May 12 Dan Zen Expo Exhibit
Memes
Dedicated to Paul Benedetti and Nancy DeHart and McLuhan crew
Dan Zen was introduced to Memes in his 1995 work on Understanding McLuhan. A meme is a thought or phrase that moves virally through society. In the early 2010's, photos with captions have been termed memes by our modern social society as they are shared on sites such as Facebook and Tumbler.
▲ Dan Zen Stones - "When you see a stone, think Dan Zen" was the zen garden related slogan on a 1996 ad in SHIFT Magazine. Zen hoped that after reading this message, people would think of Dan Zen even years afterwards - now you will too!
▲ Start Sign - now you will see the back of every stop sign as a start sign!
▲ Thumb Fingers - interesting visual meme seen over 17,000 times and in various tech articles.
▲ Happy Stretcher Bearers - perhaps not a meme but follows the format of sharing silly things. See the set of four amusing scenarios Visit on Flickr
▲ Ninja Cat - series with Zen family cat, Smudge (RIP)
▲ Cat in the Bag - there are a few more - Visit Tumbler
▲ Gumby - memes can offer explanations to important eternal questions. Zen considers this series to be pathetic.
▲ Meme Quake - message from Dan Zen when memes got to be too pervasive. In the end, Zen prefers made up words and phrases memes such as is Forces of Groovity used to promote International Groovy Day. Zen has come up with countless mixed metaphors such as a "disappeared in a puff of thin smoke" and others that "don't ring off the tongue" plus many silly words such as the Figmentalisticanarianismists and then various concepts like "moss roots" instead of grass roots - many of which lead to products or services - and Internet domain names.
