Understanding Media? Senses of Memetic Age

Publisher: FedOA - Federico II University Press 

Series: Human & Future

Pages: 142

Language: Italian

Abstract: This work aims to reflect on the modes of expression, communication, and sharing of "memetic culture" as a direct expression of the infosphere. Specifically, the contributions within the text attempt to outline a definition of the meme - a fluid and constantly changing artifact – and reflect on the question of individual creativity and cultural sharing and on the relationship between reality and simulacrum, as well as orality and writing. The meme's fragile ontological nature makes it difficult even to attempt a definition. The meme is a sign of the times par excellence, the vivid representation of our hermeneutic impasse, our inability to define a reality so fluid that it eludes any kind of hypostatization; it blends individualism and participatory culture, ushering in unprecedented ritual practices and shaping the major political and social events of our time. Our attempt is to access the meanings of memetic time: this polymorphous plural not only indicates the protean nature of the meme artifact that eludes univocal interpretation, but also evokes the re-immersion described by McLuhan, produced by new technological extensions that completely envelop our senses, definitively transforming the sequential and linear human being produced by writing - a transformation whose scope is still difficult to grasp.