There's no such thing as bad publicity

This is quoted in its entirety from a piece of email that's being forwarded around. I don't see what they're so upset by, though -- you couldn't buy this kind of publicity. Indeed, this is the opposite of what people complain about when they say, "I couldn't get arrested in this town."

Many of you have probably heard that the artist Steve Kurtz was detained by the FBI and is now being investigated under the Homeland Security Act. He and the collective he is in, Critical Art Ensemble, were preparing a really cool installation for a show on interventionist art at MASS MOCA. The piece had lab equipment that allowed a visitor to bring any kind of food and have it tested for genetically modified organisms. Here is a description of the piece:

Free Range Grain is a live, performative action. CAE/da Costa/Shyu has constructed a portable, public lab to test foods for the more common genetic modifications. People bring us foods that they find suspect for whatever reason, and we test them over a 72-hour period to see if their suspicions are justified. While we will not be able to say conclusively that a given food is genetically modified (although we can offer strong probability as whether it is), we can test for conclusive negatives, and we can bring issues of food purity into the realm of public discourse.

You can get more info about this piece at website:
http://www.critical-art.net/biotech/free/index.html and more info about their work generally at http://www.critical-art.net.

While we were at MASS MOCA at the opening of the intervenionist show (minus the seized installation), two other members of Critical Art Ensemble were served with subpoenas for a grand jury. The subpoenas indicated that the FBI is moving forward with charging Steve of creating biological weapons for this art piece! There is more info about the case, at http://www.rtmark.com/CAEdefense/

These are very serious charges that will be hard to fight and could lead to a drawn out trial. Steve is going to need our help to stay out of jail! Since we were all there at MASS MOCA, we talked about a couple of things we can do immediately to help. The first is to bring as much publicity as possible to the case while contextualizing the work that Critical Art Ensemble has been doing in the field of biotechnology. A second it to work together to fundraise for legal fees -- unfortunately, criminal attorneys do not do pro bono work. The third, for the moment, is to join the listserve mentioned below to remain updated on actions being taken to support Steve and the collective.

You can also just make a donation online at: http://www.rtmark.com/CAEdefense/

websites:
critical art ensemble: http://www.critical-art.net
rtmark site about the case: http://www.rtmark.com/CAEdefense/
critical art ensemble listserve: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CAE_Defense