User:Andre Castro/2/Transmedial/report

Workshop Report

The booklet

The booklet you are either holding or looking at, through some screen is the result of a workshop title Spam Publishing. One of the many parts that constituted the Post-digital Publishing Workshops on DIY publishing, which took place during transmedial 2013.

The following lines will be dedicate to an overview of the workshop its resulting works.

the workshop description

The workshop developed from a simple task: "create writing and hybrid media publications from your junk mail folder". We wanted to bring participants to look at spam messages as something more than digital junk that fills up our email accounts. We wanted, together with the participants to look at small and hidden details of messages, at anomalies, at reoccurring elements, and investigate them. Found evidence resulting from investigations were assembled as a portrait occupying two A5 sheets. In order to gather all the portraits we decided upon the bestiary, as our hosting format. A book where spam beasts could find a space to take off their cloths and let themselves be portrayed.

Workshop Evaluation

If I try to draft a quick workshop evaluation, I will easily considerate it as positive. To start with the workshop gave me the chance to articulate my thoughts as to why am I interest in spam, what findings I have made so far, and what I expect to get from it.

Another reason that made me walk out of the workshop with a smile across my face was the collaboration with Silvio Lorusso. Silvio brought a good dose pragmatism and enthusiasm: "Let's do it! Yes, a booklet!". And along with it, an interest in the remediation of digital materials into analog formats. What changes does content undergo when hosted by different container? Is our view upon the content also transformed? And under this particular context, will we see other sides to spam once it becomes remediated by print? 

Then the third part of the equation, the participants, came into the play. Their enthusiasm contaminated the whole workshop, and ideas began circulating at light-speed. Each one seemed to have a slightly different reason for having joined the workshop, but common to most was the will to get bellow the surface of unsolicited emails. The participants started by looking for spam emails, in search of specific details that would arouse their interest. After a brief investigation each group had already found its spam terrain.

Die Vopan Brueder gave themselves the task of finding a botnet that could be bought in order spam large (very large) number of address. Making their way through Russian web-forums, the Vopan Brothers eventually arrived at some individual, who advertised access to a bot-net dedicated to spam. A contact to his ICQ number and a transaction was what needed in order to seal the deal.

Winning the lottery and being notified by emails is frequent to some us, even to those us who don't play it. That wasn't the case o Dave Dawes, a lottery enthusiast who won the British Jackpot Lottery. Out of sheer generosity he is willing to donate a percentage of his fortune to you. Dave reconstituted his path to fortune through several clippings. Congratulations Dave! Hopefully this publication will help you find someone worth your generousity.

Another approach was taken by ADARAM SALAT, the daughter of the founder of Moro Islamic Liberation Front. ADARAM expressed her doubts on the efficient of Facebook to promote her father's cause. Although she owns five Facebook accounts and was an avid spammer, not much responses were making it her way. This time ADARA decides to join this publication and try a new support to promote her cause. Let's hope it helps.

noyan dug their inboxes, going back to 2007, looking for whatever spam was left. A number of historical viagra adverts were found. A the same visual formula branded these emails: a colorful text-box with misspelled viagra in capitals. At the bottom of each email a short text kept appearing, in small font-size, and with no apparent sense or reason to exist. Upon searching these cryptic text fragments, noyan found out they were extracts from War and Peace, The Holy Bible, and A Feast for Crows. noya faced a case of Spam Lit, a spam technique in which literary texts are introduced in order to fool the spam filter into thinking a friend with literary inclinations, and probably a psychological disturbance decided to email some fresh prose. noyan venture capitalistic spirit saw this formula both as an innovative advertisement technique for books, and as the future of literacy programs. Soon enough these beautiful adds will be adopted in large scale, and sell billions of Dan Brown's and Paulo Coelho's master pieces.

RoSa MenKmAN paranormal visionary soul foresaw a future world where spam messages will be fed into karaoke machines. Dancing to electrifying rhythms, looking at color-exploding images, and singing to Dr. Oz's lyrics will transport us into a world of red raspberries and protein regulated metabolism, where bodies are perfect, weight is something of the past, and a smile is a must.

Vivian and Inga Schlömer also began by excavating their inboxes in search for oddities. A strange and cryptic email was found. The message consisted of composite words with no easily identifiable meaning, plus a broken link. Such finding brought the Schlömers to initiate the Spamtionary with its first entry term: "plesloyalossy". A laborious search pointed them to a definition bearing reference to Mrs. Ples' devotion to lossy compression.

Conclusion

As previously mentioned, the explorations and discussions undertaken during the workshop brought up a few interesting ideas around the topic of spam. Spam's archaeology and its constant metamorphosis were two of the most prominent subjects. Changes in spam appear to take place quite suddenly, drastically and globally. Why did penis enlargement spam stopped arriving at our mail-boxes? Why did we all felt it at roughly the same time? Does it imply that the majority of spam is centralized? Or is it highly network, generated by a myriad of small groups, aware of each other's movements, following and appropriating spam latest trend? And since change is a constant, how important is to register those shifts? Does spam possess any cultural value? Does it deserve to be considered a product of folk culture, and consequently ask for our preservation effort? And why does such question arises in ours minds in the first place? Is it due to the authorless nature of spam? Is it because its creative strategies are contaminated with money extorting intentions?

The wide appeal of spam is also puzzling. Why are so many people curious about it? Wouldn't it be expected that we would treat these texts simply as internet debris? However there is something that hooks most of us to them. Perhaps is the fact that these intimate and confessional emails are entrusted to us, as a result of our good will and honesty. Perhaps is the desire to be told these stories infused with magic spells, distant lands, princesses and kings, and abundant wealth. And no doubt most of us sees them as a fictitious, but could it be that we half-believe in them? That we take on a suspension of disbelief because we want to be told these stories, which turn us into heroes and saviors?

I'd like to thank all the participants for their inspiring and devoted participation, Silvio for making a head dive into this crazy project, Florian Cramer for having invited us to take part in Post-digital Publishing program of transmedial 2013, and Piet Zwart Institute (in the human forms of Leslie Robbins and Simon Pummel) for making it possible for us to come transmedial.

Raimundo (Andre) Castro