A public programme curated by Reforum in conjunction with Dian Joy’s solo-exhibition, Alexandria’s Genesis.
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, mythmaking has transformed from its ancient origins into a form of digital folklore—shape-shifting through its inherently contagious nature afforded by social media.
As the distinction between content creators and consumers continues to dissolve, memetic formations evolve from mere internet artefacts into intricate, multi-layered vehicles for ideological discourse—forming a symbiotic and self-perpetuating feedback loop where creators shape their narratives as much as narratives shape their creators.
To explore this complex co-creation process, Reforum invites you to investigate online myths and contemporary legends within the digital realms, and ask: how these stories are told online, how they behave, and what these narratives reveal about our interconnected, algorithm-driven age in return?
Through a dynamic mix of panel talk, roundtable, and workshop, the event unpacks digital folklore, exploring how myths mutate through memetics and copypasta. Moderated by Alya Kanibelli, digital culture experts and artists will interrogate post-digital identity formation and social contagion—revealing the blurred boundaries between fact, fiction, and collective imagination.
EVENT PROGRAMME
3:00pm: Introduction and welcome
3:30pm Panel Talk: Alexandria’s Genesis
This panel talk delves into the genealogy of Alexandria’s Genesis, tracing its origins and evolution to contextualise the exhibition within the broader themes of digital mythmaking. Featuring Dian Joy and Cameron Aubernon, the writer of the 1998 fanfiction, the discussion examines how myths propagate online and what they reveal about our networked age in return, highlighting how such myths perpetuate collective belief systems and desires for unattainable, racialised ideals of the body, self and otherness.
4:00pm Roundtable: Mythmaking and Memetics
This roundtable investigates how myths and misinformation spread online through the lenses of memetics, copypasta, and creepypasta theories. Featuring digital culture experts and artists Dian Joy, Günseli Yalçınkaya, and Philip Speakman, moderated by Alya Kanibelli, the discussion explores the intersection of digital folklore, social contagion, and "post-digital" identity formation in our increasingly algorithm-driven age—revealing the blurred boundaries between fact, fiction, and collective imagination.
5:15pm Workshop: Memetic Ecosystems
A collaborative group writing exercise, “Cadavre Exquis” (Exquisite Corpse), inviting participants to explore the mutation of digital myths and how folklore can be subtly woven into everyday practices.
5:45pm: Closing Remarks
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Alexandria’s Genesis, a solo exhibition by British-Nigerian artist Dian Joy, examines how digital folklore shapes self-perception and social ideologies, with a particular focus on the role of the gaze in perpetuating myths about the body. Stemming from a widely circulated fanfiction entitled Purple Eyes and Other Interesting Anomalies, written in 1998 by Cameron Aubernon, the exhibition delves into the internet myth of Alexandria’s Genesis.
Through an interdisciplinary approach that includes filmmaking, animation, and archival research, Dian Joy traces the roots of this myth, exploring how new media technologies harness the gaze as a disciplinary force to shape both individual selfhood and collective belief systems. By delving into these structures of seeing and being seen, Alexandria’s Genesis challenges us to question how contemporary communication technologies perpetuate desires for unattainable, often dangerous, and always racialised ideals of the body.
Read more about the exhibition here. With the exemptions of events, the exhibition is unticketed and runs Tuesday to Sunday, 1 - 6pm until 12 Jan 2025. The gallery is closed from the 23rd of Dec 2024 to the 1st of Jan 2025, re-opening on the 2nd of January.
SPEAKERS BIO
Cameron Aubernon is an American freelance writer residing in the Appalachian United States. Her work ranges from reviews of the latest models from car manufacturers to the stories of those connected, in one way or another, to the automobile. They’re also a VTuber, the post-American-themed wandering gunslinger “Lady Jaye” Aubernon.
Dian Joy is a British-Nigerian interdisciplinary artist and educator based in London. Their work explores the intersection of biological and technological systems through videos and installations. Grounded in Cultural Analysis, their work bridges personal experiences and political realities, offering alternative social modalities.
Alya Kanibelli is a a multimedia producer, curator, and the founder of Reforum, a public programme series exploring and facilitating interdisciplinary exchange through (un)conference-style gatherings. With a BA in History, Politics, and Economics from UCL, she brings a multidisciplinary lens to her curatorial and production work, spanning public programmes, exhibitions, editorial publictions, and creative partnerships, collaborating with leading arts and cultural institutions, including BFI and ISTANBUL'74.
Philip Speakman is an artist based in London interested in fiction as a technology of transformation. Recent projects include ‘Reality Break’ for Future Artefacts FM and ‘Katabasing’, a mixed reality performance for Gossamer Fog’s Alt_R. His essay '“It May Start Out As A Game But It Ends Up A Whole World”; Creepypasta, QAnon, and the Anomalous Tales of the Internet' is to be published in a special issue of the journal Contemporary Legend later in the year. He graduated from MA Fine Art at The Slade in 2023.
Günseli Yalcinkaya is a writer and researcher based in London. She is also is co-curator of Cybernetic Serendipity: Towards AI, a day-long symposium that took place at London’s ICA in February 2024, and has appeared in talks and panels at the Architectural Association, BFI, Central Saint Martins, London College of Fashion, Somerset House, Sónar+D, Unsound Festival, and X Museum. Her ongoing practice of internet folklore is an exploration of online culture with a particular focus on the myths and ideologies embedded within these systems.