Add. Join. React. Prompt. Lurk. Tip. Trade.

For transmediale’s 38th edition, (near) near but — far forms 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 reaches 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 is presented at transmediale’s long-standing host venue, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The festival includes lectures, conversations, screenings, performances, and interventions. As a prologue to the festival, two days of workshops and working sessions take place at silent green Kulturquartier, transmediale’s Berlin home, and requires separate registration. The public opening of the festival takes place at the Betonhalle of silent green on the evening of January 30, 2025. The annual Marshall McLuhan Lecture takes place at the Embassy of Canada before the festival’s public opening.

about transmediale

transmediale is an annual festival and a critical space for the development of new experimental approaches in art and digital culture. Beyond the yearly event, transmediale is a transversal, dynamic platform that facilitates year-round activities including a residency programme and journal. Each festival edition focuses on a specific theme in the spectrum of art and digital culture that is reflected through a great variety of programmes like exhibitions, discourse formats, performances, screenings, and workshops.