Blade Study

“While you were out partying, I studied the blade.”

Blade Study gets its name from a niche Weeb meme spread in Tumblogs, Reddit threads and Discord chat rooms around 2016. Studying the blade celebrates digital adventurers. In particular, those obsessed with anime, Samurai and Katana culture and who take their pursuits very seriously.

The meme is contemplative and tongue-in-cheek, all at the same time. It gives a little wink to those who cast aside childish things in search of deeper callings. And yes, that is a hint of sexual entendre you detect. Swordplay, anyone…?

Blade Study was founded in 2022 by two high school friends from California. Brooke Nicholas has a Master’s degree in curatorial studies from Bard. Ian Glover is a coder-designer who specializes in animation.

The pair wanted to open a space for artists to explore the visual internet, and its fusion with our hyper-connected network culture. How these two things have come to form the context of our lives. The internet is a living, growing thing. Viral. Much like an ancient myth. Or, come to think of it, a modern meme.

Blade Study shows artists with big curiosities. Here, freewheeling thinking is celebrated in the quest to explore the way we spread information. The art bursts with theories on anime, conspiracies, memes, physics, religion, substances, electronics, the origin of the universe. To name a few.

We like to think of Blade Study as an invitation to escape the algorithm. To step inside, engage in a bit of intellectual swordplay (if you will), and emerge onto the street with a deeper knowledge of how the internet underpins, and sometimes overwrites, modern life.

Oh, and Brooke and Ian are awesome hosts. Their after-parties and events, where everyone is welcome, are legendary.