That is, you can hear me shout “Puking� and say other words and phrases coined by the Bard if you go the the multimedia exhibition “Meme: Culture in Transmission�, guest curated by Susan Byrnes. The exhibition is in the Herndon Gallery in South Hall at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Back in October, Chris Shea, the man behind Free Shakespeare, has reached out to his Facebook contacts for people who could come participate in a no-experience-needed Free Shakespeare! recording project. I’d participated in a Free Shakespeare event before (Shakespeare for Life marathon reading with Jamie McQuinn in October 2011) and since I love overloading my schedule with things I’ve never done before, I signed up, and the lot of us got together at the Loft Theater. The “scriptâ€? consisted of various words and well-known phrases coined by William Shakespeare, and there are a lot of those. Puking, watchdog, majestic, eaten out of house and home—those were some of the selections on my list.

We read them many ways, in sequence, in unison, quietly, uproariously, emotionally, roboticly, and then all over again. Chris and Charmaine Renee then assembled the installation: a collage jumble of the phrases strewn behind a set of headphones, playing the cut of our cacophony. At the opening reception last night, the ambient noise was enough to make listening to the cut problematic, but if you go during the regular hours, you should have no trouble. It’s over in the corner, like this:

Such Stuff As Memes Are Made On: you can hear my voice among many others in the headphones indicated

That image is linked to the full-size version.

The exhibition runs through February 15, with a performance “Seeing Is Receiving: Performing the Meme” with Will Davis, Free Shakespeare!, and Rodney Veal on January 24 at 7:00 pm. The gallery is normally open from 1–4 in the afternoon (closed Sundays and Mondays, and closed December 21–January 2).

—jhunterj