In my work I am interested in the language evolving from Internet culture as well as the aesthetics that take part in it. However idiotic memes seemingly are they circle around several Internet users and evolve into messages that reflect the current trend of nihilistic humor in everyday life, but is ironically accompanied with feel-good images of early 2000's nostalgia. In this work I aimed to capture this environment.
While entering the room I wanted the viewer to enter an atmosphere that is initially soothing, or fun. In the background 'Africa' by Toto is playing as it is an iconic 80's song that creates nostalgia in present days. The entire room is a girlish pink and purple with several viral videos of dancing and cats, both sides of the room include a fantasy galaxy view. At first glance I wanted the viewer to laugh. This imagery is heavily related to the Vaporwave aesthetic which has helped establish the nihilistic humor previously mentioned.
Upon closer inspection there are bodies of text acquired from several social media accounts scattered around which include the messages, "Me reassuring myself: it's really ok you dumb bitch", "my personality issues can be directly traced to the fact that I couldn't do the monkey bars as a child", "When you die your voice gets added to the Big Bang Theory laugh track" and "'It's like we finish each other's'... 'government conspiracy theories'". With the discovery of these messages the environment of the room is no longer a silly pink thing but contains an underlying tension expressed by a generation of Internet user attempting to normalize this discontent with a humorous cover up of a non-aggressive aesthetic. The result creates a very unique juxtaposition of aesthetic intention and underlying messages.
I took advantage of the massive size of the room to engulf the viewer with a feeling. To create a hidden tension I used smaller areas of the room for the viewer to find these nihilistic jokes.
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