Filippo Tomasso Marinetti wrote his 'Futurist Manifesto' a good century ago, but his words have not yet been forgotten. Looking back on the past hundred years, one could even say that most of Marinetti’s predictions have come true: there is more war and violence than ever before, there is more global traffic and the number of sleepless, continuously vibrating cities is still growing.

This is what inspired media artist Thomas Köner for his new work 'The Futurist Manifesto'. Köner composed a digital opera triggered by the 100th anniversary of the original 'Futurist Manifesto' and the theme of this year’s Impakt Festival: Accelerated Living. In this opera, Köner condenses the sonic sludge of a hundred years of industrialisation and acceleration to create a new, multidimensional audiovisual space in which the musicians interact as if “time and space died yesterday.” The mini-opera will be performed with a prepared piano, a digitally driven 'noise orchestra' and a vocalist. The vocalist acts as Marinetti's voice, his once powerful call now replaced by a dark, female whisper. There is a video element in the performance that represents Marinetti's visual memory. Black and white footage from the early days of industrialisation is projected on the back of a male torso, images that have almost been erased by time and speed, now to reappear once again on the screen. The footage doesn't live up to our expectations of the world that the futurists described. No stamping plants, steam locomotives or race cars. Instead we see crowds in the streets, buildings, and a plane slowly driving out of a hangar. Although the futurists were inspired by the latest technologies in the early 20th century, in their poems, manifests and paintings they focused more on the potential of these new phenomena. The everyday reality of those days appears to have been, as Köner seems to imply, incredibly simple, if not endearing.

Born in Germany, in 1965, Thomas Köner is considered one of the most influential media artists in Europe. He studied at the music college in Dortmund and then moved to the Arnhem-based CEM Studio where he developed an interest in electronic music. Up to 1994, he worked as a sound engineer, with a strong preference for cinematographic sound design. In the 90s, he started his collaboration with filmmaker and audiovisual artist Jürgen Reble, while also working on numerous soundtracks for silent movies. These soundtracks were often performed live, among other places at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Köner's interest in the symbiosis of auditory and visual experiences resulted in commissions for art centres such as the Centre George Pompidou in Paris and the Hayward Gallery in London, as well as in collaborations with influential artists. His radical sound research also expands beyond the art world and can be found in contemporary club culture. Through his collaboration with Andy Mellwig as producers of Porter Ricks, he soon became one of the biggest names in the progressive techno scene. In his more recent work, timbre and the moving image merge in a series of video installations and audiovisual performances. Köner's work has been awarded by the Montreal International Festival New Cinema New Media, Ars Electronica, Deutsche Klangkunst-Preis, Transmediale and the International Film Festivals in Rotterdam and Oberhausen.

Date: 14 October 2009
Location: Theater Kikker