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Newsletter 26.01.2009
transmediale.09
DEEP NORTH
28.01. – 01.02.2009
House of World Cultures
Berlin, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10

transmediale.09 news
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1. Live stream
2. Late Shift
3. Performance: Overbug
4. backyard radio
5. Open Space
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1. Live stream
transmediale.09 will feature two live streams from the Conference and Salon.
These streams will broadcast the debates live around the world, but also allow
communities to interact with speakers through live IRC chatrooms, and even Skype
uplinks, broadcast directly into the auditoriums. transmediale.09’s stream team
will use the latest open source programming and software to provide a unique
online experience that pushes the boundaries of both festival participation and
webcast technology.
Our streaming programme is now online. For details of where and what we will
stream please visit [
http://www.transmediale.de/en/transmediale09-streams-help-page-en ]
Dedicated transmediale IRC channels provide platforms for extended discussion
leading up to and during the actual event, giving the remote community a
powerful voice and a chance to engage with the sessions in Berlin. For details
how to get involved (we’re online now!) please visit [
http://www.transmediale.de/en/transmediale09-irc ]
**************************************************
2. Late Shift
In the evening DJs turn the tables and serve music for a collective recreation
with open talk, bar and food. Join the Late Shift of transmediale.09. Daily at
the Cafe Global stage.
Kalle Laar: Ethic Disco
Tue, 27.01. 21.30 hrs, Wed, 28.01. 22.00 hrs
Ethic Disco mixes speeches, songs and pop cultural concepts. It will discuss
future-oriented artistic concepts and strategies aimed at sensitising the public
about the impact of paradigmatic change within our society. Kalle Laar is sound
artist and produces radio plays and music for theatre. He is the founder of The
Temporary Soundmuseum and a collection on Venyl Culture. [
http://www.soundmuseum.com/ ]
Relja Bobic: DJ Moodswinger presents: DIS-PATCHED
Thu, 29.01. 22.00 hrs
In this special 1,5 hour DJ set, Relja Bobic (aka DJ Moodswinger) will present
a musical cross-section of the ‘history’ of Belgrade’s Dis-patch Festival of
cutting-edge music and related art, which was established in 2002 through the
activities of Belgradeyard Sound System collective. Relja Bobic is the artistic
and managing director of the Dis-patch festival. He is also acitve as a a
freelance curator, radio editor, DJ and occasionally as journalist and musician.
[ http://myspace.com/djmoodswinger ]
Robert Meunier: Strahlen und Wellen
Fri, 30.01. 22.00 hrs
In his work ‘Rays and waves: A trajectory of auditive representations of
invisible danger’ Robert Meunier aka .:u:min:. follows the esthetics of fear
surrounding new technologies, using meassuring devices and samples of
representations of rays and waves in film and music.
Miyuki Osawa, dj-set
Sat, 31.01. 22.00 hrs
DJ-set by Miyuki Osawa, singer of the japanese band Draco. Released their first
album ‘Enter the Draco’ on the US indie label Slabco and 7inch single from UK
indie label Bad Jazz in 2000, and their second album ‘South of the Border’ from
japanese label Positive Pro in 2002. Currently working on her solo album. Her
dj-set tends to be more housy comparing to the electronic rock sound of her
band.
Geronimo Inutiq (aka madeskimo) with Kyd Campbell
Sun, 01.02. 22.00 hrs
madeskimo will flood the final hours of the Transmediale with sounds from the
great North. madeskimo is the alter-ego of Geronimo Inutiq. Using electronic
music equipment, he presents sounds and music referencing dub, electronica,
urban music, and electroacoustics, all with the cultural filter of having
originated in the changing face of the Canadian arctic. Also someone quite
metropolitain, of Aboriginal and French Canadian ancestry, madeskimo represents
the cultural dynamics of a 21st century Canadian true and through and stands to
bring a challenging and refreshing postmodern aboriginal and Canadian dynamic
take on electronic music to the world. [ http://madeskimo.net ]
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3. Performances: Overbug
Fri, 30.01. 17.00 hrs, Cafe Global
Sun, 01.02. 16.00 hrs, Cafe Global
Hiroshi Matoba’s ‘Overbug’ is a music-performance tool designed to compose
minimal, dance and pop music. By arranging looping sound patterns, called
‘Bugsounds’, the program creates complex, polyrhythmic compositions. Overbug
differs from conventional linear-controlled music sequencers, which arrange
sound into a timeline from left to right. In Overbug, the sound arrangement of
the repetitious musical loops are visually abstracted into circles which can be
moved and manipulated. Hiroshi Matoba is a nominee for the transmediale Award
2009.
[ http://www.dominofactory.net/Overbug/ ]
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4. backyard radio
Theme Time Radio: the early show
[ http://backyardradio.de ]
Backyardradio will broadcast live from the transmediale. 09. Four one-hour
experimental discussions on themes related to the festival start the day
(available as livestream and podcast). Everybody ist invited to join in on
specific themes, with acoustic interventions and remixing. In the House of World
Cultures there will be installed several radios for easy listening.
**************************************************
5. Open Space
The Open Space invites you to present your projects during the festival and
invites you to discuss your ideas with the audience, artists and guests.
