Gallery: How Cats Became Rulers of the Interwebs

  • Image may contain Human Person Interior Design Indoors Electronics Screen Monitor Display and Lcd Screen
    Thanassi Karageorgiou
    01

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    *How Cats Took Over the Internet*, a new exhibit up at New York's Museum of the Moving Image, studies the mysterious ways cats have captured our online attention.
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    Thanassi Karageorgiou
    02

    7c33e07e63c6241624da1a4919ed2b28

    The exhibit traces our online feline obsession from 1995, when a chatroom of humans started a dialect called Meowspeak, to today's current culture of cat celebrities, like Grumpy Cat.
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    Courtesy of The Infinite Cat Project
    03

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    The Infinite Cat Project is one of many projects features. Designer Mike Stanfill started the website in 2003, showing cats looking at cats looking at cats on screens. Very meta.
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    Thanassi Karageorgiou
    04

    681caca37618ecc3c0bc15ce1164cad8

    The exhibit also studies how our familiarity with cats makes them an ideal vehicle for self-expression. The most popular cat content features anthropomorphized felines.
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    Thanassi Karageorgiou
    05

    dc2c5dd1425cadce3ee2cff25713f110

    The exhibit showcases data from social media sites, psychological theories on cuteness, and a few economic principles. In the end, curator Jason Eppink found that our obsession isn't so much about cats—it's about us.
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