the what's on today requires a separate entry all it's own - filtering & synthesising ideas

from the McLuhan Centennial Weekend Audible Approaches For A Better Place! in Berlin to Untold Stories - Queer Art in Tallinn and Net Audio Sonic Maze in London, it's all popping and frizzling.

first, some notes on desire lines:

(di.ZYR lyn) n. An informal path that pedestrians prefer to take to get from one location to another rather than using a sidewalk or other official route.

Desire lines (or natural desire lines, as they're also called) are those well-worn ribbons of dirt that you see cutting across a patch of grass, often with nearby sidewalks — particularly those that offer a less direct route — ignored. In winter, desire lines appear spontaneously as tramped down paths in the snow. I love that these paths are never perfectly straight. Instead, like a river, they meander this way and that, as if to prove that desire itself isn't linear and (literally, in this case) straightforward.

Study participants also drew charts of pedestrian traffic to take note of what are delightfully termed "desire lines"—paths actually made by walkers as opposed to those created on the drawing board.
—Thomas Frick, "Rebuilding Central Park," Technology Review, August 1987

A desire path (also known as a desire line or social trail) is a path developed by erosion caused by footfall. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. The width and amount of erosion of the line represents the amount of demand. Desire paths can usually be found as shortcuts where constructed pathways take a circuitous route.

They are manifested on the surface of the earth in certain cases, e.g., as dirt pathways created by people walking through a field, when the original movement by individuals helps clear a path, thereby encouraging more travel. Explorers may tread a path through foliage or grass, leaving a trail "of least resistance" for followers....

What if artists composed music for a better world?

Audible Approaches For A Better Place

Thursday, May 12th
20:00-23:00
HKW Berlin (Haus der Kulturen der Welt - large auditorium)
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10

Doors open 19:30 / Concert begins 20:00 (sharp!)

Entrance: 8€ / 5€ discount

An evening with 10 short live performances by:

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c.sides

festival, label and platform for

electronic music and critical media arts

c.sides Germany:

Heliosstr. 6 a-d (Hinterhof / Backyard)

D-50825 Cologne

Germany

www.csides.net

Friday May 27 – Sunday May 29, 2011
Embassy of Canada / Marshall McLuhan Salon

transmediale in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada and Marshall McLuhan Salon invite you to a key event celebrating the 100th anniversary of famed Canadian media philosopher Herbert Marshall McLuhan's birth. Having coined expressions such as the global village and the medium is the message in the early days of TV and electronic culture, the Re-Touching McLuhan events explore the many interpretations of McLuhan's play on language and media that shape today's networked society.

The international conference Re-Touching McLuhan: The Medium is the Massage chaired by Dieter Daniels and moderated by Christopher Salter, sees leading international media and digital culture researchers Richard Cavell, Martina Leeker, Claus Pias, Katja Kwastek, Liz Kotz, Janine Marchessault, Graham Larkin and Lorenz Engell explore McLuhan’s unique take on tactile and multi-sensory media expressed by the media philosopher's unintentionally published blurring of the words message and massage.

The opening of the Centennial Weekend features the worldwide (re-)launch of McLuhan's 1968 audio art classic The Medium is the Massage, digitally remastered for the first time, produced and presented by hip-hop musician and conceptual artist Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky.

Legendary McLuhanist Derrick de Kerckhove and Berlin-based McLuhan scholar Steffi Winklerelaborate on rare material from the McLuhan archives in the first session of the McLuminationsscreening and discussion series, produced by Baruch Gottlieb.

The Centennial Weekend will feature the  European première of Through the Vanishing Point, a major new multi-media installation by leading Canadian digital artists David Rokeby and Lewis Kaye, as well as Play_McLuhan, an exhibition by media art students from the Hochschule Darmstadt under the direction of Sabine Breitsameter will be presented.

These events will be preceded by the 2nd German-Canadian Professionals Conference - The Global Village: Calamity or Chance? featuring keynotes by Brian Lee Crowley, Linus Neumann andGundolf S. Freyermuth, moderated by Ariane de Hoog.

