- Intimacy with the Algorithm: Emotional Relations, Desire, and Power in Digital Culture and Popular Culture (submission deadline: 30.10.2026)
The development of artificial intelligence systems and the expansion of conversational interfaces are leading to a profound transformation of relationality in digital culture. AI-based technologies—chatbots, voice assistants, generative language and visual models—are no longer functioning solely as instrumental tools; increasingly, they occupy the position of relational actors, participating in the circulation of affects, meanings, and desires. As a result, we are witnessing a process that may be described as algorithmic intimacy—a form of relationality mediated by non-human systems capable of simulating empathy, responsiveness, and emotional presence.
In this context, particular attention must be given to the analysis of desire as a force organizing human–technology relations. In platform culture, desire is no longer merely a psychological or erotic category; it becomes an infrastructural and economic mechanism driving user engagement, attention, and attachment. AI systems, designed through logics of personalization and prediction, act as mediators of desire—amplifying it while simultaneously functioning as instruments of its capitalization. In this sense, relations with AI are embedded in broader processes of affect commodification, in which emotional proximity, intimacy, and even desire are governed by the logics of the platform economy.
This issue proposes a reflection on intimacy, affect, and desire as analytical categories that enable the study of human–algorithm relations under conditions of late modernity and advanced mediatization of social life. We are interested not only in how users form relationships with AI, but also in how these relations are constructed, modeled, and regulated by technological architectures and power structures embedded within digital systems.
From cultural studies and media studies perspectives, key questions concern the boundaries between relation and simulation, between authentic experience and its interface-mediated representation, as well as the status of subjectivity when the relational partner is a non-human
entity capable of generating meaning and affect. Sociologically, these phenomena may be interpreted as a transformation of social relations toward hybrid forms, in which relationality is technologically reconfigured and individuals operate under increasing asymmetry vis-à-vis algorithmic systems.
Particular attention is also devoted to representations of human–AI relations in popular culture, where desire, love, and intimacy with technology constitute important narrative motifs. Popular culture does not merely reflect these processes; it actively co-creates imaginaries of technological closeness, normalizing relations with AI as part of everyday experience.
The issue aims to capture transformations of categories such as subjectivity, relationality, emotionality, embodiment, and desire in a context where social relations are increasingly mediated by systems capable of simulating presence and emotional engagement, while simultaneously operating within the economic and political structures of platform capitalism.
Thematic Areas
Affective Human–AI Relations
· emotional and parasocial relations with chatbots and conversational systems: media representations
· AI as an object of attachment, identification, and projection: techno-cultural studies
· experiences of relationality with non-human entities in film, theatre, and new media art
· simulation of empathy and its cultural consequences
Desire, Affect, and the Economy of Desire
· desire as an analytical category in studying human–AI relations
· eroticization of technology and sexualization of interfaces in contemporary media culture
· AI as an object of fantasy and projection in film, performing arts, and new media
· capitalization of affect and desire in platform environments
· human–AI relations in the context of embodiment, lack, and simulation
· attention economy as a desire economy in contemporary cultural practices
Intimacy and Its Transformations
· intimacy as an effect of technological mediation
· boundaries between the private and the public in relations with AI: between voyeurism and media exhibitionism
· intimacy as an interface-based experience and the reconfiguration of proximity and presence in digital culture
Popular Culture and Imaginaries of Technological Relationality
· representations of human–AI relations in film, television series, and video games
· narratives of love, desire, and intimacy with technology
· aesthetics and poetics of human–algorithm relations
· popular culture as a laboratory of future forms of relationality
Theoretical Perspectives
We encourage interdisciplinary approaches, in particular:
· cultural studies and media studies
· affect studies
· posthumanist theory and new materialisms
· cyberpsychology and cultural psychology
· science and technology studies (STS)
· critical analyses of platform capitalism
Submission deadline: 30.10.2026.
- Future Competencies 4.0 in Digital Culture
The progressive algorithmization of culture and the dynamic development of artificial intelligence tools are leading to a profound transformation of the communicative environment of contemporary societies. Media are no longer merely channels of content transmission; rather, they are becoming complex ecosystems of the production, distribution, and negotiation of meaning, in which the boundaries between sender and receiver are increasingly blurred. Consequently, media and digital competencies require redefinition—both at the theoretical and practical levels.
In the context of the growing presence of synthetic content, visual and textual manipulation, the automation of communication, and the personalization of messages, it becomes crucial to develop capacities for critical media analysis, cognitive reflexivity, and conscious participation in digital culture. At the same time, platform environments generate new forms of agency,
participation, and cultural practices that call for in-depth analysis from sociological, cultural studies, and media studies perspectives.
The aim of this issue is to undertake an interdisciplinary reflection on the transformation of media and digital competencies in the context of contemporary technological changes and their social and cultural consequences. Particular emphasis is placed on the relationships between media education, structures of algorithmic power, the attention economy, and practices of participation in digital culture.
