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ARGUMENTATION AND ADVOCACY49 (Winter 2013): 151-166

TH E JOURNAL OF THE AMERICA N FORENSIC ASSOCIATIO N

ARGUMENTATIONAND ADVOCACY

THE RIOT KISS:FRAMIN G MEME S AS VISUAL ARGUMENT

Leslie A. Hahner

T/iis essay analyinfs the riot kiss photograph ta/cen by Rich Lam afler game seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup

Finals in Vancouver and its subsequent life as a visual internet même. Noting how this image and its

reproductions both operated as mêmes, I argue that the riot kiss photograph's rapid circulation across numerous

participatory sites exposed the diverse argument frames employed to create arguments about this image and

simultaneously marked the ambiguity of commonplace readings. Public recognition of such instability motivated

the continued invention of arguments about this image through reproduction and creative manipulation, ¡dissect

the various claims fashioned about the original photograph and the ways in which the ambiguity of the

frameworks for those claims motivated the creative manipulation of the photograph. This essay contributes to

argumentation theory by offering an opening foray into understanding mêmes as forms of visual argument.

Key Words: mêmes, framing, the riot kiss, visual argument, circulation

In the midst of the Vancouver riots of June 2011, Getty photographer Rich Lam captureda compelling photograph: an image of a young couple lying in the street embraced in a kiss.The riots began as the Boston Bruins triumphed over the Vancouver Canucks in game sevenof the Stanley Cup Finals. Over 100,000 fans, who had been watching the game from thestreets on large-screen televisions, erupted into violence. Officials reported that at least 140people sustained injuries, four persons were stabbed, and the events of the night incurred$3.7 million dollars (CAD) in damages ("A Tale of Two Riots," 2011; Howell, 2012). Duringthe riots, as looters attempted to break into a department store and two cars burned nearby.Lam, on assignment for the game, spotted a couple comforting one another after the youngwoman, Alexandra Thomas, was knocked to the ground by riot police (Horaczek, 2011).Lam quickly snapped a number of shots and delivered them to Getty (Horaczek, 2011). Inthe intriguing composition published the next day, the pair lies in the lower left comer of thephotograph while police officers in riot gear bracket the foreground and background (seeFigure 1). Lam's photograph proved to be the definitive image of the night.

Within a few days of the riots. Lam's photograph would become one of the most searcheditems on Google, be discussed in thousands of news sites, and be reproduced in a wide variety

Leslie A. Hahner, Department of Communication, Baylor University. Earlier versions of this essay were presented at the 2012 RhetoricSociety of America Biennial Conference, 2011 National Communication Association Annual Convention, and the 2011 NCA/AFAConference on Argumentation. The author thanks Scott Varda, Bruce Gronbeck, Sam Peny, and her colleagues at the Maine writingretreat workshop (Megan Foley,Josh Gunn, Michael Lawrence, Claire Siseo King, and Erin Rand) for their invaluable guidance. She alsois grateful to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their advice on this manuscript. Corresporidence concerning this article should beaddressed to Leslie Hahner, One Bear Place #97368, Waco, Texas, 76798-7368. E-mail: [email protected]

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Figure 1 : Rich Lam's photograph of the Vancouver Riots 2011. Reproduced with permissionfrom Getty Images.

of forms. As the photograph spread across various media locales, writers and respondents offeredmyriad interpretations of the image. Some commentators touted the photograph as "iconic"(Duggan, 2011, para. 9) and christened it the "riot kiss" (Doyle, 2011; Duggan, 2011). For others,the juxtaposition depicted within the image was said to inspire love against the chaos ofdestruction—"Mad Max meets From Here to Eternity" (Lazaruk, 2011, para. 7). Many arguedthat the photograph was fake, either created by a playful digital manipulator or randy perfor-mance artists (Controneo, 2011; Qualman, 2011; Quinn, 2011). Still others contended that theimage showed the effects of overindulgence in alcohol (Controneo, 2011; Lazaruk, 2011;"Vancouver Kissing Riot," 2011). As the popularity of the image increased, other articles andvideos of the lip locked pair appeared in which the young man in the picture, Scott Jones,explained that his girlfriend had become a "bit hysterical" and he was "just trying to calm herdown" ("Vancouver Riot Kiss," 2011, para. 10). Despite Jones's attempt to corral the meaningand impact of the photograph, this information failed to resolve the multiplicity of viewpoints onit. Commentators persisted in their debate about the image's meaning and continued to repro-duce the photograph across online sites.

Indeed, playing off the variety of claims deployed about this photograph, internet mêmeenthusiasts mashed the kissing couple with other visuals. Lam's passionate pair were editedinto a number of popular images such as the lone protestor in front of a tank near TiananmenSquare and the Beatles crossing Abbey Road.' Interestingly, the images created from theVancouver couple seemed to be motivated by the numerous contentions made about the

' Given current copyright laws, it is not possible to legally publish derivative visual mêmes created with theVancouver duo. Instead, I direct readers to Know Your Même, a database that chronicles and archives the images:httpV/knowyourmeme.com/memes/vancouver-riot-kiss/photos.

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photograph proper. For example, both the Tiananmen Square and Abbey Road images arepredicated on seeing the couple's embrace as an iconic photograph that resonates with thepublic. More generally, the claims fashioned about Lam's photograph (e.g., its iconicity,statement on violence, artificiality) became the basis for joining the couple to other popularvisuals. Indeed, the circulation of this photograph proves important for the study of argu-mentation insofar as its proliferation generated the continued invention of argument.

