Chapter Ten:

Trans-Media Meme Construction

Sigils are a way of packaging meaning, and we're using the principles of sigils as a way of constructing a meme's outer layer. Modern sigilization work owes a massive debt to Austin Osman Spare⁵⁹, but it also owes a great deal to IKEA. IKEA's products include sheets designed where any individual, no matter what language they might read, is capable of following the same set of instructions. Sigils allow the designer to bypass language sets and filters in order to deliver a meaning in the most concise way possible. Contemporary magicians rely on sigils to communicate with their internal psychic processes and the spiritual world. We argue that sigils are the outer layer, or the capsid, of the meme, and can be created in many different kinds of media--not just visual icons.

One can imagine a future development of this meta-language involving video that allows textuality to whither away, and as an example of a precursor of this, one need only look to the Youtube interface where the video you are watching is accompanied by graphical thumbnails by which to select more videos for watching. No words are necessary and the hyper-linking mitigates the linearity inherent in video, while the short clips further contribute to the alinearity. In addition, a number of strides have been taken by various individuals and communities online in developing sigilization techniques for audio and even olfactory imprinting. At its heart, sigilization is a technique of encoding memes for network distribution.