Le PtitVincent
How Google invented, via PtitVincent, a fake period of art history
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timeline
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the innards of l.h.o., the book | december 2014
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article by Yves Eudes in Le Monde.fr | 2014.12.15 at 4:27 p.m
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PtitVincent created | 2014.12.15 at 4:30 p.m
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PtitVincent modifies the art period of L.H.O.O.Q. | 2014.12.15 at 4:37 p.m
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summary
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Google takes 3 minutes to read an article published in Le Monde, (1 minute per paragraph).
8 seconds to decide to create a corrector user profile: PtitVincent
7 minutes to find the way to correct/retort for L.H.O.O.Q.
and all this after more than a year and a half of performance… It takes balls to be a clown!
and as Freebase is a great uncontrollable mystery in its updates, it takes a gas plant to control it, even for Google!
the joke “Google search LHOOQ” circulated for several days on the Internet. They must not have been laughing every day in Mountain View ;-(
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detailed story
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Of course, when you’re the king of the world, the king of museums and the king of world culture, i.e. Google, you can’t be seen without a clown… um, I meant to say, you can’t be seen as a clown.
After more than a year and a half of indifference… during which time Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. was classified as Net Art, and whereby Marcel Duchamp himself was a Net artist, it only took one well-documented article in Le Monde to cause a ruckus on Freebase.
To avoid being ridiculed, Google responded to the ruckus caused.
To repair the damage done by albertine meunier on the search result for L.H.O.O.Q., Google created on December 15, 2014 at 4:30 p.m. the user profile PtitVincent—exactly 3 minutes after the article was published on Le Monde.fr.
Created by the user-administrator, in other words, a Freebase staff member PtitVincent is THE corrector profile (see illustrations 1-3).
Superstition, reaction or coincidence, 7 minutes after it was created—December 15, 2014 at 4:37 p.m.—PtitVincent assigns L.H.O.O.Q. the type Found Object to define the art period of this major work by Marcel Duchamp (see illustration 4).
Google must not have been pleased that L.H.O.O.Q. was Net Art! So it created PtitVincent!
And as PtitVincent is a good guy, he changed the art period of this work, without ignoring Art History, and declared Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. a “Found Object”.
We admit that ReadyMades are a bit “easy” to find.
We admit that attaching a bicycle wheel to a stool is something you had to think about, so also something you had to find… But “Found Object”?!
Google was perhaps ignorant of the fact that according to Art History, the first ReadyMade was lost and not found. So it’s more of a “Very Lost Object” than a “Found Object”.
But continuing our little investigation… we discover that this mysterious art period includes a single artwork in its collection: L.H.O.O.Q. (see illustration 5).
This reveals that the “Found Object” period of art history according to Freebase is none other than a fake period, created purposely by Google to quickly delete albertine meunier’s playful joke.
In other words, Google invented, via PtitVincent, a completely fake period of art history. Twisting reality to counter a joke—not bad! Way to go, Google! Now that’s serious!
Then all Google had to do was insert a little condition to delete the joke, such as if “Found Object” then do not display the Period and therefore do not display Net Art or anything else.
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if (found object)=1
then (period)=0
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Minimalistic, Simplistic, Post-Duchampian !
And this is where the story becomes completely Dada, if not completely DataDada. A half-hour after PtitVincent was created, he got a friend: BobLePointu* created on December 15, 2014 at 5:16 p.m. (see illustration 2b).
This friend had fun just completing the term L.H.O.O.Q. in US English.
Surely a subtlety of language between English and US English!
(*) as his name implies, BobLePointu is quite punctilious, and in addition to being named Bob he is not named Alice.
As for me, I’m trying to follow the twisted, transformative logic of PtitVincent and his friend BobLePointu. But it’s not so simple… I have lots of questions!
Could BobLePointu be a reincarnation of Hugo Ball at Cabaret Voltaire? After all, there is some resemblance! (see illustration 6)
Could PtitVincent be the incarnation of the lost painter who cut off his ear, without his brother Theo? Is the Internet becoming DataDada without us knowing it?
In conclusion ...
As all these subtleties seem to be very important, and unfortunately all this is way beyond my little coding joke, I followed in the footsteps of BobLePointu to complete little subtle things for Freebase’s “Found Object” (see illustration 7).
So in English, both British and US, you will find on Freebase that “Found Object” has become “Very Lost Object”, as it’s well known that Art History prevails over computer history! !
if (found object)=1 then (RoueDeBicyclette)=VeryLostObject
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now that’s Post-Internet art
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morality
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whether a question of timing, adjusted scheduling or fragility stripped bare by her bachelors…
Freebase’s retirement has been announced | 2014.12.15 | plus.google.com/109936836907132434202/posts/bu3z2wVqcQc
2015 – Albertine Meunier
