OILab
@oilab.bsky.social
We are a collective of researchers studying radical subcultures online. oilab.eu
Reposted by OILab
New article post! shorturl.at/yJBr5 I mostly blame this brave attempt at updating digital methods for the 2020s "vibes" era of platforms on @hetsalwel.bsky.social - and we're continuing this research in '26 as a reading group "From Vectors to Vibes" - email us if you're interested in participating!
Digital rhythmanalysis: Studying memetic and affective rhythms on the post-viral Web - Sal Hagen, Daniël de Zeeuw, Tommaso Venturini, 2025
How to do justice to the pulsing, ephemeral and multisensory dimensions of today's digital lifeworlds? Even as platforms increasingly push audio-visual str...
shorturl.at
November 17, 2025 at 9:10 AM
New article post! shorturl.at/yJBr5 I mostly blame this brave attempt at updating digital methods for the 2020s "vibes" era of platforms on @hetsalwel.bsky.social - and we're continuing this research in '26 as a reading group "From Vectors to Vibes" - email us if you're interested in participating!
Reposted by OILab
Just released: 4CAT 1.51 “The R is in the month”
Highlights:
📊 Classification evaluation: subpar F1 scores, now in 4CAT
🤖 New LLM processor options
#️⃣ Search by #hashtag on Telegram
🖼️ Image hasher: check for duplicate images!
🪰 A LOT of small bug fixes and improvements
github.com/digitalmetho...
Highlights:
📊 Classification evaluation: subpar F1 scores, now in 4CAT
🤖 New LLM processor options
#️⃣ Search by #hashtag on Telegram
🖼️ Image hasher: check for duplicate images!
🪰 A LOT of small bug fixes and improvements
github.com/digitalmetho...
Release v1.51 The R Is in the month · digitalmethodsinitiative/4cat
This updates adds several new processors, to help working with image datasets and LLM-based annotations; many bug fixes and small QoL updates to processors; various bug fixes and updates to mapping...
github.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Just released: 4CAT 1.51 “The R is in the month”
Highlights:
📊 Classification evaluation: subpar F1 scores, now in 4CAT
🤖 New LLM processor options
#️⃣ Search by #hashtag on Telegram
🖼️ Image hasher: check for duplicate images!
🪰 A LOT of small bug fixes and improvements
github.com/digitalmetho...
Highlights:
📊 Classification evaluation: subpar F1 scores, now in 4CAT
🤖 New LLM processor options
#️⃣ Search by #hashtag on Telegram
🖼️ Image hasher: check for duplicate images!
🪰 A LOT of small bug fixes and improvements
github.com/digitalmetho...
Reposted by OILab
Interesting piece by @katecrawford.bsky.social on "metabolic media", though I personally prefer the term "excremental media" 🫠 (for my PhD I wrote about early (pre-AI) meme culture on 4chan/Reddit and how they already imagined the internet as a giant digestive tract tinyurl.com/38wer53p
Intensification - Kate Crawford - Eating the Future: The Metabolic Logic of AI Slop
AI slop isn’t invested in the order of events or even looking like reality. The slop is not the territory: it just smothers it in synthetic goop. It’s flooding the zone with AI shit.
tinyurl.com
September 16, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Interesting piece by @katecrawford.bsky.social on "metabolic media", though I personally prefer the term "excremental media" 🫠 (for my PhD I wrote about early (pre-AI) meme culture on 4chan/Reddit and how they already imagined the internet as a giant digestive tract tinyurl.com/38wer53p
Reposted by OILab
Together with Marc Tuters and @robtoes.bsky.social I wrote an essay on the Charlie Kirk assassination, the Groypers - Nick Fuentes connection and the state of memetic political violence today oilab.eu/frozen-antag...
Frozen Antagonisms: Charlie Kirk, Groypers, and the Meme Politics of Violence – OILab
oilab.eu
September 14, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Together with Marc Tuters and @robtoes.bsky.social I wrote an essay on the Charlie Kirk assassination, the Groypers - Nick Fuentes connection and the state of memetic political violence today oilab.eu/frozen-antag...
Reposted by OILab
Essay by Morozov on tech-oligarchs: www.theideasletter.org/essay/silico...
The New Legislators of Silicon Valley - The Ideas Letter
Morozov describes a newly emerged Silicon Valley class of “oligarch-intellectuals,” billionaire tech elites who combine vast wealth, ideological ambition, and the philosophical pretense to reshape pub...
www.theideasletter.org
May 19, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Essay by Morozov on tech-oligarchs: www.theideasletter.org/essay/silico...
Marc Tuters spoke to @france24.com about Curtis Yarvin's recent NYT interview and the end of democracy [in French]: www.france24.com/fr/%C3%A9co-...
