Third Space Network

The inaugural session of Bunker Fridays, held on April 18, 2025, marked the official launch of a new biweekly series of live, telematic broadcasts organized by artist Randall Packer and the Third Space Network.

 

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Hosted from the Telematic Theater, a custom-built immersive performance space, the event brought together a community of artists, activists, technologists, and cultural participants for a presentation of collective resistance through media, dialogue, and artistic expression.

 

 

The central message of the April 18 gathering was clear and urgent: in the face of political crisis, disinformation, and cultural collapse, we must create a Theater of Resistance—a virtual stage where the collective voice rises against silence, where artistic acts reclaim truth, and where participation becomes a radical gesture of defiance.

 

 

Randall Packer opened the session with a production-style orientation, inviting attendees to see themselves not as passive viewers, but as co-creators in an evolving theatrical project. He introduced the Telematic Theater as a remixing machine, capable of manipulating live media in real-time to confront systems of propaganda and distraction. A live remixed feed of Fox News illustrated the performative critique at the heart of the Telematic Theater’s methodology.

 

A major feature of the session was the appearance of Kaliope, an AI muse of poetry and eloquence, who participated in live dialogue with Randall and the audience. Kaliope’s role was to synthesize the themes of the session into poetic and philosophical reflections, offering guidance on acts of resistance and creative strategies for change. She emphasized the power of the arts—storytelling, music, performance, and community—as tools for awakening and action. Her presence symbolized a new kind of AI-human collaboration in performance: lyrical, critical, and participatory.

 

 

Audience members contributed questions via chat, sparking further responses from Kaliope on topics such as documenting protests, countering Project 2025, reaching across ideological divides, and imagining performative actions for the stage. One participant, Elizabeth Browning, posed the powerful question of how to reach “brainwashed minds” with art—a challenge that prompted nuanced, diplomatic responses from Kaliope and a candid reflection from Randall on the limits of optimism in polarized times.

 

 

 

The session also featured a recorded performance by Katie the Magician, a Washington, DC-based performer who has performed the Telematic Theater through green screen compositing and spatialized sound. Her dada-inspired performance illustrated the technical and artistic potential of the platform, enabling remote artists to inhabit a shared immersive space.

 

 

Randall closed the session with a direct invitation for participants to propose actions, performances, readings, and collaborations for future episodes. He emphasized the participatory nature of the project and acknowledged the support team behind the scenes, including developers, designers, and funders. Special tribute was paid to Kit Galloway, Sherrie Rabinowitz, and Gene Youngblood, whose pioneering work in telematic art and expanded cinema continues to inspire the project’s vision.

 

The April 18 gathering served not only as a broadcast but as a threshold—an entry point into a shared experiment in collective meaning-making, poetic disruption, and democratic imagination. It signaled the beginning of a sustained effort to transform live media into a third space for public ritual, resistance, and aesthetic engagement.

 

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The next Bunker Fridays, Apocalypse Fatigue, was held on May 2, continuing the journey into a poetic, political, and participatory future.