Text written as part of the situation Blackwell Archive. May 2025, Berlin.

When movement in real life reflects digital performance, how can we distinguish where mockery ends and sincerity begins? Has questioning hyperreferentiality in the digital realm become irrelevant, naturally absorbed and neutralized by its own commodification? The consequences in our communities start to sprout, as truth can be easily obscured by a mere string of spectacles in succession.

Our beloved theory of hyperreality offers a framework for understanding this. Jean Baudrillard describes a condition in which representations and simulations no longer refer to any original reality but replace it entirely, creating a “real” that is a copy without an original. Within our contemporary gated internet culture and its monogamous relationship with capitalism, online identities, gestures, and performances circulate as commodified simulations intended for consumption and attention rather than genuine expression. The digital realm becomes a hyperreal space where meaning is eclipsed by value, and where currency extraction is built on meta layers stacked endlessly on top of one another.

In this context, the questions remain, is there still room for an alternative digital sphere in a centralized data network? in a reality shaped by algorithmic niches, marketing categories and influencer content, does Web3 retain any meaningful promise at all?