Registration: [ openspace@transmediale.de ]
Thu 29.01. 14.30 hrs, Cafe Global
Margarita Dorovska: Transitland
A collaborative European project to create a video archive of transition from
the fall of the Berlin wall to the most recent rounds of EU accession.
Peter Zorn: European Media Art Network (EMAN)
EMAN Coordinator Peter Zorn presents the partners, the structure and the aims
of the network, that creates a backbone of Media Labs and Festivals.
Fri 30.01. 14.30 hrs, Cafe Global
Perry Bard: Man with A Movie Camera: The Global Remake
Perry Bard talks about her web-based editing project. She is a nominee for the
transmediale Award 2009.
Reynold Reynolds: Six Apartments
Reynold Reynolds talks about his work and his approach to space and human
interaction. He is a nominee for the transmediale Award 2009.
Sat 31.01. 14.00 hrs, Cafe Global
Joanna Render: Re_Thinking Net.Art
Gallery owner Joanna Render talks about placing online artworks in the art
market and presents her Online Art exhibition ‘Rethinking About’.
Sat, 31.01. 15.30 hrs, Cafe Global
Time’s up: Luminous Green
Time’s Up has been developing large scale interactive situations since 1996
with a tendency towards large steel and pneumatic devices. ‘Luminous Green’ is a
series of workshops that explores the possibilities of living well and
sustainably in the world. In this short presentation Time’s Up will explain some
of the points that were of importance in the workshop: local actions, utilising
regional assets, in our case industrial waste and the body of water, social
organisation, ‘re-importing’ developing world technologies to ‘the west’, and
many others.
Sun 01.02. 14.00 hrs, Salon
Miriam Mlecek & guest curators: Transit Lounge – Moving while standing still
Reporting back from an online dialogue asking: What happens when movement and
escape from (or to) home becomes impossible?
Sun 01.02. 16.00 hrs, Salon
Public Netbase editorial team: NON STOP FUTURE
A discussion on the recent Netbase publication on the future of art and culture
in digital networks.
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transmediale.09
DEEP NORTH
festival for art and digital culture berlin
[ http://www.transmediale.de ]
[ info@transmediale.de ]
**************************************************
There are some quite alternative artist performing at Transmediale.
Here are just few well crafted words designed to excite and enlighten your curious festival taste buds!
transmediale.09
DEEP NORTH
28.01. – 01.02.2009
House of World Cultures
Berlin, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10

transmediale.09 extern
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1. transmediale Marshall McLuhan Lecture
2. transmediale Award exhibition extern
3. Snow Play @ c-base
4. Vilem Flusser Archiv
5. Babylon Mitte
6. other events extern
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1. transmediale Marshall McLuhan Lecture
Wed, 28.01., 19.00 hrs
Guest: Zacharias Kunuk (Igloolik Isuma Productions)
Canadian Embassy, Leipziger Platz 17
Zacharias Kunuk, one of the world’s most widely respected aboriginal filmmakers
(Atanarjuat – The Fast Runner, Golden Camera at Cannes, 2001), was nine years
old when his family gave up their nomadic lifestyle and settled in the new
government town of Igloolik, Nunavut. As a co-founder and creative member of the
Igloolik Isuma Productions team, he produced films that preserve the Inuit oral
culture and bring Arctic life to the world. At the transmediale.09 Marshall
McLuhan Lecture, Kunuk and his colleague, Norman Cohn, will talk about the
importance of access to, and use of, new media for contemporary Inuit culture.
Wed, 28.01. – Tue, 03.02.
Marshall McLuhan Salon presents isuma.tv
Ebertstrasse 14
Igloolik Isuma Productions new project Isuma.TV, an independent internet video
portal for contemporary indigenous filmmakers, will be shown in the Marshall
McLuhan Salon, the multimedia information centre of the Canadian Embassy.
Opening hours: 10 – 18 hrs, 31.01. & 01.02 14 – 18 hrs
[ http://mcluhan-salon.de ]
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2. transmediale Award exhibition extern
‘Survival and Utopia: Visions of Balance in Transformation’, transmediale.09’s
exhibition, encompasses the House of World Cultures as its base, but the
exhibition extends to a major site specific generative installation at the
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin (CHB) and an installation of serial software art at
[DAM]Berlin:
CHB: Corpora in Si(gh)te
doubleNegatives Architecture (2007-2008)
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Dorotheenstr. 12
Opening 26.01. 19.00 hrs, open through March 8, 2009
doubleNegatives Architecture (dNA) sets up a number of sensors to form a mesh
network throughout the target area – the building of Collegium Hungaricum Berlin
- in order to collect and distribute real-time environmental information such as
temperature, brightness, humidity, wind direction and sound. The data collected
from these sources are processed by a software and in real-time translated into
nodes reflecting the sensor network. The fluid character of this architecture
occurs as a living form, its shifting structure relates to every environmental
change.
[ http://doublenegatives.jp/ ]
At the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin in Dorotheenstrasse visitors can find an
in-house gallery, a library and seminar rooms. The CHB offers a varied calendar
of events. The Institute of Culture wants to present a modern and European
picture of Hungary, expand and deepen cultural and scientific contacts and
elaborate German-Hungarian themes.
