We are very happy to share custom artwork commissioned by the Hype Studies group! DiSect, who describes himself as a “Stroud-based abstract surrealist outsider collage Artist and idiot” has been collaborating with us over the past few weeks on a poster which conveys the atmosphere of outer space desires, hyper galactic promises and interplanetary conspiracies.
You can download the high-resolution version here.
Ola, who has reached out to DiSect, commented:
“If everyone knows that a picture is worth a thousand words, then does that mean that collage made out of over 70 elements could essentially be a full-length novel? The finished artwork is full of Easter (link) eggs which point to almost nostalgic cases of ridiculous hypes of the past. From Oasis’ brothers ticket scandal to the lofty London Garden bridge project which costed £53 million without ever leaving the planning stage, DiSect’s artwork creates a parallel universe made of space dust and collective delirium. In the age of endless debates over the nature of mis/dis/mal/information, the medium of collage allows playful manoeuvring between those categories. On the one hand, every single element was sourced from archival magazines and newspapers, serving as a testimony to particular times and events. On the other, images were clearly taken out of context and juxtaposed against each other to spin new narratives which may or may not bear resemblance to the true accounts evidenced by the historians of tomorrow.
As a researcher working on hype in the context of digital innovations, I was drawn to the quietly subversive approach of the artist, in his own words, 'No Google. No Photoshop. No resizing. No colour adjustment. No computers or printers were used or harmed in the making of'. To that end, if you’re reluctant to harm AI bots but aren’t too squeamish about the prospect of cutting through piles of many, many old National Geographic issues, we recommend rummaging through the book section of charity shops for unique finds at affordable prices.”
The original of the collage will be available to view during our upcoming conference in Barcelona, 10-12th September 2025. Soon, you will also see its digital copy as a means of promoting our upcoming side-event in Bristol taking place in July (Watch this space for more information! And yes, we did have to use computers and scanners to render a digital copy!).
Call for contributions
We are very keen for our inaugural Hype Studies conference to be a site of diverse contributions. Aside from traditional academic panels and presentations, we welcome contributions from artists, journalists, innovators and other practitioners curious and concerned about the notion of hype in their field.
We will work hard to accommodate variety of media (be it podcasts, images, music, videos or…something totally different!). If you’d like to share your recent work related to hype (see also: trends, buzzwords, publicity, spectacles, innovation successes and failures, collective emotions related to your domain of expertise…), please submit your abstract by 10th May here. If you’d like to discuss the logistics of exhibiting your work first, please don’t hesitate to contact us here criticalhypestudies -at- posteo.com. The conference registration is free, and we will accommodate hybrid contributions.
Acknowledgements
You're free to share the image under the CC BY-NC-ND license. This means you have to credit the author, use it only for non-commercial purposes and only distribute it in unedited form. Please credit the work as: (Don't) Believe the Hype. 2025. DiSect. Commissioned by Hype Studies Group. With support from Innovation Launchpad+ Researcher in Residence scheme [grant numbers EP/W037009/1, EP/X528493/1].
