Art or bioterrorism? RU Sirius interviews Steve Kurtz
In 2004, University at Buffalo art professor Steve Kurtz, a member of Critical Art Ensemble, called police to his home after his wife died suddenly of a heart attack. When they arrived, the police stumbled upon some biology gear and harmless bacteria that Kurtz was using in an art project. The FBI was called in and visions of bioterror danced in their heads. In July 2004, Kurtz was indicted by a federal grand jury for mail and wire fraud. The situation has caused quite an uproar in the tech-art community. Filmmaker Lyn Hersman Leeson's latest movie, Strange Culture, is based on Kurtz's story and stars Tilda Swinton, Peter Coyote, Thomas Jay Ryan, Josh Kornbluth, and Kurtz himself. The case is expected to go to trial next summer. Over at 10 Zen Monkeys, RU Sirius interviews Kurtz about what went down and the legal insanity that has ensued. From the interview:
Previously on BB:
• Video of biotech artist awaiting trial Link
• Case against Steve Kurtz/Critical Art Ensemble continues Link
• Battling for bio art Link
• Art Attack Link
Link to 10 Zen Monkeys, Link to Strange Culture site, Link to Critical Art Ensemble defense fundSTEVE KURTZ: Three projects seemed to really bother law enforcement. Critical Art Ensemble was working on a biochemical defense kit against Monsanto’s Roundup Ready products for use by organic and traditional farmers. That was all confiscated.
We had a portable molecular biology lab that we were using to test food products labeled “organic” to see if they really were free of GMO contaminant. Or, when in Europe, to see if products not labeled as containing GMOs really had none. We'd finished the initiative in Europe and were about to launch here in the U.S. when the FBI confiscated all our equipment.
Finally, we were a preparing project on germ warfare and the theater of the absurd. We were planning to recreate some of the germ warfare experiments that were done in the '50s (which were so insane that they could only have been paid for with tax dollars). We had two strains of completely harmless bacteria that simulated the behavior of actual infectious diseases — plague and anthrax. To accompany these performances, we were in the middle of a manuscript on the militarization of civilian health agencies in the U.S. by the Bush administration.
Everything described was confiscated. We had to start from scratch on the project and the book. Happily, we did eventually do the experiments, and published the book — Marching Plague: Germ Warfare and Global Public Health.
RU: Would you say that originally, they authentically suspected they had found some sort of bioterror weapon, and once they realized they hadn't, they found other reasons to remain hostile?
SK: What I think they thought was that they had a situation, along with a vulnerable patsy, out of which they could manufacture a terrorism case. After all, the rewards that were heaped on the agents, prosecutors, and institutions that brought home the so-called “Lackawana Six sleeper cell” case — another railroad job — were witnessed by others in these agencies and noted. This made it too lucrative to pass up turning anything they could into “terrorism”.
They also had plenty of other reasons to be — and remain — hostile.
Previously on BB:
• Video of biotech artist awaiting trial Link
• Case against Steve Kurtz/Critical Art Ensemble continues Link
• Battling for bio art Link
• Art Attack Link
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We were planning to recreate some of the germ warfare experiments that were done in the '50s (which were so insane that they could only have been paid for with tax dollars). We had two strains of completely harmless bacteria that simulated the behavior of actual infectious diseases — plague and anthrax.
Hey, why not -- and how about some recreations of lynchings or rapes, to be followed by indignation when the paranoid authorities barge in and confuse them with the real thing! Or maybe stand on a street corner with a blower shooting harmless white powder into the air, as a performance art piece on people's concepts of contagion and fear. Only some authoritarian moron from Homeland Security wouldn't recognize it as art!
btw, are there any details on what "material transfer agreement" they violated? Was it basically that they fraudulently represented themselves as a legit research lab in order to obtain the bacteria? They try to make it sound like "they can get you for filling out a warranty card incorrectly," but they never say exactly what the "technicality" was.
btw, I should add that I do agree that the government overreacted wildly, and shouldn't have continued to pursue a case once the facts were known. But the "artists" were idiots to set up a situation that practically invited an inadvertent mischaracterization. You know, if a serial rapist has been terrorizing your town, it's probably not the best time to make a simulated snuff movie...
"btw, are there any details on what "material transfer agreement" they violated? Was it basically that they fraudulently represented themselves as a legit research lab in order to obtain the bacteria?"
According to LA Weekly,
On the other hand, the LA Weekly article quotes the duo's lawyers as noting that scientists share harmless bacteria like this amongst themselves regularly and that the duo are being charged with federal felonies for essentially violating a clause in a private contract between the University of Pittsburgh and the supplier.
At the very least, this seems like an absurd waste of resources by federal prosecutors.
At the very least, this seems like an absurd waste of resources by federal prosecutors.
