By ROBIN WILSON
Beatriz da Costa and Steve Barnes were leaving a Holiday Inn outside of Boston last month on their way to a museum when an FBI agent called out their names. As they turned around, the agent served them both with subpoenas to appear this week before a federal grand jury.
Until that moment, Ms. da Costa, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California at Irvine, and Mr. Barnes, a Web-site designer at Florida State University, believed that the federal government might drop its investigation of their friend and associate, Steven J. Kurtz, an art professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The FBI became concerned after paramedics who had been called to Mr. Kurtz's home for an emergency last month found laboratory equipment and petri dishes that were later determined to hold three kinds of bacteria.
Mr. Kurtz, who together with Ms. da Costa and Mr. Barnes are affiliated with an art collective that produces unconventional exhibits, told authorities that the equipment and microbes were harmless and were part of his work on the politics of biotechnology. Mr. Barnes describes the work as "a rational critique of the political economy of capitalism," which "exposes that science has a political agenda."
But Mr. Kurtz is now under federal investigation for possessing a "biological agent," and the FBI has seized lab equipment and the bacteria -- all of them commonly found in nature -- from his home. In an e-mail message to The Chronicle he referred all questions to his lawyer.
The confiscated equipment -- which is used to extract DNA from food -- was to be the centerpiece of a new exhibit on the genetic makeup of organic corn at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, in North Adams, Mass. When they were approached by the FBI agent, Ms. da Costa and Mr. Barnes were en route to the museum, where there is now a note telling patrons why the exhibit's demonstrations have been canceled.
What touched off the investigation of Mr. Kurtz was a 911 call he made after he woke up one morning last month and discovered that his 45-year-old wife, Hope, had stopped breathing. She had died unexpectedly of heart failure. Not only is Mr. Kurtz mourning her, say his friends and colleagues, but his own work has been halted by the FBI's seizure of his teaching materials, research notes, books, and computer.
Because the subpoenas suggest that federal authorities want to know not only whether Mr. Kurtz unlawfully possessed harmful bacteria but also whether his research with it was legitimate, the inquiry has sent a chill through academe and among artists in general.
"Artists should realize that their work is no longer defined by the institution or the people doing it, but by the people saying, 'We've never seen anything like this,'" said a colleague of Mr. Kurtz's at Buffalo who spoke on the condition that he not be identified.
Gregory G. Sholette, a visiting professor of art at Colgate University last semester who serves on the board of the College Art Association, a society for visual-arts professionals, said: "What it looks like is that this group is being singled out more for its critical and political perspective than any other substantial reason."
A Government Overreaction?
The paramedics who rushed to Mr. Kurtz's home failed in their attempts to revive his wife. While there, though, they were alarmed to see the petri dishes, lab equipment, and books on bioterrorism. They alerted the Buffalo police.
Officers from the U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force, including FBI agents and others wearing hazardous-materials suits, spent 36 hours examining Mr. Kurtz's home after securing a search warrant. Paul Moskal, a spokesman for the FBI's Buffalo office, said agents took "samplings of unknown material" that they sent to a state health laboratory. Mr. Moskal would not identify the material as bacteria but said the lab determined that Mr. Kurtz had correctly described the material to officers.
Although county health officials eventually pronounced his home safe and allowed Mr. Kurtz to go back, the FBI has returned none of his materials in their possession.
The Critical Art Ensemble, the small collective to which Mr. Kurtz belongs, has sponsored museum exhibits on genetic engineering and genetic modification of food. He was using the bacteria for research on biological warfare and bioterrorism, colleagues say. That research was aimed at starting a public dialogue, they explain, through his art and through a book he was writing.
The subpoenas cite federal law prohibiting the possession of "any biological agent, toxin, or delivery system of a type or in a quantity that, under the circumstances, is not reasonably justified by a prophylactic, protective, bona fide research, or other peaceful purpose."
Mr. Barnes, the art-collective member from Florida State, said that the DNA-extraction device seized from Mr. Kurtz's home can be purchased on eBay, and that the microbes he had were "Biosafety Level 1 bacteria, which basically means it can be used in a regularly trafficked area." According to the Web site of the Federation of American Scientists, laboratories suitable for work with Biosafety Level 1 organisms are like those typically found in high schools.
Paul J. Cambria, Mr. Kurtz's lawyer, said the professor "feels the government is overreacting."
"We don't know at this point for sure whether or not their overreaction is solely a result of the times, or whether it is because of a disagreement with his message, or a combination of the two," Mr. Cambria said.
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, civil-liberties advocates have criticized the federal government, which they say has used the threat of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on dissenting views. This year, for example, a federal prosecutor tried to use a subpoena to gather information about people who had attended an antiwar rally at Drake University (The Chronicle, March 5). Also this year, U.S. Army intelligence officers grilled people at the University of Texas at Austin about a conference on Islam held there (The Chronicle, March 5 and March 26).
William J. Hochul, chief of the terrorism division of the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, has refused to comment on the investigation into Mr. Kurtz.
Mr. Barnes said the inquiry has turned into a witch hunt. "The investigators have enough information to know that he's not linked to any activity other than the arts scene," he said of Mr. Kurtz. "So essentially they're telling him there's no room for amateur science, and unless you're a government researcher you have no business having this stuff."
Colleagues of Mr. Kurtz concede that his artwork is unusual. "It's the job of the artist to really innovate, and one of the things they're always doing is inventing whole new mediums for making art," said Paul Vanouse, an assistant professor of art at Buffalo who has been subpoenaed in the investigation. He said he is concerned about the message that this case will send to institutions promoting collaboration between artists and scientists. "This is one of the big boom areas, with a lot of universities creating centers for art and technology," he said.
Adele Henderson, who heads the art department at Buffalo, said the idea that Mr. Kurtz was engaged in illegal activity is "absurd." She said the university had hired him precisely because of his controversial work. Art professors, she explained, often keep their supplies and projects at home because the university does not provide them with studio space.
The College Art Association has drafted a letter supporting Mr. Kurtz. Artists and academics are planning a demonstration outside the federal courthouse in Buffalo during the grand-jury hearing this week.
Ms. da Costa -- who attended a memorial service for Mr. Kurtz's wife, which happened to fall on the couple's 20th wedding anniversary -- said the professor is "miserable." Mr. Cambria, his lawyer, said, "Anytime the federal government comes down on you it is intimidating. They hold all of the cards."
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Section: The Faculty
Volume 50, Issue 41, Page A13