The Theatre of the Barely Socially Acceptable, Act 2

January 24, 2004

Last month, after a particularly grueling day at work I founded The Theatre of the Barely Socially Acceptable. Each month I would perform underground cell phone conversation tableaus to the apathetic minions riding DC’s subway system, the Metro. The response to our premiere performance was fantastic. No one suspected a thing and no one took notice.

Today, my theatre troupe debuts the second in its series. Speeches this week by two diametrically opposed politicos (both in tone and in temperament) provide the muse for this month’s production:

Hi, yeah it’s me.
Let me —wait a minute.
Wait a minute. Wait.
Nah, I don’t think the terrorist threat will expire on that schedule.
The Patriot Act, si se pueda.

And you know something?
You know something?
We will NOT give up.
Man, don’t give me a permission slip to defend us.
Right. Cool. Very cool.

Double the budget.
We’re going to New Hampshire
And to South Carolina.
And Oklahoma and Arizona

The killers will fail.
And that’s hard to explain to our partners
Yeah, willing foreign workers when no Americans can be found
In Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Phillippines, Thailand
And North Dakota and New Mexico.

And we’re going to Washington!
Yeah, I’m on the Red Line right now.
Straight to the White House.
Shit. The train’s out of service.

Wait, I can switch to the Green Line
The service on this subway bites.
We’re providing more funding for our schools
—a 36 percent increase since 2001.
The Metro? I oppose amnesty.

The status quo always has defenders!
Yeah, the sanctity of marriage
Si se puede. Yeah I think it’s possible.
Wait a minute. Wait, here it comes.
YEEAGH!

Man, that felt good. Whew, really good.
Ok, adiós amigo. Later.

Billy Kl¸ver Passed Away

January 15, 2004

My dear friend and mentor Billy Kl¸ver, the Bell Labs scientist who sparked the art and technology movement during the 1960s, died Sunday morning at his home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. For all who knew him, Billy was someone you never forgot: outspoken, stubborn, brilliant, and defiant. A true anarchist! As David Ross once told me, Billy was the real deal.

I have spent the last six years, since meeting Billy and his wife Julie Martin, drawing connections between contemporary media arts practice and Billy’s extraordinary achievement during the 1960s when he befriended such artists as Jean Tinguely, Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns ñ the list goes on ñ urging them to explore the new technologies and collaborating on some of the most important and adventurous artworks of the time.

It was clear to me that Billy’s ideas on the integration of art and technology and the collaboration between artist and engineer had a profound impact on the changing relationship between the artist and the artwork. Such works as the Pepsi Pavilion changed the way we look at art, in which the viewer becomes an integral and active participant in the composition of the experience.

But most of all, Billy’s anarchist ways were directly targeted at freeing the artist from the constraints of traditional materials. He felt that the engineer as a partner in the creative process opened doors to artistic thinking and artistic process that were unimaginable. And he was right. Since Billy opened those doors in the 1960s, with his collaborative projects and the founding of E.A.T. (Experiments in Art & Technology), his imagination, vision, and commitment to the ideals of art and technology have had, I believed, the most dramatic impact on the surge in electronic art and multimedia over the past twenty years.

I’m sure there will be many tributes for Billy Kl¸ver in the coming months. I want to bring one of them to everyone’s attention, since Billy and I had planned to present his work in a dialogue at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC on Sunday, March 7th at 2pm. The event will still take place, but now it will be a lecture and tribute to his life and work. I hope all of you who are in the area will come to the National Gallery to remember Billy.

I want to also note that Billy is survived by his wife Julie Martin, another dear friend, and a critical support to Billy and his achievements. This should also be a moment to give thanks to Julie for keeping Billy going for all these years and for being his most important collaborator.

Randall Packer

Billy Kl¸ver Obituary in the New York Times

In Depth profile on Billy Kl¸ver from Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality

The Story of E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology)
and Its Founder Billy Kluver, Lecture by Randall Packer
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Sunday, March 7, 2 pm
Auditorium

2004 Resolution: 'Year of the Experimental'

January 01, 2004

The US Department of Art & Technology designates the year beginning January 1, 2004, as the ‘Year of the Experimental.’ Secretary Randall M. Packer has submitted the following New Year’s Resolution; which is referred to the Bureau for Experimental States of the World, Marcos Novak, Under Secretary.

RESOLUTION

Whereas the essence of the Experimental is the most profound utterance of human expression, with its impact heard around the world;
Whereas the Experimental is, according to John Cage, ‘simply an action the outcome of which is not foreseen’;
Whereas Experimental Action is the essential manifestation of the avant-garde, which aspires to a model of society where free and experimental modes of conduct will prevail;
Whereas the Spirit of Experimentalism fuels the ideological battles against the tyranny of anachronistic behavior;
Whereas the Experimentalists, whether old or young, male or female, are called upon worldwide as unique and important Ambassadors of Freedom and Idealism;
Whereas there are many Experimentalists who need to be recognized and to have their stories captured and preserved for future generations;
Whereas it is imperative in these times of dark crisis to found a new society, propelled by a new movement of the Experimental, and the potential of a new politic; and so:

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the US Department of Art & Technology designates the year 2004 as the ‘Year of the Experimental’; and requests that the people of our Nation and around the world observe the ‘Year of the Experimental’ with creative acts of freedom of association and the transformational properties of the ceremonies of art. As AndrÈ Breton once said, “perhaps the imagination is on the verge of recovering its rights.”

I hereby declare the ‘Year of the Experimental’ to commence on this day, January 1, 2004.

Randall M. Packer
Secretary, US Department of Art & Technology