club transmediale 2004

[seraph]

http://www.clubtransmediale.de/index2.html
club transmediale.04

[FLY UTOPIA!]

JAN 30 - Feb 07


The theme of transmediale.04 and club transmediale.04 is Fly Utopia!

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

transmediale.04 will be held from JAN 31 till FEB 04.
The joint submission form for club transmediale.04 and transmediale.04 is available for download now.