Berlin, January 29 – February 1, 2029, https://transmediale.de
The two new curators – Neema Githere, Juan Pablo García Sossa – gave a new and different feel to the festival compared to prior editions. This was the first edition of a new mode of operation for transmediale, where curators only receive a temporary contract and change every year. In some way, this edition completed a process of transformation from a trans-media-festival in the narrow sense of media studies to a trans-media-festival where the term medium refers less to the technical and more to a broader cultural meaning of the term: A medium could be anything serving as a carrier of information, including a person communicating with and embodying other worlds (ghosts).
The Latin-American and African background of the curators, also embodied in the “By the Mango Belt and Tamarind Road” title of the festival could be felt in the selection of artists, many of whom were from the “tropics” of all continents (incl. Asia but excl. Europe) and it was a very varied and refreshing mixture. I felt an echo of PRC’s “Belt and Road” in the title and assumed that mango stood for S.E. Asia/S. America while Tamarind for Africa?
Much more of the discussion/lecture presenters this year were artists and not scholars. The “scholarly” aspect was very much pushed to the edges of the festival, and most discussion/presentation formats were less rigorous and more informal artist talks.
On the downside, this could be seen as a “dumbing down” where bread baking, pad thai making and tilapia tasting sessions replaced lectures about digital twins and cognitive mapping. (And, it is likely cheaper to invite an artist or next door food designer than a MIT professor). Also, the capitulation to big tech platforms and global tech infrastructure got one step closer, as they are more frequently discussed as “natural” communication channels that have to be improved or reformed, but without questioning their position and existence. Critical voices present were more concerned with the impact on land, landscape and people then on the inner workings of these platforms.
On the upside less scholarly and more artistic direction opened up the atmosphere and made it feel more welcoming to a general audience, who might previously have felt intellectually intimidated. Compared to professors, artists are also often more eager to present and share their thoughts. They of course do it in pure self-interest, as they hustle for a slice of attention and try to get a foot into the door of the Berlin art world. Nevertheless, this created very nice moments of intimacy and sharing. As the “cost per artist” was likely lower than in the previous TM editions, more artists could be invited, creating a rich and flourishing program. Ultimately, the positives outweighed the negatives.
In practical terms, it was a bit annoying that the schedule (only digital on website) kept changing until the last minute. The function of the TM website that allowed to save sessions into one’s private calendar became useless and counterproductive, as I needed to keep going back to the website to check if the time changed or not. It made me waste a lot of time planning and in the end missing a couple of events. But this criticism is also likely a function of the rigid “German” expectations for structure and plan, which are not shared in that way in the global East or South. Maybe this was to be expected as part of the mango and tamarind package.
I already expressed my frustration with the Silent Green venue at my first encounter two years ago and this year just confirmed my feeling. While the main underground space is good for concerts and parties (when a lot of bodies get together and generate some heat), it is, in my eyes, totally not suitable for anything else. It is a dungeon-like, cold and not welcoming space. I was dressed for the sub-zero temperatures outside, but I never had to take off my coat inside, except for the performance/dance party with Animistic Beliefs. Especially the Kuppelhalle was unpleasant, and I really gave up some sessions just because I did not want to stay in that space. The organizers tried their best with bean bags, hammocks, beach chairs and tropical music, but that could not alleviate my overall feeling. My guess is that using this location was simply a cost saving measure because when renting the main Betonhalle space for Fri/Sat night, they probably got the rest of the space and days for free on top. I liked the more fluid setup (with bean bags and no podium) but sincerely hope transmediale can find a cosier “home” than this. The “sister” location, CANK, where the TM exhibition was installed, was equally bad. More on that below.
In the end, I left the festival with a positive feeling despite the location and thanks to the people. The curators and the team did a great job, as did everyone participating. And in the end, the home is where the family is, no matter how crappy the home.
Some impressions of the artworks exhibited at silent green. Each would deserve a mention, as it is a story of its own, but no time for that.
Below my notes taken during each day, only slightly edited for comprehension.
Thu / day 1
Movie trilogy screened in the “studio” space which was unfortunately a walk-through corridor instead of a proper cinema. Nevertheless, all three films were top-notch and I was very happy to see them.
Ocean Cage by Tianzhuo Chen (2024)
Tropical exotics seafarers, whale hunters, music clip, karaoke dance, Asian Dope Boys. Beautiful underwater camera shots with whales and swimmers.
Afterlives by Montika Kham-on (2025)
Dreamy ghost lady with special nails, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives says hello. Could not follow all the subtitles/storyline and would like to watch it again. Both mystic (in content) and contemporary (in form), anime-inspired.
Atrato by Juan Covelli (2025)
River has a memory, Colombia, gold mining, simple eco story plus catchy visual effects and crying 3D fish.
