Berlin Begins...

The theme of Transmediale was "Conspire" - dictionary.com's definition is; "1) to act together, esp. secretly, to do something wrong, evil, illegal. 2) to act or work together toward the same goal. 3) to plot (something wrong, evil or illegal)."

I suppose its obvious why most of the work did centre around or take the negative contriving angle of the term, rather than focus on the positive aspect of cooperation, and as a result i came away with a feeling of unease and distrust in the world outside. It would appear that the forces of the universe, the institutions of the developed world and the individuals in positions of power, are ominously controlling the remaining proletariate - us.

Another issue that became very apparent was the current media zeitgeist of a static scene coupled with a single prolonged monotonous bombinate frequency. During the festival this idea was put into full effect with dazzling success as well as hideous failure. "Valve - Membrance" and their natural resonance amplification seemed to relate to Jazz, you had to listen to the 'notes' that weren't being played. And the 7pm Saturday night Theatersaal session "Structural Poetics." It would seem Bauhaus minimalism is still strongly evident in the experimental art and music arena, or perhaps just back with a fierce and frustrating vengeance. Half the time you felt as if the artist was taking advantage of the audience, now no doubt more often than not there is a clear cut meaning or message to their piece, but i did find myself thinking, "are they literally taking the piss here and having a good old laugh on our dehalf, as we endure this farce?"

So, taking a typical critique approach to the work within the festival lets discuss what really turned me on and what completely switched me off.

I got most out of the conferences that were held, but rather than type up my notes, which would take a decade, i shall simply state that they'll clearly feed into my dissertation. I particularly enjoyed the seminars on "The Real Conspiracy" with Tim Druckrey. "Embedding Fear - the internet and the spectacle of heightened alert." "The Greying of the Commons: IP, the law and the steet." And "Web 3.0 - Conspiring to keep the net public." These lectures resulted in upto 7 pages of notes each and an absolute overload of information, extremely nutritious brain food.

DVD - Asian 3 piece musical animation installation. 2 drummers, Jimanica and Itoken team up with visual artist Takashi so that their drum kits are linked to live Flash visuals involving geometric shapes' movement triggered by abrasive skin, symbol and snare bashing. The Tetris-Pacman visuals directly reflect the nerdcore nature of the music being played. It was impossible to ignore the intrinsic link to DJ Scotch Eggs Gameboy gabba phenomenon. I think DVD have really tapped into a lucrative sub-genre here with their combination of existing visual medias and technologies and the style of their sound, that has elements from breakcore, rock, high-pitched electro, ambient breaks and just plain industrial noise. The more they play out, refine their style and develop their set the better it will become and this has potential to become an extremely impressive spectacle.   

Check out the funk stuff - Tourist Hotspots and Enigmatic Clubs:

Psychological Warfare and Audio Terror Tactics at Club Transmediale: 30/1/2008. 

The event "Sonic Wargames" involved an onslaught of abusive sounds reverberating anxious vibrations throughout an aesthetically interesting audience. 4 teams of 2 Djs each - if you can call them that - which you can't. A disc jockey mixes records and mixing records requires matching beats but all these guys had were intimidating industrial noises that instilled intrigue followed by bewilderment into the unsuspecting few. Even before the games began (another misleading lexicon, games imply fun, this was not) the audience wreaked of sweaty distress and odorous unease. When the warfare did commence eyes were wide with disbelief and the effort of trying to understand the overcomplicated display that depicted who was "winning." This was a great idea executed awfully. For such an amazing venue involving a to-scale wooden car crash and grass illustrations on the walls this night was summed up by the blood trickling from peoples ears as they tried to persuade themselves they were having a good time and they enjoyed the fact that eternal tinnitus was a good thing. There's Wrong Music and music thats just wrong.

Fear and hysteria on the Reichstag: 31/1/2008.

If you don't suffer from vertigo, you soon will when walking round the parliamentary buildings roof for 15 minutes, 200 ft above Berlin. The dizzying heights are not helped when you're being buffeted by gale force winds, trying to steady your DV camera in an attempt to capture and do justice to the stunning, neon night-scape that completely surrounds you. The nerves and nausea are worth it for the breath-taking panoramic views as your pupils dilate to take in the scene.

