User:Andre Castro/2/Transmedial/spam transmedial

How to create writing and hybrid media publications from your junk mail folder.

Drawing from a spam database, create a work that highlights characteristic aspects of spam emails.

Questions

• How can spam be re-published whiles maintaining its networked aspect?
• How can the characteristic elements of spam become apparent, when re-published?
• What publishing strategies allow for those 2 aspects to be present?
• why it makes sense to re-mediate/republish spam, under a different form?
  • why is spam interesting? (Andre)...

Expectations

What do we intend to get out of the workshop?

• new insights of what elements are specific to spam.
• concepts/prototypes for spam publishing that:
  • avoid its crystallization
  • are able to put forward and networked and evolving nature.
• end the workshop with a tangible outcome,: a pdf to be printed on demand

The workshop will cross-fade to Consent to Print.
Maybe Consent to Print will use it as the raw material to explore consensus/dissent based editorial practice.
This might be difficult, and doesn't have to happen.

workshop

spammers give away spam and resort to postcards

Participants take the role of spammers who decided on embrace a different medium for their scams: Postcards Based on existing spam messages the participant will write postcards that try to lure the recipient into providing them personal data or money. The existing database will be used a resource for:

• detection of the strategies used by spammers to succeed in their scams:
  • employment of actual individuals as character of their messages
  • creation believable scenarios, intimate and confessional mode of address
  • resource to one's greed or compassion, employment of stereotypes, such as African's being corrupt, poor, or extremely religious)

• rich characters to be found
  • + about characters ...

• catchy and convincing sentences ready to be written into a postcard.

Plan

Structure for the 2 hours

• 20min introduction
  • Quick and broad presentation of the workshop
  • Silvio 5 or 6 examples of art projects that deal with spam
  • Andre introduction to the spam-database, and some of his points of interest in spam

• 40min browsing the spam db; Identifying aspects of interest:
  • characters present
    • real character present in outside the email landscape (eg:mass-media)
    • stereotypical characters
  • mode of address employed
  • the formulistic nature of spam
    • introduction, exposition, arguing.
    • forms of introduction

• 20min to hear participants about:
  • findings
  • choices of hot to translate them into hand written postcard

• 30min do write the postcards and scan them.

• 10min for feedback

Work in pairs

Introduction

• Our interest in spam
• Our motivation to run the workshop
• Art projects based on spam
• the material(database): http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/

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The Bestiary

Andre feedback

Bestiary Text (from pdf)

• loved the bestiary idea
• also liked very much that rules are given to participants. The plan is layout very well.

• I'd like to, still keeping the bestiary, bring in the postcards possibility.

Perhaps this could be done by: ( more incline to OPTION C )

• A) Create and represent the characters of the bestiary.

Put them into the book, but also print there (we have a printer) unto potscards. One side would have the portrait. The other an empty space for the message

• B) Print the database onto 30 postcards. Participants can read from these. In the end they'd have the possibility to send them inside the house.

• C) Working in pairs:
  • person 1)
    • investigate a spam character. Drawing information not only from that the email mentions, but also using other found traces of this character.
    • Sketch a profile of this character.

• • person 2)
    • investigates the characteristic elements of spam: reoccuring structure, intimate tone, persuasive discourse and its elements
    • Based on the character information gathered by your partner, and employing the spam writing strategies you came across, write a spam messages from the perspective of this character

Both portrait and message can work by using text and/or images, employ materials found online.

The resulting portraits and messages will included side-by-side, in the bestiary, and in postcards (so your characters can start spamming straight away the HKW using the pneumatic pipe mail OCTO station)

Technical necessities

• scanner - andre's friend boroughs 1
• printer - Eleanor asked for 1 (has to check in printing doesn't conflict)
• hard paper (for postcards)

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Meeting w/ florian

pipe mail system

A pipe mailing system that will be in place in TM. This is based on a system for exchange of messages that existed in Berlin in 1950s.

Spam can circulate through this system.

• email - Lukas Grundmann - tech person - email him about wanting to use the pipe mail system;

Sugestions

• make it a bit of competive element to make it speed up

Other possible publishing strategies

the narratives described in spam, through their characters

• As the same character might appear in a more than 1 one email
• As characters are often actual living(or dead) characters
• As they are often famous and with a large presence in the media
• They are related to other characters outside the spam narratives

Characters' profiles can be drawn in great detail. And they can be interconnected to those related to them (both in spam narratives and in real-life). Such well web of strong characters opens up the possibility for re-writing the narrative between this characters

Questions

• what form to publish this network of characters so that their interconnections become apparent?
• how does it allow expansion, speculation, for narratives to emerge from the vision of characters' relations?
• could this be a final published object or it could be a intermediary to another publication.

the formulistic nature of spam

Spam's language and structure is quite identifiable. It reaffirms and repeats itself in almost every spam email.

With All Due Respect My name is morgan ashante am the manager of auditing and accounting department International commercial bank

I pray this proposal meet your kind co-operation. I am Mr. Mphilo Dlamini, the service Director/ Account Unit of First National Bank of South Africa.

My name is Mrs.Sonia Murphy am the manager of auditing and accounting department International commercial bank

My Name is Mrs.Janet Andrea. I am a dying woman who has decided to donate all that I have to charity through you.

My Name is Mr. Peter i am writing you this short note based on the latest development at my bank

What could be a publishing solution that would put a focus on this formulistic aspect o spam?

• create head-body-and-legs with these sentences

browsing the spam db and discussion of possible prototypes

• Take a look at the spam emails collected at http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/
• See if there is something there that arouses your interest.
• How could that aspect of this raw material manifest itself in a publication?
• What form would that publication take? Paper? Digital? Sound

group listens to the participants ideas

• description of the ideas for publishing spam
• how would you go and execute it?
• is a prototype doable? If not a description of how the prototype could be built?

If in the end there is a interested to continue with some of the proposals outside the workshop that should be fine. The following days can be used to prototype something out form the the ideas for spam publishing resulting from the workshop.

Reflections

Although I'd like to finish the workshop with a tangible outcome. And it appeals more to me the idea of producing one object collaboratively. I don't want to dictate the method for the participants. I'd like that prototype to allow for each-one's inventiveness and ideas in approaching this material.

For example:

• Head-chest-legs book - idea is already too specific. It doesn't allow much development.
• A character investigation/narrative a broader proposal:
  • the proposal could be: pick a character referred to in spam emails;
  • draw a portrait of that character, either by images, texts (found or created then)
  • how can this portraits be assembled together, as one whole? Into a pdf?

Requirements

• Beamer
• Internet connection
• Table scanner (i can get one through Judith)
• computers (shouldn't worry too much. Ours and some of participant's laptop should be enough). But should ask "Participants are asked to bring their laptops (but it is not essential"