transmediale 2016 announces program and further participant highlights

transmediale 2016 announces program and further participant highlights

FM Einheit, Hito Steyerl, Liam Young, Performance with Hatsune Miku

Berlin, 15 December 2015
Following the program announcement from last month, we are pleased to announce further participants from the realms of art, culture, and media, who will gather for transmediale/conversationpiece, to take place at Haus der Kulturen der Welt from 3-7 February 2016. transmediale has been supported by Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) since 2004 and, according to a recent decision by the foundation, will continue to be supported through 2022.

The full program will soon be available online at http://2016.transmediale.de.
More information on the curatorial concept can be found here.

Jussi Ängeslevä (fin), Jamie Allen (ca), Nicholas Anastasopoulos (gr), Sabrina Apitz (de), Heba Y. Amin (eg), Jacob Appelbaum (us), Alfredo Aracil (es), Lucia Arias (es), Burak Arikan (tr), Lara Baladi (eg), Jocelyn Bailey (uk), John Beck (uk), Liat Berdugo (us), Didier Bigo (fr), Ryan Bishop (uk), Jean-Marie Boyer (fr), James Bridle (uk), Johannes Bruder (de), Declan Clarke (ie), Andrew Clement (ca), Brody Condon (mx), Constant (Michael Murtaugh, Nicolas Malevé) (us/be), Diakron (dk), Keller Easterling (us), Sara Diamond (ca), Anne-Marie Duguet (fr), FM Einheit (de), Lori Emerson (us), Lucas Evers (nl), Nina Runa Essendrop (dk), Jennifer Gabrys (us), Victor Mazón Gardoqui (es), Felix Gerloff (de), Sarah T Gold (uk), Oliver Grau (de), Moritz Greiner-Petter (de), Vinay Gupta (uk), Corinna Haas (de), Martin Hartmann (de), Femke Herregraven (nl), Brian Holmes (us), Ralf Homann (de), Kasper van der Horst (nl), Sophie Hoyle (uk), Juha Huuskonen (fi), Wolfgang Kaleck (de), Valentina Karga (gr) & Pieterjan Grandry (be), Serhat Köksal (tr), Joasia Krysa (pl), Lancel & Maat (nl), Ilari Larjosto (fi), Geoffroy de Lagasnerie (fr), François-Joseph Lapointe (ca), Tomi Leppänen (fi), Simona Levi (it), Evan Light (ca), Isabell Lorey (de), Geert Lovink (nl), Christian de Lutz (de), David Lyon (ca), Emily Martinez (cu/us), Nicolas Maigret (fr), Nicholas Mirzoeff (us), Shintaro Miyazaki (ch), Ola Möller (se), Matthias Monroy (de), Annette Mühlberg (de), Deborah Natsios (us), Robert Ochshorn (us), Phoebe Osborne (us), Jussi Parikka (fi), Claus Pias (de), David Pello (es), Peng Collective (de), Alison Powell (ca), Robert Pravda (nl/rs), RecPlay Lab (nl), Regine Rapp (de), Kate Rich (aus), Alona Rodeh (is) & Mule Driver (is), Steve Rowell (us), Thibaut de Ruyter (fr), Stefan Schumacher (de), Nishant Shah (in), Esra'a Al Shafei (bh), Carsten Stabenow (de), Hito Steyerl (de), Tactical Media Connections (David Garcia, Eric Kluitenberg) (nl), Matthias Tarasiewicz (de), Troy Conrad Therrien (us), Mario de Vega (mx), Vermeir & Heiremans (be), Gökce Yurdakul (de), Kazys Varnelis (us), Mikko Viljakainen (fi), Sophie Carolin Wagner (at), Eyal Weizman (is), Jutta Weber (de), Krystian Woznicki (de), Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud (ch/de), John Young (us), Liam Young (au), Siegfried Zielinski (de)

