BAG TALK with Elizaveta Federmesser

In this new BAG TALK episode, Elizaveta Federmesser is joined by internet archivist, media researcher, and senior scientist of the Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures, Sophie Publig. They discuss Freud vs. Edward Cullen, the call girl from Scream, black hole bags and making backpacks sexy again, EMO color coding and Sophie’s cubing, intellectual party bender, Gel nails are like crack by Bethany Frankel,

the 2016 makeup, when orange eyeshadow cosplayed as nude, why Jeff Koons stopped art history, Richard Dawkins, and how Nara Smith cooking from scratch is the true gene of culture, 1920s flash mobs, phone pranks, Internet Archive baddies, joking anonymously, joking as a group, humor as freedom, opting into a joke,

“i am not getting IT”, 67, decide to have a LOL, humor VS reference alchemy, iconoclasm tactics in memes, affirming the message, “mind-view-whatever-online”, icon defacing as face-swap, how to be the Angel, giving power to the meaninglessness of the aesthetic by injecting holy spirit into it, romanticism and the vessel of the meaning, spiritual psycosis, religion as a marketplace, hot priests calendar, us kissing on the intersection is the Taj Mahal, Sixteenth Chapel, and Giza pyramid of the online, Kek the ancient Egyptian god of darkness, the link up we don’t want: Anthropic Pope, the meaning of Slop getting overstretched, and what if we kissed on the intersection of Kardashians and Paul McCarthy?

Listen to hear Elizaveta struggle to pronounce “kirkification” and supplement the word paganism with simply “antique stuff”.

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Sophie Publig is an internet archaeologist exploring digital ecosystems and their artefacts. Based at the Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, her research and teaching focus on the dynamics of digital cultures through critical posthumanism, with current work on The Girl Online, the occult turn in networked infrastructures, and trajectories of schizoposting and brain rot. Her work examines internet subcultures ranging from meme ecologies and algorithmic subjectivities to digital folklore, alongside ongoing research into platform aesthetics. She co-authored Digital Occultism (2026) with Mikkel Rørbo.

Elizaveta Federmesser is a cultural strategist and researcher. She is also the founder and editor of BAGMAG, an independent cultural research publication distributed internationally by Antenne Books London. Elizaveta hosts BAG TALK, a video and audio interview series on fashion, media theory, and internet culture, and works as a brand and culture strategist and creative consultant for organizations. She has presented original cultural research as an invited keynote speaker for Chanel’s European Head Office and guest-lectured on fashion, AI, and media theory at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

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In this new BAG TALK episode, Elizaveta Federmesser is joined by creative consultant and the person behind No Research Today, Alex Kropp. They talk about Alex’s new book “What’s the question you are asking yourself right now?”, published by A Service Books, but also about dm confessional, Bible-like book design, “answers bored me”, staying eternally hopeful, making friends through an idea, bringing anonymity back, taking a picture on a fake private jet, deprofessionalizing your emails, specialty magazines from the 90s, niche being basic, studying philosophy to mend a broken heart, Kandinsky shapes alphabet, and what is the speed of boredom?

Follow their conversation while they are stoop surfing in Amsterdam.

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Elizaveta Federmesser is a cultural strategist and researcher. She is also the founder and editor of BAGMAG, an independent cultural research publication distributed internationally by Antenne Books London. Elizaveta hosts BAG TALK, a video and audio interview series on fashion, media theory, and internet culture, and works as a brand and culture strategist and creative consultant for organizations. She has presented original cultural research as an invited keynote speaker for Chanel’s European Head Office and guest-lectured on fashion, AI, and media theory at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://federmess.substack.com

In this new BAG TALK episode, Elizaveta Federmesser is joined by writer, artist, and ex-professor of graphic and type design Charlotte Rohde.

They are talking about:

* aspirationally blending in

* The joys of bars with rude German bartenders

* performative chic-ness conundrum

* eating apples, literally not TM.

* similarities of audible copyright and selling air rights

* Diane, Olivia, and Yasmin are virtually the same names

* Work attire (suit and tie) is the closest thing we have to a carnival costume

* respect farming with blazers

* the TM mode

* bootleg words

* the Industry

* word circulation, betting, and semantic market speculation

* word value speculation

* Make America Chic Again

* Law TM

* Suffix of the day is -mining

* trendforcasters’ insider trading

* polygamy and the polymarket in Berlin

* choosing your poison

* Business Advice for Girls

* economics as art

* choosing between an Oscar and a Nobel Prize and ultimately getting both

* EGOT+NP

* Peace Prize pros and cons

* type as a proxy for public performance of self

* Gill Sans “i” is giving a Noguchi Sculpture

* New Elle Woods

* color grading for the subcultures

* “I don’t wanna be that whiny”

* choosing to be problematic

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Elizaveta Federmesser is a cultural strategist and researcher. She is also the founder and editor of BAGMAG, an independent cultural research publication distributed internationally by Antenne Books London. Elizaveta hosts BAG TALK, a video and audio interview series on fashion, media theory, and internet culture, and works as a brand and culture strategist and creative consultant for organizations. She has presented original cultural research as an invited keynote speaker for Chanel's European Head Office and guest-lectured on fashion, AI, and media theory at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

