Interview Andreas Broeckmann

Andreas Broeckmann:
Interview on transmediale.06 transmediale.06 runs under the title "Reality Addicts", while the concurrent exhibition "Smile Machines" is dedicated to the topic of humour. Is the concept of "Reality Addiction" also meant to be understood with a wink and a nudge?

Andreas Broeckmann: The festival in February will focus on two major topics. The first one derives from the curatorial concept of our six-week exhibition, which we will show in the Akademie der Künste at Hanseatenweg. Under the title "Smile Machines" the French curator Anne-Marie Duguet has created an exhibition on humour, art and technology. The exhibition illustrates the historical continuity from Fluxus and video art in the 60s , to interactive machines and media criticism emerging in the early 90s, culminating in contemporary net activism and video performance. With such a long-term perspective, we try to work against the common idea that a whole new era begins every two or three years.
Our second major theme is "Reality Addicts", which is the title of the festival and deals with a phenomenon that is closely related to humour. Humour is a certain attitude towards reality that doesn't take its regulations and constraints too seriously, but rather tries to undermine it by means of irony, exaggeration and absurdity. The term "Reality Addiction" describes such an attitude, an attitude that doesn't care for the flawless, homogenous, screen-realities, but prefers the noisy, foggy, even trashy reality that awaits us when we turn off our play stations and mp3 players.

Why did transmediale move from the Haus der Kulturen der Welt?

Andreas Broeckmann: There were two specific reasons: we wanted to show the "Smile Machines" exhibition until the end of March, but the showrooms in the Haus der Kulturen were only available until the end of February. Since we absolutely wanted the festival and the exhibition to take place at one single location, it became necessary for us to move. Another reason was that the HKW will be closed in 2007 due to renovations, which means we had to find a new location for transmediale.07 anyway.

How far does the cooperation go with the Akademie der Künste? Did you discuss festival contents together? Is it meant to be a long-term collaboration?

Andreas Broeckmann: We discussed the festival program together with the Academy and found them to be very open minded and appreciative. The Academy welcomed us warmly and encouraged us to organize the festival according to our ideas and wishes. However it is our intention to be attentive to our mutual interests and accentuate them within the festival. We are about to find out how far this cooperation may go, since right now we are taking our first steps together and still getting to know each other. Our contract covers 2006 and 2007, what comes afterwards we still have to discuss.

Do you think the new location at the Akademie der Künste at Hanseatenweg will change the character of the festival?

Andreas Broeckmann: Of course, such an extraordinary location like the AdK will inevitably have an effect on a festival like transmediale. For the past years the festival's program was closely connected to the architecture and atmosphere of the Haus der Kulturen. That's why we spent a lot of time during the past months thinking about how we can adapt the festival according to the new premises. We are of course aware that things might not work out perfectly since it's our first time at the AdK and there might be some things we may have to improve upon for 2007. Nevertheless we are very happy about the fact that we had to rethink the structure of the festival and we strongly believe that we will be able to present an interesting, sometimes even surprisingly new, transmediale.

Which elements of the festival had to be dropped due to the new location? Will there be any new sections?

Andreas Broeckmann: What is most striking about the Academy are its spacious showrooms and its well proportioned auditorium. Other than the radical "openness" of the Haus der Kulturen, the club rooms and the studio foyer in the Academy offer a more intimate and less public meeting place. That's why we expanded the salon-area and will try to encourage a broad discussion on the current state of media art with talks and presentations in the Academy's club room during the festival.
The most significant limitation we have to cope with is that we only have one larger auditorium - the "studio" - which the section "conference" and the "film- and video program" have to share. Because of this we unfortunately have to do without larger, more elaborate audio-visual performances this year. On the other hand we were able to harmonise the different parts of the program in the studio more adequately. With the "Reality Market" in the foyer we will try at the same time to create an open presentation of projects that is directed towards the general audience and deals with current media-cultural topics while encouraging the visitors to interact.

Is the emphasis of transmediale.06 on the exhibition "Smile Machines"?

Andreas Broeckmann: Of course the exhibition is an outstanding and important part of the festival, which will play a central role in the public perception of transmediale, not least of all because of its longer duration. However, on the opening weekend the whole Academy will be buzzing with the usual festival-energy, we know from recent years. For us, the festival is as important as it always was, however every second year sees extra additions in the form of a larger exhibition.

Why did you choose Anne-Marie Duguet as curator?

Andreas Broeckmann: There was a commission which the artistic advisory board and direction of transmediale were part of, which evaluated several proposals for exhibition projects in autumn 2004. Of these proposals Anne-Marie Duguet's concept clearly stood out because of her unusual focus on humour and the fact that instead of a limited up-to-date perspective she deliberately had chosen a historical perspective that wants to illustrate the genesis of an artistic practice over several decades. With her exhibition "Smile Machines" she has achieved this ambitious goal in a very convincing manner.

Will the works nominated for the transmediale award also be shown in the exhibition?

Andreas Broeckmann: The exhibition was conceived and planned more than half a year ago, which is why the works from the competition, with one exception, could not be included. However, we will show the nominated works in the context of the festival, as well as other works which establish ties between the "Smile Machines" and the "Reality Addicts".

Which role does the transmediale award play this year? How was the response to the call for entries when compared to recent years?

Andreas Broeckmann: With roughly 1000 works, the number of entries was as high as in years past. However, this year we put special effort into the call for entries to reach out for artists outside the West European and North American territories - a goal we seem to have accomplished surprisingly well since we got a considerable number of entries from South America, Asia but also from Central and Eastern Europe. Not because of their geographical origin but because of their quality, many of these entries have found their way into the festival program. Consequently we are able to present a culturally rich mixture of works, especially within the section "Lounge" and the film- and video programme. Additionally this year's jury made some constructive, sometimes critical remarks for us to think about, which will certainly be taken into consideration in the current debate on the role of media in contemporary art and might lead to some serious discussion at the festival.

From "international media art festival" transmediale changed its subtitle to "festival for art and digital culture". What is the reason for this change?

Andreas Broeckmann: As in years past, transmediale makes it possible to assess the current position of art with and through media. For several years now there is an ongoing discussion at the festival whether the term "Media Art" generally makes sense considering that in a way all arts are somehow "medial" and technologies like video, computer graphics or the internet have become a widely accepted part of contemporary art. Neither "Mediality" nor "Interactivity" are clearly defined criteria, which is why already going back two years, we decided to abandon the festival categories. This decision has definitely paid off, and now we have taken a second step: we want to get out of the niche of "media art" and communicate the idea that the festival is about art in general, not about a technologically determined form of art; and that we deal with the field of "digital culture", a field of contemporary culture, where electronic and digital technologies become increasingly important. That counts for artistic creativity as well as for forms of communication, work-structures and entertainment facilities. Within the context of the festival we are primarily interested in these neuralgic points, where those changes manifest themselves most noticeably. And we will show how artists exemplarily respond to these changes.

What's the relationship between the club transmediale and the transmediale festival?

Andreas Broeckmann: Club Transmediale functions the same as in years past: as an independent event and concurrently with the transmediale. From the outside they are often understood as the same thing because they complement one another from a programming perspective. The club however is developed by its own team and with its own programming philosophy, organisation and financing, totally independent of the transmediale. A few months ago, it also formed its own label entitled "DISK". However we keep up with each other regularly and watch out for a mutual basis in theory and in practice, because we both want to benefit from the fact that the club and the festival take place at the same time - a benefit also for both the artists and visitors who come from all over Europe to experience the two festivals in Berlin. We are happy to be able to present art, electronic music and digital culture in such a dense concentration - a very unique institution within Europe.