transmediale.07

unfinish!

Festival for art and digital culture Berlin 2007:

Jan 31 - Feb 4

The 20th transmediale festival again explores how art and society are changing under the influence of media and technologies which become more and more dominant in our everyday lives. In contemporary art, digital media like video and electronic networks are now so wide-spread that a strict definition of what constitutes ‘media art’ seems no longer possible. Therefore the subtitle of the festival has been altered: transmediale is no longer called ‘international media art festival’, but ‘festival for art and digital culture’. This name is supposed to demonstrate the step away from the niche of ‘media art’, yet still points to the field of tension between culture and digital technologies, which continues to form the main driving force of the festival.

transmediale.07
unfinish!
January 31 - February 4, 2007
Akademie der Kuenste
Berlin, Hanseatenweg 10

The Film & Video Programme, a several-day Conference, a series of Performances, an extensive Salon programme and the Award-Ceremony are again part of the transmediale programme. At the Lounge you can explore diverse works or just rest and enjoy, while in the market you will find interactive projects which invite you to participate. More information about the festival: www.transmediale.de

About the Conference
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1. Conference 'Unfinish!'
2. Keynotes: Stelarc, Kroker, Kittler
3. Panel: Unfinishing Creation
4. Panel: Unfinished Cities
5. Panel: Opening and Closing, Beginning and Ending
6. Panel: The Media Landscape of Iraq
7. Panel: Whatever happened to Tactical Media?
8. Panel: Many Years of Video Art
9. Panel: Media Art Undone

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1. Conference 'Unfinish!'

The transmediale.07 conference, 'unfinish!', deals with the phenomenon of finiteness in art, science, architecture, computer science and politics. The digital culture of the present seems to be neither willing nor able to accept final determination and the closure of processes. Instead processuality and continuous and consecutive updates and versions are the credo of current cultural practices. The conference of the transmediale.07 enters into the discrepancy between the desire to open up solidified structures and situations, and the curse of digital work that doesn’t come to conclusions,but only to an iteration of preliminary versions. In this discussion terms such as ‘opening’, ‘closure’, and ‘restart’, figure as central aspects. In seven panel discussions and in three keynote speeches, they will be analysed and applied to artistic and socio-political questions.

The conference of transmediale.07 in organised in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education.

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2. Keynotes: Stelarc, Kroker, Kittler

Keynote Stelarc (au)
Thursday, 1.2. 2007, 20.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1

In his lecture, the Australian artist Stelarc deals with the potential of
improving the human body and with the consequences this has for the perception of subjectivity. Stelarc's work explores and extends the concept of the body and its relationship with technology through human-machine interfaces. His projects are attempts at testing the scientific 'state of the art' on the human body. In his lecture-performance Stelarc describes how he compensates the
imperfection of his own body and equips it with technology:in the context of the project '1/4 Scale Ear', the artist recently attached a third ear to his forearm. The soft prosthesis was grown from human tissue. Stelarc considers the ear prosthesis not as a sign for a physical malfunction, but rather as a symbol for an additional feature. Thus he tries to amplify the forms and functions of the human body and produces a human-machine-hybrid which questions the notion of the wholeness of the body.
Moderator: Florian Roetzer (de)

Keynote Arthur Kroker (ca)
Friday, 2.2. 2007, 18.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1

In the 1990s Arthur Kroker was one of the most important theorists of the emerging cyber-culture. Today he is an alert critic of global digital culture which has moved on from the utopias of the waning 20th century. His lecture 'Changing the New World Order' analyses the resumption of seemingly closed but unfinished stories in a society altered by global technical changes. Kroker understands the development of technology as a global culture that also involves political, cultural and social areas.
Moderator: Florian Roetzer (de)

Keynote Friedrich Kittler (de)
Saturday, 3.2. 2007, 18.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1

Kittler holds the chair for aesthetics and history of media at the Humboldt University Berlin. In his lecture, he presents his current research concerning theories of machine, media and music and asks for the meaning of reversibility and infinite loop-d-loop which is being re-processed, after its execution as long as this is not prevented by external influences. What power lies in the knowledge that is hidden in computers and their algorithms?
Moderator: Wolfgang Coy (de)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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3. Panel: Unfinishing Creation
Thursday, 1.2. 2007, 15.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1

The Panel 'Unfinishing Creation' deals with the relationship between humans, science, and the future. On the basis of artistic practices, and in conjunction with current scientific topics, especially from the life-sciences, the panel raises questions of openness, of continuous transformation and constant change in present-day society. Do concepts like reversibility, time, mistakes, and progress connect or divide artists and scientists? And do the natural sciences offer new tools to artists and other scientists to expand their own disciplines
and to re-examine our society? Does the notion of an 'open system of life' form a new paradigm? And which effects do the changing media and technologies have on our cognitive structures and on the evolution of new artistic practices?
Moderator: Stefan Iglhaut (de)
Participants: Ingeborg Reichle (de), Warren Neidich (us/de)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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4. Panel: Unfinished Cities
Friday, 2.2. 2007, 15.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1

