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#TM19

So Transmediale 2019 looks about as tedious this year as reading through a manual for some new corporate gadget that helps you generate a 3-D map of all your MINOR personal, societal and technical problems in a WORLD ON (obvious) FIRE… We know there’s great minds and great people around… but this is going to be a rough one to navigate and have enough patience to try to pull out any concrete upgrades + actions for our troubled times … in Btropolis … and everywhere else ! … “Have we become hopeless cynical bastards ?” asks the XLT ( of itself ) ….

Btw, YOUR program tips welcome ! … and see you there…. in the ( arty academic ) fog. We haven’t had much to preview it this year.

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Btw, we have to say: we REALLY DO kinda like the “fuzzy dice” muppety-elmo-like totem this year … but not sure how this will address the problems mentioned above…

… or as Zippy might ask: ” Are You Affected Yet ? “

( looking for that meme of dog in fire looking at the program and deciding which workshop to take )

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ANd for our brief report from this year’s Vorspiel…

READ HERE ! A CALL TO LOCAL ARTISTS ( + ACTIVISTS ) TO DEMAND MORE !

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UPDATES:

So we finally found some time to have a closer look…

IT IS VERY GOOD NEWS that #TM19 has added a platform called Study Circles ( Uneasy Alliances ) to the festival to engage real community feedback and responses and strategizing … but we might say what is lacking here is some stepping-up leadership from the festival organizers themselves to put the hard-hitting topics more front and center in the program. This is afterall a symposium for (and critical approach to ) digital culture, and where’s the call to arms !? … How many years does it take to grasp the steady rise of techno-fascism, the cybernetic regime and the now completely entrenched “surveillance krapitalism” horrorshows, and signal the alarms FOR REAL !!?

Ja We feel INFEcTED !

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A few trusted names we might recommend, but of course there is no doubt lots of participants and stuff we have no idea about… So again , feel free to alert us to your tactical highlights…

Jennifer Bennett ( kunstblock ), Ewa Majewska ( Razem ), Claudio Agosti (tracking.exposed), Seda Gürses, Geert Lovink, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Joana Moll, Felix Stalder ( tho we have our hesitations re: his technotopian hopes and technocratic orientations ), Rasmus Fleischer ….

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And finally. remember it is up To YOU to push the festival into deeper engagements… do not sit back passively absorbing… challenge us and them !

And let’s try to find ways to build alliances that carry the most solid, vociferous, ideas forward into the situations, beyond the festival/entertainment bubble weekend !

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to be cont.?