Techno Viking is an

internet phenomenon Internet phenomena are social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet, such as Internet memes, which include popular catchphrases, images, viral videos, and jokes. When such fads and sensations occur online, they tend to grow rapidly ...

and

meme A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that Mimesis, spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying c ...

based on a video from the 2000

Fuckparade The Fuckparade is an annual summer technoparade in Berlin. The event began in 1997 as a demonstration against the increasing commercialisation of culture and public life and the misuse of the right of assembly by purely commercial ventures, in ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany.

Summary

The four-minute video shot by experimental video artist Matthias Fritsch at the

on 8 July 2000Matthias Fritsch
The Technoviking Archive
, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. begins with the title "Kneecam No. 1". The camera is focused on a group of people dancing to

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

music, with a blue-haired woman in front. A man stumbles into the scene and grabs the woman. The eponymous "Techno Viking", a muscular bare-chested man so-named because he is wearing a

Mjölnir Mjölnir ( , ; from Old Norse ''Mjǫllnir'' ) is the hammer of the thunder god Thor in Norse mythology, used both as a devastating weapon and as a divine instrument to provide blessings. The hammer is attested in numerous sources, including t ...

pendant and has a blond braid and a beard, enters the scene by grabbing the man by the arms, with the camera showing the confrontation. The Techno Viking pushes the man back in the direction he came, looking at him sternly and then pointing his finger at him to warn him to behave. The camera then follows the Techno Viking as the parade continues. Another observer comes from the back of the scene and offers an inverted bottle of water to him. The Techno Viking starts to dance down Rosenthaler Straße () after drinking from the bottle.

Reception and release

Fritsch uploaded the video to the internet in 2001.Astrid Herbold
"Youtube: 20 Millionen Klicks für den 'Techno-Wikinger'"
, ''

Tagesspiegel (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington, D.C., and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, since reunification ...

'' 23 July 2010 This includes an embedded version of the video. Fritsch intended to raise questions of whether the action was real or staged. In 2006 an unknown user re-published it to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, and it

went viral Viral phenomena or viral sensations are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the te ...

in 2007. According to Fritsch, its popularity began on a Central American pornography site.Kevin Morris
German court to decide the future of Technoviking"
, ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. It was founded by Nicholas White in 2011, and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown newsp ...

'', 17 January 2013. After being posted on

Break.com Break.com (formerly Big-boys.com) was an entertainment and humor website founded in 1998 that featured comedy videos, flash games, and pictures among other material. The website's target audience was men aged 18–35. After shutting down on Nove ...

, it peaked on 28 September at more than 1million views per day and was watched by over 10million people over 6 months. More than 700 responses and edited versions were posted.Carmela Thiele
"Das Musik-Video Technoviking"
, ''Corso'', DLF Cologne, 5 May 2009, interviewing Matthias Fritsch (mp3) It was the #1 clip on ''

Rude Tube ''Rude Tube'' is a British television programme broadcast on Channel 4 and its sister channel E4. Most of the programme's episodes have been presented by British comedian Alex Zane, who launched the show's pilot episode in February 2008. Comedi ...

'' series-three episode ''Drink and Drugs''. Mathew Cullen and

Weezer Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Brian Bell (guitar, keyboards, backing ...

wanted to include Techno Viking in their compilation of Internet memes for the "Pork and Beans" music video but were unable to. Techno Viking was also rendered in oils as part of a series on internet memes. By mid-2010, the video had generated over 20million hits on YouTube alone; , the original version had more than 16million views. Fritsch mounted an installation and the online Techno Viking Archive "to research the strategies of participatory practice in digital social networks"Judith Staines with Ghislaine Boddington, Interview with Matthias Fritsch
Excited Atoms: an exploration of virtual mobility in the contemporary performing arts
On the Move April 2010, p. 43 (pdf) and presented lectures on the reception of the video. His ''Music from the Masses'' project was suggested by the Techno Viking experience: it explores web collaboration by providing silent films for artists to provide soundtracks. In response to legal action by the man featured in the video, access to the Techno Viking video itself has been restricted and annotations on YouTube blocked since late 2009.

Identity and lawsuit

Fritsch did not know the man's name at the time of filming. A man who appeared in the 2009 "Bodybuilding" broadcast of the German television show segment '' Raab in Gefahr'' was taken to be Techno Viking in a YouTube upload. In 2008, fans claimed MMA fighter

Keith Jardine Keith Jardine (born October 31, 1975) is an American actor and retired mixed martial artist who most notably competed in the UFC and Strikeforce. Background Jardine was born in Butte, Montana, moved to Oregon, and finally settled in Los Angele ...

was Techno Viking. The lawyer of the Techno Viking asserts that his client had never been a public figure and that he did not want to become one. The unnamed man's court case against Fritsch concerning infringement of

personality rights Personality rights, sometimes referred to as the right of publicity, are rights for an individual to control the commercial use of their identity, such as name, image, likeness, or other unequivocal identifiers. They are generally considered as p ...

opened in Berlin on 17 January 2013. In June, a decision was reached for the plaintiff and Fritsch was ordered to pay the man €13,000 in damages, almost all he had made from YouTube ads and sales of Techno Viking merchandise, plus €10,000 in court costs, and to cease publication of his image.Leonhard Dobusch
"Interview zum erstinstanzlichen Urteil im Technoviking-Prozess [Update]"
, Netzpolitik.org, 20 June 2013, retrieved 1 July 2013 Olivia Solon
"Filmmaker gagged by the Technoviking, bankrupted by legal bills"
, ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'', 27 June 2013, retrieved 1 July 2013.Kevin Morris
"Technoviking prevails in court, still can't erase Internet fame"
, ''Daily Dot'', 26 June 2013.

Documentary film

Fritsch raised money with a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

campaign to make a documentary film about the case, ''The Story of Technoviking'', which was released in 2015.Attila Nagy
"Here is the Crowdfunded Film about Technoviking, One of the most Popular Memes"
, ''

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' () is a design, technology, science, and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the sub-blogs ''io9'' and ''Earther'', which focus on pop ...

'', 20 October 2015, retrieved 23 October 2015.

Notes

References

External links

* Mikkael Kinanen
Matthias Fritsch: "Kneecam No. 1 (aka Technoviking)"
Inter-Cool 3.0.
Shinya Yamaoka making a statuette of Techno Viking
(YouTube slideshow)
Technoviking.tv
collection of fan responses and links * {{IMDb title, tt4082608, The Story of Technoviking
The original video on YouTube
2006 YouTube videos Films set in Berlin German male dancers Internet memes introduced in 2001 Unidentified people Viral videos Year of birth unknown Internet memes introduced from Germany