New Models

From the depths of the NEW MODELS DISCORD comes a new glossary for ASTROTURFING and related forms of soft-nonlinear warfare, collectively authored by members of an emergent group called Shifting Uncertain Situations (S.U.S.). For more context, NM hosts Carly, Daniel, and LIL INTERNET got on call with S.U.S. spokespeople Jak Ritger and Clack Auden to discuss these new terms of engagement.

"A CONEY ISLAND OF THE VIRUS: COVID-19 IN NEW YORK" is an essay by the New York-based, Argentinean writer REINALDO LADDAGA, excerpted from a book he is writing about Covid-19 & NYC. The essay tells of physical geography, strategic cartography, and one city's urban planning as death machine on the generational timescale. https://newmodels.io/proprietary/coney-island-of-the-virus-reinaldo-laddaga For more: https://rladdaga.net/ https://adrianahidalgo.es/author-book/laddaga-reinaldo/ Sound design: @LILINTERNET Text read by: Carly Busta

Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, KATHARINE NEILL HARRIS speaks to New Models from Texas about: substance use in America from Prohibition to the War on Drugs; the political and economic incentives for the most damaging policing policies; some surprising problems with body cameras and other tech solutionist fixes; and how all of this fundamentally reinforces race and class inequalities in the US and beyond. We also speak about the politics of pleasure and pain; and the rise of algorithmic RATS. (This episode was recorded 26 June 2020.) For more: https://twitter.com/KatNeillHarris http://blog.bakerinstitute.org/2020/06/08/fixing-american-policing-also-requires-an-end-to-the-war-on-drugs/

Journalist MICHELLE LHOOQ calls into the pod with a report from the NYC STREETS (note: audio for this part of the ep recorded with available equipment/bandwidth). We discuss AUTONOMOUS ZONES and GENERATIONAL KNOWLEDGE. Plus: LILNET reads current dissent toward law enforcement as a GROWING MOTION TO DELEGITIMIZE THE LARGER STATE, CARLY cites the EVILS of UR-VIRTUOUS VICTORIAN ENGLAND, and DAN considers whether the POLITICS of "PRO-" may ultimately effect more change than the POLITICS of "ANTI-." Also: ELON'S CRINGE MAGICK, INCELLECTUALS, and SLOW RAD. Introducing this ep: LILINTERNET'S "A MESSAGE FROM A DEAD PERSON" watching humanity from the other side. For more: check out https://michellelhooq.substack.com/ For access to the full episode & all New Models content plus access to our Discord, subscribe at https://patreon.com/newmodels Theme music: Alfred English, "NPC Valley," 2018

We speak with ARTHUR JONES & GIORGIO ANGELINI, filmmakers of "FEELS GOOD MAN," which tells the story of comic artist Matt Furie and the wild journey of his character Pepe the Frog. Yet this set up is also a lens for telling an even broader and deeper story of the past two decades: one that spans intergenerational communication, magic and media, anti-authoritarian rebellion, and the volatility of signs. The documentary comes out August 28 to select audiences (and Sept. 4 everywhere). We nominate it Political Film of the Year. For more: https://www.feelsgoodmanfilm.com/ https://www.instagram.com/feelsgoodmanfilm/ Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97akfYZv28I

We are joined by UC Davis professor of literature and critical theory, JOSHUA CLOVER, who is also a communist and the author of several books including RIOT STRIKE RIOT: THE NEW ERA OF UPRISINGS (Verso, 2016). This conversation begins with the street protests that have erupted across the US in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many other black Americans at the hands of the police. It then expands to encompass digital platforms, definitions of violence and property, the promise of communes, and the caveats of UBI, giving a trans-historical view of revolutionary resistance at the hinge points of political transformation. For more: https://english.ucdavis.edu/people/jclover https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4734-66-days https://www.versobooks.com/authors/2018-joshua-clover Clarification: At 21:55, Clover refers to the Civil Rights Act (re the 1968 MLK Jr. riots). This is technically accurate, and it was officially known as the Civil Rights Act of 1968. But that risks confusing it with the far more well-known Civil Rights Act of 1964, which is why the 1968 act is more popularly know as the Fair Housing Act.

