Randall Packer
Since the beginning
Works in WASHINGTON, District of Columbia United States of America

ARTBASE (2)
BIO
Since the 1980s, multimedia artist, composer, writer and educator Randall Packer has worked at the intersection of interactive media and live performance. He has received international acclaim for his socially and politically infused critique of media culture, and has performed and exhibited at museums, theaters, and festivals throughout the world. Packer is also a writer and scholar in new media, most notably the co-editor of Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality and the author of his long running blog: Reportage from the Aesthetic Edge. He holds an MFA and PhD in music composition and has taught multimedia at the University of California, Berkeley, Maryland Institute College of Art, American University, CalArts, and Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a Visiting Associate Professor at the School of Art, Design & Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where he teaches the art of the networked practice. Most recently, he developed Open Source Studio (OSS), an international project exploring collaborative online research and teaching in the media arts. Packer is also an artist educator at the Museum of Modern Art: his online course received an award from Museums and the Web as the best educational site of 2014. Packer works and teaches remotely from his underground studio bunker in Washington, DC.
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DISCUSSION

New Media Forum I : "The Art of Software"


New Media Forum I
Presented by the Maryland Institute College of Art
and the MICA Center for New Media

Mark NAPIER
"The Art of Software"

Time: Thursday, November 14, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location: Mount Royal Station Auditorium (S3)
Maryland Institute College of Art
Mount Royal Ave. & Cathedral Street, Baltimore
All Lectures are free and open to the public
Reception will follow

Mark NAPIER has created a wide range of projects which appropriate
the data of the Web, transforming it into a parallel Web - in which
content becomes abstraction, text becomes graphics, and information
becomes art.

Mark Napier, painter-turned-digital-artist, is one of the early
pioneering artists of the Internet to exploit the potential of a
worldwide public space. Creating artwork exclusively for the Web,
including such seminal works as "The Shredder," "Digital Landfill"
and "Feed," he has embraced an unprecedented artistic form that gives
the viewer the freedom to recontextualize the medium, to shred its
contents. Most recently his worked have been included in leading
exhibitions of digital art, including: the Whitney Museum of American
Art Biennial Exhibition, the Whitney's Bitstreams exhibition, and the
San Francisco Museum of Art's 010101: Art in the Age of Technology.

Mark Napier's on-line projects:
http://www.potatoland.org/

***********

The New Media Forum is presented by the Center for New Media of the
Maryland Institute College of Art in association with the Digital
Media Center of Johns Hopkins University. The 2002-2003 Forum is a
series of lecture/presentations by leading media artists, focusing on
multiple perspectives that explore the changing cultural phenomena
resulting from the convergence of art and technology.

Upcoming Lectures:

Tuesday, February 18th
Alex GALLOWAY, "How to Hack Multiplayer Games"
Alex GALLOWAY will discuss a new technique of "game remixing ,"
whereby two or more multiplayer game servers are collaged together in
real time.

Tuesday, March 18th
Margot LOVEJOY, "A Turn-Table"
Margot LOVEJOY will provide an exploration of her work on several
fronts, regarding new roles, new themes, new experiments in finding
participation and audience.

Tuesday, April 15th
Perry HOBERMAN, "Unexpected Obstacles"
Perry HOBERMAN will comment on the influence of technology on our
perception and the determination of our every-day life through his
installations and interactive environments. In this way, he expresses
the euphoria of many utopias in both a nostalgic and sarcastic way.

For more information:

MICA Center for New Media
Randall Packer, Director
http://cnm.mica.edu

MICA Office of Communications
410.225.2300

DISCUSSION

Resolution to Authorize Artistic Acts of Mediation


US Department of Art & Technology
Washington, DC
http://www.usdept-arttech.net
press@usdept-arttech.net

Press Secretary
For Immediate Release: October 23, 2002

Secretary Packer Pushes for Resolution to
Authorize Artistic Acts of Mediation

Washington, DC - Secretary Randall M. Packer of the US Department of
Art & Technology has offered a ground-breaking resolution: the
Secretary has called for Department Staff and the Artist-Ambassadors
of the Global Virtualization Council to consider and vote on the
Joint Resolution to Authorize Acts of Artistic Mediation (US DAT J.
Res. 1).

The Covenant for the Articles of Artistic Mediation, collectively
co-authored by artists and critics from around the world, was
originally transmitted on June 19th, 2002 to the US Department of
State at the World Mediation Summit in Washington, DC. The resolution
now under debate would effectively carry out authorization of the
Articles of Artistic Mediation in this historic resolve to help bring
about world peace.The resolution reaffirms the power of art to
prevent war, it promotes artists to act in emergency, and it
specifically calls for the artistic action as an alternative to
military force against Iraq.