Programme Highlights

Re-Touching McLuhan Centennial Weekend Opening and Reception featuring Richard Cavell and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Friday May 27, 18.00 – 21.00

Re-Touching McLuhan: The Medium is the Massage Conference
Saturday May 28, 10.00 – 18.00

McLuminations Screening & Discussion Programme
Sunday May 29, 14.30

Through The Vanishing Point by David Rokeby and Lewis Kaye - Vernissage
Sunday May 29, 17.00

Full event schedule: http://mcluhan2011.eu/schedule

Event Details

All events are free and open to the public but spaces are limited so please RSVP at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

If you are unable to attend, please join us online at http://mcluhan2011.eu/berlin. All RE-TOUCHING McLUHAN conference presentations will be streamed live and there will be opportunities to participate in a moderated online forum. To register your interest in our streaming programme, please contact Lalitha Rajan on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For more information on the event visit http://mcluhan2011.eu/berlin or contact Michelle O'Brien on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

This event is an initiative of transmediale in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada, Marshall McLuhan Salon, Deutsche-Kanadische Gesellschaft, Blackberry, RIM – Research in Motion and Der Freitag.

Untold Stories

Tallinna Kunstihoone
Vabaduse väljak 6
Wed-Sun 12-18
Exhibition is open 8.05–26.06

artists: Malin Arnell & Kajsa Dahlberg & Johanna Gustavsson & Fia-Stina Sandlund in collaboration with Zoe Leonard, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Sezgin Boynik & Kalle Hamm & Minna L. Henriksson & Dzamil Kamanger, Liisi Eelmaa & Minna Hint, Conny Karlsson, Dagmar Kase, Kiwa & Terje Toomistu, M.L., Marcus Lindeen, Karin Michalski & Sabina Baumann, Nallem, Flemming Rolighed, Emily Roysdon, Jaanus Samma, Mariá Takács, Mare Tralla, Anna-Stina Treumund

participants of the eventprogram: A.K. Burns & A.L. Steiner, Kajsa Dahlberg, Kaspars Goba & Ieva Ubele, Ana Hoffner, Kiwa & Terje Toomistu, Robert Kulpa, Karin Michalski, Aurora Reinhard, Mariá Takács and many others

curators:Anders Härm, Rebeka Põldsam, Airi Triisberg
architect: Karli Luik
graphic design: Jaanus Samma


The contemporary art exhibition titled Untold Stories, which is part of both the European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011 and the Diversity Enriches project focuses on the problems of sexual minorities, primarily as they relate to social, political and historical issues. The exhibition is accompanied by a diverse programme of events that includes discussions, screenings, and presentations. Untold Stories is almost the only project in the Capital of Culture programme that deals with the theme of sexual minorities. The exhibition is also collaborating with the Diversity Enriches project and the week of LGBT solidarity and culture – The Festival of Expanding Your World – which will take place from June 6th to 12th.

The works on display at the exhibition approach the topic primarily from a documentary viewpoint, by telling stories about homophobia and representations of homosexuality in Estonia, the everyday problems of sexual minorities in the workplace or as parents, and the cultural history of lesbians and gays during the socialist period in Eastern Europe. The stories are told by analysing single cases or by dealing with an entire era or cultural mindset.

Next to topics related to lesbians and gays, the exhibition also focuses on other often marginalised sexualities, such as bi-, trans- and intersexuality. The emphasis on the letter combination LGBTQI indicates the complexity of sexualities and gender identities, functioning as a starting point in order to reflect on questions related to the narrowness of binary gender roles, the constructed nature of gendered bodies, and the hard work involved in fitting or not fitting into the gender roles recognised by society.

The third set of topics at the exhibitions deals with the discourse of so-called “repressive tolerance”, the relations between the queer movement and the public sphere at the political level of self-expression. Also under examination are the dichotomy between the power of sexual minorities (primarily over themselves and their bodies) and the exclusive mechanisms of democratic representation, the possibilities and impossibilities of participating in public life and politics. In this context, the phenomenon of homonormativity and processes of multiple marginalisation are also thematised.

The project also tries to take its theme outside the exhibition hall, and vice versa, to bring events into the exhibition hall in order to turn it into a social space. Therefore, an extensive programme of additional events accompanies the exhibition. As a rule, the event programme will take place on Thursdays at 6 pm and information about it is available on the Kunsthalle website at www.kunstihoone.ee.

Designer Jaanus Samma and architect Karli Luik have tried to use the graphics and architectural design in order to create an experimental “queer space”, which would support the exhibition’s conceptual point of departure. Because an in-depth visit to the exhibition may be time-consuming, it will be possible to visit the Kunsthalle twice with the same ticket. Please contact the Kunstahalle ticket office for more information.

Many thanks to: Estonian Cultural Endowment, British Council, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Kulturkontakt Nord, Metropol hotel, Sõprus cinema, Fellin Furniture, Estonian National Agency for Youth in Action Programme, Human Rights Center.

Text was written by Anders Härm, Rebeka Põldsam & Airi Triisberg