We speak with High Snobiety editor-in-chief, THOM BETTRIDGE about content production, retail circulation, and celebrity in 2020. Thom has extensive experience working in media and creative consulting, including, among other things, having served as the executive editor of Interview magazine and of 032c, as well as the managing editor for the creation of the SSENSE editorial platform. He is also very knowledgeable about shoes. Note: This episode was recorded in May prior to the murder of George Floyd and the unrest that followed. For more: https://www.instagram.com/thomthomclub https://www.highsnobiety.com/ https://032c.com/big-flat-now-op-ed http://www.spikeartmagazine.com/articles/fashion-2

Writer Steve Marsh [https://twitter.com/stephenhero] joins us from a Minneapolis swelling with unrest to give details and context to the life and death of George Floyd (aka Big Floyd), and the history of the police department that murdered him. TAKE ACTION Support the family of George Floyd: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd Black Visions MN (black activists and organizers local to ME/twin cities): https://secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUagTu0EG-Ig2 North Star Health Collective (street medics and emergency care): https://www.northstarhealthcollective.org/support-north-star-health

Writer and theorist NORA KHAN speaks with New Models about how institutional power reifies itself online, COVID aesthetics, and the labor pressures of distance working/socializing/learning via platforms such as Zoom. Nora is the author, most recently, of Seeing, Naming, Knowing (Brooklyn Rail Press, 2019) on mass surveillance and 'machine visual culture.' For more: https://noranahidkhan.com/ https://theshed.org/program/63-manual-override https://noranahidkhan.com/2018/02/17/empty-models-flattened-language/

Writer, consultant, and Ribbon Farm founder VENKATESH RAO speaks with New Models about memetics & institutions, virality & democracy, Log Level thinking, BIOS Level politics, and how to navigate reality in a time when we're all NPCs in a world going "brrrrrrrrr.” ⛓️This conversation was recorded April 7th, 2020. FOR MORE: https://twitter.com/vgr https://venkateshrao.com/ https://breakingsmart.com/ https://ribbonfarm.com/ https://artofgig.substack.com/

The Berlin-based musician LYRA PRAMUK (@lyra_songs) talks to New Models about the release of her 2020 album "Fountain" (@bedroomcommunity). For full post: https://newmodels.io/proprietary/nm-greenroom-lyra-pramuk-fountain For more: https://www.instagram.com/lyra.pramuk/ https://lyrapramuk.bandcamp.com/album/fountain Note: New Models GREENROOM, is a series of short interviews featuring artists and musicians in the NM sphere discussing their new and forthcoming work.

Berkeley-based writer and co-host of the wildly popular anti-corruption podcast TrueAnon, LIZ FRANCZAK joins New Models for a cathartic reflection on pandemic politics and the pros, cons, and probability of popular revolt. This conversation was recorded March 25th. FOR MORE: https://twitter.com/liz_franczak https://www.patreon.com/TrueAnonPod https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-century-of-spin-franczak

TopSoil is New Models' informal talk-core cast. For the full episode (plus the 31 eps before it) and to join our Discord: patreon.com/newmodels ----- Geographer STEPHANIE WAKEFIELD, trend forecaster SEAN MONAHAN, dad-artist-grocery store insider JEAN-LUC VILA, writer NATASHA STAGG, and deep systems researcher CADE check in with the NEW MODELS crew, reporting from their respective Corona quars. ALSO: DAN imagines NEAR-FUTURE USA as OLIGARCHY with CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS, LILNET introduces the other Q-Anon, and CARLY asks what everyone would stock up on during these SEEMING LAST MOMENTS of ABUNDANCE. PLUS: intro to NM Discord's calendar & irl-metaverse. AND: @LILINTERNET's RADIO PLAY featuring an on the ground report from a NEWLY RE-OPENED AMERICA's first music festival. / Recorded: Monday, 23 March 2020

Artist and writer MARIAM GHANI and Editorial Director of Eyebeam, MARISA MAZRIA KATZ speak to New Models about Ghani's new work Dis-Ease, a forthcoming essay-film that considers how the metaphors we use to speak about illness and contagion affect the ways in which we prepare and respond to epidemics and treat those afflicted and affected by them. This podcast is part of New Models' series for TENTACULAR (Extremophilia edition), a "festival of critical technologies & digital adventures" curated by Julia Kaganskiy and José Luis de Vicente for Matadero Madrid, 2019. FOR MORE Dis-Ease (site): https://www.mariamghani.com/work/1426 Dis-Ease (vid. excerpt): https://vimeo.com/373883845 https://www.eyebeam.org/eyebeam-center-for-the-future-of-journalism/ https://tentacular.es/en/about/ Mariam Ghani is an artist, writer, and filmmaker whose work has been exhibited and screened broadly, including at New York's Guggenheim Museum, MoMa, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and Documenta 13 (Kabul and Kassel), among other venues. Her first feature-length film,"What We Left Unfinished," premiered at the 2019 Berlinale and is currently on its festival run. Marisa Mazria-Katz is a NY-based journalist/editor. Her essays on art and culture have appeared in media outlets such as New York Times, Economist, Wall Street Journal, New York Review of Books, and Vogue. Marisa is the Editorial Director of Eyebeam, where she oversees the newly launched Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism.

