When Art Goes Viral: Exploring the Political Circumstances of the New Artistic Condition

Abstract

Vaporwave is a phenomenon which continually defies academic classification. By some, it is considered an internet-based microgenre. Some generously call it a new artistic movement, and with good reason. Having both a visual and musical component, Vaporwave is undeniably artistic. However, for those who create and consume Vaporwave regularly, there is no ambiguity. Vaporwave is an internet meme. Memes can be understood in two ways. The first, as units of culture. As Richard Dawkins puts it, “​Memes​ (discrete units of knowledge, gossip, jokes and so on) are to culture what genes are to life. Just as biological evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest genes in the gene pool, cultural evolution may be driven by the most successful ​memes​” (Dawkins 1976, 189-201). In this understanding of memes as cultural units, it is of no surprise that one might consider individual works of art to be memetic. Surely the works of the great masters survive in our cultural consciousness like strong genes in the gene pool.