Truth Serum - Office Of Experiments, 2008

The Office of Experiments' experiment in consensual self-experimentation in support of freedom from artistic censorship was conducted with volunteers in a secret venue in Liverpool on Saturday 29 March 2008. The project sought to highlight the case of artists such as Steve Kurtz and Critical Art Ensemble, and their persecution in the USA, which marks an ever-increasing creep of the security state into the nervous system of culture. A small number of volunteers took part in the experiment; They were asked to attend a venue in Liverpool at a specific time on the day. Documentation and results from the experiment will be placed online soon.

The experiment was commissioned by The Arts Catalyst from Neal White of the Office of Experiments, as part of Sk-interfaces, an exhibition at FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), Liverpool. Developed with Dr. Nicolas Langlitz from the Anthropology Research Collaboratory and Max-Planck Institute, Berlin, for the Office of Experiments.

Truth Serum was also shown in Sk-interfaces at the Casino Foundation for Contemporary Art, Luxembourg. September 2009.

The work will feature in the forthcoming publication on 'The Body and Contemporary Art; by Sally O'Reilly for Thames and Hudson Twentieth Century Art Series.

An essay by Nicolas Langlitz 'The Office of Experiments' Truth Serum Threat: Notes on the Pharmacology of Truthfulness' accompanies the work. This can be downloaded opposite.