Is the internet bust? Do we need a new digital utopia? And who exactly is programming whom? One thing is certain: even when progress seems to be overtaking us, technology is not a beyond human control. Representatives from the fields of science, art and culture will meet to discuss the pressing questions that face society with respect to new technological developments.
30 November 2013
Technological Evolution – Where we come from
Programme
13:00 –13:30
Objection! Technology is not a force of nature
Lecture, Main Stage, with Juli Zeh
In July 2013, Juli Zeh initiated an open letter to Angela Merkel, co-signed by many well-known authors and thousands of citizens, in which she demanded adherence to the rule of law. Juli Zeh, an award-winning author and qualified lawyer, raised objections to both the glorification and the demonization of the internet. For her, the internet is “ a completely realistic utopia”, and she calls for self-empowerment.
Born in Bonn in 1974, Zeh holds a PhD in Law and has received many literary awards. She studied Law in Passau and Leipzig, and Literature at the Institute of German Literature in Leipzig, to which she later returned as a lecturer. Her work has been translated into 35 languages and she has been awarded the German Book Prize (2002), the Solothurn Literature Prize (2009) and the Thomas Mann Prize (2013). Juli Zeh is a frequent contributor to major newspapers and magazines: her essays on politics, society and literature are collected in the volume “Alles auf dem Rasen” (2006). Her latest publications were “Good Morning, Boys and Girls” (2013), a collection of stage plays, and “Treideln”, a series of poetry lectures.
A 3D printer is a computer-operated machine that can create three-dimensional objects from liquid or solid substances according to prescribed models. Markus Schubert from the hackerspace Raumfahrtagentur will print some gadgets as he explains how the machine works.
Markus Schubert Markus Schubert, born in 1978 in Wriezen, studied Information Technology at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (University of Applied Sciences) in Dresden and the TU Berlin. He works as a freelance programmer and architect of software. Since 2006 he has been a member of the Viennese hackerspace Metalab, and since 2013, the Raumfahrtagentur hackerspace in Berlin. He also initiates and programmes on TOTO, a platform for an urban treasure-hunt game.
Stephan Porombka, a professor for text theory and text layout at the UdK Berlin, explains everything you ever wanted to know about Twitter in his workshop. His most recent Twitter-related publications are the tweet collection “Der letzte macht das Buch aus” (Frohmann, 2013) and “Schreiben unter Strom. Experimentieren mit Twitter, Blogs, Facebook & Co” (Dudenverlag, Mannheim 2012).
Twitter clinic: 13:40-17 and 18-18:20.
Please register at the information counter. If there are no free appointments available, please drop by on the off chance.
Stephan Porombka
Born in 1967 in Salzgitter, Porombka studied German and later Literature Studies with a specialism in new media and the literary industry. He has been a hypertext expert, slammer, cultural journalist and project-maker. These days he is an experimental cultural academic and productive contemporary observer, who is particularly interested in the forms and formats of what is “next”. Since 2013 he has done research in and taught text theory and text layout at the UdK (Berlin University of the Arts). He previously taught at the University of Hildesheim, where he set up a university-wide quality management, as well as developing and directing the Creative Writing, Cultural Journalism and Literary Writing study programmes. Since then, the central task of his work has been to transform the old, book-based concepts of literary, essayistic and journalistic productivity and creativity, and to adjust the new – and primarily, the “next” – cultures of writing.
Workshop, Kassenhalle, with Ella and Florian Zwietnig (UMA)
What is a remix? Ella and Florian Zwietnig, the members of the band UMA (formerly Jools Hunter and Mediengruppe Telekommander) explain the basics of Audacity, a free software package. They will bring a song with them, broken down into parts, which they will reconstruct with the participants during the workshop. In reverse, they will also deconstruct a “beat into individual parts.”
You will need: your own laptop (Windows or Mac); please install the Audacity programme in advance (PC-Version, Mac-Version). The maximum number of participants is ten. Please register for the workshop at the information counter.
