Cats on the internet to star in New York museum exhibition

The Museum of the Moving Image in New York is set to host a major new exhibition dedicated to the rise of internet cats. But is it just a shameless excuse to watch more cat videos?

The exhibition, titled How Cats Took Over the Internet, has been designed by digital curator Jason Eppink, and presents a broad survey of the history of cats on the web. It examines online phenomena such as cat memes, cat hashtags and lolcats and features popular celebrity cats such as Grumpy Cat, Keyboard Cat, cartoon cat Pusheen, toothless 'Lil Bub and a Japanese cat that hides inside boxes.

Commentators can barely contain their excitement, or their irony.

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“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a person in possession of an internet connection must be in want of a cat to look at,” says David Ehrlich in Time Out, New York. How did this happen? he asks. “The Museum of the Moving Image is determined to find the answers to these pressing questions.”

Ehrlich adds: “This is sure to be a very cerebral exploration of the digital dynamic between human and cat, so only those with a serious cultural interest in the matter need attend.”

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“OMG internet cat fans!” says Kat Brown in the Daily Telegraph. “Enough of this obsession with art and science: one museum has finally realised the importance of feline web activity.”

The museum promises that the exhibition will take “a critical look at a deceptively frivolous phenomenon”, says Brown, examining why cat videos and memes have “transfixed a generation of web users”.

It will also touch on “anthropomorphism, the aesthetics of cuteness, the Bored at Work Network, and the rise of user-generated content”.

If you’re looking for high and low culture, look no further than the Museum of the Moving Image, says Lulu Chang on Digital Trends. “What higher form of art could possibly exist than YouTube videos of kittens boppin’ along to a sick beat?”

The six-month exhibit, says Chang, is “sure to be a crowd-pleaser no matter what your interests are (even if they only marginally include cats)”.

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It won’t be the first time an art institution has looked at feline stars of the internet, points out Guelda Voien in The Observer. In 2012, the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis held a film festival of cat videos culled from the web. They didn’t claim that the project was a high-minded investigation into “the aesthetics of cuteness”, however, suggesting instead that it was more of a “social experiment”.

But it turned out to be a popular one, admits Voien. The event brought record-breaking web traffic to the Walker Centre’s site, and they now host an annual cat video festival that charges admission.

How Cats Took Over the Internet is on view at the Museum of the Moving Image, Queens, New York, from 7 August 2015 to 31 January 2016.