Works
I research, write and make work about the strange cultural forms emerging from life online.
My work sits between digital culture, art and social research. I am interested in the things that appear marginal, ridiculous or too new to have a name, memes, niche internet communities, posting, brainrot, AI slop, algorithmic aesthetics, and what they reveal about how culture is changing.
I have often worked at the point where these phenomena are still taking shape: researching meme-making as digital labour (2018-2022), developing meme studies as a field (2020), examining algorithmic recommendation and music taste (2015), and now studying the cultural consequences of generative AI (2026).
I work across research, writing, art, curation, education and cultural strategy, collaborating with artists, museums, media organisations, universities and creative institutions.
Over the years, I have published in academic journals and edited volumes as well as arts and cultural publications.
As a result, my outputs span from the ‘serious’ to the ‘experimental’, from open source initiatives to paywalled institutions. I write criticism, essays, scientific articles, and poetry. Those last two things don’t usually go together. Yet, ‘I am large, I contain multitudes’.
I regularly speak to the press about popular memetic phenomena, so you may see my name in Wired, The Washington Post, The Independent, BBC, Input and others.
At the same time, I have appeared on many podcasts and even co-produced one. Some of my workshops and talks have been recorded in video format and can be found in an errant corner of YouTube.
Please feel free to explore (and cite) my works.
Academic publications
PhD Thesis
İdil Galip. 2023. Creative digital labour of meme-making. PhD Thesis: University of Edinburgh.
Books
(2024) Chloe Arkenbout and İdil Galip. Critical Meme Reader III: Breaking the Meme. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. Print and Online.
Peer-reviewed articles and commentaries
Geboers, M., Pilipets, E., Bee, J., and İdil Galip. 2026. “Amplification, communities, platforms: Reclaiming space with Idil Galip and Julia Bee.” Platforms & Society, 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/29768624261455200
İdil Galip, and Ludmila Lupinacci. 2026. “Degenerative AI: AI slop, brainrot, and the gimmick of generative culture.” European Journal of Cultural Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494261468638
İdil Galip, and Eleni Maragkou. 2026. “Chatbox sociality: Extreme personae, speculative communities, and the affordances of alt-tech livestreaming.” First Monday, 31(5): 1-22. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v31i5.15437
İdil Galip. 2024. “Methodological and epistemological challenges in meme research and meme studies”. Internet Histories. 8(4): 312–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2024.2359846
Karakayalı, Nedim, Burç Köstem, and İdil Galip. 2018. “Recommendation Systems as Technologies of the Self: Algorithmic Control and the Formation of Music Taste.” Theory, Culture & Society, 35(2): 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276417722391
Bancroft, Angus, Tessa Parkes, İdil Galip, Josh Dumbrell, Tania Browne, Joe Schofield. 2022. "Negotiating an illicit economy in the time of COVID-19: dealing and buying dilemmas in the lives of Scottish drug users." Contemporary Drug Problems, 49(4): 369-384. https://doi.org/10.1177/009145092211227
Book chapters
(2026) İdil Galip and Eleni Maragkou “Red Scare Girlfriends: Language games in the Red Scare podcast, or the ludic logic of online contrarianism.” In Play & Politics: Media Platforms, Making Worlds edited by Sybille Lammes, Sara Polak, Frans Willem Korsten, Bram Ieven, Frank Chouraqui, Saniye Ince and Alex Gekker. Routledge.
İdil Galip. 2025. “The meme as a concept.” In Practicing Digital Ethnography, edited by Devin Proctor. Routledge.
İdil Galip. 2021. "‘The Grotesque’ in Instagram Memes." In Critical Meme Reader: Global Mutations of the Viral Image, edited by Chloe Arkenbout, Daniel de Zeeuw and Jack Wilson, 27-40. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. Available online.
