2 much concept: image culture, the internet, and the dump.fm chat community (working title)

2 much concept: the Image Culture of Dump.fm, an Online Image Chat Community

Wesleyan University

The Honors College

2 much concept: the Image Culture of Dump.fm, an Online Image Chat Community By Rachel Muse Pincus Class of 2013

A thesis (or essay) submitted to the faculty of Wesleyan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

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2 much concept: the Image Culture of Dump.fm, an Online Image Chat Community

Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors in Science in Society Middletown, Connecticut

April, 2013

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION.........................................................................3 CHAPTER 1 / THE LIFE OF A MEME.............................................20 CHAPTER 2 / THE POLITICS OF APPROPRIATION.........................44 DETERRITORIALIZATION AND FLOATING SIGNIFIERS............................................60 CHAPTER 3 / DUMP.FM ASSEMBLAGES AND IMAGE TYPES: A SPOTTER’S GUIDE....................................................................63 CHAPTER 4 / THE SPECTACLE OF INTERACTION........................104 CHAPTER 5 / CONCLUSIONS....................................................134 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................137

Acknowledgments Obviously, this ethnography could not exist without the warmth and open-mindedness of this community. I can’t say enough to express my gratitude for dump’s interest and thoughtfulness (and screencaps of my thesis, which popped up hours after I put it on Scribd. I’m honored, really, and they’re hilarious). Thanks especially to gr8pevine for showing me the site in the first place, Polymer for being a great friend from the nitty-gritty to the distractions, sapphire/seamonkey/Gorgias/whatever you’re going by these days for your eagerness to read it as well as sharing your scholarship. A courtly nod to kalan, textchimp, tommoody, kintrala, decrvnk, plams, homer and lilcriticals. I’m sorry if I forgot anybody. You’ll get your shout-out in due time. In the academic world, I’d like to thank the unintentional synergy of Professors Jennifer Tucker and Elizabeth Traube’s classes that I took my sophomore year for showing me that the Internet, where I spent so much time, was indeed worth writing about. Tom Boellstorff’s lecture at CHUM and his answers to my strangely well-formed questions about the virtual at the seminar the next day were a huge source of inspiration. Professors Goslinga and Hoffman kept me going and genuinely cared about my success. I’d like to thank my mother as well for attempting to read a very early draft (a tall order!) and for somehow “getting” dump, despite the generation gap. My father, and his unique perspective on the world as an artist and illustrator, is partly what got me interested in all this in the first place. 2

2 much concept: the Image Culture of Dump.fm, an Online Image Chat Community

Also, thank NYU’s Bobst Library for letting me in to work there during winter break but not during spring break. And Sophie the cat. I love both of you even though you hate me