transmediale

Transmediale, stylised as transmediale is an annual festival for art and digital culture in Berlin, usually held over five days at the end of January and the beginning of February.[1]

transmediale logo
transmediale type logo

from its initial focus on video culture it turned to cultivating an artistic and critical dialogue with television and multimedia, eventually emerging as a leading international platform for media art.

Transmediale is conference, an exhibition, a film and video program, performances, and workshops. Throughout the year, transmediale is also involved in a number of long- and short-term cooperative projects via transmediale/resource.

The CTM Festival began as a part of tranmediale, then became an independent event..

History

Transmediale was started in 1988 at Berlinale under the name VideoFilmFest by Hartmut Horst and video artist Micky Kwella. Horst and Kwella wanted to create a platform for electronic media productions, which at that time were excluded from classic film festivals such as Berlinale. In 1989, the program was repeated at Berlinale under the name VideoFest.[1] In 1997, the men renamed VideoFest as transmedia, and then in 1998 transmediale. The change reflected the programmatic extension of the festival, which by then encompassed a broad spectrum of multimedia art forms such as Internet and software art. In 1999, club transmediale was founded as a side event.

In 2001, art historian and curator Andreas Broeckmann took over the artistic direction of transmediale. He added events and a new venue, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. These changes resulted in an increase in attendance. That same year, Broeckmann introduced the transmediale Award to honour visionary works and projects centering around technology-led societies. In 2002, transmediale introduced an extensive media art exhibition. In 2004, the German Federal Cultural Foundation starting funding transmediale. In 2006, the festival's subheading changed from "international media art festival" to "festival for art and digital culture"—a a shift to include art, technology, and everyday life as opposed to a previous, narrower focus on media art alone.

In 2007, media and arts researcher Stephen Kovats became the artistic director of transmediale. In 2008, he introduced the Vilém Flusser Theory Award, named after Vilém Flusser, It was meant to promote "outstanding, media-theoretical and research-based artworks".

In April 2011, curator and media researcher Kristoffer Gansing took over transmediale. In 2012, he replaced the existing awards with a residency program for artistic research. In an interview in Ocula Magazine, Gansing had this comment:

'When I first came on board ... my idea was to bring a curatorial coherency to what I saw as a festival dissipating into a kind of 'creative crowd' without much focus, so I brought in more exhibitions.'[2]

Doctor Nora O Murchú became artistic director in 2021.[3]

Themes

Since 2001, transmediale has followed annually changing thematic headlines:

  • transmediale.01 DIY [do it yourself!]
  • transmediale.02 go public!
  • transmediale.03 PLAY GLOBAL!
  • transmediale.04 FLY UTOPIA!
  • transmediale.05 BASICS
  • transmediale.06 REALITY ADDICTS
  • transmediale.07 unfinish!
  • transmediale.08 CONSPIRE...
  • transmediale.09 DEEP NORTH
  • transmediale.10 FUTURITY NOW!
  • transmediale.11 RESPONSE:ABILITY
  • transmediale 2k+12 in/compatible
  • transmediale 2013 BWPWAP
  • transmediale 2014 afterglow
  • transmediale 2015 CAPTURE ALL
  • transmediale/conversationpiece 2016
  • transmediale 2017 ever elusive
  • transmediale 2018 face value
  • transmediale 2019 study circles
  • transmediale 2020 E2E
  • transmediale 2021 for refusal

Organisation

The host organization of the festival is Kultur Projekte Berlin.

In 2011, transmediale/resource was established as a framework for transmediale's year-round activities. Its aim is to provide a sustainable structure for feedback, research, and reflection beyond the timeframe of the festival. In addition to varying cooperative projects and network activities,

Transmediale/resource includes the Vilém Flusser Residency Program for Artistic Research, online publication format transmediale/journal and pre-festival program Vorspiel, presented in collaboration with the CTM Festival and a network of organizations, galleries, independent project spaces, and venues all over Berlin.

Places

Until 1992, VideoFilmFest took place at MedienOperative as well as Deutsche Akademie der Künste in East Berlin. In 1993, it moved to Podewil, which is also where the transmediale offices have been located from 1997 to 2020. In 2020 the office moved to silent green Kulturquartier, where the festival also opened its own project space 'transmediale studio'.

From 2002 to 2005, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt became the festival's main location. In 2006, transmediale relocated to Akademie der Künste, returning to the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in 2008. In addition to Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the festival edition 2021–22 took place in the transmediale studio, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien and Betonhalle.

  1. "Pulse Curation: Understanding transmediale festival 2019". Imaginations. 22 May 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  2. Sharpe, Terence (17 January 2020). "transmediale Artistic Director Kristoffer Gansing Looks Back". Ocula.
  3. Nora O Murchú new artistic director of transmediale starting from 2021, 2 May 2019
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