Because of the Pixels: On the History, Form, and Influence of MS Paint

Abstract

This article focuses on the history, formal properties, and cultural role played by MS Paint, a widely available graphics program that has been used to make countless internet memes. The author examines the technical limitations of the program, and the visible consequences produced by a mouse-driven bitmap-based graphics program. He uses MS Paint as a context to discuss two new pieces of graphics software – Fresh Paint and Rage Maker – each of which embody radically different orientations to the concept of remediation. These three approaches to understanding MS Paint help us to reconsider the culturally suppressed media that have nonetheless had significant effects on the visual culture of the contemporary participatory internet.

Memes e educação na cibercultura

“…Ela, que já surge a partir de debates em ambientes digitais, foi responsável por dar os passos iniciais para que fossem dados os primeiros conceitos além do estudo de Dawkins, mas ainda carregavam fortes argumentos biologizantes e não reconheciam o caráter eminentemente midiático que o objeto trazia. Esse passo só foi dado anos depois por pesquisadores contemporâneos, como Patrick Davison (2014), Michele Knobel e Colin Lankshear (2007), que seguiram discutindo o conceito e estabeleceram a concepção midiática que temos atualmente.…”

Redefining screenshots: Toward critical literacy of screen capture practices

“…Screenshot became a standard part of home computing, making its way onto keyboards as a dedicated button (labeled by abbreviations such as PrtScn). Default graphics programs such as MacPaint and MS Paint integrated this feature and further streamlined the screenshot process (Davison, 2014). Writing in 2003, Book (2003) noted the relative ease of taking screenshots using either these default options embedded in computer operating systems or special software.…”

“…The integration of screenshot functionality into basic graphic editors (Davison, 2014) facilitates the move away from a ‘screen dump’ toward images that build on screenshots. However, the process of editing such images weakens their connection to the represented on-screen situation.…”

Internet memes as internet signs: A semiotic view of digital culture

“…Now, when banks and educational establishments turn their attention to Internet memes, albeit for marketing purposes, it is safe to assert that this trend now poses a mature cultural phenomenon and invites systematic media scrutiny. Yet despite the enshrined legitimacy of Internet memes to Web and App audiences, their relevance has only recently proved a fruitful fi eld of critical enquiry (Davison 2012(Davison , 2014Goriunova 2014;Knobel, Lankshear 2007). Th is is why discursive treatments of internet memes are arguably still in its infancy.…”