http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png http://io9.com/tag/steve kurtz http://io9.com/tag/steve kurtz

Using bacteria and harmless biological materials to whip up bio-art projects in your living room is not against the law, a U.S. district court determined yesterday. The decision marked the end of a four-year ordeal for artist Steve Kurtz, who was arrested in 2004 when his wife died and police arrived to discover petri dishes and other "suspicious" lab equipment in Kurtz's home. The equipment was for a show he and his wife had been prepping for a show about GMO foods at a Boston museum, but police confiscated it and detained Kurtz in jail anyway. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=382432&view=rss&microfeed=true

Art professor Steve Kurtz's wife, Hope, died in her sleep in May 2004. When Kurtz called 911, however, the police saw petri dishes and a mobile DNA-extraction machine and called in the feds. Kurtz tried to explain that the high-school-level lab equipment was part of an art project he and Hope had been doing about genetically modified foods, but the FBI decided he was a bioterrorist. This case still continues nearly four years later, and a new direct-to-DVD movie, Strange Culture, uses Tilda Swinton, Thomas Jay Ryan and other actors to unravel one of the scariest cases of science fiction dictating legal actions in recent history. We talked to the director, Lynn Hershman Leeson. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=374947&view=rss&microfeed=true