Nataliya Atanasova

The aspiration to ameliorate life and society always imbues
enthusiasm around the advent of new technologies and media. The belief and
the hope to abolish the individual state of self-interest, selfishness, and disbelief
in the other and the desire to bring forth altruism and cooperation, is what
brought by the NFTs, which seemed to eradicate the necessity of social interaction
from the equation of distribution of wealth, art and knowledge and its according
dependence on the “middle-man” such as the museum, galleries, and
auction houses. The hope for freedom of knowledge, opinion, and speech is
what initially characterized the optimism of the world wide web, social networks,
Wikipedia, and Creative Commons as projects. Similarly, the desire to
live in a "better place", in solidarity with each other, is what Ethereum’s new
project of DeSoc (Decentralized Society), or “Web3’s Soul”, hopes to achieve.
It is always this first appearance of technology as a revolutionary change in
substitution to the old dominant reality and the new possibility of change that
still permeates the atmosphere of the digital and virtual spaces.

The following study examines the critical interplay between ideology, mediated reality, and the role that individuals' perceptions, beliefs, and actions play in this process. In doing so, the study delves into the examination of the way power structures and dominant narratives proceed into influencing cultural expression and, consequently, impact social action. It is thus argued that in contemporary society, the Situationist notion of "the spectacle" has replaced any understanding of reality and created a reified social world dominated by commodities that reinforce dominant ideologies and determine subjective perceptions. Furthermore, the paper addresses the impact of this mediated reality on personal subjectivity and agency. Drawing on Marx's metaphor of the "camera obscura" as ideology, it argues for a transformative "reversal of perspective" that changes how individuals view and engage with their environment. Ultimately, this study underscores the profound impact of "the spectacle" on social relations, ideology, and perception. It argues for a transformative and creative approach that challenges individuals to resist the grasp of the spectacle, reclaim their agency, and develop new perspectives for interacting with the world. The extensions of the gaze subtly refer to the basis of economy manifested as "false consciousness" reflected by the camera obscura as an inverted image but readjusted with the tools of spectacles and mirrors within the reflective apparatus.

This paper investigates the dichotomy between Dismaland, a dystopian inversion of Disneyland, and Disneyland as an enduring bastion of joyous illusion. Through the lenses of heterotopia, non-places, and chiasmus, it explores how their coexistence authentically grounds one while estranging the other. Banksy's inadvertent use of а chiastic structure in transforming Dismaland is analyzed for its reorganizational logic, and challenging norms. Drawing on Lefebvre, Foucault, Rancière, and Nikolchina, the paper examines cultural representations, spaces, and social relations. The analysis extends to non-places vs. heterotopias, emphasizing Dismaland's resistance to non-place classification. The paper advocates for heterotopias, like Dismaland, to challenge norms and foster alternative cultural production, critiquing interpretations of Situationist theories and proposing Rancière's spatial occupation. The conclusion explores how chiastic structure and heterotopian thinking fuel Dismaland's revolutionary potential, challenging predetermined environments, and underscores art's transformative role in societal evolution towards a renewed existence. Кeywords: Dismaland; Disneyland; heterotopia; dystopia; chiastic structure; non-places Резюме Хетеротопии, не-места и други хиазми Следната статия разглежда дихотомията между Dismaland, като дистопична инверсия на Дисниленд, a Дисниленд като траен бастион на радостна илюзия. През оптиката на хетеротопията, не-местата и хиазъма, тя изследва как тяхното съвместно съществуване автентично основава едното, докато отчуждава другото. Неволното използване на хиастична структура от Банкси при трансформирането на Dismaland се анализира за неговата реорганизационна логика и предизвикателни норми. Опирайки се на Льофевр, Фуко, Рансиер и Николчина, статията разглежда културни репрезентации, пространства и социални отношения. Анализът се простира до не-места срещу хетеротопии, подчертавайки съпротивата на Dismaland срещу не-местната класификация. Статията се застъпва за хетеротопии, като Dismaland, за оспорване на нормите и насърчаване на алтернативно културно производство, критикувайки интерпретациите на ситуационистките теории и предлагайки пространствената окупация на Рансиер. Заключението изследва как хиастичната структура и хетеротопичното мислене подхранват революционния потенциал на Dismaland, предизвиквайки предварително определени среди и подчертава трансформиращата роля на изкуството в обществената еволюция към обновено съществуване. Ключови думи: Dismaland; Дисниленд; хетеротопия; дистопия; хиастична структура; не-места 1 Nataliya ATANASOVA is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Sofia "St. Kliment Ohridski". She has completed her Bachelor's degree in Theory of Art at the University of Padova in Italy and her Master's degree in Visual Culture at the University of Westminster in London. Her research interests focus on the intersection of philosophy, visual culture, and technology, with a particular emphasis on contemporary and digital art. Nataliya is interested in exploring radical perspectives within these fields, which offer new and innovative insights into the relationship between art, technology, and society. Her PhD thesis is titled "Catastrophic Imaginaries and Revolutionary Aesthetics: The Situationists' Aftermath in Contemporary Political Art".

Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" (1967) contains entire sentences copied from Marx's Capital, often modified by replacing the word "capital" with "spectacle". Accordingly, the two words were always used, by the situationists, as if they were equivalent to each other. In this respect, the following paper argues that, for the situationists, commodities and entertainment not only share the same elements of a common language but are the same language, which consequently produces individuals and their worldview. And while the situationists owe their main ideas to Hegel and Marx, there are also visible traces in their theories of concepts borrowed from the fields of anthropology and semiotics. This is especially noticeable from the situationists' adoption of the notion of "potlatch" formulated by Marcel Mauss (1925). As it will be analyzed in this paper, contrary to Mauss's view who saw the gift as a symbol of power relations, for the situationists the gift is the negation of commodity: it is not a ritual of exchange, but an act based on the unconditional receiving and giving of oneself, in the society of abundance.

