2026-04-12 –, Seminar room 2 Language: English
This talk examines far-right communicative fascism through the concept of Really Fake, where truth and fiction blur across synthetic media. Through case studies of Trump and Meloni, it explores conspiracy and victimhood as tools of world-making, proposing conspiring as a collective, emancipatory practice of resistance.
This talk explores the rise of far-right communicative fascism through the lens of Really Fake (Shah et al., 2021), a contemporary condition in which truth, fiction, and simulation blur across algorithmic atomizing infrastructures and synthetic media. Through case studies such as Donald Trump Truth posts and Giorgia Meloni Instagram storytelling, it examines the mythopoetic role of conspiracy theories and victimhood as participatory tools for far-right world-making. But rather than opposing fake with truth, the talk recover conspiring a subversion strategy. From its Latin root conspirare, meaning “to breathe together,” conspiring is reclaimed as a collective methodology of resistance, grounded in joy, embodiment, and care. A way to question, refuse, and speculate radically.
Drawing from thinkers including Alberto Toscano, Wendy Chun, and Legacy Russell, the talk crosses media, political theory and feminist thought with myths, memes, and internet cultures, aiming to explore new strategies for shared reality-making.
M. Maddalena Lenzi is an Italian designer and artist based in Basel, Switzerland. With a MA in Transversal Design from HGK, she practices collective conspiring against authoritarian and atomizing infrastructures. Maddalena works at the intersection of community-oriented projects and cultural organizations, she co-organized HackThePromise Festival: Hacking Systems, Hacking Futures! and the exhibition Careful vs Careless in Basel. Since 2025, she is part of the Unofficial Hiking Society.