This project allowed me to look deeper into an issue that has bothered me since I was little. I was able to look at the issue and expand it so I could notice the larger issue at hand. The idea of the MemeMorial has left me with the impression that participatory culture and networking are powerful tools when trying to leave an impact on people. Any issue can be circulated and the ideas set forth by one person can evolve and change the more it is passed from person to person. We looked closely at how the collective is affected by the actions of individuals and that what connects these can be described through characteristics of that individual that defines the identity of that individual and thus the collective identity is also affected. The issue that I was researching allowed me to see how these identities conflict in the collective and that sometimes conflict and struggle is born from misinterpretation between individuals and a lack of acknowledgment as well. The emblem was designed to for these ideas to be presented to the populace in terms of the issue I was researching. The scale itself serves as a call to seek out and actively try to balance out how the education system between private institutions and public institutions operate. The setting in the background is Hawaii, a reminder that all people affected by this issue, whether it be positively or negatively, share a community and should be working together. And the quote is a challenge to recognize the problem and to take responsibility.
This topic tied in with the overall aim of the semester of manipulation and expression of social media and seeing behaviors and connections within the online public sphere. The concept of communities and how they are connected to each other provided for a better understanding of how people are identified today and how we can recognize these identities and relate and share through an online media source. Everything about human culture and life from politics and economics to social culture can be manipulated, changed, and evolved through participatory culture, a natural byproduct of the online social sphere. The challenge to understand these concepts and relate them to my life and to understand that I am also part of this community and I how I affect it was interesting and engaging. If I had more time to put into this topic I’d probably look to seeing how our efforts to affect the online public sphere compare to those of larger communities that hold more weight in the world community. Our projects affected a very small percent of the community, so I’m curious to see how an idea starts and evolves to something that affects multiple communities and individuals. We always used examples of memes and works of participatory culture that had already become famous, but never did we see the process of such a massive transformation. Literacy is no longer the only way that people can express themselves, and the online public sphere creates a faster and more engaging way to be an individual and yet also have an affect on many different communities that one is a part of.
A Word To the Wise 