Schizoposting, Brainrot, and the Digital Unconscious
Sophie Publig
Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures, Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures
2026S, scientific seminar (SEW), 4.0 ECTS, 2.0 semester hours, course number S05743
Description
EDIT: Registrations for this course are closed as we are currently way over limit! Thanks so much for your interest and please consider only signing up for this course if you need ECTS. If you only want to listen, you are welcome to join irl or via Zoom!
Internet humor broke, as seen through brain rot memes, AI slop, and schizoposting. Memes no longer work through punchlines but through recursion, fragmentation, and affective overload. Somewhere along the way, the joke died and got replaced by pure vibes.
This seminar takes the rot seriously. We investigate into what happened and what that means for the psychic life of networked subjects. We start with Freud to understand how jokes are supposed to work and then watch that whole structure dissolve into post-irony, absurdism, and whatever is happening now. We read Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalysis alongside 4chan schizoposts. We look at brain rot not as cultural decline but as something weirder: a new mode of desire that doesn't need you to get it.
We will ask questions such as: Why do liminal spaces and weirdcore feel like memories you never had? Is the algorithm dreaming? How do brain rot memes dissolve the difference between content and stimulation? Can memetic archetypes survive when the collective unconscious updates every couple of seconds?
Six sessions on psychoanalysis meets shitposting. We read theory but we also just look at a lot of unhinged content together and try to figure out why it works on us.
No prerequisites except too much screen time.
Examination Modalities
Active attendance and participation in discussions. Small group activities each session. Final assignment: a curated detective wall of 10-15 memes with a short accompanying text (500-800 words) explaining your selection and its connection to the seminar's concepts.
Key Words
digital cultures, psychoanalysis, media theory, posthumanism
Dates
Thu, 12 March 2026, 15:30–18:30 Seminar Room 21
Thu, 26 March 2026, 15:30–18:30 Seminar Room 21
Thu, 23 April 2026, 15:30–18:30 Seminar Room 21
Thu, 07 May 2026, 15:30–18:30 Seminar Room 21
Thu, 21 May 2026, 15:30–18:30 Seminar Room 21
Thu, 18 June 2026, 15:30–18:30 Seminar Room 22
Course Enrolment
From 02 February 2026, 09:00 to 12 February 2026, 17:29
Via online registration
Curriculum Allocation
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.80
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Schwerpunkt Digitale Grundbildung (DGB): Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/020.20
Art Education: subject kkp (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 067/003.80
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.80
Art Education: subject tex (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 071/003.80
Art Education: subject dae (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 072/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Schwerpunkt Digitale Grundbildung (DGB): Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/020.20
Art Education: subject dex (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 074/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.80
Transformation Studies. Art x Science (Bachelor): Focus! Transformation Areas: Digital Transformation 162/040.10
TransArts - Transdisciplinary Arts (Bachelor): Theoretical foundations: Theoretical foundations 180/003.01
Design: Specialisation in Design and Narrative Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Fundamentals: Humanities 576/203.02
Design: Specialisation in Communication Design (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Humanities 577/203.02
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Media Theory,Art&Knowledge Transfer,Th. of Architecture,Th. and Hist. of Design 605/202.02
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Free Electives out of Scientific and Research Practice 605/202.80
Design: Specialisation in Applied Photography and Time-based Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Humanities 626/203.02
Cross-Disciplinary Strategies (Bachelor): Science and Technology: Deepening / Application 700/002.20
Co-registration: possible
Attending individual courses: possible