transmediale.04 explores the utopian potential of contemporary art practice in the field of digital culture. the festival focuses on art made by means of digital technologies, and on art that reflects on the social, cultural and aesthetic dimensions of new technologies. tm.04 tests the utopias associated with these technologies and explores artistic responses to the utopias and dystopias of the information age. The festival remains suspended between the promise of hope, and the resignation that there is no hope. 'Fly Utopia!' is thus both a call for justified optimism, and a call for overcoming pessimism in the face of contemporary utopias, or the absence thereof.
The main focus of the screening program is the presentation of selected video works submitted for the award competition in the Image category. These works will be shown in thematic blocks over the period of the festival as projection in the Theatersaal as well as in a video-on-demand system in the Media Lounge. Additionally there is a series of compilation programs and feature films that especially look into the festival theme Fly Utopia! 'Utopia appropriated: The Future As It Was' Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Theatersaal This programme takes a critical look at utopian promises and persuasions as dramatized in industrial and advertising films released between 1936 and 1965.