Thursday, 4 February 2010

day one...

Well, it’s my first ever Transmediale Festival and my first day at Transmediale 10 Futurity Now.Haus Der Kuturen Der Welt feels like the perfect venue for the international, energetic, collaborative festival of live art, installation, digital performance, talks and films.

After a fairly short day my head is already swimming [and spinning] with ideas, sounds and words captured throughout my first encounter with Futurity Now…
I first came across ‘White Noise’ by Zilvinas Kempinas, which illuminates a darkened room with a magical white stream of videotape. At first glance it looks like a large pixelated TV screen, but as you get closer you can see the individual strips of tape and hear the fans creating the flickering.
‘Electrolab ‘was an amazing experience, the artists Rachida Ziani and Dewi De Vree performed in four points scattered around the café stage, among the beer swigging festival goers, which instigated movement and discussion. They played with batteries, test tubes, liquids, energy and performance.


I then experienced the graceful and hypnotising sounds of Jem Finer’s ‘Longplayer’ through headphones in a yellow-lit comfy corner of HKW. [it also plays live in the toilet – which must have been why there was such a long queue!]

‘POWEr’ by Artificiel was truly a powerful performance due to its volume, speed and duration (an hour that felt like two), and the framing stage of the impressive auditorium. A Tesla coil created live visuals and sounds; these grew in complexity and built layers, some fascinating but others unbearable.
As we walked back through Tiergarten to the Hauptbahnhof station we were struck by the rainbow lasers emitting their colourful beams of light though the foggy dark skies of Berlin. This is ‘Global Rainbow’ by Yvette Mattern, the seven-colour laser projection connects the city’s former West and East architectural sites, and references the traditional symbolism of the rainbow as a motif for social diversity, peace and hope.

Looking forward to another jam packed day at Transmediale tomorrow…
Rebecca

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