Why Does This Exist?

Memes are art!

They might seem silly, nonsensical, or freaky — but so do all kinds of art when you think about them. Why does so much depend on a red wheelbarrow, after all? Why does paint splattered on an abstract canvas mean anything? Like paintings or poems, memes reward the time you spend reflecting on them, which is why I do this.

This blog closely reads memes to figure out how and why they work. Taking a historical and aesthetic approach, I do my best to unpack what online phenomenon say about the world we live in — and I talk to other people who do the same.

Subscribe — if you do, you’ll get a post a week, each one about a different meme or meme-related phenomena on the world wide web. Thank you for browsing!

If you choose to pay for a subscription, you’ll get two additional posts per month, and access to older, paywalled posts!