Given the photograph's movement across the internet and its uptake as a creative work,this image operated as a meme-a. virus-like cultural artifact that proliferates by replication andmutation (Blackmore, 1999; Dawkins, 1989/2006). For scholars, mêmes can spread en-trenched cultural patterns such as those associated -with religion or more fleeting fadsincluding catch-phrases, songs, and fashion (Knobel & Lankshear, 2006). The internetversion of this phenomenon manipulates and propagates images for alternate, often humor-ous, purposes. This essay employs the term même in a more general sense to refer to anytrend that is replicated across the social as well as those online images that re-create othervisuals. For the riot kiss photograph, the même was both the reproduction of this imageacross mediated sites as well as its modifications in visual forms. In my view, both of thesetypes of circulation enabled viewers to recognize competing frames of interpretation for thisphotograph and goaded the invention of arguments in relationship to these rubrics. Sometheorizations suggest the meme's "slipperiness or ambiguity" ensures its replication (Johnson,2007, p. 42). With the riot kiss photograph, the ambiguity generated by audiences' recog-nition of numerous interpretive schemes propelled its propagation and appropriation.

In this essay, I offer an opening foray into understanding the invention of online mêmesas forms of visual argument by extending the concept of argument frames. While there isconsiderable variation in theorizations of the frame, this essay draws on Goffman's (1974)discussion of frames as normative schemes of interpretation that organize human perception.In keeping with this perspective, I am specifically informed by those scholars who use theconcept of the frame to study visual argument wherein, as Gibbons (2007) notes, framesallow viewers to use larger cultural norms and the immediate context for the "formation,interpretation, and/or evaluation of an argument" (p. 180). Frame analysis suggests thataudience members can engage multiple interpretive frameworks to fashion arguments abouta given text and provides a fruitful starting place to understand the abundant and conflictingcontentions about the riot kiss. Yet, in order to extend frame analysis to internet images thatspread as mêmes, scholars must account for their incredible speed of circulation, a mobilitythat can undermine the certainty of normative views. I argue that the riot kiss photographs'rapid movement across numerous participatory sites exposed the diverse argument framesemployed to create arguments about this image and simultaneously marked the ambiguity ofcommonplace readings. Public recognition of such instability motivated the continuedinvention of arguments about this image through reproduction and creative manipulation.

I proceed by briefly illustrating how the insights of frame analysis and accounts ofcontroversy provide a productive avenue to pursue the multiplicity of arguments createdabout the riot kiss photograph. I continue by explaining how the unique circulation ofmêmes requires scholars to broaden the scope of frame analysis as it relates to this contem-porary mode of visual argumentation. I then explore the riot kiss photograph and its cleverappropriations employing this new understanding of mêmes and frames. As I do so, I attendto three frames: naturalism, eros/thanatos, and the transient trends of popular culture. Iconclude by considering how this investigation opens up the study of mêmes as replicatinginterpretive frames that can propel the creation of argument.

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FRAMIN G MÊME S AS VISUAL ARGUMENT

For scholars of argument, the visual text presents an appealing object of study insofar asits ambiguity allows us to consider non-propositional claims. To explain how images can beused to create arguments, many scholars rely on the audience's understanding of contextualand cultural norms of seeing to suggest how claims can be enthymematically derived fromimages (Finnegan, 2001; Gronbeck, 2005; McNaughton, 2007; Pineda & Sowards, 2007;Ross, 2008; Smith, 2007). Some of these authors employ the concept of the frame to indicatehow audience members apply widespread interpretive schemes to a given visual (Birdsell &Groarke, 2007; Edwards, 2004; Gibbons, 2007; Helmers, 2004; Lake & Pickering, 1998). Inthis line of thinking, the frame enables those interested in the study of argumentation tounderstand how audiences engage manifold perspectives. For example. Lake and Pickering(1998) suggest that multiple frames are available to an image and allow those using imagesas arguments to "transform" its meaning by "altering the visual frame" (p. 87). Similarly,Gibbons (2007) notes how "multiple frames generally structure any given argument and canbe either verbal or visual" (p. 180). Thus, frame analysis provides a way to understand howa single text may prompt a number of different arguments.

Indeed, the various interpretations of the riot kiss image could be productively explainedby highlighting how the image elicited a variety of cultural conventions. Commentary on theriot kiss photograph on news sites, blogs, and social networking venues indicates thatparticipants could identify numerous frames of evaluation available to read this image. Forexample, when the photograph appeared on Huffpost Sports on June 16, 2011, the over 1,400comments posted over a two-week span provided a number of different interpretations of theimage and claims about it (Controneo, 2011). To some, this image was clearly Photo-shopped. For others, it depicted sexual assault. A few posters suggested the image displayedhow sexual desire overwhelms reason. Several individuals proclaimed the photograph as animage akin to Alfred Eisenstaedt's V-J Day in Times Squared As is clear in these multipleperspectives, commentators on the photograph were able to recognize a number of availableframes of reading. Moreover, on this site, observers did not simply post their own views, butassessed the merits of others' claims. For those who declared that the image was manipulatedor that the couple staged the kiss, other respondents offered their evaluation of the photog-rapher's technique or provided links to other snapshots of the couple and articles clarifyingthe content of the photograph. In this way, those who commented on the image, at least onHuffpost Sports., were not simply asserting random claims but seemed well versed in theavailable interpretations of this image and evidence for those interpretations. Given thatparallel discussions appeared on news sites, social networking venues, and other websites,these posters were ostensibly knowledgeable about the kinds of contentions that could bemade about Lam's photograph (CBC News, 2011; "Vancouver Riot's 'Kissing Couple,'"2011). Moreover, the majority of arguments crafted about the image were not arbitraryassertions but clustered around particular themes (e.g., the photograph as fake, the image asiconic, the couple as drunk). As such, many commentators were familiar with and able toappraise the various ways of seeing and reasoning available to this image.

