Spam-stories

Everyone has a story to tell, though we know some might be more interesting than others. A new form of storytelling is in formation, one that utilizes the interweb communication system as its medium. Let me explain...

I'm assuming most of you have email addresses, and use one (if not more) provider such as Gmail, or Yahoo! I am also assuming that you are sent a fair amount of spam to that email address as well. I've known some people whose amount of emails in the Spam folder are well up into the thousands. Buy Viagra! Lose 1,000,000 lbs in one week! enhance yor Peniskcg!! So much Spam, and the only thing to do is delete it and wish there was some way you could tell them stop sending you so much crap.

But is not "crap," "junk," "refuse" a viable source of inspiration for artistic endeavors? Wonderful pieces of art are formed by found objects. What is that saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure?" Or woman, for that matter.

There is a new movement in the literary world in response to these emails, called Spam Lit. Many of the Spam emails have snippets of what may seem nonsensical prose and verse, designed to bypass the powerful Spam Filters in many of the big email clients. Here's an example:

I've always been fascinated by these snippets of absurdity trailing each piece of purportedly useless Spam. But apparently I wasn't the only one. Blogs like Spam Stories demonstrate the wonderfully creative ways we can create something from what is assumed to be nothing. Trash to Treasure. I think I will be using this Spam Lit as part of some projects and assignments for this Digital Media Foundations class. Who knows, I might create the first of its kind.

Oh, nope, someone beat me to it.