This is an info-dump, collecting memes and reflections made in the course “Theories of Digital Design”. The course, taught by lecturer-researcher Michiel Teeuw at Academy Minerva (Groningen, NL), explored graphic design in our current digital landscape, in all of its aesthetic, political, technological and cultural aspects. The first half of the course consisted of weekly classes, which held a similar structure. The classes began with a lecture on topics around technology, consumerism, AI, design, labor and economy, after which students were assigned to respond to the lecture with memes. Each student or group selected one topic from the lecture which specifically stood out to them, researched in more depth and produced a meme as a way of taking position on it. By introducing this dynamic, I invited the students to “comment” on the lectures from their own point of view. The memes form the one part of this text, sorted in thematic clusters, credited with title and/or author.
These meme-dumps are alternated with thought-dumps, reflecting on the role memes can(‘t) play in design pedagogy. These were developed in a collective writing process by students Patrick, Bohdan, Ema, Ada, Yaela, Mascha, Cecile, Justus, Anne, Cătălin, under editorial guidance by lecturer Michiel Teeuw, who also contributed to the text. Throughout the text, you will see shifting pronouns and perspectives, from one student or lecturer writing on their own, to sentences writing on behalf of the group, to sentences with an unclear author altogether. We hope this muddy and collective authorship productively confuses and destabilizes your reading.
Enjoy reading,
Michiel Teeuw
This info-dump consists of two alternating elements:
A. The students’ memes, sorted in thematic clusters, credited with title and/or author;
B. Short theoretical reflections on the role memes can(‘t) play in graphic design pedagogy. Collectively written by Patrick, Bohdan, Ema,
Ada, Yaela, Mascha, Cecile, Justus, Anne, Cătălin and Michiel Teeuw, under editorial guidance of lecturer Michiel Teeuw.
COMPUTERS, WEAVING, PIXELS,
ADVERTISING, INFRASTRUCTURES
Letter interpretations, Yuliia
memeMAC, Ada
Progression, Anne
Thinking Against Me, Ema Gambien
fibercomputer, Fanni Novotná
Anna-Joy
ju5t Buy Pl3ase, Cătălin
wh0 is Pr0duct, Cătălin
DataCenterMagicianSwag, Koi
Fight the Power, Patrick
Douwe
Mascha
Ula
Oliver
Subverting Pedagogy through MEME-making
☁️ POSSIBILITIES & 🧱 LIMITS
Meme-Pedagogy is an out-of-the-box approach that reflects a wide range of perspectives. The focus lies on specific topics and fields that attract the attention of many people. However, it’s more accurate to say that one concentrates on a highly personal and specific impression of a broader topic. This perspective helps students explore what truly interests them, and what they wish to express, both to themselves and to others. This can be both challenging and liberating for them, an experience that often reveals just how much potential and limitation coexist in this creative form.
The approach of eliciting visual responses to lectures, in the forms of memes, aims to counteract top-down pedagogical models as described by Foucault and Freire. Instead, it draws on pedagogical perspectives rooted in difference and pluriversality, as understood in decolonial theory.
It stimulates a way of thinking in a way I have not really seen in class before. It is up to you how informative, personal or educational you wanna make the meme, so there is no pressure on the outcome. Producing memes/art without a right or wrong answer gives liberty to open oneself up further and dive deeper into what we want to produce.
I believe that the main point of making a meme is using an unusual form of conveying information to tell a story of something we learned. Therefore I believe it is crucial to have good research made for the exercise to be useful, not only for the person making the meme but also for other students. Overall, creating memes in class can feel surprisingly energizing and fun. It allows for different thoughts that might not be able to be communicated through text.
While the course’s lectures provide a general overview of today’s digital design landscape, students are encouraged to zoom in on a particular area of interest and consider it within the context of that landscape. By utilizing this direct means of communication, there is often a clear and simple focus on one idea.
Yet, simplicity does not always serve research well; this can create a problem. The limitations of meme-making stem from its form. Without the proper context, it can be difficult or even impossible to understand or relate to the message. The meme format often presents a visual/textual language that is so vernacular and self-contained that it mainly appeals to an in-crowd audience, and may fail to communicate across broader groups.
Additionally, its visual constraints and comedic tone can feel restrictive to students, especially when they wish to explore complex and nuanced topics in full depth. Nevertheless, we must still examine the academic and reflective potential of this way of communicating ideas.
