Re: <nettime> typology of leaking (was The Nefertiti 3D Scan Heist Is A Hoax)

[David Garcia <d.garcia@new-tactical-research.co.uk>]

On 11 Mar 2016, at 09:51, Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com> wrote:

> On 2016-03-09 02:29, nettime's_scanner wrote:
>> 
>> https://cosmowenman.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/the-nefertiti-3d-scan-heist-is-a-hoax/
>> 
>> The Nefertiti 3D Scan Heist Is A Hoax
> 
> I'm not sure I would call it a hoax. I think -- though I have no
> inside knowledge -- the most likely case is that of a leak, that is,
> someone with access to the official scan gave it to the artists and
> the story of the guerilla scanning was created as cover to protect the
> source. In the same way that it's likely that some of the hacks of
> anonymous where actually leaks by the sysadmins who used story of the
> anonymous hack as device to cover their tracks.

Maybe there is an overarching category that links the hack, the hoax and leak 
that -trickster-. 

The artist/activist/trickster an increasingly familiar figure whose method is frequently 
(if not invariably) fiction.  

>From Wenmen?s article it seems likely that the Nefertiti 3D Scan heist 
is both a hoax (the artists quite probably did not capture the artifact in the way 
described) and a leak (in that the data is sound but in all probability was sourced 
elsewhere). 

https://cosmowenman.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/the-nefertiti-3d-scan-heist-is-a-hoax/

But that said we don?t have to buy into the lament of the final paragraph in  
Wenmen?s article in which he opines that it is -unfortunate that this story is based 
on a falsehood.- On the contrary in this kind of -media act- the tactical use of fiction 
is one of the most powerful tools in the trickster?s arsenal, as the Yes Men 
demonstrated on many occassions. 

However not any old hoax will do. For fiction to be deployed most effectively it?s 
moral core is often based around the concept of -AS IF-. So in this this case we 
are induced to act AS IF it were possible (with a small portable scanning device) to 
capture, disseminate and repatriate the world?s priceless artifacts.

Media acts like this are -indicative thought experiments- enabling us to premediate 
(ie use of media to prepare ourselves psychologically) for alternate realities.

d a v i d  g a r c i a
d.garcia@new-tactical-research.co.uk
http://new-tactical-research.co.uk
http://www.tacticalmediafiles.net

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