ŠUM

Becoming Ljubljanastrophe last night! Šum Journal welcomed 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 from Berlin and the local 𝐊𝐮𝐥𝐭.𝐜𝐨 student collective for the first evening of our two-day mini-conference🌪️ We moved through Christian Nirvana Damato’s talk on computation, subjectivity, and Retrograde Prometheus, Maks Valenčič’s sharp dive into psychotic accelerationism and alternative structures of thought, and Ivan Slijepčević’s exploration of cyberspace, virtuality, and the unstable border between digital and physical worlds. The evening closed with a Q&A by Claire Elise from Becoming Press, opening the space for discussion, questions and collective speculation. Thank you to everyone who joined! See you for Day 2 tonight? Šum × Becoming Press × Kult.co × Izhodi: Becoming Ljubljanastrophe 28 & 29 April 2026 / 17:00 – 21:00 @ MGLC Švicarija, Ljubljana ☁️☁️☁️

First OS screening coming up in Ljubljana in the context of the mini-conference Becoming Ljubljanastrophe, more info: https://www.sum.si/projects/sum-becoming-press-kult-co-izhodi-becoming-ljubljanastrophe

Something has been taking shape in Ljubljana that has not yet received a proper name or institutional canonization. This something has been provisionally named 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐿𝑗𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑗𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑒. *2026 (we live in the past, present and future, all at once) Šum journal has invited 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 from Berlin and the local 𝐊𝐮𝐥𝐭.𝐜𝐨 student collective to jointly organize a two day mini-conference. Special thank you goes to 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 collective for making it possible to screen the OS film in Ljubljana for the first time. Across two days, we’ll bring together voices engaging with philosophy, theory-fiction, psychoanalysis, internet culture, digital metaphysics, and media theory in order to ask what kinds of conceptual and aesthetic forms become possible once the internet is no longer treated as a novelty, but as ontology; when “cyberspace” is no longer a metaphor, but an infrastructural unconscious; and when the virtual is no longer elsewhere, but the very texture through which contemporary reality is composed. Šum × Becoming Press × Kult.co × Izhodi: Becoming Ljubljanastrophe 28 & 29 April 2026 / 17:00 – 21:00 @ MGLC Švicarija, Ljubljana (SI) ✴︎ With Christian Nirvana Damato / Maks Valenčič / Ivan Slijepčević / Claire Elise / Alessandro Sbordoni / Lea Sande & Tisa Troha / Stefan Kafidov / Enea Kavčič / Open Secret Full programme of the two-day mini-conference ➝ link in bio. 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 ✴︎ Publications by Becoming Press and Izhodi, as well as copies of the Šum Journal, will be available! ✴︎ ✴︎ Special thank you: MGLC and Dušan Dovč (MGLC Švicarija). 🎨 @xen0nym #becomingljubljanastrophe #sumjournal #becomingpress

Navigating Unreality Mode 🌀 Finally, Ema Ograjenšek reflects on Živa Božičnik Rebec’s artwork Pleroma—a site-specific installation of four resin blocks, aligned with solar cycles, in Ljubljana’s “Black Widow” building—to propose a way out of the dead-ends of modern aesthetics. Ograjenšek turns to Gabriel Catren’s philosophy, which serves also as the inspiration for Pleroma. She frames Rebec’s installation not as a static object, but as a “speculative mediation” between physical actors (resin, the Sun), historical narratives (the “Black Widow” building), and fiction. By operating as a “dreamlike materialism,” the work functions as a tool to navigate the “outside,” moving aesthetics from a melancholic retreat into a functional, pluralistic engagement with the world. Živa Božičnik Rebec 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚 Ema Ograjenšek 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 🌞🌫️🌆 Read Vol II. online (link in bio) or request a free physical copy of the journal as an object ➺ [email protected] 💌 Last copies in stock! 🪶edited by @__tpp__ & @maxksx 🪶 images by Živa Božičnik Rebec #navigatingunrealitymode #unrealitymode #sumjournal

As part of 🌀 Navigating Unreality Mode, we are screening two video essays by Parham Ghalamdar that extend the journal’s inquiry into image warfare, belief infrastructures and performed truth. Both works move from theory-fiction into audiovisual form, asking not whether images are true or false, but how they circulate, what they authorize, and how they shape collective perception in moments of crisis. 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐃𝐢𝐞 𝐈𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫, created with Parsa Esmaeilzadeh, examines the 2025 12-day Iran–Israel war as it unfolded in feeds, memes, AI imagery, and occult-coded symbolism. The film treats synthetic visuals as infrastructure, hyperstitional objects that accumulate force through repetition. 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐃 / 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐑𝐔𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐃, created with Dr. Lone Sørensen, stages “truth” as a performed effect shaped by bodies, media fragments, algorithms, and populist spectacle. Intentionally left unfinished, the film frames incompletion itself as part of its argument. 🔥 Online screening, 14 days. Watch via link in bio at sum.si #sumjournal #navigatingunrealitymode

Navigating Unreality Mode 🌀 Hyperstitional Deterrence, a collaborative project by Parham Ghalamdar and Parsa Esmaeilzadeh, scales this logic up to the level of war. Conceived during the Iran–Israel war, the work argues that conflict has shifted from a contest over territory to a contest over timelines. They describe a regime of xenowar cognition, where AI-generated images, deepfakes, “phantom strikes”, and ritualized statements form a replication pipeline. Signals are seeded, synthetically magnified, captured into ritual, inscribed into policy, and then looped back as proof. War becomes a belief engine sustained in scroll-space, a cybernetic ritual in which missiles and bodies are only one layer among many. Parham Ghalamdar, Parsa Esmaeilzadeh 𝐇𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥-𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 🤳🏻🌀🎇 Read Vol I. online (link in bio) or request a free physical copy of the journal as an object ➺ [email protected] 🪶 edited by @__tpp__ & @maxksx 🪶 words by @parham.ghalamdar @esileazy #navigatingunrealitymode #sumjournal

