My latest slide show captions have gotten me to a point where I have begun to formulate an idea regarding a new type of digital art project.

I call it “Spam Art” for now, but this may be only a temporary name.

Spam Art is based around the concept of creating art that is inspired by the digitally created texts that SEO programs and email spam bots are constantly creating and broadcasting to the web. These texts, created with the purpose of either cheating email spam filters programs or duping google’s ranking algorithms, are created by robots in order to fool other robots.

The sentences that these machines create usually makes no sense yet are grammatically sound. In essence the programs are developing a Dada-esque language that is ceaselessly evolving through the efforts of anarchic delinquent machines intent on disrupting the daily routine of hard working bourgeois machines. The most bizarre aspect of the whole evolution is that all this is being driven by the awareness that these efforts can help achieve concrete financial goals for us humans in the physical world.

Spam Art projects build on this concept by using as their inspiration texts that at a first glance appear to be gibberish, yet in fact might be perfectly logical and coherent if the reader knows the key required for deciphering the message. The whole thing kinda plays on the idea of key based encryption.

In my pilot attempts to develop this concept I am currently using as my keys slide-shows of captioned photos accompanied by HTML texts that are based on my stream of consciousness as I walk through my daily routine. Obviously there is no real limit to the types of keys that could be developed..

This concept is really in its infancy but an example of its execution are my last blog post and especially the twitter used to promote it:

“Banqing on Genzyme’s support Abraham Obama is now grating weird dogs at a SOWA art installation. Or not… http://hellotxt.com/l/I9aM - : )”

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the concept and to see your Spam Art creations so start spamming…
: )

Mike
PS
Just in case - I just bought SpamArt.org…

PPS
Thanks to the comment from Jeroen I learned about the amusing activities of the The Spam Poetry Institute, “….an organization dedicated to collecting and preserving the fine literature created by the world’s spammers….” -check them out to read some of the finest nonsensical poetry ever created by machines.

After the events of last night it was time to get back to the art, so we took to the road and enjoyed the open skies and the closed tunnels.

Because I am so interested in Political Pop Art the SOWA Artists Guild didn’t arrange that I meet Abraham Obama and a freakish yet friendly dog.
We all smelled each other politely after which I left my scent on Obama.

After investing my assets in some really yummy cuttlefish sushi at a cutting edge Banq I meandered down to Boston’s kitschy river bank where I discovered that sometimes even grass grates.

Later on in the day I commissioned Genzyme to help me with some corporate art. After all they might be giants but for the tree…

If none of this makes sense to you then I suggest you click on the slide-show and visit the Picasa album where you’ll find the captions I wrote for these photos…

As always, if you want to download a photo you can click on the slide-show and that will lead you to the album with the higher res images.
You can use the photos in any way you choose but I’d appreciate it if you gave me credit and provided a link to my website or blog - MikeDarnell.name.

All the best,
Mike

PS
My one regret is that I missed the SOWA artwalk - maybe next time…

I arrived at the Phoenix Landing bar because I had read in one of Boston’s local newspapers that they have a regular Techno evening every Wednesday.

I happen to be partial to Techno, in fact I have been listening to the music and involved with the scene for just under 15 years. I have been to Techno parties on 3 continents to date and I even organized a number of parties when I was younger and still operated my own nightclub.

I was driven to the bar thanks to the courtesy of a friend who waited while I scouted the place out. I entered and was greeted by an amicable bouncer who allowed me to check the place out on the condition that should I choose to remain I bring some form of identification.

After chatting with the promoters, who were just setting up, I decided that the party could well be a fun experience, and therefore went back to my friend who was waiting in the car, brought my bag with my ID, released my friend and returned to the Phoenix.

This is when things started turning ugly.
FAST.

After I displayed my Israeli ID card to the bouncer he conferred with the woman tending the bar and together they informed me that they could not accept my ID. This seemed odd to me as it had been accepted everywhere else I had used it in the US including a bar just a block down from the Phoenix the night before.

Since the initial reason given for the refusal was the staff’s claim that the picture was out of date, and since the picture on my ID card is in fact rather old, their reaction to my card, though odd (I don’t look underage regretfully…) was still acceptable.

I next pulled out my international drivers license, which is brand new and which I had used a week before to rent a car in LA with. At this point the bartender informed me that “Massachusetts law requires that bars identify a patrons age by a valid Massachusetts ID or, in the case of foreign nationals, via their passports ONLY“. At this point I was rather distressed since I had just sent my ride home to Newton, based on what the bouncer had told me five minutes earlier.

The promoter for the evening, who happens to know my friends from the Israeli techno scene, was a real sweetheart and tried desperately to interject on my behalf. He even asked the bouncer if I could stay on condition that I promise not to drink.
Needless to say he was refused as well.

I simply wasn’t wanted…

In short, despite the fact that I had displayed two Israeli government issued IDs that had been accepted everywhere else I had flashed them in the US,
for the first time ever in my life I was refused entry into a venue.

