Out of Office

An Investigation of Memes, Meaning, and Linguistic Competence Online and IRL

This project combines two topics I’m pretty much always thinking about — the nuances of language/communication and how meme culture reflects evolving societal norms — and is the product of almost six months(!) of work. I am deeply indebted to the internet, not only for providing endless entertainment and the basis for most of my research, but also for allowing me to connect with brilliant people like Anastasia Kārkliņa, who reached out last year and despite us never having met in person, has become such a strong creative and academic complement to me, and somehow managed to do all of this while completing a PhD in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory (the dream!) at Duke University. A collaboration felt written in the stars for us, and I’m so happy with the way this turned out. Special thanks also to the incredible Matt Klein for his valuable insight and for being our official guest editor/meme consultant on this project 💁🏻‍♀️ (if you haven’t subscribed to his excellent Zine newsletter on cultural trends + cyberpsych, you should absolutely do so)

Hot tip: Make sure you read my notes in the comments for context; just click the three dots and select “open speaker notes”

Originally published at https://www.jayemsey.com on June 1st, 2021.