FAKE
NEWS
A SERIES OF
ENCRYPTED PAINTINGS
BY JEAN-CLAUDE BOSSEL
Current exhibition
painting no. 03
60 x 30 cm
Current exhibition
painting no. 05
30 x 80 cm
HIDDEN MESSAGES
IN the FAKE NEWS
PAINTINGS
Each painting in the FAKE NEWS series contains hidden messages encrypted using the CODE BACH® process.
These messages revisit the liar paradox, which has been known since antiquity. Consider the sentence “What I am saying is false.” Think about it for a moment. If it is true, it must be false. If it is false, it must be true.
As we decipher the messages in the paintings, we find ourselves caught in a similar logical loop. The series draws a parallel with the experience of scrolling through contradictory claims on social media.
HOLES AND COLOURS
AS GRAPHIC SYMBOLS
FOR the DIGITs 0 AND 1
In these paintings, the size of each hole and the colour of its rim both carry information.
This allows a single row of five holes to represent two sequences of digits.
By size, small holes represent 0 and large holes represent 1.
By rim colour, black represents 0 and the contrasting colour represents 1.
Orange rims represent 1.
In the third row from the top, read the five holes from left to right.
By hole size, the sequence is 10001.
By rim colour, it is 00011.
Yellow rims represent 1.
Again, in the third row from the top, read the five holes from left to right.
By hole size, the sequence is 00101.
By rim colour, it is 10111.
ART &
Mathematics
The sizes of the holes and the colours of their rims were determined by calculations carried out before painting, as part of the CODE BACH® encryption process.
First, the chosen messages were converted into numbers. These were then written in groups of five binary digits, each either 0 or 1.
Further calculations transformed these sequences into encrypted sequences of digits.
FROM THE LIAR PARADOX
TO contemporary
FAKE NEWS
Jean-Claude Bossel conceived the FAKE NEWS series in early 2017, shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration. The dispute over photographs of the inauguration crowd and the phrase “alternative facts” prompted him to explore the subject through painting.
In the years that followed, false claims spread rapidly during major crises and became a tool for shaping public opinion.
Many recent cases of disinformation have now been confirmed and documented, from false claims about COVID-19 treatments to old footage passed off as current coverage of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Philosophically, we can go back to the distinction made by the Greek philosopher Plato between the search for truth and sophistical argumentation aimed at consolidating an opinion, independently of its truth value.
