Clueless in America - New York Times

Ignorance in the United States is not just bliss, it’s widespread. A recent survey of teenagers by the education advocacy group Common Core found that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, a third did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, and fewer than half knew that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900.

Add comment Datestamp: April 22nd, 2008

Buffalo, NY—A process that has taken nearly four years may be coming to an end. On Monday, April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment against University at Buffalo Professor of Visual Studies Dr. Steven Kurtz.

In June 2004, Professor Kurtz was charged with two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud stemming from an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit about biotechnology with his award-winning art and theater collective, Critical Art Ensemble.

Professor Kurtz’ lawyer, Paul Cambria, said that his client was “pleased and relieved that this ordeal may be coming to an end.”

The prosecution has the right to appeal this dismissal. How the prosecution will proceed is unknown at this time. If an appeal were undertaken the case would move to the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

Lucia Sommer, Coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, which raises funds for Kurtz’ legal defense, said, “We are all grateful that after reviewing this case, Judge Arcara took appropriate action.” She added that “this decision is further testament to our original statements that Dr. Kurtz is completely innocent and never should have been charged in the first place.”

BACKGROUND ON DR. STEVEN KURTZ AND CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE

Critical Art Ensemble (which Kurtz co-founded in 1987 with Steven Barnes) has won numerous awards for its bio-art, including the prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression Grant, honoring more than two decades of distinguished work. The group has been commissioned to exhibit and perform in many of the world’s cultural institutions—including the London Museum of Natural History; The ICA, London; the Whitney Museum and the New Museum in NYC; the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, DC; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; der Volksbüne, Berlin; ZKM, Karlsruhe; El Matadero, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Museo de Arte Carrilo Gil, Mexico City and many more.

For more information about the case, please visit: caedefensefund.org

Add comment Datestamp: April 21st, 2008

The Buffalo News: Home: Federal judge dismisses mail and wire fraud charges against Kurtz

A federal judge today dismissed criminal indictments against Steven Kurtz, the University at Buffalo professor accused of mail and wire fraud when he obtained biological materials he intended to use in his artwork.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled that the indictment government prosecutors brought against Kurtz “is insufficient on its face.”

[More on the case here]

Add comment Datestamp: April 21st, 2008

A Feedback Event

April 19, 2008
3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
540 W. 21st St.

3 – 6PM. Free. Feedback artists Natalie Jeremijenko, Leah Gauthier, Brooke Singer, and The Lower East Side Ecology Center presenting workshops during the day.

WHAT I WILL BE DOING:

Brooke Singer ( http://www.superfund365.org) with Michael Heimbinder (http://www.habitatmap.org ) and Emily Gallagher will conduct a virtual toxic tour followed by a hands-on workshop. The virtual tour will focus on a site in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, that is currently undergoing contamination evaluation by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health. Together they will explore the region’s historic and present day industries, detail the contaminants of concern and discuss potential remedies. This will serve as a case in point for participants to learn more about toxic legacy and the challenges of cleanup in New York City. In the second part of the workshop, they will provide resources for participants to identify toxic exposures in their own neighborhoods.

Brooke Singer is a 2007 Artist Fellowship recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). This presentation is co-sponsored by Artists & Audiences Exchange, a NYFA public program.

Add comment Datestamp: April 12th, 2008

Troy City Officials Wield Building Code to Shut Down Game Art Exhibit

City officials in Troy, New York apparently used the municipal building code to shut down a controversial video game art exhibit.

As we’ve been tracking on GamePolitics, Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal, a faculty member at the Art Institute of Chicago, was invited to present at - and then abruptly booted from - Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute.

Following his RPI expulsion, Bilal’s Virtual Jihadi exhibit was moved to the nearby Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy. On Monday night, a local Republican political figure, Robert Mirch left, led a protest against Bilal’s work outside the Sanctuary. Mirch, by the way, also happens to be the Public Works Commissioner for the city of Troy. In that capacity, he is responsible for enforcing building codes.

On Tuesday, as reported by the Albany Times-Union, the Sanctuary for Independent Media was shut down by city code enforcement officials. Sanctuary spokesman Steve Pierce told the newspaper:

They put us out of business. They said we had doors that were not up to code.

Add comment Datestamp: March 29th, 2008

MAKE A PROMISE
A real carbon offset is the process of reducing the net carbon emissions of an individual by their own actions, not by buying something.

World Offset is part of a current exhibition ecoAesthetics at TAG in the Netherlands.

