US Department of Art & Technology
http://www.usdat.us
[email protected]
Washington, DC
Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 11, 2004
SECRETARY DELIVERS 'ARTISTIC CONVERGENCE' SPEECH
Secretary Packer Unveils Initiative for Securing the
Role of the Artist in the Corporate Sector
Remarks by the Secretary at the Seoul Digital Forum
Seoul, S. Korea
WASHINGTON, DC - On May 6, 8:32 PM (UTC/GMT +9
hours) Secretary Randall M. Packer of the US
Department of Art & Technology completed his
first tour of Asia at the Seoul Digital Forum to
deliver the "Artistic Convergence" speech,
announcing a bold new initiative intended to
embed revolutionary artistic strategies for
social transformation into the heart of global
information and communication industries.
The following is the transcript:
Speech by Randall M. Packer
Secretary, US Department of Art & Technology
Presented by the Seoul Broadcasting System
at the Seoul Digital Forum
Grand Hilton Hotel
May 6, 2004
THE SECRETARY: Thank you Soh-Yeong Roh of Art
Center Nabi for the warm introduction. Thanks to
the Seoul Digital Forum for letting me come by
and share some thoughts. You picked a great place
to have a conference. What a great city Seoul is.
(Applause.)
I want to thank Seyoung Yoon, the Chairman and
CEO of the Seoul Broadcasting System for hosting
the US Department of Art & Technology at the
Seoul Digital Forum. And I want to thank those of
you here who are leaders in the information and
media industries around the world. I want to
thank you for your dedication; I want to thank
you for your spirit; I want to thank you for your
vision; and I'm here to say "thanks" on behalf of
all of America. (Applause.)
Not only do I want to talk about the role of
artists in our society today, but I want to talk
about 'artistic convergence' as we promote a new
generation of artists engaged in 21st century
survival techniques of artistic mediation.
For as Marshall McLuhan declared, "The artist
picks up the message of cultural and
technological challenge decades before its
transforming impact occurs. He, then, builds
models or Noah's arks for facing the change that
is at hand."
* * *
You know, the artists closest to the situation at
hand are those who can best devise a strategy:
tactical methodologies for social change through
experimental acts of artistic expression for all
citizens. This is the rallying cry of the
Department, formed by artists seeking to reclaim
America's Government.
It was just three years ago, shortly after 9-11,
that I proposed the idea to President George W.
Bush to form a new government agency to
revitalize utopian ideologies in America. We
faced a crisis. And those were tough times,
obviously, for the nation.
The President issued an Executive Order to form
the US Department of Art & Technology and named
me as its first Secretary.
I was sworn into office at an official ceremony
pre-sided by Alice Denney, founder of the
Washington Project for the Arts.
Here in the nation's capital, and all around
Washington, DC, are emerging signs of the
artistic achievements of the US Department of Art
& Technology.
We now have the strength of the artist helping to
guide our nation's policy. And that is – it's an
amazing statement, when you think about what this
country and the world have been through for the
past three years. And the reason I bring that up
is because I know how important the artistic
spirit is; I know how important art is to the
future. And I believe it is the spirit of the
artist, in part, that will help us overcome the
challenges we face.
* * *
In the past century it has come to be generally
acknowledged that, in the famous words of the
late Billy Kluver, "The artists have to create
with technology because technology is becoming
inseparable from our lives." Knowledge of this
simple fact is now needed for human survival. The
ability of the artist to develop immunity to the
extensions of new technology of any age, and to
parry such extensions with full awareness, is
age-old.
Let me give you some examples:
The "paroxysm of junk in motion" to the fluidity
of human locomotion is apparent in Jean
Tinguely's Homage to New York, which
self-destructed in the Sculpture Garden of the
New York Museum of Modern Art in March of 1960,
in front of a well-dressed audience. Here, during
27 minutes of cataclysmic motion, smoke, and
explosions, Tinguely awakens machine parts from
their dreams and makes them come alive. Anything
brought back to life in this way is frightful and
menacing; the term intelligent-machine would have
been an oxymoron; the artist seeks a
rapprochement between art and science, between
the human and technology; He endeavors to get
people to interact with his art, to entrance them
while simultaneously freeing their minds.
Nam June Paik's 1974 TV Buddha was created with a
strange twist of television technology combined
with the ancient statue of the symbol of Asian
Buddhism. The Buddha sits in front of a
television set and contemplates its own image. A
question of origin. The Buddha, who traditionally
wishes to keep himself free of all external
matters, now sits in deep contemplation
confronted by his own image via closed-circuit
television.
Decades later, Paik reinterpreted this theme by
placing the Buddha sculpture in front of a
computer monitor in Buddha Re-Incarnated. The
connection is not made through a contemplative
gaze, but rather mediated by a telephone receiver
teleconferencing the Buddha figure to a computer
monitor.
We find human bodies merged with technological
cyborgian attributes here in Lynn Hershman's
Phantom Limbs, pointing out our reliance on
electronics and media, and how it permeates our
physical and psychological collective selves.