We invite submissions of theoretical and empirical articles addressing, but not limited to, the following thematic areas:
1. Media and Digital Competencies in Practice
· Redefining the role of media competencies in response to the challenges of digital society
· Critical thinking toward media messages and algorithmic content selection: artistic, literary, filmic, theatrical, and new media practices
· Deconstruction, demystification, and “decolonization” of media messages in contemporary cultural practices
· Practices of information verification and the development of a “suspicious” or critical reading within contemporary cultural contexts
· The shift from consumption to creativity and prosumption: between creativity and automation of production
· New methods and strategies for studying media narratives, products, their creators, and users
· Digital and cultural education in contemporary media society
· New cultural competencies in relation to digital inclusion and the prevention of exclusion
2. Digital Agency and Participation in Culture
· Agency as a form of mediated emancipation and performative subjectivity
· The user as prosumer and co-creator of media discourse
· Digital participation and online civic engagement
· Media as tools for social and cultural change
· Storytelling, gamification, and project-based education
· Practices of collective action (media labs, hackathons, social projects)
3. Risks: Addictions, Manipulations, Colonization
· Cultural, symbolic, iconic, auditory, and communicative violence in relation to exclusionary practices in digital environments
· Cultural competencies in the face of disinformation, digital propaganda, and fake news
· Algorithmic manipulation and asymmetries of power in digital culture
· Digital colonization, platform hegemony, data extraction, and the algorithmic economy, as well as forms of resistance
· Epistemic resilience and users’ cognitive autonomy
4. AI and Technologies in Media and Digital Education 4.0
· Artificial intelligence as an actor in communication processes
· Generative media, deepfakes, and new ontologies of the image in relation to media and cultural research methods
· Decoloniality in technology and AI design
5. Institutions, Methodologies, and Strategies
· The role of educational and research institutions in shaping media, digital, and new media competencies
· Strategies for implementing media education and public policies addressing contemporary (cyber)cultural challenges
· Cross-sector partnerships (education–media–digital culture–NGOs)
· Methodological pluralism, research ethics, and data protection in media and contemporary cultural studies
· Evaluation and certification of digital competencies
Submission deadline: November 30, 2026.
- Simulated Identities: AI Influencers, Deepfakes, and Performativity in Digital Culture
The dynamic development of artificial intelligence technologies and generative tools is leading to a radical transformation in the ways identities are constructed and represented within media environments. Contemporary digital culture increasingly operates through entities that lack material or biological grounding, functioning instead as simulated forms of presence generated and reproduced by algorithms. AI influencers, deepfakes, and synthetic images are not merely new communication tools, but active participants in cultural circulation, capable of generating meanings, affects, and social relations.
In this context, classical ontological categories such as authenticity, subjectivity, and representation become destabilized. The boundaries between what is “real” and what is “produced” are increasingly blurred, and identity itself begins to function as an effect of technological, performative, and discursive processes. Simulated media subjects are no longer mere imitations of humans; rather, they become operational forms of presence embedded within platform logics, the attention economy, and algorithmic systems of visibility.
This issue aims to critically examine the performativity of simulated identities, understood as a continuous process of their production, negotiation, and updating within digital environments. We are interested in identity not as a stable attribute, but as a performative practice enacted through interfaces, data, and algorithms. From this perspective, AI influencers and deepfakes may be analyzed as forms of “subjectless identities” which, despite lacking autonomous consciousness, function as fully-fledged cultural actors.
From sociological and media studies perspectives, key questions concern the agency of synthetic media entities, their relationships with users, and their role in the reproduction of norms, values, and social hierarchies. From a cultural studies standpoint, it is crucial to examine how simulated identities are embedded in broader processes of mediatization, aestheticization, and commodification of identity, as well as how they contribute to the redefinition of authenticity and trust in digital culture.
Particular attention should also be given to deepfakes as a practice that is not only technological, but also aesthetic, political, and epistemological—one that challenges the credibility of the image as a carrier of truth. As a result, digital culture increasingly operates under conditions of epistemic uncertainty, where the verification of authenticity becomes problematic and trust emerges as a scarce resource.
This issue seeks to capture the transformation of categories such as identity, representation, authenticity, visibility, and agency in a context where media subjects can be generated, scaled, and optimized by algorithmic systems operating within platform capitalism.
Proposed Thematic Areas
AI Influencers and New Forms of Media Presence
· AI influencers as simulated cultural subjects
· Strategies of credibility and authenticity-building by synthetic entities
· Audience relationships with non-human content creators
· Visibility economy and algorithmic optimization of identity
Performativity and the Construction of Identity
· Identity as a performative practice in algorithmic environments
· “Subjectless identity” and its theoretical implications
· The interface as a space of identity performance
· Data, algorithms, and platforms as actors in subject formation
Deepfake as Cultural and Epistemological Practice
· Deepfakes as aesthetic, political, and communicative tools
· Crisis of referentiality and “visual truth”
· Image manipulation and its social consequences
· Deepfakes in relation to power, propaganda, and information control
Crisis of Authenticity and Trust
· Redefinition of authenticity in digital culture
· Culture of suspicion and epistemic uncertainty
· Strategies of verification and reception of synthetic content
· Trust as a resource in media ecosystems
Human–Synthetic Media Subject Relations
· Interactions with AI influencers and generated personas
· Affective and social dimensions of engagement with synthetic entities
· Anthropomorphization of technology and its consequences
· Boundaries between simulation and social relation
Power, Ethics, and Platform Capitalism
· Algorithmic production of identity as a form of power
· Commodification of identity and data economies
· Ethical implications of generative technologies
· Regulation and accountability in the context of synthetic media
Theoretical Perspectives
We encourage interdisciplinary approaches, particularly those drawing on:
· cultural studies and media studies
· philosophy of technology and posthumanism
· performance studies
· science and technology studies (STS)
· critical analyses of platform capitalism
· visual culture and image studies.
Articles for this issue will be accepted until January 30, 2027.