Strategies of deception in the digital age

Abstract

This paper stems from the work that the ARCANES International Research Group (https://crilcq.arcanes.ca) has been carrying out on deception strategies since it was founded in 2020. The group examines the powers of the false, the mechanisms of deception and the strategies of illusion as they manifest themselves in the arts, media practices and today's socio-digital ecosystem.

While it is true that the contemporary informational space and socio-digital ecosystem provide a rich breeding ground for fake news and the proliferation of conspiracy theories, precipitating, according to a widely shared opinion, our world into a post-truth regime (Keyes 2004); it is also true that strategies of deception and, more globally, the "powers of the false" (Deleuze 1985, Eco 1985) long predate the era of digital media.

This presentation will examine how, through the case study of Lascaux 4, the world's most-visited decorated cave - which is a facsimile – the art of deception has taken on a different scope and twist in the present context, as media accumulate in interdependent and amplifying echo effects. The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), with its conversational robots (such as ChatGBT) and image generators (such as Dall. E), obviously adds to the prevailing anxiety (McKenna 2023), as it shakes up established practices, blurs the usual conceptual categories (the true, the false, the plausible, the feigned) and calls into question shared memory and heritage.

This presentation is at the crossroads of 4 axes of the Conference: the Social and affective media; Sociopolitical aspects; and Authenticity & identity in a digitized society.