Charlotte Rohde is a prominent German artist, type designer, and writer based between Berlin and Amsterdam. Her multidisciplinary work explores language as a central medium, bridging fine art and applied typography with themes of hyperfemininity, pop culture, feminist discourse, and economic systems.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://federmess.substack.com

In this new BAG TALK episode, Elizaveta Federmesser is joined by Al Hassan Elwan, a writer, creative consultant, and instigator of POSTPOSTPOST: a publishing project spanning Instagram carousels, print books, film, and talks that has become a reference point in online discussions of meme culture, the avant-garde, and internet aesthetics.

Following the release of POSTPOSTPOST vol. 2 The Real, the second PPP publication for which Elizaveta contributed an essay, “Poser Potential”, they meet at a park bench in Amsterdam for a new video special. And to touch some grass.They talk scroll hijack, gesamdkunstvibe, manifestos as emotional manipulation, why nobody wants to WERK anymore, Chimpanzee posting, edgelording for the better future, Madonna face, a total work of art and a total piece of s**t, the Odyssey, black holes, press juncet, Dirk Bag supremacy, the limit-experience, being on the chin of Bianca Censori, memes by Jean-Luc Godard: the proto-text-overlay, amaizing use of free will, being Trump for a day, variations of nothing and the ultimate nightmare blunt rotation.

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Elizaveta Federmesser is a cultural strategist and researcher. She is also the founder and editor of BAGMAG, an independent cultural research publication distributed internationally by Antenne Books London. Elizaveta hosts BAG TALK, a video and audio interview series on fashion, media theory, and internet culture, and works as a brand and culture strategist and creative consultant for organizations. She has presented original cultural research as an invited keynote speaker for Chanel's European Head Office and guest-lectured on fashion, AI, and media theory at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.Al Hassan Elwan is the founder of POSTPOSTPOST (PPP), a publishing project spanning Instagram carousels, print books, film, and talks that has become a reference point in online discussions of meme culture, the avant-garde, and internet aesthetics.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://federmess.substack.com

In a new BAG TALK episode, host Elizaveta Federmesser meets writer and creator of the @kardashian_kolloquium MJ Corey. They meet ahead of MJ’s book launch, Dekostructing The Kardashians, in Paris, for a special breaking-of-the-fourth-wall: we go video, baby!

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Flaneuring at Cafe Vivienne, ladies discuss the prophecy of Walter Benjamin, the Kardashians’ relationship with failure and death, the secret of Dante’s Comedy for a successful media cycle, Las Vegas Strip VS Paris Burlesque, face lifts, ultimate doll vibes, why The Artist and The Mannequin birthed the IT-girl, Kendall conspiracy, and how reading will save the world! Also mentioned Charli XCX, Susan Sontag, Addison Rae, Camille Paglia, Agnes Varda, Edward Bernays, Marc Jacobs, Bianca Censori, Alex Quicho, Mariana Fernandez Mora, Kanye, Caroline Weber, Jean Baudrillard, and the OG: Marshal Mcluhan.

BAG TALK VIDEO CREDITSHost Elizaveta FedermesserGuest MJ Corey of @kardashian_kolloquium Created, produced, and edited by Elizaveta FedermesserCamera by Sasha Zalivako Soundtrack by Csisterna Sound

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In this new BAG TALK episode, Elizaveta Federmesser is joined by writer, editor and curator, Claire Marie Healy, whose Girlhood Studies project explores how visual culture shapes the experiences of young women. Following the recent MoMu show GIRLS: On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between, we talk girlhood as research practice; Kirsten Dunst filmography as a spectrum; fairytales; Ariana Grande in a hoodie with nails out; the path from the safety of the childhood bedroom and all its tchotchkes to the dark forest of cerebral girl theory and projected femininity; why horizontal stripes are girlhood coded; the safety blanket of the tumblr feed and the old hard drive gold rush; screencap culture and the magic of yellow subtitles; the power of teen print; “get ready with me” choreography; and dropping dead and gorgeous.

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Happy Chinese New Year! The Year of the Fire Horse!

In this holiday special, BAG TALK host Elizaveta Federmesser talks to Jiayun Yan (JY), a scholar of digital cultures specializing in internet phenomena and subcultures in China, and founder of996Doomscroll, a new media platform on all things China-core. As a fellow fake bag connoisseur, JY weights in on Chinesemaxxing, holistic Guangzhou shopping experience, Martian Language, rural kitch, institutional boyfriend frenzy, counterfeits and character building, night malls, the P brand: Loro Piana, on tiering the gods and fortunetelling, freedom of speech, reducted epstein files, soft madness, collective anonymity on the censored web, on why you need a stunt double to be popular, larping as a bureaucrat for romantic gain, and why badminton is hot at the moment.

