---
title: "Ong’s Hat and the construction of a suspicious model reader"
url: "https://josephmatheny.com/2020/12/07/ongs-hat-and-the-construction-of-a-suspicious-model-reader/"
language: "en-US"
updated: "2020-12-07T16:05:59+00:00"
---

# Ong’s Hat and the construction of a suspicious model reader

*It’s refreshing to see someone make an attempt to understand what I was trying to do with Ong’s Hat and it’s encouraging to see them get it mostly right. Too many so-called journalists have focused on the more sensationalist aspects of my attempt, in the early days of the Internet, at an avant-garde art installation that was not constrained by space and time.*

> In this paper, I have brought together concepts from media studies and semiotics of interpretation in an attempt to analyze a complex media phenomenon and its unforeseen persuasive power. This analysis could be built upon to analyze similar phenomena such as conspiracy theories and fake news.

**Link to the full paper:** [https://letreraria.com/2019/01/13/ongs-hat-and-the-construction-of-a-suspicious-model-reader/](https://letreraria.com/2019/01/13/ongs-hat-and-the-construction-of-a-suspicious-model-reader/)

[![](https://i0.wp.com/josephmatheny.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/0e2d3-c2d721_b220aa3ed8b2458ab868b621c99f4d32mv2.jpg?resize=246%2C300&ssl=1)](https://i0.wp.com/josephmatheny.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/0e2d3-c2d721_b220aa3ed8b2458ab868b621c99f4d32mv2.jpg?ssl=1)