Dadaism or dada art was a European avant-garde art movement that originated in the early 20th century as a reaction to the First World War. Recovery from the first world war caused people to feel that the world made no sense, and ‘conventional logic led to the senselessness of a world war’. The Dada movement was birthed by the cultural rage following the war which was expressed through absurd, context free-pieces of art that defied “the conventions that brought about that atrocity in the first place”. Paradoxically enough, the Dada art movement described itself as “defiantly anti-art” as it contradicted itself to any kind of established norms of composition. As David Hopkins once said, Dada “sought to overturn traditional bourgeois notions of art”. In other words, dadaists didn’t consider themselves as artists per se; but as going against the stream of societal convention, producing pieces that were not typically seen as ‘art’. Marcel Duchamp was one of the most popular artists of the movement who rejected all painting because it was ‘made for the eye, not the mind’.
Left: L.H.O.O.Q., Marcel Duchamp (1919)
Similar to dadaists, the elusive ‘artists’ behind today’s memes do not call themselves ‘artists’ in the traditional way; rather they edit stock images in a quirky way, or recycle images with few additions to ridicule or mock a certain controversial event or individuals. Additionally, millennials use memes to “vent some of the frustration and hopelessness and dissatisfaction” of the current world’s state. Today’s generation witnesses itself in a similar state of disruption to that post World War I, where minority groups are enraged by the surge in nationalism, unabating attacks on human rights and rising inequality and poverty. The internet meme culture millennials cultivated uses absurdity and nonsense to cope with this world. Both Dadaists and meme creators seem to have a similar purpose: to address the disillusionment of our generation. Just as Dada art was a form of expressing frustration after World War I, so is the meme culture a medium for millennials to show their disillusionment through absurd humour.
Therefore, while some people may view memes as harmless entertainment which they can laugh at while scrolling down their social media feeds, it is not as simple as that. Much like Dada art, memes have the power to reinforce, shape and amplify the political environment. In her book ‘Memes to Movements,’ Xiao Mina describes today’s meme culture as a fundamental way in which our generation affirms one another, builds narratives and focuses attention to issues of human rights and social injustice. This is why, in certain countries where public dissent and censorship is an underlying issue, memes can be weaponised to carry out contentious political beliefs.
We have seen how memes have encouraged activism in various parts of the world. Following the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections we have witnessed artists and activists altering Donald Trump’s images into memes, as an act of mobilisation against him. #TrumpArtworks on Instagram was popularised by a British humor site ‘Poke’, which included photoshopping Trump into famous paintings, in effort to mock his policies and other easily disproven claims.
"This place is packed!" wrote Joe Heenan in this Donald Trump version of Edward Hopper's famous painting Nighthawks Courtesy of @joeheenan via Twitter.
Viral activism has been weaponised through memes culminating in the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong in 2014, and the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Similarly, blue underwear and golden toilet brushes became symbols in Russia’s protest movement to support the jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny. It is evident that in countries without an independent media platform and more volatile political environments in general, memes and political cartoons are means of expressing public dissent and anger towards the government. Therefore, based on the above it can be argued that an element of Dadaism has undeniably been passed on to the 21st Century.
Left: photos captured during the umbrella revolution in Hong Kong, 2014.
Right: picture of an protestor holding a toilet brush in the streets of Moscow, 2021.
The darkest element of memes, however, is the transmission of misinformation of ‘fake news’. Since memes are created anonymously, the authors can hide behind their screens while they spread ‘fake news’ which focus on motivations, emotions and prejudices rather than factual accuracy. Memes are not just a tool for trolling by bored kids in the basement, but also by governments, political candidates and activists around the world. This is also particularly prevalent during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.
“The meme is probably the most dangerous,” Mr. Duke said. “In seven or 20 words, somebody can say something that’s not true, and people will believe it and share it. It takes two minutes to create.”
Perhaps the most prominent example of governments weaponising memes, was when Russian agents spread fake news through social media sites with the aim to discredit Hillary Clinton and favour Donald Trump. The U.S. Congress, responsible for investigating fake news, has since then leaked 3,500 of these false advertisements to the public. Another example is when Donald Trump's political campaign operatives used information collected by Cambridge Analytica through social media, to target political ads and memes on Facebook - undermining Hilary Clinton. The messages were often provocative, occasionally violent and false. But the most contested element of this scandal was that Cambridge Analytica and Facebook used data of millions of Americans who never consented to share their information with advertisers. The scandal sparked the public’s concern in privacy and social media’s influence on politics, culminating to an online movement #DeleteFacebook trending on Twitter.
Ever since the start of the pandemic the spread of meme misinformation has been exacerbated. This might seem obvious to many, as more and more people are migrating towards a digital lifestyle and virtual methods of communication. Since then, many people became more involved in sharing divisive opinions about covid-related topics such as the effectiveness of masks, lockdowns and the anti-vax movement through memes. As Ms. Byron stated, “with the pandemic, people are increasingly online doom scrolling and looking for information. It’s getting harder and harder to find it and feel confident you’re consuming facts.” Simply sharing a meme on your Instagram story can either be an innocent humorous observation, but can conversely spread dangerous misinformation to other users. In an attempt to halt the spread of misinformation through posts, instagram is now adding a “false information” warning, however, it’s questionable how effective the algorithm is in detecting millions of inaccurate posts.
As explored, memes can be interpreted as a form of a neo-neo Dadaist art movement, which can arguably be seen as a way through which the current generation expresses itself. Memes can however have a limit to their ‘entertainment’ purpose when they mobilise protests and activism. Governments may also weaponise memes, exploiting online users’ information to simply further their political agendas. Internet users should therefore be more vigilant when scrolling through their social media feed and ensure they fact check the information they come across through memes.
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