The Compression Zone with Shaher Tarar
Autobiographical lecture-performance about first encounters with the internet on the artists mother’s computer in Lahore, Pakistan. Satellite images, gay porn, image compression, computer imaging. Very boring monotonous reading. Like early computer voice readers.. maybe that was on purpose?
Kibanda video hall / 07 the gods must be joking.mp4 / Patience Katushabe
Movies on a TV screen inside of a tent-like structure mimicking Ugandan film screening conditions… low budget movies with additional voiceover commentary, this one about a lazy guy who meets a dog that does not want to leave him. An installation on the conditions of production and consumption of media (film) in a specific region of the world.
Fri / day 2
Anxiety & Exilic: Anti-Cybernetic Threat Modelling, Response, and the Self-Determined Counterpractice Infrastructure / Cade Diehm
Fiction of immaterial cyberspace. Fiction of digital “memory” imagined as human memory vs. the fact that digital memory is permanent storage. Jason Scott (archive.org) “copy now apologize later” vs. the “right” to be forgotten… asking for permission to save… danger of saving everything: danger to persons, danger to global ecology through infinitely consuming resources.
… followed by impermanent memory mesh networking workshop… (LoRa mesh network IoT technology, Meshtastic, MQTT bridging)
Embodied Citation: A Technology of Grief, Refusal, and Collective Repair with Tsige Tafesse
Intro: From mind to memes black artists resisting digital extraction: mineral/ cultural/ affective (content moderation), technological (everyday click harvesting) extraction. Extraction as a worldview vs unlearning extraction.
What followed: First shake hands and say hello to your neighbours. Meditation session. Eyes closed. Travelling in time to something that inspired me. Travelling further back in time. Travelling in reverse to present. Sharing with others. Closing eyes again. Imagining oneself on a scale between being an extracted resource and being an extractor of resources. Inventing a gesture. Sharing a gesture. Thank you, goodbye.
Something between Sunday church without sermon, an autogenic training therapy or neuro linguistic programming session.
Sure, all these techniques are useful. It felt nice. But… are you serious? I did not know a transmediale ticket includes psychotherapy. Anyway, thank you for this.
Field notes from travelling: Feeling at home and at one with oneself. How to express thanks to someone who gives but does not expect anything in return. By giving to others. God/ love/ the sea/ the everyday. Keep the center, blend out the periphery. Keep going.
Channeling Minerals with Yadira Sanchez, Harshini J. Karunaratne, Leonel Vásquez
Karunaratne (Sri Lanka) moderating discussion with two sound artists “maize milupa” Sanchez (Mexico Morelos) and “water rock” Vasquez (Colombia). Talking about agriculture food rocks water life sound… body as bibliography body as an archive… poem about minerals Minneapolis ICE water ice.
Mixed English Spanish conversation difficult to follow. Why not use a simultaneous interpreter? Many people sitting on the floor of the Kuppelhalle, uncomfortable. Left early.
Transhemispheric Resonances with Nursalim Yadi Anugerah, Vica Pacheco
Ambient soundtrack preceding the concerts (same for other interludes prior to lectures in Betonhalle): Afro-Caribbean chill out music. Together with the bean bags and beach chairs, feels like some Berlin “city beach”… just cold and dark…
At first I thought Nursalim Yadi Anugerah will serve us some kind of ethno-ambient-drone on his electrically ventilated Indonesian reed pipes, but half way through the performance he activated very crudely operated (on/off/fixed frequency) mechanical shutters for the tone holes that turned the sound into a mechanical looping house music. On top of that, Anugehah improvised with an extra pipe using his own breath, free jazz style. More variety than I expected. That variety made it more “fun” for a broader audience and one could enjoy it in a mechanical-circus-like-way. Checking his bandcamp, I confirmed that some of his works are more minimalist. So, I guess this was a bit like a best-of concert, showing the breadth of the sonic possibilities.
I did not have much of an idea what to expect from Vica Pacheco and her “hydraulic ceramic sculptures”. In the end it sounded like a ambient new age whale mating track (also slightly similar to the “underwater” soundtrack they play you at Berlin Aquarium). Sometimes she whispered something while rolling her eyes upwards, giving it a tint of haunted castle fairground soundtrack. Everything held together by a thick layer of reverb. Technically, it sounded slightly conventional, but this was not to its detriment. The pieces of the sonic puzzle fit together nicely and it was a soothing, enjoyable experience.
The two performances were a perfect match. Anugerah was the classical “male” robotic sensor hardware tinkerer sound art. Pacheco more intuitive “female” soft kind of performer using likely standard software looping and microphones. Both were great and ultimately, in combination they were the highlight of the whole TM for me.
