Channel

In which Carly & Lil Internet report on the excellent Indigo Festival in Ljubljana and a symposium for “Strange Rules” at Venice’s Palazzo Diedo. Plus: New Models gets cancelled; Tristan Harris on Tucker Carlson reporting on the alien ontology of the tech class; and why there should be so many more films in the vein of Yuri Ancarani’s Atlantide .   This ep mentions: Abbas Kiarostami,...

Our guests are Artforum co-editors Rachel Wetzler and Daniel Wenger . When the two stepped into the role this spring, the magazine, like nearly all print media and the art world at large, was wading through something of a backloop. But three issues in, a new era of the publication seems underway—one in which the magazine leans into being based in New York, and its exacting art criticism applies no...

After a month in North America, we’re back—coming to you from Berlin with some reflections on that time and thoughts on the AI doomstorm that’s defined this year’s fall rentrée .  Lil Net, currently writing on Bernadette Corporation’s film Get Rid of Yourself (2003) for the Julia Stoschek Foundation , draws a path from Y2K era empire to the blackboxed Cthulhu it’s become today.  "The twi...

Every summer, we return to the land of our youth, the Mid-Atlantic USA and, as has become tradition, relay our impressions of it to you. With this episode, Lil Internet unpacks the 36 hours he spent just trying to get to the States, navigating a labyrinth of apps, regulations, platforms, self-ordering kiosks, loyalty programs, waitlists, dynamic pricing, seat assignments, Star Alliances and accele...

We explore Hito Steyerl’s recent work, soviet infrastructure, bitcoin mining, civil war and the (slim) possibilities of data centers or AI for the left. We get into the details about AI energy consumption and discuss the potentials for alternative models of data and training.

My guest is Hito Steyerl, a filmmaker, author and professor of digital media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. We explore the ideology of AI, automation, and the rise of reactionary politics across the advanced world. Neoliberalism might be over. But whatever comes next could be worse. In this conversation, we attempt to forecast what culture and politics may look like beyond the 2020s and af...

In June, on the summer solstice, New Models hosted the Berlin launch of artist Trevor Paglen’s How to See Like a Machine (Verso, 2026) at Sybil in Berlin-Kreuzberg.  If you are listening via the audio RSS, you are hearing the audio from this post-talk discussion. Part 1 ( video lecture ): We bring you the talk that Trevor delivered during the launch, presented here via a video by Lil Interner...

Artist Simon Denny returns to New Models to discuss the American defense tech sector's newfound dedication to style.  Distilling the branding languages of companies like a16z, Palantir, and Anduril—which draw heavily on Italian Futurism, return-to-order neoclassicism, and the graphic idiom of modernist institutions—Denny shows techno-libertarian leaders to be positioning themselves as a progr...

When Enlightenment-era scholars taxonomized humankind, they chose homo sapiens, in part because of what they observed as a uniquely human aptitude for “taste.” [“Taste” comes from the Latin taxare (to handle, to assess) – an intensive form of tangere (to touch). It is a term that via vulgar Latin blended with gustare (to taste, to try) to express the act of appraising something by physically handl...

We discuss strategies of reform vs revolution, electoralism vs internationalism, and more. Our conversation continues behind the paywall.

My guest is Julian Feeld, an author, journalist and co-founder of the QAA podcast. He is the host of Superstructure with comedian Jon Gabrus. Our conversation explores the impact of media, political speech and “influence” in our extremely-online society. What do we hope to accomplish through content? When does education and information impact real material forces in the world? From differing viewp...

We discuss Claire’s background in art, working at Sculpture Center, studying at SAIC and navigating the extreme inequality of American life. I share some war stories about the hazards of DIY creative life, freelancing and healthcare.

My guest is Claire Valdez, a union organizer, artist and democratic socialist running for congress in NY-7. Valdez has garnered an impressive list of endorsements; Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, UAW’s Shawn Fain, DSA, Mahmoud Khalil, Zephyr Teachout, and many others. We discuss the American labor movement and the power of democratic majorities. The NY primary election is on June 23rd.

In recent episodes, you’ve heard us mention the project we created this spring with Joshua Citarella, together with the spatial design studio sub , for “ Strange Rules ” at Palazzo Diedo, Venice. On this episode, we chat with Josh about this work. The exhibition, which was curated by Holly Herndon, Mat Dryhurst, and Hans Ulrich Obrist with Adriana Rispoli, presents practices that engage with the "...

We talk a lot on this show about the “content” layer being compromised; how, given the physics of the feed, the creative act increasingly happens at the protocol level. While this is true, good books and films and records are, in fact,still being made. On this ep, friend of New Models Steven Warwick comes by on the occasion of his two new albums — SW Live at Café Oto (P-A-N) and, from his new band...

If the stats are correct, 3,733 registered journalists attended the preopening of this year’s Venice Art Biennale, a group that is projected to produce some 2500 pieces of legacy media style coverage. It just so happens that we, too, were in Venice — there to install our work with Joshua Citarella, The Online Marketplace of Ideas , at the Palazzo Diedo for the “Strange Rules” exhibition curated by...

Abby and I analyze the new Manosphere doc by Louis Theroux, college campus politics, elite formation, legacy vs alt media, and explore some deeper themes from her new film.

My guest is Abby Martin, a journalist and documentarian. We explore the early years of internet culture (before big platforms and algorithms) back when Occupy Wall Street and 4chan were on the same side. This formative period gave birth to the first wave of an anti-establishment alternative media, where conspiracy theorists and radical anti-capitalists shared a similar online sphere.

We dive deeper into Natalie’s thinking on Anti-Zionism. Later, we discuss the decade long arc and development of her creative practice; from concept to writing to film-making. We explore the shifting role of cultural institutions in a world of platforms and user generated content, cancel culture and activist blow-back.

We discuss the distinct but overlapping value systems of art and entertainment. Is an online view count more democratic than an elite institutions? Do we lose a humanistic, intangible quality of art when we begin to put quantitative metrics onto it? Should the museum become another streaming platform?

"Anyone that claims they understand the world — this immediately marks them out as a fraud." — Kevin Lee Kharas After the imperial collapse (40 global offices, thousands of employees, bankruptcy), VICE magazine is now run by a lean, London-based team — and it is making one of the best culture publications currently in circulation. Ben Ditto ( Vice global editorial director; founder of Ditto Nation...

My guest is John Wilson, a film maker and documentarian. He is the director of a new movie “The History of Concrete.” Today’s program is part of the 82nd Whitney Biennial, curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer at the Whitney Museum in New York City. We discuss the urban environment, themes of material and spiritual renewal, city infrastructure and affordable housing -- alongside a cast of su...

We’re joined by media scholars Daniël de Zeeuw & Sal Hagen , who have been closely tracking the weirder end of the internet for over a decade—their research and analysis of 4chan has made them low-key legends within internet studies. As 4chan’s logic is now pervasive across the social web, Daniël and Sal, together with their colleagues at the Amsterdam-based OILab , have been modeling novel wa...

We explore “the Democratic penalty”, new research from the Center for Working Class Politics, my weird media analysis drawn from porn and the furry community (real), the Europhile vision of socialism and the on-going crisis at the southern border. Is AOC the successor to Bernie Sanders?

My guest is Dustin “Dino” Guastella, the Director of Operations at Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia, a monthly columnist at Damage Magazine, and a board member at the Center for Working-Class Politics. We discuss woke ideology, the elite capture of the Democratic party, working class voters moving to the right, failures in left-wing messaging and the legacy of civil rights leader Bayard Rustin.