Memes have become an integral aspect of our everyday, evolving into cultural phenomena that capture the prevailing sentiments of society. These intangible artifacts, typically manifested as images and short-form videos, instantly convey and resonate both aerial and profound meanings. Memes have evolved into a distinctive language of the digital age, conveying shared connotations in a succinct manner.

Just like how Venturi, Scott Brown, and their students learned from the new mediums in Vegas, we will scrutinize memes as a space. Students will craft, analyze, and spatialize the layers of short-form media, speculating multiplicity, ephemerality, and the current generation’s spatial Zeitgeist (or the absence of one).

Our studio will commence with a series of exercises designed to comprehend the social, spatial, and temporal layers of internet memes. Students will analyze the cultural enunciations and spatio-temporal setups encapsulated within these digital artifacts. “Meme Analysis” will be introduced as a tool to dissect the short-form mediums into an anatomy that mirrors our culture. Topics may include but are not limited to resilient future, equity, community engagement, generation gap, healing spatial atrocity, etc. 

Building upon this foundation, students will spatialize the flattened layers of connotations within the memes. Through design exercises and technical tutorials, students will conceptualize and create architectural representations that translate the collapsed signs of internet memes into three-dimensional spaces. In this marginal gap, students will populate the virtual form of societal enunciation as a space.

The culminating project of this journey will be a “Meme Museum.” This museum will physically manifest the cultural layers within the memes, providing visitors with an immersive experience beyond the flattened digital screens. Students will synthesize, polarize, diffract, or entangle their analysis into an experiential architecture. This exercise encourages students to explore the in-between spaces of the semiotic feedback loops and their ephemeral interpretants.

Through this course, students will gain a deeper understanding of the digital culture, architecture, and social implications of both virtual and physical space-times, while also developing the skills to translate metaphysical phenomena into tangible, spatial experiences.

Learning beyond the facts of perception and excavating the invisible - is the core aim of this studio.