NEW MODELS

The Online Marketplace of Ideas w/ Joshua Citarella

NEW MODELS — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:03:51 GMT

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The Online Marketplace of Ideas (2026), Palazzo Diedo | Berggruen Arts & Culture, Venice. Photo: Stefano Mattea

In recent episodes, you’ve heard us mention the project we created this spring with Joshua Citarella (host of the Doomscroll podcast), 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 “protocol layer” — in other words, the rules that determine how culture is created, transmitted, remembered.

In addition to the audio, we also share our collective notes on the work (see below). Stay tuned for a follow-up subscriber-only post with BTS from the making-of.

The Online Marketplace of Ideas (2026) is an expansive survey of present and recent Internet culture. Today, alt-media has become quantitatively larger than legacy publications. As a result, any consensus or “mainstream” has fragmented into a chaotic digital landscape. The cultural and political fringe is now co-mingled with the establishment. Challengers have become incumbents and vice versa.

Contributors to this artwork range from niche bloggers and anonymous memers to established podcasters, artists, scholars, and even politicians—a kind of twenty-first-century accidental avant-garde operating beyond the norms and structures of legacy media. With few exceptions, all items exhibited as part of this bazaar were purchased online without the knowledge of their creators.

Created by Joshua Citarella & New Models (Caroline Busta & Lil Internet) with spatial design by sub‘s Bill Bellingham & Giulia Domeniconi led by Christopher Blohm and Niklas Bildstein Zaar, The Online Marketplace of Ideas brings traces of the web 2 protocol into the physical world.

The installation includes more than 400 pieces of creator merch (t-shirts, hats, and other drop-ship basics), printed matter (books, journals, zines), and ephemera (snus containers, Modafinil blister packs, mewing gum, etc), plus a few artworks (e.g., Simon Denny’s Extractor boardgame, Tibor Dieters’ Delft Pol/der Tiles, Jenn Leung & Daniel Felstead’s GLP-1 Ozempi plush toy). Here, items that would rarely intersect in information space have physical contact: A Call Her Daddy baby doll tee hangs opposite a Joe Rogan Experience shirt that’s draped over Charlie Kirk’s MAGA Doctrine. Nick Land’s Fanged Noumena shares a shelf with Ezra Klein’s Abundance below a Chapo Trap House hat. The bazaar displays the canon of accelerationist writings and maps the memeplex of ideas that drives attention and ideology on social media. Shown together, these objects convey the cultural and political incoherence of the present moment: infinite consumer choice with limited or no political agency.

Yet the longer one looks, contrasting editorial outlets appear to brand their merch and books with similar graphic motifs; and to share common typefaces, colorways, and object forms (DTG printed Gildan tees, machine-embroidered Yupoong hats). These identical modes of on-demand production and just-in-time delivery evidence an unseen relay of logistics churning beneath the digital content layer. Across the political spectrum, the webshops of ideologically disparate channels are linked to the same physical warehouses (in Texas, Ohio and elsewhere) via e-commerce storefronts often built using the same Shopify backend. Through the leveling structure of the bazaar, all of these political positions can be conceptually containerized as the singular output of a set of shared protocols and supply chains. While recent commentary has focused on the controversial opinions of online personalities, it has often overlooked the protocol-level reorganization of work and materials in the world. Seen in totality, the installation points not toward a single dominant voice or ideology but toward a specific overarching systemic hegemony.

In an era defined by downward mobility and the digitization of culture, people under 45 have carried far fewer cultural artifacts with them through life than previous generations. Whereas Boomers purchased property or other physical assets, younger generations find today’s home prices unaffordable and material goods increasingly disposable (if not also lower-quality). Whereas Gen-Xers might have amassed valuable record collections through discerning taste, Millennials (limited by the logistics of a nomadic work/life and prohibited, anyway, from drilling shelving into the walls of their forever-rented flats) have streaming subscriptions linked to cloud-based archives. Merch is where the immaterial experience of web 2 culture touches down in lived human space. It is the physical precipitate of the “digital” layer. As an analogue display technology, it signals identity in social contexts the screen cannot reach. These printed objects are worn by community members as proof of belonging and to represent the strength of their collective belief. Ultimately, merch is a form of consensus technology and, for many of us, it may be the only kind of cultural artifact that we physically pass on to our kids.

The recent flipping of “fringe” and “mainstream” also signals a larger transformation that is shaping the twenty-first-century. Over the past decade, message boards have evolved into think tanks, content creators have become political actors, and platforms have pioneered new forms of sovereignty. Today’s media streams are the signals organizing new social formations. The content and connections we make online have become the fertile ground from which new political organizations, guilds, universities, and/or societies are slowly emerging.

The design of online spaces guides human interaction and shapes the possible political positions it engenders. When futaba.php (the original source code for 4chan and related message boards) was first deployed in Japan, it seeded a far-right movement there. A similar extremism developed in the US following the rise of 4chan. Wherever the futaba.php code has taken hold, it has, through its rules of engagement, produced a particularly virulent cultural formation. As a work for this bazaar, Lil Internet printed every line of futaba.php on a B2-size poster, titling it Protocol Weapons of the 21st Century. If code alone can so efficiently conduct society now, society needs new rules, platforms, and institutions capable of productively engaging on this most consequential protocol level.