Given this detail, the riot kiss photograph might be read through the lens of controversyto explain how posters on the photograph did not simply recognize competing frames but

^ The V-J Day photograph as the depiction of sexual assault was discussed in online sites. For a summary, seehttp://jezebel.com/5949555/iconic-vj-day-photograph-sailor-kiss-decried-as-depiction-of-sexual-assault/.

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used those frames in interactive online forums to create and dispute claims about the image(Finnegan, 2000; Shelley, 1996). In her cogent reading of Time Magazines darkened reprintof O J. Simpson's mug shot, Finnegan (2000) contends that the cover is "a site of contestationover the meaning of representation itself (p. 236). She asserts that the mug shot imageoffered "a series of possible readings which are available to particular viewers in particularcontexts" (Finnegan, 2000, p. 236). Multiple readings of the Simpson image indicated thatthis cover shot, like texts generally,

is neither a stable entity with a fixed meaning nor a simple visual argument that may be identified andanalyzed. Indeed, the Simpson mug shot image generated a field of discourse that advanced multiple readingsof the same image simultaneously. (Finnegan, 2000, p. 241)

Along simuar lines, the riot kiss image certainly engendered a variety of claims given howit elicited a range of norms of representation. The discussion on Hujfpost Sports implies thatthe image "generated a field of discourse" that circulated around the image stimulatingcontrasting, contemporaneous readings in the world of social media (Finnegan, 2000, p. 241).Although for Finnegan (2000) divergent readings of the Simpson image are "context-based"(p. 238), the interactive online forum enabled audiences to cut across contexts and engage inmultiple frameworks concurrently. Audiences' recognition of multiple frames of interpreta-tion encouraged debate on the meaning and import of the photograph.

Frame theory thus provides an apt starting place to understand the multiplicity ofperspectives brought to bear on this image. Yet, frame theory as currently configured cannotfully account for the motivated connection between these online disputes and the images'creative appropriation. In the simplest sense, frame theory was simply not created to imaginethe rapidity of online distribution and the uptake of highly malleable images. In a moresubstantial sense, the circulation of contemporary images across online venues requiresargumentation scholars to supplement frame theory. It is not merely that online imagestravel faster, but that the capacity for online images to swiftly circtilate on the internet allowsfor what were seemingly discrete frameworks to collide and converge. As opposed toFinnegan and Kang's (2004) claim that "dominant discourses" conceal the history of theircirculation (p. 395), online images often expose their circulation, leaving material anddiscursive traces of their travels through viewer comments and a highly accessible archivalhistory (e.g., links). Finnegan and Kang (2004) point out that by effacing its circtilation, animage can appear as true, whue recognition of the image's movements enables viewers to"question the iconic status of any discourse" (p. 395). As an amplified version of Lake andPickering's (1998) assertion that placing images in a new visual frame can allow for refuta-tion, the accelerated movements of online images may simultaneously elicit a multiplicity offrames that do not simply provoke refutation but rather motivate viewers to engage numer-ous modes of argumentation including creative appropriation. Thus, though frame theoryenables scholars to consider the relationship between normative schemes of interpretationand audience perspective, extending this scholarship to mêmes requires us to consider howthese unique cultural artifacts work.

Even though mêmes in popular culture are colloquially defined as internet fads, thescience of memetics maintains that mêmes function through a kind of evolutionary impulsethat seeks to ensure the meme's survival (Dawkins, 1989/2006). Mêmes can be ideas, culturaltrends, or behaviors that spread from person to person. As Blackmore (1999) explains, themême is a virus that replicates by imitation, by "jumping from brain to brain" (p. 6). Johnson(2007) writes that the "même is self-replicating, at least up to a critical threshold, because the

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more adopters it infects, the more others will be exposed to it" (p. 42). The nature of themême virus requires that the infected change in some fashion: "We must adopt the behavior,slang or trend ourselves, or in other words, the même must influence us to alter ourenvironments in such a way that its chances of replication are increased" (Johnson, 2007,p. 42). For most même researchers, internet mêmes exert a limited influence as opposed tomore deep-rooted mêmes (Knobel and Lankshear, 2006), but nevertheless the concept ofinfection explains the spread of online mêmes wherein images are taken up and adapted byvirtue of their click to click circulation. Thus, the original riot kiss photograph and its creativemanipulations are all a part of the same même insofar as they are all replicated by virtue ofappropriation. In his discussion of genes, Dawkins (1989/2006) insists that there are impor-tant distinctions between the replicator (that which is copied) and the vehicle (that whichcarries the replicator). Blackmore's (1999) example of this is DNA that replicates through thevehicle of the biological organism. To relate this perspective to online images, then, theimage itself is the vehicle while the idea, trend, or repost is replicated.

Memetic principles as applied to the riot kiss photograph indicate that the original imageand its re-creations are the vehicle and the frames, or ways of seeing, are that which arereplicated. Aunger (2002) contends that ideas can operate as mêmes. In this sense, framescan spread memetically as cognitive schemes that infect potential viewers. Blackmore (1999)points out that some mêmes spread faster by drawing on already established mentalpathways—through ideas or ways of thinking that have already infected the host. Moreover,mêmes work by changing the behavior of the organism. In this way, ways of seeingproliferate through the circulation of an image and change behavior by inviting the viewerto engage these different frameworks. The même has been successful if the viewer imitatesthose frames used to read the image in the social. As such, I would suggest that mêmes canelicit argument by spreading different frames for interpretation and inviting audiences toutilize those frames to evaluate the image. For the riot kiss même, as viewers on online sitesbegan to employ their own frames to decode the image, other viewers imitated thoseinterpretative rubrics. Both used the mental pathways replicated by common readings of theimage to fashion arguments about the photograph. Thus, même theory supplements schol-arly understandings of frame theory in relationship to the contentions generated by the riotkiss: The même is the way of seeing spread by the image and the arguments elicited from thatpathogen.

