Kit Krash

» Memetic Sampling «
A Meme is a genetic metaphor for the transfer of information, defined significantly by Richard Dawkins in his book, “The Selfish Gene”. In this definition, ideas inhabit people like living organisms, trying to survive as long as possible through substantiation and replication. A meme can be something as simple as wearing a baseball cap backwards. The fashion spreads as if it is a virus. A Definition of Meme in the Principia Cybernetica on the web is as follows: (pron. `meem’) A contagious information pattern that replicates by parasitically infecting human minds and altering their behavior, causing them to propagate the pattern. (Term coined by Dawkins, by analogy with “gene”.) Individual slogans, catch-phrases, melodies, icons, inventions, and fashions are typical memes. An idea or information pattern is not a meme until it causes someone to replicate it, to repeat it to someone else. All transmitted knowledge is memetic. (Wheelis, quoted in Hofstadter.)
Repetition is a means of survival for Memes. In Neural Physiology experiments it is shown how repetition of stimulus including phrases and actions can build more “tracks” into the brain tissue giving higher retention of the stimuli. Cognitive Psychology shows this as an aid to memory. It can be seen as a form of programming since the repeated stimulus ingrains itself upon the mind. In eastern culture, many have made use of “mantras” (mana- thought, mind stuff; tra- encasement, vessel), repetitive phrases that program one’s mind as grooves are chiselled onto a phonograph. In many cultures rhythm is incorporated in poetry, to aid in memorization of the words. A repetition of a rhyme scheme encases the words into memory. Poetry was considered a tool for “magic” as it allowed one to control the symbols that affect one’s automatic behaviors and habits.
It is natural for humans to produce and engineer ‘memes’ in our environment. Politics, economics, philosophy, art and coca-cola are all human inventions. We are constantly engineering our own ‘meme’ set via repetition and pairing of imaginary stimuli, a unique and naturally evolved talent of the human species. If the ‘memes’ connect positively with biological drives and the environment then they are reinforced. i.e., if you are convinced more girls look at you admiringly in a new sports car, you have now made a positive connection to ‘sports car.’ We are constantly bombarded by ‘memes’ and are also unaware constant bombardiers of these ‘memes’ ourselves. In this way most desires beyond survival and reproduction can be considered manufactured. The old media is a centralized approach to memetic engineering.
The household sound sampler used in modern music construction is an ideal tool for collecting and redistributing memes. It gives decentralised control of the cut and paste method William Burroughs and Brion Gyson were striving for in their experiments, breaking down the viruses and creating new codes. In the sampler, all of histories recordings can be evaluated, transformed and disseminated, creating a bridge between nostalgia and the futuristic. The sound sampler is getting accessible enough to reach the filthy hands of any young aspiring memetic engineer with the desire to decentralise the cultural mainstream.
Right now, all across the globe, millions of sampleheads are reconstructing our memes under the very noses of copyright law. And in effect taking control of their own minds and of culture at large.

Karthik Swaminathan, 1998 

Linz, Austria