DATELINE–New York City

Meet Sharon Kirksghard, a struggling artist with a knack for getting into tight financial corners. In the last 6 months, Kirksghard has been contacted by two separate collection agencies, enrolled in three credit counseling programs, and accumulated personal debt of over $60,000 on five different credit cards.

But what sets Kirksghard apart from the millions of Americans who are also grappling with credit problems is the artist’s conviction that she can transform her debt into works of art. In fact, she may have already succeeded in doing so.

Last week, Kirksghard unveiled her latest project at the Drawing Center in New York as part of a show devoted to art with a financial theme. The masterpiece? A 30 foot long by 14 foot tall flowchart which describes one of the artist’s most recent credit card fiascos.

Entitled “2.8.99,” the piece details a convoluted and costly transaction made by Kirksghard earlier this year in which she paid off one creditor, a collection agency, with another credit card.

In visual terms, the piece is as compelling as it is complicated. Using crisp black lines, large blocks of red space, and informational graphics in the style of an economics textbook, “2.8.99″ is both formally fantastical and eerily factual.

The document describes how the artist must repay the amount of the original advance plus 17.5% in interest compounded daily. Despite its size and content, there is nothing sensational about its tone. Throughout the piece, Kirksghard refrains from “adding [her] two cents” and relies, instead, on a distant, matter-of-fact approach.

The flowchart is accompanied by a supplementary piece called “The Bottom Line", a large sheet of white paper framed by pencils attached to the gallery wall with rubber bands. A plaque to the right of “The Bottom Line” instructs visitors to calculate the artist’s “Finance Charges Due to Periodic Rates” using rules lifted directly from the back of Kirksghard’s last billing statement.

Kirksghard says she was inspired to make art out of her debts after she found herself caught in a bizarre catch 22 by a counseling program she had joined in the hopes of resolving her debt in a conventional manner.

“They told me,” recalls a bemused Kirksghard, “that I couldn’t transfer my debt to another card (because the program prohibits participants from obtaining new credit lines) but that if I became delinquent I could get a reduced rate – in other words, I had to become a bad debtor in order to ‘get good with God.’ I just started laughing.”

So far, Kirksghard has been laughing all the way to the bank, although she has yet to sell any of her pieces and is accruing almost $400 daily in additional debt. Howard Feitel Jr., the curator of the “Art of Finance” show at the Drawing Center, is optimistic about the future of Kirksghard’s work. He believes that America’s worsening debt problem will set the scene for avant-garde artists like Kirksghard.

“You hear all these awful stories about debt and collection agencies,” Feitel says. “Bad debt is getting people into a lot of trouble and work like Kirksghard’s questions many of the assumptions we have about credit being ‘good’ or ‘bad’.”

Kirksghard, for one, thinks having bad credit is “a magnetic state of being” in contemporary America and “beyond good and evil.” Though her convictions may seem radical, the artist claims she is not simply avoiding the gravity of her situation. In fact, her current project, slated to debut in July of this year, is an effort to tackle the seriousness of her financial problems from a political perspective.

The work-in-progress, which will use over 800 sheets of accounting ledger paper, is comprised of fastidiously recorded financial transactions culled from the last 9 months of Kirksghard’s life. Says Kirksghard, “My life is actually quite little and happy but on paper it looks very big and very sad.”

True to that sentiment, the title of the piece is already 100 characters in length:"The Credit History of America Through the Paper Trail of One Sharon Kirksghard, An Average American.”

DATELINE–The World Without Borders

New York, NY. Club promoters say they’ve got the germ of the next underground scene: the bacteria known as Vibrio phosphoreum. Originally classified as Photobacterium, this bacteria derived from such deep sea creatures as squid literally glows in the dark when it comes into contact with oxygen. While some forms of Vibrio are highly toxic to humans, P. leiognathi, a hearty and innocuous strain, has become all the rage among Gotham’s fashionable in-crowd. The bacteria is being imbibed in pricey cocktails with names like “Hello Yello” and “C-ME-C-U". But besides the obvious attraction of serving up eerily iridescent drinks, the driving force behind skyrocketing sales of Vibrio -laced refreshments is its surreal side-effect. For several hours after consuming the luminescent bacteria, bodily fluids glow in the dark.

Anaheim, Calif. After a successful launch in early February, the Russian space agency has reportedly sold its “solar sail” technology to a United States aerospace firm. The extravagant Znamya or “banner” device consists of a thin metallic mirror over 200 feet in diameter attached to a powerful artificial satellite. The orbiting mirror is designed to reflect the sun’s rays thereby creating an intense beam of light that can illuminate a three mile radius of land anywhere on earth. Using a standard satellite transport, the solar mirror can be repositioned within less than 12 hours and then locked into a fixed geosynchronous orbit. According to Znamya’s new owner, Matin-Dummond Technologies, the $4.9 billion dollar satellite has already been contracted by the Bechtel Corporation and several law enforcement agencies.

Havana, Cuba. The Cuban government announced it will debut its first ever foreign television advertising campaign to promote the nation’s growing tourism industry. The ads entice would-be visitors with the unique opportunity to “observe first-hand a true Socialist state” while enjoying the comforts of Cuba’s four star resorts, exciting discos, and authentic restaurants. Scheduled to air in July of 1999, the campaign is intended to highlight the 40th anniversary of the Caribbean nation’s communist revolution. Produced by the British ad agency Wexley-Horell, the 30 second spots will be broadcast throughout Canada, France, Spain, Germany, and parts of eastern Europe.

