Posted by Steve Dietz on September 20, 2004 3:31 PM
I agree with what you say - makes sense to me. Looking for some propecia?
Critical Art Ensemble: Four short films
From 1986-1993 Critical Art Ensemble made numerous low-tech films and
videos. In 1993, the launch of the visual digital revolution through
the use of graphic user interfaces and the WWW signaled an end, for
CAE, of the cause for legitimating low-tech production in mass media,
and CAE abandoned video production at this time to explore on-line
and digital graphic possibilities.
Manuel DeLanda: Ism-Ism
This rarely-seen film documents Manuel DeLanda's graffiti activities
between 1977 and 1979. Instead of tags and other more familiar forms
of art interventions on the street, DeLanda attacked commercial
billboards, morphing the faces of people in ads into bizarre looking
monsters.
Keith Sanborn: Operation Double Trouble
A detourned US government propaganda film.
Peggy Ahwesh: She-Puppet
Re-editing footage collected from months of playing Tomb Raider,
Ahwesh transforms the video game into a reflection on identity and
mortality, acknowledging the intimate relationship between Lara Croft
and her player. Moving beyond her implicit feminist critique of the
problematic female identity, she enlarges the dilemma of Croft's
entrapment to that of the individual in an increasingly artificial
world.
Eli Elliott:"ASSCroft"
A hilarious 4 min. PixelVision piece touching on the Patriot Act.
Dara Greenwald: Strategic Cyber Defense
4 mins. of jaw-dropping paranoid pathology from the Dept of Defense,
a warped 'in-house' training video chopped up into the perfect mix of
shredded clueless hysteria.
Eric Henry: Bear Witness III and Pirates & Emperors (or, Size Does Matter)
Bear Witness III, a music video for Dan the Automator, is a four-part
study in hubris. Each section explores a different ego trip-military,
cosmetic, scientific, and engineering/industrial-and takes it to its
logical conclusion. Pirates & Emperors (or, Size Does Matter) is a
wry political cartoon about bullies big and small. It is set to
original music and animated in a style reminiscent of the popular
"Schoolhouse Rock" educational video series. It illustrates the
notion that if you are a successful enough bully, you can pretty much
write your own ticket and go by the name "emperor" or "president"
instead.
Rachel Mayeri: Stories from the Genome
Part cloning experiment, part documentary, Stories from the Genome
follows an unnamed CEO-geneticist whose company sequenced the Human
Genome in 2003-a genome that secretly was his own. Not satisfied with
this feat, the scientist self-replicates, producing a colony of
clone-scientists to save himself from Alzheimer's. Mayeri's video
comments on the dangers of short-sighted, self-interest in
contemporary biotechnology and its appropriation for profit of human
genetic information.
The US Federal Civil Defense Administration: What You Should Know
About Biological Warfare (1952)
How can we protect ourselves against the threats of germs and toxins?
This Cold War-era government film teaches viewers how to fend off
threats from unconventional bioweapons.
Keith Sanborn, artist, theorist and curator, has been working in film, photography, digital media and video since the late 1970s. He
has also translated several of the films of Guy Debord into English.
John Henry of the Institute for Applied Autonomy, an art and engineering collective that develops technologies for political dissent. Projects include the development of robots that can leaflet
or draw graffiti, and the text messaging TXTmob tool used by
protestors at the Republican National Convention.
Background on the case:
Since May 2004, Steve Kurtz, founding member of the acclaimed Critical Art Ensemble and professor in the Art Department at SUNY
Buffalo, has been under Federal investigation on Grand Jury charges
relating to bio-terrorism under the PATRIOT Act. The investigation
stems from Steve's possession of biological equipment and bacteria
seized by the FBI from Kurtz's home, materials which can be found in
any high school science lab, but was used to create art critical of
the unrestrained use of biotechnology and the history of US
involvement in germ warfare experiments (including the Bush
administration's earmarking of hundreds of millions of dollars to
erect high-security laboratories around the country). In July, Steve
and his collaborator, Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh, were formally charged with four counts of
mail and wire fraud, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in
prison and a $250,000 fine. The Federal charges have been met with a
huge outcry from artists, scientists, researchers, and professors.
Clearly the absurd and disturbing charges are an attempt to use the
Patriot Act to target and intimidate artists and researchers who are
critical or controversial, and to curtail artistic and intellectual
freedom.
