{"id":2580,"date":"2004-06-10T18:06:39","date_gmt":"2004-06-11T08:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/06\/11\/art-is-terrorism\/"},"modified":"2019-12-10T13:49:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T21:49:57","slug":"art-is-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/06\/10\/art-is-terrorism\/","title":{"rendered":"Art is terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:10836,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/caedefensefund.org&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20150915023612\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.caedefensefund.org:80\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 09:10:04&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 19:37:38&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 19:37:38&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10837,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.washingtonpost.com\\\/ac2\\\/wp-dyn\\\/A8278-2004Jun1?language=printer&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20180825024139\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.washingtonpost.com\\\/ac2\\\/wp-dyn\\\/A8278-2004Jun1\\\/?language=printer&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 09:10:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 19:37:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 19:37:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10838,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.boingboing.net\\\/2004\\\/06\\\/09\\\/art_attack.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20110317210038\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.boingboing.net:80\\\/2004\\\/06\\\/09\\\/art_attack.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 09:10:17&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 19:37:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 19:37:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Yet another case of law enforcement officials going overboard, in this case of <a href=\"http:\/\/caedefensefund.org\/\" title=\"Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund\">an artist being accused of being a bioterrorist<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  Steve Kurtz is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the State University of New York&#8217;s University at Buffalo, and a member of the internationally-acclaimed Critical Art Ensemble.<\/p>\n<p>  ? Kurtz&#8217;s wife, Hope Kurtz, died in her sleep of cardiac arrest in the early morning hours of May 11. Police arrived, became suspicious of Kurtz&#8217;s art supplies and called the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>  Within hours, FBI agents had &#8220;detained&#8221; Kurtz as a suspected bioterrorist and cordoned off the entire block around his house. (Kurtz walked away the next day on the advice of a lawyer, his &#8220;detention&#8221; having proved to be illegal.) Over the next few days, dozens of agents in hazmat suits, from a number of law enforcement agencies, sifted through Kurtz&#8217;s work, analyzing it on-site and impounding computers, manuscripts, books, equipment, and even his wife&#8217;s body for further analysis. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Health Department condemned his house as a health risk.<\/p>\n<p>  Kurtz, a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, makes art which addresses the politics of biotechnology. &#8220;Free Range Grains,&#8221; CAE&#8217;s latest project, included a mobile DNA extraction laboratory for testing food products for possible transgenic contamination. It was this equipment which triggered the Kafkaesque chain of events.<\/p>\n<p>  FBI field and laboratory tests have shown that Kurtz&#8217;s equipment was not used for any illegal purpose. In fact, it is not even <em>possible<\/em> to use this equipment for the production or weaponization of dangerous germs. Furthermore, any person in the US may legally obtain and possess such equipment.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;Today, there is no legal way to stop huge corporations from putting genetically altered material in our food,&#8221; said Defense Fund spokeswoman Carla Mendes. &#8220;Yet owning the equipment required to test for the presence of &#8216;Frankenfood&#8217; will get you accused of &#8216;terrorism.&#8217; You can be illegally detained by shadowy government agents, lose access to your home, work, and belongings, and find that your recently deceased spouse&#8217;s body has been taken away for &#8216;analysis.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  Though Kurtz has finally been able to return to his home and recover his wife&#8217;s body, the FBI has still not returned any of his equipment, computers or manuscripts, nor given any indication of when they will. The case remains open.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>More details can be found in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/wp-dyn\/A8278-2004Jun1?language=printer\" title=\"The FBI's Art Attack\">this article from the Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Just ludicrous.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boingboing.net\/2004\/06\/09\/art_attack.html\" title=\"Art Attack\">Boing Boing<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Kurtz&#8217;s wife, Hope Kurtz, died in her sleep of cardiac arrest in the early morning hours of May 11. Police arrived, became suspicious of Kurtz&#8217;s art supplies and called the FBI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2042],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-2580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}