C.U.K.T.
- Name
- C.U.K.T. – Centralny Urząd Kultury Technicznej
- Status
- Meta-national artistic and political institution
- Year of Establishment
- 1995, Gdańsk
- Founders
- Robert Mikołaj Jurkowski, Artur Kozdrowski, Jacek Niegoda, Adam Virus Popek, Rafał Grabowski, Piotr Wyrzykowski
- From the C.U.K.T. Manifesto (1995)
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Elimination of info-apartheid.
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Transformation of culture into technical culture.
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Fight for machine rights and against technophobia.
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The machine as author.
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Designing information management systems.
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Establishing a new democratic order based on technology.
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- Methods of Operation
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Techno-entertainment as systemic propaganda.
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Mass rave events as a political-aesthetic format.
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Educational activities and infiltration of public institutions.
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Own documents, seals, and systems of representation.
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Founding informal institutions (e.g. The Cyborg University).
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Bio-stimulation of social consciousness.
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- Key Events
- 1994
- pre-C.U.K.T.: pioneering action by M.R. Jurkowski & P. Wyrzykowski, 120h Mega Techno Presence – Art is a Cultic Space or There Is No Art, Galeria Chwilowa, Konin
- 1995–2000
- series of techno-demonstrations and artistic interventions in public space
- 2000
- Wiktoria Cukt’s presidential campaign and launch of the CES programme
- 2024
- reactivation of the idea in the form of Wiktoria Cukt 2.0
- 1994
- Exhibitions
- Solo
- 2000
- The Presidential Campaign of Wiktoria Cukt, Łaźnia, Gdańsk; Museum of Art, Łódź; Zachęta, Warsaw
- 2000
- Group
- 2024
- Rave: Recharge, Southbank Centre, London
- 2019
- 140 BPM, Tate Modern, London
- 2000
- After the Wall, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
- 1996
- Delikatessen Avantgarde, Kunstraum, Düsseldorf
- 1995
- Anti-election Techno-demonstration, Forts, Gdańsk/Kyiv
- 2024
- Solo
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Vision
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Quotes from the Analysis by Łucja Iwanczewska
(Source: Łucja Iwanczewska, (Techno)Transformation: A Story of a Field Experiment, Jagiellonian University)-
“C.U.K.T. was a symposium of modernity and a laboratory – an experimental redefinition of existing cultural games and the design of new ones.”
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“Techno was both tool and language – a form of generational expression, an organisational strategy, a funding method, and a political declaration.”
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“The artists of C.U.K.T. attempted to establish the Cyborg University – a space for educating a new democratic, civic, and technologically aware society.”
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“Technical culture is not just about creativity, but also about systems of information control. Its values include: objectivity, professionalism, standardisation, progress, and the economisation of human relations.”
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“C.U.K.T.’s actions were an attempt to establish society through art, techno, information, and experiment.”
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- System Declaration
- C.U.K.T. does not create, C.U.K.T. makes aware.