Subterfuge Art
March 24, 2005 7:07 PM Subscribe
Today's article about art snuck into a museum reminded me of another story about a sign snuck onto a highway. Does anyone know of similar stories?
Well, all of the other bansky stuff adn also Culture Jamming.
posted by jmgorman at 7:17 PM on March 24, 2005
posted by jmgorman at 7:17 PM on March 24, 2005
One such culture jam being the suggestion that people replace Blockbuster's censored versions of R+ movies with the unedited originals (and try to get caught, and find out what the consequences would be).
I remember a story about someone renting a Lassie movie, and returning it with home bestiality porn taped over everything after the first 15 minutes. It's hard to corroborate this on the web without getting lots of pr0n results, though Snopes does rank high with a similar-sounding (and true) wedding tape story that may be the locus classicus.
posted by xueexueg at 7:24 PM on March 24, 2005
I remember a story about someone renting a Lassie movie, and returning it with home bestiality porn taped over everything after the first 15 minutes. It's hard to corroborate this on the web without getting lots of pr0n results, though Snopes does rank high with a similar-sounding (and true) wedding tape story that may be the locus classicus.
posted by xueexueg at 7:24 PM on March 24, 2005
Tom Green (on his Canadian show, which was way better than the MTV incarnation) did a bit where he snuck a piece into an major Ottawa art gallery (I think it was the National Gallery of Canada). He then came back later and proceeded to deface his own painting in front of a tour group, and got physically removed from the building for vandalism.
posted by Gortuk at 8:01 PM on March 24, 2005
posted by Gortuk at 8:01 PM on March 24, 2005
Apparently, when I was a kid my parents rented Bambi (or some other Disney thing... I think it was Bambi) from the local video store, and instead of the expected movie instead got one of the Ilsa movies.
posted by maledictory at 9:10 PM on March 24, 2005
posted by maledictory at 9:10 PM on March 24, 2005
I second Cockeyed.com. I think the "Atkinz" menu, featuring a stick o' butter topped with bacon among other things, and slipped onto a TGI Friday's menu, is their best. It looks so real!
posted by GaelFC at 9:11 PM on March 24, 2005
posted by GaelFC at 9:11 PM on March 24, 2005
One such culture jam being the suggestion that people replace Blockbuster's censored versions of R+ movies with the unedited originals (and try to get caught, and find out what the consequences would be).
It would have been easy to get caught. Just do it with two or more different tapes. When the complaints come in, all they have to do is cross-reference who rented the tapes. They'd probably charge you to replace the tapes, cancel your membership, and sue you for any damages that result from theit own lawsuits.
posted by AlexReynolds at 9:57 PM on March 24, 2005
It would have been easy to get caught. Just do it with two or more different tapes. When the complaints come in, all they have to do is cross-reference who rented the tapes. They'd probably charge you to replace the tapes, cancel your membership, and sue you for any damages that result from theit own lawsuits.
posted by AlexReynolds at 9:57 PM on March 24, 2005
Many years ago, the UBC engineers, who are renowned for their stunts, made about a dozen abstract sculptures and secretly installed them in various locations around the campus. Several weeks later, when everyone had more or less accepted the new artworks, the engineers paraded in with sledgehammers, yelling anti-arts chants, and smashed them all. You can imagine the outrage.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:42 PM on March 24, 2005
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:42 PM on March 24, 2005
I remember a story about someone renting a Lassie movie, and returning it with home bestiality porn taped over everything after the first 15 minutes.
Apparently, when I was a kid my parents rented Bambi (or some other Disney thing... I think it was Bambi) from the local video store, and instead of the expected movie instead got one of the Ilsa movies.
This was definitely a circulating UL (which doesn't mean it isn't true!), sans bestiality angle, almost from the beginning of the home video era. I imagine it's what certain people did before, you know, they could spoof goatse.cx links. If you couldn't make your own porn, I suppose you used Ilsa.
On topic, the history of culture jamming traces back through movements such as Fluxus and Situationism. -- and before that, Dadaism and Conceptual Art such as Duchamp's Fountain. These movement deconstructed the nature of art as well as the relationship between art and viewer; the prank aspects are more directed at the relationship between art viewers and the art establishment.
posted by dhartung at 11:35 PM on March 24, 2005
Apparently, when I was a kid my parents rented Bambi (or some other Disney thing... I think it was Bambi) from the local video store, and instead of the expected movie instead got one of the Ilsa movies.
