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Letters on Art and War

from Al Smith

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - pretty soon everyone will be blind and toothless."
—Gandhi

A key question for all is about civilizations on a tiny globe-earth. What are civilizations? Dictionaries aside—a small or large group of individuals can be a civilization. Perhaps, a married couple, as small a group as it is, is a civilization in itself, with, we hope, many civilized behaviors. Crimes of passion at times, unfortunately, overwhelm civilized behavior!

But, what is civilized behavior? Is it frictionless? Is it behavior without passion, greed, lust for power, and impetus for continuation-birth? I doubt it. Do we want five hundred children per family, one Midas person with all the money, one emperor controlling any freedom, one lover for all? Of course not, but there MAY be people who do!

So, what is this thing called civilization? How do we keep from fraudulently describing civilization? Thinking about limits may help. A young man said that before the airplanes in the sky, I never thought of danger in the crosswalks of city streets, but now I know that those lines and the police do not protect me completely, I’ll have to do something about this danger in the crosswalks. I told him that even with these protections, it was always wise to look before entering a crosswalk. Rules are not always saviors, and common sense may help.

Limits on behavior are relevant to civilization, but in and of themselves do not exclusively create civilization. Providing rules which curtail actions beyond reasoned limits, cutting out extremes in some limited ways help us proceed. We may agree that a street stop sign or light is an important feature at a busy intersection, or that cold blooded murder or serial murder is a ruthless feature outside the limits of civilized behavior. Each of these actions, or inactions, in its own way helps contribute to what civilization is. To people, obvious rules and descriptions of limits of behavior for civilized groups must have clarity. Too many rules creating limits can muddy the water. Very much like the intended purpose of fraud is to disguise intentions, too many picky limits can destroy or blur the purposes of important civilizing limits.

Today, a very evil, frustrated, passionate person hides in fiercely, almost impenetrable terrain, perhaps guiding planes into tall buildings. This murder and mayhem is well beyond the limits of civilization. These psychotic but passionate acts (from the perpetrator’s frame of reference) are a specific striking out (almost like a caged blind animal). Make no mistakes that there is intelligence here. I am reminded of our own mistake with that great hero, to some, and impenetrable rocky terrain fighter—Geronimo. It is obvious, that as warped as the airplane hijackers may be, they, unfortunately, are honored in some cultures and art not considered terrorists. We obviously disagree! When all is said and done, what must our civilization do for ourselves?

Alan Greenspan clearly has expressed an opinion that has some meat to it for our culture—it’s called "irrational exuberance." In the future, as we look at all of our professional groups and institutions, we might say: Do we hurt or not hurt? Do we help or not help? Or, at times do we, also contribute to, by hiding our intentions using various forms of fraudulent behavior, increasing friction for our civilizations? What are our ethics in a world of limited wisdom?

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Dear Roger,

I arrived to Germany on September 11th, to prepare an installation... Watching the tragedy unfold and realizing the complexity and urgency of the situation, I decided to shift gears and create an entirely new piece. I realized that it is important to respond and not be passive and I continue to feel this way. At the university I am teaching a seminar ' The Role of Art & Technology in Times of War' where I will work on getting the students to consider these issues from different persepctives. This November, we are hosting a conference 'Networks and Nanotech' that was initially designed to address the newly established institutes in the UC. You may know that we are also hosting the CAiiA group and they will certainly participate along with UC academics from many disciplines. The conference will also shift focus to address the role of artists and scientists in times of war. As I was searching the web to prepare for addressing this, I ran across your recently posted excellent editorial. I was hoping that we can invite you to participate and help in some way. If interested, I will send you more information and you can at least provide some feedback, if not play an active role. Please let me know what you think.

Hope to hear from you soon,
Victoria Vesna

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Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 8:15:41 -0400
To: President George W. Bush <president@whitehouse.gov>
From: Randall Packer <rpacker@zakros.com>
Subject: U.S. Department of Art and Technology
Cc: Vice President Dick Cheney <vice.president@whitehouse.gov>

RE: U.S. Department of Art and Technology (http://www.usdept-arttech.net)

Dear Mr. President,

Two years ago, upon moving to Washington, D.C., I had the grand idea that what our country needed most was a new government agency to oversee the integration of art and technology. As an artist working with new media, I was seeking a way to engage with the government and to stimulate collective action, and felt strongly that my expertise in this area qualified me to found the U.S. Department of Art and Technology and be appointed as its first Secretary. My plan was to build an agency that effectively uses the Net to give artists access to the political process so they can impact national policy, and reciprocally, to give the nation access to the artist's vision as a means to cope with an increasingly technological society. For, as Marshall McLuhan has so profoundly stated, "The artist picks up the message of cultural and technological challenge decades before its transforming impact occurs. He, then, builds models or Noah's arks for facing the change that is at hand."

At this dramatic moment in our country's history, there is a profound need for new initiatives that are critical to the cultural and spiritual well being of a nation under attack. This is precisely why I am writing to you, sir: to propose a new branch of the government be formed that will no doubt be successful in healing our wounded nation through the revitalization of utopian ideologies, ideologies that have long been fading since the heady days of Thomas Jefferson and the framers who created our Constitution. Mr. President, though it is well known that you are not a big supporter of the avant-garde, nor the expansion of government, you have proven to understand the need to act quickly and decisively to broaden the reach of the government, such as your recent action to found the Office of Homeland Security. You must now understand that today's artists are probing the depths of issues that are of vital concern to the health of America, issues such as the impact of media on the national psyche in times of war, as well as the virtualization of human interaction resulting from the widespread assimilation of information technologies. People of all ages across the country and around the world are engaged with telematic devices to the point where they are forced to confront the dematerialization of the physical world, terrorists who control their media and their minds, a confused view of reality, and the disintegration of their perception of time and space. The condition of the human race is in dire trouble as we begin the 21st Century. Mr. President, it is the artist and only the artist who can understand the depth of these dramatic changes. The U.S. Department of Art and Technology will safeguard our most precious resource--the visionary aspirations of avant-garde artists working with technology--and will, in turn, bring their message, essential to the well-being of our country, to all corners of this nation and around the world.

I know you will understand and acknowledge the urgency of my decision in these difficult times. In the spirit of our forefathers, the artistic visionaries who understand the complexities and dangers inherent in maintaining a free nation, a creative nation, a technological nation, must be given voice and play a key role in the ongoing process of shaping public policy in order to save our troubled world.

I would like to end this letter with a quote from the British artist Wyndham Lewis, who articulated the need for my request so well: "The artist is always engaged in writing a detailed history of the future because he is the only person aware of the nature of the present."

Mr. President, knowledge of this simple fact is now necessary for human survival in our cybernated and media-saturated society. I look forward to working with you as a new member of your cabinet in bringing the artist's message to the people.

Yours sincerely,
Randall Packer, Artist

Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 8:16:02 -0400 (EST)
From: Autoresponder@WhiteHouse.GOV
Subject: Re: U.S. Department of Art and Technology
Sender: White House Mail Relay Autoresponder
To: rpacker@zakros.com
Comments: FCP version 1.7 jms/990907
Thank you for emailing President Bush. Your ideas and comments are very important to him. Unfortunately, because of the large volume of email received, the President cannot personally respond to each message. However, the White House staff considers and reports citizen ideas and concerns.

Again, thank you for your email. Your interest in the work of President Bush and his administration is appreciated.

Sincerely, The White House Office of E-Correspondence

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Art & War Project Description and Call for Papers