>A cast-bronze monument for the victims of the sinking of a steam ferry recently appeared in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan, near other somber memorials to soldiers, sailors and mariners lost at sea or on the battlefield. There was, however, no such ferry disaster. The artist behind the memorial, Joseph Reginella, made the whole thing up.
>The 250lb monument, which depicts a Staten Island ferry, the Cornelius G Kolff, being dragged under the waves by a giant octopus, is part of a multi-layered hoax that includes a sophisticated website, a documentary, fabricated newspaper articles and glossy fliers directing tourists to a phantom Staten Island Ferry Disaster Memorial Museum, across the harbor. The project took six months to build. Reginella said the idea came to him while he was taking his 11-year-old nephew from Florida on the ferry between Manhattan and Staten Island.
>Sometimes, he said, when he overhears people saying, “How come nobody has ever heard of this?” he’ll interject, offering that the disaster happened on 22 November 1963, a day when the news was dominated by the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
>Should deliberately misrepresenting history be illegal? It's ethically wrong but it never has stopped anyone from not doing it. Every regime has done this. It's like spying. It is wrong, but no one cares enough.
Dominic Foster
Not unless the guy is being a literal charlatan and trying to capitalize on it in predatory ways, ie. setting up a fund for the "descendants" of those affected by his fabricated event and pocketing the cash.
Honestly, I love this kind of shit. If it's done in an entertaining way and only misleading if you're too lazy to do some basic research and realize it's fake (which seemed to be the motivation for this guy's project in the first place), well-done historical fiction/art installations done in this way can be really immersive and enjoyable.
Nolan King
no because then we would be imprisoning historians for human errors
Thomas Parker
>deliberately
Ayden Baker
top kek
Elijah Jackson
He's clearly just having a laugh
Aiden Sanchez
Sure, let's increase the amount of incarcerated black males in the US.
Ian King
>implying making wewuzism a crime is a bad idea
Thomas Stewart
Illegal? No, because the vast majority of history is interpretation, not known fact.
So, is misrepresenting history immoral?
In this case no, because the lie is so patently ridiculous that you'd have to be an idiot to believe it in the first place.
Aaron Parker
This is a fun, goofy, art project/prank. if people believed him, they should be incarcerated for being morons.
Henry Cooper
Makes you wonder how many famous artifacts are actually bullshit.
In some places it is illegal to misrepresent history.
And It only serves to legitimize their claim even more. Despite how insane it is.
Caleb Rivera
>hurr I can't think a few steps ahead everyone who does it deliberately will claim it is an error or that you have made an error in assuming they are wrong, you would have to put on trial nearly every historian for dozens of minor errors through their careers, innocents would be swept up in the mix
apologize
Jeremiah Butler
Shit nigga, learn to have some fun. Seriously, what's the harm here?
Robert Adams
>"deliberately misrepresenting history" >a tiny fucking joke monument just how far along the spectrum are you?
Liam Fisher
This. Reminds me of the velcr-plant hoax that everyone believed.
Sebastian Stewart
>The 250lb monument [..] is part of a multi-layered hoax that includes a sophisticated website, a documentary, fabricated newspaper articles and glossy fliers directing tourists to a phantom Staten Island Ferry Disaster Memorial Museum, across the harbor. Sometimes it's worth it to read the whole post that you're replying to.
Cameron Roberts
The harm is in the fact that they're trying to present it as real. Saying it's fiction or pretending it might be real for kids, that's all well and good. Actually leading people astray is fucked up, unless you tell them in a short time you were pulling their leg.
Jackson Adams
I read the post, I still don't see the problem. The memorial has a fucking sea-monster on it FFS.
