The festival for computer-aided art CYNETART is going to present selected core themes of the Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau (TMA) at the festival theatre Hellerau from 26th November until 6th December. Within this event insights into the interdisciplinary and intercultural ways of thinking and working will be given. Furthermore new forms of cross-border communication and co-operation will be presented.

Media art is the trailblazer of digital culture. Its outcome is increasingly affecting our everyday life. It is making inroads into our ways of perception and way of life. An excerpt thereof is going to be presented as live experience within the Automatic Clubbing projects from 26th until 29th November. Automatic Clubbing is a platform for fresh and dynamic media art in the style of traditional club events. A multitude of events in the form of concerts, video and performance installations as well as computer games all aim to make the audience join in and experiment with the offered media environments for themselves.

Together with partners from Madrid, Norrköping and Prague the project of European Tele-Plateaus – Transnational Sites of Encounter and Co-production (ETP) was launched by TMA on the occasion of CYNETART 2008. The networking of virtual environments, which will be funded by the European Union until 2010 is based on the conceptual and practical activities that TMA have been pursuing for many years. The project aims at creating virtual walk-in sites of sound and vision. By providing a virtual environment these spaces allow sensory-physical interactions over long distances in real-time. The visitors’ physical activities are linked and embedded in a trans-local virtual environment. This is accomplished by the web-based integration of various locally significant sound and image processes. From 3rd until 6th December the up-to-date operational results will be presented to the public in the form of an experimental set-up.

On 11 August 2009 „virtual parliament“ (VIPA, www.virtuellesparlament.de) an electronic platform for discussion and voting went online in support of a political culture of the 21st century. This platform serves as panel for political information and decision-making, exploring the margins of an open and parliamentary process. There will be a VIPA-Congress taking place within the festival for the first time from 4th until 5th December 2009. Interested parties will have the opportunity to communicate directly on experiences and perspectives of web-based participation as well as chances and limitations of trans-local web-based democracy.