The holographic Atatürk: from commemorative pageantry to technological resurrection

Abstract

This article offers a fresh theoretical intervention in celebrity studies by exploring digital resurrection and necro-celebrity through the holographic projections of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, often hailed as the founder of modern Turkey. A broad visual repertoire–ranging from municipal Republic Day shows and sports-club spectacles to AI-generated mash-ups–has fostered a ‘digital heritage economy’ that puts Atatürk’s iconic ‘Ebedî Şef’ (Eternal Chief) persona back into circulation in the twenty-first century. We weave together fame’s three classic strands–innate attribution, earned achievement, and media reproduction–within the twin frameworks of necro-branding and cultural necromancy, showing how a deceased figure can transcend both political capital and straightforward market value. Building on debates around simulacra and hyperreality, we treat celebrity holograms as local manifestations in speculative realism, with Atatürk’s case as our prism. Our contention is that the digital image does not supplant reality; instead of devouring the ‘real’, it surfaces latent possibilities under shifting representational regimes. By stressing that these projections are hyperstitional, not merely hyperreal, we uncover the feedback loop through which technological mediation lends tangible form to a long-standing myth lodged in collective memory.