[ http://hungaricum.de ]
[DAM]Berlin: NON Maschinen
Christoph Korn, de 2008
Tucholskystr. 37
Opening 26.01. 17.00 hrs
The NON-Machines are software applications, which direct the attention towards
aspects of deceleration, disconnectivity, knowledge deprivation,
agrammaticality, non-functionality.
The gallery [DAM]Berlin is part of an overall concept in the field of Digital
Art. Since 2003 its gallery has presented the work of young contemporary artists
as well as pioneers. Further components of the [DAM] project are the
Online-Museum, and the d.velop digital art award [ddaa]. Korns artworks are part
of the transmediale.09 exhibition.
[ http://dam-berlin.de/ ]
**************************************************
3. Snow Play @ c-base
Mo, 26.01. – So, 01.02.
c-base e.V.
Rungestr. 20
First and utmost assignment of the original c-base space station, crashed and
sunk in the sands underneath today’s Berlin, was the implementing of global
terraforming projects on exo-terrestrial worlds. Consequently, discussing
climate change on a serious level you cannot ignore the theoretical and
practical results of c-base data which today’s c-base reconstruction project has
tried hard to retrieve. The SNOW PLAY environment, set-up by the two
Berlin-based artists of TheProduct*, will help us transforming into a bunch of
researchers and experimenters of an uncertain future. These studies at the
occasion of the 2009 transmediale partner event will be cordially accompanied by
dorkbot vienna, A MAZE game art festival and the dutch media art collective of
PLANETART.
Mon, 26.01., 20.00 hrs: DORKBOT.BLN – Doing Strange Things with Electricity. [
http://www.monochrom.at ], [ http://www.the-product.org ]
Tue, 27.01., 20.00 hrs: COSMIC OPEN STAGE: The weekly c-base jam session as a
transmediale.09 special. [ http://www.openstage-berlin.de ]
Wed, 28.01., 19.00 hrs: WAVELOETEN: movement of creating free communications
infrastructures. [ http://www.berlin.freifunk.net ]
Thu, 29.01., 20 hrs: A MAZE. [ http://www.amaze-festival.de ]
Fri, 30.01., 21.00 hrs: PLANETART I [ http://www.planetart.nl ]
More information: [ http://www.c-base.org/tm09 ],
**************************************************
4. Vilem Flusser Archiv
Universitaet der Kuenste Berlin, Grunewaldstr. 2-5
Fri, 31.01., 14 – 17 hrs
The _Vilem_Flusser_Archiv is a repository for the works of cultural theorist
Vilem Flusser (1920-1991), who was born in Prague, immigrated to Brazil in 1940,
and returned to Europe in the early 1970s. The archive was established by his
wife Edith Flusser in Den Haag, 1992, and was given into the care of Siegfried
Zielinski 1998. In 2007 the archive moved with Prof. Zielinski’s Chair of
Archaeology and Variantology of the Media from the Academy of Media Arts in
Cologne to the University of Arts Berlin.
**************************************************
5. Babylon Mitte
Videoart at Midnight
Fri 30.01., 24 hrs
Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30
As varied the forms of video art today are, and as rapidly as current
developments progress, there is still no clear answer to the question of what is
the best form of presentation. A work can function on a handy display, another
work might work best as a loop in a museum space, while a third is best seen on
a monitor and headphones. In cooperation with Babylon at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz,
Ivo Wessel and Olaf Stueber invite you to come and share their obsession. As
monthly as possible, always on a Friday, always at midnight.
Im Guggaruz, 2008, DV, 8:00, Urauffuehrung | Kopffuessler, 2006, DV, 2:20 |
Gulli, 2005, DV, 12:00 | Goldraum, 2006, DV, 8:20 | Cyans Tod, DV, 2006, 4:00 |
im Abri, DV, 2008, 8:00 | Zweite Sonne, DV, 2005, 7:00 |
**************************************************
6. other events extern
World Climate Refugee Camp
Mon, 26.01. 10.00 – 16.00 hrs, Brandenburger Tor (Pariser Platz)
Tue, 27.01. 10.00 – 16.00 hrs, Alexanderplatz
‘With climate change we all become nomads’, claims the artist Hermann Josef
Hack. Global warming, caused by wealthy regions, creates millions of refugees in
the poorer regions of our world. Aridity, flooding and other extreme weather
conditions force refugees to abandon their homelands. The Climate Refugee Camp,
consisting of about 400 small tents, converts Brandenburger Tor and
Alexanderplatz in Berlin into symbolic areas of crisis, drawing attention to the
plight of refugees. In addition to this intervention, Hermann Josef Hack also
will present the first Climate Refugee Guide, a travel guide for climate
refugees.
[ http://www.hermann-josef-hack.de ]
Climate Hack! – a collaborative hacking workshop
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin: Dorotheenstrasse 12
Climate Hack is a workshop for emerging researchers, designers and artists
dedicated to reframing the international political climate using methods outside
the traditional political rhetoric. Using both old and new technologies, live
internet data streams and a diverse collection of hacking skills, workshop
participants will produce a series of projects for the public exhibition of the
transmediale.09 festival in Berlin. This workshop, its participants and its
products will also serve as the starting point for a second workshop dedicated
to similar themes at the PixelACHE festival in Helsinki April 5-9, 2009.
