U.S. Department of Art & Technology
Press Secretary
press@usdept-arttech.net
For Immediate Release: April 08, 2002
US DEPARTMENT OF ART & TECHNOLOGY
ANNOUNCES USA EXQUISITE CORPSE
Washington, DC. - Randall M. Packer will address
the Thaw 2002 Festival of Film, Video and Digital Media at the University
of Iowa to call on all Americans to serve their nation for the equivalent
of two years (4,000 hours) over their lifetimes, by joining a major new
citizen service initiative, the USA Exquisite Corpse. On Saturday, April
13, 2002, the Secretary travels to Iowa City, Iowa, the heartland of America,
to announce the Experimental Party and its first initiative, the USA Exquisite
Corpse, which will enable Americans to participate directly - in their
own communities - in creative acts of freedom of association and the transformational
properties of the ceremonies of art.
Secretary Packer, who gave his swearing-in
speech in Baltimore, Maryland on November 30, 2001, called on the newly
formed US Department of Art & Technology to confront corporate control
of mass media, provide immunity from the extension of new technologies
into the social sphere, and support those artists who bear the scars of
living on the wrong side of the digital divide. At the Transmediale 02
International Festival of Media in Berlin two months ago, Packer declared
tha Collective Agency is the only possible basis for the full development
of our creative life.
In his upcoming visit to Iowa, the hotbed of
American politics, Secretary Packer will continue this effort by outlining
his plan to launch the USA Exquisite Corpse, a comprehensive, integrated
citizen service initiative. The USA Exquisite Corpse includes three major
programs:
(1) To engage citizens directly in celebrating
the universal spirit of collective expression; (2) to seek volunteers
to help speak oracular truths and the most radically liberating critique
of reason; (3) to engage students in acts of appropriation through art
and polemic, manifesto and demonstration, love and politics.
As André Breton has said, "perhaps
the imagination is on the verge of recovering its rights."
The USA Exquisite Corpse will expand and improve
the efforts of the US Department of Art & Technology and its newly
formed Experimental Party to recruit more than 200,000 new volunteers.
Secretary Packer will demonstrate his support for this effort by requesting
more than $560 million in new funding for the USA Exquisite Corpse in
his FY 2003 budget. He will also ensure a high-level Administration focus
on this initiative by creating a new USA Exquisite Corpse Council, comprised
of the relevant talking heads.
The Citizens' Preparedness Guidebook, to be
released in August, will provide procedures and systematic strategems
to unlock the door to the unconscious and to give Americans guidance on
how to prepare for the release of visual and verbal poetry of collective
creativity.
For more information on the USA Exquisite Corpse,
go to: http://www.usdept-arttech.net/USAcorpse
For further information, visit the following
URLs:
US Department of Art & Technology
Thaw 2002
Contact: Press Secretary of the US Department
of Art & Technology
press@usdept-arttech.net
##
01-097