transmediale 2004

FLY UTOPIA! dealt with the hope that lies beneath the infinite potential of possibilities in the era of media technology, but was also concerned with the hopelessness of a completely technologised and dis-cultured society, which is dominated by the unlimited claim and use of power. Reality and artistic visions cannot be distinguished in utopian and dystopian pictures anymore: FLY UTOPIA! demanded to overcome pessimism and rediscover today's utopian potential.

The conference invesitgated the failed and remaining utopias of the past simultaneously exploring the potential of today's utopias in artistic, political and scientific contexts. In the exhibition works, created through various artistic practices, presented visions of a better future as well as portrayed the loss or failure of social dystopias from the past. According to the visionary character of the exhibition, the jury statement treated extensively the notion of the term image: Understanding the image as a transitory event, even though it generally embodies the static per se, suggests an imaginative, probably even a visionary but in any case a timeless motion within and beyond itself. Dressed as an image, utopia flies away from the future towards timelessness.