With: kitchenbudapest – [ http://kitchenbudapest.hu/en/projects/climatehack ]
A joint venture with Pixelache [ http://pixelache.ac ] , Tinker.it [
http://tinker.it ]
Drifting Islands
Yasmin online discussion
[ http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin/ ]
Islands are very specific territories: surrounded by water, their ecology is
affected by both terrestrial and maritime issues. Today, climate change and
global warmingare affecting islands in two dichotomous ways. On one hand, rising
water levels threaten to make some islands disappear and open new sea routes
such as the North-West passage, while on the other hand, new islands are
appearing. Among the issues that Drifting Islands would like to address are
questions such as: What are the artworks that are addressing those issues, and
how? How do people from different geographic zones, living on islands, relate to
those trends? How different are the issues in Iceland, say, or the Mediterranean
and Pacific?
Moderator: Annick Bureaud, with Leonardo/Olats, John Cunningham, Bronac Ferran
Transit Lounge
Since 2006, as an ongoing, experimental project Transit Lounge has evolved
through many different formats to continually explore the potentials of
interdisciplinary collaboration. What happens when movement becomes difficult?
What happens when escape from (or to) home becomes impossible? Moving while
Standing Still is a series of online conversations, between artists in Berlin
and others from cities in Australia, the South. The results will be presented at
transmediale.09: Sunday, February 1, 14.00 hrs, Haus der Kulturen der Welt
[ http://transitlounge.org/2009 ]
**************************************************
transmediale.09
DEEP NORTH
festival for art and digital culture berlin
[ http://www.transmediale.de ]
[ info@transmediale.de ]
**************************************************
ransmediale.09
DEEP NORTH
28.01. – 01.02.2009
House of World Cultures
Berlin, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10

Exhibition
**************************************************
1. Survival and Utopia: Visions of Balance in Transformation
2. Artists and works of the exhibition
3 Other venues: CHB – Corpora in Si(gh)te, [DAM]Berlin – NON Machines
**************************************************
1. Survival and Utopia: Visions of Balance in Transformation
transmediale Award exhibition 2009
transmediale.09’s exhibition presents a spectrum of artistic positions,
inquiries and responses to the multi-facetted, and often contradictory scenarios
of climate change. Out of the exhibition’s 26 works five are nominated for the
transmediale Award 2009. The prize winners will be announced at the ceremony on
31.01.2009.
Alluding to the interconnectedness and global reach of actions triggered at the
polar ice cap the exhibition seeks to uncover strategies that counter our
mundane sense of powerlessness in the face of overwhelming change. ‘Survival and
Utopia: Visions of Balance in Transformation’ explores visions and critique to
aim at a new cultural rethink with a series of interdisciplinary art works that
reflect on our digital culture and technological condition. Within the
specially-commissioned festival architecture by Berlin based art and
architecture collective raumtaktik, the exhibition becomes part of DEEP NORTH’s
scenario of fleeting temporality, urgency and strategic sustainability.
Encompassing the House of World Cultures (HKW) as its base, the exhibition
extends to a major site specific generative installation at the Collegium
Hungaricum Berlin (CHB) and an installation of serial software art at
[DAM]Berlin. The exhibition at the HKW is on show during the festival
transmediale.09 only (28.01. – 01.02.2009, daily 10.00 -22.00 hrs), admission is
5 reduced 3 euros.
**************************************************
2. Artists and works of the exhibition
Perry Bard, Man With A Movie Camera: The Global Remake, us 2007 ongoing
Nominated for the transmediale Award 2009
In this global participatory work, people are invited to interpret the original
script of Vertov’s masterpiece, creating a worldwide montage, in Vertov’s terms
‘decoding of life as it is’. Participants from all over the world can upload
footage on the website next to the corresponding scenes from the original film.
The lengths and images of submitted videos are synchronised with the original
scenes through software, which then rotates the added material every day,
ensuring the film may never be the same twice.
Federico Bonelli, ICE, nl/no 2008
The installation ICE is based on a technology developed by SUb multimedia lab,
an Amsterdam based media arts collective. It transforms images according to a
special generated algorithm. In several monitors the viewer can follow the
transformation of photos taken in the North of Norway, that especially reflect
the characteristics of ice and water.
Petko Dourmana, Post Global Warming Survival Kit, bg 2008
Nominated for the transmediale Award 2009
This interactive multimedia installation consists of a two-channel projection
and shows infrared images of the North Sea as a post-apocalyptic landscape that
the observer can only see by using a night-vision device. The installation aims
to be a believable, technological fiction of a future in which human sensory
experience has adapted. The installation is based on the assumption that in the
nuclear winter scenario, seeing in infrared becomes more useful than seeing in
the visible part of the spectrum.
Urs Dubacher, specialita di silicio, ch 2008
The performative installation deals primarily with a mobile kitchen, similar to
a takeaway vendor’s, where Urs Dubacher melts broken parts of computer hardware
and converts them into realistic-looking culinary meals. His work reflects on
our so-called ‘throwaway society’, commenting on recycling, the exploitation of
electronic products, and technology’s implicitly absurd and rapid development.