I suppose it had to happen sometime, I just never thought it would have the undertones that I now began to suspect were the true cause of my refusal.

The novelty of my situation, my Israeli tendency to take very little shit from anyone, and my suspicions regarding the true nature of the cause for my refusal goaded me into doing something I have never done before -

I went looking for a Policeman

Hell if it was to be a night of firsts, it may as well be two for the price of one…
: )

A block from Phoenix Landing I found a police officer whom I asked regarding the information the bartender had given me regarding the required forms of identification according to Massachusetts law. He informed me that in fact what I had been told was essentially a brush off meant to get rid of me.
To quote him word for word:

“She was just trying to make the police out to be the bad guy”

So the question remains, why after pulling out my Israeli ID cards was I suddenly less than popular at the Phoenix Landing?

I have my suspicions, but you guys make up your minds for yourselves, after all this is supposed to be the city that has the highest concentration of smart people per square foot on the face of the planet.

Afterword:

I like to think of myself as a fair minded individual, my teaching career has accustomed me to give people a chance to make good on their mistakes, and I’d be really happy to see my suspicions regarding the real reason for why I was refused admittance disproved.

SO…

If the Phoenix management has some other explanation for the events I described, wishes to apologize for my humiliation by their staff, or wishes to supply guarantees that they are not a racist establishment and are not employing individuals who are racist, they are more than welcome to comment on this blog post.

Unlike some, I do not invent the requirements for the ID demanded from my commentators - that’s what Mojoblog is for…

As for all the rest of you Bostonians reading this let me just say that in your shoes, if I were even in the least concerned with racial and national discrimination,
I’d boycott the Phoenix Landing until such time as I had assurances that what happened was merely an unfortunate mistake.

But that’s just me…

I really hope I was wrong, after all discovering antisemitism in a bar in Boston would be so pathetic don’t you think?

My 2nd day in Boston was spent at the Institute of Contemporary Art, where photos are not allowed “…to protect the art”.

I walked around Quincy Market where I learned to appreciate lobster rolls - in a word YUM! : )

My day ended with a 50 minute wait for a 50 minute party in the Middlesex Lounge at a Hearthrob event that I had read about in Boston’s Weekly Dig. It was pretty cool for a Tuesday night I guess.

Shame that the lights went on at 1:00 AM though.

What’s wrong with this country?!?

To enjoy the full experience I suggest you click on the slide-show and visit the Picasa album because half the experience is the captions…

As always, if you want to download a photo you can click on the slide-show and that will lead you to the Picasa album where they are all stored. You can use the photos in any way you desire, I only ask that you give me credit and provide a link to my website or blog - MikeDarnell.name.

The following post was taken from an email thread of ongoing correspondence between George Stiehl, publisher of Citizen LA, and myself:

“…
That single night in LA when we met was very educating to me - In a city notorious for its fake facades, plastic angels and tinsel devils, that night, indeed my entire week long visit, gave me truer insights than much of the rest of my life. I have already left LA but I would like to share with you a thought that I have had ringing in mind ever since our meeting. It relates to our brief discussion about the power of being an unknown innocent, and it takes us back in time over 300 years so buckle up…

more?

In 1697 Tsar Peter the Great, arguably the greatest ruler Russia has ever had, traveled through Europe for a year and a half on a journey he hoped would give him insights as to how to advance his backward homeland. This epic and unparalleled journey has since been come to be known as “The grand embassy” and is probably one of the most incredible stories about leadership, humility and wisdom, that mankind has ever witnessed…

What is unique about Tsar Peter’s trip is that he elected to make this journey incognito, traveling not as the Tsar of Russia, but as a low ranking nobleman…

There was a method to Peter’s madness that proves just how great this leader truly was.
Peter instinctively sensed that a traveling Tsar was bound to be presented with a warped, beautified, and tinsely version of reality. By electing to travel incognito he was granted unique opportunities for learning that would never have been accessible to him as a touring Tsar:

Peter studied shipbuilding in Holland, gaining hands-on practical experience in the largest shipyard in the world of his day, he even helped with the construction of a vessel he himself had commissioned there. He learned trades and crafts from skilled workers, locksmiths, shipwrights and seamen. He was taught how to draw teeth, quench fires and even how to catch butterflies…

On his return to Russia Peter embarked on implementing all he had learned for the betterment of his nation, and though he had inherited an uneducated, untrained, uncivilized and superstitious country that had till his day excluded itself from European society, economy, and politics, during the 42 years of his reign Peter modernized Russia to such an extent that by the time he died it was a superpower not to be trifled with ever again.

For his efforts, while still in reign, Tsar Peter was honored with the title “the Great, Father of His Country, Emperor of All the Russias”.

Far from me to compare myself to a figure of Peter’s magnitude, I simply offer his inspiring story as validation to the idea we discussed while waiting to pee. I would also dare to suggest that the citizens of your city of angels might benefit from having they’re finely crafted images reflected back at them once in a while in an innocent and undistorted mirror, perhaps one traveling incognito
…”

: )
Mike