Cute cats of digital activism
I decided to generate some visuals for a practical response in regards to the theory of 'cute cats of digital activism' by Ethan Zuckerman; the theory refers to how activists on social media use non related and 'cute' imagery alongside serious and often radical political views. The concept for this response would explore this juxtaposition of wholesome imagery and serious topics in order to relate to the influences and theories behind political memes online.
These initial visual responses to the concept adopt soft textures and delicate colour palettes in order to convey a sense of cuteness related to cat memes and images online; the cats are the focal point of the visual hierarchy of these designs, as I intended the focus to be on the illustrations as a way of distracting the audience; this linked to how cute cats within digital activism create a surface level distraction from the actual political ideologies.
These designs are simply just initial experiments with visuals in order to help me visualise my concept; I needed to do so in order to figure out which of my initial ideas would work best both conceptually and visually. Although these designs work visually in the sense that they relate to the juxtaposition of politics and cute imagery, conceptually they feel a bit too obvious; I mean, they are simply just cute cat illustrations, and I'm not sure they have a strong connection to meme culture - I want my practical outcome to be more interactive and have more depth than simple illustrations like these. I think I might consider looking into alternative options like producing an outcome based on the 'notion of absurdism', as it relates more to the sense of humour found in political memes.
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