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Other of Packer's collaborative online works includes
the Experimental Party, WetheBlog, Homeland Insecurity
Advisory System and Media Deconstruction Kit. "Media
Deconstruction Kits is a way for the artist to take
back the media, make it their own, and turn it into
an artistic experience."9
Appropriated ownership is one of Packers devices for
turning the natural order of media manipulation into
an aesthetic experience, acknowledging the drama and
flaunting the vaudeville government stars. Packer uses
appropriated information that spans all spheres of life
from government formats to news media and recalls past
art movements. A legal warning located at the bottom
of the www.usdat.us is an interesting example of his
appropriation and manipulation;
Warning: You are entering a virtual United
States Government System, which may be used only for
artistic and socially motivated purposes. The Government
may monitor and critique usage of this system, and all
persons are hereby notified that use of this system
constitutes consent to such monitoring and critical
analysis. Unauthorized attempts to upload information
and/or appropriate information on these web sites are
encouraged and are subject to review under the Computer
Art and Aesthetics Act of 1986 and Title 18 U.S.C. Sec.
1001 and 1030. 10
Packer creates his own reality and position through collaged
and borrowed information and uses the similarities and
differences to set up a platform for the viewer to question
and discuss what is going on in the media world. His intended
viewer must understand American politics and art history
to gain entrance into his work. The language of Randall
Packer's art is an elite communication excluding the uneducated,
some of the visual images used are familiar but one needs
a specific context in which to decode Packers work. Incomprehensive
reading can still be justified because in a strange way
it parallels the subversive deconstructive discourse of
Packers work. The context one needs to understand the
surface of Packers aim becomes clearer once further research
and in depth reading is done. Interviews and essays written
by and about Packer place his ideas of appropriation encourages
the viewer to generate a different interpretation of what
the media feeds the public. This process thus will expose
the power systems and subsequent their flashy marketing
scheme. The common delivery motifs used in Packers work
such as news clips could be filtered and discarded as
uninteresting white noise. On the other side Packer's
writing expresses articulate and interesting answers,
that are perhaps incongruent to readings of his internet
work. Packer's written communications are important in
giving ground work for his art. Why is it that art cannot
speak alone? Is there a lack of training for the masses
to process and critically think through visual language?
The viewer is to ponder the intricacies of a social
cultural system that cannot be seen from the outside.
Gain insight in to the complex workings of society to
question and understand the controlling influence of
the powerful few over the masses. In literature, Tolstoy,
a wealthy land owner, may have worked his own fields
but he still had the time and security to put his mind
to uses other than survival. What does art do for the
tired truck stop waitress with three kids and no partner?
Does art speak her language or only the language of
a cultivated academic mind, this is power and privilege
of the few as well. Maybe critical work is the revolution,
the potential igniter of a utopian world to be lost
as some humorous irony. Should art congratulate itself
for its witticism? The art system makes ghosts of former
idealistic passions, believing that beyond academic
systems and language that something greater is possible
other than mediocre? My question is does Packer criticize
art by embracing the internet? To gain enlightenment
in this information loaded culture, what are the right
filters to pick up information to free the masses and
reflect on the manipulation of power? The Internet does
have a significant audience. Packer's message is on
the right track for his visibility.
If you can write well, justify well, the reward will
be public attention. Information these days through
numerous delivery channels read as sign of passing success
or failure. Nothing more than a ghost of an idea. A
good writer and artist should articulate thoughts at
the highest level, removing to mundane and overrated
as a means to effectively communicate with the viewer
on the most basic human level.
By cutting away the white media noise of this era,
politics can be left behind and interaction human can
on a human level once again be engaged. Like a drop
of water in the lake, world change is one little ripple
at a time. Direct human influence may be needed to be
achieved through other means. Art has always been implicated
with social change. Packer's work promises hope may
leave the viewer steeped in cynicism. So I ask - can
art and politics even accomplish a utopic or reflective
state for social change and benefit, and why is it so
desperately important that either mode should? Perhaps,
enlightenment is a balance of cynicism, a desire for
something more, and a reflection on what has passed.
Perhaps he promised me hope but all there was, was ironic
sarcasm.
Footnotes:
9 Bret McCabe, "Scrambled
Signals," Baltimore City Paper, www.citypaper.com
10/22/03
10 http://www.usdat.us/
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