We are living in societies and economies defined by a global competitive drive for constant, algorithm-guided optimisation. While debates rage over government and corporations operating to covertly “collect, process and exploit” all communication flows, are our own roles and responsibilities perhaps being downplayed? What are the underlying motivational structures that propel our hard work and play in the networks? In a situation where the notion of a “full take” of all communication seems symptomatic of how the state has incorporated a cybernetic feedback ideology with deep historical roots, it is undeniable that we need perspectives that go beyond the role of the individual. However, the “self” has also become the contemporary notion of an individual at the intersection of subjectivity and data flows. In the logic of ‘capture all’, life is increasingly governed by never-ending predictive control. Value can now potentially be extracted from everything, and productivity measurement can be applied to all aspects of life. That means work time has become either all-time or no-time depending on your position in the global economy. Within the paradigm of creative work, all work should be fun and we aim to make all our social relations productive. In this endeavour, self-optimisation — ways of making your personal life more effective — is central, and is achieved with measurement, evaluation and motivation, all of which are tied to processes of quantification, datafication and gamification. We may be able to formulate paths to resist the “full take” of mass surveillance, but can we equally define a resistance to the ‘capture all’ logic as its gamifying tendency spreads throughout the whole of our culture?

Take the unique opportunity offered by the temporary space of the festival to reflect on the future of our datafied society.

Algorithmic prediction now increasingly governs the choices we make in our quantified everyday life as well as the direction of big companies. Recently, the founder and CEO of Amazon claimed that all decisions in his company are based on statistical analysis. Most likely, those statistics are grounded in a continuous collection of data and algorithmic processing that don’t simply describe the current state of things but also predict probable future developments. Wearable technologies such as smart watches similarly track behaviour and use predictive algorithms on the premise of optimising productivity in our working and private lives. With the title CAPTURE ALL, transmediale 2015 takes a critical look at the current tendencies to collect and quantify everything, proposing that the paradigm of digital surveillance, that is the desired “full take” of all communication flows, is actually indicative of a larger mining of value from the total spectrum of social interactions.

Last year’s festival, afterglow, probed the fate of digital revolution ideals in the face of surveillance and corrupt techno-ecologies. The game changing element for this discussion were the revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden. But rather than instill a nostalgia for the past or the image of a complete dystopia, the festival framed a specific moment of transition, a coming of age of digital culture at large. With CAPTURE ALL, we follow up with a pro-active approach, where life under predictive data capitalism is being communicated through comprehensible aesthetic forms in combination with critical discussions and constructive proposals of nothing less than new socio-technical models. transmediale 2015 deals with current topics such as gamification, quantification, ubiquitous networking and algorithmic control, and their ways of making the spheres of everyday life, work and play increasingly indistinguishable. We may be able to formulate paths of resistance to the “full take” of mass surveillance, but can we equally define a resistance to the “capture all logic” as its gamifying tendency spreads throughout the whole of our culture? Or should we instead look to new tactics and strategies of acceleration and the building of competing infrastructures in order to create new forms of living?

Harbouring these ideas, we are proud to present a diverse international programme of exhibitions, screenings, conference events, workshops and performances with participants from many different disciplines. We warmly thank all our supporters and sponsors who have made this dynamic edition of the festival possible, starting with the German Federal Cultural Foundation that provides the financial backbone of transmediale. This is followed by a warm thank you to our important partners HKW – Haus der Kulturen der Welt which is our main venue, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg who supports our marketing efforts and the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the main funder of our conference programme. In addition, transmediale always cooperates with different cultural institutes, foundations, embassies and universities on specific programmes and projects. This year we are once again lucky to thank key partners such as The Canadian Embassy for the yearly Marshall McLuhan lecture and McLuhan Salon programme, and the Schering Stiftung together with FACT for the exhibition Time & Motion. We are also very grateful for the strengthened cooperation with the Winchester School of Art as well as for the research cooperations with Aarhus and Leuphana University. In Berlin, we thank the University of the Arts for the ongoing collaboration of the Vilém Flusser Residency for Artistic Research. A huge thank you also goes out to all the local project spaces, galleries and institutions that take part in the transmediale and CTM festival pre-festival programme, Vorspiel. As artistic director of the festival, I also want to thank all those who put in such an incredible effort to make the festival a reality, including the whole transmediale team, the technical support of serve-u and the administrative office Kulturprojekte Berlin. A special mention goes to Markus Huber who after eight festivals is sadly leaving the team – a highly treasured colleague, we wish him all the best for the future.

Kristoffer Gansing, artistic director, transmediale.

Kristoffer Gansing Artistic Director, Daphne Dragona Curator Conference & Exhibition, Robert Sakrowski Curator Exhibition, Marcel Schwierin Curator Film & Video, Inga Seidler Project Manager Exhibition & Installations, Daniela Silvestrin Project Manager Conference Program, Markus Huber Program Coordination & Fundraising, Sibylle Kerlisch Production Manager, Phillip Sünderhauf Technical Director, Sabrina Kürzinger Film & Video Program Intern, Svenja Schulte Exhibition & Installations Intern, Kim Voss Conference & Vorspiel Intern, Katharina Gratzl-Karnitschnig Administrative Manager & Finance, Christine Lang Administrative Manager & Guest Services, Sophie Joos Infocounter Management, Sanga Lenz Administrative Assistant & Guest Services, Jessica Burgold Guest Services Intern, Nina Vurdelja Performance Program Intern, Filippo Gianetta Marketing & Communications Manager, Lina Zuppke Editorial Manager, Tabea Hamperl Press Manager, Maria Lechner Communication Assistant, Natalie Schütze Communication Intern, Linda Dudacy Communication Intern, serve-u Technical Support, raumlaborberlin Festival Architecture, einskommanull Website Development, The Laboratory of Manuel Bürger Festival Graphic Design, Alex Adriaansens, Marie-Luise Angerer, Inke Arns, Dieter Daniels, Jan Edler, Micz Flor Advisory Board

Main funders: Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Kultur Projekte Berlin, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, HKW

Partners: The Canadian Embassy, Schering Stiftung, FACT, UdK Berlin, Winchester School of Art, Aarhus, Leuphana University