…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
Franco and Eva Mattes are, in their own words, “a couple of restless European con-artists who use non-conventional communication tactics to obtain the largest visibility with the minimal effort.”
Their current work, involves a synthetic performance in the 3D online digital world of Second Life.
A past project called Nikeground, or, as their Web site says, “The Hardly Believable Nike Ground Trick,” was a “hyper-real theatrical performance”. Continue reading “0100101110101101.org”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The New York April Fools’ Committee Is Proud to Announce:
NEW YORK CITY’S 22nd ANNUAL APRIL FOOLS’ DAY PARADE
THE CIRCUS IS COMING! THE CIRCUS IS COMING!
The 22nd Annual April Fools’ Day Parade will march down Fifth Avenue, from 59th Street to Washington Square Park, beginning at 12 noon, Sunday, April 1, 2007. Continue reading “The 22nd Annual April Fools’ Day Parade”
…or so numerous people believed before it was revealed to be a deftly executed hoax. Havidol (the brand name of generic drug avafynetyme) is an entirely nonexistent anti-depressant, the brainchild of artist Justine Cooper, but that hasn’t stopped it from being featured on numerous community-run websites that purport to inform the miserable masses about their options for psychopharmaceutical salvation. Cooper set out to skewer drug companies and their advertising that masquerades as unbiased consumer information. It’s just a bonus that she also shed light on how easy it is for well-meaning individuals to disseminate plausible but completely incorrect information in the name of providing a public service. – RF
HAVIDOL is for the treatment of Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder (DSACDAD). It is the only known medication available for this newly recognized disorder.
Reuters video about the hoax campaign
The Billboard:
Most billboards are wheat-pasted posters, coming in two standard sizes, the most common being 12 x 22 feet. These are the billboards you see atop taller buildings and along the highway. The freestanding billboard of this size can be accessed with a 12 foot ladder. To access the ones atop buildings, you need Continue reading “Instructions for Billboard Liberation”
In 1993, Mark Dery wrote this seminal discourse coining the phrase Culture Jamming. I think it’s a must read for anyone interested in the subject. This is an open source document and is available on Mark Dery’s Web site. JS
“Culture jamming,” a term I have popularized by articles in The New York Times and Adbusters, might best be defined as media hacking, information warfare, terror-art, and guerrilla semiotics, all in one. Billboard bandits, pirate TV and radio broadcasters, media hoaxers, and other vernacular media wrenchers who intrude on the intruders, investing ads, newscasts, and other media artifacts with subversive meanings are all culture jammers. Continue reading “Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs by Mark Dery”