With some mêmes, as is the case with the riot kiss photograph, the rapidity of circulationprovokes argumentation by replicating myriad ways of seeing. Même theorists wouldidentify the riot kiss as a memeplex: groups of mêmes found in one vehicle (Johnson, 2007).Thus, while all images can replicate ways of seeing, the riot kiss image is a memeplex thatprompted multiple ways of seeing and available arguments simultaneously. As opposed tothose visual internet mêmes that propagate limited frames of interpretation (e.g.. Advice Dogis always dispensing guidance. Overly Attached Girlfriend is always clingy), the riot kiss'stravels enabled viewers to recognize and debate multiple frames. Indeed, the interminglingof frameworks across and within mediated sites exposed the instability of any normativescheme of interpretation. On Huffpost Sports., the immediate context of the news websitebecame joined with and juxtaposed against other ways of seeing the image via the interactiveforum. Such contrast enabled audiences to recognize the ambiguity of normative rubrics forinterpretation.

Recognition of this uncertainty goaded the production of further images that played uponthe instability of these norms. The riot kiss memeplex proved successful in its dissemination

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by drawing upon heated disputes about its import and using the frameworks challenged inthose debates for further contestation and appropriation. To be sure, not all mêmes willproduce argument in this fashion. In this instcince, the image's circulation prompted reflex-ivity on numerous visual frames available to read this photograph. As Judith Butler (2009)explains, reflexivity on the normative frame can be brought about by the travels of theimage. For her, images that spread across the social transfer norms of viewing to the publicby establishing the conditions for what is able to be seen. Yet, Butler insists that themovements of some images can prompt reflexivity on those norms of framing used to readthe image. Referring to the circulation of images online, she writes, "What is taken forgranted in one instance becomes thematized critically or even incredulously in another"(Butler, 2009, p. 10). The continual circulation of an image can cut against commonplacerubrics to allow for polemical modes of reading. For the riot kiss photograph, the speed ofreplication within participatory online communities spurred the kind of reflexivity thatexposed the instability of normative interpretations.

The visibility of numerous, volatile frames generated the invention of additional worksand claims by digital creators. As Knobel and Lankshear (2006) note, successful mêmesemploy the inventional aspects of visual innovation and, I would add, argument creation,to speed replication by "hooking people into contributing their own version of the même"(p. 220). The images that manipulated the riot kiss photograph were not simply randomcreations unrelated to Lam's work but motivated by the variety of frames associated with thephotograph. In this way, rhetorical structures of reading circulating with the image allowedvisual meme-designers to exploit the ambiguity of those various frames of interpretation fortheir own purposes. Indeed, imitations of the photograph were not fashioned capriciouslybut structured by those codes of reading that became rhetorically attached to the image(Hariman & Lucaites, 2002; Hariman & Lucaites, 2007). As is clear in scholarship thattheorizes the ideographic use of images, appropriations of those images do not simply standin for any concept but rather are related to those norms of reading associated with theoriginal (Cloud, 2004; Edwards & Winkler, 1997). In the next section, I will demonstratehow the unstable structures of meaning and interpretation spread by the rapid proliferationof the image as vehicle motivated the production of arguments including creative appropri-ation. In particular, I attend to three frames simultaneously used to craft arguments about theimage: naturalism, eros/thanatos, and popular culture trends. While these were not the onlyframes replicated by the riot kiss photograph memeplex, these three substantiate the notionthat this memeplex spread multiple ways of seeing. Once these ways of seeing becamechallenged and undermined, online posters played upon the tensions of these unstableinterpretive rubrics as they spread this memeplex across the internet.

THE FRAMES OF THE RIOT KISS

Within only a few days of its release, the riot kiss photograph quickly traveled across avariety of news sites and social networking venues. As the photograph appeared in thesemediated locales, a number of normative frames of interpretation became recognizable toaudiences and were used to analyze the image. Many identified the seemingly fantasticquality of the image to deem it an iconic photograph while others used this same quality toquestion whether or not the image was real (Haddow, 2011; Qualman, 2011; Quinn, 2011).Additionally, others marked the sharp disparity of the photograph—the romantic embrace ofthe couple against the violence of the police—to proclaim Lam's work as emblematic of the

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phrase, "make love, not war" (Frenette, 2011, para. 17; see also Grant, 2011). For a few folks,this image showed the effects of crowd behavior including inebriation and the potential forviolence (Controneo, 2011; Lazanik, 2011; "Vancouver Kissing Riot," 2011). The rapiddissemination of the image replicated a number of frames of interpretation that audiencesengaged across and within mediated sites including frames of naturalism, the dualism of eros(love or life instinct) and thanatos (death instinct), and the transient trends of popular culture.While these frames were certainly related to general visual conventions and the compositionof the photograph, the important aspect I wish to highlight is that the riot kiss memeplexpropagated these simultaneous ways of seeing, among others, and the instability of thesecommon codes of reading enabled farther arguments and appropriations. As I proceed, I willdescribe several frames available to this image as it replicated across online sites and thecounter-readings facilitated by the intermingling of contestable and ambiguous interpretiveconventions.

