"Speech for the End of Time"

"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.

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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.