# Fictive Art and Hoaxes [Wikipedia Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoax) ( ongoing ) ## Description Art hoaxes, fraud, misdirection, and fictive/paranormal media, spanning modernist literary fraud, staged séances, and the taxonomy of misdirection used in magic and confidence tricks — including [[Antoinette LaFarge]]'s concept of the "parafact," fiction "too strange not to be real." ## Key Tags #hoaxes #fictive-art #misdirection ## Essential Works - [[Sting in the Tale]] - LaFarge, Antoinette. *Sting in the Tale: Art, Hoax, and Provocation*. DoppelHouse Press, 2021 - first comprehensive survey of fictive art, coining "parafact" for fiction "too strange not to be real" - Sorgatz, Rex. *The Encyclopedia of Misinformation* - compendium survey of hoaxes, spoofs, fakery, and confabulation - [Mirage Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage_Men) - documentary on UFO disinformation as a case study in state-orchestrated hoaxing - Diepeveen, Leonard. *Modernist Fraud* - study of literary hoax and "shameless puffery" in modernism ## Details ### Key Theorists - [[Antoinette LaFarge]] - author of [[Sting in the Tale]], the first comprehensive survey of fictive art; coined "parafact" - Leonard Diepeveen - theorized modernist literary fraud and its self-promotional "puffery" - Gustav Kuhn - psychologist researching a taxonomy of misdirection in magic and deception ### Exemplary Practitioners - The Yes Men - activist duo staging elaborate corporate and media hoaxes, documented in the film *The Yes Men* - Lee Earle - stage mentalist documenting the construction of commercial séances in *Making Manifestations* ### Related Concepts - [[Magic and Magick Studies]] - shared techniques of misdirection and staged supernatural effect - [[Forbidden Media]] - overlapping concern with fictive and paranormal media that blur fact and fiction ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Associated Movements or Institutions %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %% ### Secondary Sources Bibliography Diepeveen, Leonard. “Rereading the Shameless Puffery of Modern Charlatans.” In _Modernist Fraud_, 1st ed., by Leonard Diepeveen. Oxford University PressOxford, 2019. [https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198825432.003.0001](https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198825432.003.0001). Jessup, Heather. “Sting in the Tale: Art, Hoax, and Provocation by Antoinette LaFarge (Review).” _ESC: English Studies in Canada_ 47, no. 4 (2021): 138–42. [https://doi.org/10.1353/esc.2021.a932540](https://doi.org/10.1353/esc.2021.a932540). Kuhn, Gustav, Hugo A. Caffaratti, Robert Teszka, and Ronald A. Rensink. “A Psychologically-Based Taxonomy of Misdirection.” _Frontiers in Psychology_ 5 (December 2014). [https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01392](https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01392). [_Mirage Men_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage_Men). With John Lundberg, Mark Pilkington, Roland Denning, et al. Random Media, 2016. [https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/11923766](https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/11923766). “Making Manifestations (Building the Commercial Seance) by Lee Earle.” n.d. “Seance Magazine.” n.d. Smith, Chris, Dan Ollman, Sarah Price, et al. “The Yes Men.” MGM DVD. MGM Home Entertainment, 2005. Sorgatz, Rex. The Encyclopedia of Misinformation : A Compendium of Imitations, Spoofs, Delusions, Simulations, Counterfeits, Impostors, Illusions, Confabulations, Skullduggery, ... Conspiracies and Miscellaneous Fakery, ABRAMS (Ignition), 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/washington/detail.action?docID=5322248.