Naturalism

A number of commentators employed the frame of naturalism to interpret Lam's photo-graph as it spread across online sites. Often associated with photojournalism, the naturalisticframe encourages viewers to read a photograph as true or real (Finnegan, 2001). For manyposters. Lam's photograph presented an authentic photograph. In this line of reasoning.Lam's photograph is important precisely because it presents a moment of the real, anintervention into the artificiality of the world. As noted by Douglas Haddow (2011), reporterfor The Guardian,

When we look at the riot photos, images that are said to have permanently soiled Vancouver's reputation, wesee young men acting out for the camera, revelling in the worst kind of apolitical theatre. Through the hazeof this absurd and dispiriting pantomime, Richard Lam has captured an image of the rarest form. One that isas authentic as it is romantic and speaks to a present cultural context but also contains a certain timeless virtue,(para. 12)

For Haddow, the photograph is newsworthy and powerful by virtue of its authenticity incontrast to the narcissistic, absurd stagecraft of other events in Vancouver. As such, thismême spread the frame of naturalism associated with journalistic photography and encotir-aged viewers to read this image as noteworthy given its realism.

Other posters imitated the naturalistic frame and compared the image to similarlycomposed images in order to suggest that Lam's couple is iconic. Indeed, hundreds ofindividuals posting on news outlets and social networking sites simply responded to thephotograph with the word iconic, as if the term were self explanatory. To deem this newlycaptured photograph iconic is to suggest that what it shows captures a popular image thatresonates with viewers. In keeping with this view, many viewers connected this photographto other well-known kiss images: Eisenstaedt's V-J Day in Times Square, the beach scene inFrom Here to Eternity., and Doisneau's Le Baiser de L'Hôtel de Ville (Anderssen, 2011; Lazaruk,2011; Rushe, 2011). In part, viewers joined this image to these other popular images giventhat the composition of the riot kiss photograph is quite similar. Echoing Edwards andWinkler's (1997) claim on representative form, the riot kiss photograph shows parallel figuresperforming analogous pubhc acts. Thus, the exposed circulation of this image—the notionthat viewers could provide links and compare similar popular photographs-enabled viewersto craft claims about the meaning or import of the photograph. In this way, one contention

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associated with the frame of naturalism was to suggest that the image presented a ground-breaking moment.

Yet, as indicated above, this memeplex replicated multiple ways of seeing that under-mined the stability of simple normative associations. A telling instance of this occurs whencommentators challenged a naturalistic frame of interpretation by contrasting the photo-graph against similar images. For a number of audience members, this image was read as asnapshot of artistic protest (Quinn, 2011). The lovers were purposefully mimicking othericonic images in order to protest the violence of police force or to gamer brief notoriety. Suchclaims recognized the import of the Vancouver couple but juxtaposed their iconic kiss withsimilar historical images and thereby destabilized an iconic reading. With Lam's photograph,the travels of the image undermined the iconicity thesis. For example, the riot kiss image wasplaced in close proximity to a similar image-a young couple kissing during the 2010 riots inLyon, France-on a Sydney Morning Herald Míe and style webpage (Quinn, 2011). Still othersites linked the Vancouver image to the photograph of a duo kissing during the 1990 PollTax riots in London ("Two Riots," 2011). These associations played on the theme oficonicity, yet nevertheless positioned Lam's kissing couple as performing for the viewer. Thatis, the composition of this image appeared quite similar to other popular images and as suchthis image was seen as a copy of those admired photographs. Commentators who highlightedthe dramatic similarities among these images read the photographs against the frame ofnaturalism. Significantly, to view this image as iconic because it appears similar to otherpopular images allowed audiences to simultaneously question this image as staged to createthat effect. While viewers recognized the naturalistic perspective encouraging the iconicitythesis, the circulation of the image in relationship to similar photographs likewise marked theinstabihty of that norm. On the one hand, this photograph was read as authentic andtherefore a poignant snapshot of passion against power. On the other hand, the similarcomposition of this photograph in comparison to others concurrently highlighted the artifi-cial quality of this image: It seemed fake because it too closely aligned with other images.Interpreters deployed the ambiguity of the naturalistic frame to generate at least two differentclaims: a) the photograph is an historic moment, and b) the photograph is staged.

Indeed, the circulation of this même enabled a number of posters to proclaim that thesimilarities between Lam's image and other photographs provided proof that the kissingcouple were performing for the camera. By at least June 20, the association between theVancouver and Lyon couples became common knowledge and the basis of disputes on newssites and social media about the intentions of those involved. For instance, on both Facebookand Twitter, users employed the parallels between the photographs to indicate that theVancouver couple deliberately copied the Lyon image (Qualman, 2011; Quinn, 2011).These comments indicate that audience members were knowledgeable about the photo-graph and its predecessors and able to use the connections between the Vancouver and Lyonpairs to question the naturalistic frame. The quick circulation and uptake of this memeplexenabled viewers to compare associated images. Such comparisons accented the instability ofthe frame of naturalism and allowed users to not simply see this photograph as iconic but alsoas a copy of well-known photographs.

Eros/Thanatos

Another frame of reading that spread with the photograph was related to the duahsm oferos and thanatos: the dialectic imagery of love against death and violence made visible in

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the disparity between the lovers and riot police. Posters used this frame to affirm the couple'sembrace as demonstrative of the power of love against the aggression of disciplinary force.While this perspective was certainly related to seeing this photograph as depicting anhistorical event, this norm did not simply emphasize the realism of the photograph but ratherimagined the couple's embrace as the victory of human will over state and crowd hostilities(McDaniel, 1998). As Scott Jones's own father posted on Facebook, "This is my Son.. ..Hows (sic) that for making love not war!" (as cited in Frenette, 2011). Those hundreds ofcommentators who simply responded to the image with the phrase "make love, not war"seem to have interpreted this photograph as eros triumphing over thanatos. As BarbaraGrant (2011) ofthe Ottawa Ci/icra explained.

