Art I TneorS J criririrr, I rout;r, OCTOBER 1Sffi : t , ,i.t, ri,,i.:(.itiiit.,rii-ltr-- : , i ..! lri'r r i:. ,.(r t/ j ( : ., .. ! 1. .-. 1 I i..ii- r r ,: .-,- i tiri:i.\ ACotzut NOT TL) g[ Julian Stallabrass Pamela N,I. Lee Ali Dur and McKenzie \A/ark Hito Stel'erl Hito Steyerl DavidJoselit Francesco Casetti Philipp Ekardt Philipp Ekardt Lucy Raven $14.00 / Fall 2011 I)igrtal ArL Fllited b Dauid Joselit AIbCrtTl lAI{HN AWA,Y a Theor Nezu Neztt Babllon Letter front an, Utzknown Wotno'n Pigital Debrb Wal to Do uitlt Pictures Sutu etl Realitl': Film, ft ont Photographic to Digital Alexatzder Khtge \ Digital Crntstellations A Conuersation uith Alexander KltLge The Seconcl E1e Pttblkhed bt tlte MIT Press
Transcript
Art I TneorS J criririrr, I rout;r,
OCTOBER
1Sffi
: t , ,i.t, ri,,i.:(.itiiit.,rii-ltr--
:
, i ..! lri'rr i:. ,.(r t/
j ( : ., .. ! 1. .-. 1
I i..ii- r r ,: .-,- i tiri:i.\
ACotzut NOT TL) g[Julian Stallabrass
Pamela N,I. Lee
Ali Dur and McKenzie \A/ark
Hito Stel'erl
Hito Steyerl
DavidJoselit
Francesco Casetti
Philipp Ekardt
Philipp Ekardt
Lucy Raven
$14.00 / Fall 2011
I)igrtal ArLFllited b Dauid Joselit
AIbCrtTl lAI{HN AWA,Ya Theor
Nezu Neztt Babllon
Letter front an, Utzknown Wotno'n
Pigital Debrb
Wal to Do uitlt Pictures
Sutu etl Realitl': Film, ft ontPhotographic to Digital
Alexatzder Khtge \ DigitalCrntstellations
A Conuersation uith Alexander KltLge
The Seconcl E1e
Pttblkhed bt tlte MIT Press
Epistolary Affect andRomance Scams:
Letter from anUnknownWoman*
HITO STE}'ERL
Her nq,me uas Esl)eranza. A thirryrtve)ear-okl, Puerto Rican wonan ruuning a con-
struction business dnd' nurtut'ing a geat passion far lmnl?lxitarian aentures. Sad$' her hus-
band had, died tuo )ears ago. She sent pictures of herself and her littk d(lLLghter ia the
online datitzg platfonn Match.com in' Feb. 2007.1
At first, Fted responded casualll to her letters. But tllen, he suddenly fctund himself
fanng in loae uith her
A feu months lateL he totd hi$ fami\ that he uas going to leaue his uife and their chil-
dren to kue with Esperanza. \Itlten his motlur aslvd him if he had, eter met ha; ltis atzswer
was no. Hdd meet he4 in titne. By now thE were calling each otlrct and cltatting. She had'
canceled, their frst meeting at the last minute. He had waited qt the airport, flowers in hand",
trcmbkng more uith fear than ailticipation.Loohing back, he coul.dnl understand how he could not llaae kno )n. Slte uouldn't
tul"n on h€r uebcam uhile chatting. One technical problern folbued anotheq comrnunication
wqs rupture(L b) unannounced sudtlen meetings. But on the otlur JMntL slrc neua' asked formonel eitha'. Until the dq she died.
An olficiat called him Jrr.nn the LI S. embassl in Derunarlt, whne shc hrttl tratteled on
business, She had accidental\ been killed in a randpm shootout betueen ria(tl gangs.
It uas tlte uorst da) in Fred\ life.
He transfered tnonq to repatriate her bod1. He was numb uith slwck Nothing mat-
teled. Non€ of the multi\te l)rcblans that arose in the l)rocess mdttered. He decidtd that lM
uoul.ln't go see her He couldn't face the id€a that their rtrfi date uould be after lur de(dll'
The atd of th.e story uas surlden. His friend did' researcll otzhne. No Anterican citizen
luld. been killed in Denmarh latel). Tlrcre had been no shooting. Esperataa had neuu existed'
Slu was the o'eaturc of a group of scammers.
http: / /$'l,,w.romancescam.com /forum/viewtoPic.phP?f=1&t=19587&start=15- P95537hv.ixxx or Fri lrrn 05.2009 12:02 om
CXX
I hope you realize there is no doubt that this is a scammet As soon as he se[t you a
Photoshopped stock photo, it was confirmed beyond a doubt. I lvill treat it as ifyou are deal-
1. This is a ficlioDal example. Any similarity to actual persons or e\'ents is urlintended.
OCTOBER 138, Fatt 2011, Pp. 57-69. @ 201J Octaber Magazine, Ltd. altd Nlassacltutefis Institutu af'|'uhnahg
58 OCTOBER
ing with a female, but marry of these elements may be handled by a male. Although certainelements are always the same.u'ith scammers (after all, the ultimate goal is &e sa;e-b getyour money)r there is a \,?riety in other elements. Most scammers rye see go for volume airdspeed-they get their fake profiles out there, approach as many people as possible, and moveto the money stage with all of them quickly. This approach is going ro lose more peoplequickll', but since they are (or ar least $'ant to be) targeting lots of people at once, t;ey ;restill making money, even ifit is only a couple hundred dollars per victim.
Other scammers opt fo. a more organized, long-term approach. These are the moreskilled scammers, and in my opinion the most dangerous. They rvill spend lots of time on aparticular victim. (...) These "betteL" scammers are much more a$are of Ip-address issues,and are more likely to admit to their location or hide behind a pro:iT to ensure that they donot lose their victim to that simple mistake. If you watch closely, they do make mistakes_but they are generally much harder to spot. (...) Sendins a picture rvithout wiping out theEXIF data that sho$'s ir is from 2002 $,as a much more subrle mistake, and thi mijority ofvictims rvould not catch it. (...)
hitp: / /rv$.w'. roman cescam. com /forum/viewtopic.php?f=t &t= 1958 ?&sid= 1 Z266bgb g7 fb 4621 00001 7 20 a196b4c0 - p955!9by dxxx on Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:57 am
On a recent trip to Bangalore, I found myself saying somerhing I didn,tfully understand. During a public discu'lsion, Lata Mani, the respected feministscholar, had asked me about the sensorial, the affective impact of the digiral. Ianswered that the strongest affective address happened on a very unexpectedand even old-fashioned level: in the epistolary mode. As a brush rvith wordsdir or ced from acr ual bodies.
Digital writing-by email or chat-presents a contemporary complicationof historical practices of writing. Jacques Derrida has patienrly descrlbed theconundrlrm of script: its connection to absencez.and delay.3 1, this case, thedelay is minimized, but the absence stays pur. The combination of (almost) real_time communication and physical absence creates something one could callabsense, so to speak. The sensual aspect of an absence, which presences itself in(almost) real time. A live and lively absence, to which the lack of a physical bodyis not an r.nfortunate coincidence, but necessary.
Jacques Denida, O/Grammatatog (Ba]!ilrlote: rJniversiry of Maryland, Iggj), p. 47.Ibi.i., p. 67.
2.