Add comment Datestamp: March 22nd, 2008

5th Year Anniversary of the Iraq Invasion — Protesters Make Sure Day Does Not Go By Unnoticed

UFPJ has initiated a massive day of creative, nonviolent action and civil disobedience in the nations capital, focusing on the “pillars of war” to interrupt business as usual for those promoting and profiting from war and empire building.

Add comment Datestamp: March 19th, 2008

Science at Risk - New York Times

Nobody was greatly surprised last week when Stephen Johnson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, proposed new limits on smog-forming pollutants that were weaker than those his scientists had recommended — and more to the liking of industry. In the Bush administration, contests between politics and science are usually resolved in favor of politics.

The big surprise was Mr. Johnson’s proposal to rewrite the Clean Air Act to allow regulators to take costs into account when setting air quality standards. Since this would permanently devalue the role of science while strengthening the hand of industry, the proposal has no chance of success in a Democratic Congress.

It was, though, a revelatory moment: one last cry of frustration from an administration that, despite great effort, and persistent lashings from Vice President Dick Cheney, has been largely unsuccessful in undoing three decades of environmental law.

Add comment Datestamp: March 17th, 2008

E.P.A.

March 15 – May 3, 2008
Opening Saturday March 15, 7-9pm

Exit Art is pleased to announce the opening of E.P.A. Environmental Performance Actions, the first project of S.E.A, a large-scale program dealing with current environmental concerns and the way artists respond to them. E.P.A is a group exhibition surveying recent performance work from around the world that addresses current environmental crises. The exhibition will consist of videos, photographs, texts, related ephemera and a film program documenting recent performances. For this opening project we have invited curator, Amy Lipton, and founder/co-curator Patricia Watts of ecoartspace, a leading international environmental arts organization, to collaborate with Exit Art on the organization and presentation of this material. E.P.A. will include performance documentation from more than 30 international artists. These works, created in the public sphere, draw attention to and engage the public in a dialogue about issues such as climate change, watersheds, urbanization and, ultimately, human survival. E.P.A. will set the precedence for future exhibitions of S.E.A. dealing with environmental issues including The End of Oil, about the global oil crisis and alternative energy, and Consume, about food production, agricultural and sustainable living practices. An exhibition of historical social-environmental art works is also planned to place this work in context.

ARTISTS

Brandon Ballengée, Vaughn Bell/Sarah Kavage/Nicole Kistler, Mark Brest van Kempen, Carissa Carman/Joanna Lake, Center for Tactical Magic, Susanne Cockrell/Ted Purves, Xavier Cortada, Carrie Dashow/Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg/The Society for a Subliminal State, Erica Fielder, Ozzie Forbes, Futurefarmers, , Fritz Haeg, Amy Howden-Chapman, Basia Irland, Scot Kaplan, Carolyn Lambert, Robin Lasser, Kathryn Miller, Matthew Moore, Eve S. Mosher, EcoArtTech: Christine Nadir/Cary Peppermint, Andrea Polli and Joe Gimore with scientific collaborator Dr. Patrick Market, Rapid Response Cobb/Fend/Fischer/Meyer, James Reed and Social Sculpture Research Unit/Earth Agenda Projects, Tod Seelie/Miss Rockaway Armada, Austin Shull, Brooke Singer/Brian Rigney Hubbard, Anne-Katrin Spiess, Chris Sollars

Add comment Datestamp: March 14th, 2008

at TAG in the Hague, Netherlands

Another cool exhibition where I am showing Superfund365.

Statement by the curators on ecoAesthetics:

Following the success of <>TAG’s September ‘07 Information Aesthetics exhibition and symposium, featuring work of different artists dealing with information visualization and generative art, <>TAG continues this path with an extended program on ecoAesthetics.

<>TAG presents work of artists dealing with visualization and sonification of ecology in a set of exhibitions and a related symposium with lectures, workshops, concerts and a city walk.

Synopsis
The ecoAesthetics programme challenges visitors to consider massive eco-related issues in different and inspiring ways. The work on display shows alternatives and solutions fusing visionary art and technology

How can artists translate everyday information visually or sonically? What are innovative artists and designers doing to promote conservation of resources using innovative technology and creative thinking? How can art make us more aware of the kilowatts we consume or the carbon we emit? Can artists significantly inspire observers to be more environmentally sensitive by giving information a particular form or sound? Furthermore, can art increase our ability to analyze and relate spiritually and emotionally to the natural world we live in?

Add comment Datestamp: March 11th, 2008