"There is a need for the American public to understand the dangerous
tendencies of the Bush Regime," Secretary Packer stated in his office
in Washington, DC. "There has been some public discussion, but
relatively little. This resolution calls for regime change in America
by authorizing acts of artistic mediation in an effort to bring the
artist message to center stage of the political process."

The Joint Resolution of the US Department of Art & Technology and the
Global Virtualization Council, would provide a basis for
international understanding of the artist's position on cultural
conflicts, which are of great concern in our increasingly apocalyptic
world.

According to Secretary Packer, "Approving this resolution means that
artistic action is imminent and unavoidable. If this authorization of
the use of artistic mediation is supported by thoughtful and
experienced members of our Staff and the Council of
Artist-Ambassadors, the international community might well be
reassured that artists speak with one voice and are determined to
make the demands of the civilized world mean something. We will be
sending a message to President Bush: his only choice is full
compliance, and the time remaining for that choice is limited."

"The President's actions have put us on notice," Packer stated, "and
there is no refuge from our responsibilities. We did not ask for this
present challenge, but we accept it. As Marshall McLuhan said, 'To
prevent undue wreckage in society, the artist tends now to move from
the ivory to the control tower of society.'"

*******

The US Department of Art & Technology
http://www.usdept-arttech.net

The US Department of Art and Technology is the United States
principal conduit for facilitating the artist's need to extend
aesthetic inquiry into the broader culture where ideas become real
action. It also serves the psychological and spiritual well-being of
all Americans by supporting cultural efforts that provide immunity
from the extension of new media technologies into the social sphere.

Covenant for the Articles of Artistic Mediation
http://www.usdept-arttech.net/covenant.html

The Covenant for the Articles of Artistic Mediation was officially
transmitted on June 19th, 2002 to the US Department of State at the
World Mediation Summit in Washington, DC. The World Mediation Summit
was convened under the theme "Artist as Mediator on the World Stage,"
held at the Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes, the German Cultural
Center in Washington, DC, as a signal of the cultural community's
determination to tackle head-on the extraordinary challenges faced by
the world after the attacks of September 11th.

Contact: Press Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology
press@usdept-arttech.net

# 01-112

DISCUSSION

New Media Forum @ MICA : 2002-2003


New Media Forum 2002-2003
Presented by the Maryland Institute College of Art
and the MICA Center for New Media

Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location: Mount Royal Station Auditorium (S3)
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
All Lectures are free and open to the public
Reception will follow

Fall Program: 2002

- Thursday, November 14

Mark NAPIER, painter-turned-digital-artist, is one of the early
pioneering artists of the Internet to exploit the potential of a
worldwide public space. Creating artwork exclusively for the Web,
including such seminal works as "The Shredder,"
Digital Landfill," and "Feed," he has embraced an unprecedented
artistic form that gives the viewer the freedom to recontextualize
the medium, to shred its contents. Most recently his worked have been
included in leading exhibitions of digital art, including: the
Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial Exhibition, the Whitney's
Bitstreams exhibition, and the San Francisco Museum of Art's 010101:
Art in the Age of Technology.

Spring Program: 2003

- Tuesday, February 18

Alex GALLOWAY is the former Director of Content & Technology of
Rhizome.org, a leading on-line platform for new media art. Alex has
created several computer art projects including the networked screen
saver "Every Image." He is currently working on a web-based artwork
called "Carnivore" - after the FBI software of the same name - that
uses packet-sniffing technologies to create vivid depictions of raw
data. "Carnivore" was given a Golden Nica award in Net Vision / Net
Excellence at Ars Electronica 2002. He recently joined the faculty of
New York University where he teaches digital media.

- Tuesday, March 18

Margot LOVEJOY is Professor of Visual Arts at the State University of
New York at Purchase and author of the seminal book on electronic
art, "Postmodern Currents: Arts and Artists in the Age of Electronic
Media" (1997). She is recipient of a 1988 Guggenheim Fellowship and a
1994 Arts International Grant in India. Last year, her Net art
project "Turns," was included in the Whitney Museum of American Art,
Biennial Exhibition. The site is a reflection on the ways new media
are influencing and changing notions of the individual in a social
context.

- Tuesday, April 15

Perry HOBERMAN is an installation artist whose work has been
exhibited widely throughout the United States and worldwide. He works
with a variety of technologies, ranging from the utterly obsolete to
seasonably state-of-the-art. His installation "Timetable" was awarded
the Grand Prix at the ICC Biennale '99 in Tokyo, and "Systems
Maintenance" won a 1999 Prix Ars Electronica "Award of Distinction"."
He is represented by Postmasters Gallery in New York and currently
teaches at the School of Visual Arts (NY).