The research undertaken in the following paper bases its analysis on the model of the decentralized governance, offered in the case of blockchain technologies. The focus will be centered on some social elements of innovation introduced by the blockchain system, such as the Non-fungible tokens (NFT) and on the argument of their undeniable influence on a social, political and cultural levelinto forming a new model of governance. More specifically, it will be given an insight on the modes in which the compliance to the blockchain and NFT model, gives rise to new levels of relations between people, influencing their ways of living and socializing. Thus, NFTs are putting forward some novel aesthetics of interaction-exemplified by the case of a new perspective on art, and enhancing individual will and autonomy, through the circulation of cryptographic tokens within the digital space.

The following paper explores the way transparency is used and applied, on a performative and symbolic level, as (1) a device for managing the establishment of sociocultural norms and values and (2) an expedient for understanding the boundaries between oneself and the other. A focus is given to the digital online and offline spaces, seen as places of visibility, circulation of information flows and open-data exchange. Drawing on cultural studies, semiotics and information studies, this interdisciplinary project aims to uncover values, rationales and theories behind the use and non-use of authenticity, truth and personality, in social decision-making and public participation. It will be taken account of the possible responsibilities connected to being transparent and visible, and it will be considered the social expectation for a perfect state, which a term like transparency is charged with, while trying to understand if a politics of total transparency is in opposition with democracy.

An Apocalypse is usually categorised, in the contemporary collective imaginary, as a global, catastrophic event. Today, the term is likely to reflect the vision of any natural, or man-made calamities, occurring as a result of man's action, damaging nature and/or the entire humanity. As explained by theologian Stephen O'Leary, through his reference to the social historian Michael Barkun, “the factor that predisposes this kind of a discourse is from the common experience of natural and man-made calamities”.1  Accordingly earthquakes, climate change could, popularly, are to be read as anxieties, envisioning the consequences of man's negative action towards life and nature.

Okwui Enwezor definisce la moltitudine culturale, come un <<collage di realtà>>, composto da un insieme di pratiche sociali 1. Al felice compimento di queste pratiche, fondamentale è la piena, globale partecipazione di tutti-in modo da produrre, questo tipo di cultura, che il filosofo situa come sperimentale. La moltitudine è il risultato di una rielaborazione e frammentazione di culture autonome, dirette alla formazione della totalità di un sapere sociale collettivo e universalizzato 2. In effetti, Enwezor associa tale processo culturale, ad un punto di vista politico ed organizzativo, in cui la corretta costruzione della realtà e gli agenti in essa, sono basilari per la giusta progressione sociale e storica, della contemporaneità e i suoi componenti. La realtà sociale, quindi, deve essere correttamente rappresentata, nella prospettiva di una collettiva comprensione e di conseguenza-una collettiva partecipazione in essa. Pertanto, quando si tratta di multicultura, non si fa riferimento ad una moltitudine di solamente gruppi etnici o linguistici, presenti nello stesso luogo e nello stesso momento. Non si deve trattare quindi, necessariamente di un insieme di persone che formano una cultura, quanto invece di soggetti, che la portano in sé, perché inscritti di seguito in essa. Dunque, il concetto di multicultura richiama innanzitutto, una pluralità di realtà e pretende la loro comprensione ed inclusione nella nozione di "normalità". Molti teorici hanno considerato il concetto di "normalità", come il prodotto di un processo culturale-dagli scopi organizzativi verso la società, delineando infine la connotazione oggettiva del termine "realtà" e delle pratiche, i fatti e le cose che la compongono. Come suggerisce anche Lévi-Strauss, è l'individuo stesso ad essere delineato e dipendente dalla realtà di cui fa parte, in quanto è necessario 1 Cfr.: O. Enwezor, The Black Box, a cura di Hatje Kantz, Ostifildern-Ruit, in "Documenta XI-Exhibition Catalogue", Germany (2002), p. 46. 2 Ibidem.

The research undertaken in the following paper bases its analysis on the model of the decentralized governance, offered in the case of blockchain technologies. The focus will be centered on some social elements of innovation introduced by the blockchain system, such as the Non-fungible tokens (NFT) and on the argument of their undeniable influence on a social, political and cultural levelinto forming a new model of governance. More specifically, it will be given an insight on the modes in which the compliance to the blockchain and NFT model, gives rise to new levels of relations between people, influencing their ways of living and socializing. Thus, NFTs are putting forward some novel aesthetics of interaction-exemplified by the case of a new perspective on art, and enhancing individual will and autonomy, through the circulation of cryptographic tokens within the digital space.

The following paper explores the way transparency is used and applied, on a performative and symbolic level, as (1) a device for managing the establishment of sociocultural norms and values and (2) an expedient for understanding the boundaries between oneself and the other. A focus is given to the digital online and offline spaces, seen as places of visibility, circulation of information flows and open-data exchange. Drawing on cultural studies, semiotics and information studies, this interdisciplinary project aims to uncover values, rationales and theories behind the use and non-use of authenticity, truth and personality, in social decision-making and public participation. It will be taken account of the possible responsibilities connected to being transparent and visible, and it will be considered the social expectation for a perfect state, which a term like transparency is charged with, while trying to understand if a politics of total transparency is in opposition with democracy.