Northwestern Qatar’s Media Majlis explores cultural power of memes

Doha, Qatar: Memes may seem like fleeting jokes scrolling past on screens, but at Northwestern University in Qatar s (NU Q) Media Majlis Museum, they...

Doha, Qatar: Memes may seem like fleeting jokes scrolling past on screens, but at Northwestern University in Qatar’s (NU-Q) Media Majlis Museum, they are the subject of an innovative exhibition that explores their deeper cultural, political, and social weight.

Titled ‘Memememememe’, the exhibition co-curated by Curator of Art, Media and Technology Jack Thomas Taylor and Assistant Curator Amal Zeyad Ali, opened yesterday. It examines memes as both playful and profound tools of humour, protest, identity, and influence that shape contemporary consciousness.

The exhibition dissects memes through four thematic lenses: Mass, Length, Time, and Volume borrowing from measurements of everyday life to reflect on how memes circulate, mutate, and carry meaning across societies. Set within a laundromat-inspired installation, the exhibition symbolically captures the endless “washing cycles” of memes, their repetition, transformation, and occasional loss of meaning.

For Taylor, the idea began with a fascination for memes as cultural barometers. He noted that while memes may appear trivial, they constantly shift across generations and geographies, carrying nuanced layers of meaning. “What fascinates me is how something that seems so lighthearted can spark commentary, inspire protests, or even influence politics,” he told The Peninsula.