Zardulu I See You at It Again
For the last year, and probably longer, you've been living a lie.
That viral video you liked and so much—you lot know, the i with that random moment of spontaneous serendipity, a moment that seemed too perfect to be caught on video, yet somehow was—is a hoax. Or rather, it was a viral myth manufactured by a masked Neopagan illusionist with her own personal rodent army, a hate-on for Socrates, and a powerful manifesto nearly artistic deception.
moving-picture show.twitter.com/3bDHQcUV0s
— Zardulu (@zardulu) February xi, 2016
"Whatsoever disinformation about me is welcome," Zardulu told the Daily Dot. The name was given to her by an bearding Neopagan wizard; it carries meaning, but she wouldn't reveal what information technology is.
Zardulu came to the Internet'due south attention by way of Selfie Rat, a viral video phenomenon that followed hard on the heels of Pizza Rat. In the video, a rat crawls onto a man sleeping in a subway station and allegedly snaps a blurry selfie with his telephone before he wakes up and freaks out. It was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence for several reasons—the videographer just happened to be filming, the human being just happened to exist sleeping, and the phone just happened to exist unlocked, with its camera on. Oh, and the rat just happened to take its own movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CvWXG8gqEU
Or did it? Before long afterwards the video grabbed the Net's attention, Gothamist reported that the human being in the video was Eric Yearwood, and that he'd actually been paid $200 to participate in the video by a mysterious performance artist named Zardulu.
Yearwood claimed that Zardulu was a female performance creative person living and working somewhere in Brooklyn, and that she had really trained the rat to unlock the telephone and have its own picture. According to Yearwood, Zardulu was backside not just Selfie Rat just a number of other viral videos.
Some of them, he said, had been huge.
"I've been responsible for many incredible feats and I've never come forward," Zardulu tells me. "I'd like to believe other people all over the globe are doing the same."
In the aftermath of Selfie Rat's debunking, Zardulu turned downward all interview requests. She told the Daily Dot that she's coming forward now because she hopes to inspire other people to follow in her footsteps—to create viral phenomena covertly.
"I really don't want coin, notoriety or even credit for my work," she said. In fact, when new fans compared her to Banksy, she explained that Banksy wasn't on her level, since people know that he exists:
@CameronRaulston @AGoldmund Fans of Banksys art are intrigued that they dont know its creator Fans of my art never knew information technology was created
— Zardulu (@zardulu) February 26, 2016
They'll never bear witness that I've created annihilation and they'll never evidence I haven't created everything
— Zardulu (@zardulu) February 25, 2016
Zardulu feels that "people go more weary of stories" when the hoax is revealed. "Coming forward starts to unravel the illusion."
Ouroboros Rat Woodcut via Zardulu (used with permission)
Since the Internet offset learned of Zardulu's (possible) existence, all kinds of rumors have circulated about her: that Yearwood is really Zardulu; that she's responsible for other contempo rat videos; that she staged Pizza Rat and the people who filmed it either just happened to be defenseless on video or are in on it themselves. In its writeup of the Zardulu situation, Gothamist tried to imply a link between the two rat videos because of a possible connection to the Upright Citizens Brigade—both the guy who filmed Pizza Rat and the guy who starred in Selfie Rat have performed in that location.
"I tin can say that I'm not Eric Yearwood, which I'm not, merely my ain work has made information technology incommunicable to evidence that," Zardulu said. "I'1000 all correct with that conundrum." She wants to alive in the infinite between myth and reality where conundrums oft occur: "When we're young there is a fluidity between the rational and the irrational. It's such a rich and wonderful existence."
The way to occupy that space, Zardulu believes, is through myth-making. "The creation and perpetuation of myths is art of the highest form," she said. "I remember it's important to talk about these things as fine art, and nobody currently does. Established myths should be recognized as cultural treasures."
As an example of what she ways, she told the story of the Cardiff Behemothic:
What inspires someone to create a myth? My favorite is what many call the first American hoax, the Cardiff giant. One farmer went to tremendous lengths to transport a giant piece of gypsum and have an artist cleave it into a fossilized man. He cached it and waited a year to order a well construction on the location so workers would find it. I can't recall nigh that without being completely overwhelmed with the effort put into that. How is this not talked about every bit one of the greatest artistic feats of mod times? This was the biggest story in the world for years and sparked the imaginations of millions upon millions of people. You may wonder where this masterpiece currently resides. The Louvre? MOMA? The Tate? No, it's tucked abroad in Cooperstown in a farming museum. I think that'south a tragedy.
Photograph via Zardulu (used with permission)
Recently, the podcast Reply All devoted an episode to the mystery of Selfie Rat and Zardulu. Before long later, Zardulu appeared to admit to existence behind "bagel pigeon," a fall photo meme featuring a pigeon wearing a bagel for a necklace.
