Junkmail
In“Junkmail,”a mixed-media wall installation, security envelopes are stitched with machine embroidered phrases pulled straight from the e-mail Junk folder. At face value, these phrases (e.g. “We have been trying to reach you. Your great steaks is waiting!”) are absurd and humorous, but their purpose is sinister: to steal data, money, and identity. In this work, spam becomes “found poetry,” and envelopes, displayed on the wall in a haphazard overlapping array, fill the viewer’s field of vision creating a sense of overwhelm much like an overflowing inbox.
In the age of “going paperless” to keep physical mail out of the landfill, security envelopes are rapidly becoming a piece of paper ephemera going the way of ticker tape and telegrams. When the digital world is stored on servers that run on fossil fuels, we must ask the question: how much energy is used to store and transport e-Junk?
In the age of “going paperless” to keep physical mail out of the landfill, security envelopes are rapidly becoming a piece of paper ephemera going the way of ticker tape and telegrams. When the digital world is stored on servers that run on fossil fuels, we must ask the question: how much energy is used to store and transport e-Junk?