Curtis Yarvin, le gourou des "Lumières obscures" qui veut peser sur la présidence Trump
Quelques jours avant l'investiture de Donald Trump, le New York Times a publié une longue interview de l'idéologue neoréactionnaire Curtis Yarvin. Cet ex-entrepreneur de la tech est l’un des penseurs…
www.france24.com
January 21, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Marc Tuters spoke to @france24.com about Curtis Yarvin's recent NYT interview and the end of democracy [in French]: www.france24.com/fr/%C3%A9co-...
💡 New publication by Gavin Mueller and Marc Tuters on the playful subcultures of r/PoliticalCompassMemes!
Have to finish setting this up later but for now: new publication! Using the Birmingham School's subcultural theory to look at political compass memes, we attempt to theorize how "digital political subcultures" are refashioning political subjectivity www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Revolution by other memes: on the playful subcultures of r/PoliticalCompassMemes
Based on an analysis of 300k opening posts to the popular image-based discussion forum r/PoliticalCompassMemes, in this paper we offer an empirical analysis of how the ‘political compass’ meme temp...
www.tandfonline.com
December 16, 2024 at 4:43 PM
💡 New publication by Gavin Mueller and Marc Tuters on the playful subcultures of r/PoliticalCompassMemes!
Reposted by OILab
We're pleased to announce the launch of KingsCAT 🐱, a new @4cat.nl instance to support social media research at King's created by
@digitalmethods.net @oilab.bsky.social
hosted by @kingsdh.bsky.social @digitalculturekcl.bsky.social @kingsartshums.bsky.social www.kcl.ac.uk/news/gather-... 🎊✨
@digitalmethods.net @oilab.bsky.social
hosted by @kingsdh.bsky.social @digitalculturekcl.bsky.social @kingsartshums.bsky.social www.kcl.ac.uk/news/gather-... 🎊✨
'Gather, explore, collaborate' – new toolkit to enrich digital culture…
KingsCAT is a cross-faculty initiative coordinated by the Digital Future Institute’s Centre for Digital Culture and the Department of Digital Humanities in collaboration with e-Research and…
www.kcl.ac.uk
December 3, 2024 at 1:36 PM
We're pleased to announce the launch of KingsCAT 🐱, a new @4cat.nl instance to support social media research at King's created by
@digitalmethods.net @oilab.bsky.social
hosted by @kingsdh.bsky.social @digitalculturekcl.bsky.social @kingsartshums.bsky.social www.kcl.ac.uk/news/gather-... 🎊✨
@digitalmethods.net @oilab.bsky.social
hosted by @kingsdh.bsky.social @digitalculturekcl.bsky.social @kingsartshums.bsky.social www.kcl.ac.uk/news/gather-... 🎊✨
🚨 New publication by @helmerstoel.bsky.social and @ddzeeuw.bsky.social 👇
The review @ddzeeuw.bsky.social and I wrote of the controversial Conspiracist Manifesto is just out in Cultural Politics.
We argue it should be taken seriously as a timely critique of the present, but are critical of the politics it proposes.
We argue it should be taken seriously as a timely critique of the present, but are critical of the politics it proposes.
The Conspiracy to End All Conspiracies
In February 2020, Giorgio Agamben's criticisms of the restrictive government measures that were imposed at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe immediately became a cause célèbre. On his o...
read.dukeupress.edu
November 26, 2024 at 10:00 AM
🚨 New publication by @helmerstoel.bsky.social and @ddzeeuw.bsky.social 👇
Reposted by OILab
Two images I showed in class yesterday to exemplify the inflated (and ridiculous) use of war metaphors (mostly by the right) and what that might tell us about the current state of (digital) culture more broadly... #war #metaphors #rhetoric
November 21, 2024 at 5:12 PM
Two images I showed in class yesterday to exemplify the inflated (and ridiculous) use of war metaphors (mostly by the right) and what that might tell us about the current state of (digital) culture more broadly... #war #metaphors #rhetoric
Reposted by OILab
My dissertation is now publicly available here: hdl.handle.net/11245.1/387b...
It features reworks of six articles as well as four new chapters.
It features reworks of six articles as well as four new chapters.
June 12, 2024 at 12:20 PM
My dissertation is now publicly available here: hdl.handle.net/11245.1/387b...
It features reworks of six articles as well as four new chapters.
It features reworks of six articles as well as four new chapters.
Daniël de Zeeuw spoke to The Guardian about the memetic trope of the "sigma male" www.theguardian.com/society/arti...
The sad, stupid rise of the sigma male: how toxic masculinity took over social media
His heroes are Patrick Bateman, John Wick, Tommy Shelby and Walter White. He follows Andrew Tate and idolises wolves. And he has quickly become a laughing stock. Welcome to the world of the sigma male
www.theguardian.com
June 12, 2024 at 11:49 AM
Daniël de Zeeuw spoke to The Guardian about the memetic trope of the "sigma male" www.theguardian.com/society/arti...
