[rohrpost] FINAL CALL: transmediale.02 award competition

[Andreas Broeckmann]

transmediale.02

[go public !]
international media art festival berlin
5 - 10 February 2002


Deadline: 31 August 2001
Submission form: http://www.transmediale.de (pdf download)


CALL FOR ENTRIES
The transmediale is a platform for artistic presentation and critical
reflection
on the role of digital technologies in present-day society. The festival
provides a forum for communication between artists, those working in the media
and a wide range of experts and offers a stimulating environment for the
presentation of major new projects from digital culture.

The transmediale.01 invites the submission of artistic projects developed
since1999 in the fields of Interactive, Image and Software Art.

INTERACTIVE - Interactive Systems
This category covers artistic productions focusing on human interaction
with and
through digital media. Interactive systems consist of several components which
combine to create an artwork that can be experienced invidually or
collectively
and whose outcome is relatively open and dependent on the recipiant's
participation. These can be locally based systems like installations or
performances, as well as open, networked or activist processes. The evaluation
of these works hinges on their reflection of current social and cultural
conditions and on the choice of adequate media and components which articulate
the intention of the project.

IMAGE - linear and non-linear moving images
This new competition category replaces the old video category which was
part of
the competition for over 10 years. The new category focuses on innovative
approaches to the development of moving images in the age of digital,
interactive and net-based media. Of particular interest are the transformation
of visual languages, new non-linear narrative structures and innovative
forms of
presentation and reception. The reformulation of this competition category
brings into view formats like video performance, Internet movie or interactive
story telling, which go beyond the classic video image without developing
entirely open and interactive structures.

SOFTWARE ART
For the first time, transmediale.01 called for submissions in this category
which, as a genre, is still being debated. For transmediale.02, we again
invite
projects in which the artistic process is largely dependent on the
execution of
code. Software not as a functional tool on which the "real" artwork is based,
but software code as the material of artistic creation. Software Art can be
the
result of an autonomous creative practice, but can also refer critically to
the
general technological and social meaning of software.


The evaluation by the jury requires good documentation of submitted works
(especially in the fields of Software Art and Interactive). Where appropriate,
an explanation should be given as to which aspects of the works the jury
should
consider in particular. For understanding jury requirements, please consult
last
year's jury statements which are online.

The selected works will be invited to transmediale.02 and will be presented,
circumstances permitting, in the exhibition, screenings, the media lounge
or on
stage. In addition, we are considering continuous availability of the video
works in the media lounge through a local server.

transmediale award

Prizes worth EU 5,000 will be awarded in each of the three categories
Interactive, Image and Software Art. The award winners will be selected by
three
separate international juries.


Festival Theme
transmediale.02: [go public!]

How do you "go public" today? 15 minutes of fame through an appearance on TV?
The IPO of a self-founded company? The publication of a press release? A
post-modern shopping-spree? The participation in a street demonstration? Or
rather a permanent online-presence through home-installed Web cameras?
Dreams of
the public sphere as a space free of power relations where citizens
communicate
to formulate their joint political will, are long gone. The total public
sphere
of mass media is breaking up into a multiplicity of partial publics where
individuals and groups perform and act. Politics is happening somewhere in
between.

The English term "to go public" originally means "to publicise
information", but
today it is used primarily in the context of founding a joint-stock company or
its IPO (initial public offering). The stock market crash of spring 2000
meant a
huge disenchantment for this precarious concept which had fascinated the IT
sector for years. Digital media still carry the hope for new forms of
democratic
participation. But how far do they really open up cultural and political
spaces
where a public sphere can take shape and where you can "go public"? Does
today's
cultural and political effectiveness evolve first and foremost in non-public
spaces? The shopping mall as a democratic forum, the post-industrial
product or
service as a ultimate "res publica"?

The transmediale.02 encourages artists and media producers to "go public!"
and,
at the same time, asks how and where efficient models of public spheres are
being developed. Artists and media producers experience and explore the
frictions and borders between private and public and research the
possibilities
for constructing new spaces for public action. It remains to be seen whether
these are to be found on the trading floor or in your home kitchen, on a free
server or on a private TV channel.



transmediale
Klosterstr. 68 - 70 10179 Berlin
Germany
Fon ++49 (0)30 / 2472 1907
Fax ++49 (0)30 / 2472 1909
info@transmediale.de