Marcy LaViollette - The Art of the Prank

November 9, 2017December 15, 2023

Did Fake News Skew the Presidential Election?

UPDATE November 9, 2017: Paul Horner, the protagonist of this story, was found dead at home on September 18, 2017, possibly from a drug overdose. Poynter.org investigates how his websites have disappeared in recent weeks, plus other unanswered questions.

Among the myriad of influences on the presidential election results, a prominent and pervasive force has been fake news, propagated by unscrupulous merchants seeking traffic via social media. Here’s a quasi-confession of one such voice.

Here also, from NYMag.com is “An Extremely Helpful List of Fake and Misleading News Sites to Watch Out For“.

Facebook fake-news writer: “˜I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me”
by Caitlin Dewey
Washington Post
November 17, 2016

What do the Amish lobby, gay wedding vans and the ban of the national anthem have in common? For starters, they”re all make-believe “” and invented by the same man.

Paul Horner, the 38-year-old impresario of a Facebook fake-news empire, has made his living off viral news hoaxes for several years. He has twice convinced the Internet that he”s British graffiti artist Banksy; he also published the very viral, very fake news of a Yelp vs. “South Park” lawsuit last year.

But in recent months, Horner has found the fake-news ecosystem growing more crowded, more political and vastly more influential: In March, Donald Trump”s son Eric and his then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, even tweeted links to one of Horner”s faux-articles. His stories have also appeared as news on Google.

In light of concerns that stories like Horner”s may have affected the presidential election, and in the wake of announcements that both Google and Facebook would take action against deceptive outlets, Intersect called Horner to discuss his perspective on fake news. This transcript has been edited for clarity, length and “” ahem “” bad language. <a href="http://Read more…

March 17, 2014December 15, 2023

Creative Activism in Bulgaria

From Marcy LaViollette: Appreciated and reblogged from animalnewyork.com

Bulgaria’s Soviet Soldier Statue Vandalized Again: The Ukraine Colors Edition
by Marina Galperina
Animalnewyork.com
February 25, 2014

The most hated statue in Sofia, Bulgaria has been painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, in solidarity with the revolution and the deadly protests in the former Soviet Republic.

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It is, essentially, a gigantic bronze relief to remind the Bulgarian people about an invading Soviet forces that crushed and “liberated” the country from its a reformist uprising 45 years ago. It was previously vandalized in June 2010 when the soldiers were painted as Superman, Ronald McDonald, Santa Claus and other capitalist/pop culture American icons, captioned below in graffiti: “In step with the times!”

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It was vandalized again in August 2013, when it was sprayed entirely in hot pink and tagged with the words “Prague “68”³ and “Bulgaria apologizes” in Czech and Bulgarian, as in, sorry about the Warsaw Pact, you know, that time Bulgarian troops aided the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

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And of course, that time in August 2012 when it was briefly balaclava”ed in tribute to the jailed Russian feminist art-band activists of Pussy Riot.

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lead image: AFP Photo/Nikolay Doychinov

October 22, 2013December 15, 2023

Fake Banksy Art Sells to Fake Art Collectors

From Marcy LaViollette:

Artist Holds Fake Banksy sale, Sells Out in an Hour
by Andy Cush
animalnewyork.com
October 21, 2013

Banky”s Central Park art sale presented an unusual opportunity: works of art worth thousands of dollars, on sale to the public for $60 a pop. For those of us who didn”t get in on the action (the sale was unannounced and only eight paintings sold), watching the action play out on YouTube was positively maddening. It was tempting to go out and look for more even though the artist explicitly stated the stunt was a one-off.

That”s where artists Dave Cicirelli and Lance Pilgrim came in. A week after Banksy”s fire sale, Cicirelli and a group of collaborators took to the street, setting up a nearly identical stand in the same location and selling “fake Banksys” –imitation works of art that were explicitly labeled as such–also for $60 each. Forty of the bogus works, which even came with notarized “certificates of inauthenticity,” sold out in an hour.

“We wouldn”t have sold any, if not for the media hype around Banksy,” Cicirelli told ANIMAL. “That was kind of the point””we wanted to complete his statement about the nature of hype and the value of art. Banksy”s stunts have created a haze of uncertainty around everything, and we created “˜Fake Banksy” within that haze.”

Cicirelli is no stranger to stunts like these: in September, he published a book about using Facebook to fictionalize his own life, and he says he”ll invest the money the team netted into upcoming projects.

“Also,” he adds, “I”m buying a Banksy.”

Banksy’s in NYC: Better Out Than In

From Marcy LaViollette: Banksy has taken up residency on the streets of NYC for the month of October, 2013

From Banksy’s Better Out Than In Website:

October 6 – No posts today due to shocking footage found on YouTube:

October 5

A New York delivery truck converted into a mobile garden (includes rainbow, waterfall and butterflies) will visit a different location every evening from dusk.

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Images found around town (some have already been tagged over) from October 2nd & 3rd: Continue reading “Banksy’s in NYC: Better Out Than In”

March 8, 2012December 15, 2023

10 Commandments for Con Men

From Marcy LaViollette as seen on Lists of Note:

“Count” Victor Lustig was a con man of considerable note. Born in 1890, by the 1930s he was wanted by approximately 45 law enforcement agencies worldwide. He had 25 known aliases and spoke 5 languages. He cunningly gained $5k from Al Capone. Better still, in 1925, Lustig posed as a government official in Paris, took five businessmen on a tour of the Eiffel Tower, and then “sold” it to one of them as 7300 tonnes of scrap metal; the con went so well, he tried it again soon after.