‘All your image are belong to us’: heritagization, archiving and historicization of memes

Abstract

From the ‘Dancing baby’, ‘All your base are belong to us’ and the ‘Hampster dance’ in the second half of the 1990s to Bernie’s mittens at the US presidential inauguration, through to ‘Disaster girl’ and ‘Distracted boyfriend’, among others, memes have become an important part of our (visual) digital culture over the last 20 years. This article demonstrates why memes should be considered a critical part of our born-digital heritage, by examining their connections to digital histories and trajectories, as well as their role in pop, visual and digital culture. The authors then map the diversity of stakeholders who contribute to this heritagization and the many challenges involved in meme preservation and archiving, including curation, agency, meaning and value.