Joey Skaggs lauched The Art of the Prank, a weblog about, well: Pranks.
BoingBoing‘s David Pescovitz talked to Joey:
BB: What’s the big idea? Skaggs: Art comes in many colors and hues, shapes, sizes and forms. It can be decorative, functional, socially iconoclastic, or even politically revolutionary. To me the prank is fine art. Perpetrating pranks has enabled me to be expressive in many mediums. I incorporate sculpture, painting, graphic design, advertising, public relations, writing, directing, and acting. The execution of a prank, just like creating a painting or a sculpture, involves intent, content, technique and the magic that occurs when it takes on a life of its own. Pranking is all about deception, and deception is an integral part of our lives, from art to politics to relationships. Whether it’s our efforts to deceive other people, someone else’s efforts to deceive us, or our own self-deception, the need to believe seems to be deeply embedded in our psyche. With the Pranks.com blog, I hope to give more exposure and attention to artists, activists and writers who incorporate aspects of pranking in their work — who use deception to bring attention to deception, propaganda to counter propaganda and creative dissent to combat mindless acceptance of authority. To me, pranks are way more than just a hostile or vindictive “Ha ha, the joke’s on you!” Pranks can be an antidote against the mind-numbing corporate, government and religious propaganda that constantly invades our lives. A good prank exposes something and stimulates a new perception which hopefully leads to alternative thinking.