And don’t forget to stay quantum, babe!

Blessings!

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New Christmas special episode of BAG TALK with Elizaveta Federmesser featuring Adina Glickstein, writer, researcher, and editor at Spike. We talk: DENVER AIRPORT ART + HYPERSTITIONS + MARKET ROMANTICS + POLITICAL DANCE FLOOR + CULTS AND MADONNA + JUNGLE VIA CCRU + WORD OPTIMIZATION + LLM + BIO POP + BAG POP

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“So, then we went into the pit.”

Welcome to the quantum brain. For this episode, I am joined by Günseli Yalcinkaya, writer and researcher. She has recently published an essay, “The Internet Enters Its Age of Aquarius”, at Spike, where she talks about how quantum principles are reflected in culture today. Following her recent trip to Japan, we met at mine to discuss:

* Ankle bracelet politics

* Paris Hilton’s network state

* Why the multiverse has no "edge"

* What is weird now

* Being mistaken for a theorist

* Self-fictioning and failing

* Being trapped under the slimy glass ceiling of the AI slop

* Quantum oil

* Aura, corrupted by boyfriends

* The smell of the Large Hadron Collider

* Cryptids

* Japan’s everyday UFOs

And, of course, the Bag TSA Check.

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What is Cringe=Sublime if not the sacred meeting the profane?I have been following Ruba Al-Sweel, a writer, curator, and artist, for a while and always felt a sort of idiosyncratic kinship with her work – perhaps even idea-syncratic. Whether it was a text snippet of shared sentiments on her stories or a short documentary about TikTok fortunetellers, Ruba’s work and ideas propose a world I feel I can relate to. On the last day of summer, I finally had the pleasure of speaking with her. We chat about: face power; camera as an archangel; Lana’s choice and the crocodile man; big thinkers and men gossip; All Fours by Miranda July; lip tints; iconoclasm; text as the ultimate image; and stretching the band-aid on your camera phone.More at:

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What is a girl if not cringe meeting the sublime? That was my pitch for Alex Quicho - artist, angel, agent, writer - to come to the BAG TALK. This episode is one for the books. We talk Pop, Girl Theory, Fail VS Iteration, lipgloss dominance, a little bit of capitalism theory (just a little, you know), Madonna living the Jesus lifestyle, and why Video Game by Lana Del Rey is our genesis story.

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God is dead. Here comes lithium water! In this new episode of Bag Talk, I speak to a PhD researcher and writer, Anastasia Kubrak, about her lithium, wellness, and culture-related interests. We talk Lana del Ray and soda drinks, Baden-Baden in your pocket, bubbles conspiracy, lithium water resorts as gambling hotspots, larping as an intellectual at a boutique spa, the delusional aspiration to save the world with fizzy beverages, Mad Men last episode impact, cultural context of energy, and the snake oil trajectory of water therapy.

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Recorded in Paris on the second Thursday of May, this episode of Bag Talk features writer and fashion theorist Nabi. We talk about the memes, the Met, and the cringe of it all. Also in: Sexual Personae, aura harvesting, unemployed behavior, amateur fashion commentary, tactical dressing for the red carpet background, and how posers become dandies.

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Ahead of his solo show, I invited Simon Marsiglia - my long-time friend, artist, and a professional hoarder - to talk about his clothes addiction, why his work reminds me of “Clothes Discovery Channel”, how fetish and the bottom line collide in amature Vinted photography, Simon’s fashion failures, and his Armenian bag called Givench.

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I invited my friend, artist-writer and editor zazie stevens of DAISYWORLD Cal, to talk all things nature: the itchy, the cringe, the gross, and the spooky. We do a TSA check of her cute Y-3 bedazzled pouch and spill the tea about queer ecology (still unclear on the exact definition, but it is out of fashion, so I guess I am safe), the cleansing powers of freezers, Lara Croft coded rituals, and why pretending to be a stone is not a viable option.

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Elizaveta Federmesser invites artist and researcher Mariana Fernandez to discuss defining your sexual aesthetic, thin main character syndrome, identity harvesting, non-threatening smoothness, body hair, the importance of knowing and the lack of understanding, and Margiela opting out.

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Elizaveta Federmesser talks with fashion stylist Suzanna Spertsyan about taking the elevator with the Olsen Twins, the fashion routine after moving countries, the new luxury pyramid by Nemesis, having doubts, and the importance of having your nails done.

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FANFICS + THE METHOD + WHAT WOULD SOFIA COPPOLA DO + HALLOWEEN FAILS + SPLIT PERSONALITY + IMPERSONATION

Elizaveta Federmesser @federmess talks to artist Levi van Gelder @levi_vangelder about impersonation, couple outfit fails, the Ötza masterpiece, method acting, fan-fiction, and celebrity stick-dolls.

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Elizaveta Federmesser @federmess and her inaugural podcast guest, artist and curator Doron Beuns @doronbeuns, discuss cringe, sublime, gore core, what is better centimeters or inches, fashion month, cooking like Nara Smith, and feet.

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