Soon enough it was Friday and time to get into The Big Fat Rumble, a line-up comprised of Canadian and German musicians. The increasingly popular Les Georges Leningrad put on an amusing show, playing a rather catchy, electro-poppy set, with front-woman Poney P. belting out completely undecipherable, heartfelt vocals. I thought perhaps they came a little too close to the all-familiar ‘kooky electro artists straight out art-school’ genre, with their freaky vaudeville costumes and trashed-up aesthetic, and near-destruction of musical instruments.

Les Georges Leningrad

Germany’s Ascii.Disko followed after these main stage antics with his own blend of electro-tech, which seemed to suddenly turn the main room into a throbbing nightclub, and set the scene for techno live act T.Raumschmiere. Toward the early hours the main hall was the place to be if you had induced certain chemicals or simply wanted to soak in a rave-style atmosphere. It certainly wasn’t a place for older drunks like me so I slunk home pretty early to keep energy for Saturday night and the final night of the Festival.

Planning To Rock

Saturday night then, and one of my favorites, Planning To Rock or PTR, played just after midnight in the Second Hall. I had seen this female solo-act once before and enjoyed it even more this time around. Her songs in themselves are sublimely melodic and wonderfully composed, and this evening’s performance was uplifting, with some beautiful new video imagery to add to the experience. The crowd was noticeably captivated, and not surprisingly, screamed enthusiastically for an encore as she walked off stage. The encore wasn’t forthcoming and instead, Janine Rostron (PTR) introduced fellow colleague Heidi Mortenson to the stage, who delivered a more intense and personal solo performance.

Soon after, in the main room, festival favorite Mad Professor (UK) drew the crowds into his unique dubbed-out reggae world, and created a laid back atmosphere which was quite a contrast to the previous nights of main-room mayhem. After one hour, turntablist DJ Marlboro took over the decks and upped the ante with a booty-shakin’ combination of Miami bass, electro funk, and Brazilian flavored Ghetto-tech, supported visually by US video artist Dekam. The club’s doors didn’t close until 10am, and overall, the final evening’s entertainment seemed a fitting end to such a hugely diverse artistic program.

Mad Professor

Everyone had their own opinions about the successes or failures of this year’s Transmediale event, with older folk complaining that the theme ‘Basics’ had taken media culture back to somewhere in the early nineties, and others complaining of the quality and execution of some of the interactive art, but there was so much to absorb and so many different visual and audio works that everyone from luddites to punks to hi-tech nerds and university academics had something to be challenged or at least impressed by the program.

Transmediale is undoubtedly an important part of the New Media Art landscape and with its renewed funding, has the time and the resources to continue to develop and encourage experimentation and ongoing discourse about technologies’ new and old. This year’s program proved it was still somehow necessary to reflect on where we have come from, and therefore, where we potentially might end up.

Transmediale 05
Date: February 4th – 8th, 2005
Place: Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Address: John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30 397870
https://www.transmediale.de