Either someone is trying to save face with their superiors by insisting that those guys were committing a Serious Offense, and/or they picked up on the general "the government is stupid" vibe of the "art project" and decided to screw them over with the letter of the law.
this is slightly off topic, but does anyone know if RU Sirius has stop producing his podcasts? It seems like it has been since july that there was a new one.
One of the bacteria species that Kurtz is accused of illegally obtaining is Serratia marcescens. He probably could have grown a culture by swabbing around the bottom of his bathtub. If you ever see a pinkish stain where water collects in your sink or tub, that's almost certainly Serratia. I even find it in the cat's water bowl if I forget to wash it out every few days.
Presumably, he wanted to purchase a pure culture rather than risk culturing something nasty from the mixed population in his tub, so he is screwed for being careful.
Phasor3000:
a copy of the ATCC's MTA is here:
http://www.atcc.org/common/documents/mta/mta.cfm
Wow, this almost makes the girl who wandered around an airport wearing a loose-fitting sweatshirt with electronic components attached to it look smart. If someone in my neighborhood were "recreating some germ warfare experiments" and somebody "suddenly died" in his house, I would certainly hope the authorities would take more than a cursory glance around.
"If someone in my neighborhood were "recreating some germ warfare experiments" and somebody "suddenly died" in his house, I would certainly hope the authorities would take more than a cursory glance around."
He was recreating the germ warfare experiments with harmless bacteria substituted for the lethal agent in those experiments.
Your argument is a bit like saying we should arrest Civil War re-enactors because they're engaging in something that looks a lot like paramilitary training.
Your argument is a bit like saying we should arrest Civil War re-enactors because they're engaging in something that looks a lot like paramilitary training.
This is all about what's typical versus what arouses suspicion. Most people know about Civil War reenactments, and easily recognize the blue and gray uniforms, etc. Almost by definition, the "artists" wouldn't be doing recreations of germ warfare experiments if it were a typical thing that many people had already done, unless I've been missing the Germ Warfare Tent at the state fair. Doing something that (a) is very uncommon and (b) could be mistaken for something very dangerous is obviously taking a bit of a risk. Those guys probably thought they were being cool and subversive playing their silly art game and through bad luck and some heavy-handed law enforcement, it backfired on them. Although I agree that the resources would be better used elsewhere, pardon me if I don't feel a huge amount of sympathy for them.
Yeah, this is one libertarian internet cause I just cannot get behind. A waste of taxpayer money, etc., to be sure, but I'm just not sure that creating kits to test for GMOs can even be considered "art." I mean... Is making a tool art?
This is something that I think is hurting them more than maybe even they realize. It's very hard to sell this stuff to most people as art. It looks a lot more like subversive activism. Take that and add to it obtaining bacteria (harmless or not) illegally, and yeah, I can see why people would be upset.
but seriously folks,
several items in defense of steve kurtz:
BACTERIA:
the strains of bacteria kurtz obtained we're all of the sort you might find in a high school biology lab. so even though he wasn't certified to work with it, he wasn't putting anyone in danger. the friend he got it from was the chairman of a science department at the university of pittsburgh, so was in a better position than most to judge the safety of helping steve out.
CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE:
C.A.E.'s whole work seems to be about demystifying scientific practices, and this sometimes means doing things that most civilians don't think of as o.k. to do or even possible to do without the blessing of some company or government. C.A.E. never does anything dangerous, but as simple artists, simply do what is usually done with an air of mysticism in a faraway lab in plain view. they add a form of humor and attention-grabbing to their harmless acts to facilitate critique on the more dangerous potentials of the sciences they employ, be it genetics, germs or grant money.
SOME HUMOROUS ANECDOTES ABOUT STEVEN KURTZ:
i am lucky enough to have known steve from three years of him teaching "art n'at" at carnegie mellon university. we we're both selected in 2001 to be in an art show in amsterdam. his piece with c.a.e. was brilliant. they obtained (who knows how) a genetic sample from the woman who is the sole human blood donor to the human genome project. they then spliced it (who knows how) to yeast. they then made beer and bread from the genetically modified yeast in a piece called "the cult of the new eve." what's awesome about the piece is that the beer and bread are harmless, yet provide a very palpable way of experiencing the dangerous (yet strangely alluring) potentials of genetically modified organisms and the H.G.P. the bacteria "attack" re-inactment is another harmless version of something with much more sinister aspects designed to facilitate education on the topic.
steve used to deliver three hour lectures that were totally captivating and loaded with factual detail without any notes. he could do this about a number of topics, ranging from film, art history, critical theory, tactical media, literature and politics to much more esoteric topics touched on in his office after class.
what i'm saying is steve is no idiot. c.a.e. know they are doing things that alarm the authorities. their point (as far as i can tell) is that it is important to exercise our (legal or human) rights, sound some alarms, then educate and entertain away the ignorance that causes the alarms to go off. it isn't baiting the government, it's shocking us "viewers" out of our own ignorant assumptions about how we can interact with new sciences and the powers that attempt to regulate this ability.