Marco Evaristti, Trilogy, 2004-2007
The ‘Trilogy’ comprises three projects that deal mainly with the themes of
territories and states. In 2004 Evaristti realised the ‘Ice Cube Project’ – in a
performative action he coloured an ice cube at the coast of Greenland and
declared it his own state. He accomplished a similar action in 2007, where he
covered parts of the top of the Mont Blanc under a red fabric. He completed the
trilogy with a project in the Sahara.
Christian Guetzer, Grow – Fruits of Kronos, at 2007
The installation reflects on the connection and relationship between machine
and nature. Ccontrolled by a certain algorithm the machine changes the position
of a plant in relation to a static light source. Under normal conditions, the
plant would grow in the direction of the light and against gravity. In Guetzer’s
installation these two variables are placed into a constant flux visualised in
the physical form of the plant’s growth.
Graham Harwood, Richard Wright, Matsuko Yokokoji, Tantalum Memorial, uk 2008
Nominated for the transmediale Award 2009
This telephone ‘exchange’ installation is a memorial to the people who have
died in the wars in Congo over the metal tantalum, which is used in cell phone
components and has become more valuable than gold. The work also references a
’social telephony’ network used by the Congelese diaspora to remain anonymous
and avoid state censorship.
hehe.org, Nuage Vert, fr 2008
A light installation onto the ultimate icon of industrial pollution – the cloud
generated by a coal burning power plant – alerts the public and can persuade
people to change patterns of consumption. In February 2008 the vapour emissions
from a coal burning power plant in Helsinki were illuminated with a high power
green laser animation. It turned into a city scale neon sign, which grew bigger
as local residents took control and consumed less electricity.
Nan Hoover, Doors, de 1981
The video installation was the result of Nan Hoover’s 1980 stipend from DAAD.
Working primarily with light, time and movement, she said that her images
‘reflect quietness, using slow movement to catch the gradual changes in light,
colour, and form. I attempt to transport one into an area within ourselves where
we can dream and explore our personal worlds.’ Nan Hoover studied painting at
the Corcoran Gallery Art School in Washington D.C. before she started in 1975 to
concentrate on video, performance art and photography. In addition to her
artistic work she held professorships at the Kunstakademie Duesseldorf and at
the Rietveld Akademie in Amsterdam. She died in June 2008 in Berlin.
Sebastjan Leban, Stas Kleindienst, Barons, si 2008
The installation deals with the access to drinking water, which is often
hindered especially for people in underdeveloped countries. ‘Barons’ is the name
of a fictitious brand of drinking water, presented in a realistic way, so that
the viewer’s attention is drawn to the connection between the economic market
for drinking water and the problem of getting access to it in many parts of the
world.
Jana Linke, Click & Glue, de 2007
Four metal walls hanging from the ceiling and defining a space in which a
balloon filled with helium moves and floats through the air. As the balloon
continually moves, it touches the surrounding walls and leaves a small deposit
of glue that functions as an anchor before the balloon continues its movement
through the space. Thread by thread, the installation generates a web that
eventually prevents the balloon from moving.
Alice Miceli, inverse square, by/de 2008
The video installation is part of Miceli’s ongoing ‘Chernobyl Project’. While
the transmediale.08 exhibition presented ‘The Invisible Stain’, her new work is
a conceptual view on the exploded reactor number four and the exponential
dynamics created by radioactive contamination in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Christian Niccoli, planschen, de 2008
The video metaphorically embodies the ‘lost in space’ condition experienced by
young foreigners aged between 25 and 38 living in Berlin. It is characterised by
a lack of stable bindings, like job and family, and is represented through a
mass of people swimming around in the middle of the ocean, each one supported by
their own tyre-tube.
Charly Nijensohn, Beyond the End – The Polar Project, gl 2006/2007
The Project comprises a series of videos and photographs based on material
taken in Greenland. It shows members of the Inuit community, who are standing
alone on ice platforms and drifting away into the open and remote wildness of
the Arctic. The piece reflects on the everyday challenges and efforts of these
individuals, but also on the basic qualities of human beings living in that
region.
Michiko Nitta, Extreme Green Guerillas, uk 2007
Nominated for the transmediale Award 2009
Nitta’s project takes current green trends to the extreme. The ‘Extreme Green
Guerillas’ are a network of amateur self-sustaining people who have shortened
their lifespan through the ultimate green lifestyle. The purpose of these
provocative gestures is to question the role of consumerism within green
activities and to provoke questions regarding green lifestyles.
Fernando Jose Pereira, remoteness, pt 2008
The video installation is based on images taken by a webcam, installed in a
remote village of in the extreme north of Iceland near the Arctic Polar Circle.
With composing and manipulating those images, Pereira created a piece that
reveals questions concerning the necessity of communication, monitoring and the
existence under extreme conditions.
Esther Polak, NomadicMilk, nl/ng 2008
The project compares the distribution and sales strategies of two very
different milkproduct-merchands in Nigeria. With the help of GPS systems, the
driveways of the as nomads living Fulani are reconstructed and compared to those
of an active enterpreneurial milk producer, called ‘PEAK milk’. By using a
specially designed robot, the collected data is converted into fine sand lines,
appearing as some kind of drawn ’sand map’ on the ground.