Lettsr from an Unhnoun Woman
Its prory is compressed as message body, translated into rhythm, florv, sounds,
and the temporality oiboth interruPtion and availability. None of this is "virtual" or
"simulated.",The absence is real,just as is the communication based on it.
http: //$\!\{.romancescl@0
Re: scammers with pictures oftr[x-Es{ qTBy a-x-x-.rrx-xs on \{edJan 26, 2011 8:05 anThis is a private IP addr-ess and cannot be tEced.Hostname: 10.227.179.x'rx
dont see any proble[r in meeting, i do belie\€ in meeting and seeing is believing, i can change
myflight to 1ou if you lvish to m;et, i dont see arry problem changing myllighr to you tell me
horv you think $'e can meet, meeting and seeing is believing to ne and id otn care ot age anrl
location, rthat is the name of your ilosest airport, i can c;u the airline now to ask for flight
changing possibilityThis is a private IP address and camrot be traced.
Im cool baby, horv are you doing today?
Sent fr om my BlaclBer r 1O rvireless der ice
Do you still rvant to meet up rvith me baby?
I dont have msn
do you want to meet me baby?
lVhats the name ofyour airaort babl?Give me like thour baby
Baby, do you live alone? Teli me about your travelling exPerie[ces baby Sent from my
BlackBerry@ \vireless device(..)Im at the airline getting the ticket done Sentfrom my BlackBen-1@ rvireless device
Honey, im done with the ticklet and i'll email you in like lhour with the scan coPy of the ticket
baby Sentfrom my BlackBerry@ r,ireless device
sending it nwo norv baby
Honey
Digttal Melodrama
In 1588, a scam rvith the romantic title "spanish Prisoner" n'as launched for the
first time. The scammer approached the victim to tell him he rvas in touch 14th a
Spanish aristocrat who tt..d.d ^
1ot of -oney to buy his freedom fromjail \A4roever
helped him rvould get rich recompense, including man;'rng his daughter. After a first
insiallment was pai"d, new difficuliies kePt emerging until the victim ended up broke
and impoverished.
59
60 OCTOBER
In the digital era, this plot has been updated to resonate with contemporary\\'ars and upheaval. Countless 419 scams-the number refers to the applicablepenal-code number in Nigerian larv-relvrite daily catastrophe as entrepreneurialplotline. Shock capitalism and its consequences-wars ot'er ralv materials or priva-tization-are recast as intelactive romance or adventure novels.
You too may have received a letter from an unknown woman-as MaxOphirls's 1948 classical melodram title had it. In Ophiils's film, a Viennese girlposthuDrously confesses her unrequited love in a letter It recounts every detail ofher relentless passion for a concert pianist who barely noticed her existence.
In the contemporary digital velsion, letters from nnknotvn women emergefrom all over the globe, afflicted by tragedies personal and political. A cacopho-n)' of post-postcolonial tragedies, diluted rvith generous servings of telenovela.\4/idorvs and orphans get s\{ept up by'financialized hypercapitalism, natural dis-astet and assorted crimes against humanity-and it's you who are destined tosort out their fates.4
Aasit
:at acclctent 1::sunami,/earthquake:oup 22
)ver-invoiced 1trndisclosed ]l\ender %
Lar9'er 5t3l
rhrld 1{
)ank otlicer 2'.Saloce : ht IP : / /1uuw. caslon. com. au /
Rornance scams offer windfalls of lJve and opportunity, casually asking forbank-account numbers and passport copies. Flight schedules are mixed rvithinstmctions for transfer offunds and serially sampled professions oflove. Modules
4. Scierltific rcsearch ofonline scams has undl nolv been ahnosr exclusively focused on rhe case ofNigeria (in tnrth, it seems somew'hat disproportionately rcpresenred jn cuffent rcsearch, given the ver)dive.se geographical origin of rcmancc scams) . The mosr extensive and insightful srud)' is Androv Aprer,"IBB=419: Nigerian Democmcl and the Polirics of Illusion," ir Ctuit So.ia) and tlb Political Inagination in.,!&r4 ed.John Comaroff andJean Comaroff (Chicago: Unirersity of Chicago Press, 1999), p. 270. A casestlrdy of s€\,eral 419 scams is peraormed in HaNey clickman, "The Nigerian '419' Advance Fee Scams:Prank or Peril?," Canadian Joumal of Afican Studies 39, no. 3 (2005), pp. 460-89. S€e also Daniel JordanSmith, "Ritual Killing, 419, and Fast !\,ealth: Inequaliry and rhe Popular Imaginaiion in SoutheasremNigeria," AnaXan Ethnologist 28, no. 4 (Nov. 2001), pp. 803-26; anct Daniel Iiiinztel, "\ /ho Wanrs ro Be aN{illionaire? Global Capitalism and lraud in Nigeria" (paper pr€sented at the lnterim Conference ofResearch Committee 2 ofthe Intemational Sociological Associarion, l\brld Social Forum, Nairobi,January22, 2007), accessed Jurrc 3, 20ll , htrp: / /lettres.unifr.chlde/soziahissenschaften/soziologie-soziatpoli(ik-und-sozjalarbeit/team/daniel-kuenzler/publikationen.html.
LetterJrorn an Unknown Woman
of sensation are copy-pasted, recycled, ripped. But desPite their obvious mass pro-
duction, these are "the only form(s) of tragedy available to us," as ThomasElsaesser said about the melodrama.s They drop into mailboxes unsolicited, and
suddenly expose tlremselves to the open.
Tragedl as ReadYMade
The genre of melodrama departs from impossibility, delay, submission ltaddresses the domestic, feminized sphere. The so-called weepie rvas a genre that was
undelrecognized and safely kept apart from cinema-as-art for decades. It was susPect-
ed to perpetuate oppression as
rvell as female compliance.Yet the melodrama also
voiced perspectives that wererepressed and forbidden, viewsthat couldn't be expressed any-
rvhere else and remained dep-recated, shameful, and dis-missed. Over-the-top exaggera-tion and exoticization openedpossibilities to imagine some-thing different from the drabrepetitiveness of reproductivelabor. Melodramas concoctimplausible tales of culturalencounter, racial harmony,and happiness narorvly lost inrniscommunication. Theyinsist that the political is per-sonal-and thus trace socialhistories from the point ofvielv of sentiment.6
But their new personal-ized digital versions are pro-duced differently. They are nolonger.just o ne- s iz e-fi ts - allTaylorist studio-based productions, but customized Products.
These messages are not only posted but perhaPs even Post-ist. Post-isms are
a symptom of a time that considers itself to be Posterior and secondary, a leftover
5. Thomas Elsaesser, "Tears, Timing, Traltma: Film N{etodrama as Cultural Memo'y," in 1l
trIehArunma, ed.E.Dagrada (Rome: Bulzoni Editore, 200?), p. 47-686. A seminal Lext on melodEma still is Thomas Elsaesser's 19t3 arlicle, "Tales of Sound and
Fnry: Observations on the Family Meiodrama," \\ Hone Is $lwe the Heart Is: Studies in Mekdrama and the
Ema !: !@da:@n@! r€ No:s73e {25 Pre!4dsEicdnE rydobtdbsbroFd
W
62 OCTOBER
of history itself. They assume a general overcoming of eyerything lvithout any-thing nerv to replace \{orr-r-out worldviews.
But there is a dialectical twist to this post-dialectical condition. Post-isms con-serve the issue they are distancing and claim to have overcome it. Indeed, it is impos-sible to define any of these terms-post-N{arxism, poststmctulalism, postmodernism,etc.-without r-ecourse to the telms they claim to haYe left behind. Distance isachier''ed despite intintate closeness, or maybe even precisely because of it. The co-presence of proximity and distance is inherent to the structure of the prefix "post"itself. "Post" connotes a past, l'hose meaning is derived from spatial separation. Intheir earliest versions, the roots of the prefix refer to "behind, after, after$?rd," butalso "torard, to, near, close by"; "late" but also "array fiom."? Both closeness and sepa-
ration, absence and presence, fom part ofthe structural aporia of this term.Romance scams are intimately related to this timescape of simultaneous pres-
ence and absence, incongmously bridged by hope and desire. They also perfectly res-onate \\'ith an undecided ten.rporalitli which s1'nchronizes both closeness and separa-tion, past and present, and refuses to let go ofr{orldviervs it no longer belie\€s in.
