Joey Skaggs | |
---|---|
Born | 1945 (age 78–79) United States |
Other names | Kim Yung Soo, Joe Bones, Joseph Bonuso, Giuseppe Scaggoli, Peppe Scaggoli, Dr. Josef Gregor, Joseph Virgil Skaggs, Dr. Richard J. Long, Dr. Joseph Schlafer, Dr. Joseph Chenango, Baba Wa Simba, Joseph Bucks, Jojo the Gypsy, Joseph Howard, Joseph Sullivan, and the Rev. Anthony Joseph. |
Education | High School of Art and Design School of Visual Arts (BFA) |
Occupation(s) | Artist, writer, teacher |
Website | https://joeyskaggs.com/ |
Joey Skaggs (born 1945) is an American multi-media artist, activist, satirist, educator and prankster whose work has been widely exhibited, disseminated and discussed internationally. [1] [2] [3] Skaggs pioneered the use of the media as his artistic medium and is one of the originators of the phenomenon known as culture jamming. [4] In a career spanning six decades, he has produced scores of works, including paintings, sculptures, guerrilla theater, [5] performance art, socially revealing hoaxes, media pranks, [6] and films [7] . He is a graduate of New York's High School of Art & Design and received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts where he also taught Media Communications for many years in addition to teaching at Parsons School of Design. He speaks internationally on divergent approaches to address social issues through art. [8]
Joey Skaggs’ art has a history of challenging and disrupting the status quo, examples of his notorious work include the Crucifixion, [9] Cat House for Dogs, [10] Solomon Project, [11] and Metamorphosis. [12] Fostering social change, cultural understanding, and individual empowerment are key elements of his activism through art. His work employs guerrilla theater and public relations strategies for social critique, continuing the legacy of theatrical satire with modern communication tools, all while adhering to the law and ethical practices. [13]
Skaggs’ projects are meant to reveal the susceptibility to hype, hypocrisy, and misinformation and highlight the public’s vulnerability to media manipulation by corporate conglomerates that prioritize profits over integrity. His art underscores the dangers of power misuse, conflicts of interest, and the blurring of entertainment and news. [14]
In interviews and on his website, Skaggs advocates for media literacy, critical analysis, questioning authority, using multiple information sources, and challenging preconceptions. [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]
According to Skaggs’ website, his artistic process frequently unfolds in stages he calls the hook, the line, and the sinker. First he crafts an absurd premise through press releases, brochures and/or staging an event or theatrical fabrication with actors and props, leaving obvious clues. Then he documents the hoax’s impact, recording media and public reactions, and tracking the narrative’s evolution. Finally, he unveils the truth, points out media irresponsibility, and begins a discussion about the underlying issues. [17]
In 2017, "Art of the Prank", Andrea Marini's award-winning feature documentary about artist Joey Skaggs, was released internationally on television and streaming platforms. [20] [21] [22] [23]
In 2020, production began on a series of short oral history documentaries featuring Skaggs and materials from his archive titled, “Joey Skaggs Satire and Art Activism, 1960s to the Present and Beyond”. The films are screening in international film festivals and will be available to the public at some point. [24]
A hoax is a widely publicised falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into putting up the highest possible social currency in support of the hoax.
The spaghetti-tree hoax was a three-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current-affairs programme Panorama, purportedly showing a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a "spaghetti tree". At the time of the report's broadcast, spaghetti was relatively unknown in the United Kingdom, and a number of viewers contacted the BBC afterwards for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees. Decades later, CNN called this broadcast "the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled".
Sidd Finch is a fictional baseball player, the subject of the notorious April Fools' Day hoax article "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch" written by George Plimpton and first published in the April 1, 1985, issue of Sports Illustrated. According to Plimpton, Finch was raised in an English orphanage, learned yoga in Tibet, and could throw a fastball as fast as 168 miles per hour (270 km/h).
Alan Irwin Abel was an American hoaxer, writer, and mockumentary filmmaker famous for several hoaxes that became media circuses.
Billionaires for Bush was a culture jamming political street theater organization that satirically purported to support George W. Bush, drawing attention to policies which were perceived to benefit corporations and the super-wealthy. The group would typically dress as parodies of wealthy "establishment" figures in tuxedos while proclaiming slogans such as "Two Million Jobs Lost—It's a Start".
The Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo and network of supporters created by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos. Through various actions, the Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about problematic social and political issues. To date, the duo have produced three films: The Yes Men (2003), The Yes Men Fix the World (2009), and The Yes Men Are Revolting (2014). In these films, they impersonate entities that they dislike, a practice that they call "identity correction." The Yes Men operate under the mission statement that lies can expose truth. They create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they intend to spoof, which have led to numerous interview, conference, and TV talk show invitations. They espouse the belief that corporations and governmental organizations often act in dehumanizing ways toward the public. Elaborate props are sometimes part of the ruse, as shown in their 2003 DVD release The Yes Men. The Yes Men have collaborated with other groups of similar interest, including Improv Everywhere, Andrew Boyd and Steve Lambert.
Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5-acre (4.2 ha) public park in the Alphabet City portion of East Village, Manhattan, New York City. The square-shaped park, bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the west by Avenue A, is abutted by St. Marks Place to the west. The park opened in 1834 and is named for Daniel D. Tompkins, Vice President of the United States.
The Mystic Krewe of Barkus is a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade where participants are dogs costumed according to a central parade theme. The annual event is organized by the Krewe of Barkus, a nonprofit organization that promotes adoption and rescue of homeless animals in New Orleans. The Mystic Krewe of Barkus makes fun of the more traditional New Orleans Mardi Gras parades and is the only Mardi Gras "krewe" in New Orleans created for dogs.
Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928–1960 is a 1998 novel, presented as a biography, by the Scottish writer William Boyd. Nat Tate was an imaginary person, invented by Boyd and created as "an abstract expressionist who destroyed '99%' of his work and leapt to his death from the Staten Island ferry. His body was never found." At the time of the novel's launch, Boyd went some way to encourage the belief that Tate had really existed.
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved with these pranks, which may be revealed as such the following day. The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon one's neighbour has been relatively common in the world historically.
Rickrolling or a Rickroll is an Internet meme involving the unexpected appearance of the music video to the 1987 hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up", performed by English singer Rick Astley. The aforementioned video has over 1.5 billion views on YouTube. The meme is a type of bait and switch, usually using a disguised hyperlink that leads to the music video. When one clicks on a seemingly unrelated link, the site with the music video loads instead of what was expected, and they have been "Rickrolled". The meme has also extended to using the song's lyrics, or singing it, in unexpected contexts. Astley himself has also been Rickrolled on several occasions.
A media prank is a type of media event, perpetrated by staged speeches, activities, or press releases, designed to trick legitimate journalists into publishing erroneous or misleading articles. The term may also refer to such stories if planted by fake journalists, as well as the false story thereby published. A media prank is a form of culture jamming generally done as performance art or a practical joke for purposes of a humorous critique of mass media.
The 2009 Morristown UFO hoax was a series of aerial events involving mysterious floating red lights in the sky, that first occurred near Morristown, New Jersey, on Monday, January 5, 2009, between 8:15 pm and 9:00 pm. The red lights were later observed on four other nights: January 26, January 29, February 7, and February 17, 2009. The events were later revealed to be a hoax, perpetrated by Joe Rudy and Chris Russo. Rudy and Russo have described the hoax as a social experiment, with the ambition of exposing "ufology" as a pseudoscience and raising consciousness around unreliability of eyewitness claims.
This Is That was a news satire program broadcast on CBC Radio, which aired comedic news stories presented in the style of a real CBC Radio public affairs program.
Kabir Akhtar is an American television director and editor, who won an Emmy Award in 2016. His credits include work for Arrested Development, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Never Have I Ever, Behind the Music, and the Academy Awards.
The Revolution Will Be Televised is a British television satire show starring Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein, which was first screened on BBC Three in August 2012. Writing for The Guardian, Sam Wollaston said it's "Sacha Baron Cohen with a bit more substance then, or Mark Steel with a few more laughs". At the 2013 British Academy Television Awards, the show won Best Comedy Programme.
Paul Horner was an American writer, comedian and contributor to fake news websites. Horner has been described as a "hoax artist" by outlets such as The Associated Press, The Chicago Tribune, PolitiFact and The Washington Post.
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kuznetsov and Aleksei Vladimirovich Stolyarov, jointly known as Vovan and Lexus, are Russian comedians noted for their prank telephone calls to prominent individuals.
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