Artojh's Renderings

The Hectic Memetic and the Poetic Noetic

by Arto Juhani Heino (c) 2018

As an Artist, I have given my best to simplify very complex human perceptions about the world around us, using a pencil or brush. The use of language lends itself to the same simplification where brevity and the use of poignant word choice can shorten a paragraph of verbosity to a sentence.

The “Meme” as it is understood by the current usage is just another tool for communication, something that requires a creative effort to master, thus becoming an Art-form. Whether the words and the picture compliment or contrast is one of those creative decisions, the words alone can carry the weight of the expression, saying this, it does require the creator to weigh the truth along with both sides of the argument, bias is easy to pick out also where the clarity of truth shines like a beacon.

There are success qualities of “Memes”, whether they can be understood by those who do not grasp the question, the statement or the argument is one of those qualifiers that must be tested by the anonymous reader of a Meme. Quite often a quote written by a historic figure is used to qualify its weight of a truth, not withstanding not all historic figures were correct or accurate in their line of argument.

Those who are affronted by a “Meme” have generally misunderstood the breath of its implication, where there seems to be an element of low IQ, lack of broad mindfulness, less life experience and a vested ideology to this misunderstanding. There are placards that espouse a rhetoric that are not memetic but rather a trope from an echo chamber of Marcuse/Alinsky type buzz words, all which have weak arguments that are generally biased towards an ethnic, tribal or ideological cause. Examples of poor understanding of created “Memes” are found in the slogans written by many political protesters in the Democratic or Socialist side.

One word or a name can be enough, peppered with poetic intent, to qualify. This is where I started my own journey of word play, which I called “Synthonyms”. Even a Meme has its own sets of Genre, by that we can begin to classify Memes just as we have every other art-form.

Let us see where this brings us in comparison to other art-forms, with examples of genre:

Art-form         Elements                      Genre

Painting          Figure                           Portrait

                         Landscape                   Historic scene

                         Portrait + Landscape Famous Figures and Battles

Writing           Fiction                          Novel

                         Non-Fiction                 Journalism

                         Historic Fiction           Fictionalized Journalism

Music              Vocal                            Folk

                         Instrumental               Quartet

                        Vocal + Instrument    Pop Song

Meme             Word                            Ambigram, Logo

                         Statement                    Placard, Slogan, Quote

                         Picture                         Cartoon

                         Word + Picture          Word Art

                         Statement + Picture                     Advertising

                         Word + Statement + Picture       Info graphic

My own explorations:

Synthonyms    Word meanings synthetically mixed with onomatopoeic words sounds – refer to my previous blogs.

Artext                 Conformed design rule base picture words as a synthetic hieroglyph. – refer to my previous blogs.

These were just a few general ideas on the validity of a well worn art-form.

Historic Meme

Artists as far back as Da Vinci have created Cartoons that express particular attire when describing those they wish to either be a target of satire or to a complimentary stature.

The caricature of prominent figures were the first form of cartoonish statement, that could be considered a basic Meme. Where the Artist would mimic an elephant or a pig for a rotund politician, or portray a weasel, rat or snake as those who bore ill will to the public good.

The newspaper page three cartoon was a very popular icon for at least 100 years and has only recently been retracted from most news print, leaving many of those Artists now without a platform of expression. They were allowed freedom of political scope as long as they were pinning a truth of some sort. Whereas now the cartoonist must tow the political left leaning byline or they are ostracized and without a job. Many cartoonists have decided to expand there audience and internet presence due to the politically correct climate.

So a meme is a collaboration and coordination of a few artistic, expressive and intellectual gravitas with a good dose of historic wisdom. The question remains, why is the EU trying to eliminate an Art-Form from our palette of human expressions? Regards Arto

Here are some different Meme types I have been working on recently.