a bestiary of spam characters

A Bestiary of Spam Charactersby

Dave Dawes

Vivian Schlömer

Die Vopan Brueder

ADARA SALAMAT

noyan

Silvio Lo Russ0

Inga Schlömer

Raimundo Castro

RoSa MenKmAN

Transmediale 2013Wed 30.01.2013Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

— Spam

Publishing Editions

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SPAMTIONARY SPAMTIONARY

plesloyalossy / [ˈpleʒlɔɪəllos-ee] (adjective) Devotion or faithfulness although misfortune or bad luck occurs. Ples refers to Mrs. Ples, the popular nickname for the most complete skull of an Australo-pithecus africanus specimen ever found in South Africa – dead but still preserved.

It also refers to digital culture, where many types of digital data are compressed in a way that reduces the size of a computer le almost beyond recognition (known as lossy compression). This term spread via spam e-mail in 2012 and quick-ly became a common expression for the antagonism of loss and loyalty joint in one person, environment, device, situation etc.

1.1 Original skull of 'Mrs. Ples', Transvaal Museum, Pretoria

1.2 Original skull of 'Mrs. Ples', Transvaal Museum, Pretoria – compressed

Workshop ReportRaimundo (André) Castro

The BookletThe booklet you are either holding or staring at is the result of a workshop titled Spam Publishing. Spam Publishing was one of the four Post-digital Publishing Workshops, focused on DIY publishing, which took place at Transmediale 2013.

The following lines will be dedicated to an overview of the workshop and its outcomes.

The Workshop DescriptionThe workshop revolved around a simple task: “Create writing and hybrid media publications from your junk mail folder”. We wanted to encourage participants to look at spam messages as something more than digital junk. We wanted participants to detect the small and hidden details contained within email spam messages, at the anomalies, at reoccurring elements. Once these elements were found we then proposed an investigation to explore these traces further. The findings of this process were compiled into a ‘spam portrait’ occupying two A5 sheets. In order to gather together all the portraits we decided upon a ‘bestiary’ as our hosting format. A compendium of beasts is a platform where spam beasts find a space to take off their clothes and let themselves be portrayed in their naked state.

Workshop EvaluationIf I make a quick evaluation, I would easily consider that the workshop was a positive experience. To begin with, the workshop gave me the chance to articulate my thoughts around why am I interested in spam, what findings I have made so far about its nature, and what I expect to get from it, as the subject of my inquiry.

Another reason that made me walk out of the workshop room with a smile across my face was the collaboration with Silvio Lorusso. Silvio brought to the project a good dose of pragmatism and enthusiasm: “Let’s do it! Yes, a booklet!”. And along with it, his interest in the remediation of digital materials into analog formats prompted the following questions: What changes does the content undergo when its container changes? Is our view upon that content also transformed? Will we see other sides to spam upon remediation by print? Then the third part of the equation, the participants, came into the play. Their

enthusiasm contaminated the atmosphere of 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 all was the will to get below the surface of unsolicited emails. Different areas of investigation were delineated, as follows:

Die Vopan Brueder gave themselves the task of finding a botnet that could be bought in order to spam a large (very large) number of addresses. Making their way through Russian web-forums, the Vopan Brothers eventually located an individual who advertised access to a botnet dedicated to spam. A contact to his ICQ number and a transaction was what was needed in order to seal the deal. Unluckily the Bothers forgot their bitcoin card at home, so no spamming could be carried out this time.

Being notified of a lottery win via email is a frequent occurrence for some of us, even for those who don’t play it. That wasn’t the case for 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 made a collage of the various steps in his path to fortune through several news clippings. Congratulations Dave! Hopefully this publication will help you find someone worth your generosity.

Another approach was taken by ADARAM SALAT, the daughter of the founder of Moro Islamic Liberation Front. ADARAM expressed her doubts on the efficiency of Facebook to promote her father’s cause. Although she owns five Facebook accounts and was an avid spammer, not many responses were making it to her. This time ADARAM decided to join this publication and try a new platform from which to promote her cause. Let’s hope it helps.

noyan dug through their inboxes, searching back to 2007, looking for whatever spam had remained. A number of historical viagra adverts were found. 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 be present. 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 had discovered a case of Spam Lit, a spam technique in which literary texts are introduced into the email body, 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’s venture capitalistic spirit saw this formula as both an innovative advertisement technique for books, and as a resource for literacy programs. Soon enough, these beautiful ads will be adopted in large scale, and sell billions of Dan Brown’s and Paulo Coelhos.

RoSa MenKmAN’s 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 metabolisms. Here 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. Their findings brought the Schlömers to initiate the Spamtionary, creating as its first entry the term “plesloyalossy”. To the moment, this was the email’s only deciphered term, bearing reference to Mrs. Ples’ devotion to lossy compression.

