LIFT06: The power of fake

At LIFT06 in Geneva Regine Debatty of We-make-money-not-art is discussing the power of fake.
One aspect of new media art, she says, is making fake stuff, "which is an approach used mostly by activists" to make a point.
So it went with the first example: two artists (a duo known as 0100101110101101.ORG) put up a container on a place in Vienna, Austria, "explaining" how it would be renamed "Nike Place", and inviting people to "walk in to discover more". Inside the container was a very professional exhibit showing how Nike was planning to "buy" streets and other places, put up a gigantic red swoosh (its symbol) on another place (picture right), and so on. The two pranksters were criticizing the increasing privatization of public spaces (thing just as stadium naming rights), and strong reactions came from citizens, as well as from Nike
Their next artprank were fake billboards displayed in several European cities, including the EU capital Brussels (but also in NY) faking a US blockbuster movie: "United we stand - Europe has a mission", a film about a US-China war with Europe trying to stop it. In different places the reaction was different: in Europe it was read as making fun at the US, while in the US it was seen as poking fun at the slowness and bureaucratic nature of the European Union.
Another example: the "audio tooth implant" (picture left) (reminder: she's talking about fakes): you go to the dentist and you get a wireless microchip implanted in your tooth, augmenting in-body communication capabilities - needless to say, there was an uproar about the idea. The same happened with a provocative artwork called Bioteknica, by Shawn Bailey and Jennifer Willet. The website looks pretty scientific and credible, but it's a fake project on manipulation of the human organism.

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