Andrea Polli, Sonic Antarctica, us 2008
The live performance and sound/visual installation ‘Sonic Antarctica’ is based
on material that Polli recorded during a research residency in Antarctica. It
features natural and industrial field recordings, geosonifications and
audifications, interviews with weather and climate scientists and soundscape
compositions. The footage was taken south of New Zealand and at the geographic
South Pole.
Axel Roch, Ambigious Signalscapes, de/uk 2006
In the work ‘Ambiguous Signalscapes’, through the act of looking, viewers
create and then directly interact with a stream of data. The installation tracks
the observer’s eye movements and, in real-time, the participant is able to turn
fragmented signals of non-photorealistic renderings into landscapes, discovering
along the way that shadows really do exist inside clouds.
Reynold Reynolds, Six Apartments, de 2007
Nominated for the transmediale Award 2009
The video installation documents the life of six people in their apartments.
The inhabitants live isolated, unaware of each other, without drama – they eat,
sleep, watch television. Even though their lives are overshadowed by mass media
generated problems of the larger world and the upcoming ecological crisis, they
do not change their behaviour and awareness.
Jan-Peter Sonntag, AMUNDSEN / I-landscape de/no 2003-2008
The interactive video and sound installation is part of Sonntag’s series
‘almost cinema works’. The footage was taken in Norway close to the former house
of polar scientist Amundsen. While watching the screen, the visitor is
confronted with a psychoacoustic paradox, caused by sounds that can be
experienced through headphones as well as a pedestal that generates deep sounds,
which are absorbed by the viewer’s bodies.
Antoine Schmitt, Time Slip, fr 2008
‘Time Slip’ is based on computer software developed by Schmitt that transforms
the news broadcasted by official news agencies. The transformation does not
concern the content, but changes the grammatical tense of the verbs, rewriting
every sentence in the future tense. ‘Time Slip’ is a visual artwork referring to
philosophical questionings on destiny, its potential pre-written nature or its
causal determinism. It is also a work on the motive energy of unpredictability
and risk, more and more central in the contemporary world.
Emma Wieslander, Glacier 60000, uk 2007
The project deals with landscapes and their perception and description.
Wieslander is interested in pictorial traditions concerning the transformation
from three dimensional into picture plane and vice versa. In this context she
deals with visibility and change of landscapes especially mediated by culture
and technology. Her work is an experimental approach on pictorial depictions
using modern technology.
Marina Zurkow, The Poster Children, us 2007
‘The Poster Children’ is a suite of animated, multi-monitor pieces. In this
panoramic animation, two representative groups at the top of the food chain -
humans and polar bears – share a dystopian landscape comprised of slow-moving
icebergs and piles of e-waste. They both exist next to each other as a symbol of
distinct social issues, and both are natural enemies at the same time.
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3 Other venues: .CHB & [DAM]Berlin
.CHB: Corpora in Si(gh)te
doubleNegatives Architecture (2007-2008)
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Dorotheenstr. 12
Opening Mon. 26.01. at 19.00, continues daily through Sun. 08.03.2009
doubleNegatives Architecture (dNA) sets up a number of sensors to form a mesh
network throughout the target area – the building of Collegium Hungaricum Berlin
- in order to collect and distribute real-time environmental information such as
temperature, brightness, humidity, wind direction and sound. The data collected
from these sources are processed by a software and in real-time translated into
nodes reflecting the sensor network. The fluid character of this architecture
occurs as a living form, its shifting structure relates to every environmental
change.
The Japanese-Swiss-Hungarian artists’ collective dNA, founded by Sota Ichikawa
in 1998, consists of an interdisciplinary team of architects, designers,
musicians and software developers. dNA defines architecture as spatial measure
machines. The collective is engaged in crossover activities in a new area of
architecture, making use of digital media and information technologies.
[ http://doublenegatives.jp/ ]
[DAM]Berlin: NON Machines
Christoph Korn, de (2008)
[DAM]Berlin, Tucholskystr. 37
Opening on Mon. 26.01. at 17.00
The NON-Machines are software applications, which direct the attention towards
aspects of deceleration, disconnectivity, knowledge deprivation,
agrammaticality, non-functionality. Five machines from the series are being
presented:
Simple machine, which turns off automatically after a duration of 11 days,
without producing anything during that time / Simple NO Machine / A more complex
machine without start button / Machine, which counts up to 5 during 3 days /
Simple machine only consisting of an OFF button
[ http://dam-berlin.de/ ]
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transmediale.09
DEEP NORTH
festival for art and digital culture berlin
[ http://www.transmediale.de ]
[ info@transmediale.de ]
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transmediale.09
DEEP NORTH
28.01. – 01.02.2009
House of World Cultures
Berlin, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10

Film and Video Programme
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1. Screening Territories
2. Melting Fridges
3. State/s of Emergency
4. Recipes for Disaster
5. Competition programmes
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1. Screening Territories
Under the leitmotif ‘Screening Territories’ the film and video section of
transmediale.09 explores the theme of this years’ festival. Together with the
works from the international competition and a series of compilation programmes
by invited guest curators , the programme includes more than 70 current
productions by international artists The compilation programmes mainly feature
selections from the entries to the transmediale award competition 2009 – where
the majority of this year’s award submissions may also be viewed at the project
library in the foyer of the House of World Cultures throughout the period of the
festival.
