Randall Packer
Encyclopedia
Biography
Packer studied music composition with Mel PowellMel Powell
Mel Powell was a jazz pianist and composer of classical music.Mel Epstein was born to Russian Jewish parents, Milton Epstein and Mildred Mark Epstein, and began playing piano as a child. He performed jazz professionally in New York City as a teenager...
and Richard Felciano at the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
and the University of California, Berkeley. He pursued post-graduate study in computer music in Paris, where he was a composer in residence at IRCAM
IRCAM
IRCAM is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris...
(Institute for the Research and Coordination of Acoustics) under Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
. In 1988, he founded Zakros InterArts in San Francisco, producing events and new works that explored the integration of multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
and live performance. The first event was the San Francisco Tape Music Center
San Francisco Tape Music Center
The San Francisco Tape Music Center was founded in 1962 by composers Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender as a "nonprofit cultural and educational corporation, the aim of which was to present concerts and offer a place to learn about work within the tape music medium"...
Retrospective, which led to extensive research into the history of multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
and the avant-garde. Packer continued to create new works throughout the 1990s, pioneering collaborative forms of new music theater, installation and performance art that incorporated emerging technologies in computer music, video, animation, and interactivity. In 1995 he became the Director of the San Francisco State University Multimedia Studies Program, located in the heart of San Francisco's Multimedia Gulch where the "Wired" generation was coming of age. In 1997 he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, and was the first to teach digital media in the Department of Art Practice. In 1999, the sound installation Nori
Nori
is the Japanese name for various edible seaweed species of the red alga Porphyra including most notably P. yezoensis and P. tenera, sometimes called laver. Finished products are made by a shredding and rack-drying process that resembles papermaking...
, a collaboration with Ken Goldberg
Ken Goldberg
Kenneth Y. Goldberg is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and OperationsResearch , with a joint appointment in Electrical Engineering and...
and Gregory Kuhn, debuted at the Intercommunication Center (ICC) Biennial exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. Nori
Nori
is the Japanese name for various edible seaweed species of the red alga Porphyra including most notably P. yezoensis and P. tenera, sometimes called laver. Finished products are made by a shredding and rack-drying process that resembles papermaking...
later toured museums throughout the US as part of the exhibition Telematic Connection: The Virtual Embrace, organized by new media curator Steve Dietz and Independent Curators International.
In 2000 he moved to Washington, DC, became a faculty member of the Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art is an art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the first and oldest art colleges in the United States. In 2008, MICA was ranked #2 in the nation...
in Baltimore, and began an exploration and critique of the role of the artist in society and politics. He later founded the virtual government agency, US Department of Art & Technology, and became its first Secretary. In 2001, after over ten years of research into the history, theory, and practice of multimedia, his seminal book, Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, co-authored with Ken Jordan, was published by W.W. Norton with a companion Website sponsored by Intel Corporation. In 2004, in response to the Republican National Convention in New York City, he installed the Experimental Party Disinformation Center at the LUXE Gallery on 57th St. He joined the faculty at American University in Washington, DC, where he is currently teaching multimedia in the Department of Art. In 2006 his music for the sound installation Mori was featured in a solo dance performed by the San Francisco Ballet. Most recently, his multimedia performance work, A Season in Hell, the culminating project of the US Department of Art & Technology, was commissioned by ZER01 and debuted at the San Jose 01SJ Biennial
01SJ Biennial
The 01SJ Biennial is a multi-disciplinary, multi-venue event of visual and performing arts, the moving image, public art, and interactive digital media held biannually in San Jose, California, curated by ZER01's artistic director Steve Dietz.-History:...
in September of 2010.
Packer has received international acclaim for his multimedia and political artworks, with feature articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Village Voice, Istanbul Radikal. He has performed and exhibited at galleries, museums, theaters and festivals internationally, including ZKM (Center for Art & Media) Karlsruhe Germany, Transmediale Festival in Berlin, Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Kitchen in New York City, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and Theater Artaud in San Francisco. His essays on art, technology, politics and culture have been published by MIT Press, the Leonardo Journal for the Arts & Sciences, LINK, ART LIES, and Cambridge Press. His scholarly work has been incorporated into the curriculum of universities and art schools throughout the world. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including an ASCAP Prize for music composition, the George Ladd Prix de Paris from the University of California, Berkeley, three Artist Fellowships from the Washington DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, and an Isadora Duncan Award.