ALEX KAZEMI is an online trickster and magick-practicing provocateur. When this episode was pre-released to our Discord community in February, it fomented vidid debate among the hard materialists, gnostic scholars, and woo-woo sympathizers. On this episode, we talk Super Super magazine, new sefirots, and Marilyn Manson's God complex, all to ask: Can magick be a framework for today's attention economy? Alex Kazemi's book "Pop Magick" was published in February by Permuted Press, with an introduction by Rose McGowan. Alex Kazemi, Pop Magick: A Simple Guide to Bending Your Reality (Permuted Press, 2020) https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1682618803 For more: www.alexkazemi.com fanmail [at] alexkazemi.com

Featuring Washington D.C.-based writer/editor MIKE CRUMPLAR, whose work focuses on radicalization in America and the systemic drivers of incel culture. This January, Mike published the first segment of a project that looks at the autobiographical writings of Isla Vista spree shooter Elliot Rodger. His Framework takes Elliot not as author, but as subject—a protagonist trapped in his own novel as an unwitting byproduct of American late-capitalism. For more: https://twitter.com/mcrumps Key texts: https://mcrumps.com/2020/01/07/blissful-beginnings-elliot-rodgers-sexual-awakening/ & https://jacobitemag.com/2018/05/21/the-aeneid-for-incels/

With trading mania having gone mainstream this winter, the market has come to remote control the emotions of millions in lockdown. LIL INTERNET reflects on this phenomenon here, in a monologue excerpted from NM TopSoil Ep 57, "Capital Insurrection," considering the wild extremes of personal sensitivity today from WallStreetBets to woke culture. Subscribe here https://patreon.com/newmodels for more LIL INTERNET radio plays, all 57+ episodes of NM Topsoil, and advance access to the New Models podcast.

TopSoil is New Models' informal talk-core cast, which we create specifically for our Patreon community. For all NM TopSoil episodes & to join our Discord: https://patreon.com/newmodels ----- Norwegian artist BJARNE MELGAARD speaks to New Models about CULTURAL PRODUCTION, DESIRE, and the CHANGING THRESHOLDS of VICTIMHOOD and TRANSGRESSION. Also: BJARNE's ANTIVIVISECTION '80s, CARLY as KERN MODEL, and whether CRYSTAL METH is still the number one DRUG of CHOICE. Plus: PORNHUB, CHIHUAHUAS, DRUGS, ANTINATALISM, MILITANT CLIMATE ACTIVISM, ANDREA DWORKEN, EMPATHY. https://bjarnemelgaard.com https://www.instagram.com/bjarnemelgaard/ https://acuteart.com/artist/bjarne-melgaard/

The Berlin-based British artist https://soundcloud.com/stevenwarwick (ex-Heatsick)talks to New Models about the release of his 2019 album "MOI" (https://soundcloud.com/pan_hq). For full post (incl. video by Dacio Pinheiro): https://newmodels.io/proprietary/new-models-greenroom-steven-warwick-moi Note: this is the first episode of New Models GREENROOM, a series of short interviews featuring people in the NM sphere discussing their new and forthcoming work.

Featuring New York-based writer NATASHA STAGG who, on the occasion of her new book "Sleeveless: Fashion, Image, Media, New York 2011-2019" (Semiotext(e)/Native Agents), speaks to us about the myths and metadata of NYC's culture sector and the protocol for creative production in the 2010s. (w/ Caroline Busta, Daniel Keller, @LILINTERNET) For more: https://natashastagg.com/ https://twitter.com/natasha_stagg https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sleeveless

Featuring LA-based musician and scholar TOM KRELL (aka @howtodresswell) who talks with us about the aesthetics of climate activism, the roll of the critic today, music as carrier signal for identity, the threshold for authenticity, the value of negativity, extraction and power -- let's just say it's a rich and sweeping conversation that offers tools for thinking through some of the big questions of our day and insight into the mind behind one of the past year's best albums "The Anteroom" (https://soundcloud.com/dominorecordco). For more: https://twitter.com/HowToDressWell https://thehyv.shop/collections/how-to-dress-well https://www.dominomusic.com/artists/how-to-dress-well

