The current socio-digital ecosystem is characterized by a proliferation of powers of the false that considerably reduce our ability to detect manifestations of deception. From an intermedial perspective, these phenomena are not new as they stem from the ancient art of deception, (dis)simulation, or illusion, which manifests in various forms, both in artistic fictions (literature, performing arts, cinema) and in the social sphere, where they have taken unprecedented configurations within the current socio-digital ecosystem. Artistic practices, which we qualify as “deceptive arts,” have long played on the multiple springs of illusion, whether concealed or displayed, to entertain. However, the current situation reveals a major rupture: the system based on “regimes of authenticity” that provided shareable reference points is no longer operational. In an era of so-called “post-truth,” transformations of truth systems, authority, and legitimacy are occurring within contemporary mediation dynamics. Phenomena involving the art of deception often straddle the line between truth and falsehood, fiction and documentary. The objects of this issue are situated both in the domain of “deceptive arts,” these artistic practices – historical or more recent – where strategies of illusion, subterfuge, or deceit manifest for the pleasure of readers/viewers, and in the informational ecosystem, particularly around artificial intelligence where increasingly sophisticated devices operate in the art of simulation, multiplying the powers of the false. Both spheres evoke social imaginaries that we juxtapose to better expose their workings.
Summary
Introduction.
Renée Bourassa (Université Laval)
Jean-Marc Larrue (Université de Montréal)
Articles
Puissances du faux, faiblesses du vrai: tromperie, stratégies d’illusion et intelligence artificielle
Renée Bourassa (Université Laval)
Anatomy as Art of Dis-deception: The Moral Anatomies of Alessandro Tommaso Arcudi and Ottavio Scarlattini
Imma Iaccarino (Università della Svizzera italiana)
La mécanique du faut à l’œuvre dans le spectacle d’illusionnisme
Frédéric Tabet (Université de Toulouse 2)
Et si la magie existait ? L’illusionnisme fantastique comme dispositif intermédiaire (objet chargé — récit fantastique — effet magique)
Thibault Rioult (Université d’Angers)
An Inquiry into Self-Deception: Memento, Truth-Display, and the Detective Genre
Juliette Leblanc (Université de Montréal)
Le trompe-l’œil trop parfait ? Les beauty works numériques ou la perfection de l’imperfection
Réjane Hamus-Vallée (Université d’Evry Paris-Saclay)
Tromper au nom de Dieu. Les stratégies de tromperie religieuse d’Alger à Damas
Rima Rouibi (École Nationale Supérieure de Journalisme et des Sciences de l’Information (ENSJSI) d’Alger)
Physics and Metaphysics of Post-Truth (Or, Do Realia Deliver us from Artefacts of False Witness?)
Martin Scherzinger (NYU)
Guest Artists
Le Jeu de la réfutation. (Re)médiation du climat à travers un environnement génératif
Gaëtan Robillard (Université Laval, CRILCQ Université de Montréal)
Hors dossier
Immersed in Desire: Visual Translations of Nicole Brossard’s Le désert mauve
Ania Wroblewski (University of Guelph)
Contrepoints
Homo Kreuzlingenius 1923 — Aby Warburg à la clinique Bellevue. Une conférence-projection interrompue. Fiction documentaire pour un centenaire
Philippe Despoix (Université de Montréal)