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Covenant of the Articles of Artistic Mediation

Presented by the US Department of Art & Technology
To the US Department of State

Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes
Washington, DC
June 19, 2002

THE MEDIATING PARTIES, In order to promote international co-operation
and to achieve international peace and cultural understanding by the
acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the prescription
of open, informed cultural dialogue between nations, by the
establishment of the understanding of the aspirations of the artist
as a model for spiritual and moral conduct among Governments, and by
the maintenance of the role of the artist as a mediator on the world
stage, and a scrupulous respect for the following articles of
artistic mediation in the dealings of organized peoples with one
another,

Agree to this Covenant of the Articles of Artistic Mediation.

Article 1

Jeff Gates
Deputy Secretary
US Department of Art & Technology

The events of September 11 have caused all Americans to look at the
world and our lives in new ways. We are beginning to question what it
means to be an American within the greater world stage. Like Pearl
Harbor, the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks have once again
jolted us out of our isolationism.

This presents us with a unique opportunity. Let us reevaluate the
relationship between our government and its policies and the
contributions of artists and other cultural workers. We are standing
at the fork in a road, just as we were soon after December 7, 1941.
We can redefine our country by building taller, more impenetrable
walls or we can promote our way of life by looking for new ways to
solve our problems.

Traditionally, artists have developed creative ways of looking at the
world. Employ our strengths and the country will be stronger and more
able to adapt to the changing world around us. Work with us to become
more inclusive domestically and more responsible internationally.

Article 2

Mark Amerika
Under Secretary for the Department of Freedom of Speech
US Department of Art & Technology

I am deeply offended by recent attempts by high administration
figures to try and equate vocal dissent against their
politically-motivated 'war on terrorism' with unpatriotic behavior. I
would go so far as to say that these blatant acts of psychological
manipulation and ideological coercion are themselves some of the most
unpatriotic acts of any administration I have seen in my lifetime.

Article 3

Lynn Hershman
Deputy Under Secretary of the Bureau for the Protection &
Immunization Against Mediation & Alienation
US Department of Art & Technology

Initiate compassion, dignity and enlightenment in all cultural challenges.

Article 4

Pierre Levy
Under Secretary for the Office of Virtualization
US Department of Art & Technology

Each one of us is an autonomous and responsible source of meaning. We
can enrich our world by integrating others as autonomous
interpretation centers who are complete worlds in themselves. What is
to be done with the other's meaning production? Ignore it, tolerate
it, despise it, beat it, imitate itS? this would not be a dialogue.
Collective intelligence is the reciprocal implication and mutual
recognition of autonomous world's sources.

Article 5

Douglas Robertson
Director of the Office of Excessive Verbiage & Official Ceremonies
US Department of Art & Technology

Have Barney, that lovable hug-happy purple dinosaur, accompany the
Secretary of State on all missions, and have Barney speak in the
language of the host country. Barney will prove to be the perfect yin
to every Secretary of State's yang. Alternative methodology if the
Secretary of State does not consider this prudent: Appoint Bahrein as
an American Ambassador at Large and send him on a world tour.

Article 6

Robert Atkins
Deputy Undersecretary
US Department of Art & Technology

Being the most complex form of knowledge, art IS the best hope for
subtle, nuanced communication. Power to the palette people!

Article 7

Jack Rasmussen
Minister of Culture
US Department of Art & Technology

Artists interpret the cultures they live in… their "criticisms"
take the form of invitations to engage us in constructive dialogues.
Such dialogues seem to be completely lacking in the geo-political
arena, where they are needed most. Let us use the artist's model to
resolve international conflicts. Let's get naked!

Article 8

William Gilcher
Envoy Plenipotentiary to the European Union and Latin America
US Department of Art & Technology

US Museums and cultural institutions - under DAT's and UNESCO's
leadership - should enshroud a major, signature work from their
collections. Then they should hold fancy fund-raisers to pay for
recovering (i.e., uncovering) the work. The money raised should be
used to support the creation and maintenance of a permanent light
sculpture representing the Bamiyan Buddhas, to be projected in the
original space in Afghanistan. The team of artists selected to create
the work should be people of various ethnic and religious origins,
including at least one Afghan.

