Gunseli and POSTPOSTPOST

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?

Gunseli: What I’m working on RN.. honestly, July is a quieter month for me as a freelancer, but I’m working on some R&D for an exhibition and a video essay about quantum culture ‎

Gunseli: Oh and I’m cooking up something fun with Yaya Labs!

POSTPOSTPOST: This event + its adjacent scene, along with 60s NYC Factory/Warhol degens were so central to my early seeds of enamorment with the “avant-garde” – a concept that I love to ridicule today as you may have seen

POSTPOSTPOST: But it’s ultimately with a cloak of meta-irony because apparently I also can’t stop thinking about “finding culture in the cracks”

POSTPOSTPOST: And ngl I feel we will only be able to find these cracks in our accelerationist technofascist slopmaxxing era if we dive headfirst into the yucky sludge

POSTPOSTPOST: p.s I am pro Labubu and think it’s not necessarily slop (although sloppified at times)

POSTPOSTPOST: Also Günseli I was too shy to ask if there’s a way to Shazam the song you performed a couple of days ago that I saw on your ig stories 👉👈 ‎

Gunseli: What’s your Labubu take? 🤓 ‎

Gunseli: Labubu/acc

Gunseli: I guess none of these trends are anything new.. (beanie babies, Pokémon cards etc.) maybe we’re just more collectively aware of how online trends translate to offline consumerist noise post the death of micro trends etc? ‎

Gunseli: Which all ties into peoples’ ai anxiety

Gunseli: Idk maybe I’m deeping it lol

Gunseli: 🥺🥺🥺🙈🙈🙈 

Gunseli: (All will be revealed soon..)

Gunseli: We must find her

POSTPOSTPOST: Initially I just felt something wholesome about it that differentiated it from other zeitgeisty things

POSTPOSTPOST: Then I saw the US Chinese embassy tweet about it passionately nonstop and as the number one US empire demise prayer it resonated with me

POSTPOSTPOST: Soft power etc

POSTPOSTPOST: Them tweeting about Labubu right after condemning Israeli strikes was so iconic

POSTPOSTPOST: They're fully embracing it as their 20th century Hollywood basically

POSTPOSTPOST: It’s funny/delusional/fascinating

Gunseli: Lol incredible

POSTPOSTPOST: Then there’s the Gen X aunties vs younger millennials labubu collectors beef

POSTPOSTPOST: And yeah exactly I’m all for death of micro trends at this point because it reminds me of a time when the internet wasn’t so bubblized – ie Gangnam style/Harlem shake era (ancient history af i know)

POSTPOSTPOST: And there’s a bit of a return of the ‘universally viral’ recently since Ashton Hall morning routine/Dubai chocolate and even italian brainrot so Labubu is another addition to that lineage

POSTPOSTPOST: Big tech weaponized slop algorithms are meant to make us feel more isolated/alone so these feel like weird accidents of resistance to that

Gunseli: It’s taking me forever to find this meme one sec

Gunseli: I don’t wanna sound like a geriatric e-girl but bring back the days when curating bag charms was an art 😭

Gunseli: Hot take: maybe Labubu is what cultural currency looks like in spiritually void times ‎

Gunseli: I was reading the other day how Sonny Angels were first released when Japan was going through a mild recession (pre-2008), there’s defo some parallels happening now with the mainstream appeal of cute objects like Sonny this past year, which then transitioned to Labubu.. ‎

Gunseli: All these trends are cycling so fast though, it reminds me of meme coins, only devirutalised ??

POSTPOSTPOST: Yeah can absolutely see that as a very direct precedent

POSTPOSTPOST: Agreed we are in spiritually void times but very strongly disagree that Labubu has anything to do with it 😤

POSTPOSTPOST: A Singaporean friend was the first to bring to my attention how this follows in the same lineage of many historic Asian talismans that were used to ward off evil spirits etc.

POSTPOSTPOST: I think I took a photo of her notebook I’ll try to find it

POSTPOSTPOST: There – it was so iconic

POSTPOSTPOST: But yeah we can exit the Labubu rabbit hole any time now haha

POSTPOSTPOST: Wanted to check if it's a rabbit found this

Gunseli: I like the idea of Labubu as a hybrid / cryptid / thing

Gunseli: Anyway !!!

Gunseli: @Protein feel free to prompt us out of this Labubu wormhole 😅

Protein: Labubu wormhole is a good wormhole

Protein: But sure. Let's move on

Protein: Which contemporary thinkers do you both look up to atm?

Protein: They don't need to be world famous)

Protein: Also what are both of your personal labubu / dubai / chocolate / industrial / complex moments right now - something you love/hate in equal measure?

