Internet cats are heading to museums! Internet cats are art!
If you have Internet, you are probably well aware that cats have taken over online. They’re everywhere. People love cats and cats love themselves, so it totally works out. From famous cats like Lil Bub and Grumpy Cat, to the weekly celebration of Caturday, to the envy of every person who has ever gone to a Cat Cafe, to all other adorable, curious and relatively indifferent cats who have graced the Internet with their presence — it’s an obsession. The Internet is obsessed with cats, and there’s no end in sight.
To honor this cat phenomenon, the Museum of Moving Image in Astoria, NY will present How Cats Took Over the Internet, an exhibition that will take an important look at how cats have transfixed the World Wide Web and all of its occupants.
Jason Eppink, Associate Curator of Digital Media who organized the exhibition, explained the purpose. “The Internet’s collective obsession with cats offers a window into the way we understand ourselves,” he stated. “This exhibition examines the many reasons for this deceptively frivolous phenomenon and highlights the new ways we’re creating, consuming, and sharing culture.”
According to the website, “How Cats Took Over the Internet tells the history of cats online, examining phenomena like Caturday, lolcats, cat videos, celebrity cats, and more to unearth why images and videos of the feline kind have transfixed a generation of web users. Touching on concepts like anthropomorphism, the aesthetics of cuteness, the Bored at Work Network, and the rise of user-generated content, this exhibit takes a critical look at a deceptively frivolous phenomenon.”
The exhibit opens on August 7 and will run through January 31. It will include screenings, interactive stations and a world map of international cat memes. That’s right, all the memes you could ever dream of, all in one place. Visitors will be able to contribute their own cat photos, GIFS and videos to the exhibit — which technically means photos of your cat could be in a museum forever—or at least until the end of January. The exhibit will also include live events. Does “live events” mean live cats?? Either way, sign us up!
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Meet Merlin, your new Internet cat obsession
