transmediale 2025: (near) near but — far

For transmediale’s 38th edition, (near) near but — far will form an understanding of how algorithms place us in weird proximities and new intimacies with one another and the qualities of closeness we lose by way of their machine-driven actions. By attending to the affects of proximity and closeness, the festival will reach beyond constructing a dichotomy of the two terms to ask: how can the capacities of technologies foster relations better adapted to responding to the complexities of our individual and collective discontents?

An extensive discourse and performance programme will be presented at transmediale’s long-standing host venue, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The festival will include lectures, conversations, screenings, performances, and interventions. As a prologue to the festival, two days of workshops and working sessions will take place at silent green Kulturquartier, transmediale's Berlin home, and will require separate registration. The public opening of the festival will take place at the Betonhalle of silent green on the evening of January 30, 2025.

The installation Purgatory EDIT by Ali Akbar Mehta, will be taking place at transmediale studio during the festival. Purgatory EDIT is a techno-mediated cyberperformance and installation based on the artist-assembled media archive containing 40,000+ entries representing forms of violence, conflict, and trauma. The installation is part of both the exhibition UnNatural Encounters on view from January 9 to 19, 2025 at silent green, and transmediale’s 2025 festival edition (near) near but — far taking place from January 29 to February 2, 2025.