After the initial gut wrenching fear of somehow falling (which is near impossible, but that possibility is still too close for comfort) I steady myself and continue into Norman Foster's observation dome and progress up the orange peel walkway. I didn't think i was too affected by the uncanny views below me, and the crystal-like cupola reflecting the environment in fragmented frames, topped off with the concentric circle walking pattern. But that's before i glance behind and see Dan and Jon staggering, stooped over, knees bent and gripping the hand rail with white knuckles, advising me through hysterical bursts of laughter and dread, "Low centre of gravity mate, that's the key!" This instantly instills fear and confusion and suddenly i lose all common sense and grab the hand rails iether side of me, spreading my legs wider than shoulder length in a desperate starfish pose. This isn't low centre of gravity and of course doesn't help so i try to claw back some sort of logic by slowly sloping to the floor and to the inside line of the walkway. "Keep moving man, we must keep moving!" Cries Jon with a voice full of desperation and determination. He's right, and we progress to the top of the intricately designed but really just glorified, fish bowl, with a Rocky 1 style punch in the air as we reach the peak. What really worries us, however, is when we turn back to see Chris calmly snapping away, nonchalantly strolling up to the top.

The view is indescribable and at one point its all too much to take in for the human eye, i feel that seeing the scene through a screen mediated the reality of the situation, and there was definite security in this filtered form of viewing. But its not about safety when you've got the beautifully spacious Berlin neon skyline spanning out at every angle. The Sony Centre glows with a cool confident, icey blue illumination, and the Brandenburg Gate's presence is obvious with the eerie underlighting of Viktoria, the goddess of victory driving the 4 horses Quadriga. The Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Transmediale's venue is just about discernable out to the West, looking like a big, yellow lit Pringle hidden among bare branches on Witchly thin tree trunks. We marvel at this spectacle before preparing ourselves for the trip back down.

The first rule of Panorama Bar is you do not talk about Panorama bar: 1/2/2008.

After Hawaiian Volcanos and Tequila Sunrises even the most derelict beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but when you're not drunk anymore and cant find your aesthetic anyway, its Friedchicken frustrating. Apparently you have to work for your fix of Berlin club culture. After 2 hours of wandering around Ostbahnhof, sobering up and getting increasingly irate with the perplexing nature of the situation, we take another stop check, ask another passer-by and get the familiar dismissive look of ignorance and/or apathy. We are after all, English in Germany.

We meekly enter what appears to be a working-class darts bar, that has a real gentleman's club vibe about it, and the atmosphere of close knit cliqueness leads us to believe that we wont be welcome in this local establishment for local people. We're not really local are we. But don't judge Germans by English standards. Our new host employs his close friend whose happily propped up by the bar before our arrival, to show us a warm welcome with 8 coasters quickly chucked round. Followed by larger than life pints poured in equally quick succession and passed round the tired, thirsty and frustrated UK 20 somethings. This isn't just service with a smile, this is service with enthusiastic German jabbering and animated arm movements to accompany. Not only that, but these drinks are only 2 euros a drink and he spoils us with some indigenous spirit that tastes like peppermint and slips down the old oesophagus a treat. So now we're drunk we're ready to hunt this club down, we deserve a dance, and by God we're gonna have one.

So, what do we know? What we know for sure is this; very little. Panorama Bar is close, somewhere West, or possibly North of Ostbahnhof station, just opposite where we currently are. It doesn't help that it could also potentially be East, but lets ignore that fact. Our plight is further complicated by the ambiguous and unresponsive German public. Not even the native clubbers know where this place is, therefore we persuade ourselves that it must be good, or it simply doesn't exist and is some sort of sick in-German joke on unsuspecting tourists. But this is Berlin, there are no real signs for the good stuff, if anything's worth going to, its not visually communicated. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising. As the bouncers of Panorama Bar prove when they confiscate Dans digital camera on entry. Yes we have made it and the 8 of us excitedly run up the stairs, cheering, jeering and whooping as we go. Its only 1am as we enter the main room and you know its going to be an interesting night when you see transexual girls sitting inside speakers pulling pills out of their panties. Our Techno journey progresses from minimal beats with organic horns, very gradually as in 6 hours gradually, builds up to harder, darker, deeper basslines with a quicker more demanding speed. The mixing's seamless, and time is stomped away to a steadily increasing tempo. Now our bodies are aching, our muscles are taut, and we're loose of tongue and mind. Panorama Bar is a brutally good find full of savagely good times.

