Monty Python love spam too

spam, spam, spam

Scriptographer Illustrations

Scriptographer is incredibly exciting to work with!
Following my research into computer generated graphics, and how this could relate to the spamming universe, as there is a viral nature to spam…(it expands and multiplies in an almost organic fashion) I started using Scriptographer to illustrate, throughout the pages of the book, the growing number of spam messages received daily on my E-mail account. Here is an example of what I have been working on.

Final Images?

These are some of the final images created to illustrate the spoems.
They are supposed to be a visual translation of the previously described cut-up technique, and were made by doing the following:

The attachments advertising various superfluous products and screenshots of the email messages themselves were gathered. Each image was then opened using TextEdit, which results in a massive amount of incomprehensible code, that was then remixed throught a series of cut and paste operations. The results are completely unpredictable and often quite beautiful, and keep the spirit of the cut-up technique fully intact and alive.

139 Spoems

Update! i have collected 540 spam e-mails in total so far, of which 139 are Spoems.
According to my schedule i have 3 weeks to collect more.
I have tried to attract as much spam as possible, here are some examples of how:

Subscribed to every newsletter i came across;
Signed up for amazing offers on-line;
Gave e-mail away in porn websites;
Signed up for paid surveys;
Joined Google Groups (Christian youth group, Gambling group, Adult Health group);
Posted my e-mail in on-line forums;

Spamoetry reading session!

Been trying to find something that could add to the book...
what does everyone think about a reading session?

Very initial layouts

Binding

Thought this binding technique could work well for the book..

Wizard of Oz meets Baudelaire

I decided to try to identify the sources for a couple of spoems. I was quite happy to find that it seems to be relatively easy to locate the sources, at least for substantial parts of the messages. One was composed of lines stolen from poems by Baudelaire, Victor Hugo and six other poets. Others included excerpts of 'The Wizard of Oz' and Aesop Fables, as well as a disproportionate amount of Louisa May Alcott bits. From different novels actually, which seems to indicate spammers really enjoy her work!

I find this weird mix of sources quite interesting...an analysis of these sources might produce intriguing results, even on a visual level, perhaps through some form of colour coding?

Paper Samples

So..ordered some Paper Samples from Artic Papers and got them today on the mail. I received their "Guide to Uncoated Paper" which allowed me to consider a variety of solutions for the book.

E-mail Layout

I found out how to access each full email message, including its headers. In the normally concealed headers one can find the senders IP address, which is composed by four sets of numbers separated by dots and serves to identify each computer connected to the internet. Basically, the IP address retrieved from the header of the email is the spammer’s digital identity.

Above is a full email…I’ve used it as a starting point for laying out of the spoems. The actual text is highlighted in pink, as are other bits of relevant information.

Cutting Up continues..

The images above are experiments with a visual cut-up techinique. Thought it would be appropriate to use the cut up technique that is used to create the spoems to create visuals to accompany them…these images are created by opening the file with a text editor – which allows you to see the image code – and then cutting up and remixing the said code, in a similar way to how Burroughs and others did with text. Have tried cutting up the images that are usually attached to spam emails, but the results havent been the most encouraging so far…it appears I need more interesting source imagery. In any case, this seems to have quite a lot of potential and I feel the computer graphics/pixelated nature of the images relates to the topic very well.

Computer Generated Graphics

Have been looking at computer generated art and how modules have been used to create visual textures. I think this relates to the spamming universe, as there is a viral nature to spam…it expands and multiplies in an almost organic fashion, which links to the idea of module. Have been thinking of possible variables related to spam messages that may be suitable parameters for creating modules and their evolution…the spammers IP could be interesting, as it is composed of a series of numbers.

Cutting up the code

I've doing trying to mess up image's codes in text-edit, basiclly cuting the code up and seeing what happens.._I thought using this technique would be appropriate for some of the illustrations on the book

spoetry@hotmail.com

may spam magnet e-mail adress is up
spoetry@hotmail.com

Ascii

Ascii is a character encoding based on the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that work with text. It is frequently used to illustrate junk-emais, with pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) characters. Most examples of ASCII art require a fixed-width font (non-proportional fonts, like on a traditional typewriter) such as Courier for presentation.

Spam Plants

This is the work of Romanian visual artist Alex Dragulescu.
The ASCII values found in the text of spam messages determine the attributes and qualities of the Spam Plants.



The same artist has also created a Spam Architecture series. These are generated by a computer program that accepts as input, junk email. Various patterns, keywords and rhythms found in the text are translated into three-dimensional modeling gestures.

Here is a link to his work:
http://www.sq.ro

Cutting up

Cut-up is performed by taking a finished and fully linear text (printed on paper) and cutting it in pieces with a few or single words on each piece. The resulting pieces are then rearranged into a new text. The rearranging of work often results in surprisingly innovative new phrases. A common way is to cut a sheet in four rectangular sections, rearranging them and then typing down the mingled prose while compensating for the haphazard word breaks by improvising and innovating along the way.
Gil J. Wolman developed cut-up techniques as part of his lettrist practice. Also in the 1950s painter and writer Brion Gysin more fully developed the cut-up method after accidentally discovering it. He began deliberately cutting newspaper articles into sections, which he randomly rearranged. Minutes to Go resulted from his initial cut-up experiment: unedited and unchanged cut-ups which emerged as coherent and meaningful prose.

Nowadays Spammers use very similar digital techniques to cut up texts that are available on-line.
Here are some of links to where you can try out some cuting up.

http://vispo.com/cgi-bin/wonder/cutup/cutup.cgi
http://www.languageisavirus.com/

Weekly Schedule Proposal for Project

Until sunday the 15th- research continues; spam trap e-mail is set-up; collecting of spam begins

16-29th April (Week 1 and 2)- Basic Layout, Initial selection of Paper, Binding and Printing techniques.
Programming for mailing list.

30th April-13th May (Week 3 and 4)- Refining Book design and layout.

14th-20th May (Week 5)- Collection of spam stops. Editorial process continues.

21th- 27th May (Week 6)- Printing and Binding


28th May- 3rd June (Week 7)- Final Details

Spam

Spam e-mail is a growing practice (90 billion messages are sent
everyday) with which any internet user is familiar. What is not as
well known is the creative effort undertaken by hackers to bypass
anti-spam security systems. The lines below are an example:

"It is this way of it, said she. Either you will go on to speak or
set-off. I left our chambers pretty bare. If we had beds, if
Catriona, Will you not forgive me that time?"

This curious bit of text was designed to elude security software.
It was composed using the modern day equivalent of the cut-up
technique popularized by William Burroughs, by mixing bits
of separate texts (often literary works available online) to create a new one.

I propose to: 1. Actively seek out spam by creating a spam-magnet email account; 2. Select interesting examples to create a book that documents this work;

What I find interesting about this is the repositioning of something
that is discarded and is connected to a darker side of contemporary
capitalism (spam e-mail main topics are Pornography,
prescription drugs, sexual enhancement products, fake University diplomas) into a more noble context of art/poetry.