AI, MATERIALITY, MISOGYNY
Memie-v.2, Anne, Ana, Ula
Ada
Are More, Bohdan
Ula
Beauty Industry, George
Eliah & Bente
Cookies, Justus
Cyborg Meme, Marco
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Ema Gambien
Snap Responses 📸
Throughout the course, we were able to notice a big difference in terms of approaches towards meme-making. Meme-Pedagogy can help individuals to dive into their own or their peers’ interests: who they are as designers, what they do, what they consume in the social media, how they relate to the world, where memes come from, etc.
To be more clear, as our assignment states, we have to select a topic, research it and create a meme – taking into account the information that we found and dove deeper into. That showed immediately varying levels of comfortability and familiarity with the medium of the meme, with some students immediately sliding into the process and others reluctantly staring at it from afar. Both processes can evoke a wisdom about how we approach this specific type of design. Coming back to the main argument, the “approach difference” is grounded in the amount of work students are willing to put into completing the task. Through a casual observation during the class it became evident that the quality of the meme directly depends on the quality of the research that was done before the creation of the meme.
Simultaneously, the direct response of a meme (students often had 30-60 minutes) feels like a knee-jerk reaction in short time, which in its format also privileges ways of working which rapidly process information. In that sense, it’s similar to improv comedy, with its direct, unfiltered response to information.
Some outputs were more direct and remained on the observational level, while others immediately approached the topic from a personal subjectivity and critical angle. That was dependent on the prior familiarity with the topic – before the lecture. It is still possible to analyse how the approach to the task and knowledge of the topic are connected, as some students are simply more interested in meme making, resulting in a variety of approaches.
UI, UX, MEMES, AUTOMATION
AND DIGITAL GRAPHIC DESIGN
Eliah Kraemer
Slayma, Justus
corporate greed, Koi
Andreea
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0C9Z-DPxebY
Croissant, Patrick
C1ippy, Cătălin
Egypt Pyramids Meme, George
Sandboxel, Bente
adobe, Bohdan
Adobe, Justus [1, 2]
Memes 🫣 Realities.
Making memes in class has been a big reality check on the media we consume, and how relatable it is. There is an undoing of the pervasive and quotidian nature of these communication channels, which is actively taken away by intentionally using them. Maybe some might feel iffy about the fact that these memes are so relatable and that they have more to do with us than we’d like to believe.
On the one hand, memes can be used as a form of escapism, having students dive even deeper into the memes and thus cause some disconnect with reality. Some might not consume memes in order to stay afloat with reality, not concerning themselves with a language they don’t want to understand. This isolation of oneself from the media language can lead to distancing yourself from the world. Memes can also be a form of analising, processing and reflecting on the world around us. We make the moments we go through hurt less, expressing the most radically honest thoughts one can have.
I am wondering about the pedagogical implications of taking a medium so seemingly unserious and actually employing it for aesthetic and socio-political theoretical reflection. I am reminded of Metahaven’s seminal text: Can Jokes Bring Down Governments? What do memes do politically? How do(n’t) they wield realities?
ECONOMY, FREELANCING, PRECARITY
Yuliia
Koi
Patrick
Ula
Fanni
Cecile
Artefacts💅
To create memes, you have to analyze the material you’re taking in, thus encouraging students to dig deeper. And along with this effect, making memes in class is like turning lectures into petite artefacts you can use later. Funny little mirrors that let you see the lesson from another angle. We build a timeline of memes across the semester to track what we’ve learned. Further, each artefact captures viewpoints and perspectives on the topic, oftentimes political in nature. Looking back at memes from fellow students can thus stimulate other associations and ideas which we otherwise wouldn’t dive into.
Lastly, it offers a clear visualization of the things which stuck from the lecture, creating a direct heat map of the students’ interests. It’s like looking at a short one slide powerpoint presentation, even functioning as an extensive form of note-taking. Not necessarily to look at memes to remember information, but to at least have something to easily link back to the input we got from a lecture. Like a little hint.
This approach connects to broader ideas on pedagogy as a collective device of interpretation. The group functions as a prism, transforming one singular input into a wide variety of outputs and directions 🌈.
graphic design theory memes:
Fit into current sociopolitical and aesthetic climate.
Rely heavily on the context, at constant risk of being misunderstood
Tend to rely on ironic and/or sarcastic humor
Balance the visual aspect and the main idea/concept
Are stylistically close & connected to the topic
Now go and make your own!