Marta Ceccarelli on Dark Forests, Exocapitalism, and Patchwork Resistance

In 'A Possible Patchwork,' published in the 2026 volume 'Speculative Infrastructures: Outposts in Collapsing Realities' edited by Klara Debeljak and co-published by MASKA, Marta Ceccarelli explores the internet's Dark Forests, exocapitalism, and jankspace as frameworks for understanding contemporary digital culture and resistance. Drawing from her 2025 master's thesis on Dark Forests, Ceccarelli examines how online subcultures create alternative imaginaries through lore, memes, and AI-generated slop. She engages with Marek Poliks and Roberto Alonso Trillo's concept of exocapitalism, which describes capital as an autonomous, inhuman force that folds, lifts, and drags away from material reality. Ceccarelli applies Rem Koolhaas's junkspace and Daniel Felstead and Jenn Leung's jankspace to urban contexts, citing Lime bikes in Rome as a janky capitalist patch. She recounts a performance by Jazz Lambaux in Bologna where a cable failure led to an unplugged set, illustrating antifragility. Ceccarelli argues that survival in an exocapitalist world requires patchworking—gathering fragments of meaning, lore, and solidarity—rather than grand narratives. The text references protests in Rome during fall 2025, Palestinian solidarity, and the temporary ceasefire, framing resistance as recurrence rather than permanence. Ceccarelli credits her grandmother, sociologist Laura Balbo, for the patchwork metaphor.