From 28 March - 1 April 2022, Buzzhouse will be used for the week-long Crisis Memes Data Sprint. During this period both the Round Room and Open Space will be closed for the general public.

How do memes simplify complex topics, making them politically legible and emotionally digestible to wide and diverse audiences on an increasingly global scale, using the techno-social affordances of platforms? This interdisciplinary project seeks to understand how memes are produced and mobilized to communicate ideas, attitudes and affects related to COVID-19 and climate change, as a way of probing larger societal sentiments around these global crises. It assumes a collaboration between anthropology, political communication science, and media studies, and is funded by the Global Digital Cultures initiative at the University of Amsterdam. During the week-long data sprint participants can choose to work on two projects: “Hit Anthro-Pause: The affectual politics of We are the virus memes” and “OK climate boomer, ok corona boomer”. These two projects investigate how users engage with climate change and Covid-19 as interconnected issues.