Featuring TREVOR McFEDRIES, co-founder of Brud, the LA-based transmedia studio behind a crew of digital-native influencer-avatars, including Lil Miquela, Blawko, and Bermuda. Also known as Yung Skeeter or DJ Skeet Skeet, Trevor came up via the music world, producing, directing, and DJ-ing for Katy Perry and other A-list acts. On this episode, we talk to Trevor about the fantasy of contemporary LA and marketing's ability to shape public consciousness in a highly polarized public sphere. For more: https://instagram.com/whatdotcd

Founders of nonfood, Lucy Chinen & Sean Raspet discuss contemporary food supply chains and sustainable food futures, including the R&D of their own algae-based nonbar. Along the way, we address: monocultures, fear, skeuomorphic flavor, cellular agriculture, and the real cost of "all-natural." (w/ Caroline Busta, Daniel Keller, @LILINTERNET) Visit nonfood: https://eatnonfood.com For more: http://lucychinen.com/ & http://seanraspet.org/

New Models speaks with Z, founder of Black Socialists of America (BSA) about the organization's recently launched DUAL POWER MAP: a critical tool for building a new economic order in America within the existing capitalist structure, starting with black worker-owned businesses and co-ops. (w/ @LILINTERNET & Caroline Busta) For more: blacksocialists.us/dual-power-map Follow BSA: @blacksocialists

New Models speaks with MAT DRYHURST & KEI KREUTLER, two figures central to Berlin's diverse crypto scene, to unpack the possible impact of Facebook's Libra coin (provided it succeeds). From the Bitcoin villages of Switzerland to Libra as an arm of US foreign policy, this episode takes the coin's tagline at face value asking, _were_ everyone to be invited the the global economy... what would that look like, how would that actually be achieved, and what would the fall out be? (w/ Caroline Busta, Daniel Keller, @LILINTERNET) For more, check: https://twitter.com/matdryhurst & https://twitter.com/keikreutler

Feat. theorist and philosopher BENJAMIN H. BRATTON, this episode offers a high-gear, macroscopic mapping of Earth and its systems circa 2019 — incl. how notions of “the artificial” and “intelligence” differ across cultures; hemispheric zones of citizenship and exclusion in the age of AR; and a view of human consciousness as a geological phenomenon, a layer through which Earth's planetary system is coming to know itself. Plus much, much more. Bratton, whose work spans philosophy, art, design, and computer science, is currently preparing (alongside 5 other books) a much anticipated follow up to his 2016 volume The Stack: On Software & Sovereignty. For more: http://www.bratton.info/ https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/stack WARNING: EXOGENOUS STIMULANTS MAY BE NECESSARY FOR ABSORBING DISCUSSION AT FULL RESOLUTION.

Feat. artist and social theorist JOSHUA CITARELLA who has been exploring how deep online spaces have evolved over the past few years, shaping popular politics in turn — especially among younger people. Last fall when we spoke to Joshua (ep. 6), he had just published a long-form piece on Politigram and the Post-Left. In this ep, we talk to him about his most recent essay, "Irony Politics & Gen Z" (published on New Models this spring), discussing the funnel of online radicalization and what tactics the left needs to consider for more effective off-ramping. For more: Joshua Citarella, "Irony Politics & Gen-Z" (April, 2019) https://newmodels.io/proprietary/irony-politics-gen-z-2019-citarella http://joshuacitarella.com/

Featuring artist and lecturer of Internet Art at Stanford University, JENNY ODELL who is the author of a new field book for the attention economy "How to Do Nothing" (Melville House, 2019). Odell speaks to NM about disorientation in the current online space, the value of physical context and community, and the practical tactics of refusal. Plus: bioregionalism, Silicon Valley Ayahuasca, the origins of the commodification of time, lucid dreaming -- and bird watching. For more: Jenny Odell, "How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy" (Melville House, 2019) https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/how-to-do-nothing/ Jenny Odell, "A Business With No End" (New York Times, 2018) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/27/style/what-is-inside-this-internet-rabbit-hole.html

New Models speaks with Z, founder of the BLACK SOCIALISTS of AMERICA (BSA), an online channel turned IRL organization providing a forum and voice for black American leftists as well as education around the values of socialism (per Marx). In this episode, we discuss the inherent racism of the "American Dream" (i.e., capitalism), the promise of worker co-ops, identity politics' tactical deficiencies in big stack activism, and how to leverage online traction to effect real world political change. For more check: https://twitter.com/BlackSocialists & https://blacksocialists.us/

