I suspect that this is not what they had in mind, which is a shame really... ;-)

→ Posted by: Dan...(iel) at January 16, 2004 3:34 PM

Is this the start of a new art form? Interpretive spam art? Quick, someone register a domain name!

→ Posted by: Chrispian at January 16, 2004 3:42 PM

If this were boingboing and London were LA and spam was SARS, this post would be the start of some cool new cultural art thing and would wind up in Wired magazine next month. Good thing this is much better than that.

→ Posted by: jkottke at January 16, 2004 4:42 PM

yeah, i'm actually starting to enjoy the spam that makes it past my filters. most of it contains what seems to be randomly generated text that could pass for bad poetry.

→ Posted by: scott reynen at January 16, 2004 4:44 PM

See also this recent Penny Arcade for a depiction of a door-to-door spammer...

→ Posted by: tom at January 16, 2004 5:28 PM

Excellent. But you should have titled it in your own handwriting font thing.

→ Posted by: James at January 16, 2004 6:18 PM

I, too, have illustrated your spam. But it's not so classy.

http://interconnected.org/home/more/2004/01/cock-pussy.jpg

→ Posted by: mattw at January 16, 2004 7:19 PM

But mattw, that's more like a cockswarm, than a massive unrelenty cock in the singular. It's a bit like that horse-sized duck vs 100 duck-size horses.

Another spam illustration, but I mainly get marvellous Bayesian-avoiding sender names:
http://www.blackbeltjones.com/constitutionally_f_iodizes.gif

/mj

→ Posted by: mattj at January 16, 2004 8:44 PM

bum. that's lots better than my spam monsters project. think i'll give up now.

→ Posted by: groc at January 16, 2004 11:35 PM

Jones, I like your Constitionally F. Iodizes ... Andy Otwell and I have been collecting such fabulous sender names.

→ Posted by: Dan at January 17, 2004 12:10 AM

it's Gigans brother ^_^

→ Posted by: kurai at January 17, 2004 10:10 AM

mattj: The spam specified multiple cocks, but I agree with the swarm problem. I had hoped to use a large ranked mass to signify 'unrelented'. Perhaps if we could get the guys with the LOTR special effects computer interested in this game it'd be more convincing? Conveying innocence is also a quality hard to convey convincingly.

What this, and b3ta-style art, reminds me of is Archaic art. Feyerabend, in Against Method [p177], describes the style: "The picture becomes a list. Thus a charioteer standing in a carriage is shown as standing above the floor (which is presented in its fullest view) and unencumbered by the rails so that his feet, the floor, the rails can all be clearly seen. No trouble arises if we regard the painting as a visual catalogue of the parts of an event rather than as an illusary rendering of the event itself (no trouble arises when we say: his feet touched the floor which is rectangular, and he was surrounded by a railing...)" -- the picture is a series of statements: "We have what is called a paratactic aggregate: the elements of such an aggregate are all given equal importance, the only relation between them is sequential, there is no hierarchy, no part is being presented as being subordinate to and determined by others".

The picture is read rather than gleaned, and I'd contend that this form of art arises out of cultures that contain strong virtual worlds (we have cyberspace; the Greeks had systems of thought and description. It's not so different), because if the world the artists inhabit is a construction, the art will tend to be like that too. (See also, Cyberspace as a paratactic aggregate.)

Anyway.

→ Posted by: mattw at January 17, 2004 12:35 PM

You are a genius.

→ Posted by: Daphne at January 17, 2004 1:03 PM

Genius, nearly wet meself.

→ Posted by: Mac at January 18, 2004 4:47 PM

I love you. I will never look at spam the same way again.
You made my day, although I coughed diet coke on myself, my day is much better on the whole.

→ Posted by: edna million at January 19, 2004 7:16 PM

I think you may have stumbled upon the only thing SPAM is good for. Brilliant!

→ Posted by: homer jay at January 19, 2004 9:10 PM

Methinks someone should write a song about this that is sung to the tune of 'Imitation of Life' by REM.

→ Posted by: Mark at January 20, 2004 1:57 AM

You know, this would be way funnier with all the words removed from the image. Really.

→ Posted by: Nicholas Liu at January 20, 2004 4:24 AM

My friend John takes the fact that his site was filtered in schools as a badge of honour.

→ Posted by: Tom Morris at January 20, 2004 7:29 PM

Simply Divine. I dont think I can ever think of cocks and cats the same way anymore too

→ Posted by: Joshua at January 25, 2004 11:33 AM

FLEE! FLEE! THE ENOURMOUS CHICKEN COMETH! AAAH!!! Those words are etched into my mind for life. Genius. Everyone I showed thought it was completely hilarious. Cheers!

→ Posted by: Kirsty at October 13, 2004 6:42 PM

Despite the large quantities of funny stuff online, it's rare that webstuff makes me laugh out loud. And I'm at work. People here now think I'm nuts. This is absolutely hilarious. Do more. I love it.

→ Posted by: Inkycircus at November 30, 2005 3:33 PM