FBI, art, and electronic civil disobedience

There was an earlier diary post about Steve Kurtz, an artist detained by the FBI in Buffalo for suspicion of bio-terrorism. I write to give some more background about Kurtz and his art group Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) and to urge dKos to support their legal defense fund. Kurtz's wife, Hope Kurtz, passed away from a heart attack in their home, where authorities found art materials they mistook for bio-weapons.

In seeking charges against these artists, the FBI is seeking charges against an influential group of social activists and theorists. To put things in perspective: I regularly teach courses on civil disobedience, where students study CAE alongside Thoreau, Gandhi, King, and ACT-UP. The significance of CAE: digitizing and globalizing civil disobedience.

Kossacks might be especially interested in CAE's first two books (available free online), The Electronic Disturbance and Electronic Civil Disobedience, both from the mid-1990s. In them, CAE argues that in becoming electronic, power has gone nomadic and virtual, thus making traditional civil disobedience increasingly ineffective. CAE thus calls for developing electronic forms of civil disobedience. Significantly, a more recent CAE text, Digital Resistance, contains a chapter that analyzes the increasing tendency in public discourse to treat civil disobedience as a form of terrorism. Patriot Acts I and II, as many folks know, introduce measures to counter "domestic terrorism": I suspect CAE may be looking at such charges.

Critical Art Ensemble is a collective of artists, activists, and media theorists whose work can be seen (and in some cases downloaded) here. Their work consists of participatory performances, video, graphic arts, and articles and books. CAE is internationally known (especially in Europe), and their recent work has focused on bioethics and biotechnologies relating to reproduction and agri-business. Apparently, equipment related to an upcoming show at MASS MOCA raised suspicion with Buffalo police, who called in federal authorities.

Steve Kurtz is a founding member of CAE and one of its prime intellectual forces. For some 15 years, he has taught studio art courses, first at Carnegie Mellon and more recently at SUNY-Buffalo. He is a dedicated teacher and researcher, as well as an artist and activist committed to social justice.

Again, I urge the dKos community to support Steve Kurtz and Critical Art Ensemble. I also welcome suggestions and encourgage others to publicize his cause in the blogosphere.