Narratives of Deception

Main (Page)

Bringing to stage the exotic and interweaving network of stories told in spam emails.

(A black screen where one of the stories is written, using the subtitles)

Narratives of Deception

(What)

An Operetta
Written entirely from spam email
Aims
- communicate the fascinating stories that otherwise would be lost in the confines of our junk mail folders
- reveal the interconnected, ever-evolving, and appropriative character of these stories

(How)

Compilation and organization of spam fraud emails (known as 419s advance fee fraud emails), according to a characters' topology.
Each fraud email features one character as the posing author of the email
The posing author is without exception part of a finite topology of characters: a banker, a soldier, a rich widow, a politician's relative;
The story told by each posing author is essentially the same.
Algorithmic analysis of the various messages written by the given posing author
These various messages are re-organized so that the common elements, among this body of similar text become perceptible
The re-organized stories are made visible through a karaoke screen
The karaoke screen will conduct performers in their interpretation of the fraud stories.

(Why)

fascinating and exotic stories, that deserve to be told to audiences
spam is more than deceptive and unsolicited for of online advertising,
a rich, creative and constantly evolving field
using the most unthinkable tactics to contour spam filtering mechanism, disguise itself as legitimate communication, while seducing us with promises of wealth, happiness, and pleasure.