29.9. Memes as Technology – Talk by Stacey Irwin

Join us for a talk entitled Memes as Technology by professor Stacey Irwin (Millersville University) on Monday, 29 September 2025, at 15:00 at the University of Helsinki, Main Building, Room U3032 or online.

Time: September  29, 15:00 (EEST)

Place: University of Helsinki, Main Building, Room U3032 

Livestream:

Discussants: Professor Tanja Sihvonen (Communication Studies, University of Vaasa) & University Researcher Matti Pohjonen (University of Helsinki)

Memes as Technology

Memes have become one of the most popular digital media artifacts of our time. It can be difficult to understand what a meme is, but once pulled apart and reconstructed, we can consider the technological intertwining and requirements that make a meme the technological artifact it is. While some researchers have shared that early social media is not social, others look at the current experiences and feel that social media and the technologies embedded within it, like the meme, are social and even intimate. This presentation explores the image-based practices and methods of creating and experiencing this technologized communication and mediated algorithmic image. Human-technology relations and postphenomenology center largely in this analysis that considers the situated practice of meme-making, the human-technology-world of memes, and the influence of meme-ified data in our socio-technical world.

Stacey Irwin

Stacey Irwin is Professor of Media Arts Production and Broadcasting at . Her work bridges media-making, pedagogy, and digital environments, with a focus on human–technology relations and postphenomenology. She is the author of Digital Media: Human–Technology Connection and co-editor of Postphenomenology and Media: Essays on Human–Media–World Relations. Her research explores digital storytelling, algorithms, affect, and mediation theory through qualitative, reflective methods. Irwin has published widely in journals and edited volumes, and she regularly presents internationally on media ecology, critical pedagogy, and the lived experience of digital technologies. She is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker, known for Raising Faith: Stories about Dyslexia.

The event is hosted by the project.