Did Horse_ebooks Show Us that SPAM is the Web's Native Artform? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

Horse_ebooks was a twitter spambot par excellence. It was algorithmic assembled poetry. It was the soul in the machine. But we recently learned that for the past few years horse_ebooks was in fact human authored, by a Buzzfeed writer, no less! And that made us angry. Why? Because when it was computer created, horse_ebooks was, as strange as this sounds, nearly perfect SPAM. It was SPAM that grabbed our attention, that gave us the joy of meaningful nonsense and, most importantly, we chose to participate in its ridiculousness. And that was its art. Horse_eBooks had perfected the art of SPAM!!!

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[gsa]

Most if not all Renaissance Art are actually pieces of advertising, advertizing catholic christianity in churches and monasteries, advertizing the importance and influence of the patron, and advertizing the grandeur of a state or it's rulers

[andybaio]

Thanks for the shoutout! There's very little that's artful about spam; it's coarse commercialism, an attempt to grab your attention long enough to part you with your money, or simply spread itself in some fashion in order to find its end state in a sucker's hands. It only starts to resemble art when defeating spam filters, but only does so accidentally. I've received spam email for years that resembles surrealist poetry, but it's a happy accident. So: not an art form. Animated GIFs still rule.

[OckinElf]

Whenever a human says something poetic (especially on the internet) the chances are that the only thought they put into it was clicking the share button. It is rare to find something truly original on the internet, let alone something with no underlying motive.

I believe that the main appeal for the horse tweets is the fact that it is something that is (or was) guaranteed to be 100% original and as a mindless spam bot there was no way it was trying to manipulate you, sell to you, make you like them.... though apparently in the end it was all those things.

[jbd]

"choosy programmers choose 'jif.'" Love this channel. I have to say you have one of the most inoffensive personalities I've encountered. You seem to be able to talk about controversial topics in a way that is very approachable, so kudos to you sir. :D

[bengr]

Spam is merely the junk mail specific to the internet.  It isn't the web's native art form because it is not native to the internet.

[ellefara]

Really great episode, I really love the role that the detritus of the internet plays and what it says out us. You might want to check out an article that was on The Independent, titled; 'The web's oldest dark art: Can spam be canned?' "…spam messages are also like the unconscious of our cultural fantasies… spam embodies an exaggerated, hyperbolic version of the things we are taught to dream about."

[jlee]

Who is the host?  Is it wrong that I'm slowly but surely falling in love with him?

[BenKucharski]

Grats on the Mashie! Yes! I love this video! 7 or 8 years back some friends and I started obsessively collecting and sharing emails we'd receive we referred to as "spam poetry." Very very similar to this, and of course unsolicited, but having no point...they didn't have links, didn't want to sell us things, etc. We loved them and read them like we meant it! I also love that this is the second video in the recent past where you discuss people being upset about being duped a la Lana Del Rey.

[KKlawm]

Nothing else I watch is as interesting as the Idea Channel. Even if the topic is something I find boring or tedious I end up getting sucked into the mind games... So glad I found this.

[d.lawrencemiller]

Stop saying JIFE you're hurting me 😢😢😢

[ILikeMints]

I think an element you missed, in addition to finding the soul in the machine, was the shared experience on twitter watching it happen. We watched Horse supposedly stumble into poetry together, like watching a baby learn how to walk. Horse was a common language among internet strangers, and that connection with each other was betrayed in a way, and suddenly felt fake, like the spam was fake.

[nomanchaudhry]

No... I think spam is a literature form, gifs are an art form

[Spoodlewok]

I really enjoyed the production mike, great video! I agree that the native art form of the internet is spamming because the concept that lies behind a gif is spamming at it's most implicit of characteristics. I don't see another way, sort of like what came first the chicken or the egg.

[ggnictee]

1/3
In nearly all things I am 100% behind Idea Channel. Every Wednesday I hit refresh until the new episode shows up. Mike and the Idea Channel commenters are awesome. Always willing to hear the other side, have a good debate, and go home friends but then there’s BBT.
Why complain about BBT at all? It’s a fine show. Not ground breaking in anyway but well written and funny more often than not. Yes, it does poke fun at “nerd culture” at times but it also celebrates it.

[zombies]

I love this channel, not only because of the insightful interensting points made, but also because of the awesome stuff that I had never heard before that I discover here. Thank you!

[phoolzgold]

I posted a comment saying you should do an episode on horse ebooks last week and now there is one! Great minds think alike you know.

[JaySalinas]

Mike Rugnetta and Co. = Greatest Spambot EVAR! You rule my youtubez!

[alvro]

one of the best episodes thus far. whoever said idea channel had jumped the shark better watch this one. Great work Mike and everyone else!

[NatetheNerdy]

To say spam is the internet's artform is like saying painting is a museum's artform. Spam can exist off of the internet (and has, telegraphs once had spam messages), and there are other beautiful pieces of art which cannot exist anywhere besides the internet without loosing it's context. You could put a story told through limited tweets in a book, but that story wouldn't be as meaningful without understanding that each segment has to be limited. Just as in meat-space, there are plenty of paintings, but there are other pieces of art as well, and some paintings (like massive murals or just giant canvasses) could be reprinted but then you lose that scale.

[DynamicWave]

Random is definitely the key term here but I think it applies to more than SPAM. If you look at all the most memorable moments on the internet that isn't planed ahead of time, than really the true art form is life accidental. The guy stumbling across the double rainbow, having the camera on just as the cat makes a funny face, the dash cam catching lightning strike the car in front, even spellcheck screwing up out text messages. It's the "well, that just happened" moment that draws us in.