Ella und Florian Zwietnig
Ella and Florian Zwietnig live in Berlin. They met in 2008, got married, and in 2012 gave birth to UMA. Their first EP was released on Seayou Records (AT) and Enraptured Records (UK), which received enthusiastic reviews in Wire and other journals. They have just finished recording their first UMA studio album and have toured throughout Europe, including appearances at SONAR in 2013, the Field Day Festival 2012, Nuits Sonores and Elevate. UMA’s music could be described as “floating experimental electronic pop”, mixing deep rhythms, bass sounds and haunting, choir-like vocal chants. They recently gave a workshop on digital music technology at the Musiktechniktage (Music Technology Festival) in Berlin.
Workshop, Upper Foyer, with Michael Schmidt and Christian
Since the NSA affair, a broad movement has emerged from an eccentric hotchpotch of specialists and nerds: a growing number of people are starting to gather at so-called cryptoparties, a place where they learn the tools of encrypted communication. Michael Schmidt and Christian offer an introduction into the relevance of cryptography by using the dramatic events surrounding whistle-blower Edward Snowden, Wikileaks boss Julian Assange and Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald. To follow up, the participants will have the opportunity to install PGP on their private computer, a software programme that makes emails NSA-proof through encryption. Other popular software such as Pidgin and Tor will also be presented.
You will need: your own laptop (Windows, Mac or Linux) – for which you need to be an administrator – and an email account. The maximum number of participants is ten. Please register for the workshop at the information counter.
Michael Schmidt
Michael Schmidt, 46 years old, studied Information Systems and used to be an internet consultant and publisher; nowadays he is a freelance teacher. Since Edward Snowden’s revelations, he has dedicated himself even more fervently to internet activism and cryptology.
Christian, 36 years old, studied Computer Science and now works as a software developer in Berlin. He is exploring cryptography in his studies and is an active member of the cryptoparty movement.
14:00 –16:00
1 Blog in 2 hours
Workshop, Upper Foyer, with Céline Bocquillon
To leave your mark on the internet you don’t have to be a digital expert. And so that you too can at last find an audience beyond the usual channels of Facebook or Twitter, you will be guided by Céline Bocquillon, a web conceptualist, to create your own WordPress blog within two hours. She will teach you the basics about blogging and you will be able to start straight away. There will also be a brief introduction to HTML so that you can temporarily re-programme external websites.
You will need: your own laptop with an LAN port and an email account. Please think up your own blog name (or preferably several names) in advance. The maximum number of participants is ten. Please register for the workshop at the information counter.
Céline Bocquillon
Céline Bocquillon, born in 1973, came to Berlin almost 20 years ago to study contemporary history. Around the turn of the millennium, she completed a training course to become a multimedia concept designer before going on to work at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Since 2002 she has worked as a web designer. She is able to get on equally well with a C+- programmer as with a social scientist. For three years she has provided her clients – among them, architects, public institutions and artists – with WordPress websites or blogs.
Discussions and sound clips, Main Stage, with Anatopia, Holger Hiller and presenter Michael Aniser
In Public Soundcheck, bands that normally perform on stage at night will have the chance to discuss one of today’s big issues: the evolution of technology. Both bands will also provide an audio insight into their work and present their views on the digital revolution in electronic music. A talk about sounds, samples, and the static/ecstatic aspects of being on stage.
Presented by: Michael Aniser
(c) Esther Freund
Holger Hiller
Holger Hiller, born in 1956 in Hamburg, studied at the Kunsthochschule Hamburg (University of Fine Arts), where he met Walter Thielsch and Thomas Fehlmann, and recorded his first songs with them. With Fehlmann in 1980, he founded and became the lead singer of the group Palais Schaumburg. Since 2012 the band has been reunited and performs together. In addition, Hiller has worked on solo projects: he was one of the first musicians in Germany to use a sampler as his only or main instrument. From 1984 onwards he lived and worked in London as a producer for Mute Records, among other things. Since 2001 Holger Hiller has lived in Berlin.
