OpenLAB 2026 | Encrypted Horrors. Lost Media in Digital Folklore – Talk by Arianna Caserta

In a hypervisual world where almost nothing escapes the digital panopticon, ‘lost media’ are paradoxical artifacts: fragments of media culture whose existence is the stuff of rumor, and of which only partial traces remain. People hunt for them collectively on Reddit and YouTube, somewhere between online folklore and resistance to the total transparency of the big platforms. In this way, they regain something of the “aura” of cult objects: that they exist matters more than ever getting to see them. Like creepypastas, their incompleteness and ambiguity spur the collaborative making of myths. This also brings ‘lost media’ close to horror. From desktop cinema and the first-person shooter to the exploration of Google Street View, and even AI-generated images, contemporary horror increasingly springs from what remains hidden and elusive: our distance from images is the real bogeyman of today’s visual culture. 

This activity is part of the OpenLAB The Mechanics of Truth festival.

Info

Date: Friday, November 27, 7pm. . 
Place: Nave Una in Matadero Madrid.
Language: English with simultaneous translation in Spanish. 
Price: Free, no registration required. 

About Arianna Caserta 

Arianna Caserta is a writer and researcher. Her work explores the relationships between contemporary art, the moving image and internet culture, with a focus on identity and online self-narratives. She has contributed to Dazed, i-D Italia and Flash Art, among others. She is the author of Teen Nihil (Inactual, 2026). 

@ariannacaserta