How cats took over the internet: new exhibition is catnip for feline fans

A new exhibition at New York's Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) celebrates the history of cats online - from Kitty Cams to Nyan Cat - and the trend's connection with technology and pop culture

"To be honest, I'm allergic," confesses Jason Eppink. The associate curator of digital media at New York's Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), should be thankful his aversion to felines won't affect the institution's new exhibition: How Cats Took Over The Internet. It is a continuation of previous exhibits like Cut Up, a collection of re-edited popular work from largely self-taught, hobbyist editors and The Reaction GIF: Moving Image as Gesture, an enormous wall of emotional memes.

"It's fun, but it isn't frivolous," notes Carl Goodman, the museum's executive director, keenly aware that projections of funny cat vids are in the direct line of sight of an Orson Welles portrait from MoMI's permanent collection.