[artinfo] transmediale.04 - fly utopia! - call for entries

[Andreas Broeckmann]

::[1]
::CALL FOR ENTRIES::
::transmediale.04 and club transmediale.04
transmediale is a festival for art and the creative usage of digital media. 
The festival shows new and significant projects of digital culture and 
offers reflections about the role of digital technologies in contemporary 
society. It is a forum of communication for artists, media workers and
a broad public interested in the arts.


_transmediale award
Prizes worth EUR 2,500 will be awarded in each of the three categories 
Interaction, Image and Software. The transmediale.04 invites the submission 
of artistic projects developed since 2001 in these three fields. The award 
winners will be selected by three separate international juries (see 
website). The award winning works and others will be invited to 
transmediale.04 and will be presented, circumstances permitting, in the 
exhibition, screenings, the media lounge or on stage.

_Werkleitz Award
The 'Werkleitz Award 2004' is an award for outstanding media art 
productions which critically reflect social processes. It is donated by the 
Werkleitz Gesellschaft in cooperation with transmediale. The 'Werkleitz 
Award 2004' consists of a EUR 2.000 cash prize and additional non-cash 
benefits of up to EUR 3.000. The non-cash benefits consist of the temporary 
use of the production facilities at the Werkleitz Gesellschaft, logistical 
support, free webspace and free participation in an appropriate workshop. 
All productions submitted to transmediale.04 in the field of interaction, 
image and software will be taken into consideration. A jury of the festival 
will nominate the winner.
www.werkleitz.de/zkb/award.html


_IMAGE > linear and non-linear moving images
The category Image includes works that deal with the aesthetics of moving 
images and that reflect the role of the image in the age of digital, 
interactive and network media. Such works can deal with the transformation 
of visual languages and the emerging, non-linear forms of narration, as 
well as with innovative forms of presentation and reception and with the 
combination of images with sounds and other forms of artistic expression. 
Going beyond the by now classical video format, the Image category also 
covers projects in areas like video performance, Internet movie or 
interactive story telling.

_INTERACTION > Interactive Systems
The Interaction 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 individually or collectively and whose outcome is relatively 
open and dependent on the recipient’s participation. These can be locally 
based systems like installations or performances, as well as open, 
networked processes or actions. 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.

_SOFTWARE > Generative Art
The Software category includes projects whose main artistic material is 
program code, or which deal with the cultural understanding of Software. 
Thus, software is not understood as a functional tool serving the “real” 
artistic work, but as a generative means for the creation of machinic and 
social processes. Software art can be the result of an autonomous and 
formal creative practice, but it can also refer the cultural and social 
meaning of software, or reflect on existing software through strategies 
like collage or critique.


_club transmediale
club transmediale is the media art festival´s independent platform for new 
forms of digital music and media art in the context of sound- and club 
culture. Its aim is to present outstanding productions in digital music, 
audiovisual performance and installation, as well as to discuss recent 
artistic and technical developments. club transmediale presents productions 
that explore performative concepts and the interaction between different 
media formats - especially image and sound - in an experimental manner. It 
encourages the crossover of institutional, academic and subcultural 
contexts. club transmediale reflects on the role of contemporary music 
culture as a changing agent for the present society.


::[2]
::FLY UTOPIA!::
The theme of transmediale.04 is Fly Utopia! In contrast, the transmediale 
award competition is an independent element of the festival, so that 
submissions to the competition can relate to the festival theme, but they 
don't have to. Likewise, it is possible to send in concepts, project 
proposals and materials about the theme, independent of the competition.

Dreams and illusions have been abandoned by our present society only on the 
surface. Rather, after the collapse of the 20th cenutry’s grand ideologies 
there is once again an increasing search for concepts that point beyond the 
restrictions of the factual and that offer visions of the old and the new 
potentials of creative action. In this context, digital media, and 
technology in general, maintain their ambivalent image as objects of 
utopian hope and as signs of an impending apocalypse.

The modern crises of reality are counter-poised by utopian ideas, imaginary 
places which offer alternatives to what seems to be unavoidable. These 
utopias are at times located in the fantastic worlds of mythical pasts, in 
the parallel worlds of the present, or in science fiction futures. These 
sites house both positive and negative utopias: while some promise a 
paradise of harmony and perfection, others contain the threat of perfected 
societies of control and surveillance. Utopias are the vehicles with which 
these hypothetical sites can be visited and explored.

Fly Utopia! attempts the journey into the destinations of an imagination 
which tries to leave the boundaries of reality behind. What could be the 
goals of an artistic practice which tries to overcome the desillusionment 
of the present? Is it possible to conceive of utopias that are not 
locations, but in themselves practices, lines of flight, or conceptual 
zones, only waiting to be occupied?

transmediale.04 is an invitation for an excursion into the utopias of a 
time steeped in media and technologies.


The overall festival theme is also the theme for club transmediale. Entries 
for club transmediale can but do not necessarily have to relate to the 
festival theme. Requested are recent productions in the fields of 
electronic and digital music, audiovisual performance, video/VJ-ing, 
soundart, installation, clubdesign and light art.


::[3]
::CONDITIONS FOR ENTRY::
Arrival no later than: 15 September 2003
The submissionform is now downloadable at:
http://www.transmediale.de/04/pdf/tm04clubtm04_form_call.pdf

Pre-Selection
Accepted media: S-VHS and VHS-tapes, Mini-DVs (Pal), DVDs, CD-ROMs, Zip 
cartridges, Floppy Discs (3.5), Web-sites. No demo versions - only finished 
works!

The evaluation by the jury requires good documentation of submitted works 
(especially in the fields of Software and Interaction). Where appropriate, 
an explanation should
be given as to which aspects of the works the jury should consider in 
particular.

Mailing costs will be borne by the entrant. Submissions will be returned on 
request only, subject to the following conditions:
   submissions from Germany must have a stamped and self-addressed envelope 
enclosed
   submissions from abroad must have a Eur 10 bill (cash only) enclosed.

Insurance
There will be no insurance cover for the material received. Should a work 
be damaged through the fault of the transmediale only the material value 
will be reimbursed.

Language
Works submitted must be in German or English or have subtitles in either of 
these languages. Works in other
languages must be accompanied by a text list in German or English.

Customs Declarations
The transmediale will only accept packages from abroad whose customs 
declaration forms have been completed correctly. Packages dispatched from 
outside the European Union must bear the following information: indication 
of the content plus the note “Not for trade ­ temporary loan for festival. 
Value = 0”.


The conditions of entry are equally valid for transmediale and club 
transmediale. Entries for club transmediale at the same time can 
participate in the transmediale award competition. Please mark the 
appropriate category in the entry form.

Please send all entries to:
transmediale
Klosterstrasse 68-70 / 10179 Berlin / Germany



_______________________________________________
the information list of transmediale
international media art festival berlin
transmediale: http://www.transmediale.de
list-info: http://mailman.transmediale.in-berlin.de/mailman/listinfo/newsletter