transmedia / 10th VideoFest 1997 - 23 May to 1 June

Interfaces at the End of a DecadeThe Berlin VideoFest - one of the most
prestigious media festivals - celebrates its tenth anniversary this
year. With their new name transmedia, the programme curators want to
reflect the ever more fluid boundaries between video, television and
multimedia in recent artistic productions and strategies.

Yet transmedia does not only stand for the crossing of formal and
production-related technical boundaries in current media art. The
advancing development of globalised information and communications
technology affects our cultural understanding and self- image, as well
as forms and transforms them. Shortly before the leap into the new
century, it is these thematic and actual crossings of the boundaries
between diverse disciplines, in science, research and technology, which
cause attention to focus on interfaces to culture, as interdisciplinary
spaces.

Examination and exploration of these different kinds of "interfaces",
and the resulting visions, utopias and dystopias, are one of
transmedia's primary interests in the Spot and Focus programmes. In
dialogue with experts, artists, scientists, philosophers and the
audience, these "interfaces" will set the festival's tone in the form of
discourse and project presentations. Within this framework, three events
are reserved for the Berlin- Brandenburg region which will present works
by professionals and students.

Prime Time, the main programme beginning at 20:30 each evening, is once
again the central event of the festival. It will give an overview of the
present state of the international video scene. The programme jury will
present works selected from 700 entries from 37 countries. These works
innovatively deal with political, cultural or individual realities or
advanced new developments in idioms of electronic media.

Nightflight will show experimental works which transcend new bounds in
form and content. An international selection of interdisciplinary
events, videos and performances will be presented each evening during
the 10-day festival at 22:30 - without doubt, a highlight of the
festival will be the performance by Blixa Bargeld and Kain Karawahn on
31 May.

In the Multimedia Exhibition, the public will have an opportunity to see
20 of the best CD-ROMs and Internet projects. At terminals installed in
the Podewil foyer, visitors can explore these interactive artworks
themselves.

transmedia '97 offers a selection of outstanding, innovative Media Art
Installations, which this year includes works by Rotraut Pape, Jaap de
Jonge and Wolfgang Probst, as well as an installation controlled by
bio-feedback by the artist and scientist Prof. Dr. Horst Prehn.From 24 -
31 May, night owls can attend repetitions of selected parts of the
programme in Late Night, starting at 0:30 in the Hackesche H