Federal District, Mexico.A $2.4 billion civil suit has been filed against Volkswagen AG by the City of Mexico. The lawsuit charges the German automaker with “willful acts of environmental destruction” and may have been inspired by the wave of anti-handgun suits currently sweeping the United States. Chief among the complaints is the continuing manufacture of 60’s era Volkswagen “Bugs” in Mexico. The popular model which was recently revamped for U.S. and European markets is still being made and sold as new in its original, gas-guzzling incarnation to the Mexican consumer. The City’s chief litigant in the case Lic. Eugenio Riuz says Volkswagen is well aware that it cannot sell the 60’s Bugs in any other market because of safety and emissions standards but “continues to dump them on us.” In its defense Volkswagen issued a press release stating its “firm commitment to surpassing environmental protection standards around the world.” The company also expressed disappointment over the lawsuit and hopes that the dispute will be settled before the case goes to trial in August.

DATELINE–Southside

A group of Southside residents forms a coalition to screen wealthy prospective tenants who are forcing them out of the neighborhood.

“I’m a community-type person, I have a steady job and I’m interested in learning Spanish.” These are Bruce Landing’s closing words, spoken to a predominantly Latino audience that fills the gymnasium of Southside’s Earl Warren High School. By the time Landing sat down, another candidate was already at the podium, ready to begin her own presentation.

Landing’s five minute speech was the final step of an interview process that began when the 32 year-old software consultant decided to move to Southside with his fiance Jeannie Blanchard. The couple, along with some 40 other candidates, are competing for the chance to move into one of a dozen vacant residential units in the mostly working-class and Latino community of Southside.

Most of the candidates presenting their case at tonight’s meeting are white collar professionals in their late twenties and early thirties. They have agreed to participate in a four month long selection process that began with nearly 600 candidates. Despite a taxing schedule of paperwork, interviews and workshops, Landing and Blanchard consider themselves “two of the lucky ones.”

So far the couple has only had to pay a one-time $25 application fee. “Most of our friends,” says Landing, “are having to put exorbitant [real estate] broker’s fees on their credit cards to find a decent place in the city. What we’re doing is the only reasonable option.”

Though others may disagree with Landing’s logic, it¼s become apparent that there is no other alternative for anyone wishing to move into the Southside district. Only eight months ago, Landing and his fellow apartment hunters could have scooped up a spacious apartment in Southside by dealing directly with a landlord, management company or property owner. Not surprisingly, it was money that did most of the talking in those days.

According to the local real estate board, from January of 1997 to August of 1999 over two hundred units changed hands in Southside, with incoming tenants typically paying rents two to three times higher than that of their predecessors. In a matter of months, rents in Southside were escalating almost exponentially and the neighborhood’s largely immigrant and blue-collar residents were seeing themselves pushed out, at times literally, by the sudden gentrification.

But in November of 1998, a coalition of Southside residents, housing activists, and church leaders successfully petitioned City Hall for the right to create a “community co-op". The ordinance allowed long-term residents of Southside to form a semi-autonomous committee operating under the aegis of the City Planning Commission.

After several weeks of door-to-door canvassing, the Southside Neighborhood CO-OP was formed with official sanction to screen prospective tenants and enforce a limited rent protection clause applicable to low-income residents. In addition, CO-OP members are invited to make recommendations to the Planning Commission on disputed business permits and parking grievances.

Octavio Chinchilla, a key proponent for the Southside Neighborhood CO-OP, argues that the organization has given the community a chance to influence its own transformation. The former supervisor and housing advocate cites the growing number of Southside residents in attendance at weekly CO-OP meetings as evidence that the organization is working.

“Clearly no law is going to reverse the bullet train of gentrification,” argues Chinchilla, “but at least this is putting on the brakes and slowing things down to a rate where old people and working class people can get on and off without hurting themselves.”

Despite its popularity among the residents of Southside, the CO-OP is being challenged in the courts. Property owners and, in one case, a libertarian political group, have filed lawsuits against the city legislature contesting the CO-OP’s legality under federal civil rights statutes. The lawsuits claim that the CO-OP denies renters fair access to the housing market and, in many cases, amounts to “reverse discrimination.”

Victor Miller, one of the CO-OP’s founding members, strongly disagrees with these accusations. A 43 year-old Vietnam veteran, Miller has lived in Southside all of his life, working as a handyman and mechanic. He says he had been planning to move out of Southside before joining the CO-OP. Now he plans to stay and urges other long-term residents of Southside to do likewise and participate in the CO-OP.

Says Miller, “For years we’ve been trying to get the City to help us clean up the neighborhood and nothing ever happened. Now, because of the rich people who want to move here and the CO-OP, we’ve got a handle to make things happen.”

Tonight Miller is sitting just a few seats to the right of Landing and Blanchard. As the final votes are tallied, there is some intermittent coughing and the quiet sounds of people shifting in metal folding chairs. Finally, the CO-OP secretary Gloria Portillo stands up and begins speaking. She invites those applicants who will not be accepted to reapply and reminds those who have been accepted of their responsibilities as the newest members of the Southside community. Finally, she reads the list of accepted applicants.

Landing and Blanchard leave the room beaming.