There's something I must tell you about this picture...

If you look carefully, you'll notice that there is no reflection of the photographer.


That's because this is not a photo.

Credit to the amazing Jason de Graaf.

Heliocentric, acrylic on canvas 40 x 30"

Luke, I am an Idiot

FWAH!

Internet Memes: The Changing Face of Communication

 An Internet meme is an idea that is propagated through the World Wide Web. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word or phrase, such as intentionally misspelling the word "more" as "moar" or "the" as "teh". (Wikipedia, 2012)

It is difficult to define what exactly an Internet Meme is, as seen from the overly vague and largely unhelpful definition that Wikipedia offers. This is not to say that people online do not know what memes are. On the contrary, Internet memes are so taken for granted online that people use them do not see the need to define what they are. One could allude to a meme being like a joke: They are not meant to be explained, or they would no longer be funny.

Fig 1. The “Y U NO” Meme commonly used to express one’s frustration.

Fig 2. Google search interest figures on “memes”.

The popularity of Internet memes has grown exponentially in the past 2 years. However, due to their popularity being relatively recent, there has been almost no academic research done specifically on them. Thus I would need to turn to non-academic sources for the bulk of the work done on this essay. For example, the current highest authority on meme culture would be the website Know Your Meme, which employs a small team that studies memes with academic fervor and are seen as the leader in providing information on memes to the online community. They are the first site that appears on Google Search when the word “meme” is typed in, and they have interviews with media networks like CNN. (Hoevel, 2011)

This essay will look into how the rise of one particular type of popular Internet meme, the Rage Faces, has come to affect our communication both online and offline. I will use the framework of Langdon Winner’s (1977) Technological Determinism to analyze if humans are socially and consciously in control of Internet technology, or if the technology is in fact determining human’s socialization instead.

Fig 3. Most of the common Rage Faces, each expressing a specific emotion.

Rage Faces are basic faces possibly drawn by amateurs using simple software that capture a very specific emotion or expression. They are often exaggerated forms of common expressions, which in turn makes them more humourous. They are used the same way emoticons once were used, as part of a conversation with someone, and were seen as a much more apt way to describe how one is feeling.

The very creation of these faces seems to lean towards the social determinism of technology. It was as though the masses rose up to overthrow the institutionalized emoticons that online chat services provided that narrowed “facial” responses to a mere few in exchange for a much greater number of options.

The embracing of Rage Faces helped make communication online much more life-like. Rather than facing a computer screen typing and reading text someone sent, people could now add a “face-to-face” element to their conversations by making use of these Rage Faces as responses. This helped enhance online communication as people copied and pasted these images in conversations to convey feelings and emotions in a way that was difficult with words (or the limited number of emoticons provided). Thus we see how the social life was determining how technology would be used.

“The Internet is an exciting, intellectually stimulating, and, believe it or not, highly social medium of communication and information source. It is a connection to the world at large, as well as a world unto itself.” (Reiner & Blanton, 1997: xiv)

Rage Faces had gone beyond a simple face that expresses an emotion. They had become symbols of certain attitudes and behaviors that could be applied across cultures. For example, if I wanted to tell others about my fear of spiders, I could post it as a shout-out on Facebook, but it probably would not get much attention. I would be limiting the audience scope to my friends, and of whom only the ones who spoke the language I typed in. However if instead I made a simple, humourous and exaggerated Rage Face comic, I might be able to communicate how I feel with people a lot better. For example, the famous “Yao-Ming-face” meme (Fig 4.) on the next page.

Fig 4.

Because of the universal nature of facial expressions, Rage Faces were a language that could bridge the gap between people on opposite sides of the globe. “The Internet provides an unprecedented source of access to the world and its peoples and cultures… we have never had the ability to communicate so quickly and so widely with so many at a time and in such faraway places.” (Reiner & Blanton, 1997: xv) Someone who did not understand English would still be able to largely understand the comic and thus empathize with my adamant fear of arachnids, and this evidence that we have come to use Internet technology in a way beyond what the software we were given was meant for. This is further support for the Social determinist perspective of technology in this area.

