Curated by Marcel Schwierin

Capture All is a schizophrenic condition for the camera. On one hand, it is a tool for the complete capture of people, be it through face recognition or be it through drones. On the other hand, it is totally useless when it comes to the evaluation the data collected – the age of the algorithm is per se invisible to it. The films and videos of transmediale 2015 illuminate the CAPTURE ALL theme from four perspectives: the screenings The Optimised Self, The New Language and The Capitalist Religion focus on the optimisation of your own body, human communication, and a new a social order modelled on Californian Ideology, one which seems to centre on individuality, but in reality has developed into a near-perfect system of collective control through suggestion.
The map-everything information machine of the Internet and its impact on people is examined in the screening Melting into Air and the installation Hoax Canular. The installation’s doomsday fantasies in turn reference the global Moment of Fear, which serves as a manipulative counterpoint to the ideology of happiness (Glücksideologie) and is reflected in the screenings Gangster Programme and Cruel Narrations. Capturing the world through the “mechanical eye” (Vertov) and the increase in electronic manipulation is explored in the screening Scanning Deep and in the installation Sovereign Sisters, which traces the history of international, world-dominating communication back to the beginning of the 20th century. This year’s transmediale film programme features a total of 44 works, dating from 1937 to 2014, in eight screenings and two video installations.