What this is about

I make journalism you can enter: a game you play, a map you move through time, a stage you sit in front of, a wall you walk past. This is where I write about that work while it is happening. What I am building, why it takes the form it does, and what I learn when it meets real people.

Who I am

I’m Jakub Górnicki, a journalist and artist based in Warsaw. I call what I do Artistic Journalism: rigorous reporting turned into something people physically encounter, not just scroll past.

Right now that means Reakcja, a platform for information through art, with its theatre opening in 2027. BOTTLENECK, a browser newsgame about the Strait of Hormuz crisis that Ars Technica and others picked up. Borderline, a map and register of security incidents in NATO countries and Moldova linked to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Zondatracker, which pieces together the Zondacrypto affair from other reporters’ investigations. And 70procent, with Gazeta.pl and Wyborcza, about how Poles helped Ukrainians in 2022, out in January 2027.

Before this I co-founded Outriders (2017-2026), reported from Ukraine from the first day of the full-scale invasion, and as COO of the ePaństwo Foundation launched Code for Poland. My work has received the Paszport Polityki, Grand Press Digital, the Polish-German Journalism Award and INMA Global Media Awards recognition, and was shortlisted for the European Press Prize.

What you get

New projects when they launch, notes on how they were made, and essays on journalism, art and AI when something needs arguing. No fixed schedule. I write when there is something worth sending. If you want to build something together, start with Deploy.

To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.

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Journalism beyond the screen. On artistic journalism, special projects, and why the most powerful thing a news organisation can build right now is something AI cannot replicate.

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