Günseli Yalcinkaya: Internet Folklorist Explains Reality Shifting, Dolls, Incels/Femcels, Cryptids, Memes, & AI | Urgent Futures #20

My guest this week is Günseli Yalcinkaya. An expert in youth and internet culture, London-based writer, researcher and critic Günseli Yalcinkaya is the features editor at Dazed Magazine and the host of Logged On, a podcast series that puts online trends under the microscope. She's written extensively about AI, VR and psychedelia, and as an artist, studies the relationship between ecology, magic and machine learning.

What’s an AI cryptid? What is reality shifting? How are dolls and the idea of cuteness evolving online, and what does this mean for the future of intimacy? What’s the next phase of conspiritualism? How are tropes and memes changing—and how are those changes shifting how we communicate with each other? If these questions appeal to you—or sound like they might once you understand what they’re referring to—you need to be paying attention to Günseli’s writing, editorial, and arts practice.

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In the simplest terms, Günseli creates context for latent trends, stuff floating around in the zeitgeist that’s barely understood, or might not even have a name yet. And her interest in the weird, the occult, and psychedelia adds a surprising and distinct angle.

Forecasting any single trend or cultural phenomenon is difficult enough, but swimming in the rapids of digital culture and managing to return with meaningful syntheses is really special. This dot-connecting helps us all make sense of the accelerating rush of trends, memes, ideas, and emergent social phenomena. Understanding the edges of digital culture as it exists now—especially the weird stuff—helps us orient to coming shapes of reality. I’ve learned so much from her work online, so I invited her on Urgent Futures to dig into the questions and topics I mentioned earlier, as well as other key areas of research she’s pursuing in her arts practice. The result is a wide-ranging conversation that has a lot to teach us about internet culture and beyond. So please enjoy this conversation with Günseli Yalcinkaya.

CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also directed, shot, and edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.

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