One of the most significant impacts of Rage Faces was in how it allowed people from around the world to come together and to join in conversation to exert their opinions and influence over the bigger institutions of media power. Before this, media was rather one-way. Television companies would put things on TV, and viewers would watch it silently: there was little chance they had to add to the monologue. This changes with the advent of the Internet and the usage of Rage Faces as responses to media. People were still watching the same TV shows as before, but they were no longer passive audiences. Now armed with the platforms to respond, they could talk about their shows, and even make fun of them, online.

Fig 5. Jackie Chan’s Rage Face helped a user to share 

how he/she feels when watching Smurfs, and highlights 

the absurdity of the situation that would have otherwise 

gone unnoticed by producers of the show.

People could now actively participate using the Rage Faces and possibly shape the current perceptions of society that were once held in monopoly by the big media players. More than that, they were adding a very human element to the things they find online- emotions, and responses, and making the cold world of the computer that much more human, and that little bit more social.

That is not to say that when it comes to Rage Faces, there is no element of Technological Determinism involved. In fact, there are several areas in which the technology seems to be taking over the social.

First, the usage of Rage Faces is concentrated among certain demographics, namely the younger population that have constant access to the Internet. One such group of people would be the parents of teenage children who are unable to keep up with the new language of Internet memes that the child is familiar with. (One of the main goals of the Know Your Meme website is to help explain to parents what the different memes mean.) While this language and understanding was allowing teenagers to bond with people on the other side of the world who understood the symbols of the “meme language”, it was driving a wedge between them and their parents who were not online as much as they were. The technology was privileging certain groups that became somewhat closed communities and in turn discriminating against others. Technology was not all that neutral after all.

Another instance when Technology seems to be determinant would be when you look at the people whom which the Rage Face memes come from. They did not choose to become memes, and there is little they can do about it. Yao Ming’s face was taken from an image captured during an interview with the basketball player, which later went viral (Don, 2012). From the perspective of Yao Ming, his Internet Meme was all technologically determined and he had no power even over the usage of his own face for purposes totally unlinked to his personality or his talent in basketball (e.g. Rage Face comics make him look like he suffers from arachnophobia).

There was one final consequence of the huge popularity of Rage Faces that was rather subversive in nature. In an inversion of how the Rage Faces gave people more ways to express themselves online, many began to make use of Rage Faces references in real life. People began saying catchphrases that Rage Face characters would use, such as “Cool Story Bro”, or “Y U NO _____” in real life (see Fig 6. on following page). While amusing for a while, it soon became a crutch for many who chose to use generic responses over creative ones that were more characteristic human beings. Thus in the technology was now determining our behaviours even outside of its realm in cyberspace.

Fig 6. Even the people who create Rage Face comics are aware of it.

Rage Faces have indeed allowed the Internet to become a much more social place, by giving people community with a common language, as well as a platform to express themselves and their opinions in a fun. Yet even as humans encroach on the realms of technology, and the Internet becomes increasingly Socially Determined in its usage, our real lives offline seem to be encroached upon by the technology, and our reality is becoming increasingly Technologically Determined.

References:

Don. (2011) “Yao Ming Face” Know Your Meme. Accessed April 10, 2012

(http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/yao-ming-face)

Hoevel, A. (2011) “The Know Your Meme team gets all scientific on teh intarwebs” Geek Out, CNN. Accessed March 27, 2012. (http://geekout.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/11/the-know-your-meme-team-gets-all-scientific-on-teh-intarwebs/)

Reiner, D. and Blanton, K. (1997) Person to person on the Internet. Boston: Academic Press.

Wikipedia (2012) Internet Meme. Accessed April 10, 2012. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme)

Winner, L. (1977) Autonomous technology: Technics-out-of-control as a theme in political thought.