***********

The New Media Forum is presented by the Center for New Media of the
Maryland Institute College of Art. The 2002-2003 Forum is a series of
lecture/presentations by leading media artists, focusing on multiple
perspectives that explore the changing cultural phenomena resulting
from the convergence of art and technology.

For more information:

MICA Center for New Media
Randall Packer, Director
http://cnm.mica.edu

MICA Office of Communications
410.225.2300

DISCUSSION

Roberta Breitmore Named National Chairwoman


US Department of Art & Technology
PO Box 32265 Washington, DC 20007
http://www.usdept-arttech.net
press@usdept-arttech.net

Press Secretary
For Immediate Release: August 19, 2002

Roberta Breitmore
Named National Chairwoman

USA Exquisite Corpse
of the Experimental Party

Washington, DC - At its Summer Meeting today the members of the
Experimental Party National Committee named Roberta Breitmore the
first National Chairwoman of the USA Exquisite Corpse of the
Experimental Party.

In accepting the position, Ms. Breitmore told EP members, "As
National Chairwoman, I vow to provoke presumptions and constrain the
rational."

Lynn Hershman, longtime associate of the new appointed Chairwoman,
stated, "Ms. Breitmore is a natural, her life experience has
exquisitely groomed her for this position." Hershman serves as Under
Secretary of the Bureau for the Protection & Immunization Against
Mediation & Alienation of the US Department of Art & Technology.

The focus of the Summer Meeting was preparation for the 2004 election
and Ms. Breitmore's remarks reflect a clear focus on the party's
future. As an initiative of the Experimental Party, the USA Exquisite
Corpse is well-positioned to build on the great promise of the
artistic avant-garde by enabling Americans to participate directly -
in their own communities - in creative acts of freedom of association
and the transformational properties of the ceremonies of art. Ms.
Breitmore's agenda, accomplishments and leadership, along with her
commitment to activating the young and alienated, is focused on
driving the Bush Men out of the White House by means of acts of
artistic mediation, appropriation, manifesto and demonstration, love
and politics.

The USA Exquisite Corpse, announced earlier this spring at the Thaw
Festival of Media in Iowa City, Iowa, is a call-to-arms to think and
act anew, to develop techniques of surprise and methodologies of the
fantastic, to enliven the Experimental Party at the grassroots level
with a purpose and a cause greater than our individual lives. The USA
Exquisite Corpse is intended to take us in exciting new directions
where we have not gone before, issuing oracular truths and the most
radically liberating critique of reason. As the President leads us
down the path of destruction with his obsessive death-wish for our
nation and the world, we have the responsibility of transforming
ourselves into what we can be and what we need to be, to insure a
future.

Ms. Breitmore outlined three major priorities for her chairmanship of
the volunteer-based USA Exquisite Corpse: engage citizens directly in
celebrating the universal spirit of collective expression; individual
empowerment through dynamic interaction between the viewer and the
artwork; the use of technology to illuminate the cultural process
through which icon and illusion become the substance of truth.

Ms. Breitmore, who has long explored issues of identity and
alienation in her personal and cultural investigation, stated that as
Chairwoman of the USA Exquisite Corpse, she would continue to support
the construction of "multiple identities that can continually change
their manifestations and adapt to new conditions."

Randall M. Packer, Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology
and Chairman of the National Committee of the Experimental Party,
provided the following remarks: "Ms. Breitmore is exactly what the
Experimental Party needs right now. She is our response to the
reality of a post-apocalyptic 21st century, in which we must fuel the
momentum against anachronistic tendencies, the corporatization of
media, and the threat of homeland insecurity resulting from corrupt
politicians and greedy CEO's. Roberta Breitmore stands for greater
integrity, concern for the resonant nuances of alienation, mystical
insight gained through personal experience, and the free expression
of the individual to reveal the basic truth of character with which
to analyze culture - those values that are essential to our survival
in these times of extraordinary crisis."

For additional information, visit: http://experimentalparty.org/USAcorpse/
or contact Roberta Breitmore: roberta@experimentalparty.org

******
Roberta Breitmore
National Chairwoman of the USA Exquisite Corpse
roberta@experimentalparty.org

Roberta Breitmore was recently appointed to serve as National
Chairwoman of the USA Exquisite Corpse of the Experimental Party. Ms.
Breitmore's evolution from temporal victim to eternal victor to
political crusader was intended as an ascetic conversion that
transcended cultural values in an increasingly technological society.
She hopes to engage the public in the challenging issues that face us
today.

The Experimental Party
http://www.experimentalparty.org

The Experimental Party is a new artist-based political party,
heralding a new era for the nation - the "party of virtualization" -
to be built on the inherent strength of the artists' message. The US
Department of Art & Technology has formed the Experimental Party in
order to activate citizens across the country in its effort to bring
the artists' message to center stage of the political process.
'Representation Through Virtualization' is the major political thrust
of the Experimental Party, it is the driving force.