Valentin von Lindenau (Anatopia)
Valentin von Lindenau has composed music for numerous theatre, film and media projects in the Netherlands and Germany. He is a member of klingklangklong, a Berlin collective for interactive music and sound installations in various spaces and on stage. Together with his partner Shani Leidermann aka Henrietta Morgenstern, he performs all over the world as Anatopia, an active, handmade high-tech pop band.
Shani Leiderman (Anatopia)
Shani Leiderman comes from Israel and is a performer and musician who makes installations and videos. After finishing her studies at the Amsterdam College of Arts, she organised several projects, including “WAX”, a theatre performance (Hetveem Theater Productions Amsterdam), the pop music performance group Anatopia together with Valentin von Lindeau aka Klaus Plötzlich (performances at Paradiso Amsterdam and Fusion, among others), and has performed at various European festivals, such as Impuls Tanz, Vienna, Rotterdam Opera Days, Bullevard Festival and the Over Het IJ Festival. Last year she developed the mobile platform “Capsuling”, together with other business and tech professionals, which allows digital content to be discovered and shared in certain places.
Michael Aniser
Michael Aniser, born in 1985 in Kufstein (Austria), organises parties and concerts in Berlin and works as a freelance editor and music journalist. His texts have been published on electronicbeats.net, Spex.de and in De:Bug. As a founder of the Noisekölln collective, he spends most of his time exploring music off the beaten track – infiltrating the mainstream to create a superstructure for the underground. He presents his rare finds and music from the margins in a weekly show on Berlin Community Radio. Besides this, he runs the label Noisekölln Tapes.
Workshop, Upper Foyer (Bornemann Bar), with Michael Seemann
Michael Seemann is a cultural academic and internet theoretician, whose profile @mspro is followed by 17,000 people, and who has been grappling for years with the question of how and whether we are losing control over our online data. In a casual discussion with participants, he starts the debate from the beginning: How exactly has our notion of privacy changed over the decades? How are our ideas of culture affected by a world that is increasingly made up of, or reflected and captured in, data? What cultural modes of behaviour are developing due to the presence of surveillance technologies? And why are national borders being put back in place all over again on the internet?
Michael Seemann Michael Seemann, born in 1977, studied Applied Cultural Studies in Lüneburg and lives in Berlin. Since 2005 he has run various online projects, and says of himself that the internet is his home. He founded twitkrit.de and Twitter reading, has organised several events and runs the popular podcast wir.muessenreden.de. At the beginning of 2010 he began the CTRL-Verlust blog, first with the FAZ, and since September 2013 on his own, in which he writes about the loss of data control on the internet. He usually blogs at mspr0.de and writes at irregular intervals for various magazines such as RollingStone, ZEIT Online, SPEX, SPIEGEL Online, c’t and DU Magazin. He holds lectures at universities and academic conferences on the subjects of “Loss of control” on the Internet, “Platform neutrality” and “Queryology“.
17:00 –18:00
Invisible forces: Machines, People, Utopias
Lecture, Main Stage, with Frank Schirrmacher
Frank Schirrmacher, editor-in-chief of the FAZ, shaped and inspired the digital debate in Germany for years. He was closely connected to EDGE.org, an American platform of thinkers and academics who exchange views on digital evolution but he also critically reviewed the digital turn in Europe in his own publications.
Frank Schirrmacher
Frank Schirrmacher was one of the five editors of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, heading the features section (Feuilleton). He studied German, English, Literature and Philosophy in Heidelberg, Cambridge, Yale (New Haven) and Montpellier. In 1987 he wrote his PhD dissertation on “Schrift als Tradition – die Dekonstruktion des literarischen Kanons bei Kafka und Harold Bloom” (Writing As Tradition – The Deconstruction Of The Literary Canon In Kafka And Harold Bloom) at the University of Siegen. The American journal Newsweek praised Schirrmacher as a leading intellectual. He was awarded numerous prizes for his commitment to journalism and social affairs, including the Jacob Grimm Prize for German Language and the Ludwig Börne Prize. His last book publication was “EGO – Spiel des Lebens” in 2013.
Concerts, Main Stage, with Anatopia (handmade high-tech pop) and Holger Hiller (electro-pioneer)
The German-Israeli duo Anatopia is personified on stage by the two characters of Klaus Plötzlich (Valentin von Lindenau) and Henrietta Morgenstern (Shani Leiderman), who, with their white make-up and costumes, look as if they’ve come straight out of a 21st-century Dadaist video. The group’s “handmade high-tech pop” on homemade drums lends an element of surprise and performance to digital music: people, after all, cannot be as precise as computers.
Holger Hiller, a pioneer in the field of German electro-music and lead singer of Palais Schaumburg, can look back on a long career in digital music and its equipment, and harks back to the beginnings of electronica.
Anatopia
The duo Anatopia is made up of Henrietta Morgenstern and Klaus Plötzlich, who make “handmade high-tech pop”. They have been around since 2009, met in Amsterdam and live in Berlin. “Klaus, the running rhythm machine, operates his homemade drum with his feet while playing the electric guitar or synth with his hands. Henrietta also plays the synth along with the cymbals, and does vocals. Her songs are a reaction against high-tech everyday life, the iGeneration, the seductiveness of GPS gadgets or our outright erotic fascination for buttons and switches”.
Holger Hiller
Holger Hiller (also a member of Palais Schaumburg) is one of the pioneers of electronic pop music in Germany. He was one of the first musicians to work exclusively with samples in Germany, sat behind the mixing desk of Mute Records in London for a long time, and has screeched out his lyrics since 2012 on stage with the reunited Palais Schaumburg. He is a lucid pop-technical-story-thinker and eyewitness of an era. And a doer. Holger Hiller (MS20/laptop/vocals) will be accompanied by Anna Schnabel (keyboard/laptop) and Ken Kobayashi (drums) for the Netzkultur concert.
DJ, Main Stage, with Daniela La Luz (in cooperation with DE:BUG)
Daniela La Luz’ sets are clearly worked out rhythms containg elements that interchange with honest, pumping, deep and clear atmospheres that are raw yet sweet at the same time. She often uses her own voice too.
According to the principle of “daring is caring”, Daniela La Luz incorporates the most diverse types of music, genres and field recordings, always with the aim of leaving an emotion and a message with the audience. Simply because it’s fun to create surprises.
Daniela La Luz was born in Munich in 1980 and lives in Berlin. German-Polish in background, La Luz was a singer for many years in various indie, punk, hardcore and Sixties’ bands. She taught herself how to play all kinds of instruments but has been almost exclusively devoted to electronic music since 2007. She works as a producer, live act, and singer-songwriter, and has performed live all over Europe since 2009 (Switzerland, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Macedonia, Poland, and so on). In 2009 she won a remix contest for COMA and in 2010, the Quartz 6 Electronic Music Award in Paris. Her latest releases are with the Frankfurt Label RAWAX, as is her first LP, the 2×12″ album “Based On Electricity” and its pre-release “Pistol Star”.
In her role as one half of PARALLEL, an international artist’s collective and agency for electronic music and graphics, she co-organises events and presents the PARALLEL RADIO SHOW – a crossover between electronic and non-electronic music with various guests.
Internet audience debate, Twitter, with Maike Hank
Maike Hank twitters at @ruhepuls and will follow the events taking place at Netzkultur at #nk1314. As a Twitter ombudswoman she will read out selected tweets, summarise trends, and feed the online debates back into the public discussions taking place.
Maike Hank
Maike Hank is a journalist and has contributed to online journalism since 2002, which was highly valued in “Blogs! – Text und Form im Internet” (Blogs! – Text and Form in on the internet), one of the first book publications about the German blogosphere. She is also the author of the blog kleinerdrei, where her text “Normal ist das nicht!” was partly responsible for the creation of the hashtag #aufschrei, under which experiences of sexism were twittered, and which later won the Grimme Online Award. For many years she has worked for the weekly newspaper der Freitag and has curated several online projects. She can be found on Twitter at @ruhepuls, where her favourite time is 22:22.
