Download DIY culture, computer hacking and values of youth communist

Do-It-Yourself! Subversive Practices and Informal Knowledge
Annual Conference of the Leibniz Graduate School “History, Knowledge, Media in East Central Europe”, 18-20 November
2015, The Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – Institute of the Leibniz Association,
Gisonenweg 5-7, 35037 Marburg, Vortragssaal und Becker-Villa
Organizers: Sarah Czerney, Jan Surman, Eszter Gantner
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DIY culture, computer hacking and values of youth communist organization in Poland
Patryk Wasiak, Institute for Cultural Studies, University of Wrocław
(figures on page 2)
The aim of this paper to discuss how DIY practices related to computer use, generally referred
as computer hacking, were promoted by Polish communist youth organization - ZSMP (Związek
Socjalistycznej Młodzieży Polskiej, a counterpart of the Komsomol) under the auspices of
“computer literacy” program. As I argue, active support for the circulation of knowledge of
computer hacking by Bajtek (Fig. 1) computer magazine published as an appendix to Zielony
Sztandar, official ZSMP periodical, was an element of politics towards support for youth technical
culture referred as “młodzi mistrzowie techniki,” one of ZSMP main agendas. At the same time
Bajtek strongly supported DIY culture as non-commercial activity as an attempt to challenge
private entrepreneurs who offered pirate software and computer peripherals with high profit
margins.
For instance, in 1986 Bajtek published a series of articles titled “Young pirate’s guide” (Fig. 2),
which provided readers with knowledge of software copy protection removal. Such publications
aimed to challenge local commercial software pirates who, while making copies of software,
included their own copy protection to hinder further non-commercial copying among peers.
Moreover, Bajtek actively promoted young innovators by publishing blueprints of hardware DIY
projects that helped young computer users to build their own simple computer peripherals, for
instance a circuit which enabled use of cheap domestically made tape recorders as mass memory
storage. Such projects, as Bajtek editors claimed, were a low-cost alternative for hardware offered
by traders considered as “profiteers,” highly negative figures in Polish media discourse in the
1980s.
My paper is based on content analysis of computer periodicals, bulletins and interviews with
software traders and members of so called “computer scene.” With this paper I communicate
research output from my on-going research project on the course of computerization of Poland
during the system transition. With this paper I show how circulation of knowledge about
computer DIY projects was appropriated as a part of youth communist organization official
discourse towards computerization and as a “formal” knowledge. I also show how DIY culture
in a communist country was at the same time deeply embedded in political discourse towards
technological progress and in attempts to challenge practices on computer market dominated by
unwelcomed private entrepreneurs. While exploring how DIY culture was appropriated in
political and economic context of state socialist country, I would like to join the discussion on
the appropriation of DIY culture as an element of formal knowledge by organization situated
within the political power structure of the communist regime. This case also helps to challenge
popular assumption on subversiveness as an intrinsic feature of DIY culture.
Do-It-Yourself! Subversive Practices and Informal Knowledge
Annual Conference of the Leibniz Graduate School “History, Knowledge, Media in East Central Europe”, 18-20 November
2015, The Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – Institute of the Leibniz Association,
Gisonenweg 5-7, 35037 Marburg, Vortragssaal und Becker-Villa
Organizers: Sarah Czerney, Jan Surman, Eszter Gantner
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fig. 1. Bajtek, Jan. 1986
Fig. 2. “Young Pirate’s Guide,” Bajtek, Aug. 1986, p. 20.