[spectre] [Fwd: transmediale.07 conference 'unfinish!']

[Thomas Munz]

Newsletter 20.12. 2006

transmediale.07
unfinish!
January 31 - February 4, 2007
Akademie der Künste
Berlin, Hanseatenweg 10

Conference
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1. Conference 'Unfinish!'
2. Key Notes: 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. Key Notes: Stelarc, Kroker, Kittler

Keynote Stelarc (au)
Thursday, 1.2. 2007, 20.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio

In his lecture 'Augmented Body', 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 Rötzer (de)

Keynote Arthur Kroker (ca): Born Again Ideology
Friday, 2.2. 2007, 18.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio

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 Rötzer (de)

Keynote Friedrich Kittler (de)
Saturday, 3.2. 2007, 18.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio

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)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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3. Panel: Unfinishing Creation
Thursday, 1.2. 2007, 15.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio

The Panel 'Unfinishing Creation' deals with the relationship between 
humans, science, and the future. On the basis of artistic practices, and 
in conjunction with current scientific topics, especially from the 
life-sciences, the panel raises questions of openness, of continuous 
transformation and constant change in present-day society. Do concepts 
like reversibility, time, mistakes, and progress connect or divide 
artists and scientists? And do the natural sciences offer new tools to 
artists and other scientists to expand their own disciplines and to 
re-examine our society? Does the notion of an 'open system of life' form 
a new paradigm? And which effects do the changing media and technologies 
have on our cognitive structures and on the evolution of new artistic 
practices?
Moderator: Stefan Iglhaut (de)
Participants: Ingeborg Reichle (de), Warren Neidich (us/de)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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4. Panel: Unfinished Cities
Friday, 2.2. 2007, 15.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio

The phenomena of the multi-layered urban development and urbanisation 
are among the main topics of the current global cultural context. While 
the countries of the ‘traditional’ industrialisation are dealing with 
‘shrinking cities’, the increasing megalopolises, particularly those in 
Latin America, Asia and Africa, are in a process of immense and 
uncontrolled growth. The panel 'Unfinished Cities' presents positions 
which consider the exuberant growth and the insecurity which go along 
with it not as a form of dysfunction, but as a potential. The image of 
the permanently unfinished, insecure and complex city creates novel 
spatial constellations that accelerate the urban practice of 
appropriation and the creation of new forms of public spheres, thus 
preventing any state of closure.
Moderator: Regina Bittner (de)
Participants: AbdouMaliq Simone (za/uk), Orhan Esen (tr)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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5. Panel: Opening and Closing, Beginning and Ending
Sunday, 4.2. 2007, 14.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio

The panel with Byung-Chul Han and Thomas Macho deals with notions of 
closing and opening from a philosophical point of view. By means of a 
comparison between occidental inwardness and far eastern openness, the 
speakers will trace different traditions of eastern and western thought.
Participants: Byung-Chul Han (kr), Thomas Macho (de)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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6. Panel: The Media Landscape of Iraq
Friday, 2.2. 2007, 12.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio

The future developments in Iraq will depend crucially on whether the 
question whether a process of negotiation can be initiated between the 
conflicting groups, or whether separation and isolation will continue. 
The function of the media in this process is not to be underestimated. 
The media communicate, comment and reflect; they form opinions and 
mobilise atmospheres of consent or dissent. Since the collapse of the 
regime, the media landscape in Iraq has been growing and sprawling 
uncontrollably in all directions, and the coverage of the 
socio-political situation is as multi-layered and complex as the 
situation itself. The discussion with Iraqi journalists and artists 
explores the role that the media play in the development of conflicts 
and the tight-rope walk between the freedom of speech and the will to 
survive. MICT (Media in Cooperation & Transition) introduce the topic 
with a report illustrated by video and audio material from their archives.
Moderators: Anja Wollenberger & Klaas Glenewinkel (de)
Participants: Ali Badr (iq), Ismail Zayer (iq)

In cooperation with the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation
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7. Whatever happened to Tactical Media?
Thursday, 1.2. 2007, 16.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Salon

Creating a collaborative culture has been the main goal of video 
activism, independent practices that are based upon cooperation and 
networking. Can online tools and services such as YouTube or Flickr 
provide new cultural identities and open up new areas of dialogue and 
critique? What political role does the Net play today as a tool for 
collaborative production? Is self-sufficiency and the DIY ethos still 
important in the age of Web 2.0? And what is the actual relevance of 
tactical media today?
Introduction and Moderation: Joanne Richardson (ro)
Participants Part 1: Bärbel Schönafinger (de/at), Katsiaryna Herasenkava 
& Pauluk Kanavalchyk (by), Anastasia Nekozakova (ru)
Participants Part 2: Petko Dourmana (bg), Fran Ilich (mx), Micz Flor (de)

In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education
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8. Panel: Many Years of Video Art - Historical Views on Art and Media
Wednesday, 31.1. 2007, 15.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio

In spring 2006, five German museums presented the project '40 Jahre 
Videokunst in Deutschland' (40 years of video art in Germany). A 
substantial DVD edition of more than 50 individual works in combination 
with a catalogue (Hatje Cantz Verlag) tries to describe the field of 
video art in Germany since the mid 1960s. In the context of its 
anniversary programme, transmediale.07 presents this DVD edition and 
attempts its evaluation in a broader and international context. 
Therefore similar projects from other countries have also been invited 
to the transmediale. The panel discussion between the producers of '40 
Jahre Videokunst' and international colleagues offers a critical debate 
about such projects of documentation and overview.
Participants: Chris Hill (us), Barbara Borcic (si), Wulf Herzogenrath 
(de), a.o.

In cooperation with the Goethe-Institute
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9. Panel: Media Art Undone
Saturday, 3.2. 2007, 15.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio

The participants of this panel discuss questions concerning the field 
and the term 'Media Art'. Is it time to let go of the label 'media art' 
altogether, and to strive for a re-inscription of media-based art 
practices into broader art discourses? Are the definitions of media art 
and media cultural practices still valid that used to justify their - 
positive and negative - discrimination?
Moderator: Miguel Leal (pt)
Participants: Diedrich Diederichsen (de), Inke Arns (de), Olia Lialina 
(ru/de), Timothy Druckrey (us)
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transmediale.07
unfinish!
festival for art and digital culture berlin
http://www.transmediale.de
info at transmediale.de