US Department of Art & Technology
Washington, DC
http://www.usdat.us
[email protected]
Press Secretary
For Immediate Release: July 22, 2003
Visitor Center Opens in Washington, DC
"Enter a Citizen, Exit a Revolutionary"
WASHINGTON, DC - On August 15th, 2003, the US Department of Art &
Technology opens its Visitor Center at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C. A special VIP pre-opening event will take place on
August 14th, 6:30 - 8:30 pm. The Secretary and his staff, along with
military aides and secret service, will be on hand to greet visitors.
Curator Paul Brewer will host.
Two years ago, following 9/11, the President made a dramatic move to
embrace the arts through the creation of the US Department of Art &
Technology. The US DAT Visitor Center tells the story of how the
Department was formed by artists seeking to reclaim America's
Government. The appointment of Randall M. Packer as the Department's
first Secretary was one of the most radical decisions made in the
history of the White House. Packer's vision for the nation is "to
promote cultural growth, improved aesthetic standards for all
Americans, and to insure that the artist as visionary, as social
revolutionary, has voice in the national dialogue."
Only a block from the White House and just a short walk from the
nation's historic Mall, the Corcoran Gallery of Art stands as a major
center dedicated to the avant-garde. It is a place where culture
reflects everyday life and breaks through the illusion established by
the spectacle.
In choosing the Corcoran as the site of the US DAT Visitor Center,
Secretary Packer states, "The Corcoran is a remarkable institution
that believes art must be active within the culture, not owned by it.
With the museum's close proximity to the White House, we now realize
our ideals to reconstruct the environment in order to bring about new
behaviors through experimentation and propaganda."
The exhibit, with its theme, "Enter a Citizen, Exit a Revolutionary,"
features a unique collection of tactical media, information panels,
and a historical timeline detailing the chronology of the Department
and its extraordinary development. Also included is a video promoting
the Department's "Experimental Party," featuring speeches and
announcements by Secretary Packer, National Chairwoman Roberta
Breitmore, avatar-candidate for President Abe Golam, WeTheBlog.org
founder Jeff Gates, and the Exquisite Corpse. "We are proud to be
able to bring our story to the public's attention," said Tanya Spam,
the Department's Assistant Secretary of the Bureau for the
Conservation and Preservation of the Suspension of Disbelief, and an
independent writer and editor in Washington, DC.
The Visitor Center, which will be on exhibit through October 6, 2003,
was organized by the US Department of Art & Technology, the Corcoran
College of Art & Design, and the White House Office of
Appropriations, in cooperation with the National Park Service.
In conjunction with the show will be a 24/7 live web broadcast over
Tel-SPAN (usdat.us/tel-span), the telematic channel of the US
Department of Art & Technology, featuring up-to-the-minute
proclamations, rants, remixes, manifestos, and other forms of
anarchist entertainment by sound artists DJ Spooky, Rick Silva, Trace
Reddell among others, as well as a first glimpse of the Media
Deconstruction Kit.
The US Department of Art & Technology Visitor Center, located at the
Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th St., N.W, Washington, D.C. from
August 15 - October 6, will be open from 10 am to 5 pm daily. Closed
every Tuesday. Extended hours Thursday evenings until 9 pm and for
special Situational Events sponsored by the Department.
*****
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.
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.
The Principal Artists are Roberta Breitmore (created by Lynn
Hershman), Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Jeff Gates, Abe Golam (from Mark
Amerika's Grammatron), Jon Henry (Exquisite Corpse), Randall Packer,
and Wesley Smith.
Tel-SPAN
http://www.usdat.us/tel-span
Tel-SPAN is a public service 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 provides 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. Tel-SPAN is sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Digital
Media Center and the Open Source Streaming Alliance. The Principal
Engineer is Joe Reinsel.
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