The phenomena of the multi-layered urban development and urbanisation are among the main topics of the current global cultural context. While the countries of the ‘traditional’ industrialisation are dealing with ‘shrinking cities’, the
increasing megalopolises, particularly those in Latin America, Asia and Africa, are in a process of immense and uncontrolled growth. The panel 'Unfinished Cities' presents positions which consider the exuberant growth and the insecurity which go along with it not as a form of dysfunction, but as a potential. The image of the permanently unfinished, insecure and complex city creates novel spatial constellations that accelerate the urban practice of appropriation and the creation of new forms of public spheres, thus preventing any state of closure.
Moderator: Regina Bittner (de)
Participants: AbdouMaliq Simone (za/uk), Orhan Esen (tr)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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5. Panel: Opening and Closing, Beginning and Ending
Sunday, 4.2. 2007, 14.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1

The panel with Byung-Chul Han and Thomas Macho deals with notions of closing and opening from a philosophical point of view. By means of a comparison between occidental inwardness and far eastern openness, the speakers will trace different traditions of eastern and western thought.
Participants: Byung-Chul Han (kr/ch), Thomas Macho (de)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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6. Panel: The Media Landscape of Iraq
Friday, 2.2. 2007, 12.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1

The future developments in Iraq will depend crucially on whether the question whether a process of negotiation can be initiated between the conflicting groups, or whether separation and isolation will continue. The function of the media in this process is not to be underestimated. The media communicate, comment and reflect; they form opinions and mobilise atmospheres of consent or dissent. Since the collapse of the regime, the media landscape in Iraq has been
growing and sprawling uncontrollably in all directions, and the coverage of the socio-political situation is as multi-layered and complex as the situation itself. The discussion with Iraqi journalists and artists explores the role that the media play in the development of conflicts and the tight-rope walk between the freedom of speech and the will to survive. MICT (Media in Cooperation & Transition) introduce the topic with a report illustrated by video and audio material from their archives.
Moderators: Anja Wollenberger & Klaas Glenewinkel (de)
Participants: Ali Badr (iq), Ismail Zayer (iq)

In cooperation with the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation
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7. Whatever happened to Tactical Media?
Thursday, 1.2. 2007, 16.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Salon

Creating a collaborative culture has been the main goal of video activism, independent practices that are based upon cooperation and networking. Can online tools and services such as YouTube or Flickr provide new cultural identities and open up new areas of dialogue and critique? What political role does the Net play today as a tool for collaborative production? Is self-sufficiency and the DIY ethos still important in the age of Web 2.0? And what is the actual relevance of tactical media today?
Introduction and Moderation: Joanne Richardson (ro)
Participants Part 1: Baerbel Schoenafinger (de/at), Katsiaryna Herasenkava & Pauluk Kanavalchyk (by), Anastasia Nekozakova (ru)
Participants Part 2: Petko Dourmana (bg), Fran Ilich (mx), Micz Flor (de)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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8. Panel: Many Years of Video Art - Historical Views on Art and Media
Wednesday, 31.1. 2007, 15.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1

In spring 2006, five German museums presented the project '40 Jahre Videokunst in Deutschland' (40 years of video art in Germany). A substantial DVD edition of more than 50 individual works in combination with a catalogue (Hatje Cantz Verlag) tries to describe the field of video art in Germany since the mid 1960s. In the context of its anniversary programme, transmediale.07 presents this DVD edition and attempts its evaluation in a broader and international context. Therefore similar projects from other countries have also been invited to the transmediale. The panel discussion between the producers of '40 Jahre Videokunst' and international colleagues offers a critical debate about such
projects of documentation and overview.
Participants: Chris Hill (us), Barbara Borcic (si), Wulf Herzogenrath (de), a.o.

In cooperation with the Goethe-Institute
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9. Panel: Media Art Undone
Saturday, 3.2. 2007, 15.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1

The participants of this panel discuss questions concerning the field and the term 'Media Art'. Is it time to let go of the label 'media art' altogether, and to strive for a re-inscription of media-based art practices into broader art discourses? Are the definitions of media art and media cultural practices still valid that used to justify their - positive and negative - discrimination?
Moderator: Miguel Leal (pt)
Participants: Diedrich Diederichsen (de), Inke Arns (de), Olia Lialina (ru/de),
Timothy Druckrey (us)

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transmediale.07
unfinish!
festival for art and digital culture berlin
www.transmediale.de
info@transmediale.de Mailto info@transmediale

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