DJ Scotch Egg

Shigeru AKA DJ Scotch Egg is Wrong Musics gameboy gabba producer. The immediate idea that springs to mind is that of sentimentality. The familiar childhood sounds of Tetris and Super Mario obviously evoke feelings of nostalgia in the listener but Shigeru was vague and aloof when questioned on his reasons for choosing the first generation gameboy to be the catalyst of his music. He is not an academic and doesnt feel the need to justify his choice, and nor do the hoards of imitators that have jumped onto the Nerdcore band-wagon.
This abusive, ear-bleeding music has roots in Classical concerto's and Free Jazz. Shigeru referred to Bach for the use of single notes as opposed to chords, as Scotch Egg does with his single game boy sounds. Now the similarities between the two genres of music may be hard to find initially but become apparent after closer inspection. The Baroque style induces faces full of fear and confusion and provokes a dark, macabre atmosphere. Shigeru also finds inspiration in Free Jazz for the unpredictable narratives and natural instantaneousness of the music, how the performers vibe off each other and produce this organic and random arrangement of music that isnt based so much on beats to the bar but how sound progresses through the musicians.
Shigeru also finds influence from the minimalist sounds of John Cage and the delayed repetitious audio of Steve Reich for his continuous echo of one note, which in addition he related to the current Dub Step trend, and this fashion of long deep basslines can be traced back to Stoner Rock.
There were also elements of John Carpenter soundtracks from The Shining, Halloween and A Clockwork Orange, some very fundamental film scores.

“Ariadne’s Maze” Rationale:

In our current information age interactivity alludes to the empowerment of the user. The issue of control and freedom is a paradox in digital media. The user is bombarded with choice but through the very boundaries of media design the user is subtly observed and controlled. With the ubiquity of new media demanding our constant engagement how much freedom does developed society have? We must interact or be lost to the Dark ages. After exploring the themes of totalitarian interactivity and control in relation to causality and free will, I wanted to construct a physical environment that forced the audience to interact. The fact that the installation is predominantly analogue is a reaction to our present digital revolution and represents digital media’s coercive interaction in a tangible form.

The user (User A) enters the first small room in which they are presented with a plinth and switch. They activate the switch turning on the light-box maze which is concealed by a door and is now evident from the light emitted from it. The glow entices them to enter the maze. This maze is made of 8ft high light boxes. The process of an agent activating a switch that turns on a light represents the core basics of interaction. It is immediate causality, the user interacting with an interface i.e. the switch to produce a result i.e. light. This also has religious connotations; as God said "let there be light" and there was light. The maze itself is a literal metaphor for totalitarian interactivity. Once inside, the participant has little choice but to continue until they complete it. This is a physical interpretation of how media manipulate the user, through choice and is forced into interaction through promises and rewards. Hence with this installation the audience is seduced into the maze via the attractive bright light-boxes of the maze, which they themselves have switched on – implied user control equating user commitment. They're goal is freedom, beckoning the questions; when in the maze of media how much free will does the user have? In addition to the ubiquity of media in general throughout our everyday life, how much choice do we have with such engaging and demanding digital media? Simply finishing the maze and escaping the intense enclosed space created by the light boxes. On exiting the user now has a chance to climb the stairs to a low light observation booth 4 floors up. Here they are presented with another switch which turns off the maze light-boxes and simultaneously buzzes the next entrant (User B) into the small primary room. Now User A can look down on the divine design they have just experienced, completed and in a sense created though the turning on of the maze, and watch User B struggle through the same process; the creation of a spectacle, directly experiencing that spectacle and finally observing that spectacle being experience by another. Sign, signifier and signified. User A can now chose to be a voyeur or director, with the microphone linked up to an intercom throughout the maze over which User A can communicate to User B, directing him or her positively or negatively. This is the participant’s second reward; first comes freedom, then control from above; a small taste of Godliness, omnipotence and omnipresence.

This installation is aimed primarily at the Tate Modern. The Turbine Hall has 3400 square meters of floor space and 5 levels high, making it the perfect location. The maze itself will measure 40 meters by 40 meters and will be 8 feet high and probably, but not definitely be created by a computer generated algorithm. The observation tower is 4 storeys high, measuring 15 by 15 meters, constructed of steel and timber, as is the initial switch room, measuring 10 by 10 metres and 1 storey high. The budget will range between £10000 - £20000 and require a 6 man strong team to create.

As with the Tate Modern, there is no specific market this interactive installation is targeted towards. Any member of the public can enjoy the piece, the process of completing the maze and then looking back over it, after the helplessness of being trapped to the potential power they then have of controlling someone else.
There will not be any explanation of the installation on site. It is not important for the audience to understand the work, the significance lies in the fact that they have little choice but to engage with the piece, in order to experience it. The audience are required to use their imagination in deciphering the installations meaning. There will be a website and accompanying information where they can learn more about its contextualisation. I propose to create a complete virtual replica which will be accessible online for anyone to explore. This extra will be an interesting option for the user to explore the space within a digital environment and how their reactions to this version of the installation differ to those of the physical. However this will only be launched half way through the installations time at the Turbine, which is between October and March. This is intended to maintain interest in the work by authoring additional information available to the public at staggered intervals during its life span.