On March 3, 1998 the Monsanto owned company Delta and Pine Land Co and the US Department of Agriculture announced that they received US Patent No. 5,723,765 on a new genetic technology designed to prevent unauthorized seed saving by farmers. Up to 1.4 billion resource poor farmers in the South depend on farm saved seed and seeds exchanged with farm neighbors as their primary seed source (ETC Group). Dubbed Terminator Technology, this seed-sterilizing patent caused an unparalleled worldwide movement to prevent the commercialization of this technology.

The Carnavale of Bio Life is an interventionist performance and multi media project I initiated in November of 1998 at the San Francisco Arts Commission to protest Terminator Technology. What began as an installation grew into a performance project of over two dozen artists, musicians, activists, scientists, videographers, web designers and others, and spawned two organizations - the Hexterminators and Artists for Responsible Genetics, that actively worked against the commercialization of Terminator technology.

Between 1998 and 2001, we performed at, disrupted or intervened at:

UC Berkeley
San Francisco State University
The Radical Performance Fest in San Francisco
The Inaugural of Jerry Brown as Mayor of Oakland
Artists Television Access
The Alternative Media Conference (University of San Francisco)
The Biodevastation III Conference in Seattle
Reclaim May Day Celebrations in San Francisco
Monsanto Corporation Conference
WTO meetings in Seattle (1999)
World Bank meetings in Washington, D.C.

did art installations at

SOMARTS Gallery, SF
Artist's Television Access, SF
The Art Gallery at Cesar Chavez / SF State

and countless radio programs, public service announcement videos for cable channels, as well as attracting artists world wide.

WHAT STARTED IT ALL

I received an email in my inbox in June of 1998, that began There have been times in human history when the line between genius and insanity was so fine that it was barely perceptible. In the world of biotechnology and food, that line has just been obliterated. Announcements made over the past 90 days suggest that an ingenious scientific achievement and subsequent, related business developments threaten to terminate the natural, God-given right and ability of people everywhere to freely grow food to feed themselves and others. Never before has man created such an insidiously dangerous, far-reaching and potentially "perfect" plan to control the livelihoods, food supply and even survival of all humans on the planet. After confirming that this represented a legitimate development, I decided I could not sleep another night if this technology was commercialized. I organized the artists in my community and founded the Hexterminators.

HISTORY

The Hexterminators was a US based international collective of primarily POC performers, artists, activists, artactivists, poets, gardeners, scientists, multimedia and web artists that generated projects from 1998-2001to fill a void in genetic engineering activism. We were part of the largest worldwide mobilization in history to oppose a high-tech form of colonialism, exploitation and biodevastation: the genetic engineering of our food supply by Monsanto Corporation.

The Hexterminators used art, creativity, humor and entertainment to bring attention to genetic engineering, while expanding the debate from strictly environmental concerns into issues of economic and environmental injustice. We brought creative energy to genetic engineering activism through radical street performance, invisible theatre, multimedia art, web activism and outreach, visual art installations, radio interviews, panel discussions, university lectures, impromptu carnivals and direct action interventions. Wearing outlandish outfits to protests, we were featured in multiple media publications and broadcasts around the world.

Our Inaugural exhibit, the Carnavale of Biolife, was held at the San Francisco Art Commission from November 1998 through January 1999. We filled the gallery with a roulette wheel of the genetics era, while the Hexterminators Super Heroes made a special appearance to do street theatre.

My artists statement was based on the interconnections of the biotechnology industry, and read in part: My research on farmworkers has led me through an incredible journey, from farming, to agriculture, to agrochemical companies, to the mergers of agro-chemical corporations with pharmaceuticals and "life sciences" corporations. It has led me straight into the Biotechnology Revolution and the heart of ethics in this Brave New World. ..

Our work was manifold, using multiple strategies and tactics that were prevalent in the alter-globalization movement during the late 1990's, especially around activist disruption of the WTO meetings in Seattle in 1999. As artactivists focused on a campaign, we were not careful about documentation, and lost our repository of images and video from years of work.

THE LOW DOWN

You can get the low down on all our activities in a 2001 interview by Eugene Thacker for ctheory - online or pdf, and/or check out the pages below:

A FEW OF OUR ARTERVENTIONS

UPLOADING MATERIAL ON:

fabRAGE: fabulous resistance against genetic engineering

Operation Privatize This! Double Dip with Biotic Baking Brigade

Un-Safeway Action

Biodevastation Conference

Carnival Against Genetixs

warning:warning installation at ATA

Cesar Chavez Gallery at SF State

The Hexterminators!

UPLOADING MATERIAL ON: