In this episode Annenberg doctoral student Roopa Vasudevan discusses the new “Meme Tactics” art exhibition with two of its curators, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Josue Chavez. Their conversation touches on the value of memes as an amplifier for under-heard and under-represented populations.
More information on the Meme Tactics exhibition, currently on display at the Annenberg School for Communication, can be found here.
MUSIC
Son Lux – All The Right Things (Instrumental)
Libre with Ibeyi – Emicida
DeVotchKa – La Llorona
Maribou State – Glasshouses
Rone – Parade
SEVDALIZA – SHAHMARAN
Teen Daze – Near
CREDITS
Roopa Vasudevan is an interdisciplinary artist, computer programmer and scholar. Her art practice focuses on the reading of digital material as a form of collective memory, how surveillance and data collection are altering our notions of what archives are and who is remembered, and coming up with more creative and ethical practices for tech-based art and design. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally and featured by Reuters, Hyperallergic, PBS NewsHour, Slate, Complex, The FADER and Public Radio International, among others. At Annenberg, she is researching the ways in which new media artists are bound by the aims and priorities of those who control the technologies on which they rely for their work, and investigating modes of resistance that do not ultimately reinforce the dominance of these systems. Follow her on Twitter @rouxpz
Josue Chavez researches media, translation, gender, sexuality, and labor in Asia and Latin America. He served as Head of Research and Development for China Residence and also conducted in depth interviews with artists and creative administrators. His critical writing has been featured in Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology, and the Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism. He joined the Hispanic Studies department’s Ph.D. program at Penn in the Fall of 2019.
Kira Simon-Kennedy is a Penn alum and co-founder of China Residencies, a multifaceted arts nonprofit supporting creative spaces and projects in China and beyond. She has been awarded fellowships at the Made in NY Media Center and NEW INC, the New Museum’s art, design, and technology incubator to work on Rivet, a global search engine for creative opportunities, and produces independent documentary films.
This episode was produced by Roopa Vasudevan and edited by Jasmine Erdener.
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