Artist for the Post Reality

Randall Packer is one of the most tireless, mercurial, provocative new media artists working today. In 1999, on the eve of the new millennium, Packer moved to Washington, DC to promote the transformative potential of art and technology. It was the result of this effort that garnered him the nomination from President Bush as the first Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology.

In 2005, shortly after the death of the nation, Packer went rogue, declaring himself the Secretary-at-Large, and embarked on a journey to the Underworld of America determined to save the world. It was his experience in the Underworld that led Packer to write his multimedia opera, A Season in Hell, which debuted at the 01SJ Biennial Festival in 2010. Critics across America have raved about Packer’s multimedia spectacles, which have been described as “a high-energy, high-tech, savvy, satirical, digital mediarama – a total immersion, parallel universe” by the New York Times. The Washington Post called it “a mix of surrealism, situationism, and dada… the blurring of the real and fake,” while Art in America wrote: “a proactive approach to political propaganda by manipulating the manipulation.”