Launch of VIRAL HALLUCINATIONS series No. III On Networked Protest Cultures and Viral Mobilization Deichtorhallen Hamburg Hamburg 20095 Germany Since 2024, the exhibition and discourse series VIRAL HALLUCINATIONS develops a set of critical tools to archive, analyze, discuss and reflect on the current iterations of photographic and photography-mimicking images, circulating on algorithmic media. Conceived by Nadine Isabelle Henrich (Curator of the House of Photography and Head of the Center of Visual Media, Deichtorhallen Hamburg), the series develops publications and hosts workshops, lectures, exhibitions, performances, research- and world building-sessions to weave the tissue of research and conversations for the new Center of Visual Media at Deichtorhallen Hamburg, set to open its own space in Winter 2027. This third volume of the free publication series is published as part of the discourse program framing the exhibition Philip Montgomery—American Cycles at Deichtorhallen Hamburg, curated by Nadine Isabelle Henrich. The publication is available in print and online. The exhibition is expanded by an audio commentary by Ocean Vuong. "Protest optics looks beyond the implementation of facial recognition technologies into the power dynamics between who needs to be visible at all times and who gets to stay in the shadows." – Sheung Yiu, artist and researcher Edited by Nadine Isabelle Henrich and Mona Behfeld (Researcher, Center for Visual Media), the free publication explores a spectrum of interconnected protest cultures and strategies of digital mobilization—ranging from civic engagement to networked propaganda. Taking images circulating online as its starting point that prepare for, accompany, and perpetuate protests through evolving visual strategies, it traces how photographic practices and political realities mutually shape and transform one another. The publication includes a glossary with visual examples by Behfeld, Sarah Gramotke, and Viktoria Rochambeau (curatorial fellows, Deichtorhallen Hamburg), with commentary by Gwen Schlüter (research assistant, Berlin University of the Arts and