Reactivating Experience: Art, Culture Industry and Authoritarianism in the Digital Age

REACT examines how the dynamics of the contemporary culture industry, shaped by digital capitalism and global media platforms, influence subjectivity and tend to foster authoritarian tendencies. Building on the Critical Theory tradition established by Adorno and Horkheimer, the project addresses the crisis of lived experience produced by commodification, standardisation, and algorithmic control, which in turn creates fertile ground for anti-democratic ideologies. It brings together universities, research centres, and artistic institutions from Europe and Latin America in an interdisciplinary and intersectoral network. The consortium combines philosophy, social sciences, art studies, and artistic practices to analyse and experimentally counter the authoritarian effects of cultural production.The project pursues three objectives, each corresponding to a Work Package: O1 investigates the paradoxical connection between the modern concept of freedom and contemporary authoritarianism; O2 updates and expands the notion of “culture industry” for the digital era; O3 tests and implements artistic practices as models of aesthetic freedom, capable of reactivating experience and expanding democratic imaginaries.Methodologically, REACT adopts the Research-Creation Lab (RC-Lab), an innovative environment where theoretical research and artistic experimentation are closely integrated. Secondments and exchanges allow staff to circulate knowledge, compare regional perspectives, and translate between critical theory and artistic practices.The action will deliver new theoretical tools, comparative analyses, and artistic outputs to understand and resist the authoritarian potential of digital cultural industries. It will foster a new generation of scholars and artists trained to combine critical theory with creative practice, reinforcing democratic resilience, open forms of subjectivity, intercultural dialogue, and sustainable collaboration between academic and non-academic partners.