Eavesdrop on the Protein GROUP CHAT covering the spiritual void of Labubu, the aesthetics of slop and Trump tweets as modern folklore.
Günseli Yalcinkaya is a writer-researcher and internet folklorist currently based in London, specialising in emergent internet trends and niche online communities.
Al Hassan Elwan also focuses on online culture across his work – both as POSTPOSTPOST and as a brand strategist, designer, researcher and commentator.
Both are members of SEED CLUB, so we decided to get them together to see what they had to say about what’s going on with the world right now ...
Protein: 👋👋👋hi Gunseli hi Al
Gunseli: Hey!
POSTPOSTPOST: Hey hey!
Protein: Welcome both. Let’s kick off with what you’re both working on / thinking about right now
POSTPOSTPOST: Heyy so sorry the past couple of days have been too hectic for me (well the whole year ngl)
POSTPOSTPOST: One of my 2025 goals was to work less in general so I'm glad I'm living up to that. Right now I'm working on a video essay, an STPI commission, an NDA brand campaign and a fintech startup branding project. And of course, the next @postp0stpost carousel
POSTPOSTPOST: Been thinking about the connection between formalism/medium-first work and mysticism. Wondering if Medium Mysticism is a good band name or a PhD to pursue lol
POSTPOSTPOST: Not sure about the limits of schizoing out in this gc so lmk if this is a bit too far lol
Gunseli: Tbh I was going to speak about schizo culture so this is perfect haha
Gunseli: I’ve been thinking a lot about the return of schizo-culture, not to mean schizo-posting (rip), but in reference to the original schizo-culture conference that took place 50 years ago – it was the event where Deleuze first introduced his concept of the rhizome, also featuring other philosophers such as Félix Guattari and François Lyotard, as well as William Burroughs, R.D. Laing, John Cage, all the OGs.
Gunseli: Anyway!! All this is to say that I think we can apply a lot of the countercultural techniques first initiated by these thinkers and apply them to our current era of techno fascism, where algorithms and AI are being instrumentalised to dismantle democracy, while maxxing-out the slop in the form of whatever next Big Thing comes after the Labubu-dubai-chocolate-matcha-industrial-complex.
Gunseli: Like, how can we find culture in the cracks?