The BINARIANS, 2007-2008

The Binarians project began as an extension of a previous series of work titled “Memebiotics”. Treating memetic study as an invented pseudo-science, cultural ideas were presented as if they were being examined through a microscope, able to see the intangible, giving them form and the ability to interact with one another. Many of the memes presented were broad based sociopolitical views and world-view shaping perspectives.
The Binarians began as an investigation of more specific memes, ones that have binary functions of polarity within a culture. Many memes are fostered as “either/or” truth claims that divide individuals based on the adoption or rejection of the memes. For example, if someone believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible, the universe can only be 6,000 years old according to Old Testament lineages. It can not be simultaneously 6,000 years old and almost 4 billion years old as the scientific community has overwhelmingly proclaimed. These divisions are being expressed in the United States with such recent events as the Dover Trial in Pennsylvania, the Pandas and People textbook controversy, and what some describe as “culture wars”.
The Binarians are displayed along their bilateral axis as a butterfly or beetle might be catalogued. The names are related to the memes that are currently expressed by both sides in the Intelligent Design versus Evolution debate which is primarily an American phenomenon. The polarity of the Binarian is expressed as positives that are backed by empirical scientific data and the negative memes as those that have been postulated without evidence , but are presented as evidence, and used to support religious claims.
In the ideosphere, the realm and environment of memes and thoughts, these memes compete for survival and supremacy for the minds of the American populace.