Multidisciplinary Artist, Mythological and Liminal Fiction Author, Creator of Ong's Hat the Original Proto- Alternate Reality Game and Online Legend Trip
About Thoughty2Thoughty2 (Arran) is a British YouTuber and gatekeeper of useless facts. Thoughty2 creates mind-blowing factual videos about science, tech, history, opinion and just about everything else.
This is Part II of our look at QAnon. Click here for Part I. As part of the NYU/StartEd New Media Accelerator, we are joining with faculty from the NYU Carter Journalism Institute … Continue reading If QAnon Is a Game, How Do You Stop Playing?
I made an appearance on VICE’s Truth Hurts series discussing the danger of right-wing conspiracy cults and why this is not a new phenomenon. What’s the difference between someone who’s … Continue reading Joseph Matheny Appears on How Conspiracy Theories Become Violent | Truth Hurts | VICE
Part 2 Joseph Matheny, creator of Ong’s Hat, the world’s first Alternative Reality Game speaks with Prop Anon about QAnon, Robert Anton Wilson, Ong’s Hat, and how to survive the … Continue reading Joseph Matheny & Prop Anon expose QAnon
Today the gang is diving into one of the OG internet conspiracy theories. The mystery of Ong’s Hat. But the real mystery is why did the gang decide to record … Continue reading The Mystery of Ong’s Hat – 3V Off The Books
In this action-packed episode of FAILED STATE UPDATE, I break out a certain conspiracy theory-themed trivia board game (“Conspiracy Theory” by Neddy Games) and host an action-packed competition between four … Continue reading Paranoids’ Game Night!
We welcome back some friendly faces, Matheny reveals he’s involved in every weird story we can bring up, and we discuss why the internet isn’t fun anymore. Featuring: Ken Eakins, … Continue reading Coincidence Control Network: File #100 – The Centennial
Justin sits down to talk with ARG pioneer Joseph Matheny about politics, conspiracy theories, games and the future of America. Link to show page: http://redpagespodcast.com/listen/chatting-with-joseph-matheny Haps Discussed: Independent art production, marginal … Continue reading The Red Pages Podcast: Episode 154: Chatting with Joseph Matheny
LINK TO SHOW: http://sittingnow.co.uk/episode-51-authoring-reality-with-joseph-matheny/ This week Ken sits down with our old buddy Joseph Matheny. Joe is an innovator in the ARG space and is well known for his … Continue reading Right Where You Are Sitting Now: Authoring Reality with Joseph Matheny
One of the earliest internet-era conspiracy theories, “Ong’s Hat” (look it up) also began as an online art project by Joseph Matheny. It took on an eerie life of its … Continue reading Why Conspiracy Theories Have Become the Most Influential Art Form of Our Time
A very interesting article/review of Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat. From The Chronicle of Higher Education: Now, from the you-can-learn-something-new-every-day files, comes Michael Kinsella’s Legend-Tripping … Continue reading The Surprising Online Life of Legends – Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat
The first thing one learns upon becoming a subject of press interest is that there’s actually very little one can generally do in the face of inaccurate or even malicious … Continue reading Corrections to Brian Dunning’s Skeptoid Podcast About Ong’s Hat
Here’s a show with Grimerica that I recently did with my old friend Denny Unger along with the hosts of Grimerica, D-Ron, and Grahambo. There’s one more interview I did … Continue reading Grimerica: Denny Unger and Joseph Matheny – Alternative Reality Games and Conspiracies
LINK TO Gizmodo piece on Ong’s Hat, from 2/21/19 Chosen one of The Best Long Reads Of The Month, picked by Digg’s editors Chosen as a “WEEKEND READING PLEASURE” editor’s … Continue reading Gizmodo-Ong’s Hat: The Early Internet Conspiracy Game That Got Too Real
What lies at the heart of Ong’s Hat? Listen to this episode of Decoder Ring: LINK TO DECODER RING PAGE Decoder Ring is a podcast about cracking cultural mysteries. Every … Continue reading Slate-Decoder Ring: The Incunabula Papers
Ong’s Hat, also known as The Incunabula, is the original ARG and laid the ground for all future experiments in transmedia storytelling. Join me as we take a brief look … Continue reading Ong’s Hat: The Original ARG – Sex, Drugs & Quantum Physics
Topics include: Crimbus gifts, planning our funerals, Scary German Lady, Philly Legends: The Bubble Fairy, Josh is home alone, Alien Alloys, BFS Road Trip, Corrections and Josh’s Chaos Dimension: Ong’s Hat, … Continue reading Best Friend Simulator Episode 16: Those Mummy Flippin’ Flintknappers/ Ong’s Hat
Here is a reading I did of a segment of the late Robert Anton WIlson’s book: Cosmic Trigger. This reading was done at the bequest of the people putting on … Continue reading Cosmic Trigger Audiobook
Sorry it’s taken so long to update the old podcasts, but I’ve finally begun uploading them to Archive.org. You can watch for them here on this site and I promise to … Continue reading Finally, uploading podcasts to Archive.org
Above image used with permission of the artist. Courtesy of James Koehnline : http://www.koehnline.com/ Available now: iTunes Amazon Audible A professional version of The Incunabula Papers: Ong’s Hat and Other Gateways to … Continue reading Audiobook- The Incunabula Papers: Ong’s Hat and Other Gateways to New Dimensions
A few collected Ong’s Hat literary references from 2014. Other references pre-2014 can be found on the Reviews page. I only include the ones which directly relate to the legend … Continue reading 2014 Literary References to Ong’s Hat in Other Works: A Collection
Chapter dedicated to Ong’s Hat in Destinations Across Paranormal America 2 by Hugh Mungus Excerpt: It’s a widely held belief the legend of Ong’s Hat is the fictional brainchild of … Continue reading Destinations Across Paranormal America 2
Matheny himself was there at the beginning of the ARG, when the increasing prominence of online media got him thinking about new forms of storytelling. “I’ve been a tech person since the Eighties,” he reminisces. “I was an IT expert and moved up into software, and I used to play the Steve Jackson games a lot. I also played the Flying Buffalo play-by-mail games, which were kind of like a LARP but done through mail, phone and faxes. You would send your mailing address and your phone number and you would start getting stuff in the mail.
On the Internet, seekers investigate anonymous manifestos that focus on the findings of brilliant scientists said to have discovered pathways into alternate realities. Gathering on web forums, researchers not only share their observations, but also report having anomalous experiences, which they believe come from their online involvement with these veiled documents. Seeming logic combines with wild twists of lost Moorish science and pseudo-string theory. Enthusiasts insist any obstacle to revelation is a sure sign of great and wide-reaching efforts by consensus powers wishing to suppress all the liberating truths in the Incunabula Papers (included here in complete form).
This week: The death of Megaupload, Legislation that could kill Internet privacy, Has George Lucas really retired?, History being made by blackouts, Jim Henson avant garde, Sega Toylets, How the US lost out on iPhone production, and shooting nails into your brain.
Source: http://monoskop.org/log/?p=8717 On the Internet, seekers investigate anonymous manifestos that focus on the findings of brilliant scientists said to have discovered pathways into alternate realities. Gathering on web forums, researchers not … Continue reading Monoskop Log reblog – Michael Kinsella: Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat (2011)