Conceptual Loue
This tult.r to the digital melodrama and epistolary affect comes somervhatunexpectedly,. The rvorld of digital feelings had been imagined more robustlybefore. None of the rather crude initial ideas about cybersex and the merging ofthe physical and digital rvorlds has held much sustainable appeal, though.Datagloves, digital dildos, and other equipment deemed suitable for amorous pur-poses turned out to be cumbersome embarrassments for an age in which data,feelings, and touch travel lightly.
The popularity of the epistolary address is also based on its blatant availabili-t} Text is a makeshift medium, cheap and cost-effective. No complicated engi-neering is necessary, nor bulky equipmenU just basic literary skills and a terminalfor hire at an Internet caf6.
Perhaps the readl-made language bf romance scams also expresses a deep-er shift in contemporary practices of writing. In parallel to a visual economy ofthe blurred and ra\\', an economy of text has developed, lvhich is in many ways as
compressed-and abstracted as the rags of imagery that crotvd the digital realms.Prompted by the legacl of advertising, a Victorian economy of affect mergesrvith the verbal austerity of the trveet message. It is simultaneously blunt andchaste, dorvnsized and delicate, bold and coy. Compressed and evacuated textallorvs feelings to fill in the blanks. Hollorv rvords bait, retreat, plal. Reductionand rvithdrarval spark intensitl,.
7. According to rhe Online Et)mologi.al Djcrionar),: 'prellx meaning'after, from L. post'behind, afte., afterward,'from *pos-ti (cf Arcadian pos, Doric poti 'tolt'ard, to, near, close by;'O.C.S.po 'behind, after' pozdu 'late;' Lirh. pas 'ar, bI'), from PIE *po- (cf. Gk- apo 'from,' L. ab 'away from')"rnfiy.etymonline.com/index.php?allotyed_in_frame=0&search=post-&searchmode=none (accessedr-olentber 2, 2011).
Letter ftont an Unknoun Waman
hllp://\',\',r{.romdn.e\(am.com forum \ iewropi(.php?f= l&t- I 958?&rrart-45fl p I 091 29Re: GXXX TXXXXby x-xx-r<-x-.c.crxxxx>c<x on Fri Sep 18, 2009 B:20 pm
G)a\-Lx nolv has another email address, [email protected], I am trying to get a pic-ture offher but its like tryihg to get blood out of a stolre.
She knows I am trying to build up a ne$7 relationship and has said she vill now leaveme alone at last andjust wants to be friends andjust some one to write to rvhich I am okay$'ith that.ClLx
Re: Gxxxx T>Lxxxxby wx-txx on Sat Sep 19, 2009 8:38 am
Ok, I don't get it. You KNIOW it's a Niger-ian scammer using stolen photos of a glam-our model, yet you still talk to him, a[d are willing to be "friends"? This is exactly what yourscammer \{antsJ as soon "she" ivill have some emergency and need money. AJI you've doneis left the door open for the scammer to try again from a different angle. You are aware thatalmost all (and by that I mean lyell over 99% of them) scarnmers are really males and notthe females they pretend ro be?
the thing is... this "she" you keep refering to is just a black guy that is still ('orkingyou. There is NO she .. ., just a HE .. . There is no Gxxxx.-.gxxx]<
VIP Poster
Posts:972
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 11:13 pmLocation: Canada, eh
Re: Gxrcx-x Trxx-xby grcr-r-r on Sat Dec 04, 2010 10:18 pmthe [email protected] address on this thread turns up a FB profile by the name ofNxx Axxxxx Axxxxxx (Axtx Dxxx)
Curr-ent City: Accra, GhanaHigh School; West Africa Secondary School '08
lots o[friends and lote. by rhis dude
64 OCTOBER
About Nxx I came, I sali I conquered. Not bI Might by the Holy Ghost.Genuinely a loving guy...I' m intelligent, creative,caring,lotal and love to have fun ... ihave done some traveling and definitely have that in my plan for the future . . , camping allthe usual things life has to offerGSOH & quick [itted.Attractive & well groomed, able to handle all social situations withst1'le & a smile.Sex MaleInterested In Men and WomenRelationship Status Single
The Spanish Prisoner
M1 name is Fred.. I fell in loue uith Espercnza. She uas tlrc lou of ry life. Nobodl under-stands hoiu I fell for a scam. But I don'l core uhetha Espaanza u,as real- Xb lnin for ltct was.
nnm mJ Pa's/ectite tltae hasnl been any scarn ultatsaeaet Becattse euat if Esperanza didn'texist as a person, lm letta:s did exist otL m) screen. Their contmt nay haue been a lie; thz IP ma)haae been mashed, the selxda a lrojection, But the uriting itself rcnains real. No matter uhounte tlu text: she or he or thg-. I lnued the lzttas, not the pe$on.
Writing these letters is serious lvork. Adapting and pasting text modules,planning, keeping books, hitting keys, performing, filing, Photoshopping.Scammers work to entertain theil" targets'fantasies and provide affective service,custom-lailored to individual desires.
Behind the scams are often organized work units.8 Most rvriters are male,often assisted by female rvor-kels to make phone calls or other live appearances.9\4l]ile the global and postcolonial aspects of these connections have been empha-sized in some instances, their overall irnplications are left unexplored. How do weunderstand this literary form of deceit in the context of a global political econo-my based on digital divides and uneven development?l0 The):e is an underlfngmoral to at least some of these efforts: the idea to regain the riches plundered bycolonial exploitation.rr Leftovers from hnti-imperialist ideology incongruouslymix n'ith the beautl standards of extreme-makeover TV shorrs,
8. Daniel Xrinzler claims that ^_igerian
419 scanrmers are rather loosely organized and thatNually teams do not exceed five people, though the) are often orgaDized trans[ationally and "project-oriented." Kirnzler p. 16-
9. According to the experiences ofscambaiters10. Bjotn Nansen, "I Go Chop Your Dollar: The N"igerian 419 Scam and Chronoscopic Time,"Piraq: antiTHESIslS (2008), p. 43.11. Glickman cites th€ case of Fred Ajudta, $'ho claimed to.be a "black Robin Hood" and"alleged that the frauds \vere compensation from Nhite men for slaveiy and colonialism, " p. 478.Anong othe) sources of popular cuhure, Daniel Kirnzler also menrions !he- plot of a lvell-knownNigerian fiction filnr: "This slnopsis mentions one notion quite common in the popular discourseabout 419 scams in Nigeria: the greed of rhe victims. This Dorion is also cen(ral to lhe huge hit Ir,Masf"rby Andy Amenechi (2005) starring famous Nigeiian actor Nkem Owoh (also known as Osuofia).Denis (Nkem Owoh) ras a migrant to Europe, but har been deported and had to struggle ever since.One dal,, he meets ealthy Chief Ifeanyi (Kanayo O. Iianayo), who introduces him into the 419 busi-ness. . . . As he speak tojournalisls, he con\inces them that 419s ar€justified, as foreigners are greedyand have to compensate for slavery and colonialism." Krinzler p. 13.
