Where are All the Thinkers? is a singular publication containing 240 transcriptions of videos from various social media platforms (TikTok, Instagram Reels, Youtube Shorts), found and transcribed in a total of 41 hours, 41 minutes and 41 seconds. It is a crucial addition to our ever-online world, where a craving for knowledge persists but is constantly instrumentalized by the interface. It embraces the condensed character of research and “popular science” in today's day and age and preserves it in print. With that, it is justified. The project draws from the existing movement of Internet research in publishing and offers a critical reflection on consumption culture and the thinkers shaping our time.
The project emerges from several intersecting conditions: the growing trend of digital detox and a renewed interest in physical media; the rise of self-declared “researchers” on social media; and the resulting overconsumption of information that contributes to a wider societal cognitive dissonance. At its core lies a central question: how does constant interaction with information through our phones affect us, and what is the value of academic or artistic research in an internet already saturated with (pseudo) research? Where Are All the Thinkers? approaches this tension as a critical reflection on both the positive and negative implications of contemporary knowledge production.
Central to the project is a self-formulated definition of the interface. We argue that an interface is not limited to digital environments such as screens, applications, or platforms, but can instead be understood as any medium that shapes our interaction with information, knowledge, and meaning-making. By transcribing fleeting, algorithm-driven information and self-proclaimed research into print, the book — a traditionally trusted, academic, and authoritatively valued object — reshapes how this content is perceived, consumed, and valued. While digital interfaces promote rapid, continuous interaction, the book slows the process down, asking the reader to engage with the same material more intentionally and with undivided attention. In doing so, it foregrounds the importance of context. The book strips away the interactive layers of social media — titles, durations, users, reach — and presents the spoken tone of the videos in a neutralized, textual form. This shift exposes how form influences trust and legitimacy, and how written, physical presentation can transform casual or pseudo-research into something that appears academic and credible. By presenting transcribed social media content as “research,” the project simultaneously acknowledges the democratizing potential of online platforms and reveals the ease with which information can be legitimized through design, format, and context. The book communicates not only through its content but through its physical presence. Ultimately, Where Are All the Thinkers? functions as a critical reflection on our constant interaction with information, questioning what we accept as knowledge, who we trust as thinkers, and how that trust is shaped by the interface through which information is delivered.