The USA Exquisite Corpse
http://experimentalparty.org/USAcorpse/

The USA Exquisite Corpse will promote a culture intended to free
words and images from the constraints of rational and discursive
order. It will work with key service agencies in government and the
non-profit sector to provide incentives and new opportunities to
develop techniques of surprise and methodologies of the fantastic.
The USA Exquisite Corpse will draw on help from Americans of all ages
and of every background, it is an integrated citizen service
initiative - and the US Department of Art & Technology believes it
can and will do great good.

The US Department of Art & Technology
http://www.usdept-arttech.net

The US Department of Art and Technology is the United States
principal conduit for facilitating the artist's need to extend
aesthetic inquiry into the broader culture where ideas become real
action. It also serves the psychological and spiritual well-being of
all Americans by supporting cultural efforts that provide immunity
from the extension of new media technologies into the social sphere.

Contact: Press Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology
press@usdept-arttech.net

# 01-111

DISCUSSION

Executive Order : Free Cultural Zone


US Department of Art & Technology
PO Box 32265 Washington, DC
http://www.usdept-arttech.net
office of the Secretary
secretary@usdept-arttech

EXECUTIVE ORDER
RMP 02-06
BY THE SECRETARY OF THE
US DEPARTMENT OF ART & TECHNOLOGY
http://www.usdept-.arttech.net

Relating to the Designation of a
Free Cultural Zone
On the Mexico - US Border
at BORDERHACK 3.0! Festival of Media
August 16 - 18, 2002

Randall M. Packer, Secretary

THE PARTICIPATING NATIONS, In order to promote international
co-operation and to achieve international peace and cultural
understanding by the acceptance of obligations not to restrict border
passage, by the prescription of open, informed cultural dialogue
between nations, by the establishment of the understanding of the
aspirations of the artist as a model for spiritual and moral conduct
among Governments, and by the maintenance of the role of the artist
as a mediator who transcends borders, and a scrupulous respect for
the following EXECUTIVE ORDER, in accordance with the laws of the
Constitution of the United States of America,

Agree to this Executive Order
to create a FREE CULTURAL ZONE

WHEREAS, the US and Mexico are linked by geography,
sharing an approximately 2000-mile border;

WHEREAS, the US and Mexico are linked by history, with
significant portions of the land now comprising the southwestern states
having once been governed by Mexico;

WHEREAS, the US and Mexico are linked by culture, with many
Americans speaking Spanish, enjoying Mexican food
and art, and celebrating Mexican holidays
like Dies y Seis and Cinco de Mayo;

WHEREAS, the US and Mexico are linked economically, with Mexico
being the principal trading partner of bordering states;

WHEREAS, the US and Mexico are linked electronically
by Borderhack 3.0! Festival of Media in the border town of
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, the host city
with its theme, ||Delete the Border;

WHEREAS, for the foregoing reasons, the US greatly values
the relationship with Mexico and regards a friendly and
cooperative relationship with Mexico as being of immense
importance to the US;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RANDALL M. PACKER, Secretary
of the US Department of Art & Technology, by the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of this country, do
hereby designate the border dividing the US and Mexico
in the vicinity of the Borderhack 3.0! Festival of Media a

FREE CULTURAL ZONE

AND CHARGE the directors of the festival with duties that include,
but are not limited, to the following:

Represent the US and Mexico with executive power to direct any and
all border officials to allow free passage between the two nations
without identification or passport clearance in the vicinity of the
Borderhack 3.0! Festival of Media;

Arrange and facilitate festival and all other and related cultural
events, ceremonies of art, and other shamanistic activities without
the imposition of unnecessary border restrictions which function as a
dimensional vortex swallowing the traveler without papers;

Organize multimedia performance events and other forms of
cyber-induced altered states of hypermediated consciousness that
bring about the dissolution of patriotism and other dangerous
patterns of behavior that encourage the evils of nationalism;

Promote good relations between the US and Mexico by staging
experimental cultural activities that call for culture jamming,
border hacking, and the general undermining of anachronistic,
pre-21st Century tendencies in these post-apocalyptic times;

Create a contemporary theater of mythos and "cultural pathology" as a
sui generis ceremonial space for people to reflect on their attitudes
toward other cultures;

Any and all other activities incident to the foregoing or otherwise
related thereto as appropriate or as requested as a significant step
towards resolving international crises that have at their root the
imposition of unnecessary borders and a lack of understanding and
cooperation between nations and cultures;

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and cause the Great Seal
of the US Department of Art & Technology to be affixed. Done in the Nation's
Capitol in the City of Washington, DC this 6th day of August, 2002

Randall M. Packer
Secretary, US Department of Art & Technology
Washington, DC

* * *