Image: The Museum of English Rural Life tweet
A now viral tweet featuring a photo of a ram, first published by The Museum of English Rural Life in 2018, will go on display as an example of photographic technology
A tweet posted by The Museum of English Rural Life in 2018 will become the first digital-only object to be acquired and displayed by Bradford’s National Science and Media Museum when it reopens this month.
The post featured a photograph of a large Exmoor Horn ram, taken from The Museum of English Rural Life’s photography collection. It was the accompanying caption which saw the post go viral; “look at this absolute unit”.
The post has since inspired a range of merchandise featuring the image and caption.
The National Science and Media Museum said the post, now a meme is “an example of how internet culture can create second, unexpected lives for images long after they were first created”.
“The meme tells the story of a photograph from negative and print, through to digital reproduction, social media circulation and subsequent new variants. The inclusion of the Absolute Unit meme marks a milestone in the museum in embracing the evolving relationship between photography and the digital age.”
The object will be displayed in the museum’s Kodak gallery, placed within the broader history of hundreds of years of photographic technology.
It will be displayed on an interactive touch screen allowing visitors to scroll as if encountering it on their own social media feeds and includes a handful of real user responses.
The museum worked with Dr Arran Reese, a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds, to develop a method for collecting and displaying social media memes, to reflect their relevance to photographic technology and broader cultural heritage.
First look at National Science and Media Museum redevelopment plans
The museum will reopen its doors to the public on 8 January 2025 following its major regeneration project, with a special reopening celebration on Saturday 11 January. The refreshed Kodak photography gallery, including the newly added Absolute Unit meme, will form part of the museum’s wider reopening celebrations.
