<nettime> "Speech for the End of Time"

[Randall Packer <rpacker@zakros.com>]

"Speech for the End of Time"
Presented by the Communication in Contemporary Society Program
and the Center for the Study of American Government
Johns Hopkins University - Washington, DC

Randall M. Packer
Secretary, US Department of Art & Technology
Wednesday, April 23, 7:30pm @ Room LL07
School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC



"Weapons that change consciousness could call the war game in 
question." - William Burroughs

Randall Packer will conclude his tour of the nation in Washington, DC 
with the "Speech for the End of Time." As Secretary of the US 
Department of Art & Technology, the event will be a direct response 
to war cries from the Administration that are leading us quickly and 
inevitably down the path to a day of reckoning. In Secretary Packer's 
tour - which has included Los Angeles, Boulder, and New York City - 
he has announced the activation of the Experimental Party, the 
artist-based political party, the "party of experimentation," and its 
latest initiative, "10,000 Acts of Artistic Mediation." In the 
"Speech for the End of Time," Secretary Packer will call on coalition 
artists to " to inspire other artists into action by undergoing 
aesthetic operation as a form of magic designed as a mediation 
between our strange hostile world and the human spirit." For more 
than 100 years, the avant-garde has gone forth from its studios and 
garrets to fight for utopian aspirations and social transformation. 
Today's artists have entered a fierce struggle against a grave 
danger, the existential darkness that has possessed our government, 
that grips its soul.

Randall Packer

Randall Packer's work as a composer and media artist has focused on 
the integration of live performance, digital media, and the 
interdisciplinary arts. From the revival of avant-garde music theater 
to the creation of new interactive media work, he has bridged current 
issues in art, media and culture with seminal interdisciplinary 
ideologies. As a leading authority on the history of multimedia, 
Packer has completed a multi-part hybrid publishing project entitled 
"Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality" (W.W. Norton, 2001). 
Most recently, Packer founded the US Department of Art & Technology 
and Experimental Party in Washington, DC as an artistic critique of 
the political process. He has appeared frequently as the Department's 
Secretary, including the Transmediale International Festival of Media 
2002 in Berlin, the Thaw Festival of Film, Video and Digital Media 
2002 in Iowa City, and the World Mediation Summit (2002) in 
Washington, DC at the Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes. In 2003, his 
collaborative sound installation Mori received its New York debut at 
The Kitchen. Packer is Professor of Electronic Arts and Director of 
the Center for New Media at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

*******

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.

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

The Experimental Party - the "party of experimentation" -  is an 
artist-based political party that has been formed to activate 
citizens across the country in an effort to bring the artists' 
message to center stage of the political process. This is a political 
awakening, 'representation through virtualization' is the major 
political thrust of the Experimental Party, it is the driving force.



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