This was definitely a circulating UL (which doesn't mean it isn't true!), sans bestiality angle, almost from the beginning of the home video era. I imagine it's what certain people did before, you know, they could spoof goatse.cx links. If you couldn't make your own porn, I suppose you used Ilsa.
On topic, the history of culture jamming traces back through movements such as Fluxus and Situationism. -- and before that, Dadaism and Conceptual Art such as Duchamp's Fountain. These movement deconstructed the nature of art as well as the relationship between art and viewer; the prank aspects are more directed at the relationship between art viewers and the art establishment.
posted by dhartung at 11:35 PM on March 24, 2005
An artist friend of mine postered our Budapest neighborhood with fake signs designed to look very official informing dog owners of an imaginary "new law" requiring dog owners to pick up their pets' droppings. He set high fines as a threat, and sat back to watch what happened. It seemed to work for about a week.
posted by zaelic at 1:06 AM on March 25, 2005
posted by zaelic at 1:06 AM on March 25, 2005
I actually saw one of these as a child, in Glen Cove, New York. It was a perfectly nornal roadsign near some roadwork, but it read "Road Defriblicating. Do Not Dovil."
My mother stoped to ask the roadworkers what that could possibly mean, and was told that the sign had been put up by a few of the guys working on the road who were upset that passers-by didn't care enough about their safety to obey a regular SLOW sign. Their solution was to create a deliberate cause for rubbernecking in order to slow traffic.
My family still refers to stupid rules as "dovils". - my mom has a picture of the sign, which was only up for a week or so.
posted by booklemur at 2:52 AM on March 25, 2005
My mother stoped to ask the roadworkers what that could possibly mean, and was told that the sign had been put up by a few of the guys working on the road who were upset that passers-by didn't care enough about their safety to obey a regular SLOW sign. Their solution was to create a deliberate cause for rubbernecking in order to slow traffic.
My family still refers to stupid rules as "dovils". - my mom has a picture of the sign, which was only up for a week or so.
posted by booklemur at 2:52 AM on March 25, 2005
Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple) tells the story of his prank at the first ever West Coast Computer Fair (where the Apple ][ was launched). Sneaking, extreme nerd prankery and Applelore rolled into one.
posted by i_cola at 3:17 AM on March 25, 2005
posted by i_cola at 3:17 AM on March 25, 2005
vaca mia in santiago - they walked a large canvas (of a cow) around the city for a while. not sure it was sneaky, though.
also, dabitch had a great photo of a fake street sign on her web site a while back.
posted by andrew cooke at 5:51 AM on March 25, 2005
also, dabitch had a great photo of a fake street sign on her web site a while back.
posted by andrew cooke at 5:51 AM on March 25, 2005
"Hacks", please, smackfu. The word "prank" implies something more along the lines of a trick or a practical joke, while hacks [in the MIT tradition] are generally more along the lines of illicit public art installations, most of which are also amusing. One of the smaller hacks is very much along the lines of Banksy's museum caper... the installation of No Knife: A Study in Mixed Media Earth Tones, Number Three, by James E. Tetazoo III. Unfortunately, hacks.mit.edu doesn't seem to have photographs or a description of the hack.
posted by ubersturm at 7:40 AM on March 25, 2005
posted by ubersturm at 7:40 AM on March 25, 2005
When Vasa ship was lifted from the botton of Baltic Sea by Swedes after 333 years in 1961 the first thing found was a statue of Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner.
It was placed there by few Finnish student divers the night before.
posted by zeikka at 8:44 AM on March 25, 2005
It was placed there by few Finnish student divers the night before.
posted by zeikka at 8:44 AM on March 25, 2005
In her college days my mother, while at a classical music concert, took one of the cards from the auditorium and taped it up in the women's lav.
"Please do not applaud between movements."
posted by blueberry at 8:38 AM on March 26, 2005
"Please do not applaud between movements."
posted by blueberry at 8:38 AM on March 26, 2005
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posted by smackfu at 7:16 PM on March 24, 2005