Two special programme contributions come from invited guest curators. The
Berlin based film curators Marcel Schwierin and Florian Wuest have compiled the
two part programme ‘Melting Fridges’ and Marlene Rigler from Argos Arts in
Brussels has curated a special selection of works entitled ‘State/s of
Emergency’.
Many of the artists will be present at the festival providing an opportunity
for discussion after the presentation of their work. On Sunday, February 1, the
programme closes with the preview of the annual transmediale video selection.
All film and video programmes will be on show at the theatre hall in House of
World Cultures, admission is 6 euros, reduced 5 euros.
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2. Melting Fridges
curated and presented by Marcel Schwierin & Florian Wuest
Part I, Fri 30.01. 18.30 hrs
Part II Sat 31.01. 15 hrs
The refrigerator is among the most important technical achievements of everyday
life and thus extends the so-called cooling chain. By means of this chain it is
possible to preserve and eat perishable food independent of the time of year and
to thus prevent typical nutritional deficiencies. In the 1950s the refrigerator,
in addition to the car, television, and washing machine, symbolised the domestic
modernity of the ‘economic miracle’. Nevertheless, the electric refrigerator is
a paradox: It cools its interior by heating up its surroundings and thereby
becomes a reflection of a desolate progress-oriented society which enjoys its
luxury on the inside at the cost of destroying its environment on the exterior.
Part I:
Dieter Werner for AEG, Lebensmittel im Eisschlaf, brd, 1960, 14:00 | Jorgen
Leth, The Perfect Human, dk, 1967, 13:00 | Jam Handy for Westinghouse Electric
Corporation, Match Your Mood, us, 1968, 6:30 | Chris Welsby, Sky Light, uk,
1988, 26:00 | Bill Plympton for MTV, Acid Rain, us, 1989, 0:45 | Guido van der
Werve, Nummer acht – Everything is going to be alright,nl, 2007, 10:00 |
Part II:
Edgar Reitz, Geschwindigkeit, brd, 1962, 13:00 | Takahiko Iimura, Kuzu (Junk),
jp, 1962, 12:00 | Roland Goeschl & Otto M. Zykan for Humanic, Umweltschutzmauer
at, 1972, 0:30 | John Halas, Automania 2000, uk, 1963, 10:00 | Gerhard Ruehm
for Humanic, Wachstum, at, 0:20 | Pavel Medvedev, On the Third Planet from the
Sun, ru, 2006, 31:00 |
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3. State/s of Emergency
curated and presented by Marlene Rigler
Sat, 31.01. 17.30 hrs
Besides indicating a geographical direction, ‘Deep North’ is a powerful
metaphor describing a state of paralysis in which an individual, a group or even
a whole nation can find themselves as a result of being cut-off from the greater
other. Indeed restrained contact with the outside world creates a state of
isolation comparable to the common image of the northern hemisphere. On a social
and political level, the concept of ‘north’ is particularly interesting in
reference to examples taken from recent history, such as the Cold War resulting
in the Berlin Wall, and the long-term conflicts in the Middle East. Living under
such extreme conditions undoubtedly affects human relationships: social and
emotional bonds are gradually decomposing due to the unfriendly climate,
provoking a state of emergency at the level of the individual. By considering
Deep North as a social metaphor, the works selected by Argos Centre for Art and
Media emphasize the urge for transformation; through the awakening of new ideas,
significant power shifts, and the sharing of interests, the ice can finally melt
away, both in private relationships and in the realm of public politics.
Hans op de Beeck, The Stewarts have a party, be, 2006, 4:19 | Nicolas Provost,
Yellow Mellow, be, 2002, 2:38 | Hans op de Beeck, Coffee, be, 1999, 3:12 | Adam
Leech, Silver Leaf, be, 2007, 6:00 | Dora Garcia, Zimmer, Gespraeche, de, 2006,
28:09 | Herman Asselberghs, Altogether, be, 2008, 17:38 | Vincent Meessen, A
broken rule, be, 2007, 02:06 |
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4. Recipes for Disaster
Sun, 01.02. 17.00 hrs
Director John Webster convinces his wife and two small children that the whole
family go on a one year ‘oil diet’, without having to give up their middle class
suburban lifestyle. All the everyday things that we don’t do, or that we cannot
help doing, make up recipes for disaster. In this comedy of errors, they find
themselves questioning their values and putting their willpower and, ultimately,
their happiness to the test.
