WOYMU Planning Document

By Celine Lassus and Mark YoderMemes and Machines, Are UXperiencedPublished: January 29, 2024

This is an artist page by Celine Lassus and Mark Yoder. This page is part of the project: What’s on your mind, user? by Celine Lassus and Mark Yoder. This project was part of the 2022 CATS+ 1.0 cohort.

Overview

The following page is a transcription of a planning document by the artists. This document provided them space to dump thoughts and plan their workshop. It is presented as is.

Planning

Title ideas:

No consequences, just basic HTML
What’s on your mind, User?
whats-on-your-mind-user.xyz

Links:

Talk to former 8chan users
Reformed users

Emotional experiences of users as they go through this pipeline And as it relates to aesthetics

WINGDINGS

So disconnected from reality
No one would say this shit afk
Doesn't matter what other ppl say
- Just trying to get a rxn

Interested in the aesthetics

Ugly
The internet has changed a lot but these sites look the exact same
Anonymity // Vulnerability
Internet relic
They'yr using basic html and we're tryna build that
Survey // documenting

Gaming
Refresh // not collecting data // all rules gone —> what would you post
Post to feel less alone —> psyche of men online
Share misery // white supremacy, racism, what can I blame —> “jews, that's why life sucks”
Emotional outlet//venting BUT unproductive
Theyre talking about their feelings but we're going nowhere. And getting shit on too (culture of these spaces)

Internet meant to be a haven

Better than irl
Real life sucks
Pulled into these rabbit holes

Past its prime (2013)
2022 —> 8chan gone, less centralized, smaller communities doing own thing, holding onto the aesthetic of way back when, holding onto early internet haven
Weird
Going on it —> wtf ?
Emulate feeling
Make own weird gifs // ads pop up

Wanna be satirical but posts so vile, wanna be sensitive, would be dark comedy.

Comment vs. documenting.

New site (replacing 8chan) → “not as cool”

Diff subsections within this realm
right-wing conspiracy theorist using this site

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No consequences
Just basic html

No one control

Me+mark make a thing

People get violent

Say to get reactions

Forums

Shittposting
Inside jokes within community becomes a language
Social capital — know part of
Lingo native to site
community
Vs outsider

Anonymous
Really self
Or performance
Would never say irl - which is the real u??

The wild west
Less design, crazier ppl

Identity of a website
Collective identity of these communities

4chan
Dark web
Graphic design not there
WHY don't they care? 🤔

Run by the community
Like it to look like shit
Don't want more users
More insular
Non design = keep ppl out

Feels raw
Unbiased
Aesthetic of the non aesthetic

Earlier age of the internet
Before when ppl could say what they want

No regulations ⁃ twitter, tumblr

4chan — no users
All anonymous
Site no identity, bare bones
The world does not allow any empathy for white boys // incels

Acceptance
Prove self — Contrast to fraternity - anti social capital
“Who is the most fucked up, who is the worst person, thats who’s at the top”
Who can prove
Shooting plans start on these sites
Breeding ground for white nationalism
These sites are referenced
In real life shit post

8chan shut down ⁃ 4chan with less rules
Look into history
Used to be more neutral
Gamer-gate ⁃ fight sexism in gaming
Now far right leaning ⁃ dif far right that fox news, christian ⁃ More fuck everything, this is funny ⁃ reaction to feminism ⁃ Nihilist, non religious, BUT ALSO these sites as a place of worship and congregation, as a way of confirming yourself

Screen time
Is your community
Logged on
Feel like know person ⁃ cuz spend so much time with them

POTENTIAL ANGLES

Recovering forum addicts
Support group
Convo

True self or playing up for the community

Competitive gaming
Say something crazy to get a reaction
Desensitized to language and images
Keep upping the bar
Cant say ill kill youuuu but instead more detailed and fucked up

TECH (?)
Website
Pinterest board
Google doc of notes

Go about in residency format
Zoom and talk about ⁃ What we thought would look like vs what we find

Go to the source
Whats our username
Uncover
Try not to be narcs
Doxxed :0
Protect our server — vpn

Hell is a place on earth
Descension but not really
Community to fuck off — still place to vent
Thanks for resharing
Ephemeral on 4chan – no one will ever see

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WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE

1st LEVEL

Facebook // silicon valley opening
Ai faces of coworkers
Broken social network
Overly friendly kinda creepy
Like something sinister under the surface

If we took away all of the nice design, censorship, personal identity would we look like 4chan

Maybe we’re not as far from 4chan than we think?

3rd LEVEL

Everything outta control, can't click
Performance
Fsociety video
Logged out

OVERALL

What you can control and what you can't
Sometimes things happen
Using elapsed sequences to echo time spent on these sites
Lose control as you play – more spaces to input in earlier levels vs. final form

Text input, write a comment, write username
“Username gets big and catches on fire” → anonymity, lack of choice

AI vs. users — rise of AI/MEMES/REMIX

Saying and making whatever and seeing what sticks to the wall
Using AI to mimic the randomness//processes
Remix; no originality
It's all shitposts

AESTHETICS

Popups
AI text

www.-reverse.-flash-.-.back-
https://www.are.na/block/17623593
Hacked –users hacking internet spaces
Popups – audio
Breakdown

INSTALLATION

Everything falling apart
Screengrabs
Datamoshing - Level 3
Bunch of things to look at
Create an atmosphere
projections casting over users face – feel immersed // inside screen
SOUND?