Images used:

Fig 1.

http://memegenerator.net/instance/13546736 (accessed 12 February 2012)

Fig 2.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=meme&date=1%2F2009%2038m&cmpt=q (Accessed April 9, 2012)

Fig 3.

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/183379-rage-comics (Accessed April 9, 2012)

Fig 4.

http://blog.wtfconcept.com/tag/noob-bitch (Accessed March 24, 2012)

Fig 5.

http://fattynunchucks.tumblr.com/post/20882923075 (Accessed April 3, 2012)

Fig 6.

http://www.tumblr.com (Accessed April 9, 2012) 

We need more of these:

How is this possible?

How could this be acrylic on canvas?

Crossing the Threshold

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself 

I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, 

and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother 

pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great 

ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

-Sir Issac Newton, 1855

The weekend that just passed has been the most important one in the entire year.

I met up with the leader of OM India, and the Dalit Freedom Network.

This is the area I want to work when I graduate.

It was a really amazing meeting with Dr Joseph D'Souza.

The needs they have are exactly where I felt called towards.

(See this reference and this reference.)

I take this confirmation as divine affirmation.

I had much to ask Dr Joseph.

Here in Singapore I know of there being a world beyond, but like Issac Newton said, I'm but a boy playing at the sea-shore. I know a vast ocean is ahead of me, I know there is much hardship and suffering out there in the world, but how can I ever conceptualize ideas like sharks and whales when all I see are sea shells on the sea-shore? 

Here in the small and protected sea-shore of Singapore where I am living, it is easy to ignore the fact that there is much out there to see, to influence, and to grow in. After all, I see the same shore line every day. But one day I will be going out to sea... how then could I possibly prepare for something like the open ocean here along the sea shore?

Dr. Joseph said he would get me in contact with people working in India so I could correspond with and keep up to date with what's going on on the ground. Yeah. Let me hear stories of the sea from the sailors themselves!

And let me learn to swim in shallow waters before I hit the open ocean.

As of this weekend,

I've just taken the first step down the road that I had felt called to a year ago.

So... if the world does not end in 2012...

And if I do well enough this semester to do my honors thesis in 2013...

Then I will be in India in 2014.

I didn't sleep well.

Woke before the sun rose as my eczema was itching so bad. Got up to put ice on it.

Back to sleep and I dreamt I was doing my Gender in Malay Societies final exam. It was open book, and I had completed a perfect answer.

Then I noticed that the girl next to me was writing in a pink examination booklet. And I had written on foolscap paper. Not good.

The examiner said to put our pens down. I did, but up came my glue stick instead. Unfortunately I had written on both sides, so could not glue my answer into the exam booklet. I stapled it instead and hoped for the best.

Later there was a scene with a scream. I was seeing things from the perspective of a girl whose guy friend had just gotten eaten by a T-Rex. But the girl didn't know. She was just waiting in the toilet when she heard the scream. I knew she was next. The wait was just crazy. Then as i began to feel for her, my perspective in the dream became that of her's.

And then she/I pulled out a gun. Time to rock and roll.

I played this FPS style. I later ended up in the exam hall and there were many others. The t-Rex entered and I thought, "Oh no people are going to die". I kept still as t-rex can't see if we don't move. It bases its vision on motion. So it did not see me. Everyone froze actually. T-Rex was stumped. Then Kimberly entered strutting her stuff, totally oblivious that there was a t-Rex in the room.

The giant monster creeped up behind her. I mean... Yeah it actually did. Then she turned around and saw it. We waited for her to die.

Then she, with no fear, made friends with the T-Rex. In the end she wanted to hug it, but it was not easy for a T-Rex to hug with its tiny arms. I feared it just wanted to eat her as she hugged it around it's neck, so close to its teeth.

But it didn't.


Can someone please interpret my dream for me?

5 more days

Till I put up my essay on Memes.

