How Cats Took Over the Internet

That cats “rule the Internet” is an undisputed truism. Internet users have created and viewed millions of images and videos of cats, delighting in media that dwell on the cat’s many paradoxes: its independence and powerlessness, its curiosity and indifference, its human qualities and sheer inscrutability.

How Cats Took Over the Internet tells the history of cats online, examining phenomena like Caturday, lolcats, cat videos, celebrity cats, and more to unearth why images and videos of the feline kind have transfixed a generation of web users. Touching on concepts like anthropomorphism, the aesthetics of cuteness, the Bored at Work Network, and the rise of user-generated content, this exhibit takes a critical look at a deceptively frivolous phenomenon.

Organized by Jason Eppink, Associate Curator of Digital Media 

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