Letterfron an Unknown Woman
ht tp: / /r!'i!'rv.romancescam.com /forum / viewropi..php?f= I &t= 1555
What out for scammer ceciKxx&[email protected] Rrxxx on Tire Jul 24, 2007 9:45 pmCalling her selfCeci Thompson
"(...) I checked a scam-site and lbund he/she had used a different adress with thesame pictures. This time claiming she was Russian. Visa and ticket scams and so on. I con-frontet her with this and this is the reply:
"You;re the most stupid matl I've evel met . . . . All rvhite people ]vill suffer inthe hands of Africans , ONE by ONE . . . . You all took blacks as slave, NOproblem. You shall pay back with all you'r'e stolen from us, ONE after theother. I knolv a $'ay to catch you, bastard. Have you ever realized that youlvhite people smells like shir? Ask God whyl and the ansrver shall be giving toyou by an African you people called Monkey.... Oh moDkey i{ill rule this$'orld, someday.... Basket ir the dirty pit. \Vhite frog. You betrer look for afernale fr-og like you and start giving birth to smelling frogs, stiDky. Date: Tue,24 lv,l 2007 20:58:49 ;'
Most obviously, 419 scams develop in connection rvith larger macroeco-nomic issues-in the case of Nigeria, a debt crisis in conjunction with thedecline in oil prices in the early 1980s and subsequeDt unemployment and insta-bility.lr 4r4..* Apter argues that online scams present a reverse-mirroring offinancial protocols of business by replicating the quite fictitious rvays of creating(or simulating) value in finance. The lack of a material leferent for fictitiousvalue also affects language or fepr-esentational systems as such: signifiers star-t tolloat,t: 2r-16 their connections to referents are unmoored, if not abandoned alto-gether, The Ponzi schemes of globalized financial capitalism as lvell as its delu-sions are being translated into the personalized language of romance. Apterlabels the 419 con games as peLformance art,14 based on a general rise of visualdeception and ernptied value formsl5 in politics as rvell as in an economy basedon privatization and speculation. This uray also preser.rt a reason wl.ry so manypeople fall for the scams: because their inherent principle of delusion consti-tutes a substantial part of our contemporary political and economic reality.
But the gendel aspect of this specific type of perfonnance art is arguablyeven rnore mind-boggling than its mirroring of financial pl'otocols. What can onesay about (mostly) straight black males impersonating white or mixed straightrvomen, white gay or straight mer:? Then proceeding to cl.range their color (froralvhite or mixed to black, for example) if caught in the act? All this rvhile sendingalong ripped pictures of other people, in most cases porn starlets ol models.l6
12. Nansen, p. 39. The connection to an oil-based ecoDomy is also expiored ir detail in Apter,p.270.13. Apter p.2991.1. lbid., p.2?2.15. Ibid., p.279.16. Probablt: I've got the bmins, )ou\e got the looks: let's make lots ofmorrey.
65
66 OCTOBER
How does this resonate with the emancipatory promises of self-assigned gen-de1 rvhich abounded in earlier times of Internet theory? Are masquerade or sub-versiou still categories that make sense in this context? Or shall we rather speakabout new, hypelprivatized branches of cnltural industries that perform one-on-one staged dramas or maybe rather personalized mockumentaries based on thenarrative form of Ponzi schemes?
The production of romance scams conjures up the image of digital rvork-benches peopled with rows of literary laborers organized within a flexible divisionof laboq perfolming lvork-or l'orking in performance, just as their corrnterpartsin the "real" financial sector Their products are serial identities-on-demand,which morph to accommodate every possible client fantasy. Passion-as-labor,l'hich reverse-mirrors the idea of labor-as-passion that is supposed to motivate theideal rvorkers of the postTordist age.
In the meantime, romance scams have spread lvorldlvide, targeting poor orelderly women, in many cases rraids, and robbing them of their life sa1ui1gs.l7Scammers don't mind u'recking the feelings ofvulnerable people. They target therefuse of metropolitan dating markets: single momsr outdated flesh, global maidsdreaming of plinces. The weak prey on the ugly, using words.
As Eh'is Presley (and the Bee Gees) sang: You may think that I do not meanthe words I sa)'. But rvor-ds are all I have to steal your heart away.
Creatiu language
How to do things with rvords? This puzzled question byJ. L. Austin becamethe title of one of the foundational texts of so-called speech-act theory.18 Austinargues that rvords are not purely descriptive representations, but agents able tobring about actions. One of his example s-fittingly in this context-is the mar-riage ceremony in lvhich vows create the union. But this is a rather weak examplein view of the much more grandiose speech acts routinely found in religious texts,Creation as such is per-formed by speeih acts. The phrase "Let there be lighe"marks the inception of the rvorld for monotheists. Divine utterance is a form ofcreative terrorJ terrifying and tantalizing at once.
According to tr\ialter Benjamin, a rveaker form of this power has imrnigratedinto the language of humans.re The creative force of naming is but a residue of
11-. Hazel Pany, "Rom€o Conmcn Target Lonely He^rts," Ch;na Dail!, Hong Kong edirion(September 22, 2010), accessed June 3, 2011, l\\'.chinadail)'.com.cnlhkedition /2010-09 /22/ con-lent-l1336613.hun. More information at: dragonladies.orglbbs/\,iewtofic.php[=34&r=2696. This lvebsitepresents Asia-based scams. There is ample evidence of omen in China and Malalsia getting scammed,as R€ll as scams that promise conlact i,rith Asian women that are usually ceirtered on charging so,calledlrandarion fees.18. J. L. Austin, Hoa to Do Things uith I,I'ardr, ed. J. O. Urmson and tr{arina Sbisi (Cambrjdge.Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962)-19. \4ralter Benjamin, "OD Language as Such and the Languages of Man," in Selected Writings,1,o1.1, ed. Marcus Bullock and Michael \ r.Jennings (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1996), p. 68.
Letter fron alt Uthnoun Woman,
the divine power ofutterance. As Michel Foucault noted a bit mole drily, the forceof order and command keep resonating in human language too.20 The impor-tance and naked force of words cannot be underestimated. Words make worlds,They can destioy them as rvell.
In the digital realm the power of language is tnnslated into code that acti-vates mechanical perfoimance. The magic of language derived from the speechact of creation gets enlisted into doing things with hardrvare. Code animates mat-ter and propels it into action. Mechanical language enables us to create newrvords, nerv worlds, nerv languages.
