U.S. Department of Art & Technology
Media Release
For Immediate Release: June 21, 2004
Contact: Press Secretary
Megan Morrow
510.547.2162
morrow@usdat.us
US DAT TO STAGE CONVENTION INTERVENTION
WITH EXPERIMENTAL PARTY DISINFORMATION CENTER
AT LUXE GALLERY IN NYC AUGUST 21 – SEPTEMBER 4
WASHINGTON, DC – From August 21st to September 4th, the US Department of Art & Technology and LUXE Gallery, 24 W. 57th St. will present to the nation the Experimental Party DisInformation Center. New York City and LUXE Gallery will serve as the focal point, but the Department encourages participation by citizens all over America and throughout the world.
On Saturday, August 21st from 6 – 8 PM US DAT’s Propaganda Hospitality Suite will open, welcoming politicos, press, protesters, Republicans, and the public. Then, on Saturday, September 4th from 6 – 8 PM, US DAT will host a Post-Mortem Lounge as the exhibition closes. Hours are Tues. – Sat., 11AM – 6PM throughout the show.
US DAT’s decision to hold the Experimental Party DisInformation Center while the spotlight is on New York City is of tremendous significance. It represents the need to manipulate worldwide media coverage of the Republican Convention while the Bush Administration is exploiting the upcoming anniversary of 9/11 for political hype,” stated US DAT Secretary Randall M. Packer. “We selected New York City to stage a ‘convention intervention’ in order to subvert the ensuing propaganda of the Republicans with our own techniques of media and illusion. Our decision will show that if you want to carry out anarchic entertainment for the nation, there’s no place better in the world to do it than New York City during the Republican National Convention!”
LUXE Gallery secured the DisInformation Center through its unfailing commitment to entertaining the anarchist ideal. LUXE director Stefan Stoyanov declared, “With basic human rights threatened by the Republicans, art must not be petrified in the art world; its true spirit must take flight in the sudden arrival of freedom and the endless possibilities it seems to offer.”
Creating a state-of-the-art media exhibition right on 57th street and making it accessible to delegates staying in nearby hotels ensures that the message of the US Department of Art & Technology and the DisInformation Center will reach into the very heart of the Republican Party. The Secretary added, "New York City is the media capital of the world. Now, all we have to do is install our Media Deconstruction Kit (MDK) and other Department art projects in midtown New York City and we’ll be poised and ready to capture, remix, and transform every moment of the Republican Convention.”
“We welcome all Convention delegates with open hearts and open minds to inform, transform, and redirect their way of thinking,” said Jeff Gates, Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology. "We are thrilled to bring truth, justice, and the American Way to the Republican Party and the political process.”
The US Department of Art & Technology is joining together with the British media arts collective Furtherfield to broadcast on-line media coverage of the Republican National Convention in New York City. This artistic alliance between American and British media artists is a response and counter-offensive to the Bush-Blair love affair that has united our two nations in a pointless war. Together we are forming our own coalition of the willing to fight the war against war!
Secretary Packer has collaborated with Department staff artists including: Mark Amerika, Director of the Office of Freedom of Speech; Jonah Brucker-Cohen, US Ambassador to the Global Virtualization Council; Jeff Gates, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for the Office of Artist & Homeland Insecurity; Jon Henry, National Chairman of the USA Exquisite Corpse; Lynn Hershman, Deputy Under Secretary of the Bureau for the Protection & Immunization Against Mediation & Alienation; Gregory T. Kuhn, Under Secretary of Distributed Discourse; and Wesley Smith, Under Secretary for Media Appropriations. Additional works US DAT staff members include: DJ Spooky, Under Secretary for the Bureau of the Aesthetic Hyperculture and ’47;’ Trace Reddell, Director of the Bureau of Pharmakogeographical Surveying; Rick Silva, Director of the Joint Chiefs of Sound Warfare and Peer-to-Peer Defense.
Featured projects at the Experimental Party DisInformation Center include:
Media Deconstruction Kit (MDK):
A commentary on the powerful and hypnotic narcosis of television and its
propaganda. In response, MDK is a real-time system that alters broadcast
media live and in real-time, transforming news stories, advertising, political
pundancy, live up-dates, scrolls, and network logos into an immersive,
sensorial, multimedia experience. (Randall Packer, Wesley Smith)
http://www.experimentalparty.org/mdk
Society of the Spectacle (A Digital
Remix): A ten-minute DVD art-loop that uses source material from
the writing, images, recordings, and other psychogeographical wanderings
of arch-Situationist and French philosopher
Guy Debord. The art work, composed by members of DJRABBI, filters the
Situationist icons, concepts and strategies through an eclectic mix of
contemporary software and "net art ideology", a space of mind
where the society of the spectacle becomes hostage to "the virtual
condition." (Mark Amerika, Trace Reddell, Rick Silva).
http://www.djrabbi.com/sos/
WetheBlog.org: A medium that
offers an artistic alternative to the spin-doctors of the political parties.
WetheBlog.org is the virtual community to participate in with media artists,
cultural critics and other creative people who are repositioning themselves
as new leaders in the governance of this planet. Read about it, talk about
it, act on it, - and be part of a political awakening. (Jeff Gates)
http://wetheblog.org
Homeland Insecurity Advisory System:
A Web-based initiative designed to broadcast the daily threat condition
confronting citizens of the US and around the world due to the risk of
our government-in-action. Daily news feeds reporting on political events
from mainstream media are filtered through a custom software system yielding
an accurate assessment of risk due to the Administration's policies, speeches,
announcements and decisions. (Jonah Brucker-Cohen)
http://www.experimentalparty.org/insecurity.html
Awaken: Jon Henry is an artist-hero
who died for his nation defending the spirit of artistic freedom . The
body of Jon Henry lies in an open casket, surrounded by flowers and video
monitors, invoking the revolutionary spirit that is suppressed in each
of us. Viewers will be faced with a dark reality that portrays the Spirit
of America, its collective spirit, each individual spirit in a marriage
of death with destiny. (Jon Henry)
http://www.experimentalparty.org/jonhenry.html
Abe Golam for President 2004 (A PolyVocal
Remix): Abe Golam delivers stream-of-consciousness prognostications
on the condition of humanity. This politically reborn avatar-candidate
has decided to change American political culture by remixing Government
announcements, proclamations, speeches, and iconography, altering their
current meaning as articulations and symbols of unbridled power, corruption
and greed, and exploding them into a passionate call for reclaiming the
spirit of experimentation and a new vision for the future of democracy.
(Mark Amerika, Randall Packer)
http://experimentalparty.org/golam_prayer.html
# # #
Experimental Party DisInformation Center
A Convention Intervention!
LUXE Gallery, 24 W. 57th St., #503
New York City
August 21 – September 4
Opening: Saturday, August 21, 6 – 8 pm
Closing: Saturday, September 4, 6 – 8 pm
Hours: Tues. – Sat., 11AM –
6PM
Press Secretary, Megan Morrow
morrow@usdat.us
# # #
About 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.
About the Experimental Party
http://www.experimentalparty.org
The Experimental Party, the "party of experimentation”, is an initiative 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, it is the driving force.
Contact:
US Department of Art & Technology | Washington,
DC
Fax: 202.342.1293 | E-mail: morrow@usdat.us
Megan Morrow, Press Secretary
LUXE Gallery | 24 W. 57th St., #503, New York
City | 10019
Tel: 212.404.7455 | Fax: 212.404.7456 | E-mail: Stefluxe@aol.com
Stefan Stoyanov, Director
# 01-134