day 3 - ambient internet noise

today I made an application (for another potential installation idea) that reads aloud any email sent to a specific address (spamtest@stfj.net).
I then published the address to the front page of my website, but colored it the same as the background. the idea is that although people won't be able to see it, spam bots will notice it and hopefully start sending it email.

If I keep the program running all the time, it should just start talking one day. I feel like this junk internet data (largely made up of spam) is kind of the ambient noise of the internet, so this installation would tap into that noise.

Another idea would be to with the same program instead of keeping the address invisible, put it up on reddit and digg and explain the project, and see what people email to it. This could fit in with my investigation on how the internet abstracts us from eachother and what kind of behavioral changes that can induce.

I don't have an audio file to upload, because I haven't gotten any mail yet :)

////// part 2.

I also put a little more work into the droning crowd project, replacing a few more shorthand bits (jk with Just Kidding, etc), and making the 'Dear' (which I replaced @ with, so @nickJonas would be Dear NickJonas) more understandable.

and in response to comments,
It's definitely hard to understand some of the time, but I think this adds to the piece. It's not meant to inform, but to act as the ambient noise in a space. If you stop and try to understand it though, you end up hearing tidbits of conversation in the same way if you were walking down a crowded street you might pick up bits and pieces. i never meant it as a feed reader, but always as an installation in a space. Either a public one or a gallery space. I'm looking into places where I can get a megaphone to use, although more for the aesthetic quality than to make it super loud.

-zach