In the case of romance scammers the relative nelvness of their language para-doxically consists of its completely recy'cled nature. Of course this language is norno1'el at all, but 1\€ll rehearsed by advertisement slogans and soap-opera dialogues. Itis the lingua franca of cultural industries of modenity that cater to a domestic laboraudience. But haldly has it ever been aslfragmented and lrecked as in the scammers'language.2l The unabashedly collaged nature of these languages, their obvious par-tial generation by translation machines, reveals them to belong to a group of global-ized languages, rvhich I have previously referred to as Spamsoc.22 Spamsoc-my ealli-er example n'as the English-based language on the back ofpirated Chinese DVD cov-ers-is a broken language, because it reflects the pressures and gendered fault linesof globalization. Post-postcolonial hierarchies of language and a gendered division offreelance labor, as rvell as ongoing global conflicts over copl'right and digital leverage,form part of the framet'ork in rvhich Spamsoc and its countless derivati\€s emerge as
incoher-ent mixtures of Wikipedia entries and computer-translated semi-nonsense.The languages of romance scalnmers are in most cases locally nuanced, and
adopt al orerly formal, often stilted language.2: Their mauy malapropisms are alauglfngstock for so-called spam baiters around the world, But contempt is a muchtoo defensive and resendul reaction. These makeshift lingos express the tectonic ten-sior.ts of extremely complex geopolitical situations translated into melodrama.Benjamin's reflections on language and translation thro\,v this issue into sharp focus.In the gaps of meaning, the original force of rvor-ds still shines forth, perhaps nomole so than when they have almost rid themseh'es of contelrt and start to resemblepure stamrner and stuttering, \'oid ofsignification.2l
20. See, for example, Michel Foucault, "Trudr and Potrer," Pouer/Knouknge: Sebcte.d Intetuieus andOtlvr lllt,tings 1972-1972 ed. Colin Gordon (Ne1v York: Pantheon Books, 1980), pp. 109-133.2r. Nansen, p.38.22. Sparnsoc is rr'hat you get when thc word "Spanish" is garbled by an automated scanningdevice. In the specific example, Spamsoc rvas given as a sublitle language on a pirat€d D\D. HitoStc)erl, "Notes About Spamsoc," Pdgrr 7 (2009), pp. 59-67.23. The characteristics of scam-mail language ar'e investigated in Jan Blommmaert and 'Iope
Omoniyi, "Email Fralrd: Language, T€chnology and the IDdexicals of Globalisation,' Sori..rl Se'niotirs 16,no. 4 (2007), pp.573-605.21. \4lalrer Benjlmin, "The Task of the Translator, " in ,Srlfflrd Wlitings, ro1. 1, pp. 253-263. "Toregain pure language fully formed from the linguistic flux is the tremendous and only capacity oftranslation. In this pure language-$hich no longer means or expresses an)thing but is, as expression-less and creatile $ord, that lvhich is meant in all languages-all information, all sense and all intentionfinally encountcr a strarum in rvhich they are destined to be extinguished," p. 261.
68 OCTOBER
The splendor of creation still echoes in the almost robotic repetition ofromantic ke)'words, within the scrambled, ripped, and collaged debris of mean-ingless affective vocabulary. I-t seems as if the mimetic force of language is not onlyunbreakable, but paradoxically increases with fragmentation and compression.
Thus the new digital post-English languages are not. a! all deficient; on thecontrary, they are from a yg{! tg 99q9,,a_wo1 d !].r1_! rJ9 4.9 no! y€t able to fully_uq{erstal{. The languages of romance scammers are messages from a firttrre inwhich empty value forms are suspended in permanent free fall as langg4gg-4dvale let go of reality within the affective plots of disaster capitalism.
Heart Awal
After the funeral, I started to go through Al1 that r'r'as needed to settle hisestate. \{ihich anyone rvho has been there knors is a very big pain in the butt; Istarted seeing bills and WU Receipts, everything was pointing to his futurer.ife. Over the next couple of months of going over his assets, computer files,And bills. He was broke. Losing his house, and behind in his car payments.Credit cards were at limit. He was in a financial mess. I thought where was thewoman ivho rvas supposed to be here. I started reading letters and goingthrough his computer and everything became knoln over the next couple ofmonths that she had no intention of Marrying him. She not only put off com-ing to him twice but also left him at airport t!r'ice. O\€rall, from rvhat I couldgather, and plove, he had given her well over thirty Thousand dollars in a littleover t\vo years. (..,)
She lvas going to meet me in Hotel Lounge. Therefore, I went down early, hada felv drinks, and lvaited. Then I saw her rvalk in. I uas very impressed and if Idid not knolv better rvould have fallen in love also, she lvas very elegant, andlooked better then her pics. She had perfect English a lot better then thephone conr''er-sations lve had. \\4ridh later made me think? It rvas not her onphone. Ne\€itheless, as we had drinks and talked, I started to tell her about myfriend rvho fell in love with Russian iloman and rvas going to get married, shervas_very focused on my story, and smiled a lot, Grab my hand, listen to myevery word. I finished my story as I told all of you. (Butjust a basic version)Told her that he had all the arrangements to brirg her to America, took careof her in Russia, and she left him, Told her about his death. (..)She rvas verysadden, said she knerv non'why I u'as so shy about het and her love. However,told me to look (I am here right here with you.) I $ill never forget those llordsShe said as long as I live. I looked at het Reached in to my Suit Pocket andhanded her a Envelope. She smiled and her eyes sparkled, I think she thoughtit was giving her money As she opened it, I will never forget the look in herface. There were t$,o Pictures in that Envelope, One of my frlend and her inMoscow, and one of his gravestone, along rvith a request for Visa paper withthere names on it.25
25. Extract from "Doc's Slort " anon)mous report, The Scam Surttuars Handbook (2010\, n.p. Lasracc€ssedJune 2, 2011, at http;,//romancescambaiter.comlrs$.html.
Letter frorn an Unknown Woman 69
Despite the vast differences between scammed and scammers, one feelingunites both. This feeling is hope. While in the case of scammets this hope may be
material, in the case of the scammed it may be both emotional and material.This hope.is maybe also indicative of a rnore general situation. Perhaps the
hope invested in epistolary affect is aimed at interrupting the drab temporality ofan age of post- s, in rvhiqh life "ahvays already"26 seems ovel. Or to exPlode therepetitive reality of reproduqtive labor for maids, single moms, and other targetaudiences of digital melodrama.
Perhaps even more generally, the more unstable and insecure things get, themore hope abounds. If love is not free, hope seems to be. B-rrql.ro-pq-i-q,-a1,sC t!g.fqgl,9f44!m +ItIg! 9!r o!9 of its few eternally renewable resources. The American5i."- ind its counileis franchised versions are giant vortices that gain theirmomentum on hope, and little but hope. Hope is a Trojan horse for deceit and
exploitation. It is also the driving element in any quest for change.This hope may secretly long for a rtroment of radical and irrevocable change:
not so much a revolution as perhaps an unexpected revelation, a sudden twist inthe plot. It is the hope that everything could yet be different and change lies at
the tips of our fingers.
MJ natne is Esperanza and I am not dea(l, Contact ne at esperLnzal [email protected]
alive
esper-anza to dsmcdaid, show details 10:22 AM (0 minutes ago)
Vr Mt Daid,
My name is Espemnza and I am not dead.I am foilorving up on the disquieting letter you senl to my mother-in-law, Nagako
Steyer'l in Rhode Island, United States on 4-18-2011.You claim that my late husband,HiroshiJ. Steyerl was killed in an accident, which is collect. However, contmry to yo!u-er-ro-
neous suggestions, I as his wife did miraculously survive the plane crash in BurmaFortunateiy, my son did, too. We are nolv recovering from our terrible injuries in a hospitalin Rangoon and hopefullli the dressings t'ill come offnext week.
As a heart-broken and destitute widow, I am very surprised to hear that you are plan-
ring to bestoN my late husbands funds on anybody else than myself as his next ofkin.Therefore I urge you to immediately transfer these funds to ny bank account'
sincerely
Esperanza
To quote one ofthe most overused slogans ofthe post-Period
Digital Debris: Spam and Scam
HITO STEYERL
There is lrardly a more famous watercolor than Paul lllee's Angelus Nouus.Walter Benjamin described its figure as a hapless creature, helplessly carried awayby the storm of progress, rvhile staring backrvard at the ever-growing rubble heapof history,r Benjamin's aphorism is rvell knorvn and quite overquoted, but it has a
surprising consequence if we take its spatial arrangement seriously.For there is no nbble depicted in the drarving. This doesn't mean, horvever,
there is no rubble at all, Since the angel faces us as spectators, and-according toBenjamin-also faces the rubble, the rvreckage must be located in the hors-champof the drawing. The rubble is in our place. Or, to take it one step further: n'e, thespectators, might actually be the mbble. We might be the debris of history, thoservlto somehorv made it intact but not unscathed through the twentieth century.We have become discarded objects and useless commodities caught in the gaze ofa shell-shocked angel rvho drags us along as it is blorvn into incertitude.
