DATAS: Machine States

Join the online presentation of the Machine States project on November 5 at 19:00 Kyiv time with Critical Tech Group (Nazar Holianych and Nastia Kolodka).

Machine States is a project created within the DATAS residency that explores how political technologies can preserve our thinking and biases.

If for the academician Viktor Glushkov—a Ukrainian cyberneticist and pioneer of computer science—the state was to become a machine capable of managing political processes through computation, today machines themselves emerge as states, forming their own algorithms of power, diplomacy, ideology, and sovereignty.

The simulation is a network of computers, each functioning as a separate state with its own ideology, resources, and population. They compete for diplomatic, economic, military, or informational advantage, while a central computer tracks and documents these processes in real time. When a visitor's device appears in the space, the system initiates a struggle between the states for its signal—for the ability to control attention and influence within the network. The human becomes merely an interface and a resource, connected to an infrastructure where real politics is already conducted by machines. This raises the question: where is the line between the political and the technical—and is it possible to draw it at all?

Register to take part in the event

Critical Tech Group (CTG) is the research unit of the autonomous educational platform workinprogress (wip.network). As part of the DATAS residency with IZOLYATSIA, the group is represented by Nazar Holianych and Nastia Kolodka. CTG focuses on the practical study of the interconnections between technology and society, particularly the critical analysis of the "computation of the social."

Nazar Holianych is an artist working with moving images and a researcher associated with two analytical structures: Molfar and TrapAgressor. He also supports wip.network, a platform for study groups that fosters independent research initiatives based on a public funding model.

Nastia Kolodka is a Ukrainian researcher and visual artist. She works primarily with spatial research and interactive design, experimenting with 3D modeling and creative coding. Her practice combines the study of rhizomatic systems, (post)internet culture, and decentralized communities. She lives and works in Kyiv.

Co-funded by the European Union under the Creative Europe program. The views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Co-funded by the New Democracy Fund / Danish Cultural Institute.