transmediale.07

unfinish!

transmediale

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)