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Module 2 - Warmup Exercise

Meme Tennis

tl;dr: Rebound, remix and rework a meme as part of a team. Take turns to iterate and augment a piece of spreadable media in teams of three. Each person will have 30 minutes to edit the meme and pass to the next person in line. Independently reflect on the outcome.

Due Date: Monday, Sept 26, 9pm (see full timeline)

Submit to Gallery Pool: Meme Tennis

• Brief and goals
• Learning Objectives
• Process
• Deliverables
• Considerations and Constraints
• Approaches, Inspiration and Context
• Documentation

Brief and Goals

This module is all about spreadable media. This content isn’t just about spread but the continuous, reworking. and extension that happens online. Wikipedia is a continually evolving encyclopedia where edit and re-edits in some spectacular ways. In the same way memes live on through continual remixing and rework. Anyone can take the raw materials and add a new take on a popular and recognizable form. Part of what makes spreadable media, like memes and remixes, so appealing is that they’re never done.

We’re going to explore these features of spreadable media directly in this warm up exercise. You’re going to work and rework media with one another. Each person will take the composition from the previous person and extend it. Then pass it to the next person, who will do the same, and so on and so on. Essentially, we’ll simulate remix culture found on the internet within this class.

Brief: Rebound, remix and rework a meme as part of a team. Take turns to iterate and augment a piece of spreadable media in teams of three. Each person will have 30 minutes to edit the meme and pass to the next person in line. Independently reflect on the outcome.

We’re going to take some pointers from Coudal Partner’s now infamous Layer Tennis. They explain:

Two competitors swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” and then we post that to the site live… The players…can do pretty much as they like. There are no real rules, the matches are generally competitive and collaborative. Things progress volley by volley. A match lasts for ten volleys and when it’s complete, everybody sounds off and together we declare a winner.

We’ll adapt the format a little though… (see process below!)

Learning Objectives

As part of this exercise you will be asked to:

• Develop your skills in composing media (making content)
• Develop your ability to quickly and critically respond to media through media (reworking content)
• Build an applied understanding of spreadable media and the ways that content are remixed, extended and shared online.

Organization

You’ll work in teams of 3.

Work in the labs you have been assigned. If you are in the Sound Lab you should work with audio material. If you are in the visual lab, you should work with static (photoshop) visual material.

Before you begin, you should connect with your team mates and agree a time to complete the assignment. You should be available for a 3 hour window to respond and create with your group.

Set up a shared drive folder (Box, Dropbox or Google Drive) to share your resources and raw materials for each stage. You should supply all of your raw materials to the next person.

Process

• Before you begin: Set up a way for you to contact your group (recommend using a group DM on Slack) and to share your assets (cloud drive recommended.) Set up a 3 hour window where you are all available to create your compositions. You don’t need to be together for this. You can complete this project remotely. Finally, decide who goes first!

• Opening serve: Whoever goes first has 30 mins to prep the first composition. You can create something yourself but I’d recommend you rework, extend or share something from the Looking out exercise.

• Response: Let the next person in the round know that you’ve completed your composition. Send them a message and share the final composition and any materials (samples, sources, materials, fonts, etc) you used to create it. Then they have 30 minutes to rework that! You have to rework the material - integrating some elements from the composition you received. You can’t just start a new composition!

• Rinse, Repeat: Repeat this until each person has completed two compositions (6 total).

• Document and reflect: Once you’ve finished reflect on the process of reworking someone elses ideas, content and concepts. Add this to a discussion of each of your compositions online!

Deliverables

You are asked to deliver three things for this warm up exercise:

1. Compositions: A series of 6 compositions. Deliver photos and/or audio of each stage.
2. Narrative: A description of the manner in which you approached the project, the process you followed and the strategies you used to translate the work.
3. Reflection: A reflection on outcome and comparision to the original work. This can be written individually or for the group.

Considerations and Constraints

Constraints:

• The outcome must be created in under 3 hour (not including research).
• The outcome must be digital.
• You must work collaboratively in groups to prepare your media
• You must work in progression (Person A -> Person B -> Person C)
• You must limit your compositions to 30 minutes and hand over your response by the end of 30 minutes.
• You must complete 6 compositions (opening, 4 responses and a closing volley).
• You have to rework the material - integrating some elements from the composition you receive and evolving/advancing the ideas.

Considerations:

• You are free to use any digital tools you wish. You should have a conversation about them before beginning so that the next person in line can use and repurpose your outcome.
• You should discuss and coordinate how you share raw materials or cite sources.
• You can prepare ahead - grab materials (audio loops, fonts, open source images) ahead of time.

• Use your time wisely in between volleys. After responding, use the next 30 minutes to write up your piece on the gallery. Ahead of your next round, take a look at the content and materials that have been used in the preceeding compositions. Can you use any of them? What directions do you think it might go in? What might you need next?

• Remember: you have creative license! And these considerations are just a guide.

Approaches, Inspiration and Context

• Layer tennis.

• Exquisite Corpse - Hugo Crosthwaite

Documentation:

A suggested format for documentation is as follows. You should include a write up of the following:

Set up a collaborative project for your team and add all participants.

For the opening volley:

• Why did you select/create this content?

For each ‘volley’ you should include the artifact produced and a short commentary by the creator:

• What was the ‘volley’ you served? What did you create and how did it respond to the previous material? What is it composed with (materials, shapes, forms)? Describe the textures, colors, etc.

Finally add two closing statements from the group:

• Approach - How did you approach the assignment and reworking of media in a collaborative context?
• Reflection - Reflect on the process of making this project. What did you learn? How does it relate to what you know about spreadable media? What would you do differently?

Additionally you should acknowledge any materials you borrowed or remixed

• Sources - Cite and attribute any sources you used directly in your project. Document this carefully: be very clear about what media you worked with, where you found it and how/where it was incorporated.

Each of these sections should be no more than 150-200 words max. and well illustrated (images, videos, etc.)

For the Project Info’s goal description: it must be tweetable - summarise your outcome in no more than 140 characters