Berlin, Feb 4, 2018, https://transmediale.de This was the concluding panel of transmediale. I was expecting some references to Norbert Wiener and Roy Ascott. Instead panelists stubbornly kept invoking Marshall McLuhan and Friedrich Kittler. Of course not only. I found Eva Majewska’s introduction of the concept of counterpublics at least interesting (a social group delimiting itself…
Berlin, 12:30, Feb 04, 2018, https://transmediale.de A freeform conversation between Heidenreich (art theory lecturer) and O’Dwyer (digital/blockchain researcher). Heidenreich’s main thesis was to abolish money and think about other forms of “matching” supply and demand. Nevertheless in his examples he kept falling back on some systems of ranking and recording that again used numeric form,…
Berlin, 16:30, Feb 3, 2018, https://transmediale.de Eric Snodgrass: Affect is the capacity to be affected, it is what happens before describable and communicate-able “feelings” emerge. Hard Feelings is a title taken from Lorde’s album. A moment when the future collapses upon you. Shaka McGlotten: Manipulation of affect has become a data driven industry today, but…
Berlin, 19:30, Feb 2, 2018, https://transmediale.de Ruth Catlow: Finance is the coordination of large amounts of money and capital. Destruction of indigenous lifestyles, replaced by capitalism. We are all indigenous. Brett Scott (Book: Heretics guide to Finance) worked in finance as an “undercover anthropologist”. Zachary Formwalt: Representation of stock exchange building architecture. Existing stock exchanges,…
Berlin, Feb 2, 2018, https://transmediale.de/ Matteo Pasquinelli moderated the discussion / keynote lecture of Jonathan Beller. I value Beller for his work on the cinematic mode of production: the thesis, that media “consumers” are actually not consumers at all but cognitive workers creating value through the allocation of their quantifiable attention. In his talk, Beller…
Berlin, February 2 – March 5, 2017, http://www.transmediale.de This was a very nice new media art exhibition. Everything was perfectly set up, with theatrical spot lighting in a dimly lit spacious hall. There was a perfect balance of different media, as well as artwork sizes. There were some screens with videos, but not too many,…
Berlin, 6pm-8pm, February 5, 2017, https://2017.transmediale.de Johannes Paul Raether was talking first. His artwork Protektor.x.x has been also part of the transmediale exhibition. All his thought seem to be channeled through the set of colorful clown-like alter ego performances, where he addresses the questions of gender and biotechnology. He talked about witches preventing a rationalization…
Berlin, February 04, 2017, http://transmediale.de First the three panelists each had 10-15 minute presentations, followed by a longer discussion, all moderated by Krystian Woznicki. Jutta Weber talked about technology, the fact that technology is not neutral. She talked about databases and their never-ending-list-like structure that is very different from the narrative storytelling inherent in prior,…
Berlin, Febuary 4, 2017, http://transmediale.de This session was dedicated to the “others” that help to mediate between humans and the “real” whatever that is: Non-human agents that could emerge in the form of algorithms, but also technological layers, and, actually, anything. Even a stone could be an actor, if we go by the new materialism…
Berlin, February 03, 2017, http://transmediale.de/ A busy panel with lots of people: Jessie McLean, media artist, presenting eternal Photoshop climbing video. Grada Kilomba, writer and artist, focusing on colonial and postcolonial topics, emancipation of marginalized groups. Susan Schuppli, media artist, utilizing found footage of massacres to question mediated evidence. Ryan Bishop, media/political theorist talking about…