Media infiltrates the body and in doing so gives
birth to our virtual selves.
Ken Goldberg's tele-robotic installation,
Telegarden, allows World Wide Web users to view
and interact with a remote garden filled with
living plants. Participants can plant, water, and
monitor the progress of seedlings via the tender
movements of an industrial robot arm. Internet
behavior might be characterized as ``hunting and
gathering''; the purpose here is to consider the
``post-nomadic'' community, where survival favors
those who work together; the Telegarden projects
a techno-utopian society where the individual's
relationship to nature and to one another is
supplanted by virtual means and technological
extension.
Alba is a very special animal, but I want to be
clear that her formal and genetic uniqueness are
but one component of the "GFP Bunny" artwork. The
"GFP Bunny" project of Eduardo Kac is a complex
social event that starts with the creation of a
chimerical animal that does not exist in nature.
It also includes at its core an ongoing dialogue
between professionals of several disciplines
(art, science, philosophy, law, communications,
literature, social sciences), as well as the
public, on the cultural and ethical implications
of genetic engineering.
And finallly, if you're going to ask the media to
take responsibility for your view of reality, you
should be willing to take responsibility for your
own. The Media Deconstruction Kit is an
information service, news and media project of
the US Department of Art & Technology, serving
viewers around the world. The Media
Deconstruction Kit has forged a unique position
within the media arts through an unparalleled
combination of appropriation, theory, collage and
real-time processing tools.
By providing instantaneous access to broadcast
media - and the ability to act upon it - the
Media Deconstruction Kit seeks to transform the
one-way paradigm of broadcast media into
many-to-many forms of interaction by leveling the
playing field between medium and viewer.
In today's media, events, information, ideas, and
images are packaged, and delivered to our
television screens as soundbytes, slogans, ads,
logos, and banners. This state of affairs is only
compounded in times of crisis such as we have
experienced since 9/11: the media and the
manipulation of its content must be understood as
a breakdown between credible, meaningful
communication and the distortion of reality that
confronts us today; The Media Deconstruction Kit
amplifies and subverts this condition by
reconfiguring and disorienting live broadcast
media into an immersive, sensorial, multimedia
experience.
* * *
Technology can be construed dystopically, but one
must also recall Martin Heidegger's claim that
where technology's danger lies, so does its
saving power, a saving power not merely secondary
to its danger. Underscoring the ambiguous nature
of technology - Heidegger reminds us that in
ancient Greece "the poiesis of the fine arts was
also called techne" - he says any decisive
confrontation with technology "must happen in a
realm that is, on the one hand, akin to the
essence of technology and, on the other,
fundamentally different from it. Such a realm is
art."
And that's precisely why we must not isolate the
work of the artist from the rest of the world.
We've got to reject artistic isolationism and
embrace, rather, its total convergence. And in
turn we must redefine the role of the artist as a
mediator whose reflections, ideas, sensibilities,
and abilities can take significant action on the
world stage.
And in turn, the artist must move into action by
undergoing aesthetic operation as a form of
magic, as a mediation between our strange hostile
world and the human spirit. Again, quoting
Marshall McLuhan, "To prevent undue wreckage in
society, the artist tends now move from the ivory
tower to the control tower of society."
* * *
And so, the artist is indispensable in the
shaping and analysis and understanding of the
life forms, and structures created by digital
technology.
Now as we encourage innovation and change it is
always important to remember the vital role the
artist plays in our society. Technologies change,
but the spirit of art never changes.
If we are to be convinced that art is precise,
advanced knowledge of how to cope with the
psychic and social consequences of the next
technology, would we all become artists? Would we
begin a careful translation of new art forms into
social navigation charts?
The Government and industry can help this effort
by embracing the artist. One of the things we've
got to recognize is that if you want to be
competitive in the future, you've got to
encourage art and technology.
To quote the great Korean artist Nam June Paik,
"Cybernated art is very important, but art for
cybernated life is more important, and the latter
need not be cybernated."
Paik also said, "there is no rewind button on the betamax of life."
The US Department of Art & Technology will
continue to promote the convergence of art in all
aspects of society as an integral part of that
strategy. That's what I'm here to tell you. It's
an integral part so long as you're willing to
listen to the needs of the artist. Art and
technology is the cornerstone of good economic
policy. It's a cornerstone of sound business
policy. And it's one of the reasons why I'm
optimistic that the artist will continue to lead
the world when it comes to innovation and change.
And that will be good for all people. That will
be good for the revitalization of what I call
"The Artistic Spirit."
I want to thank you for what you do. I appreciate
your compassion. I appreciate your interest in
the future of digital media.
And I am confident in those principles of
virtualization that will unite and lead us
forward. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
***********
Contact: Press Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology
[email protected]
The US Department of Art & Technology
http://www.usdat.us
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.
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Secretary Delivers Speech at Seoul Digital Forum
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