30 Jan 2011

WHAT IS LIVE? - Symposium in the framework of Club Transmediale, Berlin

WHAT IS LIVE? - Symposium in the framework of Club Transmediale (CTM.11)

Berlin, February 1 – 2
HAU 1 (Hebbel am Ufer)

CTM's this year's festival theme #LIVE!? puts the spotlight on the practice of media-based audio/visual live performance. Accordingly, the symposium WHAT IS LIVE? opens the door to dialogue between artistic practitioners of the discipline and theorists of sound and image-based arts and cultural and media sciences.

Repeatedly in the history of media, the mass establishment of film, radio and television has sparked fierce debates about perfomativity and medialization, about the live character and the subsequent associated authenticity of content portrayed by media. As a result of the widespread implementation of digital live technologies and the rapid development of the Internet, we are currently again undergoing a medial upheaval in the course of which typical patterns of consumerism and reception, artistic-musical practice and value creation models are being transformed.

In considering what 'liveness' entails in the age of media technology, two major aspects may be identi#ed: on the one hand, audiovisual recordings [and reproductions thereof ] were what first made it possible to experience a 'live' situation in an atemporal and non-site specific manner and, particularly in the context of mass media broadcasts, brought the term 'live' into existence as a differentiator that had previously never been needed; and, on the other hand, media artists have experimented with the performative potential of technological media in live settings ever since these were invented, i.e. they tested the limits of film and records, video, tape and the computer. At the same time, the growth in interactive applications of media technologies has lead to new forms of socio-cultural participation and much discussed manifestations of augmented experience. !e question as to whether, in terms of their aesthetic and everyday cultural impact certain media technologies are genuinely suited to 'liveness' or to its diametric opposite seems to have not yet been conclusively answered.

The criteria that may be applied to determine whether a situation is 'live' have still not been clearly de#ned. Is the 'live' quality defined by the timeframe available for decision-making or by the synchronicity of creation and reception? By realtime processes? Is it the spontaneity of subjective decisions? And does that subsequently assign errors to the function of apparent markers for 'liveness'? To what extent do reproductive media in a performative context gain an immediacy or aura?

The symposium will address these and other major issues regarding the implications of contemporary media developments between the poles of practice and theory and hence, galvanise discourse on audiovisual liveness. This discussion will be embedded in multifaceted ways in the festival's various events, demonstrating specific approaches to and modes of artistic work.

PROGRAM

1.2. / 12:00 / HAU 1
KEYNOTE
WOLFGANG ERNST
Die Scheinbarkeit des Live. Irritationen der Gegenwart[swahrnehmung] durch präsenzerzeugende Medien

1.2. / 13:00 / HAU 1
SESSION 1: BACK TO LIVE?
Speaker: Christoph Gurk | Golo Föllmer | Pit Schultz | Andreas Bogk | Moderation: Andrea Goetzke

1.2. / 15:00 / HAU 1
SESSION 2: MEDIUM OR INSTRUMENT – EMERGENCE AND INTENTION
Artist's Presentation: Ei Wada
Speaker: John Croft | Shintaro Miyazaki | Rolf Großmann | Moderation: Daniel Gethmann

1.2. / 17:00 / HAU 1
SESSION 3: SPECTATOR OR PARTICIPANT?
Artist's Presentation: Ali Demirel | Rob Fischer
Speaker: Steve Dixon | Katja Kwastek | Regine Buschauer | Moderation: Frauke Behrendt

2.2. / 12:00 / HAU 1
SESSION 4: IMMERSION AND SELF EXPERIENCE
Artist's Presentation: Greg Pope | Yutaka Makino
Speaker: Gabriele Klein | Werner Jauk | Beate Peter | Moderation: Marie-Luise Angerer

2.2. / 14:30 / HAU 1
SESSION 5: MEDIA PERFORMANCE OR PERFORMANCE MEDIA?
Artist's Presentation: Naut Humon – RML's CineChamber
Speaker: Malcolm LeGrice | Yvonne Spielmann | Mick Grierson | Moderation: Axel Volmar

2.2. / 17:00 / HAU 1
SESSSION 6: GOING FRAGILE – POINTS OF RESISTANCE AND CRITICISM IN LIVE MUSICAL PRACTICE
Speaker: Mathieu Saladin | Jean-Luc Guionnet


ADDITIONALLY
3.2. / 16:00 / HAUS DER KULTUREN DER WELT

INTERFACE KEYNOTE TM/CTM – DIGITAL LIVENESS: REALTIME, DESIRE AND SOCIALIBILITY
Speaker: Philip Auslander | Eric Kluitenberg | Mushon Zer-Aviv

ORGANISED BY
Sandra Naumann and Jan Thoben in cooperation with CTM.11

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT: www.clubtransmediale.de