Program

Within the thematic streams that serve as the organizing principle of transmediale/conversationpiece events, transmediale presents a series of keynote conversations. In the stream Anxious to Share the architects, authors, and professors Keller Easterling and Eyal Weizman will offer micro and macro perspectives on space as a power and information system in itself.
For the Anxious to Act keynote the filmmaker and author Hito Steyerl will talk to art historian and researcher Nicholas Mirzoeff about the politics of representation and critical artistic practices in times of global conflict.
In the keynote of Anxious to Secure, the political theorist Isabell Lorey and expert on security research David Lyon will outline the state of (in)security that has become the source of new forms of governance and explore new ways to think about security and precariousness.
In the Anxious to Make keynote conversation Jutta Weber and Kazys Varnelis will focus on the historical and political agency of the maker and maker cultures in different situations, scales, and temporalities, from the workplace to the networked city.

Participants: Keller Easterling, Hito Steyerl, Isabell Lorey, David Lyon, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Kazys Varnelis, Jutta Weber, Eyal Weizman

With its series of hybrid events, transmediale/conversationpiece combines artistic and research practice in formats that incorporate talks, screenings, performances and temporary installations.
Among them is Drone-2000 by Nicolas Maigret and Jean-Marie Boyer. Set in a dystopian future, the piece presents a bestiary of autonomous flying systems powered by dysfunctional algorithms, demonstrating various ways drones can malfunction. Here, trusting the autonomy of the machine is not only a discursive concept but a real-life experience shared with the audience, triggering visceral and psychological reactions in the face of symbolic and real danger.
For Inner Security Martin Hartmann, Sophie Hoyle, and Stefan Schumacher will explore the psychology of security, asking how security threats are (mis-)perceived and how society is structured around them, corresponding to the technologies we live with.
In the event Five Years After, Heba Y. Amin, Lara Baladi, Özge Çelikaslan, Alper Şen, and Esra’a Al Shafei will come together to reflect on the events of the Arab Spring and also to look ahead.
In Border Visions Matthias Monroy, Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud, Peng Collective, and Gökce Yurdakul will analyze recent border politics to discuss potential visions for the next five years. What strategies of inclusion and exclusion, surveillance and control does Europe stand for today? How might these influence the Europe to come, and which futures are imaginable and desirable?
For the newly staged live version of his film Group Portrait with Explosives, Declan Clarke connects the city of Brno in the Czech Republic with South Armagh in Northern Ireland to shine a light on the human impact of global economy and border politics.
The critical and poetic performance Radio Picknick by Ralf Homann will be presented in dialogue with historical film material for the first time. The artist and radio journalist will link the controversial history of both the picnic and the radio to the privatization of electronic media.
Future Factories gathers leading interaction designers, economists, and developers such as Jussi Ängeslevä, Matthias Tarasiewicz, and Alison Powell in order to start a conversation about the future of making cultures.

Among the participants are: Jussi Ängeslevä, Heba Y. Amin, Lara Baladi, Jean-Marie Boyer, Özge Çelikaslan, Declan Clarke, Martin Hartmann, Ralf Homann, Sophie Hoyle, Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud, Nicolas Maigret, Matthias Monroy, Peng Collective, Alison Powell , Esra’a Al Shafei, Alper Şen, Steve Rowell, Stefan Schumacher, Matthias Tarasiewicz, Gökce Yurdakul

Among the panels is The Persistence of the Lab, in which Lori Emerson, John Beck, Ryan Bishop, and Claus Pias will address the laboratory as a key site for research and development of digital culture since the Cold War. They will discuss the current roles of laboratories in military, industry, university, and entertainment contexts.
Let’s talk about Whistleblowing! with Jacob Appelbaum and Wolfgang Kaleck (Edward Snowden’s attorney) aims to create a space for debate about ways in which whistleblowing and the publication of secret material can become a legitimate and well-respected part of democracy.
In MediaActs the project Tactical Media Connections (David Garcia, Eric Kluitenberg), Simona Levi, and Heba Y. Amin deal with the question of what constitutes a critical media act in postmedia times.
Vinay Gupta along with a representative of FairCoop will focus on new sharing systems within a sharing economy that has become more akin to a servitude economy, discussing the lessons learned and unearthing emergent potentials.
The panel Archive, Curate, Educate: Active Media Arts brings together curatorial, artistic, and academic perspectives on media art in order to discuss the role archives can play in curation, spatial design, and technology-based art practice. The participants are Jussi Parikka, Oliver Grau, Joasia Krysa, Constant (Michael Murtaugh, Nicolas Malevé), Anne-Marie Duguet, and Ryan Bishop.
In (Re)Positioning Maker Culture Jocelyn Bailey, Annette Mühlberg, and Kate Rich will debate on the development of hacker, DIY, and maker cultures towards the mainstream, as well as ask what happens when such topographies shift or break down.

