Kristian Lukić

Kristian Lukić (1974) is a curator, theorist, artist based in Bratislava. He graduated in Art history and received an MA in Theory of Art and Media from the Belgrade University of Arts (thesis Commodified Play). He is a curator for media practice in Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina in Novi Sad. He is also a co-founder of Institute for Flexible Cultures and Technologies - Napon, Novi Sad. From 2001 to 2006 he was program manager in New Media Center - kuda.org. In 2002 he co-founded Eastwood - Real Time Strategy Group, a group dealing with technology and play by developing and modifying computer games.

He curated and organized several exhibitions and conferences such as Play Cultures (2007), on game culture and politics of play, Territories & Resources (2008), on web 2.0 and social networks phenomena, Wealth of Nations, on the world of finances, in Novi Sad (2009) and Bristol (2010), and Autonomije in Novi Sad (2013). Together with Gordana Nikolić in 2010 he co-organised the conference Art Work. Accumulation and Availability.

Within kuda.org, he co-curated exhibitions and managed numerous projects such as World-Information.Org (2003), exhibitions in collaboration with Public Netbase in Novi Sad and Belgrade; and Media Ontology (2005), part of the On Difference project in Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart. He wrote for numerous media art and culture magazines such as Inter-Society for Electronic Arts (ISEA) Newsletter, Sarai Reader, kuda.read publications and Republika magazine to name a few.

He taught at Parsons School for Design, Department of Design and Technology, New York, USA; Foundation for Art and Creative Technology Liverpool, Media Center Lume - University of Art and Design Helsinki; Ars Electronica festival, Linz, Austria; Werkleitz Biennial, Halle an der Salle, Germany, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

"I'm mostly interested in conepts of play as free activity defined by Huizinga and Callois and today's problems with these definitions. Also how play is becoming more and more commodified human activity, the concept of agon apears to be "ruling" play element, especially in the notion of Virno's Negation and Inovation and what Pasquinelli describe as Immaterial Civil War. In young animals, play is mostly preparation for survival, learning how to efficiently defend themselves or how to efficiently attack prey. Its interesting for example how game industry is counting on specifically this element / pure agon. Here is useful to realize concept of animal spirits that Virno and Pasqunelli are referring too, where they regard inovation and culture as the constant battle, (or Immaterial civil war) and prolongation of animal nature in human. In that sense culture is not something opposite to "animal spirit" but rather continuation or even amplification of animal nature in humans. Situationists for examply clearly located problem of competition aspect in play."

Publications

• "Let Us Become Children! Training, Simulations and Kids", in Sarai Reader 4: "Crisis/Media", Delhi: Sarai Programme, 2004, pp 54-59. (English)
• with Zoran Pantelić, "Mapping of Social and Art History in Novi Sad", 2005. (English)
• with Branka Ćurčić and Gordana Nikolić, "Labour & Leisure: The Artist at (Non)Work", trans. Žarko Cvejić, TkH 17: "Exhausting Immaterial Labour in Performance", Oct 2010, pp 34-35. (English)
• "Komodifikacije igre: kritičke perspektive umetnosti digitalnih igara", Knj. 127 (2010), pp 236-251. (Serbian)
• "O zbirci medijske prakse Muzeja savremene umetnosti Vojvodine", Nov 2011. Conference talk. [1] (Serbian)
• "Financialization Clarity", in Visible Data: Financing Culture, 2011-2012, Bratislava: Open Design Studio, and Novi Sad: Napon, 2012, p 1. (English)
• "Veštačka nestašica i umetnost", Digitizing Ideas, 17 Apr 2012. (Serbian)
• "Artificial Scarcity and Art", 2013. Talk. (English)
• editor, with Sunčica Pasuljević Kandić, Autonomije, Novi Sad: Zavod za kulturu Vojvodine, 2014, 167 pp. Anthology and catalogue. Issuu. (Serbian)/(English)
• "Colonization with Love", Share Lab, 19 Aug 2016. (English)
• "Normalizácia a postinternetové umenie", Flash Art CZ/SK 42, Dec 2016, pp 47-49, HTML. (Slovak)

Links

• http://www.napon.org
• http://projects.digital-cultures.net/gamification/2013/11/21/kristian-lukic-at-the-gamification-lab/