its ability to make boring cellphone photos look "vintage" and "artsy", the mobile application Instagram has exploded worldwide. Derided by its detractors as a tool for making bad photos worse, we take an alternate view and argue that Instagram is the greatest thing to ever happen to photography. As the old adage goes, "The best camera is the one you have with you."
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How are Justin Bieber, Franz Liszt and Jerusalem Connected?
At first glance, Pop Wunderkind Justin Bieber and revolutionary 19th Century pianist and composer Franz Liszt don't seem to have anything in common. And while they might not have any musical or biographical similarities, they both have had a powerful psychological effect on their fans. Fits of hysteria, screaming, and fainting are all common traits of "Bieber Fever" & "Lisztomania. But why?
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Is CSS and Website Design a Fashion Statement?
Consciously or not, the first thing you notice when you visit a website is how the site LOOKS, which is controlled by the CSS Stylesheet. CSS is the fashion of the web- it makes sites pretty (or very very ugly). And as our lives migrate more and more onto the world wide web, our presence online becomes a central way to define and express ourselves.
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How will the Animated GIF affect the Presidential Election?
The animated GIF has had a long and fascinating history, but the GIF took a giant leap forward this year when it became part of the 2012 Presidential Election!!! This election season, GIFs of Obama, Romney, Biden and Ryan, populated not only Tumblr and Buzzfeed, but also media heavyweights like The Atlantic, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. Will the GIF swing the election?
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The Retro Awesomeness of Adventure Time
Adventure Time is an animated kids show on the Cartoon Network that is super popular, not just with the kids, but with full grown adults too! Why would a bunch of serious adults, including Mike's Mom, watch Adventure Time? We think its because the show taps into our memories of childhood with nostalgia. Are we right? Watch and find out!
Should "Happy Birthday" be Protected by Copyright?
Did you know the rights to "Happy Birthday" are still privately held today? Copyright was originally created for two reasons: to protect the original creators so they could benefit from their work AND have creative works enter the Public Domain. Unfortunately, the whole system has gotten out of whack with copyright extensions that extend far beyond the life of the creator.
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Nicolas Cage, Taoism, and YOLO
Legendary actor Nicolas Cage is renowned for his reliably weird roles across many genres of modern film. Is he just a victim of a bad agent, or does he instead follow the philosophy of Taoism, or as its modern derivative is known - YOLO ("you only live once")?
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Are Memes and Internet Culture Creating a Singularity?
Here on the internet, we love us some memes. But where do they come from? Yes we know, they are user generated. But to an internet layman, they seem to just appear, in HUGE quantities, ready for cultural consumption. Are they a sign of a "cultural singularity"? It may seem like science fiction, but we're close to a world where culture automatically and magically creates infinitely more culture.
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Is William Gibson A Modern Day Oracle?
The science fiction writer William Gibson has not only written some fantastic scifi novels, but in the process predicted the internet, Miku Hatsune, reality TV, and a crazy amount of other technological and societal developments that have come into being. His impressive rate of accuracy seems almost mystical. Is he a modern soothsayer?
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Is Homestuck the Ulysses of the Internet?
If you're unfamiliar, Homestuck is a webcomic created Andrew Hussie that is over 5000 PAGES so far! In in its own weird way, Homestuck is a lot like James Joyce's Ulysses, where only the strongest, most dedicated readers make it through to the end. Most people don't expect such expansive and daunting works to find a home on the internet, but Homestuck has apparently pulled it off.
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Is Facebook Changing Our Identity?
With 955,000,000 worldwide users, Facebook seems like just about everyone makes use of the social media giant to connect with friends, share photos, and update everyone they've ever met since grade school about their dinner plans. But what you may not realize is that Facebook's new timeline layout is enhancing the ability to construct our self identity by super-charging our memory.
Are Virtual Video Game Economies Becoming Real?
The idea that a collection of pixels can be sold for actual money might be confusing to some, as they are neither true "objects" you can hold nor "ideas" that can be considered intellectual property. But despite the lack of tangibility, real world economies have formed around these games and real world profits are being made.
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What do MP3s and Magic Spells Have in Common?
Both spells and music were born from a freely available folk culture, but are now sold as commercial goods. There are thousands of artists (and witches!) trying to figure out how to make a living in an age where their products can be infinitely copied. And with commercialization, the morality and legality of sharing these once open cultural products has become complicated.
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Is Doctor Who a Religion?
Dr. Who is one of the longest running TV shows on the BBC, and it's got a huge fandom surrounding it, called Whovians. And while it might not seem like, Whovianism, might just be religion! Whovians, like other passionate fan cultures, create art & fan fiction and engage in a strong remix culture. But with its strong philosophical and cosmological elements, is it more than that?
Can Dungeons & Dragons Make You Confident & Successful?
There are some deeply ingrained stereotypes about Dungeons & Dragons, and those stereotypes usually begin and end with people shouting "NERD!!!" But the reality of the D&D universe is a whole lot more complex. Rather than being an escape from reality, D&D is actually a way to enhance some important real life skills, including problem solving, visualization, interaction, organization, and others.
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Are You a Hipster?
We all hate hipsters, right? They seem so smug and arrogant, with their ray bans and scarves and ironic t-shirts. Borrowing from other subcultures, (Handlebar mustaches and flannel shirts), hipsters reappropriate these fashion elements as their own. But don't we all do that? Our own fashion came from SOMEWHERE, and certainly has been refined. Do we all have a little bit of hipster blood in us?
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