The photo shows a compassionate side of humanity, a man kissing and reassuring his girlfriend while in themiddle of a horrible display of uncontrolled outrage after the Stanley Cup playoffs in Vancouver. This photoallows us to move on from thoughts of shame to thoughts of love and compassion in the midst of such violenceand destruction, (para. 1)

One way of seeing replicated with this photograph elicited the frame of eros and thanatosand enabled viewers to read the photograph as the conquest of the spirit over the fear ofdeath.

Yet, for other commentators, the circulation of various frames available to read thephotograph presented a paradoxical perspective on the distinctions between eros andthanatos. That is, the ambiguity emerging from the various frameworks reproduced by thismemeplex allowed for arguments that reversed the triumph of love over violence. For some,this photograph illustrated the repressive control of a state increasingly governed by author-itarian rule (Doyle, 2011). As one respondent posted on an ABC news story, "ChaoticCanada. Love not war. In a country where the riot police have take [si^ on the role of stormtroopers, might be a reason for the upsurge of riots, very Orwellian" (Potter, 2011). For stillothers, this frame prompted consideration of the fact that riot police were deployed followinga professional hockey game and the will to violence of some fans. On the Huffpost Sports site,many posters decried both the violence of the police against Alexandra Thomas and thenotion that this photograph might depict assault. One comment on this site used this frameto posit the image as violent,

I was THRILLED to learn that she was not being assaulted (the other photo I saw looked an awful lot likeother photos of a drunk girl being mauled by strangers). However, she was: 1) Knocked to the ground by thepolice shields; 2) Injured and in pain; 3) Crying and being comforted. I could see instantly that this was NOTa situation in which a normal, happy young lady would choose to place herself. How this turned into a packof hubba-hubba sex comments by millions of total strangers is clear: the photographer irresponsibly publisheda photo taken at an angle that was pointed directly at her naked thighs and partially naked buttocks while shewas being held and caressed by her companion. (Controneo, 2011)

As is clear in this comment, though viewing Lam's photograph through the classical dialecticof eros and thanatos could point viewers to the simplistic claim of "make love, not war," thecirculation of this image simultaneously marked the instability of this frame. This posterhighlighted his or her interaction with other photographs of the couple and the newknowledge he or she gained with other posts. As such, the rapid circulation of this photo-graph enabled viewers to recognize the ambiguity of the frames replicated by the memeplexand thereby facilitated oppositional claims about the violence of the state, patriarchalcultures, and disorderly crowds.

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Popular Culture Trend

Another set of contentions fashioned about Lam's work illuminates an additional frame ofinterpretation available to audiences as this memeplex moved across the internet: This imagewas read as a fleeting fad of popular culture. In this light, several assertions becamerecognizable to audiences. For some, the story and photograph distracted from real news. Anumber of Facebook commentators on a CBC News (2011) page lamented the obsessivecoverage of this image on news outlets. For example, Hedrick Blom wrote, "Anythingrelevant happening in our country? Strikes or riots or anything?" (CBC News, 2011). Forothers, the image as a popular culture text illustrated the raucous nature of the night. Twitterusers claimed that the couple clearly engaged in inappropriate decisions after a night oflibations, writing, "Those two had a few too many Molsons" and "they just look drunk outof their minds" (Lazaruk, 2011). A few commentators related the photograph's notoriety toother popular culture figures. As one respondent posted, "William and Kate are herealready?" (Controneo, 2011). In these comments, viewers relied on the photograph's ephem-eral fame to craft a number of different claims about the nature of spectacular distraction, thebehavior of the couple, and the comedy of the photograph.

Certainly, the arguments identified here were not the only ones created about Lam'sphotograph, but they highlight how this memeplex replicated a multiplicity of frames thatviewers used to evaluate this image as it circulated across mediated sites within a few shortdays. Given the current way in which audiences engage online texts through social media,discussion pages, and other online habits, it is not surprising that commentators on Lam'simage appeared fairly knowledgeable about the movements of this photograph across onlinesites and the myriad frames available to read this image. Moreover, the contradictory claimsabout this image worked with and against the same frameworks. Such oppositional argu-ments indicate that this memeplex did not simply enable audiences to recognize differentways of seeing but allowed posters to use the instability of these frames to debate and contestthe image's meaning and import.

Re-creations of the Riot Kiss

The dramatic contestation over normative readings of the photograph became the basisfor the image's creative redeployment. Within a mere 48 hours, the couple was cut andpasted into a number of other photographs and other popular figures were mashed withLam's image. These images strategically deployed the ambiguity generated by the variousframes of interpretation associated with the photograph to fashion fturther works with theVancouver couple and propel the dissemination of the memeplex. Thus, the spread of theimage in both its original and manipulated form are all a part of the same memeplex insofaras both spread a multiplicity of interpretive rubrics that goaded the invention of arguments.

