[arg_discuss] the Ztohoven Media Reality

[Andrea Phillips]

I love this part:

Back in the 1960s, Mr. Knizak added, he contrived to send hundreds of
packages to a randomly chosen apartment building in Prague: "clothes,
furniture, live fish, tickets to the movie theater."

"No art was present" in that action, he went on. "It meant a change in
the everyday life of everyday people. It didn't take place in a
gallery or museum, it just happened. Like love. You don't reason why.
It just is."

Thanks for posting this, Brian. It's making me thoughtful about the
roles of art and humor in our society. I'm also wondering who will be
the first of our merry band to be brought up on charges of teh
terrorism...


On Jan 25, 2008 7:30 AM, Brian Clark <bclark at gmdstudios.com> wrote:

> 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 :)

>

>

>

>

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-- 
Andrea Phillips
andrhia at gmail.com
http://www.deusexmachinatio.com
Words * Marketing * Interaction