Heaving breathing computer sounds

WIKI

References

https://www.bunkerprojects.org/bell.html/#sense&subjectability

ARTICLE

The challenges of studying 4chan and the Alt-Right: ‘Come on in the water’s fine’
“Greater research of these spaces can assess the extent and nature of abusive, manipulative, and transgressive activities increasingly associated with them (Rainie et al., 2017). It can expose such behaviours and activities so that their targets can be better protected from harm. It can help explain why these cultures develop in certain online spaces and not others (Beyer, 2014).”
Research confirms that 4chan/pol has substantially influenced the Internet’s ‘meme ecosystem’, and that conversations on the board are frequented by known Alt- Right personalities and peppered with anti-Semitic memes (Mittos et al., 2019; Zannettou et al., 2018b).
They also found evidence of raids outside 4chan on YouTube, and attempts to spread hate speech and bypass automated prevention soft- ware.
“This work falls into three overlapping areas. First, academics have looked at the qualities of anonymity and ephemerality that distinguish 4chan from most social networking platforms; secondly, they have looked at the deliberately offensive and taboo use of language; and thirdly, they have considered aspects of community and identity building” - https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10449/10149

Workshop Ideas

I think an html themed workshop would be fun like how to break html or having fun with html or something like that.
We could sort of show some very basic html stuff and like a few ways to subvert it?
Intentionally causing errors stuff like that
I think it could be cool to show how malleable it is -Random() -Shake ()
Bots/ai -input tweets and get back word soup -input memes and generate new images (dall-e) -Make your own meme and throw it in the discord, use images in project (if consent)

NAMES

W3Schools type beat
Memes and Machines

THE LEVELS’ AESTHETICS

LV1

Rounded corners buttons
Blue people (not real skin tones)
Easing transitions
Fake Brands have their own profiles
Be yourself
Minimalism
Baby design → “This is that”
Walkthrough // Onboarding (e.g. pointers)
Satisfying sound
Cute icon
Encourage you to post (e.g. you have a memory!)
Interest questions → “Help us get to know you”
‘5 minute crafts’ put thru AI to get altered video
Full name
Screenshots of lv2 memes on lv1

LV2

Clean design broken up by memes
Cute icon → variant
Shitting on fake brands
Choose to be you or leave behind
Likes, hearts, visual affirmation
Makes fun of meme guy by name
Sparse use of memes
Shittposting text → use bot to collect twitter-esque language
Similar design feel to both 1+3 → purgatory
Username → second identity, online friends, self-reflection → what reflects me

LV3

Same as LV2 but inaccessible
ANONYMITY
Auto-scroll then stop scrolling
Pop-up pages
Shitting on fake brands
[1]
Glitch effect overlay → cant read text → broken mirror
Text overlaying text, varying font sizes
Ephemerality → posts disappear
- One place on the internet where you don’t have to worry about your papertrail … For better or for worse
Making meme guys themselves → taking him captive
Contrast minimalism of LV1
Have to leave identity behind because now you are just a member of the community
Cute icon → political figure
Call back to earlier levels (e.g. mockup with screenshots of prev. levels)
Memes are currency → scroll past various iterations of same meme format
Alternate universe of meme icons → not directly pepe but a frog
Extra information that feels like noise (e.g. numbered posts)
Structured chaotic → create rules, visual motifs
Word soup using hot words (e.g. “America is dead”)
- Beta, alpha, incel, fascist . . .
Reload page on timemark
No name → no way to connect past the boards, prison, insular

COLORS

Soft blue → Basic HTML blue
LIme Green

HOT WORDS

LV1

Nouns: love, family, dog, congrats, birthday, beach, kiddos, competition, military, rights, party, cruise, weekend, goals, vaccines, guns, reshare, government, law-abiding, riot, police, daughter, graduation, new mom, 5-Minute Crafts Verbs: celebrating, squeeze, win, fake news, share, unfortunately, pray, please, end Adjectives: tough, strong, beautiful, relaxing, happy, preggo, double trouble, grateful, ungrateful, brave, perfect

LV2

Nouns: spoilers, revenge, ideology, today's lesson:, idiot, taxes, dog, Karen, immigration reform, boi, anxiety, cheater, atheist, crush, film, gore, human, deception, generation, op, feminism, gamer Verbs: just found this, revenge, imagine, foreshadowing, protect, what is this, self control, ghosted, outjerked, rumored, hmmm, am i the asshole (r/AITA) Adjectives: worried, norm, soft, weird, learned, insane, curious, dumb,

LV3

Nouns: Beta, alpha, incel, fascist, slut, freedom of speech, the elite, truth, vaccine, shithole, homeland, data, sex, human right, taxes, boomers, capitalism, degenerate, normies, damnation, brain, revolution, disaster, God, weed Verbs: kill, crush, excommunicate, survived, realize, convert, replace, desperately, win Adjectives: filthy, dead, horny, white, crazy, subhuman, meaningless, poisonous, redpilled, braindead, attractive, messy, unreliable, effective, blackpilled

STRUCTURE

Adjective → noun (plural) → verb (plural) → noun