Secretary Predicts Adoption of Artist Resolution

US Department of Art & Technology
Washington, DC
http://www.usdept-arttech.net
[email protected]

Press Secretary
For Immediate Release: November 8, 2002


Secretary Predicts Adoption of Resolution
To Authorize Artistic Acts of Mediation

Washington, DC - Following intensive discussions in the US Department
of Art & Technology, Global Virtualization Council, and their Joint
Committee on Cultural Transformation and Paradigmatic Shifts,
Secretary Randall M. Packer is predicting the adoption in the coming
days of a new, powerful resolution "To Authorize the Use of Artistic
Acts of Mediation," aimed at applying artistic forces of mediation in
light of recent actions of the Bush Regime and the United Nations
that threaten international insecurity.

Speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting, Secretary Packer
said he had received critical input and support from
Secretary-General of the Global Virtualization Council, Luc
Courchesne of Canada, Artist-Ambassador Chris Bowman of Scotland,
Artist-Ambassador Peter Frucht of Hungary, and US DAT Staff members:
Jeff Gates, Deputy Secretary; Jack Rasmussen, Minister of Culture;
William Gilcher, Envoy Plenipotentiary to the European Union and
Latin America; Laura Coyle, Under Secretary for the Preservation of
the Avant-Garde; Abe Golam, Director of the Office of Political and
Economic Insecurity; Mark Amerika, Director of the Office of Freedom
of Speech; and Lowell Darling, recently appointed Under Secretary of
the Bureau of Alchemy for the Appropriation, Transformation, and
Liberation of Anachronistic Political Systems.

Underscoring the gravity of the issue, Secretary Packer said, "It is
a question of the Bush Regime's demonstrated capability and
willingness to irrevocably engulf us all in hopeless despair, through
a system extolling exploitation, consumption, corruption, and greed,
and the extreme magnitude of harm that would result from such
atrocities, combine to justify action by the US Department of Art &
Technology and the Global Virtualization Council to defend humanity.
The Resolution sends a strong message to the Bush Regime that failure
to comply will have serious consequences, that they hold in their own
hands the fate of their administration."

"We intend to have consultations as long as it takes to get to the
bottom of the text," he added, predicting that "in the days to come
the Council and Staff will be able to adopt a firm resolution giving
artists the means to extend aesthetic inquiry into the outer world
where ideas become real action. Through Collective Agency, our
demands will be fused into a common resolution, which demands that
the Bush Regime abandons its strategy of delay, evasion and
noncompliance and promptly and strictly complies with all relevant
resolutions. We will no longer tolerate this defiance."

In his remarks to the press, Secretary Packer predicted passage of
the joint resolution by late next week, at which time he will deliver
a speech at the US Capitol, to be broadcast over Tel-SPAN. He
predicted that there would be unanimous passage of the Resolution,
adding, "we look forward to that; we want to stop the Bush Regime,
which the Resolution declares to be in "material and unacceptable
breach of its international obligations." He urged the nation's and
the world's artists "to take appropriate action, in accordance with
their compassion for critical insight, the spectacle, and their
distaste for the status quo, to change ineffective paradigms, to
change the worldS to prove that artists are not irrelevant!"

Secretary Packer also announced that the Joint Resolution, with
"unified Staff and Council support behind us," would be published by
Intelligent Agent (intelligentagent.com), the Web-based media arts
journal, Christiane Paul, editor-in-chief, and guest edited by US DAT
staff member Patrick Lichty, Director of the Bureau for the
Dissemination of Metastructures and Media Metaphors.

Asked about the new Resolution's potential to strengthen the artists'
hand, Secretary Packer said, "We accept our responsibilities. It is
desirable that the Bush Regime understands that any lack of
cooperation or violation of the provisions of the Resolution will
call for broad action of the artistic Avant-Garde - that artistic
action will be unavoidable - to better enable those concerned with
the fate of our world to invent explosive material to toss into the
political-economic bunkers."

*******

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.

Tel-SPAN
http://www.usdept-arttech.net/tel-span

Tel-SPAN is the telematic broadcasting channel of the US Department
of Art & Technology. Its mission is to provide global access to the
artistic process in an increasingly cybernated society. Tel-SPAN will
provide its audience access to live, real-time distribution of broad
forms of cultural content, and to other forums where critical
artistic issues are discussed, debated and decided - all without
editing, commentary or analysis and with a balanced presentation of
all radical points of view.

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

The Covenant for the Articles of Artistic Mediation, collectively
co-authored by artists and critics from around the world, was
officially transmitted on June 19th 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.

Intelligent Agent
http://www.intelligentagent.com

An on-line magazine on the contemporary media arts published by
Christiane Paul, guest edited by Patrick Lichty.

*****

Contact: Press Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology
[email protected]

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