One set of these remakes played off of reading the riot kiss photograph as an iconic,newsworthy commentary on the power of love. The riot kiss couple was cut and pasted intoboth V-J Day in Times Square and a still shot from the protagonists' beach embrace in FromHere to Eternity. In the Times Square image, the Vancouver couple is lying on the ground tothe right of the iconic couple while in the film shot, the couple was placed behind the twoactors. The remarkably similar content in these shots played upon the claim of iconicity. Insome ways, these visuals amplified the argument that public kissing in the midst of atumultuous event ought to be viewed with a particular reverence and are predicated onreading the image as a snapshot of the real. In part, these images extended the cliiim that the

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Vancouver couple is of historic import by positioning the pair as repetitions of similar iconickisses. Thus, while these re-created images altered the original, they nevertheless engagedthe same frame that invited the viewer to read the Vancouver pair as real by directlycoupling the twosome with similar predecessors. In this sense, these re-creations fashionedarguments generated by the meme's spread of the naturalistic frame insofar as these imagespartially repeated the claim of iconicity.

Yet, these creative works simultaneously undermined the frame of naturalism by markingthe Vancouver image as potentially false, or non-iconic, in relationship to other ostensiblymore authentic moments. The juxtaposition of recognizable visual forms with the Vancouvercouple emphasized the possibility that this duo was perhaps copying these well-knownscenes. The placement of the Vancouver couple next to the Times Square kiss need notemphasize their realism, but could serve to contrast their fabricated kiss against the iconiccouple. The film still shot direcüy communicated this idea by including the Vancouvercouple within a clearly staged kiss scene. In short, while these images worked through theframe of naturalism, they did not resolve the ambiguity ofthat norm. Rather, these mash-upsdeployed that uncertainty to fashion new contentions. Specifically, these mêmes engenderedhumorous assertions that situated the couple as potentially artificial in relationship to thesewell-known visuals. But, more accurately, these re-creations spread the memeplex and itsnumerous ways of seeing. These remakes used the uncertainty generated by the circulationand intermingling of frameworks for inventional purposes.

Another pastiche of images spun from the frame of eros and thanatos positioned theVancouver image as a snapshot of the power of love over violence. Given that, for some, theimage represented the dialectic of eros and thanatos, a number of imitations situated thecouple within similar shots. The duo was mashed with the Tiananmen Square photograph,an image from Neil Armstrong's first walk on the moon, a screen shot of the Rodney Kingvideo, a still shot from OJ. Simpson's 1991 car chase on Interstate 405, and a single shot ofthe Kennedy assassination Zapruder film. These iterations employed the instability of theframe to highlight the triumph of eros over thanatos. By joining the riot kiss pair to historicimages that display either the victory of the human spirit (e.g., Neil Armstirong, TiananmenSquare) or the brutality of violence (e.g., Rodney King, OJ. Simpson, the Zapruder still shot),these visuals worked the ambiguity of those norms of reading the photograph as emblematicof the phrase, "make love, not war." These images contrasted the kissing couple to bothheroic images and images of violence. In so doing, reading the couple as simply championsof love became even more unstable. These re-creations could position the Vancouver coupleas akin to these famous figures or as incongruous with these shots. Once again, these visualsdid not resolve the ambiguity of the frame of eros/thanatos but drew upon the tensions ofthat vacillation as they rephcated the même.

When the Vancouver couple became combined with other internet même images, theseworks played off of the fluctuations of the frame inviting the audience to see Lam'sphotograph as a pop culture artifact. The couple was paired with George Costanza fromSeinfeld modeling his underwear, the still shot from LeBron James's announcement that hewas taking his "talents to South Beach," the backside of Mark Cuban as he held the LarryO'Brien trophy while urinating, and many more. These re-creations emphasized the ephem-eral aspect of the Vancouver couple. Because these commonplace images were alreadywell-circulated même images, their appropriation directed the audience to see these repro-ductions as commentaries on the absurdity of popular culture. Even such bizarre imageswere predicated on the notion that the couple was only a blip on the radar of the popular.

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akin to these other mêmes. At the same time, because internet mêmes are well-recognizedimages, they simultaneously marked the Vancouver couple as significant to popular culture.These images exploited the uncertainty of this frame to fashion amusing images regardingthe silliness and yet incredible diffusion of trends. As such, even these banal imagesaccelerated the replication of this memeplex by highlighting the flexibility of commonframeworks of interpretation.

In total, the riot kiss photograph was part of a number of imitative works that played upona variety of different frames of interpretation, among them the power of love againstviolence, the artifice of photography, the humor of incongruity, and the surreal experienceof popular culture. These re-creations were motivated by the ambiguity of those frames ofinterpretation spread by the riot kiss image as memeplex. The rapid circulation of theoriginal photograph enabled competing frameworks to collide and thereby exposed theuncertainty of common codes of reading. Indeed, with Lam's work, the failures of normativeframes were so apparent that the image's mutations were motivated by the slipperiness of itsmeaning and function. Mash-ups of the photograph with other popular images exercised thevery protean interplay essential to the survival of the memeplex. In this way, the frames ofseeing and reasoning spread by this image did not simply demarcate different ways ofreading it, but emphasized the instability of those means of interpretation and allowed for theinventional deployment of that ambiguity.

CONCLUSIO N

This essay has suggested that frame theory might be productively extended to account forarguments produced in relationship to visual mêmes. For scholars of visual argument, frametheory is often employed to analyze how audiences engage the composition of an image andits immediate context to better discern the normative frameworks available for argumentconstruction. While frame theory provides ample guidance to grasp the multiplicity of claimsgenerated by the riot kiss, I maintain that frame theory can be fruitfully supplemented byaccoimting for the circulation of online images. Given that même theory holds that mêmesspread cultural trends, I argue that frames of interpretation can be replicated through visualmêmes. The riot kiss image proliferated multiple ways of seeing by virtue of its rapidcirculation across numerous participatory sites. The collision of multiple ways of seeing thisimage on such sites enabled dispute and debate. In these exchanges, audiences became bothfamiliar with the image's online travels and alternate ways of seeing this image. Suchinteractions allowed audiences to engage multiple frameworks simultaneously and therebypropelled the image's continued movement and contestation.

