Memebiotics, 2006
The Memebiotics series is an investigation of memes (cultural genes such as slogans, catchphrases, and belief systems) through illustration. I have been treating the study of memes like a pseudo-science, making these concepts into tangible entities. Sometimes memes are referred to as viral ideas, which I am incorporating into the imagery of them as part biological, microscopic, and infectious. Another strong component is a mechanical, or manufactured aesthetic; as many memes are engineered to have a certain effect on a population, or rather work like clockwork to motivate a certain population. I also created an accompanying reference chart to categorize the memes according to their root family of ideas with sub-phylum classifications. The diagrams and utopian text on the etchings then are decipherable when using the main reference chart to find the nature of the memes. When two macromemes are connected, it creates a memeplex, a symbiotic relationship of mutually assisting ideas.