Among the participants are: Heba Y. Amin, Jacob Appelbaum Jocelyn Bailey, John Beck, Ryan Bishop, Constant (Michael Murtaugh, Nicolas Malevé), Lori Emerson, Oliver Grau, Vinay Gupta, Wolfgang Kaleck, Joasia Krysa, Simona Levi, Annette Mühlberg, Jussi Parikka, Kate Rich, Tactical Media Connections (David Garcia, Eric Kluitenberg)

Commissioned by transmediale and CTM, Still Be Here is a performance project with the virtual pop star Hatsune Miku. Launched in 2007 as a vocal synthesizer product and developed into a globally adored cyber celebrity, Miku has a growing user community, countless stadium performances as a virtual 3D projection, and more than 100,000 songs released worldwide.
Following an idea initiated and conceptualized by artist Mari Matsutoya, Still Be Here is collectively created by music producer Laurel Halo, award-winning choreographer and visual artist Darren Johnston, and virtual artist LaTurbo Avedon, and is produced by digital artist Martin Sulzer.
The event is commissioned and produced by transmediale and CTM Festival, in collaboration with Donaufestival, the Barbican, and Metal.
This work features adaptations of Hatsune Miku, a character originally created and copyrighted by Crypton Future Media Inc. 2007. Hatsune Miku is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC.
More information here.

For his performance Erklär mir bitte, was beunruhigend sein soll am Einlassen von Badewasser! former Einstürzende Neubauten member FM Einheit will open his sound archive of the 1980s in Berlin. These include original sounds from the May First festivities in Kreuzberg, the clattering of Heiner Müller’s typewriter in his flat in East Berlin, the noises from railway and subway stations, and recordings from diverse sound machines. This material will become the point of departure for new compositions, complemented by material of filmmaker Walter Lenertz. Also joining will be Andrew Unruh (FM Einheit’s long-time partner from Einstürzende Neubauten), the media archaeologist Siegfried Zielinski, and the band The Anarchivists (Bob Meanza, Odysseus Klissouras, Mário Gomes).

Among the artists are: FM Einheit, Alonah Rodeh & Mule Driver, RecPlay Lab
Performance with Hatsune Miku initiated by Mari Matsutoya in collaboration with Laurel Halo, Darren Johnston, LaTurbo Avedon, and Martin Sulzer

Among the films and videos presented at transmediale/conversationpiece is the rediscovered experimental feature film Echtzeit by Hellmuth Costard and Jürgen Ebert from 1983. Echtzeit deals with the interplay of computer graphics and military technology, simulation and reality, in a world shaped by electronic systems and automation processes at an impressively early stage. Also part of the film is Konrad Zuse, developer of the very first programmable computer.

The short film programs Touch of the Real, Breaking Crisis, and Dance Before Dark will link the thematic priorities of the streams together.
Hana Kim’s Der bittere Apfel vom Stamm (2014) and Alex Gerbaulet’s Schicht (2015) address the alteration of the work environments in South Korea and Germany against the backdrop of complex family histories.
Kinda Hassan and Dalia Naous choreograph subtle transgressions in the public space of Cairo in Cairography (2013).
In the dystopian science-fiction dance film Ditch Plains (2013), shot during Hurricane Sandy, Loretta Fahrenholz prompts the street dance group Ringmasters Crew to hallucinate about New York and its visible and invisible networks.

