In the electric age, when our central nervous system is technologically extended to involve us in the whole of mankind and to incorporate the whole of mankind in us, we necessarily participate, in depth, in the consequences of our every action.

Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964

In our post-future era of acceleration and densification of information, the state and nature of being live and online becomes one of the crucial definers of our social presence. Response and action are compressed into an existential here and now triggering a durée of continuous digital stimulation.

With RESPONSE:ABILITY transmediale.11 explores the qualities of liveness that are fundamental elements of our digital culture and discusses the abilities required to respond to the social, political and economic processes formed by the intensity of our participation and interaction. Our desire to enhance freedoms of expression and expand boundaries of open user-defined technologies also implies ethical considerations inherent to the power of data and personal identity.

RESPONSE:ABILITY is therefore also a call to action - to jump out of 'standby' mode and grasp the moment of our own individual liveness within the cacophony of digital communications density. Today’s convergence of media, interfaces and the accelerated feeds of private data being merged into massive social media repositories with little oversight risks turning what theorist Derrick de Kerckhove has called ‘the greatest republic on earth’ - the internet - into an empire of control and freedoms lost. The abilities required to enact and steer collaborative energies become the means with which to co-opt the tools and systems of our live culture. How do we adapt network practice to daily life, entrench the assertiveness of individual thought and expression, and ultimately move toward the forms of open structures and flows that visionaries such as Marshall McLuhan and later the pioneers of the early internet envisaged? In an equally open competition for resources, attention and sensory stimulation the ability to fuse the desire for digital emancipation with the necessity to act is our task.

The Net has itself become a living entity, built by others. Now it is up to our RESPONSE:ABILITY to put it to use!

Welcome to transmediale.11! The 24th edition of transmediale, Berlin’s festival for art and digital culture is a pivotal moment in the event’s rapidly evolving history! With a greater focus on open systems, process oriented and collaborative technologies the festival addresses the crucial roles we as individuals play within the firmly entrenched landscapes of digital and network media. How we do this in trans-local and emancipatory ways is both a challenge and a goal for artists, researchers, designers and activists defining the practice of communication across a broad range of technology and socio-political fields. With RESPONSE:ABILITY we explore these scenarios with an open participatory structure, responding to the shape the culture of our contemporary digital and network environment. Taking the materiality of communication as the primary mechanism of artistic expression we reflect, on the centennial of his birth, on Marshall McLuhan’s impact on what is now an intrinsically cacophonous and poetically unruly global community of instant, live and wholly interdependent net of cultural, social and economic activity.

Together with our partner Drumbeat/Mozilla we have launched the Open Web Award to push and more radically pursue, at a time when it is under threat, the ideals of the internet as they have been envisioned by its pioneers who sought to create a truly non-proprietary universal space for the movement and exchange of great ideas.

We are grateful to the support of the KSB for securing transmediale’s core funding until 2017 as well as to our many strong international and local partners including the BpB (Office for Civic Education), the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the Goethe Institutes worldwide, the Marshall McLuhan Salon (Embassy of Canada), the _Vilém_Flusser_Archive (UdK), the Collegium Hungaricum (.CHB), the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) and our technical supporters serve-u who secure the scope and depth of transmediale’s programming. At a time of hesitation and stagnation in the political attitudes towards critical and challenging forms of art and culture our partners recognise the role and value of transmediale in advancing Berlin’s own cultural identity on an equally unique international platform. Together with our dedicated and impassioned team, and many further local supporters and sponsors transmediale will continue to push the envelope of an open landscape of art and digitally induced creative inquisition!

Stephen Kovats
artistic director

Stephen Kovats Artistic Director, Christine Bernauer Administrative Manager & Finance, Susanne Bernstein Administrative Assistant & Fundraising Coordinator, Markus Huber Program Manager & Research; Ela Kagel, Sandra Naumann, Marcel Schwierin Program Curators; Cara Bell-Jones Assistant Curator; Adam Thomas, Michelle Kasprzak, Daphne Dragona External Curators; Divan Jerome Boland, Therese Breyer, Lena Loose, Verena Schwarz Program Team Interns, Michelle O'Brien Satellites Coordinator, Syelle Hase Project Management, Sophia Gräfe Event Management, Beckie Darlington Guest Services, Ann-Christin Görtz Info Counter, Sibylle Kerlisch Production, Filippo Gianetta Program Assistant & Marketing Coordinator, Anna-Sophie Springer Editor, Flora Schausberger Editorial Assistant, Clemens Lerche Marketing & Sponsoring, Giannina Lisitano Press; Pia Kohn, Natalie Meves Press Assistants; ® ruddigkeit corporate ideas: Kristina Brasseler, Dirk Heider, Gianna Pfeifer, Raban Ruddigkeit Design; Emilia Forstreuter, Sam Speckley, ® Festival Trailer; raumlaborberlin: Andrea Hofmann, Francesco Apuzzo, Christof Mayer with Anna Wulf, Laura Zachmann, Matteo Carli Festival Architecture; Jonathan Gröger, John Fass Photography; Barbara Mürdter Video, Streaming serve-u

Website einskommanull: Micz Flor, Laura Oldenbourg, Sebastian Göbel Development; Laura Oldenbourg, ® ruddigkeit corporate ideas Design, Filippo Gianetta Coordination

serve-u: Phillip Sünderhauf, Andreas Buchholz, Marc Klische Technical Support

Advisory Board Alex Adriaansens, Marie-Luise Angerer, Dieter Daniels, Jan Edler, Marie Cathleen Haff, Hortensia Völckers

Main funders: Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Kultur Projekte Berlin, HKW

Partners: Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Mozilla Foundation, Embassy of Canada, Schering Stiftung, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Marshall McLuhan Salon, Mondriaan Stichting, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin (.CHB), Source Fabric, Gingko Press

Sponsors: serve-u technical support, Wall, Werkleitz

Media partners: arte creative, der Freitag, De:Bug, radioeins, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Missy Magazine, Die Tageszeitung, Zitty Berlin, t3n, Digicult

Supporters: amiando, ArabShorts, bocca di bacco, Botschaft Spanien, Bureau du Québec à Berlin, CREATE BERLIN, Echoo Konferenz Dolmetschen, Geiertronic, Goethe Institut Jakarta, Goethe-Institut Ägypten, Goethe-Institut Nairobi, IN-Berlin, Labor Berlin, Ludic Interfaces NIMK, NODE - Forum for Digital Arts, Österreichisches Kulturforum, tricK.ca, University of California, San Diego, V2_