Truth Serum – Installation

FACT, Liverpool 2008

This project explored the experimental use of psychopharmacology in relation to security culture as pursued by the Department of Homeland Security in USA and intelligence services in the UK.  Its context linked the extraordinary renditions programme to the persecution of artists engaged with bioart in the USA.

A gallery-based installation consisted of two rooms. One was an empty space with a written text on the Order of Randy, accompanied by a mirrored image on a wall. The other, referred to as the sleeper cell, was accessed via a concealed door int he first space, and contained multiple videos and audio. A further performance event, an offsite immersive experiment, allowed visitors to experience the use of psychological techniques to gain insights into whether someone was telling the truth, or not. 

The project also led to a catalogue essay under the name of Office of Experiments; ‘The Psychopharmacology of Truthfulness’. It was written by Nicholas Langlitz and it explored the history and use of truth serums by the CIA and FBI, addressing their efficiency and psychological veracity as effective invasive methods of interrogation.

Framed by theoretical work on ‘bare life’ and human rights by Georges Agamben, the research into experiments with drugs by US agencies also drew facts surrounding the extraordinary renditions programme that were taking place at the time, and the persecution and prosecution of politically active bio-artists i.e. FBI charges against Steve Kurtz of Critical Art Ensemble 2004-9. The research examined both the historic and contemporary use of drugs in interrogation by FBI and CIA, and the ethical attitudes of the public to the concept of a truth serum in particular. The work itself also explored the role of the state in censoring art, and to some extent, questions the role of an artist as ‘agent provocateur’.

The filmed performance experiment was re-shown in a new installation of the work, combining both elements – installation and experimental performance, at Casino Foundation in Luxembourg. Audiences were able to watch other members of the audience, and were given information in order to help them analyse experiments for themselves.

Truth Serum – Experimental Event

Participants / volunteers were renditioned voluntarily from FACT, by appointment. Following a health and safety briefing, they were driven by Randy, who was one of Office of Experiments team to an abandoned warehouse, and an offsite processing centre where they met further members of the team, also known as Randy. Volunteers signed further consent forms prior to psychological conditioning by films featuring Randy, and then participated in an automated interrogation. This consisted of software designed to predict truth, with volunteers placed under stress to respond Truth or False using buttons on a desk integrated with a projector. The questions were designed to cause uncertainty. Using this known technique, referred to as the ‘stroop’ effect, the participants were filmed from behind so as to collect data on the speed of their response. Withthis also being captured by the software, analysis could be made of the truthfulness of the participant. Or so they thought. With participants selecting placebos, alcohol or Scopolamine (truth serum patch worn on the skin) to enhance the experience, they were finally released when they answered true to the statement in the software programme that the artist Steve Kurtz on trial for Un-American activity in the USA was innocent. The experiment and participants were carefully monitored by Arts Catalyst.

Video documenting some of the self-experimenters made by FACT learning team is available on Youtube here: 

Commissioned and supported by Arts Catalyst, London.

‘Truth Serum’, was exhibited at FACT supported by Goethe Institut and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Truth Serum featured in Thames and Hudson World of Art Series ‘The Body in Contemporary Art’ (O’Reilly, S, 2010 p199-200).

Skinterface was supported by American Center Foundation, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’Art Contemporain, Institut Français du Royaume-Uni, UKCTE University of Liverpool, SymbioticA/University of Western Australia.