[arg_discuss] the Ztohoven Media Reality

[Brian Clark]

I've been watching for the last couple of months as the ripples about the
Ztohoven art prank have gained wider wrinkles: took almost two months before
people on this side of the Atlantic have started buzzing.

Short form: artists find a "remote weather camera" for a television show
and, one morning, replace the live feed from that camera with a nuclear
explosion:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=MzaN2x8qXcM

Of course, this is Czech Republic -- people yawn, shrug and go about their
lives, no "War of the Worlds" moment ensues. Until the rest of Europe gets
ahold of it and outrage starts building, and that was only because the
television station they hacked kept replaying the video over and over again
on their news. Now the artists will tried for "scaremongering and attempted
scaremongering" but are also getting awards from art groups for the work.

They are using the phrase "Media Reality".

"I think the goal of Czech mystification is to show us that we live in a
world continually mystifying us - the politicians, the advertisers." He
paused over his Pilsner, then raised the glass. "Thank God for Ztohoven.":

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/arts/design/24abroad.html?em&ex=1201323600
&en=00343bc9c0ebf1d4&ei=5087%0A

Makes me want to start geotagging the location of those silly weather
cameras ... I'm just not sure I'll fake a nuclear explosion :)