Article 9

John Paul Young
Under Secretary of the Bureau for the Blurring of the Real & the Virtual
US Department of Art & Technology

Art reflects the conscience of each generation. As we inhabit the
21st century, do we choose to take up the challenge of crafting a new
vision of global compassion, or fall back upon antiquated notions of
diplomacy at gunpoint? Our children will judge us by our decision.
Technology in the service of "clean" war is not a solution, it is a
mere political expediency. Instead of increasingly virtualized
destruction, the future must embrace radical notions of humane
intervention. As proud citizens of the world family, let us lead with
a passion for creatively deploying and delivering life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness where they are most needed.

Article 10

Billy Kluver
Under Secretary of Reality
US Department of Art & Technology

Chaos is the best defense.

Article 11

Margaret Schedel
Under Secretary for Dissertations and Strategic Disinformation
US Department of Art & Technology

Interact with art and with each other. Ferocious interaction in art.
Tender interactions with each other.

Article 12

Joan Freedman
Deputy Secretary of the Bureau for Archiving Old Media
& Anachronistic Ideologies
US Department of Art & Technology

No Land Mimes! Appoint mimes to call for an international ban on the
use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel
landmines, and for increased international resources for humanitarian
mine clearance and mine victim assistance programs. Send mimes to
effected regions to demonstrate the effects of land mines on
unknowing civilian populations.

Article 13

Mark Tribe
Director of the Office of Emerging Technologies & Digital Aesthetics
US Department of Art & Technology

The conflict between Al Quaeda and the U.S. Government may be
understood in terms of two very different modes of organizing power:
one horizontally distributed and nomadic, the other hierarchical and
geographically fixed. In the past, we have tended to assign positive
value to the rhizomatic in contrast to the hierarchical. This
conflict helps us realize that there is nothing inherently good about
rhizomatic organizations of power. But if we think of think of these
organizations of power as technologies in and of themselves, then it
quickly becomes clear that rhizomatic technologies - fugitive,
resilient, designed to operate in tatters - are not only newer but
also more likely to survive in an evolutionary struggle.

Article 14

Randall Packer
Secretary
US Department of Art & Technology

Organize a virtual government department, select a staff of the
finest media artists and technologists you can find, have them
collectively co-author imaginative acts of artistic mediation, stage
an "official" event in Washington, DC with department staff and
cultural officials providing remarks on the role of the artist in
society, and invite the US State Department.

Article 15

David Baime
Assistant Secretary for Legislation & Congressional Affairs
US Department of Art & Technology

The sentimentalist would deceive himself, the rhetorician others;
while art alone provides the reflection of reality. Art is as
perennial as the grass, and may our good government sow its seed, so
as to reap its splendor.

Article 16

David Crandall
Director of the Office of Strategy and Subversion
US Department of Art & Technology

I would submit that a central problem is the rest of the world's lack
of understanding of America's unique burden and contribution.
Inasmuch as our great nation has given the world the best-dressed
peasant class in history, I would call for the commission of a series
of grand, heroic paintings of, e.g. noble American yeoman
stock-traders, bond-swains, cash maidens & personnel-herds, done
larger than life in a golden glow.

Alternatively, murals could be created in the soviet style extolling
the virtues of our noble Arts Infrastructure workers - see the sweat
gleam on the sides of the redoubtable database coordinator and grants
administrator as they build a better world for all! Their song: "If
we lose this grant, the terrorists win!"

Article 17

Chris Bowman
Artist-Ambassador from Scotland
Global Virtualization Council

NEW CHILDREN'S GAME:

After lots are drawn, two children stand side by side pretending to
be skyscrapers, while two others charge into them, pretending to be
planes.

The two pretending to be skyscrapers aren't allowed to duck or dodge,
and the two pretending to be planes get to crash into them as hard as
they like, at which point the skyscrapers compete to see who can
topple over the most dramatically.

It's in the interests of the planes not to hit the skyscrapers too
hard, because in the next and final stage of the game, the
skyscrapers - who have become a military alliance - get to kick the
shit out of the planes - who have become foreign terrorists - in any
and every way they like.

The game is known as PYRRHIC VICTORY.

