The second ISEA day in Tallinn has started. I'm currently in a panel on legal implications of avant-garde science / art projects. Mainly they're talking about the Steve Kurtz case - an artist in the US who was charged with bioterrorism offences when ambulance officers (whom he'd called following the sudden death of his wife) found bio-active substances which he was using in his art. While such charges have now been dropped, he's still being charged with mail fraud - not a minor matter in the US either...

I must admit that such debates always seem to have a somewhat impotent character for me - there is much lamentation about existing power structures, but little indication as to what can be done to effect change. They are now talking about Creative Commons [6], at least (but it's interesting to note that that project is driven in the first place by law rather than arts scholars...). The Open Society Institute in Budapest is also mentioned.

A good critical question now - are we simply spinning conspiracy theories here? In order to talk about the Kurtz case, do we need to assume a conspiracy against Steve as an artist, a critical artist, an artist critical of biotechnology? In other words, perhaps, are we more or less inventing or overemphasising some of the details of this case because it then makes a good example for the kind of things Critical Art Ensemble protests against?

In response to this question, one of the presenters talks about how a 'spectacle' needs to be created in order to 'sell' the campaign to the public. To what extent is the Kurtz case used cynically as a spectacle, then? What's Kurtz's own view of this, incidentally? We seem to be talking a lot about about him rather than with him...

Quote from one of the panellists: if you're doing good work as an artist or scientist in this field, you're bound to get into trouble. Sorry, but honestly: that is a conspiracy theory! (Another participant now suggests breaking Steve out of prison and getting him out of the country - this is getting weird...) There seems to be some degree of hysteria especially by US-based participants and their friends here - perhaps this is a sign of the times under the GWB regime, but we others also need to bring some of this discussion down to earth again, I feel. Or are things really as bad as they seem?