Yet the debris caught in the angel's stare night take on a different formtoday. Are rubble and rvreckage not outdated notions fol an age in rvhich informa-tion can be copied supposedly rvithout loss and is infinitely retrievable andrestorable? \4lhat rcould refuse look like in a digital age that prides itself on theindestructibility and seamless reproducibility of its products, an age in rvhichinformation presumably has become imnune to the passing of time? Aren't thescars of history signs of an analog age, one which is irrevocably over? Hasn't his-tory itself been $'orn out?
No: history is not over. Its wreckage keeps on piling sky high. Moreover, digi-tal technologies provide additional possibilities for the creative rvrecking anddegradation of almost anything. They multiply options for destruction, corrup-tion, and debasen.rent. They are great nerv tools for producing, cloning, andcopying historical debris. Amptified by political and social violence, digital tech-nologies have become not only midrvives ofhistory but also its (plastic) surgeons.
Despite its apparently immaterial nature, digital rvreckage remains firmlyanchored rvithin material reality, One of its contemporary manifestations is the
1. \{talter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History," Ln llluninations: Essqs andReflectio$, ed. llaDnah Arendt (NervYorki Schocken Boots, 1968), pp. 257-58.
OCTOBER 1J8, FalL2011, Fp.,0-80. @ 20)I Octobet Llagazitle, Ltd. and. ilassachuseus Institute ofTech olog.
72 OCTOBER
toxic recycling city of Guilu in China, where mainboards and hard disks are beingscavenged and groundwater is poisoned. In the digital age, debris is composed notonly of destrol'ed buildings, torn concrete, and decafng steel, although digital-ized warfare, the computelization of production, and real-estate speculationproduce these items in abundance. Digital rvreckage is both material and immate-rial; it is data-based debris lvith a tangible physical component.
There is hardly any better example of such digital debris than spam.2 Farfrom being the exception in online communication, spam is actually the rule.Around 807o of today's email messages are spam. It forms the bulk of digital rvrit-ing, its essence. And it, too, has a firm grasp on reality. Far from being secondaryand accidental, spam is a substantial expression of a period that has elevatedsuperfluity into one ofits guiding principles.
To complete Benjamin's spatial equation: if the angel looks at us, we must berubble. And if at present rubble means spam, this is the label that the angelbestou,-s on us today.
You Shall Be Spam
" Pharrnacl 81% Replica 5.40% Enhancers 2.30Vo Phishing 2.30Vo Degrees 1.30VoCasino 1% Weight Loss 0.40% Other 6.30%"3
The contemporary use of the term "spam" for unrvanted electronic bulkcommunication takes its cue from an appearance in a Monty Python\ F\ingCzrczr sketch from 1970. This act is set in a caf6. u'here two customers ask for thebreakfast menu:
All the customers are Vikings. Mr. and Mrs. Bun enter downwards (onrvires).
rtql: Morning.WAITRESS: Morning.u-rl: Well, rvhat you got?wAITRESS: rr4lell, there's egg and bacon; eggr sausage, and bacon; egg andSpam; egg, bacon, and Spam; egg, bacon, sausage, and Spam; Spam, bacon,sausage, and Spam; Spam, egg, Spam, Spam, bacon, and Spam; Spam,sausage, Spam, Spam, Spam, bacon, Spam, tomato, and Spam; Spam, Spam,Spam, egg, and Spam; (Vihings start singing in bachground) Spam, Spam,Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam, and Spam.
2. Thanks lo Imri Kahn for dra&ing m,v attenrion to rhis subjecr. A very helpful cexc on Spam isFinn Brunton, "Roar So Wildly: Spam, Terhnolog) and Langxage," Radtaol Philosophy 164 (November,/December 2010), pp. 2-8, http://$r'w.rtrdicalphiLosophy.com/default asp?channel id=2187&editori-
\T<lNGs: Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, lovely Spam, lovely Spam.WAITRESS (cont.): or lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce,gamished with truffle pat6, brandy, and with a fried egg on top, and Spam.wffi: Have you gor anything without Spam?wATTRESS: Well, there's Spam, egg, sausage, and Spam. That's not got muchSpaminit....
-.
ltre: I don't lant any Spam!NIAN: Shh, dear, don't cause a fuss. I'll have your Spam. I love it. I'm havingSpam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam.wAlTREss: Baked beans are off.4
Monty Python's sketch is the story of a conquest: Spam*the canned food-slo$'l)' but decisively invades every item on the menu as well as the whole dialogue,until there is nothing left but Spam, Spam, and Spam. This process is celebratedby a band ofVikings and other incongiirous participants. Spam inundares the plorand even the final credits at the end of the show. It's a triumph by repetition, as
cheerful as it is overwhelming.In this act, "Spam" initially refers to the canned meat of the same name. But
this meaning is stretched to emphasize verbal reiteration and the uncontrolledreplication of the term itself. It is this second meaning that came to be prominentin the realm of newly emergent online practices.
In the 1980s, the term "spam" ras literally used as a q?e of invasion withinMUD (multi-user dungeon) environments: people would type the lvord repeat-edly so as to scroll other people's text offscreen, Content didn't matter; bulk did.The rvord "spam" turned into an tangible material, capable of physically blockingout unwanted information.
Sending an irritating, large, meaningless block of text in this \^'ay rvascalled, spamming. This lvas used as a tactic by insiders of a group that want-ed to ddve nel4comers out of the room so the usual conversation couldco tinue. It lvas also used to prevent members of rival groups from chat-ting . . . for instance, Slar Wors fans often invade<l Star 1)ek chat rooms, fill-ing the space rvith blocks of text until t]ne Stm Tieh fans left. This act, pre-viously called/oodingor trashing, came tobe knovm as spamming.s
Spamning thus emerged as an online activity bent on displacing someone orsomething through verbal repetition. Words lvere used as extensive objects, rvhich
4. For a not totally accurate rranscript of the dialogue in rhe sketch, see "The Infamous NlontyPythons Spam Skit," (rvrv.detrit s.orglspam/skit.trtml (accessedJune 3, 2011).5. Myshele coldberg, 'The Origins of Spam" (2004), htrp://wl.rv.myshelegoldberg.com/n'ords/item/rhe-origins of-spam. "When che Star I4/arr fans got rired of inrcltigert debate or angryarguments, they1\'ent back to their'spam and tang'logic. '\\ftatevet'they n'ould \\,rite, 'Stal Trsii isjustabout spam and tang.' Spam and tang Spam and tang Spam and rang Spam and tang Spam and rangSpam and tang Spam and tang Sparn and tang Spam and tang Spam arld tang Spam and tang Spamand .ang Spam and tang Spam and tang Spam and rang. They Nould copy rhe same message dozens,hundreds oflimes, filling up every liDe in ihe chatroom so nobody else could type."
73
74 OCTOBER
had the potential to push a14ay other words. Nowadays, spam has become more of acommercial calculus. Bulk email messages with commercial or fraudulent intentcflood data connections worldwide and cause substantial economic damage by wast_ing lime and effort. Even though the number of customers acquired thiough thisprocess is extremely small, it is still a viable business. Needless to say, effortles-s tech-nological reproduction fonax the economic frameu,ork of this venture. Spamming isthe pointless repetition of something I'orthless and annoying, over and-ove. ugaIn,to extract a tiny spark ofvalue lying dormant I,ithin audiencei.
Arttf cial Meat
But apart from these very obvious observations, what other conclusions canr,ve draw? \4rhat else does spam as a chunk of contemporary digital rubble tell usabout the present? Let's have a closer look.