If you're in Amsterdam, on 24 June, @profafinlayson.bsky.social will explain what “reactionary digital politics” is, how it is shaped by “ideological entrepreneurs,” and how this is reconfiguring our understanding of what it is to be political.
Sign up here: spui25.nl/programma/di...
Sign up here: spui25.nl/programma/di...
A Hero’s Journey? Ideological Entrepreneurs and Reactionary Digital Politics - SPUI25
This is the first talk in a series that looks at how the disruptive affordances and practices of global digital culture relate to political reconfigurations symptomatic of a broader crisis of liberali...
spui25.nl
June 11, 2024 at 3:25 PM
If you're in Amsterdam, on 24 June, @profafinlayson.bsky.social will explain what “reactionary digital politics” is, how it is shaped by “ideological entrepreneurs,” and how this is reconfiguring our understanding of what it is to be political.
Sign up here: spui25.nl/programma/di...
Sign up here: spui25.nl/programma/di...
🎆 Happy new year! 🎆
To hit the ground running, @hetsalwel.bsky.social published a paper on the relationship between groups on 4chan and Reddit. How has this relationship developed? What do cross-site associations teach us about their collectivity?
🔓 here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
To hit the ground running, @hetsalwel.bsky.social published a paper on the relationship between groups on 4chan and Reddit. How has this relationship developed? What do cross-site associations teach us about their collectivity?
🔓 here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
January 3, 2024 at 10:28 AM
🎆 Happy new year! 🎆
To hit the ground running, @hetsalwel.bsky.social published a paper on the relationship between groups on 4chan and Reddit. How has this relationship developed? What do cross-site associations teach us about their collectivity?
🔓 here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
To hit the ground running, @hetsalwel.bsky.social published a paper on the relationship between groups on 4chan and Reddit. How has this relationship developed? What do cross-site associations teach us about their collectivity?
🔓 here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
How do fears regarding a loss of agency persist in our networked condition?
@ddzeeuw.bsky.social and Jernej Merkelj write about "agency panic" to reflect on the growing idea that online, everyone is controlled. They do so by analysing the NPC meme and the trope of the Internet addict.
Read it here👇
@ddzeeuw.bsky.social and Jernej Merkelj write about "agency panic" to reflect on the growing idea that online, everyone is controlled. They do so by analysing the NPC meme and the trope of the Internet addict.
Read it here👇
Caught in the loops of digital agency panic: On NPCs and internet addicts - NECSUS
This paper seeks to recontextualise and update Timothy Melley’s concept of ‘agency panic’ to think about current discourses around online media influence and addiction. According to Melley, agen...
necsus-ejms.org
December 18, 2023 at 9:51 AM
How do fears regarding a loss of agency persist in our networked condition?
@ddzeeuw.bsky.social and Jernej Merkelj write about "agency panic" to reflect on the growing idea that online, everyone is controlled. They do so by analysing the NPC meme and the trope of the Internet addict.
Read it here👇
@ddzeeuw.bsky.social and Jernej Merkelj write about "agency panic" to reflect on the growing idea that online, everyone is controlled. They do so by analysing the NPC meme and the trope of the Internet addict.
Read it here👇
💡 Emillie de Keulenaar wrote about "speech affordances" for Big Data & Society. Using the Kekistan meme as a case study, she explores how site affordances and moderation shapes speech across platforms.
👉 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
👉 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Sage Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
November 8, 2023 at 9:56 AM
💡 Emillie de Keulenaar wrote about "speech affordances" for Big Data & Society. Using the Kekistan meme as a case study, she explores how site affordances and moderation shapes speech across platforms.
👉 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
👉 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
⏰ new pub!
In the wake of Trump and Brexit, online movements became enthralled with the radical sense of waking up from a false reality.
In this chapter, Daniël de Zeeuw and Jan Overwijk try to make sense of this strange resurgence of ‘awakening’ and the experience of radical epistemic clarity.
In the wake of Trump and Brexit, online movements became enthralled with the radical sense of waking up from a false reality.
In this chapter, Daniël de Zeeuw and Jan Overwijk try to make sense of this strange resurgence of ‘awakening’ and the experience of radical epistemic clarity.
The New Clarity: Awakening in the Post-Truth Era - Lawrence Wishart
Abstract: In the wake of Trump and �Brexit, the late 2010s gave rise to an ambient sense of a post-truth crisis. It signals the
journals.lwbooks.co.uk
November 2, 2023 at 4:53 PM
⏰ new pub!
In the wake of Trump and Brexit, online movements became enthralled with the radical sense of waking up from a false reality.
In this chapter, Daniël de Zeeuw and Jan Overwijk try to make sense of this strange resurgence of ‘awakening’ and the experience of radical epistemic clarity.
In the wake of Trump and Brexit, online movements became enthralled with the radical sense of waking up from a false reality.
In this chapter, Daniël de Zeeuw and Jan Overwijk try to make sense of this strange resurgence of ‘awakening’ and the experience of radical epistemic clarity.