Lil Internet, Protocol Weapons of the 21st Century (2026)

Already, journalists and critics have dubbed 2024 the “podcast election.” In today’s digital landscape, candidates compete for prime spots on alternative programs. In certain instances, politicians have become successful content creators themselves, such as California Governor Gavin Newsom or President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum, among many others.

Stranger still, two previously distinct social forms appear to be converging: media outlets and political organizations. Within today’s information networks, they are increasingly structurally identical—both communicating with their audience/constituents via the same publishing infrastructure and attracting the attention of their fan/voting bases through the same memetic strategies. Historically, media channels have shaped democratic opinion through carefully crafted content published by registered organizations supported by annual dues. But direct revenue from rolling subscriptions is starting to eclipse this legacy model, and content is changing in turn. (The Democratic Socialists of America used to charge $27 annually but now bills $5 a month, just like a podcast.) At the same time, content creators (podcasters, streamers, Substackers) are demonstrating a greater fundraising capacity than many individual political candidates. Notably, the conversion rates of creator communities, when called to take political action (donate, vote, canvass, protest), are generally outperforming those of legacy institutions.

A CCTV screen on a 6-second delay renders viewers part the bazaar’s content(s)

As an artwork, The Online Marketplace of Ideas is not concerned with individual political positions or speculating on which ones will succeed or fail. Rather it just wants to make viewers understand, in their bodies, that more or less all politics in the platform age are downstream of a shared, hegemonic system—a protocol stack that hyper-efficiently organizes belief, materials, and politics into atomized channels while remaining all but invisible to the publics it conducts.

Note: Our friend , author of The YouTube Apparatus and Generation Gap, wrote about the bazaar on his Substack. We highly recommend it.

https://newmodels.io

NM Talkcore | artist Steven Warwick on making music in the time of “content” (2026)

NEW MODELS — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:23:07 GMT

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 with Iván Brito, GUSH, Splash of Milk (Huntleys + Palmers) — to chat about making music, touring, and putting out albums in 2026.

Steven Warwick performing “Naughty”, Berlin, December 2025 (for Dorian Electra’s “ART“ book launch)

For more:
@ohmygushhhhh
@sweetie_darling_bebe
stevenwarwick.info

Preparing for this conversation, Steven sent us some notes on content. He let us share them with you here:

Content as class based division (non marxist) but who is content? and who is culture or legacy? I always think about going to mourn the queen’s coffin and saying to her thank you for your content. Similarly Yungblud was on an MTV awards show in the lockdown and said “thank you for your content”. Why has music been so utterly devalued yet […]

NM Content Today | Quis Contra Nos, Venetia (2026)

NEW MODELS — Mon, 18 May 2026 10:53:57 GMT

If the stats are correct, 3,733 registered journalists attended the pre-opening 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 Holly Herndon, Mat Dryhurst, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Adriana Rispoli. (Stay tuned for an ep next week with Josh discussing the collab in detail).

And so here we are with our unaccredited, unsolicited content about Venice, alongside a bonus travel special featuring a visit to the Lake Garda home of Italian decadent poet Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938).

Venice’s last mile ...

“Attention Guild” (Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst w/ sub) during install of “Strange Rules” at Palazzo Diedo; curators Herndon, HUO, Adriana Rispoli in the work

To see complete Venice/Garda photo diary below, subscribe <3

NEW MODELS

The Online Marketplace of Ideas w/ Joshua Citarella

In recent episodes, you’ve heard us mention the project we created this spring with Joshua Citarella (host of the Doomscroll podcast), 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 “protocol layer” — in other words, the rules that determine how culture is created, transmitted, remembered.

https://newmodels.io

NM Talkcore | artist Steven Warwick on making music in the time of “content” (2026)

Steven Warwick performing “Naughty”, Berlin, December 2025 (for Dorian Electra’s “ART“ book launch)

For more:@ohmygushhhhh @sweetie_darling_bebestevenwarwick.info

Preparing for this conversation, Steven sent us some notes on content. He let us share them with you here:

NM Content Today | Quis Contra Nos, Venetia (2026)

Note: This post is overloaded with photos — to see in full, subscribers may need to view in-app (rather than email).