Before "spam" the word became spam the object, it rvas, of course, anobject already, rhe item celebrated by the Monty pythtn,s Fll,ing Circus number:the famous brand of canned meat produced by Hormel Foods Corporation. Itsdubious composition has earned it many nicknames, ranging from ,,speiiallyProcessed American Meats" to "supply pressed American Meat,,, .,somethingPosing As Meat," "Stuff, Pork and Ham,,, and ,.Spare parts Animal Meat.,, Its elelments loot extremely suspicious; its essence is ersatz. And its cheapness is tvhy itwas included in many dishes in the post$,ar period, perhaps even roo man)i asMonty Python's sketch seems to suggest:
wArrREss: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg andSpam; egg, bacon and Spam; egg, bacon, sausage ur.r.l Spurrr; Spam,l"acon,sausage and Spam; Spam, egg, Spam, Spam, bacon and Spam; Spam,sausage, Spam, Spam, Spam, bacon, Spam, tomato and Spam; Spam, Spam,Spam, egg and Spam; (Vihings start singing in backgrou,ndl €pam, Spam, Spam,Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam.VIKIr,vcs: Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, lovely Spam, lovely Spam.1'\ArTRFss: . . . Spam Spam Spam egg and Spam; Spam Spam Spam SpamSpam Spam baked beans Spam Spam Spam . . .\TKrNcs: Spam! Lovely Spam! Lovely Spam!
Spam lvas, and still is, a cheap lorver-ciass and.army-food staple. It presentsan uncanny mix betlveen the natural and synthetic.'Both organic ani deeplyinauthentic, it is an industrial product with some remnants. of irature. Meat thathas been ground so rigorously that is has leaped perhaps inio another ty.pe of
6. One of the mosr inrer€sring examples in this contexa is the sale of an edirion of AndvWarhol. nor'exisrcnr so'L Sp,r in .n ontine au.rion aL hUp.. . us.ebid.ner tor^:te,/rep,odrr, rion'-24x30-andl.warholspam-I8697408.hrm (accessedJune 5, 2011j.
Digital Debris
existence: a deeply phony foodstuff nutritious enough to enable military inva-sions and sheer subsistence.
Precisely its composite nature makes "spam" an interesting term to considerin political theory, especially within the discussion of biopolitics. For AntonioNegri and Michae! Hardt, flesh is a metaphor for a body not inhibited by social orany other restrictidns. Hardt and Negri euphorically describe flesh as "purepotentiality" oriented toward "fullness," inhabited by angels and demons,T as wellas bristling with a nerv barbarian counterpower.s Seen as an incalnation ofvitality,flesh is imbued with religious and even messianic discourse about reden.rption andliberation.e It is a post-Nietzschean repository ofpure positivity.
In contrast to the heroic description of living flesh, Spam is just humblehybrid meat. It lack the pompous attributes of flesh. It is modest and cheap, madeof bits and pieces, which may be recycled and are staunchly inanimate. It is meat as
commodity, and an affordable one at that. But this doesn't mean that it should beunderestimated. For Spam addresses the hybridized commodity aspect of forms ofexistence that span humans and machines, ,subjects and objects alike. It refers toobjectified lives as well as to biological objects. As such, it may speak more of actualconditions ofcontemporaly existence than can purely biological terms.
Spam has been through the meat grinder of industrial production. This is rvhy
its fabrication resonates with the industrial (or postindustrial) generation of popula-tions r.vorldwide, rvho also endured the mincer of repeated primordial accumulation.C1'cles of debt bondage, subsequent exodus, draft into industrial labor, and repeatedrejection from it have forced people back into subsistence farming, only to reemetgefrom tiny fields as post-Fordist service rvorkers. Like their electronic spam message
counter?arts, these crowds fonn the vast majority of their kind but are consideredsuperfluous, annoying, and redundant. They are also assumed to replicate uncontrol-lably. These populations are spam, not flesh; made of a material that has beenground for generations by a never-ending onslaught of capital and repackaged inever nerq increasingly hybrid, and object{ike forns.
Electronic spam highlights the speculative dimension of these bodies. It is
painfully obvious that most products marketed via e-spam are supposed toenhance bodily appearance, performance, and/or health. Email spam is a formatthat attempts to act on bodies: by cashing in on role models of uniformly drugged,enhanced, super-slin, super-active, and super-horny peoplel0 wearing replica
7. Nlichael Haldt and Artonio Negri, "Globalization and Democract" h Reflectians on E tpire'
ed. Artonio Neg.i and Ed Emery (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008), pp. 79-113.B. Ibid., p. 94.
9. Antonio Negri,'lhe Labot of Job: The Biblial Tb,t as a Parable oJ Huna1l Labor, Lrans. MatteoNlandarini (Durham, N.C.: Duke Uliversity Press, 2009), p. 72.10. Eilen Messme! "E\perts Link flood of'Canadian Pbarmacy' Spanl to Russian Bo$etcriminals," Netuol* I4/ortd (July 16. 2009), http://\\,l\mnerrvork$orld.com/nervs/2009/071609-canadi-an-pharmacy-spam.html (accessed June 3, 20i1). "Ir rlis case, 'Canadian Pharmacy,' hruirg i$elf as
'the #1 Irtemet Online Drugstore.' is neither Canadian nor a phannacy. In fact, 'Canadian Pharrracy'doesn'l appear to exisL as an established \feb sire bur onty a shifrirg lryperlink ill a spam message gen-erated by about €ight crine bornels."
75
76 OCTOBER
watches so as to be on time for their service jobs. More than 65% of email spam
pushes anti-depressants and Viagra-or rather riP-off pills boasting the same
effects-thus selling fantasies of perfectly exploitable bodies; coveted productiontools for superfluous crowds. Both forms of spam are Post-carnal: they deal ra'ith
the production of enhanced, altered, artificial, processed, upgraded as rvell as
degraded forms offlesh.But Spam is not without its o$'n counter?owet In Ed Ruscha's admirable 1962
paioting Actual Size, a resplendent Spam can is caught flying in a dol'nrvard tr4iec-
tory, A glowing trail makes it look like a crosso\ter between a comet and a Molotovcocktail, Spam as a solid object, airborne, combustible, and imbrred rvith kineticpower. Spam tins cau be hurled into bank I'indows. They are sturdy and resilient.
In some cases, culinary applications of Spam also manage to overturn itsrelations with \,-arfare and deprivation. One example is the Hawaiian use of Spam
as a delicacy. Spam became popular during World \{'ar II lvhen Japanese werebanned from fishing. Thus "Spam became an imPortant source of protein forlocals."ll But far from remaining a hallmark of scarcity, it rvas redeployed as aningredient for inventive dishes like Spamakopita, Spam Musubi, Spam Katslr,
Spam loco moco, Spam fusion fajitas, Spam somen, Spam chutney, Spam MahiCarbonara, and Spamaroni and Cheese. Similar interpretations of Spam exist inKorea, where Spam spread after being imported by the U.S. military. The Germanversion is called doner kebab,l2 an extremely popular form of orientalist roast
Spam impaled on supersized skervers. This dish lvas invented by downsizedTurkish migrant workers in the '70s. Since then it has become Germany's unoffr-cial national dish. These uses of Spam highlight the composition of theconstituency of its consumers and (sometimes) improve its appeal to the senses.
