Machine States — Exhibition by Critical Tech Group
IZOLYATSIA Foundation invites you to the opening of the exhibition Machine States by Critical Tech Group — on March 18 at 18:00 at the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House (5b Volodymyrska Street).
What if the state is a machine? And the machine is a state?
The starting point of the project is the figure of Ukrainian cyberneticist Viktor Glushkov (1923–1982) — the author of the ambitious OGAS project, which was intended to become a unified automated nervous system for the Soviet economy. Today his utopia undergoes a strange inversion: machines themselves begin to behave like states — forming their own algorithms of power, diplomacy, and ideology.
Machine States is a laboratory installation, a network of computers each functioning as a separate state with its own ideology, resources, and population. Eight archetypes of political systems — from the Centralised Autocrat to the Market Technocrat — compete for diplomatic, economic, military, and informational advantage. If a machine-state fails to cope with its internal load or loses a diplomatic conflict, its algorithm can be overthrown and rewritten by a competing ideology in real time.
When you enter the installation space, the machines immediately begin to compete for the signal of your device — for your attention.
Here, the human is not the subject of politics, but its interface and resource.
Exhibition runs 18–25 March 2026, 11:00–18:00.
Ukrainian-Danish Youth House (3rd floor), 5b Volodymyrska Street
Opening — 18 March 2026 at 18:00.
During the opening, an Artist Talk will take place with the authors — Nastia Kolodka and Nazar Holianych (online).
About Critical Tech Group
Nazar Holianych is a moving image artist and researcher. His practice draws on the concept of investigative aesthetics, exploring new methods of collecting and interpreting data about the world. He is a steward of the independent research platform wip.network and a text editor at the Berlin art journal local group.
Nastia Kolodka is a Ukrainian researcher and visual artist. She works with spatial research, interactive design, 3D modelling, and creative programming. Her practice combines the study of rhizomatic systems, (post)internet culture, and decentralised communities. She lives and works in Kyiv.
Co-funded by the European Union under the Creative Europe programme. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors alone 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 the content.
Also co-funded by the New Democracy Fund / Danish Cultural Institute.
DATAS (2025–26) is a platform created to amplify voices that remain unheard in Central and Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, with the aim of reflecting on the relationship between people, technology, and power. The project is implemented in partnership with Goethe-Institut (Germany), IZOLYATSIA (Ukraine), MeetFactory (Czech Republic), Projekt Atol (Slovenia), and Tallinn Art Hall (Estonia).