bhagat writes:

The article below is by Martin Rosenberg, Ph.D., a scholar of science, technology and culture living in the Pittsburgh area. I know it's a few weeks old now, but Martin is currently working on a new article about the CAE case, and so any comments from this audience would be much appreciated. The upcoming article, which will appear in one of the major Boston papers, makes an argument about the CAE case transforming the entire Ashcroft Justice Department into a conceptual art piece. Maybe a draft of the next piece will get posted here? — Lex

"The Paranoid Persecution of Steve Kurtz"
Martin E. Rosenberg, Pittsburgh Post Gazette

For the past month, artists, scientists, academics and others interested in freedom of thought and expression have had their eyes on Buffalo and a bizarre grand jury investigation into the case of The Artists Who Play With Petri Dishes.

The case involves a heart attack victim, and then a range of claims and denials: wrongful death by bacterial infection, possession of biological agents suitable for warfare, public health threats, terrorism, sedition, artistic freedom and First Amendment violations, paranoid McCarthyism and Keystone Cops shenanigans. Artists and scientists are so united in outcry that you would think that C.P. Snow had never written his "Two Cultures" thesis that in the modern world, never the twain shall meet. The Bill of Rights makes for strange bedfellows.

Brave New Classrooms:

Educational Democracy and the
Internet

Call for Papers

One of the most idealistic promises of the internet as a
medium has been its democratic potential. In working to keep faith with
that promise, many educators seek reinforcement for a progressive
political belief that good education leads towards social justice.
Although this promise still glimmers, teachers who want to pursue the
democratic potential of the internet and electronic education have
increasingly encountered forces of homogenization, standardization,
censorship, hierarchy and corporatization. This edited volume,
entitled Brave New Classrooms: Educational Democracy and the Internet,
will examine the "other" side of online learning.

(Image)ining Resistance

Call for papers:

Editors: Keri Cronin and Kirsty Robertson

Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

We are seeking contributions for a collection of essays tentatively
titled (Image)ining Resistance. Our aim is to encourage interdisciplinary
approaches and critical examinations that address the use of visual imagery in
social and activist movements throughout history. From banners embroidered for
suffragette actions, to the impact of photographs taken in Soweto in 1976, to
political puppets created for recent global justice demonstrations, the
intersections between visual culture and activism relate a rich history with
transnational and transideological import. Interdisciplinary approaches are
encouraged, as are essays addressing a wide range of historical periods,
geographic regions and protest actions.

High Court Upholds Block of Web Porn Law

Anne Gearan, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a law meant to punish pornographers who peddle dirty pictures to Web-surfing kids is probably an unconstitutional muzzle on free speech.

The high court divided 5-to-4 over a law passed in 1998, signed by then-President Clinton and now backed by the Bush administration. The majority said a lower court was correct to block the law from taking effect because it likely violates the First Amendment.

Full story: here.

"New York Civil Liberties Union Questions The Investigation Of A Buffalo Artist"

June 21, 2004 -- The New York Civil Liberties Union is questioning the propriety of an investigation into the work of Buffalo artist and Autonomedia author Steven Kurtz. The NYCLU has written a letter to U.S. Attorney Michael Battle inquiring about the presentation of the case of Professor Kurtz to a Grand Jury.

“It doesn’t appear that this investigation satisfies the FBI standards that the facts and circumstances of the case must reasonably indicate that a crime has been committed,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU.

Dripht writes "Dripht's 'Mark Barnsley' available on-line

The video of Dripht's single 'Mark Barnsley' is available on-line

Red76 writes Portland/Chicago based arts collaborative Red76 will be in NYC to kick off a new project entitled NY Public Archive.

NY Public Archive will be housed at the Drawing Center (35 Wooster St.) and will serve as a space for folks to go and write and draw whatever it is that they are seeing, feeling, thinking in NYC right now. The hope being to create an archive from the material gathered of a finite period in the history of a place and time. As well to have the project serve as a framework for people to realize the potential of speaking their minds.

"BUS FROM NYC TO BUFFALO for PROTEST JUNE 15th

Calling for an IMMEDIATE END TO THE INVESTIGATION OF STEVE KURTZ and the
CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE

A group of artists in NYC are organizing a bus to go to Buffalo in support of Steve Kurtz from the Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). The demonstration will be in front of a Grand Jury in Buffalo on Tuesday June 15th, 9 AM at the Mahoney Federal Court House, Court St. Buffalo, NY.

Thus far seven subpoenas have been issued to: Adele Henderson, Chair of the Art Department at UB; Andrew Johnson, Professor of Art at UB; Paul Vanouse, Professor of Art at UB; Beatriz da Costa, Professor of Art at UCI; Steven Barnes, FSU; Dorian Burr and Beverly Schlee.

Please see the information about the CAE, the case and the peaceful demonstration attached below or visit www.caedefensefund.org.

The plan for the bus from NYC is to leave on the evening of the 14th, drive overnight to be there for the 9am hearing and return that same day to arrive back in New York City on the 15th at night. EXACT DETAILS TO FOLLOW.

"Liar's Poker"

Representation of Politics/Politics of Representation"

Brian Holmes

Basically, what I have to say here is simple: when people talk about politics in an artistic frame, they're lying. Indeed, the lies they tell are often painfully obvious, and worse is the moment when you realize that some will go forever unchallenged and take on, not the semblance of truth, but the reliability of convention. In a period like ours when the relationship to politics is one of the legitimating arguments for the very existence of public art, the tissue of lies that surrounds one when entering a museum can become so dense that it's like falling into an ancient cellar full of spider webs, and choking on them as you struggle to breathe. Now, the mere mention of this reality will make even my friends and allies in the artistic establishment rather nervous; but it is a reality nonetheless. And like most of the political realities in our democratic age, it has directly to do with the question of representation.

"Move Over, Michael Moore!"

Sheelah Kolhatkar, NY Observer

Reviewing the film documentary "The Corporation"

In the soon-to-be-released documentary The Corporation, a commodities trader named Carlton Brown stares into the camera and describes his first reaction upon hearing that two airplanes had crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

"How much is gold up?" he wondered. "My God, gold must be exploding!" He explains that he and his clients went on to mint money as gold futures shot up and the buildings came down.

Craven attempts to capitalize on tragedy aside, corporations and those who operate them are destined to behave amorally because, well, that’s what they do, according to The Corporation, a film that won the World Cinema Documentary Audience award at Sundance and opens in New York on June 30. The filmmakers’ reasoning is simple: Corporations by their very nature are psychopathic.

Full story here.