BOTTOM LINE:
because they are intelligent, relevant and funny, the C.A.E. and steve kurtz pose a threat to the current u.s. government and it's economic allies. they write books and make public performances that consistently shatter the public's illusions of governmental (and scientific) infallibility. so when they thought they could silence steve, they tried... and failed so far, luckily. this was hopefully a great publicity gift to C.A.E.
hang in there steve, someday people will learn.
Thank you jamesgyre. Nuff said.
@PHASOR3000
This is all about what's typical versus what arouses suspicion. Most people know about Civil War reenactments, and easily recognize the blue and gray uniforms, etc.
@NED2
If someone in my neighborhood were "recreating some germ warfare experiments" and somebody "suddenly died" in his house, I would certainly hope the authorities would take more than a cursory glance around.
You both touch on something I think is important here. I can agree with the overall sentiment that "very odd things should be looked into", but that once it is proven harmless is where the problems lie in this case. Any mess created should be cleaned up and any confiscated equipment/materials should be returned or appropriately (market/replacement value) compensated for. The innocents caught in the middle (in this case Steve) should not be on the hook financially for the fallout from the whole debacle, regardless of how annoying or unsympathetic their case appears.
In such cases, let the various three-letter-agencies and local cops write it off as a "live" terror response training exercise. It can only augment their own simulations and training. In the case of the Mooninite thing, I say the same thing. Don't punish the people that just gave you some of the best feedback you could ever get (short of a *real* terror incident) on how effective your training is to date! This case, and especially the Mooninite case, had everything that gov't planned exercises lack - primarily the uninformed involvment of the public, complete with blind unreasoning panic, etc. You just can't simulate that well. Sure, it cost a ton of money in both cases. The training and information feedback is cheap at the price.
Then again, I'm not sure I want the gov't treating massive peaceful protests as "live fire" exercises in food riot crowd control or similar.
Anyways, the DOJ involvement in what is ultimately a contract dispute between a pharmaceutical supplier, a university, and an artist seems way off the mark and does, as has been mentioned, smack of "finding something, anything, to punish these upstarts with." That I don't like at all.
The only thing that I think should legitimately arouse action on this level would be if the original supplier of the harmless bacteria has only one form and/or contract that covers all of their samples - and they also offer non-harmless strains. The CDC or similar would probably want to make sure said suppliers and their contractees are not playing fast and loose with potentially hazardous bacterial supplies. This is most easily solved with a two-level contract or similar - one level of validation for harmless bacteria, a separate, stricter level for harmful bacteria. If the supplier and university don't have such a split-level agreement, this should prompt them to put one in place. This would allow maximal sharing of harmless supplies (lowering the cost of business for all parties) and better concentration of "security" dollars on those bacteria that are harmful. This would prevent labs from losing their license because someone spilled or lost something harmless, while still allowing for penalties for mis-using or improperly securing dangerous substances.
@KYLE ARMBRUSTER
Yeah, this is one libertarian internet cause I just cannot get behind. A waste of taxpayer money, etc., to be sure, but I'm just not sure that creating kits to test for GMOs can even be considered "art." I mean... Is making a tool art?
I invite you to look at some of the rather beautiful old wood-carving tools that I come across from time to time, and the simple elegance of some modern tool designs. Special notice should be given to anything optimized for the backpackers out there - lightweight in the extreme with either as many uses as possible per gram, or the least number of grams possible per use. Industrial design is as much a school of art as any other, and while form most certainly should follow function for tools, that does not mean tools cannot be beautiful. In this particular case, though, one would be better suited to referring to that category of art referred to as "performance art". Designing and using a tool to test for the presence of GMO foods where they are expressly labeled not to be present, and then setting up a booth where you do this with the public watching, qualifies. It grabs the eye, and gets people to think about what they are eating.
This is something that I think is hurting them more than maybe even they realize. It's very hard to sell this stuff to most people as art. It looks a lot more like subversive activism. Take that and add to it obtaining bacteria (harmless or not) illegally, and yeah, I can see why people would be upset.
What's wrong with subversive activism? What is subversive? Why is this subversive? Why is showing people how their tax dollars are being spent and uncovering the potential lies the gov't and/or businesses are telling subversive? People don't like GMO stuff, for their own and varied reasons. People trust most labels. If those labels are false, people should know - so that they can complain and get what they ask for rather than something that is just labeled as what they ask for regardless of actual content.
I still think it's still at least performance art.
As for not being able to sell this sort of thing as art, many people can't understand stuff like Jackson Pollock paintings as art, let alone some of the stuff that Marcel Duchamp did, so I'm not buying that argument for defining art.
