Kurtz Case Finally Dismissed

I might have written the above headline in capital letters, but the appropriate time to shout jubilantly over the dismissal of United States District Court, Western District of New York's Order 04-CR-0155A (a.ka. "The United States of America v. Steven Kurtz") occurred nearly four years ago. If, indeed, there ever should have been a court case necessitating an appropriate time in which to be jubilant. Begging your pardon, it is impossible for me to be objective about what happened to Steven Kurtz. Rather than rail on (as I am sorely tempted to do) for 87 more paragraphs regarding aberrations of "justice" in a culture of paranoia, I will instead refer you to other sources.

More on the Kurtz Saga:

• "The FBI's Art Attack" - Washington Post article from June 2, 2004
• "Bioarts, Bioterror and the CAE" - College Quarterly, Spring 2005
• "The Political Problem of Luck" - email interview with Steven Kurtz from Plazm Magazine, Summer 2006
• "Art or Bioterrorism: Who Cares?" - interview with Steven Kurtz from 10 Zen Monkeys, September 26, 2007
• Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund - FAQs, links to documentation and a time line regarding the Kurtz case
• Strange Culture - official website of the film
• April 21, 2008 Ruling on the motion to dismiss Order 04-CR-0155A

Image credit:

The Stanford Humanities Lab collaborated with director Lynn Hershman on a screening of her latest film Strange Culture. This mixed reality event took place at Sundance and in the online world Second Life during January 2007.

Flickr image by Henrik Bennetsen
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