Friday 5 October 2012

Rachel Maclean - Lolcats @ Generator Projects 05.10.12 - pictures etc

To the Generator this evening for Rachel Maclean's spectacular Lolcats show. I took a few photos and wrote the gallery handout:

The name of the exhibition is Lolcats

The Dundee art massive


MAYBE THE LOLCATS WAS INSIDE US ALL ALONG!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daemons, benevolent nature spirits, the lolcats of the spirit world? 
So these lolcats popping their heads up next to garbled messages, maybe they’re really part of our unconscious, transmitting thoughts and insights across the haze of a dreamless sleep!!!!!!!!!!!
FACT the misspelled words are an attempt to undercut years of language conditioning. Cats that can speak have always been here with us, watching us.
I was looking through the thousands of lolcats images that I keep on my hard drive. EVERY SINGLE LOLCAT is sat upright making eye contact with ME. They are ALL cute and friendly!!!!!!!!! They ALL want to communicate a message that transcends spelling and grammar. They are hungry and lazy but every single one of them just wants LOVE!!!!!!!!!! They are adorable and they can speak!!!
The Ancient Egyptians worshipped cats as deities. They were mummified just the same as humans and colossal tombs were built for their corpses. But LOLCATS NEVER DIE as they’re preserved forever as electronic data... at least until the last computer gets switched off.  LOLCATS WILL SURVIVE US!!!!!
Could this mean they’re ready to act as our spirit guides? Lolcats to keep us amused and they are sleeping and watching over us forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let me know if you know any other ones...
First ever Lolcats as early as first mass distributed print media. Victorians were big consumers of anthropomorphised animals!!!! Early images created to promote photographer’s studio, with animals dressed up in frocks next to text expressing hunger!!!!!!!!!!! Collective unconscious as hungry cats.
Early Lolcats painters: Arthur Thiele, 1860 - 1936
Early Lolcats photos:  Harry Pointer, 1822-1889, Harry Whittier Frees, 1879–1953
In contrast to the contemporary lolcat, Victorian texts were always sure to be impeccable in their usage of spelling and grammar. Never any errors in syntax.
The term Lolcats was first used on the anonymous online image board 4chan in 2005.  Users would post photos of cats alongside brief, misspelled texts. The disjuncture between these two elements would  create the element of humour in the image macros. Lol is an abbreviation for laugh out loud, which is commonly used in internet slang!!!!!!!! The domain name Lolcats.com was registered in 2006,  and Google Insights traces the peak of Lolcats searches to early 2008.  I Can Has Cheezburger? (CHC for short) is a weblog featuring lolcats, and Ben Huh, CEO of The Cheezburger Network, explains their appeal:
"Cats have very expressive facial and body expressions, so they are a perfect canvas for human emotion, which makes them awesome for captioning and anthropomorphisation." Lolcats as benevolent diseases, cute cuddly virus!!!!!
 

TEXT BY BEN ROBINSONZ

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