Hasta La Ideas

by Youyoung Lee

Now in its tenth year, Berlin’s Transmediale Festival gears up for the new decade with a future-perfect program. Exploring the intersection of contemporary art and digital culture, the festival features works that shape the way people think about and experience technological and scientific developments. With exhibitions, conferences, films, competitions and live performances there is a lot to see. Below a short list of artwork from Futura Obscura—the exhibition portion of the festival—dubbed Futurity Now!.

Julius von Bismarck: The Space Beyond Me

The premiere of Julius von Bismarck’s new artwork should have people buzzing if past antics are any indication. Two summers ago, the Berlin-based artist made waves with his Image Fulgurator, a bombastic gun-shaped photo apparatus that is triggered only by the flash of another camera that results in a ghostly flash imprint on the other person’s picture. For his new work, Bismarck uses a 16mm camera to project images onto phosphorescent paint, which chemically retains the images. The piece comments on memory and how history interrupts and influences the present. More about the artist can be found in Gestalten’s new book, Urban Interventions.

Julien Oliver: The Artvertiser

Julien Oliver’s augmented reality involves transforming NYC’s Times Square into a personal gallery. Using image-detecting technology with photo and video substitution, the artist created an advertisement-zapping tool called The Artvertiser. Smart phones become goggles and billboards turn into blank canvases where selected videos and artworks can play out to personal own whimsy. Meanwhile, those with wi-fi access can send off their recorded “realities” to YouTube with the touch of one finger at the Transmediale premiere.

Ken Rinaldo: Paparazzi Bots

A clever commentary on our generation’s tabloid culture, Ken Rinaldo takes the idea of the celebrity and flips it on its head. In Minority Report-levels of surveillance, his interactive installation features Paparazzi Bots—tech hybrids of camera and cameraman—that zip around the gallery room. The bots snap away at art-goers before projecting their images onto social networking sites and other immediate forms of media.

Transmediale Festival

2-7 February 2010

Haus der Kulturen der Welt

John–Foster–Dulles–Allee 10

Berlin, Germany 10557 map

tel. +49 (0)30 24 749 761

Picking the brains of Gestalten‘s book editors and designers, Youyoung Lee reports to Cool Hunting weekly on what inspires them.