@davidfoertsch @replyall Fantasy and reality are indistinguishable #zardulism is the art of the viral age picture.twitter.com/Teh37ue7oa
— Zardulu (@zardulu) March 2, 2016
So far, this is the just meme Zardulu has openly associated herself with. Nonetheless, when asked if it was the only project she'd claimed, she answered, "I never claim anything." She did note that she "keeps and trains many types [of] animals," just "can't go into specifics." And, she added, I tin can "brand my ain assumptions about the dove."
The book you run into behind the dove, Founding and Manifesto of Zardulism (a riff on the Founding and Manifesto of Futurism), is the guidebook for anyone who wants to follow in Zardulu's steps. It'due south available online as a Google Doc passed among her disciples, and although brusk, it contains a thoughtful word of myth creation in the modernistic historic period—besides as several pages written entirely in code. Zardulu said she distributes copies only also that there are several versions with different prints within and varying encrypted writings that are "incommunicable to decipher."
"I've studied the ciphers of medieval Italia for the aesthetic qualities and also indecipherable modernistic cryptographic principles and combined them," she said. Hidden inside them are "hundreds of pages written virtually my feelings about our place in the universe and such. Things that I desire to capture in written course just am not prepare to share."
Photo via Zardulu (used with permission)
Zardulu is a student of a Neopagan theologian wizard named Oberon Zell-Ravenheart—briefly famous for surgically applying horns to goats to make "unicorns." She named a number of other new age, artistic, and philosophical influences, including spiritualism, Kabbalah, Surrealism, and situationism.
In her manifesto, Zardulu says that Zardulism is a multi-faceted art, involving "mastery of storytelling, interim, directing, photography, painting, sculpting, and more." But her master focus is on the practice of myth-making. "The manifesto is derivative of the manifestos of previous art movements but based in the principle that myth creation and perpetuation is fine art and deserves the respect of the art community."
Zardulu argues that we're essentially already living in the Matrix, merely it's a matrix constructed out of digital images and narratives. "Where [the media] once looked into topics of smashing business concern, an emphasis on clicks has forced them into sensational headlines and trivial topics," she said. "I hope, among many things, to generate a discussion on journalistic integrity."
In a classical sense mythology is dead Media outlets have become the storytellers They write the myths that define our values and world view
— Zardulu (@zardulu) December 29, 2015
Nosotros live our lives in digital images. They have displaced authentic man interaction. The concrete form has go obsolete.
— Zardulu (@zardulu) March iv, 2016
To Zardulu, if we're already living in a simulation, then a hoax isn't a hoax at all, only rather a sign of a cultural arrangement for myth-making functioning as information technology normally should. In Zardulism, hoaxes are more about perpetuating ancient magic than they are attempts to deceive. Zardulu connects longstanding "hoaxes" similar Sasquatch, ingather circles, and the Loch Ness Monster to contemporary viral videos.
"I love the conspiracies that come with all of these things," she said. "It's imagination running wild! It's breaking out of the monotonous routine of our lives, even if simply for a moment. I'd like to thank the crop circle makers, be them homo or alien."
In her manifesto, Zardulu wrote, "This displacement of exploitive myth is artistic sublimity." In other words, she'southward dismissing the thought that viral artifice like Selfie Rat and Bagel Pigeon amounts to cheap tricks or lies. While acknowledging that some myths have "done great harm," Zardulu stated that the kinds of stories she's creating are positive and that she encourages others to create "pearls of merriment" for "all of history" to savour. In Zardulism, it'south the debunkers trying to pull back the curtain who are ruining it for everyone.
Photograph via Zardulu (used with permission)
Then far, Zardulism is spreading quickly. Since the Answer All episode about her exploits, Zardulu said, she'southward gotten "hundreds of messages from people wanting to participate."
"Earlier it was hard," she said. "I oftentimes paid actors." When she engages a collaborator, she has them sign non-disclosure agreements and so they're legally prevented from revealing her identity. "Even with that, I tin't stop people from anonymously coming forwards." And the payoff is worth it: "When y'all combine the efforts of a few people yous tin really brand anything seem existent."
Yet is it actually better or more enjoyable if we don't know that in that location's someone behind these videos? As Reply All first noted, a world where nosotros know someone trained a rat to take a selfie is vastly more interesting than a world where a rat takes an accidental selfie.
But non to Zardulu. In her view, things started going downhill the moment the Socratic method caught on. "Before the rationalism of Socratic thought came to prominence, the civilization of Aboriginal Greece produced the greatest intellectual advancements in history," she said.
For Zardulu, myths induce harmony between the irrational and the rational. They requite our imaginations room to play.
"I suppose it's impossible to unlearn what we've learned well-nigh the earth," she admits. "I merely don't think it'due south a meliorate world with that knowledge."
Photo via iamthemythmaker/Twitter
Source: https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/zardulu-and-the-creation-of-viral-myth/
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