Then again, I've got a rather interesting aesthetic - when I go visit a converted grain warehouse that's full of artist studios for a big art show (North Minneapolis Art Crawl) I look as much at the remaining industrial parts of the building as I do at the art! I would just *love* to have one of those gorgeous old metal-clad and automatic closer equipped fire doors as the door to my as-yet-nonexistent workshop.
Oh, one more thing:
@PHASOR3000
They try to make it sound like "they can get you for filling out a warranty card incorrectly," but they never say exactly what the "technicality" was.
If the DHS/DOJ et al establish precedent allowing them to prosecute at the federal felony level in what would otherwise be a civil contractual violation, it very much could lead to "they can get you for filling out a warranty card incorrectly and mailing it" (emphasis added from the original interview). Steve is going up on mail fraud charges. This move by the DHS/DOJ et al could vastly expand the definition of mail fraud unless the court findings are very explicit. This is dangerous, as any expansion of the ability to bring felony charges against otherwise innocent parties (or at most civilly liable parties) makes the punishment for activism or similar that much more draconian. Everyone has done something illegal in their life, but very few have done something at the felony level. Moving the bar for "felony" down a few notches is nasty. Such activist tricks as sending checks to religiously conservative political parties from presumably made-up groups like "Gay Abortionists for the Abolishment of Marriage" that exist only as a checking account would go from snarky blog-fodder joke (Look! That conservative hypocrite cashed a check from these guys!) that is generally responded to with a refund or donation to felony crime that strips one of one's right to vote at minimum. Serious chilling effect possibilities there.
later,
-cajun
On the other hand, the LA Weekly article quotes the duo's lawyers as noting that scientists share harmless bacteria like this amongst themselves regularly...
LOL, I regularly share harmless bacteria with everyone I meet, and I'm not even a scientist!
Where mah +5 Funneh?
Hi everyone,
Steve Kurtz & Critical Art Ensemble are internationally-acclaimed artists. Their writings have been translated into at least 16 languages, they have been covered by most of the major art journals, and they are regularly invited around the world to perform in museums and other cultural institutions. They have been exhibiting and performing work like this concerning biotechnology for over a decade with absolutely no risk to the public. Their projects are recognized by artists, scientists, and institutions worldwide as thorough, investigative, educative and safe.
CAE was NOT doing the re-creations -- or any of their work -- with the intent to scare anyone -- in fact quite the opposite. They were doing this particular re-creation using harmless bacteria in an unbelievably remote location (The Isle of Lewis, Scotland, where the original tests were done) and made a film about it to show in galleries and museums, in order (as in all their work) to educate, and in this case, to dispel some of the fear surrounding bioterrorism which has been greatly exaggerated and is based on incomplete awareness of the facts:
http://www.artscatalyst.org/projects/biotech/caeplague.html
The indictment is on Steve Kurtz defense fund site for all to read:
http://caedefensefund.org
...as are extensive details about the charges and what this case means for all Americans' First Amendment rights.
From the interview: "Information is ubiquitous and overwhelming. Only so much can be processed in a day. And when you think of how many outrages are occurring each day because of the war and the current U.S. constitutional crisis, who has time to follow one of the many ridiculous court cases brought by the Department of Justice?"
hmmmm... could that actually be one of the Bush administration's strategies. . . overload our outrage to induce apathy?
Also, Steve Kurtz WAS certified to purchase the bacteria -- anyone could purchase it online with a credit card from a high school Science Supply kit, and he's done it many times.
Ironically, he went through Bob Ferrell -- a renowned scientist -- as extra assurance to the museums and other institutions that host CAE's performances, that this was totally harmless and that it could be tracked. And for that they get punished.
This is a case of total Federal Government overreac, tryin to make a civil contract discrepancy into a federal crime
The precedent that will be set if the government wins will be terrible for activists and for anyone interested in contributing to vital public debate about the actions of our government. They will be able to go through anyone's paperwork and make any minor discrepancy in any contract -- even if there's no dispute among any of the parties, as in Steve's case (no one, from the supplier, ATCC, to the Universities has any problem with what Steve or Bob did) -- into a federal "crime" punishable by 20 years in jail.
If you know history, you know that no bureaucracy should ever have that kind of power.
This case is emblematic of the corruption and politicization of the Justice Department and its policy of "pre-emptive justice" (if someone looks like they might do something put them in jail now) and the neocons' assault on our Constitution.
That something like this could happen to a widely respected artist and scientist means it could happen to any of us.
We have to stand up to this kind of abuse of power. Rights, like our Constitutional rights, aren't handed to us -- they are only gained, and maintained, through struggle. If we don't fight to keep them they'll be gone before we know it -- and many of our most basic democratic rights already have been taken away as this case shows.