Commissioned Reports
Matheson, Catriona, Tessa Parkes, Joe Schofield, Josh Dumbrell, Tania Browne, Angus Bancroft, and İdil Galip. 2020. Understanding the health impacts of the COVID-19 response on people who use drugs in Scotland (PWUD): Implications for COVID-19 infection and transmission among this group and impacts on harm reduction, treatment and recovery. Scotland: Chief Scientist Office. https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/COVSTG2010-1.pdf
Peer-reviewed book reviews
Galip, İdil. 2022. “Digital Life”. Information, Communication & Society, 25(2): 313-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1902550
Galip, İdil. 2019. “Digital Sociologies”. New Media & Society, 21(9): 2089–2091. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819841377
Cultural and arts publications
Commissioned Essays
Galip, İdil. 2026. “Thielbucks and the Seduction of Culture.” In POSTPOSTPOST Volume II. Print. https://postpostpost.com/publication_volume2
Galip, İdil. 2026. “I once had a robot cat”. In CURRENT MATTER: Souvenirs of class. Print. https://shop.currentmatter.org/products/souvenirs-of-class
Galip, İdil. 2025. “The lure of memetic auto-theory.” Catalogue essay for The Lure of the Image exhibition. Fotomuseum Winterthur. Print and Online. https://www.permanentbeta.network/episode/207
Galip, İdil. 2023. “Remaking Globalisation in Memes.” In Remaking Globalisation. Bundeskanzler Helmut Schmidt Stiftung. Print and Online. https://www.helmut-schmidt.de/fileadmin/Aktuelles/Aktuelles_Veranstaltungen/Helmut_Schmidt_Lecture/2023_BKHS_Magazine_Remaking_Globalisation.pdf
Galip, İdil. 2023. “As Above, So Below.” In POSTPOSTPOST: Reflections on a New Avantgarde. https://postpostpost.com/Products
Galip, İdil. 2023. “Memes?” In Faking the Real. Kunsthaus Graz. https://www.museum-joanneum.at/en/kunsthaus-graz/discover/publications-editions/kunsthaus-publications/catalog/publication-for-faking-the-real
Galip, İdil. 2023. “Propaganda, Digital Diplomacy, Meme Wars: How Digital Confrontation Is Shaping the New World Order.” In Multipolarity after Ukraine: Old Wine in New Bottles. Institute for International Political Studies. https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/multipolarity-after-ukraine-old-wine-in-new-bottles-116515
Galip, İdil. 2022. Lead article for Iconografie Anno II, Volume II: “Dank: Sull’uso politico dei meme”. Print and Online. http://www.iconografie.it/editoriale-a2n2/
Galip, İdil. 2021. “Memes, Irony and Ugliness.” Institute of Network Cultures. Online. https://networkcultures.org/viralimageculture/2021/12/17/memes-irony-and-ugliness/
Galip, İdil. 2021. “Ironie und Hässlichkeit in Memes.” KUNSTFORUM, 279: 112-117. Print. https://www.kunstforum.de/artikel/ironie-und-haesslichkeit-in-memes/
Galip, İdil. 2021. “A Respite From Algorithmic Violence: Memes, Platforms, and Content Moderation.” Dreaming Beyond AI. Online. https://dreamingbeyond.ai/en/f/pluriverse/ai-violence-trauma/a-respite-from-algorithmic-violence-memes-platforms-and-content-moderation
Galip, İdil. 2021. “Wojak and the Digital Factory.” CONTENT: A memetics research journal, 1: 68-79. The Bard Memetics Laboratory. Online. https://www.memelab.org/content/content-vol-1
Exhibition Texts
Galip, İdil. 2021. “The Party @freeze_magazine”. WESERHALLE Berlin.
Zines
Cem A. in collaboration with the Meme Studies Research Network. 2021. “The Meme Kit Zine”.
Selected media appearances
TV
Deutsche Welle (DW). 2021. Shift: Living in the Digital Age — Memes.
Interviews
The Digital Fairy (Digiverse). 2023. Inside the world of meme studies with Idil Galip.