Article 18

Philip Ryder
Artist-Ambassador from England
Global Virtualization Council

Being pigeon holed with terrorists should not be a frustration or
insult. We do not kill. We are feared for being artists and all that
it entails. Let their fear be proof of art's power and an inspiration.

Article 19

Jonah Brucker-Cohen
Artist Ambassador from the US
Global Virtualization Council

Without the negative to negate the positive, the positive would have
no power. Working together we can avoid the threat that terrorism
will be a threat to the way we perceive threats. Art is the only way
to escape the world of what is possible into the world of what can be
possible. Artists and creative processes will lead us past the
bureaucratic stranglehold that stifles radical change. Our only hope
is to rely on individual creative energy to prove the hypothesis that
new approaches to perception will lead us to salvation.

Article 20

Agricola de Cologne
German media artist

Violence is an expression of speechlessness, of lack of
communication. The best solution to eliminate violence and
confrontation is looking for communicating, dialogue and networking,
starting already in the smallest cel of society family, which lead in
consequence to openness against the different, tolerance. A good
example on the way to that represents the net based art project -
http://www.a-virtual-memorial.org - Memorial project against the
Forgetting and for Humanity.

Article 21

Joseph Franklyn McElroy
Cor[porat]e [Per]form[ance] Art[ist]T

It seems to be a natural tendency on the part of those in power, or
wanting power, to use tactics of brinkmanship and brutality to
accomplish incremental gains in their status. While people of extreme
intelligence might be capable of handling the situations created by
aggressive behavior, the unfortunate consequence of the success of
these tactics is that people of less intelligence and experience
attempt to copy the methods and are unable to control the resulting
forces. This leads to tragedy and sorrow for many people. We implore
you to step back from the strategies of the brute, to use new
techniques of honesty, nonaggression, and inclusivity to establish a
peaceful world, where equality and equitable distribution of
resources are the norm.

Article 22

Ava Su GanWei
Iowan Artist

Our society has it backwards, art should be freed from the museums
and galleries… it should be on the streets. But violence and war -
they belong in a place where they can be studied.

Article 23

Domiziana Giordano
Italian Artist

As an intellectual and artist, I find the international politics of
the US not really performing if it has to reach a point of non
aggression in military and cultural forms. The dialogue between
cultures has to be more open-minded towards the difference of culture
and I think intellectuals and artists can pursue the appropriate way
to mediate between the cultures and make a sort of free land where
opportunities of understanding with each other would be easily
resolved.

Article 24

Lowell Darling
American Conceptual Artist and Presidential Candidate

A National Business Museum in which money schemes can be exhibited
like art, where business people can play with concepts like the
recent Enron/Anderson debacle. Business people like Michael Milkin
should be given a safe venue to play in, like artists. This museum
would give corporate raiders a platform to perform that would protect
the rest of us from seeing their visions reach fruition.

In the National Business Museum a corrupt concept could be exhibited,
reviewed, discussed, and the business person who came up with the
scam could get the attention they seek. a businessman could take his
children to the Business Museum, show his kids the idea he had, and
show them how much money he could have made if he'd done the project
in real life instead of in the museum, and they could say, "wow, dad.
You made that? cool!"

The National Business Museum would allow the money manipulators a way
to vent their greed while giving them their ego boosts. Economic self
gratification without investors being destroyed. In other words,
let's treat business like art. Give money grubbers and corporate
thieves a sheltered venue for their experiments. Let money makers get
the sort of rewards art makers get: pats on the ass, government
grants, ego enhancing shows, brief moments of recognition in trade
magazines, and lots of promises. But the money stays in the people's
pockets when they leave the museum and go home, glad that they are
protected from such crazy concepts as those wild business people come
up with.

* * *

The present Covenant, of which the German, French, Flemish, English,
Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Spanish texts are equally
authentic, shall remain deposited in the on-line archives of the US
Department of Art & Technology. Duly certified digital copies thereof
shall be transmitted by that Government to its agencies and to other
States when appropriate.

IN FAITH WHEREOF the representatives of the Department of Art &
Technology have signed the present charter.

DONE at the city of Washington, DC the 19th day of June two thousand and tw=
o.