[-empyre-] Critical Questioning in relationship to Ant Farm

[Craig Saper]

Tim suggests the wonderful side of the fake (and Renate highlights it and calls it an “intervention”) suggests that something has shifted since 11/9. “They” have appropriated our favorite words: alt-x and applied them as euhemisms for double-speak … It reminds me that Ant Farm was not seeking to seize power in a coup, but to intervene in a rhetoric about “events” and “political news"

Talan Memmott also suggests a logic, or at least a partial rhetoric, of fake news as distinguished from news. What I wanted to comment on — and to ask the panel to continue to discuss — is the idea that we could systematically describe the terrain to mobilize as Ant Farm did (and Anna M.  and Randall P. do) — 

Thanks in advance for faking out the …. [need a word] the Fauxers.









On Jun 14, 2017, at 10:20 AM, Renate Terese Ferro <rferro at cornell.edu> wrote:

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In response to Tim—
Thanks Tim for posting the link to the Ant Farm intervention. I always love going back to look at these old tapes from Ant Farm.  Such a physical stunt with such conceptually and politically charged content. 

In response to Mark and Talan—
Mark and Talan thinking about Ant Farm in relationship to your intervention—that of classifying and “teaching” how to write “fake news.”  I need some help here.  Let me ask some very basic questions here because I am sure that our readership might be somewhat confused. 

When Margaret Rhee first introduced me to you she explained that you and Talan had taught a course on fake news.Who is it that this “class” was geared for?  Who ended up taking the class?   Do you see this project as a “stunt” as in driving a car through a wall of televisions as a conceptual gesture to critically look at the present day state of creating and interpreting the news?   If you are teaching how to write Fake News do you also have to teach how to write credible news or accounts?   In light of the fact that libraries, educational institutions and a host of others are setting out to educate the public on discerning fake from credibly news sources, how do you see this course in relationship to these trends?  

What’s fascinating here is that the boundaries between real and fiction are so blended today— but to get back to Ant Farm— where is the critical questioning in your mind in relationship to your teaching the class in retrospect?  

Renate Ferro
Visiting Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Art
Tjaden Hall 306
rferro at cornell.edu







On 6/13/17, 6:38 PM, "empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Mark Marino" <empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of markcmarino at gmail.com> wrote:

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