Among the guests present are Declan Clarke, Steve Rowell, Thibaut de Ruyter, Vermeir & Heiremans

The series of workshops includes Graph Commons with software and data artist Burak Arikan, which focuses on the design and understanding of complex networks through mapping and visual analysis.
In Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Cellular Propeller, the artist Howard Boland and Lucas Evers of Waag Society will meet to investigate ethical issues arising from art and biological science collaboration.

Among the workshop hosts: Jussi Ängeslevä, Alfredo Aracil, Lucia Arias, Burak Arikan, Liat Berdugo, Howard Boland, Lucas Evers, Jennifer Gabrys, Sarah T Gold, Emily Martinez, Ola Möller, David Pello, Helen Pritchard, Ben Vickers

Also part of the program are several book launches, such as the launch of Trevor Paglen and Jacob Appelbaum’s Autonomy Cube. The publication will be presented in conversation with Keller Easterling and Jacob Applebaum, in collaboration with the Edit-Russ-Haus for Media Art.
Clemens Apprich together with Magdalena Freudenschuss will present his new publication Networked - A Media Genealogy of the Network Society. By exploring the history of an alternative web discourse he develops a media-genealogical understanding that it is necessary to think beyond today’s predominant concept of socio-technical networks and to intervene in current debates about the Internet.

Collaboration Program
In collaboration with the online magazine Berliner Gazette transmediale will conduct a series of workshops as well as a round table called Tacit Futures: Diving into the Snowden Archives. This is a follow-up to Berliner Gazette’s earlier UN|COMMONS conference and kicks off their new thematic framework Tacit Futures.
The subject of these cooperation events will be the commoning of the Snowden files, the documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in June 2013. The files will be approached as a kind of collective subconscious to be consulted with regard to the social and political present and future.

In the studio gallery at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the Atlas of MediaThinking and MediaActing in Berlin will be on display. Made in collaboration with Professor Siegfried Zielinski/ Universität der Künste, the installation explores the emerging media-theoretical discourses and artistic practices between the late 1940s and the first decade of the 2000s. At several physical stations notable events and locations will be presented in the form of videos, soundtracks, found footage, extracts of interviews, and printed research material open for the visitor to interact with.

In collaboration with ARTE Creative transmediale will present the world premiere of the exploration game Californium. In this hybrid event the audience, together with producer Noam Roubah, will explore alternative realities through an interactive homage, becoming part of the fascinating story world of the influential American science-fiction cult novelist Philip K. Dick.

Network Program
For the pre-festival program, Vorspiel, transmediale and CTM will collaborate with the Berlin network of project spaces, galleries, and independent cultural actors in the fields of digital art and culture and experimental sound and music for a distributed program of partner events from 15 January to 7 February 2016. This distributed program aims at strengthening the dialogue between the two festivals as well as strengthening the network of cultural actors established over the last years. As part of transmediale’s year-round program transmediale/reSource, Vorspiel connects different genres and practices, briging together communities and individuals to reflect on the changing relations between art, technology, politics, and identity.
A press release presenting the Vorspiel pre-festival program will be sent out in January.

Canadian artist, critic, curator, and researcher Sara Diamond will deliver the Marshall McLuhan Lecture at the Embassy of Canada on 2 February 2016. Diamond is president of The Ontario College of Art and Design University and is known for her work as a feminist video and multimedia artist and her previous role as the creator and director of the influential Banff New Media Institute from 1995 to 2005.
More informaton here.
The event is in English; entry is free after registration.
The transmediale Marshall McLuhan Lecture is a cooperation between transmediale and the Embassy of Canada in Berlin.

Press dates, press kit, printable press images, and online accreditation form are available in our press section.

transmediale is a project by Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH in collaboration with Haus der Kulturen der Welt. It is funded as a cultural institution of excellence by Kulturstiftung des Bundes [German Federal Cultural Foundation].

Tabea Hamperl
press@transmediale.de
tel: +49 (0)30 24 749 792
http://2016.transmediale.de/