Protein: @POSTPOSTPOST feel free to expand on mysticism thread... we've run a couple things roughly under this umbrella

Protein: Is medium mysticism more philosophical or aesthetic for you?Protein: Also liked this today, in Jacobin – "the left can meme"

POSTPOSTPOST: Omg so iconic. This gives me so much hope

POSTPOSTPOST: I’ve been somewhat offline the past 2 days so really glad I didn’t miss that

POSTPOSTPOST: For contemporary thinkers I’m always influenced and intrigued by Ruba Alsweel’s work. I know this sounds biased because she’s my co-editor and friend but really always putting extremely fresh work and even ig stories that make me want to write full blown essays

POSTPOSTPOST: Also recently been really enjoying Catherine Liu’s work and Aidan Walker’s substack called “How to do things with memes”

Protein: You've always been a believer

POSTPOSTPOST: For constants I always find myself going back to Boris Groys old writings or old lectures and I always learn something new from it

POSTPOSTPOST: Post-dooming 🗣️

POSTPOSTPOST: Hmmm I guess first thing that comes to mind is Trump tweets or "truths posts". I love them for how absurd they are and how they're always fascinating to study. Then I of course viscerally hate it for obvious reaons. POSTPOSTPOST: I guess it's an ontological exploration first and foremost but I ultimately view philosophy and aesthetics as mirror-folds of each other. I guess medium mysticism is exactly about this dialectic where form is channeled as means to accessing deeper realities etc.

Gunseli: I see the internet as returning us to an oral tradition that better resembles folklore (as opposed to the linear nature of written word/the printing press etc)

Gunseli: I’m always inspired the most by conversations, especially those across disciplines, like when I was doing a residency with moth quantum, I was paired with the most amazing konstantinos mei, a scientist and expert in all things quantum physics 🙏🙏

Gunseli: Some contemporary names include alex quicho, gary zhexi zhang, suzanne treister, mark pilkington, shumon basar, nora khan, trevor paglen, kate crawford, anna tsing, byung chul han, bruno latour, k allado mcdowell, erik davis is the 🐐 ‎

Gunseli: lol that’s a real mix, there’s too many!! ‎

Gunseli: As far as the OGs go, I’m a villem flusser girl 💅

Gunseli: Um I went to the Lascaux caves the other day, but it was a facsimile, and I felt in equal parts both awe and disgust 

Gunseli: Trump’s tweets is a good one ⬆️ 

Gunseli: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLsffXhObZ_/?igsh=MnR4M2h3aWFjeW5r

Protein: Presumably you think this is good? Also do you think this shift impacts how we understand authority or truth?

Protein: Just for you Gunseli:

Gunseli: not necessarily good or bad, just a consequence of networked culture and the way we consume information no longer following a linear progression.. the future is sending us backwards to a way of communicating that better resembles premodern times

Gunseli: ive been thinking a lot about genmoji as postmodern cave art lol

Gunseli: i guess in terms of authority, ideas of ownership and the individual are very modern concepts, the author is a product of modernity

Protein: About all the imagery we see online today – do you think the mix of awe and disgust you felt at Lascaux ties into how we see fake or AI things today – like memes and viral images etc? Can something feel sacred and tacky at the same time? ‎

Protein: I guess I'm thinking more broadly about whether some kind of new aesthetic of the present is emerging

POSTPOSTPOST: sorry taking me forever to type out my response to this because im outside and i keep getting distracted

POSTPOSTPOST: Yeah personally I've always been a dabbler in the tacky/sacred sludge I think the blurred lines there often yield interesting things. I feel the covid+early postcovid era camp/kitschmaxxing became very popular from watching bad things ironically to fashion collabs etc. and I felt that die out a little over a year ago (consequence to political events re gaza/intensifying fascism imo) then now with the advent of slop i feel a stronger anti-tacky sentiment is emerging

POSTPOSTPOST: I've always had beef with purity and ngl I enjoy seeing how mad the Linkedin 'creative class' types are at slop in general but I'm always cautious about fully embracing slop just because of its material connection to a bunch of sociopathic silicon valley reptiles who are plotting societal collapse haha (for eg recent grok nazification)

Protein: Okay we should probably let you go soon

Protein: Before we wrap up, any upcoming projects, thoughts, shitposts we should be watching out for?

Gunseli: yeah I was all down for the emancipatory potential of slop but my faith in humanity.. it’s not looking good besties ‎

Gunseli: Hito Steyerl has a good line in her new book, basically pointing out all the genuinely good things that AI can achieve, but this would probably be labelled as communism, not AI

Gunseli: I’m finishing up a video essay about quantum culture with Moth Quantum! Also there’s some more Internet Folklore in the pipeline..

Gunseli: Thank you!!

Gunseli: https://plastermagazine.com/features/brainrot-art/

Protein: At first I read this as Al (POSTPOSTPOST Al) 😅

Gunseli: lool

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