Virtual Spaces : Tools of Poetic Resistance or Censorship Devices?

Albín, Kuchta (2025) Virtual Spaces : Tools of Poetic Resistance or Censorship Devices? DISEGNO: A DESIGNKULTÚRA FOLYÓIRATA, 9 (1). pp. 148-165. ISSN 2064-7778

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Abstract

This article analyses digital and virtual art spaces as ambivalent formations that may operate either as instruments of poietic resistance or as dispositifs of censorship. Engaging with Jacques Derrida’s theory of the archive, Bernard Stiegler’s critique of technocapitalism, and philosophical accounts of poiesis, the paper examines how institutional and non‑institutional virtual archives shape collective memory, affectivity, and regimes of visibility. Focusing on the Slovak context within Central and East‑ ern Europe, it demonstrates how Roma and queer communities are systematically marginalised with‑ in institutional archives and digitised museum platforms, where exclusion frequently assumes the form of soft or indirect censorship. At the same time, the study foregrounds the emancipatory potential of non‑institutional virtual spaces, social media, and AI‑mediated practices, which are increasingly appropriated by marginalised artists as tools of resistance. Through selected case studies of Roma and queer artistic practices, the article shows how digital and AI‑supported poiesis can generate coun‑ ter‑archives, alternative affective frameworks, and new modes of political agency that contest hegem‑ onic, racialised, and heteronormative norms. The paper concludes that virtual art spaces are not in‑ trinsically emancipatory or oppressive; rather, their political significance depends on the conditions of access, control, and interpretation that govern archiving practices. It therefore calls for participatory and ethically grounded approaches to digital archiving and AI data governance in order to prevent the continued reproduction of institutional racism and cultural erasure.

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