Navigating Unreality Mode 🌀 While 𝑘𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 seeks repair through connection, Vladimir Vidmar identifies a ritualized embrace of non-relation in the photographic practice of Jon Derganc. Vidmar argues that a world stripped of any “guarantor of truth” demands a paradoxical religious stance—“a religion without transcendence.” By foregrounding image post-production in Derganc’s work, and tracing the etymology and connotations of the old-fashioned terms for artist (Künstler) back to the “shammer” or trickster, Vidmar proposes that artificializing dimension grants art a special role: art, as a “ritual of the world’s falsification”, becomes the only possible relationship with reality and honest position left. Jon Derganc: 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐬 Vladimir Vidmar: 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 🎨🕯️🌺 Read Vol II. online (link in bio) or request a free physical copy of the journal as an object ➺ [email protected] 🪶 edited by @__tpp__ & @maxksx 🪶 images by @jonderganc

Navigating Unreality Mode 🌀 Pichaya Aime Suphavanij’s 𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑖𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑠 offers a method for inhabiting unreality mode: instead of trying to step outside systems, we move through them, coupling and recoupling zones until something like orientation appears. Suphavanij argues that orientation today is produced more by procedures than by arguments. Under these conditions, critique loses altitude; pointing out contradictions does not slow the machine. What is needed instead is an epistemology that works like an apparatus: a way of liaising between terrains that are already operational. Pichaya Aime Suphavanij 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐢𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬: 𝐀𝐧 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 🪏⚙️🪀 Read Vol I. online (link in bio) or request a free physical copy of the journal as an object ➺ [email protected] 🪶 edited by @__tpp__ & @maxksx 🪶 image by Pichaya #navigatingunrealitymode #sumjournal

Navigating Unreality Mode 🌀 Within the affective currents of the feed, and the prevailing feeling of dread and derangement, we encounter the paintings, memes, and films of Eliška Jahelková (angel kether). As proposed by Sophie Publig & Claire Elise Herzberg, kether’s practice is a ritual of counter-algorithmic cosmic repair. Through aesthetic operations of blur, superimposition, and overexposure, kether’s work radiates an immanent Spinozian theology where the digital network itself becomes a site of divine connection (internet=god=love). Eliška Jahelková 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥 𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 Sophie Publig, Claire Elise Herzberg 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐈 𝐒𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦: 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 ⛲️🐚🪽 Read Vol. II online (link in bio) or request a free physical copy of the journal as an object ➺ [email protected] 🪶 edited by @__tpp__ @maxksx 🪶 images by @user_goes_to_kether #sumjournal #unrealitymode #eliskajahelkova #sophiepublig #claireeliseherzberg

Navigating Unreality Mode 🌀 Wouter Kusters returns us to the brink where philosophy and psychosis touch. Kusters is interested in what happens when thought turns question around so insistently that it becomes a circular movement—a loop that cannot be closed or left behind. For the philosopher, such circles can be productive: one orbits an inexpressible point, returning again and again without collapsing into it. For the mad subject, by contrast, the loop risks tightening into an inescapable enclosure or snapping altogether into a direct fusion with the point of obsession. Kusters thus maps the beginning of the end: the threshold at which philosophical interrogation and psychotic certainty become indistinguishable. Wouter Kusters 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 🌪️👁️ Read Vol I. online (link in bio) or request a free physical copy of the journal as an object ➺ [email protected] 🪶edited by @__tpp__ & @maxksx #navigatingunrealitymode #sumjournal #wouterkusters

Navigating Unreality Mode 🌀 The descent into the unknown is further charted by Philip Speakman, whose practice explores internet legends and mysteries—such as creepypastas and QAnon—and the ways they bleed from imagination into reality. His project 𝐾𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 itself operates as one such “tale of the anomalous”, blurring the line between fiction and fact. In dialogue with Speakman’s work, Luja Šimunović considers the games of belief shaped by digital networks and offers a taxonomy of roles—from Trickster to Dead Account—that co-enact the loops of online mythmaking. Philip Speakman 𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 Luja Šimunović 𝐀 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 🕸️🔍🐍 Read Vol. II online (link in bio) or request a free physical copy of the journal as an object ➺ [email protected] 🪶 edited by @__tpp__ & @maxksx 🪶 images by @philipspeakman #navigatingunrealitymode #sumjournal #philipspeakman #lujasimunovic #katabasing

Navigating Unreality Mode 🌀 Miguel Prado Casanova situates today’s political landscape within an info-sphere saturated by signals, memes, and viral spectacles where grand narratives and basic facts have all lost their binding force. In this setting, the Left ossifies: it clings to proceduralism, factuality, and critique, acting as if the old symbolic guarantees still hold. Neoreactionary currents, by contrast, embrace and weaponize narrative entropy. Figures like the “Cult of Kek” exemplify a style of politics in which irony, shitposting, and mythic avatars become engines of hyperstitional drift: whoever can orchestrate the drift of images and affects across unstable platforms gains leverage over the future. Miguel Prado Casanova 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲: 𝐍𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐟𝐭 🫥🌫️📡 Read Vol I. online (link in bio) or request a free physical copy of the journal as an object ➺ [email protected] 🪶edited by @__tpp__ & @maxksx #navigatingunrealitymode #sumjournal