UK – Art and technology

Kulturværftet (The Culture Yard) is located by the harbor in Helsingør and, together with Denmark’s Maritime Museum and Kronborg Castle, forms the Kulturhavn Kronborg area. Kulturværftet is North Zealand’s largest cultural center and, organized together with the city’s older culture house Toldkammeret, provides stages and space for a large number of local, national and international cultural events all year round. The two houses together delivers a broad and diverse cultural program with both tradition and unexpected artistic experiences. Visitors can find concerts, lectures, debates, films, theatre, social dining, family events and civic activities.

The intersection between art and technology

Parallel to the daily cultural activities, Kulturværftet works with a number of thematic tracks, artistic development projects and productions, particularly in the intersection between art and technology and with a focus on inclusion, diversity and on how new technology and experimental contemporary art affect our society and democracy. With the program line CLICK, we focus on sensuality, process and cultural and artistic innovation through cross-aesthetic experiments with a curious, experimental and investigative approach. CLICK explores the potential for experience and development in the crossfield between art, philosophy, science and technology, and the aim is to create an inclusive platform where the curious and those interested in culture can get the opportunity to become acquainted with pioneering and unconventional trends in music, stage, installation – and performance art.

Part of the activities are currently being developed as part of two Creative Europe projects, European Digital Deal and Rewilding Cultures. Kulturværftet is participating in these projects in the years 2023, 2024, and 2025, along with several other European cultural actors. Additionally, there are a number of activities specifically aimed at children and young people.

European Digital Deal

When the digital world intertwines with the structure of our society, we are forced to reflect on what it means for our democracies. Together with 12 other European cultural institutions, Kulturværftet is participating in the European program, European Digital Deal, from 2023 to 2025. This program aims to explore how new technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and algorithmic processing can change or undermine democratic processes.

The partners in the EU Digital Deal consist of various arts, culture, and knowledge actors from across Europe. Over the coming years, we aim to establish a new form of public forum through dialogue and artistic experiments. This forum will bring together cultural institutions, artists, researchers, and educators to reflect on what an “agreement” ensuring democratic values in the digital world could look like.

European Digital Deal thus opens up the discussion about the long-term effects and the need to rethink more ethical, just, and sustainable practices in innovation.

Rewilding Cultures

The project Rewilding Cultures is a four-year investigation co-funded by Creative Europe, involving eight cultural and knowledge partners from across Europe.

The project aims to reposition ‘the wild’, wilderness, and nature in the aftermath of our collective experiences during the COVID period, focusing on inclusivity and ecology within the fields of art, science, and technology.

There is a need for new, creative perspectives in these sectors, and the profound halt caused by COVID has provided us with an irritating but necessary time for reflection on potential changes.

We cannot return to business as usual, especially when it comes to climate and crucial inclusion issues. We must find new terms that are relevant to the present and future. As a methodological approach, Rewilding Cultures builds upon the numerous creative hubs that have seen significant development over the past decade. Maker, bio, art, coworking spaces – they come in various forms and serve as frameworks that provide participants with a social space equipped with technological possibilities, where everyone is encouraged to experiment, explore, create, and share.

The social space and community are among the most significant aspects of these hubs. They are not merely workshops for rapid prototyping and meeting the immediate needs of artists and producers, but indispensable laboratories for new knowledge, future technologies, and more.