For the majority of Berlin with even one slight finger on the city’s art or music pulse, The New Infinity program needs no introduction. And yet, it deserves a reintroduction after a well-deserved revamping.
My last association with New Infinity is of being stoned in a pop-up dome temporarily housed outside and in front of Kunstraum Bethanien, listening to Dasha Rush performing live some pulsing droney beats, with dark visuals projected above of intergalactic projections. Not a bad recollection, to say the least. This year, however, the line up is elevated and expanded and taken more seriously. This year, a little less doom-oriented. This year, more playful and varied. With a new location comes a new mood, and both the location and mood are totally awe-inspiring, with something for everyone.
The new New Infinity home is now blessed with the location of Prenzlauerberg’s beautiful Planetarium: a place of school field trips that never otherwise gets enough love or credit from the local crowd, due to its lack in programming. This weekend, Berlin is treated to the top floor of the Planetarium’s full dome theater, with many films and scores created site-specifically for the occasion.
The line up stretches out over the course of three days & nights, with both familiar faces and new additions to the roster, ranging from silent films of our planet’s skewed landscapes, to brutalist beats, post-apocalyptic renderings, and microcosmic explorations. To get you started, allow me to present a few highlights:
If the Museum of Natural History appeals to you…
John Whitney presents ‘MN:P’
(Saturday, 18.00; Sunday, 11.00)
Whitney was born in 1917. Let that sink in for a moment. Known as a pioneer of computer graphics, animation, and data visualization (namely how we can render what sound ‘looks’ like) the work ‘MN:P’ is an acknowledgement of where we started and how far we have come in the realm of digitized art. The piece itself was inspired by the Southwest American indigenous people, whom Whitney worked alongside with on a number of art projects, and the rudimentary colors are a delight to observe dancing, growing, and receding overhead. A previously unreleased short by Whitney entitled ‘Homage to Rameau’ from 1967 will also be screened on Friday and Sunday.
For those that take their vinyl collection very seriously…
Actress & Actual Objects present ‘Grey Interiors’
(Saturday, 16.00; Sunday, 23.30)
The composer Darren Cunningham (aka Actress) creates a sophisticated atmospheric score pushing along post-industrial visuals of free-floating machines and gears with no tether, from the experimental artist collective Actual Objects. Actress shies away from anything club-oriented with this piece, instead focusing on a delicate-yet-present piano. ASMR for the apocalypse. Saturday is the world premiere, and those in the know, know. One may consider themselves lucky for the experience.
For those with an undiscovered giantess fetish…
Patricia Detmering presents Aporia
(Saturday, 19.30; Sunday, 16.30
In the future, we have progressed back to the primitive: human avatars wander about a world, engaging in their own actions and surroundings, only herding together when a new figure appears. Inspired by Elias Canetti’s crowd theory (from his 1960 book ‘Masse und Macht’), watching the dynamics unfold in this peculiar vantage point is hypnotic and alluring, like watching fish float about in an aquarium. The advanced VR template is made more appealing by a children’s book-like atmosphere, with drumming, humming and field recordings backing the imagery.
If you love Jackson Pollock (and/or psychedelics)…
Bill Ham & Kara-Lis Coverdale present Light Painting #1 and #2
Bill Ham is familiar with the strange and beautiful. In the 1960s, he took his love for Abstract Expressionism painting (then in its hey-day) and began using light trails in lieu of paintbrushes, creating supersonic, dreamy, fully-immersive live installations of color and sound. Composer Kara-Lis Coverdale created a specific new score for the Light Paintings, and it is beautifully ethereal. Part heat map, part oil streaks in a puddle… The meditative auras of Ham and Coverdale are directly projected onto the viewer. A wonderful experience.
So good we get to see it again…
Fatima Al Qadiri & Transforma present Extraordinary Alien
(Saturday, 21.00)
While no stranger to the New Infinity program, the musician Al Qadiri and artist collective Transforma grace us once more with their piece ‘Extraordinary Alien’ which is a play on the American artist visa classification: ‘artist with extraordinary ability.’ Aren’t we all? The planetarium’s geodome is absolutely the ideal venue for watching such galactic imagery, transposed upon repetitive, hypnotic beats of tension and release.
More information on The New Infinity, including line up and tickets, can be found here. Text by Janna Shaw