BBC. 2022. The surprising power of internet memes.
RND. 2021. Meme-Forscherin im Interview: „Memes sind eine Art Insiderwitz im Internet“
Institute of Network Cultures. 2021. How and Why to Start a Meme Studies Research Network: A conversation with Idil Galip .
virtualgoodsdealer. 2021 Discord Servers for Research and Creative Inspiration.
Podcasts
Talk Media to Me. 2024. S03E09: Memes in the Art World with Idil Galip.
Cursed with Good Ideas. 2024. Breaking all the Memes with Idil Galip.
Net Nonsense. 2023. Internet culture podcast hosted by Idil Galip and Erinne Paisley.
LOL My Praxis. 2023. FLASH (aaah) meme with Idil Galip.
The Sociology Show. 2021. The Sociology of Internet Memes with Idil Galip.
Digital Void Podcast. 2021. Ep. 41: Idil Galip “Meme Studies Research Network”.
Selected talks and lectures
2026
Speaker / Performer: “Bedrot With Me”
Event: transmediale 2026
Institution: silent green Kulturquartier, Berlin
Date: February 1, 2026
Speaker: “The State of Memes”
Event: Protein Forum
Institution: Protein, Amsterdam
Date: April 30, 2026
Speaker: “Brainrot and the Digital Grotesque”
Event: Panel Talks “Collectivity, the Digital Unconscious, and the Affective Logic of Brain Rot Content”
Institution: Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures & Vienna Digital Cultures
Date: May 24, 2026
Speaker: “Ambient Propaganda: Memes, Attention, and the Infrastructure of Influence”
Event: Critical Media Lab Colloquium
Institution: Critical Media Lab, Basel
Date: June 3, 2026
Panelist: “Gendered Desire & Resentment on the Platform: Can We Queer Alienation into Belonging?”
Event: INC Exit Fest
Institution: Institute of Network Cultures / OT301, Amsterdam
Date: June 26, 2026
2025
Instructor: “Tuning In: A Symposium on Vibes”
Symposium: RMeS & ASCA Symposium
Institution: University of Amsterdam, NL
Date: April 25, 2025
Speaker: “Brainrot: Internet vernaculars in the era of Generative AI”
Event: The Science of Brainrot
Institution: Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL
Date: May 27, 2025
Speaker: “Is Posting Still the New New Cope?”
Event: Global Art Forum
Institution: Art Dubai, UAE
Date: April 19, 2025
Speaker: “Do Memes Unite or Divide?”
Event: Crit Club: Meme Debates
Institution: IMPAKT Centre for Media Culture, Utrecht, NL
Date: June 8, 2025
Speaker: “The Gimmick of Generative Culture: AI Slop, Brainrot, and the Aesthetics of Capitalist Contradiction”
Symposium: Brain Rot, AI Slop, and the Enshittification of the Internet
Institution: Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Date: December 5, 2025
Speaker: “Degenerative AI: slop and brainrot as creative practices”
Conference: GenAI & Creative Practices: Past, Present, and Future
Institution: University of Amsterdam, NL
Date: December 17–18, 2025
Speaker: “Navigating Meme Culture: From Brain Rot to Digital Monoculture”
Event: Media Majlis Museum Podcast
Institution: Media Majlis Museum, Northwestern University in Qatar
Date: October 10, 2025
2024
Speaker: “Beyond Virality: Niche and viral content in algorithmically ordered platforms”
Conference: Virality: Past, Present, Future
Institution: University of Luxembourg
Date: November 19, 2024
Speaker: “The Lure of Memetic Autotheory”
Event: INC Fest
Institution: Institute of Network Cultures / OT301, Amsterdam
Date: November 1, 2024
Speaker: “Theorising meme-making as digital labour”
Conference: Global Digital Intimacies
Institution: University of Amsterdam
Date: June 27–28, 2024
Co-Organiser: “TikTok: Work, Time, and Play in a Platform Economy”
Conference: Content Providers
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Date: June 14, 2024
Co-Organiser and Speaker: “Breaking the Meme”
Event: Critical Meme Reader III Launch
Institution: SPUI25, Amsterdam