That should give my lecturer enough time to mark it and not find the entire essay plagiarized from my own blog.


Meanwhile, Memes have spilt over into reality.

Heh.


Anyway, this is an essay like few others.

I blatantly cited Wikipedia, and my main "academic" sources were all websites.

Academic suicide?


Check it out on Wednesday!

Why I learn Fencing

Fwah

I have a question.

On March 23, 1994 a medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a gunshot wound of the head caused by a shotgun. Investigation to that point had revealed that the decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building with the intent to commit suicide. (He left a note indicating his despondency.) As he passed the 9th floor on the way down, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, killing him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the 8th floor level to protect some window washers, and that the decedent would most likely not have been able to complete his intent to commit suicide because of this.

Ordinarily, a person who starts into motion the events with a suicide intent ultimately commits suicide even though the mechanism might be not what he intended. That he was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not change his mode of death from suicide to homicide, but the fact that his suicide intent would not have been achieved under any circumstance caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands.

Further investigation led to the discovery that the room on the 9th floor from whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. He was threatening her with the shotgun because of an interspousal spat and became so upset that he could not hold the shotgun straight. Therefore, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife, and the pellets went through the window, striking the decedent.

When one intends to kill subject A, but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. The old man was confronted with this conclusion, but both he and his wife were adamant in stating that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. It was the longtime habit of the old man to threaten his wife with an unloaded shotgun. He had no intent to murder her; therefore, the killing of the decedent appeared then to be accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.

But further investigation turned up a witness that their son was seen loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal accident. That investigation showed that the mother (the old lady) had cut off her son's financial support, and her son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that the father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.

Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son, one Ronald Opus, had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to get his mother murdered. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a 9th story window.

The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

Inception

This is me, secretly taking a picture of a girl in the train, 

 who is secretly drawing a picture of a girl in the train.

Oh, the only way to really know is to really let it go.

Hunger Games

I have not read the book.

So let me have my take based on nothing but the movie and my sociological imagination.

I'm quite glad the movie was rather slow moving. It gave me enough time to take it all in.


It's a little difficult to feel what the characters are feeling because it is such a different world from our own. Huge differences in income and standards of living. An authoritarian regime creating a terrible game for the districts to participate in. It doesn't make sense.


That is until you understand that the people in Capitol see the people in the districts as less than human.

They have not met people in the poor districts before, they think of them as poor and backward, and thus the blood sport is a fitting sport for them- let the barbarians be barbaric while the civilized watch from a distance.

(This is not far from the racial prejudice we've seen in the past against the African-American slaves and the Jews during the Holocaust, and today against the Dalits and outcaste in India. They are seen as less than human, and thus are treated as less than human.)


Ah, but this time round, there was a volunteer who didn't fight like the rest.

Katness didn't play into their plans of making the people in the districts seem less than human.

She was not trying to be a killer.

She made friends.

She helped the little girl in the game, and she never attacked anyone except in retaliation after being attacked. I don't think Peeta killed anyone during the games either.

If all the players played like her, they actually can't have a game.

She was trying to survive without becoming a monster.


And she did.

By the end, Peeta and her *spoiler alert* managed to make the Capitol look more like the barbaric ones, trying to separate the very human lovers.

And she showed all the districts that if they united, even the all powerful Capitol could not stop them.

Quite exciting.


I think the love issue was quite unique.

It's actually the opposite of what happened in Wicked.

In Wicked, to have power and authority, the Glinda had to play up things before the camera, letting people see what they wanted, so as to have power. Her relationship with Fydero was on the rocks, but before the people, it appeared as perfect. They played up what they were not before the cameras, but were in fact disempowered.

In The Hunger Games, Katness and Peeta played up their love for the cameras too, although Katness never really confessed to have feelings for Peeta. Just like in Wicked, the protagonists were rather... hypocritical. But in this case... They did it to empower themselves and ultimately used this power against the state, rather than give power to the state like Glinda did.