ConclusionAs previously mentioned, the explorations and discussions undertaken during the workshop brought up a few interesting ideas and a broad range of questions around the topic of spam. Spam’s archeology and its constant metamorphosis were two of the most prominent subjects. Changes in spam appear to take place quite suddenly, dramatically and on a global scale. Why did penis enlargement spam stop arriving in our mailboxes? Why was this spam disappearance felt at roughly the same time? Does it imply that the majority of spam is centralized? Or is it highly networked, generated by a myriad of small groups, aware of each other’s movements, following and appropriating the latest spam trend? And since change is a constant, how important is to register those shifts? Does spam’s cultural value justify such an effort? And why do such questions arise in our minds in the first place? Is it due to the authorless nature of spam? Is it because its creative strategies are contaminated by money-extorting intentions? The wide appeal of spam is also puzzling. Why are so many people curious about it? Why do we not simply treat these texts simply as internet debris? Perhaps there is something that hooks 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 see 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, stories which offer opportunities to cast us in the role of heroes and saviors in a spam fantasy world populated by murdered business men, corrupt politicians, seductive women, and generous account managers?

– Raimundo (André) Castro

A Word of ThanksWe’d like to thank all the participants for their inspiring and devoted contributions, Florian Cramer for having invited us to take part in the Post-digital Publishing program of Transmediale 2013, Sebastian Schmieg and Anna Okrasko for their hospitality, Liz Allan for patiently proofreading this text. Last but not least, thanks to the Piet Zwart Institute (in the human forms of Leslie Robbins, Simon Pummel, and Steve Rushton) for making our presence at Transmediale possible.

Postcards

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as a

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ple

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can

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l diff

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ave

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e ab

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prog

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e to

shar

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enef

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t's

wha

t pro

mpt

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e to

writ

e th

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rimar

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to te

ll th

e pe

ople

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suffe

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our n

ame,

and

if y

ou a

gree

do

resp

ond

back

to m

e to

ena

ble

me

furn

ish

you

with

mor

e de

tails

as t

o th

e w

ay fo

rwar

d in

ho

w th

is c

an b

e ac

hiev

ed.

Imm

edia

tely

you

rece

ive

this

lette

r. Pl

ease

indi

cate

you

r Will

ingn

ess b

y se

ndin

g yo

ur in

form

atio

n to

ena

ble

us e

nter

into

the

offic

ial s

tage

of

this

tran

sact

ion.

For m

ore

Cla

rific

atio

n an

d ea

sy c

omm

unic

atio

n. Y

ou c

an a

s wel

l cal

l my

Dire

ct li

ne fo

r fur

ther

up

date

+2

7832

4894

98.A

lso

Vis

ite o

ur w

ebsi

te w

ww.

AB

SA.C

O.Z

A

I aw

ait y

our r

espo

nse.

Than

ks,

Your

s Fai

thfu

lly,

Mr P

eter

Hay

man

AB

SA B

ank

Joha

ness

bour

g,So

uth

Afr

ica.

Tel+

2783

2489

498

Hel

lo d

ear f

riend

,

How

are

you

doi

ng to

day?

. I M

rs A

nna

Ken

nedy

, and

i am

cur

rent

ly se

ndin

g yo

u th

is m

ail f

rom

my

sick

bed

. I

have

to th

ank

God

this

mom

ent f

or h

is d

irect

ion

as re

gard

s thi

s mis

sion

. God

wan

t me

to c

ompl

ete

this

mis

sion

he

nce,

I go

t you

r con

tact

. I k

now

you

may

be w

onde

ring

how

I go

t you

r con

tact

em

ail.

Act

ually

whe

n I h

eard

from

the

doct

or th

at m

y co

nditi

on h

as b

ecom

e so

criti

cal,

I had

to re

ach

out t

o a

Chr

istia

n si

ster

, who

ass

iste

d m

e in

sear

chin

g fo

r you

r con

tact

in o

rder

to h

elp

me

utili

ze th

is w

ealth

the

way

I am

goi

ng to

inst

ruct

her

ein,

and

eve

n th

e si

ster

that

hel

ped

me

in th

is re

gard

doe

sn't

know

the

purp

ose

for w

hich

I in

tend

to u

se it

I ha

ve p

raye

d ab

out i

t an

d it

has b

een

reve

aled

to m

e th

at y

ou c

an m

ake

judi

ciou

s use

of t

he re

sour

ces f

or it

s int

ende

d pu

rpos

e.

I am

cur

rent

ly se

ndin

g yo

u th

is m

ail f

rom

my

sick

bed

in th

e ho

spita

l. M

y hu

sban

d ea

rned

thes

e fu

nds,

Ten

mill

ion

eigh

t hun

dred

thou

sand

s uni

ted

stat

e do

llars

(10,

800,

000.

00 U

SD) b

ut h

e di

ed in

a p

lane

cra

sh a

nd le

ft ev

eryt

hing

be

hind

for m

e an

d I w

ill jo

in h

im so

on d

ue to

my

ill h

ealth

.D

ue to

my

infe

rtilit

y re

sulti

ng fr

om m

edic

al p

robl

ems I

bec

ame

barr

en. G

od h

as a

reas

on fo

r eve

ryth

ing.

I w

ould

w

ant y

ou to

con

tact

my

law

yer;

he w

ill in

form

you

on

wha

t to

do. C

onta

ct h

im w

ith th

e be

low

det

ails

:

Bar

riste

r Bar

ney

Gab

riel(e

sq)

Emai

l: (b

arris

terb

arne

y.ga

brie

l@ y

ahoo

.com

)Te

leph

one:

+44

7024

0264

99

You

are

bles

sed.

Mrs

. Ann

a K

enne

dy.

692324

781300

9

ISBN 978-1-300-69232-490000

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