When Spotify was founded in 2006, it aimed to solve the problem of online music distribution, remunerating artists for plays. 13 years on, it is a massive data node that is having a profound effect on how artists and audiences connect. In this cast, New Models speaks with music journalist Liz Pelly, who has written extensively on Spotify, particularly its impact on independent music. She talks to us, here, about Spotify's structure, how it nudges artists to optimize their acts through metrics, and what it understands "music" (let alone "independent") culture to be. Liz also gives an update on community organizing in NYC's IRL music/nightlife sphere. For more, check: http://lizpelly.com/

The discussion was recorded December 15, 2018 at the Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin for the closing event of "PROOF of WORK," an exhibition curated by artist Simon Denny. https://bit.ly/2M42o4T The panel features three individuals working at the intersection of art & blockchain tech: scholar and creative producer Jaya-Klara BREKKE; artist and director of @furtherfield, Ruth CATLOW; and researcher and Gnosis strategist Kei KREUTLER. This recording has been made possible by the Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, facilitated by Annina Herzer, Annika Kuhlmann, and Nina Pohl. It has been edited by New Models for the at-home pod-listener's ease. The panel was moderated by New Models' Caroline Busta.

CHRISTINE LARIVIERE works at the intersection of climate change and media. In this ep., she helps us render a massive map of the anthropocene (and humanity's fate therein)while exploring why the word "systems" belies the incomprehensibly vast matrix of networks our changing climate is set to effect. If you make it past the hour mark, stay locked for some hot local foraging tips. (with Busta, Keller, & @LILINTERNET). More from Christine here: https://twitter.com/cdlariviere

Berlin-based designer Cade, a specialist in weaponized design, discusses the collateral (human) damage platforms cause as they scale; questions big tech's G-rated ideation of the average subject; considers the functionality of personal mobile devices within precarious communities, and remarks on the actual inefficiency of the cloud. (With Busta, Keller, & @LILINTERNET) See more of Cade's work: https://shiba.computer/

Artist ED FORNIELES discusses diving headfirst into the toxic, hierarchal fantasy of masculinity, and the present difficulties of finding an alternative. His recent work "The Cell," which is featured in the 6th Athens Biennale, documents a LARP Fornieles staged earlier this year around the narrative of an all-male, alt-right gamer group. (With Busta, Keller, and @LILINTERNET) This podcast is part of New Models' series for the "ANTI-" Athens Biennale 6.

Cultural analyst TOBY SHORIN takes us into the Hellmouth of "authenticity" and "originality" production, discussing how the Cthulhu of platform capitalism and distributed networks is evacuating the value of creative work. See Shorin's essay: https://subpixel.space/entries/diminishing-marginal-aesthetic-value/

Teenagers rule memetic warfare, producing some of its most viral and also radical content. In this ep. New Models speaks with artist JOSHUA CITARELLA (prev. of thejogging.tumblr)who, after lurking the more radical political spaces of social media from 2012-18, is out with a new (soon to be) book, "Politigram & the Post-Left." http://joshuacitarella.com/ This podcast is part of New Models' series for the "ANTI-" Athens Biennale 6.

Mat Dryhurst, Martti Kalliala, and Michelle Lhooq talk to New Models about #gangcrafting in the age of crypto-raves and ownership in a rent-everything world. //// FAST CO. PREMIER: https://www.fastcompany.com/90253292/new-models-is-the-intellectual-drudge-report-for-critical-theory

Discussing the discussion of gender, transitioning, transgenderism, transhumanism, and trying to find structures in a liquid world... Also ants. /// Caroline Busta, Anke Dyes, Daniel Keller, @LILINTERNET, Steven Warwick, and Ziúr.

NYC-based writer and DSA volunteer Mike Pepi speaks to New Models about the emergence and future of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the shift toward socialist values within the US Democratic base. (Caroline Busta, Daniel Keller, Lil Internet, and Masha Tian)

Trump Lies, XXXTentacion dies, and truth seems always just out of reach. Lil Internet, Caroline Busta, and Daniel Keller on lying, trust, and tribalism today, from blockchain to grifting, rap fan outrage to art.

More significant than how spree-shooting incels kill... is how they desire. For the second New Models podcast, @LilInternet, Caroline Busta, Daniel Keller, and Masha Tian discuss the ‘supreme gentleman’ as a systemic phenomenon -- one wherein society's not-uncommon transactional model of "acquiring" women is taken to metric-obsessed and violent extremes.

Just before May 1, @LilInternet sat down with Caroline Busta, Daniel Keller, and Masha Tian to discuss New Models and the current media ecology — from e-flux to cyber-hitler, Alec Monopoly to MMORPGs.