Aesthetics of the Invisible World

Sonic Youth the Meme

A day ago I posted a picture of Gerhard Richter’s painting Zwei Candles (see previous post).  I re-familiarized myself with his work at the new Modern wing of the Chicago Art Institute and was struck by his light-diffused photorealism.  To my surprise the post turned out to be very popular - much more so than the other portrait entered on the same day, Richter’s beautiful Lesende.  After a bit of deduction I realized people were interested, consciously or not, in his familiar relationship to Sonic Youth.  The seminal noise-rock band used a similar candle painting by the same artist as the cover of their album Daydream Nation. 

The popularity of the image is absolutely apparent on Tumblr.com - the site which provides about 25% of the overall traffic to my journal.  For those who are unaware, Tumblr is basically the framework for this journal and hosts all the content that I post.  Tumblr itself attracts a media-conscous group of users because it is designed to easily display and disseminate various artistic pursuits - photography, music and popular culture being the most common.  The demographic is largely socially liberal, urban and educated.  They are the type of people who would know who Sonic Youth is.

This got me thinking about the cross-pollination of memes - the units of culture that grow and mutate through our collective consciousness.  Sonic Youth itself a meme.  Sometimes it’s difficult to draw a direct correlation between them and hundreds of bands that claim to be influenced by the group but that’s just how memes travel.  Just like genes, the most dominate traits aren’t 100% guaranteed to be visible but they remain important as transmitted from generation to generation. 

In this case, there isn’t an obvious corollary between Sonic Youth and Gerhard Richter to the uninitiated.  Many fine art buyers (the people that support an artist like Richter) wouldn’t have a clue who Sonic Youth is.  Many Sonic Youth fans don’t know Richter.  Quite honestly, the economic barriers to entering the world of fine arts collecting virtually ensures some level of obscurity (Andy Warhol, pop-culture icon, an exception).  However, all it takes is a familiar image like Zwei Candles to propagate amongst fans of Sonic Youth for Richter to consciously exist to a larger audience. 

The quick organic dissemination of memes is what makes the world wide web an essential component of human evolution.  It literally creates a complex collective conscious with lightning speed.  Twenty years ago it would have cost a fortune to have the reach of internet phenomenons such as lol cats or Rickrolling.  In fact, I would argue it wouldn’t be possible at all.  Now all it takes is a familiar meme mutated in a slightly unfamiliar way for it to have the potential to propagate. 

Finally, it points to an issue with the journal you are reading.  It is concerned with aesthetics and not memes.  It doesn’t exist to react to and modify established culture.  Instead, it obsesses on the physical world that is so familiar that we take it for granted.  It is interested in the invisible reality and our species’ closest relations to it.  Sub-conscious motivations, the early humanities and spirituality are the compelling roots which carry the writing here.

I like Sonic Youth.  I like Gerhard Richter.  I’m glad others did too.  However, in this case - as in many others - the power of Richter and Sonic Youth the meme was more compelling the art of Richter or Sonic Youth.