Agrippa

The proper titles of this work are:
Agrippa(a book of the dead)
Agrippa(a book of the dead) Small
Agrippa(a book of the dead) Deluxe
Agrippa(a book of the dead) Collector's Copy

An exploration of memory, electronic recordings, how we view each differently, and how humanity is slowing being destroyed as we becoming more mechanized. Memory, identity, and life becomes recordings, anonymity, and death.

MSRP: $1500.00
MSRP: $2000.00 (Deluxe edition)
MSRP: $7500.00 (Collectors Copy)
MSRP: $450.00 (Small edition)

Less than 95 of these were individually hand-made (including the book) and even fewer exist now because these limited edition works of art were designed to deteriorate rapidly. Each set included a poem on a reused 3.5inch encrypted disk (but some where unencrypted). The disk were not professionally manufactured for mass software production. They were various brands probably originally purchased from a retail outlet as if they were going to be used on a family's home computer. How exactly they were used before become an element of an art has not been disclosed. If/When the disks is used, A poem called "Agrippa" can be read but not copied. The disk then erases its contents in such a way it remains unusable ever after. Included in the set was an artist's book by the same title that resembled a Gutenberg Bible. The box was etched copper, or bronze in the case of the deluxe edition. Everything was made to look as if it had been buried for hundreds of years. The small edition was not quite as epic in size or materials and the book resembled an ordinary one (though still appeared have been buried).

A set is available for public viewing at the New York Public Library and another the Waldo Library at the Western Michigan University, the disks remain unused and it is unknown if they are encrypted or not. A third copy is archived at an undisclosed library and not available to view. Some of the disks in the sets were hacked by fans to preserve the poem at the time. This was undoubtedly a planed part of the work by Gibson as the random unencrypted copies were much easier to 'rescue' the poem from and William Gibson is the one who coined the term "Hacker". The sourcecode was eventually made available for a download as part of the work's 20th anniversary, but only for a few minutes. Hundreds of Gibson fans probably managed to get full copies of the Mac specific C sourcecode.

William Gibson also invented the term "cyberspace", prophesied the Internet and the World Wide Web, and was the main force the popularized cyberpunk literature.

(Zerothis) - # 2008-05-16 08:25:25

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