Amending the concept of visual argument frames for online mêmes encourages argumen-tation scholars to reflect on the varied topography of contemporary visual argument. Theambiguity of reading the riot kiss photograph through any singular normative rubricmotivated the meme's spread across the internet. Drawing on a number of même scholars,Johnson (2007) maintains that the evolutionary impulse of mêmes works by temporarilyattaching the même to other discourses that allow the même to continue its survival. Sheexplains, "What is taken as a stable entity, either subject or object, is a temporary coagulationof flows with different velocities" (Johnson, 2007, p. 32). The meaning of the même is thusarticulated retrospectively given that it possesses no inherent meaning. While Johnson'sessay did not attend to the argumentative function of mêmes, the analysis presented heresuggests that mêmes can drive the production of argument by replicating different frame-

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works of interpretation. Extending frame theory to the world of mêmes thus enables scholarsto recognize how the ambiguity of the même propels replication and the continued inventionof arguments about the même including its mutation in visual form. Investigating thecirculation of mêmes and the possibility that they can reproduce numerous and conflictingframeworks stresses the inventional potential of visual argument insofar as argument derivedfrom this varied landscape must negotiate this uncertainty in order to become "recognizableas such" (Goodnight, 1982/2012, p. 199). Indeed, this uncertainty engenders the continualcreation of arguments that can never shore up the meaning of the image but rather operateas engines for the meme's proliferation.

Yet, the numerous arguments spread by the riot kiss memeplex were not simply capriciousbut motivated by the tensions of the frames that traveled with this vehicle. With the riot kissphotograph, audiences imitated the contrasting frameworks replicated by this memeplex toengage multiple modes of argumentation and thereby exposed the ambiguity of any simplenormative interpretation. The arguments fashioned about Lam's dramatic photographplayed upon the structural tensions at the heart of normative ways of seeing. Manipulationsproduced from the original photograph took up these oppositions as the memeplex circu-lated in new visual forms. Some images played on the frame of naturalism by illustrating howthe couple could be read as either iconic or as fake. Other re-creations made sport of thosenorms suggesting that the couple illustrated the triumph of life over death. In other words,these mêmes did not emerge from thin air but worked with and against those codes ofreading that had become rhetorically attached to the image. Indeed, the humor of incon-gruity employed by these images depended upon subverting the structures of meaning thattypically beget conventional readings.

Understanding how visual mêmes work allows argumentation scholars to theorize howsimilar mêmes can invite argumentation and controversy. By accounting for how theseunique visual forms circulate online and can contrast ways of seeing often associated withdiscrete contexts, this essay suggests that the ambiguity of those juxtapositions does notsimply aid in the meme's replication but accelerates the creation of arguments in bothdiscursive and visual form. In this way, the methods employed in this essay could beproductively used to dissect popular même images such as those created with the photographof police Lt. John Pike pepper-spraying protestors or something as banal as mêmes deployedusing Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney's scowl. Indeed, the même de jour is a series ofimages posted on Tumblr: Mitt Romney smiling as he walked away from a press conferencewhere he blamed President Obama for the deaths of US citizens in Libya. Entitled "Mit tRomney Walking from Stuff," these visual mêmes superimposed Romney's body against avariety of backdrops including images of homeless veterans, civil rights protestors inBirmingham being assaulted by fire hoses, soup lines during the depression, and otherscenes.'̂ Significantly, at least two of the Romney meme's remakes referenced other mêmeimages including Lt. John Pike and McKayla Maroney. These visual mêmes seem to operateon a similar principle as the riot kiss memeplex. The various frames available to read theseimages collide and converge in these visual manipulations. Such combinations replicatethese mêmes and could ehcit further arguments about the originals and their re-creations. Assuch, this essay opens the discussion of how online mêmes might provoke the invention ofargument.

^ Images available at http://smirkingmitt.tumblr.com/.

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Read more generally, this essay invites argumentation scholars to reconsider the creationof visual argument in the age of digital media. With the riot kiss photograph, a highly visiblearchive facilitated the intermingling of various frames of interpretation. Given these travels,viewers were able to easily pinpoint numerous interpretive rubrics and use those to engagemultiple modes of argumentation. Moreover, the ease of manipulating the riot kiss photo-graph (e.g.. Know Your Même supplies a template for creating visual mêmes) facilitatedcreative modes of argumentation that emphasized the volatility of stable associations. Ofcourse, these features are not unique to the riot kiss photograph. In this sense, argumentinvention in the digital age requires that argumentation scholars rethink the simplicity ofargument frameworks. In online sites, the memetic spread of normative frames goadsaudiences to rapidly generate numerous contentions. These claims can never exhaust orcontain the meaning of the image. Instead, argument construction in the digital sphere ispredicated on the circulation of ambiguity. Online, visual texts play upon the ambiguity andmanipulability of the digital text to drive controversy and contestation. Yet, given thatmêmes are not limited to the digital arena, their circulation in the popular also begsconsideration of how other replicated trends or patterns might evoke argument. Thus, withinthe contemporary milieu, claims on a même may be elicited from its contagious publicity-amode of propagation underwritten by the very ambigtiity and uncertainty that drives itsreplication and the possibility of invention. In this way, this article highlights the meme'sinfectious circulation as a particularly felicitous tool for unpacking the creation and re-creation of argument in the digital age.

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