I'd say... having not read the books, that the next few films will be similar to this first one.

I think the Hunger Games is a metaphor for the bigger battle to come in the future, where the districts will unite instead of compete, and use the power of the media against their oppressors, much like the way Peeta and Katness did.


I think the Hunger Games will spill over from a game and into the streets, much like what happened in District 11 in the following movies.

Time

Not jaded, just tired.

Dear Prof,

I just want to apologise for submitting my essay an hour late. 

My ez-link was conveniently out of cash and I could not print the essay, 

and for some reason the only friend with me also did not have money in her card. 

Not that this is a good excuse.

I just wanted to say I’m sincerely sorry for submitting an assignment overdue.

Justin Hui.

The story of my life

Justin in other literature

Critics are singing praise for the children's book:

Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World.

Ten-year-old Justin doesn’t want to make 

his bed, fold his clothes, clean his room, 

or wash the dishes to help out around 

the house — it’s "women’s work!"

Haha I was born to do gender studies.

Meanwhile in cinemas...

Act of Valor 2 is coming out.

And it will be called...

Justin & the Knights of Valor.

Not bad...

Bagception

Bag within a bag.

Justins makin' waves in da music scene

Good to see Justins fronting so many bands.

But somehow... the Justins seem to lack mass appeal.

The perfect present

I've been looking to create a physical panacea to give as a gift.

The solution to all struggles, the key to solving the main problem in every movie, the sword that would awaken the army of the dead, the potion that restores the dying hero...

It's the nicest thing i could ever give to someone.

The solution to all their troubles.


I've tried, but haven't really been able to.

I guessed it was not possible.


Then last Thursday, Rachel Wee gave me a tiny capsule.

And in it, I found my personal panacea.

Angels

The fencing competition was over.

I lost every single round and crashed out immediately.

Not that I didn't expect that. So I wasn't disappointed.

After all, I did enjoy watching what higher level fencing looked like.


I had dinner alone, and with the whole bulk of fencing equipment in both my hands, trudged to the bus stop for a long ride home.

I actually needed to get home quickly and make calls to church members, but I had only $4 in my wallet.


A lorry passed by slowly as I sat at the bus stop.

So slowly that I could see the driver.

He was staring at my swords.

I noticed him staring.

He noticed I noticed.

I smiled.

He returned the smile as the lorry window moved out of my gaze.


Then the lorry reversed, and he wound down the window.

"Where are you going?" He asked me.

"Punggol," I answered.

"Hop in. I'll give you a lift."


And so I got home really fast, and the kind uncle is coming to church tomorrow.

I woke up and found myself in a difficult situation.

I had intended to nap for just an hour, then go out to buy dinner.

But I slept 3 hours, and by the time I woke, all the shops were closed.

Marianne, who was also unconscious for that duration, checked our food cupboard.

We had 2 packs of instant noodles, but I was recovering from food poisoning and neither Laksa or Tom Yam was a good idea.

We had no other food. I could not eat fast food if we ordered.


Marianne's in the kitchen. Whipping up a storm from the one pack of pasta given in the NUS exam welfare pack.

Today, we're living on welfare.

Living with the dead

Above and Below from Stefan Werc on Vimeo.

Navotas Cemetery in Manila, Philippines.

How I feel during assignment month

Dear future wife,

Please pray for me. Or I might never meet you.

So I introduced my friends to my imaginary friend...

Her name is Elsa.

Here's the link to the post that explains why I call her my imaginary friend.

(My friends don't believe she exists cuz none of them have seen her before.)

I introduced her to my friends to prove her existence.


But when I spoke to them about her the next day...

Yeah good try Constance.

I'm not falling for that one.

Wait...

Looks Legit...

Preparing for worship leading

Why does the stress-induced eczema on my wrists form in a way that makes me look like I have crucifixion scars?

I like the harmony