transmediale was founded in 1988 as VideoFilmFest, a side-project of the Berlin Berlinale’s International Forum of New Cinema. The co-founder and artistic director Micky Kwelly intended to offer a platform to electronic media productions not accepted at traditional film festivals such as the Berlinale.

Nowadays transmediale is an international festival for contemporary art and digital culture. Located in Berlin, it presents advanced artistic positions reflecting on the socio-cultural impact of new technologies. It seeks out artistic practices that not only respond to scientific or technical developments, but that try to shape the way in which we think about and experience these technologies. transmediale understands media technologies as cultural techniques which need to be embraced in order to comprehend, critique, and shape our contemporary society.

The festival includes exhibitions, competitions, conferences, film and video programmes, live performances and a publication series called ‘transmediale parcours’. Moreover it cooperates with club transmediale (CTM), which deals with electronic music and club culture.

Source: [http://www.transmediale.de/en/info/about] (consulted 27.10.09)