These memes are extremely dense cultural talismans that accumulate layers and layers of meaning/allusion over time. Like the jargon of academia, memes look like nonsense to outsiders but facilitate deep communication between members of a subculture.Unlike offline communities, these subcultures aren’t always neatly labeled, and people don’t consciou... See more

One of his keys to success: Bell sets aside hours each week to solely do curation and find inspiration. He’ll browse Tumblr and build countless boards on Are.na. “Are.na is my favorite website ever, the browse page is amazing, you can look at everything being added in real-time to the site,” he said. “That feed is the most organic, serendipitous pl... See more

But social media has created a mass ability to publish images and curate them. On Tumblr and Pinterest and Are.na, you can group images into categories and comment on them. Through cheaper, consumer-grade media production tools, ideas once restricted to the underground or the zine now have glossy indie magazines, self-burnt mixtapes, and dozens of ... See more