[spectre] Research Is Not Terrorism!

[Rob La Frenais]

The Arts Catalyst presents

RESEARCH IS NOT TERRORISM

In person:

STEVE KURTZ of Critical Art Ensemble, artist, activist
and researcher, detained last year by the FBI and
still facing charges

with CLAIRE PENTECOST from the Critical Art Ensemble
Defence Fund.

Royal Institution of Great Britain
21 Albemarle Street
London W1S 2BS

Monday 7 February 2005 8pm

Book online at www.artwords.co.uk (from 11th Jan)

STEVE KURTZ, member of the internationally celebrated
Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), was detained by the FBI
last year.  He faces a pre-trial hearing in the US on
February 10 and speaks 3 days earlier in the UK about
this fundamental threat to academic freedom of
expression.

CAE is known for its critical discourse and activist
practice. CAE stands for the bottom-up appropriation
of scientific knowledge and its utilisation for
tactical purposes. In recent projects, CAE has created
a mobile DNA extractor, which tests groceries for
possible genetic modification, and a transgenic
bacteria release mechanism.  It was this equipment and
Kurtz' home biotech lab that generated a chain of
bizarre events after the death of
Kurtz's wife when Kurtz himself was detained by the
FBI as a suspected bio-terrorist. 

Although the bioterrorism charges against Kurtz were
finally dropped in late 2004 by a Grand Jury, after an
international storm of protest, he was charged with
mail fraud (a charge traditionally used by the
Department of Justice when they can't pin another
charge on someone they think should be gagged or
neutralised).

Also indicted was Robert Ferrell, head of the
Department of Genetics at the University of
Pittsburgh's School of Public Health. The charges
concern technicalities of how Ferrell helped Kurtz to
obtain $256 worth of harmless bacteria for an art
project. These new charges still carry a potential
jail sentence of 20 years and threaten many
researchers in the sciences who source material in a
similar way.

You can read more about this case at
www.caedefensefund.org

The Arts Catalyst
www.artscatalyst.org

Steve Kurtz will also be speaking at transmediale 05,
Berlin, on Sunday 8 February 2005, 3pm, discussing his
new project on biowarfare. www.transmediale.de

Presented in association with transmediale 05, Berlin
Funded by the Arts Council of England








	
	
		
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