transmediale.09: Deep North

transmediale is one of the most important festivals for art and the creative application of digital media in the world. It features new and significant projects of digital culture that reflect on the role of digital technologies in society today. Each year the festival includes an exhibition and conference, performances, workshops, and film and video programmes based on the theme of the festival. The club transmediale CTM presents the latest developments in electronic music.

Deep North was the theme of this year's transmediale festival, which focused on the impact of climate change on culture and society. Are we at a historic turning point, about to enter an era of uncontrollable global transformation? Will climate change result in a cultural change? Are we about to witness the collapse of our established norms?
The conference at transmediale.09, titled Making/Thinking: The Cultural Tomorrow, addressed these and other questions. Designed as a working conference, visitors had the opportunity to participate in those panels, workshops and "hot spots" which personally interested them. The goal was to combine and interconnect theory and practice, as well as scientific and artistic work.
The invited speakers included activists, lobbyists, artists and scientists, such as the Chinese blogger Isaac Mao, the Pakistani media artist Atteqa Malik, the Hungarian philosopher Endre Kiss, the American sociologist Saskia Sassen, the expert on energy matters at the German Institute for Economic Research Claudia Kemfert and the architect Francis Kéré from Burkina Faso.
Together with the _Vilém_Flusser_Archive at the Berlin University of the Arts, the transmediale honoures outstanding media-theoretical or research-oriented works with the 2,000-euro Vilém Flusser Theory Award since 2008. This year the jury awarded the journalist and networker Brian Holmes for his work "Continental Drift". The transmediale Award was awarded this year to Graham Harwood, Richard Wright and Matsuko Yokokoji for "Tantalum Memorial". The award ceremony took place on January 31, 2009.