But even electronic spam has unexPected affinities to social compositionIndeed, it ras initially explicitly define{ as a res publica, a public thing. One of thefirst spam filters developed was based on the quite unlikely finding that any email
containing the word "republic" rvould almost invariably er.rd uP being spam. (The
other dubious kelavords being, interestiDgly, "madam" and "guarantee,")13
11. Michael F. Nenes, "Cuisine of Harvaii," h Ametican Rzgional Curiz, (Hoboken, NJ.: $iiley,2001),p.479.12. In coDtras! to pan Oltomar versions of the dish, the Geman rendition is gencrrlly made ofpreprodnced Spam cones. Eberhard Seidel Pielen, AufsesPieit-Wie du Di;ner iber die Deutschen ham
(RotbLrch: Hamburg, 1996), p. 47. Seidel Pielen claims thal the de€line of Fordist Production systems
in cennan car industries forced many industrial migranl workers to become small entrePreneus and
open snack bars, thus paving the my fol' Germany's only important culinary innovarion in the t$'ent;eth cenLurl D6ner kebab is supposedly made from many of{icial and unofficial -components includingcookies, spenn, dog food, and salmonella. He also recounts ho\v toung Cerman neo-Nazis $'ould come
running to the doner stands even \vhiie arsoning migrant $,orkers' hostels during the early '90s posr-
unilication purificadon campaigns, showing the Hitler salute ltith one han.l and cluching rheir d6nerlvith the other. Alan Posener, "Auch Deutschland drehl sich um den D6ner," WeLt Online (May 30'2005), \^l.!\.!s.reelt.deldie-welt/article3B31396/Auch-Deutschland-drehl-sich-um-den-Doener'html(accessedJune 3, 20I1).13. B"un,on. p. 4.
Digital Deb*
Spam-in its different versions-is thus resolutely public. It is alrvays nadefrom several sources: things and bodies, letters, metals, colors, and proteins alike.Its element is commonality; a mix of components animate and inanimate, as
impure as one could possibly imagine.Spam transforms rvords into carnal objects, as in Ruscha's painting. This
incarnation goes way beydnd its religious precedents, though. Let's face it: theincarnation of rvords today mostly takes the fonn of spam, spamJ aDd spam.
Histor)
But spam is not only a passive substance, endorved rvith the porleq of block-ing and crowdir.rg. It also brings about very diffelent forms of social organization.It changes the rvays in rvl.rich a group of people is structured and organized ininteraction. In Monty Python's sketch, Spam becomes a pi\,otal term that pointsnot only at a change in the paradigm of labor but also, per-haps, ir.r the form of his-tory itsell
An insert at the \€ry end of the sketch shorvs a history teacher sitting in aclassroom and detailing the invasious of the Vikings:
SUPERIMPOSED CAPTION: .A HISTORIAN"
HISToRL\N: ADother great Viking victory tvas at the Green Midget caf6 atBromley. Once again the Viking strategy \{as the same. They sailed fi'omthese lolds here (hdicathg a nap uitll anous on it) asseurbled at Tr-ondheim,aud rvaited for the stlong nortlteasterly lvinds to blorv their oaken galleys toEngland rvhence they sailed on May 23rd. Once in Bronley they assenbledin the Gr-een Nlidget caf€ and Spam selecting a Spam particulal Spam itemfi-om the Sparn menu I'ould Spam, Spam, Spam, Sparn, Spam .. . . The back-drcp behind, him rises to rzueal tlu caJd again, the Vihings start singing agai.n, and tlrchistotian colull.tcts tlrcm.This unassuming scene demonstrates horv the represelrtatiotr of history itself
is transformed by the invasion of Spam. Initially, the historian gives ar authorita-tive classroom-style account of er.ents from a slightly elevated position and rvith abackdrop of maps.
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But as Spam starts to flood the dialogue, the wall behind the historian is
Ievealed to be a stage curtain. As the skit continues, the curtain is lifted, and theinitial caf6 setting reappears behind it.
The historian then produces a conductor's baton and joins in the rild cele-
bratory Spam chorus. First he appears to direct this cacophony, but he gives up onmastery and breaks the baton in two.
'Irvo different modes of address are presented in this short sketch; first, thehistorian addresses the spectators as if inside a classroom. After the change ofscenery the frontal address is abandoned, and our poinr of view is transformedinto a mixture of a customer's and an audience's perspective. \{hile the first mode
of address presents a slightly authoritarian educational model, the second is
clearly adjusted to a situation ofservice as performance or perfolmance as service
This shift is catalyzed by the renewed invasion of Spam into the dialogue. Sparn
Digital Debris
expels the authoritative address and introduces a mode based on service andspectacle, sustained by customers suspended in midair,
Tl.re form of temporality inherent in the scene shifts as well: whereas in thebeginning there is a clear narrative of invasion and progress, after the curtain liftsthere isjust the puri spectacle ofincongruous, unsynchronized, profoundly multi-cultural, and salacious performative services. A joint celebration, which has noconductor. leader or avant-garde, emerges spontaneously.
Spam's takeover transforms a pseudo-scientific account of history (and its"progress") into a performative chaos, in which actors, consumers, Spam, and ser-vice workers become indistinguishable. The linear and teleological progression ofhistory, complete with its narration by academic administrators, is disrupted. Theunity created by the frontal address of the classroom is gone. The mood shiftsfrom education to celebration.
But the public composition of Spam is not merely about fun and merriment; itpenetrates the framework of the productiofr of spectacle, as the final credits, whichstart rolling immediately after this scene, demonstrate. Spam infiltratesjob titles a.Irdnames of producers and technicians. Exclamations from the service sector are inter-spersed: "not Sundays,/Spam's off, dear," It's not as if Spam has erased labor; ratherSpam has erased class by penetratir.rg and invading labor and laborers alike,
Spam is thus given both as the description of labor and its performers. It isan activity, a subject, and an object, as well as an uncontrollably multip$ing wordthat describes all of the former. People clearly are being included into the worldof Spam and turned into potentially edible matter, Words are incarnated as
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objects, and vice versa. And the only slogan that rallies the chaotic Spam and ser-
vice work/workers is given in the final titles ofthe sketch:
Seruice Not Included'
This slogan is the inherent promise of Spam. l^Ihile Hardt and Negri rave
about the angelic potential offlesh and its relentless release of desire, the promiseof spam is much more prosaic: "service not included" means simply that service
should not be free. Even in the digital age, service cannot be reproduced indefr-nitely. At present, however, the line "service not included" is not a description buta claim that waits to be realized. In the world of service as performance (and per-formance as service), labor seems to be abundantly free; as if it too could be
copy-pasted and duplicated digitally.Of course, little of this issue is reflected in the piles of repetitive spam matter
that clogs mail accounts and data lines worldwide. But why not see its materialexcess as anticipation of a time when the spam incarnated in service and spectacleworkers, as rvell as in everybody else considered superfluous and dispensable,starts to speak and utters the slogan: service not included? ContemPorary elec-
tronic spam tries to extract an improbable spark of value from an inattentivecrowd by means of inundation. But to become spam-that is, to fully identify withits unrealized promise-means to spark an improbable element of commonalitybetrveen different forms of existence, to become a public thing, a cheerful incar-nation of data-based wreckage,
There is one question left to explore: how does Monty P)'thon's sketch actu-alize a different form of history? At first glance the question might have beenanswered by the transformed behavior of the historian who gives up his vantagepoint of authority to wholeheartedly participate in the creation of chaos. Butthere is another aspecL. too.
Lets return to Klee's painting. There is another mystery in this painting: theangel averts its gazejust slightly: ir doesn t look at us siraight on.
Is it perhaps distracted by something happening behind it? Could it have
been caught at the very moment when the uniform backgrorind behind it startslifting upwards, revealing itself as a stage curtain? Is it about to tur-n around tojoin in with a new scene instead ofbeing torn between mourning past demise anda violently displaced future? And what will it order from the breakfast menu?