NM Greenroom | VICE magazine’s Ben Ditto & Kevin Lee Kharas (2026)

NM 93 | Daniël de Zeeuw & Sal Hagen on the post-discursive web (2026)

For more: Hagen, S., de Zeeuw, D., & Venturini, T. (2025). Digital Rhythmanalysis: Studying Memetic and Affective Rhythms on the Post-Viral Web. Platforms & Society, 2.

de Zeeuw, D., Birchall, C., & Knight, P. (2025). On Psyop Realism. Cultural Politics, 21(2), 240-257

Hagen, S. (2024) Reactionary Rhythm: Quali-quantitative studies of 4chan/pol/. PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam

Hagen, S., & de Zeeuw, D. (2023). Based and confused: Tracing the political connotations of a memetic phrase across the web. Big Data & Society, 10(1)

NM Content Today: Quo Vadis, Looksmaxxer (2026)

TOP MAXXING META-CONTENT

NM 92 | Scholar Peli Grietzer updates his 2017 “Theory of Vibe” (2026)

For more: @peligrietzer (x)

Substack: Second Balcony

Theory of a Vibe ’25

NM Greenroom | Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff on New Theater Hollywood (2026)

For more: www.newtheaterhollywood.com & @newtheaterhollywood

See also: Mike Davis, City of Quartz (Verso, 1990)

Thom Anderson, LA Plays Itself (2003)

NM Podcast | Mise-en-TV w/ Calla Henkel (2022)

NM 77 | Calla Henkel on Art, Industry, and “Scrap” (2024)

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NM Talkcore | Jay Springett on “Slop Machines of Loving Grace” (2025)

Chat with an Oct 2025 draft Jay’s book’s here.

Follow/subscribe/listen to more of Jay’s work at thejaymo.net

See also: NM85 | Jay Springett on “Worlds” as Medium (2024)

NM Reads | Neo-Orality 2 (Jacqueline Fendt)

For Part 2 (this post), Lil Internet reads excerpts from: Jacqueline Fendt, “Beyond Wicked: Vibocratic Problems in the Post-Truth Era” International Journal of Social Science Studies, Vo. 13, No. 2, (Redfame, Jun 27, 2025) [Copyright: CC BY 4.0]

For Part 1, Lil Internet read excerpts from: Jacqueline Fendt, “Democracy, Neo-Orality, and the Unraveling of Political Norms: What Can We Social and Political Scholars Do?” Open Journal of Political Science, Vol. 15, No. 3, (May 31, 2025) [Copyright: CC BY 4.0]

NM Reads | Neo-Orality 1 (Jacqueline Fendt)

For Part 1 (this post), Lil Internet reads excerpts from: Jacqueline Fendt, “Democracy, Neo-Orality, and the Unraveling of Political Norms: What Can We Social and Political Scholars Do?” Open Journal of Political Science, Vol. 15, No. 3, (May 31, 2025) [Copyright: CC BY 4.0]

For Part 2 (forthcoming), Lil Internet reads excerpts from: Jacqueline Fendt, “Beyond Wicked: Vibocratic Problems in the Post-Truth Era” International Journal of Social Science Studies, Vo. 13, No. 2, (Redfame, Jun 27, 2025)

NM 91 | Daniel Felstead & Jenn Leung on Jankspace (2025)

For more: @jennnital @felstead.daniel

Maya B. Kronic speaking at London College of Fashion, January 2025

Rem Koolhaas, “Junkspace” October 100: Obsolescence (Spring 2002)

NM Greenroom: Olivia Kan-Sperling on Little Pink Book (2025)

For more: @dianadiagram & oliviaks.page

NM60: Code Couture w/ Olivia Kan-Sperling (2023)

NM x Heavy Traffic: Olivia Kan-Sperling reads “The Perfect Glove” (2024)

NM Live | Exocapitalism launch w/ Marek Poliks & Roberto Alonso Trillo @ Trust Berlin (2025)

NM Talkcore | Kevin Munger on Spiraling (2025)

For more: kevinmunger.com

Watch: Kevin Munger on Vilém Flusser’s “Communicology: Mutations in Human Relations”

NM Talkcore | Gideon Jacobs on Media, Politics, and Ketaphysics (2025)

See also:

NM Talkcore: Gideon Jacobs on Musk, Trump, and Fiction (Apr 2025)NM Talkcore: Gideon Jacobs on Trump as Image (Nov 2024)

Gideon Jacobs, “Player One and Main Character,” (Apr 2025)Gideon Jacobs, “Trump l’Oeil,” (LARB, Nov 2024)

Jay Springett: https://thejaymo.net/permanentlymoved/

NM Dispatch | America Diaries - August 2025 (Lil Internet)

In the US, quality of life means quality of imagined life — past, present, and future shot, reshot, edited, and color-corrected into user-generated reality…

NM Presents: Illegal Generation Vol. 2 by Lil Internet (2025)

BEYOND THE PAYWALL, PAID SUBSCRIBERS ACCESS:

• Lil Internet’s Three Rules of Gencore

• Download link to high quality file of the pure mix (w/out NM intro/outro)

For more:
@ohmygushhhhh
@sweetie_darling_bebe
stevenwarwick.info

See also:

Mike Davis, City of Quartz (Verso, 1990)

NM Talkcore: Gideon Jacobs on Musk, Trump, and Fiction (Apr 2025)
NM Talkcore: Gideon Jacobs on Trump as Image (Nov 2024)

Gideon Jacobs, “Player One and Main Character,” (Apr 2025)
Gideon Jacobs, “Trump l’Oeil,” (LARB, Nov 2024)