Urgent Publishing Session 2: Opening by Inte Gloerich

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15-17 May 2019, the Institute of Network Cultures, ArtEZ University of the Arts and Willem de Kooning Academy organized Urgent Publishing, a 3-day event with discussions, explorations and experiments about publishing strategies in post-truth times.

memes as means - federated publishing - post-humanist writing - critical design - #synchronicityofparasites

While digital publishing technologies have helped bring different voices onto the stage, they also instigated the ‘post-truth’ era, leaving a disenchanted public behind to scavenge the rubble of breaking fake news stories, information pollution and broken links.

How can designers, developers, artists, writers and publishers intervene in the public debate and counter misinformation in a meaningful and relevant way? What are new publishing strategies for our current media landscape? How to design for urgency without succumbing to an accelerated hype cycle?

SESSION 2: MEMES AS MEANS

Presentations and discussion with Evelyn Austin, Clara Balaguer, Silvia dal Dosso & Noel David Nicolaus, and Isabel Löfgren, moderated by Inte Gloerich.

However trivial and frivolous the meme might seem, its function as a cultural and communicative object deserves investigation. The meme can bear witness to shifts in language and cultural norms. Memes can function as political agent: spread like a virus and change sentiment, become a talking point, or set an agenda. Are memes the ammunition of online culture wars? Have they contributed to the normalization of the alt-right? How to study these symbols and tropes, and how to create our own?

Using memes as a starting point, we look at online visual culture and how different popular communication styles have been incorporated into strategies of far-right movements. What are innovative ways to counter these movements on a transnational level? And how does the passing of Article 13 in the European Parliament affect our ability to freely express ourselves online? What does the meme have to say about positioning topical publications or research output?

More information about the Urgent Publishing conference: https://networkcultures.org/makingpublic/urgent-publishing-publication/
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