Science / Art / Law

The second ISEA day in Tallinn has started. I'm currently in a panel on legal implications of avant-garde science / art projects. Mainly they're talking about the Steve Kurtz case - an artist in the US who was charged with bioterrorism offences when ambulance officers (whom he'd called following the sudden death of his wife) found bio-active substances which he was using in his art. While such charges have now been dropped, he's still being charged with mail fraud - not a minor matter in the US either...

I must admit that such debates always seem to have a somewhat impotent character for me - there is much lamentation about existing power structures, but little indication as to what can be done to effect change. They are now talking about Creative Commons, at least (but it's interesting to note that that project is driven in the first place by law rather than arts scholars...). The Open Society Institute in Budapest is also mentioned.

A good critical question now - are we simply spinning conspiracy theories here? In order to talk about the Kurtz case, do we need to assume a conspiracy against Steve as an artist, a critical artist, an artist critical of biotechnology? In other words, perhaps, are we more or less inventing or overemphasising some of the details of this case because it then makes a good example for the kind of things Critical Art Ensemble protests against?

In response to this question, one of the presenters talks about how a 'spectacle' needs to be created in order to 'sell' the campaign to the public. To what extent is the Kurtz case used cynically as a spectacle, then? What's Kurtz's own view of this, incidentally? We seem to be talking a lot about about him rather than with him...

Quote from one of the panellists: if you're doing good work as an artist or scientist in this field, you're bound to get into trouble. Sorry, but honestly: that is a conspiracy theory! (Another participant now suggests breaking Steve out of prison and getting him out of the country - this is getting weird...) There seems to be some degree of hysteria especially by US-based participants and their friends here - perhaps this is a sign of the times under the GWB regime, but we others also need to bring some of this discussion down to earth again, I feel. Or are things really as bad as they seem?