John Webster, Recipes for Disaster / Katastrofin aineksia, fi, 2008, 85:00
**************************************************
5. Competition programmes
Deep Space Recordings
Wed, 28.01. 14 hrs
Andrea Polli, Ground Truth, us, 2008, 8:16 | Mario Asef, Bothered by the
Border, kr/de, 2008, 5:44 | Liu Wei, Hopeless Land, cn, 2008, 7:16 | Larissa
Sansour, A Space Exodus, dk, 2008, 4:27 | Lotte Schreiber, Borgate, at, 2008,
15:00 | Beatrice Gibson, A necessary music, uk/us 2008, 20:00 |
Re:Nature
Wed, 28.01. 18 hrs
Florian Gwinner, Dekoration, de, 2007, 5:22 | Trish Adams, Host, au, 2008, 5:00
| Verena Maas, Brown, de/uk, 2008, 26:00 | Rainer Gamsjaeger, Trifter 1, at,
2008, 8:00 | Joanna Hoffmann, Secret Life, pl, 2008, 10:59 | Joern Staeger,
Reise zum Wald, de, 2008, 7:00 |
Field Textures
Thu, 29.01. 13 hrs
SOLU, Kamos Trilogy, fi, 2008, 10:08 | Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Night Sweat, at,
2008, 10:00 | Michael Aschauer, 24/7, Into the Direction of the Light, at, 2008,
8:43 | Elke Groen, Nightstill, at, 2007, 9:00 | Pink Twins, Pulse+, fi, 2007,
4:00 | Michaela Schwentner, Bellevue, at, 2008, 9:00 | Brigitta Wuersch, Green
1, ch, 2008, 3:21 | Momoko Seto, Planet A, fr, 2008, 10:00 |
Distant Grounds
Thu, 29.01. 16 hrs
Etta Saefve, Unwavering (Sisyphus), nl/se, 2006-07, 4:00 | Roberto Bellini,
Jardim Invisivel / Invisible Garden, br/us, 2008, 15:00 | Manuel Knapp,
Distorted Areas~0.1′, at, 2008, 4:34 | Angelika Brudniak / Cynthia Madansky,
Minot, North Dakota, at/us, 2008, 18:00 | Mark Boswell, Unknown Unknow(s), us,
2008, 13:43 | Etta Saefve, Unfinished Harbor (Narcissus), nl/se, 2008, 5:54 |
Manon de Boer, Two Times, be, 2008, 11:00 |
Failing Relations
Fri, 30.01. 13 hrs
Claudia Salamanca, Muerte de un silo tiempo / Death at once, co/us, 2008, 10:24
| Karel De Cock, Resonance, be, 2008, 18:30 | Theo Ligthart, Peinliche Ordnung,
de, 2008, 13:00 | Mihai Grecu, Coagulate, fr, 2008, 6:00 |
Culture Panic
Fri, 30.01. 16 hrs
Surekha Kumar, Line of Control, in, 2008, 2:50 | Esther Johnson, Celestial, uk,
2007, 15:25 | Eric Schockmel, Syscapes # Interlude, uk, 2008, 22:28 | Joanna
Hoffmann, Life is, pl, 2008, 14:00 | Bertrand Dezoteux, Le Corso, fr, 14:00,
2008 | Kristian Labusga, Rebel with a cause, de, 2008, 2:17 |
Transit Spaces
Sat, 31.01. 12 hrs
Neil Beloufa, Kempinski, ml/fr, 2007, 13:58 | Dan Boord & Luis Valdovino, Not
enough night, us, 2007, 7:44 | Markus Wambsganss, In Uranias, de/ir/us, 2007 /
2008, 16:31 | Joanne Richardson, In Transit, us/ro, 2008, 29:30 |
Optical Vacuum
Sun, 01.02. 14 hrs
Barbara Musil, Market Sentiments, at/ee, 2007, 4:00 | Dariusz Kowalski, Optical
Vacum, at, 2008, 55:00 |
transmediale.09 video selection
Sun, 01.02. 19.30 hrs
The transmediale.09 video selection includes video works that come from a broad
range of submissions to this year’s festival competition, which will be
presented worldwide in the annual tour programme in a similar constellation.
**************************************************
transmediale.09
DEEP NORTH
festival for art and digital culture berlin
[ http://www.transmediale.de ]
[ info@transmediale.de ]
**************************************************
Hi all – unfortunately I won’t be back in college for a while yet
My chest infection of 6 weeks has degenerated into pneumonia – I’m out of hospital but have got to take it really easy (not that I have much choice at present)
I know it’s bad timing for me to be away (maybe that’s me overestimating my role though) – I will be in touch when I feel able about any implications for you
In the mean time press on with everything as planned – do NOT give up because I’m not there to help – use the web, each other, andy, books etc
I’m not up to helping by email either just yet I’m afraid
Apologies again
Mark
Also those last remaining payments for Berlin ( you know who you are) need to me given to andy this week please.
The War & Medicine exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looks fascinating
and if you haven’t been to it yet, Cold War Modern is an excellent exhibition at the V & A.

Get out and about in London over the Christmas holiday.
No excuses not see all kinds of shows living in the capitol city!
amazon’s best seller list for mp3 players makes interesting reading
when will someone make some something half competitive?
http://www.amazon.com
The Genius 9 x 12 graphics tablet is amazingly CHEAP for the under £100 price tag.
A must have for starting out in digital painting/ texture work, this tablet has 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and preset + programmable tabs.
Was given an excellent glowing review in the 3D World 2007 June issue.