Better Living in Times of Insecurity

November 15, 2004

In the coming political season, we will need to improve our tactics to defend ourselves against the rising tide of national insecurity, these tactics must not be limited to the confines of the art world, they must extend into the very sanctity of the American Living Room.

And so… we propose the idea of the “Living Room of the Future: Better Living in Times of Extraordinary National Insecurity.” We will confront the horrors of CNN and FOX News - corporate controlled media and its transformation of our reality - and we will do it by resituating broadcast television as a medium enabling peer-to-peer interaction and user control methodologies.

We are busy in our laboratories inventing new technologies to bring about 21st century tactics and transformations of anachronistic paradigms. Stay tuned.

Dreaming of a New Bureaucracy

November 05, 2004

The Election is over. It is time to move on. Clearly, we need to invent new 21st century tactics for experimental social research to awaken the disenfranchised through acts of artistic mediation.

We conducted an anthropological experiment at the Black Cat the other night, The Election Night Remix, immersing the audience in an aesthetic experience that stimulated discourse, rather than just the movement of the body. They could listen to one another, they were activated by the presence of media transformation, but not overwhelmed by it. They could operate within in it, be absorbed in it, communicate inside it, think outside of it…

Yes, we are dreaming of a new bureaucracy, an aesthetic hyperculture. From this day on, a tragic one following the re-election of George W. Bush, we must dedicate ourselves to heralding in the new aesthetic hyperculture, one that is inspired by the artist, but not focused on the artist, in which the individual spirit is activated, in order to take action… into the dark night ahead.

Non-Concession Decompression

My Fellow Americans and World Citizens,

I have been asked to use this time to concede victory to the present Republican
administration, to accept the rampant suppression of the vote, to trust in the
electronic voting machines that leave no paper trail behind, and to assume that
the President will follow through on his promise to unite the nation, even
though for four very long years he has done nothing of the sort.

I have been asked to concede the Supreme Court to the theocratic wingnuts, to
accept their extremist anti-environmental doctrines, to live by their anti-
intellectual, anti-Science, anti-culture value system.

My fellow Americans, I cannot and will not concede anything to these rabid
warmongers and social misfits. I ask for your support as we continue our
campaign of hope and imagination, creativity and collaboration, peer-to-peer
networking and utopian dream synchronization. Together, and with patience, we
can take this country back and regain respect in the world.

Please join me in this non-concession decompression. If there was ever a time
for a nonstop experimental party, that time is now.

Abe Golam
Avatar-candidate for President, Experimental Party
Director of the Office of Political and Economic Insecurity
US Department of Art & Technology

We've Been Bushwhacked

November 03, 2004

The end is near… Kerry will yield Ohio… and we are doomed to four more years of Bush, except this time, he will have been elected to office.

Everything George W. Bush stands for flys in the face of a country that once embraced social ideals. The Republicans will continue to dismantle what little is left of a system that supported the middle and working classes.

We are fast becoming a totalitarian nation stripped of individual and social rights, an arrogant nation that seeks to “rule them all” through global domination. George W. Bush pretends to be a man of the people but he only represents the interests of the ruling class.

These are hard times for those who believe in the ideology of democracy and social equality. We can only now attempt to see what lies down the road, perhaps the end is really near.

As George Orwell said: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a
revolutionary act.”

It is time for a Revolution.

Election Night Remix with DJ Spooky

November 01, 2004

Election Night Remix
Featuring Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid
Media Deconstruction Kit (MDK) / Randall Packer
Video Syndicate + Noskilz / Robin Bell
Tuesday, November 2nd, 8:30 pm
Black Cat
1811 14th St. NW
Washington, DC
202-667-7960
Admission: $12

The presidential election coverage on the cable news media will be the subject matter for the evening’s remix at the Black Cat in Washington, DC. The Election Night Remix will take place on the most important day of our nation’s political process, the election of the US President. The Media Deconstruction Kit real-time system will be installed as a live feed to be incorporated into performances by Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, along with DC video artist Robin Bell’s Noskilz / Video Syndicate

As a commentary on the powerful and hypnotic narcosis of television and its propaganda, the Media Deconstruction Kit (MDK) has been designed as 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.

According to Robin Bell, “This is not your typical Washington event. There won’t be any political speeches or any elected officials. This isn’t a get out the vote event. It isn’t for one political candidate. We expect people to dance, to get involved, to communicate. We have been moving and motivating over the last few months. We are making change and change doesn’t happen in front of your living room TV.”