PAH 160D3 - Memes: The Art and Craft of Microstorytelling

Most everyone is familiar with memes: Gangnam Style music videos, the Success Baby, Rickrolling, Pepe the Frog, and other images, text, and sounds that serve as storytelling shorthand in today's digital world. Memes are not an entirely digital phenomenon, however. On the contrary, they have a deep history within the context of human ideas and expression. In this course, we will explore the concept of the meme and the practice of meming, beginning with pre-digital examples and extending up through the most current instances. We will consider a variety of theories behind this kind of microstorytelling, as well as its craft, leading to the creation of meme portfolios and predictions about future forms of human expression.