AI, Psychedelia and Mythmaking

The world knows Günseli Yalcinkaya as a writer, artist and interpreter of internet culture. Long before reporting on internet culture has become a common practice, Günseli has written about what’s going on in the darkest corners of the internet; not only identifying phenomena before most others even know they exist, but also making sense of them as signposts for larger shifts in culture and society. I recommend checking out her writing in DAZED, 032C and Spike to get a feel for it.

Günseli and I have known each other for a while, tracing back to an extended coffee chat at London’s Somerset House (where she had just curated an exhibition on cybernetic serendipity) and Refraction Point (where she recently discussed “Influence as Method” together with Morgane Billuart and Alex Quicho). Fast forward to late 2025, we ended up writing and editing Mozilla Foundation’s Imagine Intel: Creativity at the Dawn of AI together.

So when the opportunity came up to record an episode of The Culture & Technology Podcast, I didn’t hesitate to ask Günseli to join me. In late October last year, on a chilly Monday morning, we met at the co—matter studio in Berlin to unravel the depths of Günseli’s multi-year long research into internet folklore.

What is internet folklore, you might ask?

According to Günseli, Internet Folklore is the practice of collective myth-making across digital platforms. I’d expand on this definition as follows: while theories like cybernetics explain what is structurally happening on a medium like the internet, terms like folklore open up a perspective for what’s happening inbetween. The stories, myths, ideologies, superstitions and collective fantasies that arise through emerging technologies – from social media to AI to quantum computing – shape how these technologies are understood, applied and perceived.

I’d argue that we still lack the rigor, concepts and language to truly understand these stories and their significance – so Günseli’s unique insights and research help enlighten us along the way.

You can listen to this episode of The Culture & Technology Podcast on video here, or anywhere you listen to podcasts such as Spotify and Apple Music.

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The Culture & Technology Podcast is created in collaboration with Vienna Business Agency. Günseli will also hold the opening lecture at their annual event, Creative Days on May 20 in Vienna.