Re: <nettime> RIP Steven Kurtz

[David Garcia via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Becoming Steve - a personal note

Like many who knew and cared about Steve Kurtz I was so very sorry to 
hear of his death.

I first met Steve in the 1990s through his participation to Next 5 
Minutes festivals in Amsterdam and through Nettime. For me and many 
others the Critical Ensemble (CAE), the artist’s collective he 
co-founded- gave voice to a new kind of fluid cultural practice that 
refused to be domesticated or pinned down in traditional categories. 
CAE’s publications, performances and experiments helped those of us 
conditioned by the constraints of the art world to envision a set of 
wider research-based practices in which we could, in Steve’s words “be 
any kind of cultural hybrid. Artist, scientist, technician, 
craftsperson, theorist, activist, etc.,” And how “These many roles 
(becoming artist, becoming activist, becoming scientist, etc.) contained 
in each individual and group could be acknowledged and valued.” Through 
all his well-documented trials and tribulations Steve was somehow able 
to remain true to the ideal of ‘becoming’. His last publication shows 
how his practice remained relevant, necessary and urgent to the very 
end. To me and many others Steve’s loss is and will remain devastating.

David Garcia

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# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: https://www.nettime.org
# contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org