[Nettime-bold] Secretary Predicts Adoption of Artist Resolution

[US Department of Art & Technology <press@usdept-arttech.net>]

Title: Secretary Predicts Adoption of Artist Resolution

US Department of Art & Technology

Washington, DC

http://www.usdept-arttech.net

press@usdept-arttech.net

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 Péter 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 worldŠ 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."

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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.

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.

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Contact: Press Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology

press@usdept-arttech.net

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