Thursday, October 12th, 8 pm at c-base, Rungestraße 20,
near S+U - station Jannowitzbrücke in Berlin.
c-base, the most ancient crashed space-station in the world, hidden deep in the ground beneath the TV tower of Berlin, is a vibrant space for digital culture, computing, software development, sound design, plays and lots more.
For more details klick here: http://www.etceterra.de and here http://www.c-base.org. Join us on our caravan of questions on media art in Berlin...
On Thursday, Oct.12th 2006, we visited the evening events of the etceterra programme "the medium is the message" and had a talk with Ari aka Odras, one of the members of the c-base. We wanted to find out: What are the aims of this unique production- and event space? Who can participate? Which role does the c-base play within the media art scene of Berlin?
c-base, the most ancient crashed space-station in the world, hidden deep in the ground beneath the TV tower of Berlin, is a vibrant space for digital culture, computing, software development, sound design, plays and lots more
If you want to see the whole movie, please activate the flash player below. We are sorry that it's available in German only. If you can't play the video please download the latest version of the Flash player here.
For all the others, here is a short summary of our discussion with Odras: The c-base regards itself as an open space without any restrictions in terms of taste, art, fashions, programming styles or whatsoever. The only thing is that the different groups and people who join or use the c-base should identify themselves with the aims of the institution: the accumulation and sharing of knowledge on software engineering, technology and networks. This means: Anybody who is interested in these topics can join them or ask for advise. Odras pointed out, that the c-base can be used in various ways: it can be booked as a spectacular space for events, the infrastructure such as sound studio, computers and so on might be used, and what is most appreciated is of course to share knowledge and technological skills. The c-base hosts other initiatives, among them the Chaos Computer Club (which got famous for its Blinkenlight installation at the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz) and Freifunk.net. Since last year, the c-base was one of the presentation spaces of the Transmediale Festival as well. Odras said, that more and more people come and join the group. And there are many things you can do: visit workshops and lectures, use the computer systems, find collaborators or just play Go, the Japanese board game.
If you ask one c-base member about the initial goals of this place, they will all answer you with a whimsical smile, that the major aim is to reconstruct the space station, which accidentily crushed on earth and to make it fly again somewhere in the near future. This myth of the c-base also says a lot about the cultural practice of this place: anything can happen, just as long as the c-base crew has fun with what they are doing. They do not seem to follow a certain contemporary media art agenda, they are open to many things and do not care so much for fashion and big names. And this mixture of science fiction- atmosphere, the focus on collaboration and sharing and a general laid-back approach towards media art makes the c-base quite unique among media art institutions in Berlin.