Date: May 17, 2024
2023
Co-Organiser: “Planetary Memecry: New approaches to sociality, affect, and meaning in online subcultures”
Event: ASCA & NICA-funded Masterclass Series
Institution: University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Date: March–April 2023
Speaker and Demonstrator: “Screen Walk with Idil Galip”
Event Series: Screen Walks
Institution: The Photographers’ Gallery, United Kingdom
Date: March 29, 2023
Keynote Speaker: “Locating Meme Subcultures on Digital Platforms: An Ethnography on Instagram”
Conference: Contested Knowledge: Anthropological Perspectives
Institution: Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich & German Anthropological Association, Germany
Date: July 28, 2023
Speaker: “Memes are new”
Symposium: Groundhog Day 2023
Institution: Influencer Ethnography Research Lab, Curtin University, Australia
Date: September 11, 2023
Speaker: “The visual reordering of memes through algorithmic culture: Speculating about the future of content”
Symposium: How to Dank Images – Methoden der Bildanalyse im Kontext des visuellen Kontrollverlusts
Institution: University of Cologne, Germany
Date: October 27, 2023
2022
Speaker: “Creating and Communicating Irony through Internet Memes”
Special Talk: Sponsored by Grafill, the Norwegian organisation for visual communication
Institution: Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway
Date: October 25, 2022
Speaker: “Internet Memes in Digital Culture”
Event Series: Media Culture A–Z
Institution: House of Electronic Arts (HEK), Basel, Switzerland
Date: June 22, 2022
Speaker: “Creating and Communicating Irony through Internet Memes”
Conference: Destroy Media! Humour as a Strategy of Contemporary Image Practices
Institution: University of the Arts Bremen, Germany
Date: May 31, 2022
Interviewer: “Capitalist Realism Meme Translation”
Event: Memes Beyond Images: Memetic Tacticality
Institution: Institute of Network Cultures / SPUI25, Amsterdam
Date: November 25, 2022
2021
Co-Presenter: “Doing Research Online”
Event: National Centre for Research Methods Research Methods Festival
Date: 2021
Presenter: “Art Worlds Online: Memes, Labour and Politics”
Event: British Sociological Association Annual Conference – Science, Technology and Digital Studies Stream
Date: 2021
Co-Presenter: “The impact of COVID-19 on Scottish drug markets: A moral economy perspective”
Event: Drugs Research Network Scotland Knowledge Exchange Event
Institution: Drugs Research Network Scotland
Date: 2021
Guest Lecturer: “Transformation of Work and Digital Economies”
Course: Key Concepts in Global Social Change
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Date: 2021
2020
Presenter: “Art Worlds Online: Methods, Challenges, Ethics and Digital Ethnography”
Event: Data-in-Progress Seminars
Institution: Centre for Data, Culture & Society, University of Edinburgh
Date: 2020
Presenter: “Digital Patronage and Countercultural Entrepreneurs: Instagram’s Niche-Meme Community”
Event: Graduate Colloquium, Unboxing AI: Understanding Artificial Intelligence
Institution: International Network for Digital Labour
Date: 2020
Presenter: “Susceptible, Infectious, Recovering: Tracing Responses to the Novel Coronavirus in the City”
Event: Pandemic Futures / Sociological Observatory
Institution: Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh
Date: July 16, 2020
Founder: Meme Studies Research Network
Organisation: Meme Studies Research Network
Date: 2020
2019
Co-Chair: “Digital Research Ethics Panel”
Event: New Directions Graduate Conference
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Date: April 19, 2019
Presenter: “The Memeing of Feminism: Humour on Instagram”
Event: New Directions Graduate Conference
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Date: 2019