Sat / day 3
transmediale exhibition at CANK
CANK is a crumbling ruin of an old C&A department store in Berlin-Neukölln (South-East), on the other side of Berlin than Silent Green (North-West), the main location of transmediale. Travelling between the locations took almost 1 hour. On two lower floors of the CANK building, artworks were scarcely scattered around the large but derelict space. Mostly video projections, flat screen TVs or some materials scattered on the concrete floor. Without going into details, the impression was poor. This is not a judgment of the individual artworks or artists, but the feeling I got from the whole. Almost felt sorry for the artists… at least they can put transmediale on their CV…
Animistic Beliefs & Jeisson Drenth
A “performance”, in fact more a music set somewhere between neo-trance and digital hardcore spiced up with ethnic (Vietnamese) elements. VJ track was of a similar vein, some flashing volumetric animations, interlaced with more ethnic stuff like paper cut shadow theatre, overlaid with some big bold textual messages in English right in the middle of the screen, slogans like “LET LOVE MOVE YOU” and “YOU HAVE THE POWER TO BREAK THE CYCLE”, etc. Given the (pre-recorded) spoken introduction to the performance about different languages and finding one’s own voice, I found these in-your-face slogans in the worldwide standard colonial language a bit over the top and cheesy but well… Music was good for club and dance, less for home listening. Somehow reminded me of last year’s Hulubalang/ Brandon Tay performance (also techno with ethnic tint). This was the only performance that made me sweat enough to take my jacket off. High energy. That´s a compliment, I guess.
Sun / day 4
On AI, Curatorial Conversation with Manthia Diawara, Neema Githere, Juan Pablo Garcia Sossa
A key conversation of the festival, where I could first-hand experience three lovely people to contextualize the whole transmediale experience for me. There was the academic-philosopher-filmmaker (USA professor) talking to the two curators of this year’s TM. I enjoyed “Mr. Professor” but I equally enjoyed getting a feeling about how Githere and Sossa act and think. Sossa was a bit low energy after a probably long night, or simply because it was the last day of a long festival week. Random notes below.
AI skepticism, because it does not know the differences between places and languages. When a language dies, everyone loses. Diawara holiday house in Senegal. Every night droneings.. possession ritual… Eduard Glissant…
Neema Githere (Kenia) and Juan Pablo Garcia Sossa (Colombia) both from coffee grower families.
Mangrove. Water flows. Dangerous but also protecting.
Self-interest as a driving force.
Diawara: Fanon taught me how to think, but Glissant saved my life. Glissant: philosophy of transactionality, every transaction changes both parties, colonization is not only one way. (reminds me of Chinese history Han/Mongolian where the conquerors assimilated into the culture of the conquered)
Predictive process vs sacred chaos.
Superstition, animism, shamanism.
Patchwork of cultures, mesh network technologies. Co-existence instead of mcdonaldization.
Bantou Village Berlin Cameroon restaurant.
Sacred baobab tree stores a lot of water in its roots. AI uses a lot of water to cool servers. “Griots” (poets/historians) were buried in the hollow trunks of baobab trees.
AI as colonizing vs. AI as possibly liberating… maybe…
Derrida Grammatology influence on Diawara. Writing influences spoken language, spoken language influences writing. Possible comeback of orality via generational AI.
Erik Davis Techgnosis book: Writing allows sacred wisdom into the hands of the uninitiated. Should knowledge be sacred or popular? Keeping knowledge secret vs. spreading knowledge and make it accessible/ democratize it? Knowledge gets bigger by travelling vs. person with secret knowledge gets bigger.
AI: African Intelligence by Manthia Diawara (2022)
Documentary mixing African possession rituals with AI/science interviews. Based on a group of EU scientists doing a field trip to witness the ritual firsthand. 80 percent of the movie’s time was first hand documentary material of the shamanist ritual, consisting of drumming and dancing. Believed to have healing properties through the communication with spirits.
On one hand the movie dealt with the good old colonialism topic (indigenous culture vs. Western rationalism). On the other hand, contrasting indigenous culture with AI added a kind of third dimension and hope, as (as some interviewee western prof. claimed) uncertainty is being introduced into Western rationalism by having a black box algorithm make decisions/learn.
The premise was simple, but it was good food for thought. What does one lose through perfecting rationality and efficiency? To what purpose and under whose terms? Could rationality be in fact at its core irrational? Basically, just a complex system for obscuring one’s own fears and lack of knowledge?
Toppi Jën Wi with Daniel Cid, Lamp Faal Kala
Senegalese street vendors in Barcelona. “Mantas” blankets used by street vendors to sell copycat goods in the streets. Painted over by street vendors as part of a workshop. English-Wolof conversation accompanied by drum beating. Language as sound. A dialog of sounds. If we learn to walk with a river, where might we arrive? Public space politics (presenter is an architect). “Sit down listen to each other.” (drummer is a poet).
Part 2: explaining Europeans about colonialism, morality of migration control, history of African talking drums and slideshow of photos documenting an exhibition at Venice biennale (Catalonia pavilion).
End of file. I am thankful I could be there and experience it, thankful for the encounters and exchanges.
