Material related to the “hacking” of the self-encrypting diskette containing William Gibson’s poem and the release of its text onto the MindVox BBS on Dec. 10, 1992 (and subsequently into the wilds of the Internet). See Matthew G. Kirschenbaum’s discussion of the competing explanations of the “hack” and whether it was a code hack at all or instead a low-tech hack accomplished by transcribing from video footage shot at the screening of the poem at one of the “transmission” events of Dec. 9, 1992. Subsequent evidence, including the discovery of the original bootleg video recorded Dec. 9, 1992, at the Americas Society in New York City and correspondence with one of the video makers confirms that it was the low-tech hack that occurred. (See Kirschenbaum’s follow-up discussion.)

Source images from New York Hudson River Valley area newspapers and photographic equipment catalogs of the 1920’s and 1930’s used by Dennis Ashbaugh as the basis for “overprints” in Agrippa. The original plan was to print these images in “disappearing” or “fading” ink over the copperplate aquatint etchings in the book featuring Ashbaugh’s distinctive DNA-gels motifs. Opening the book and exposing the etchings to light or air would make the images gradually vanish, leaving behind only the DNA look. However, technical problems prevented the implementation of the fading ink, though an attempt was made to realize the concept in uncured photocopy toner. (See digital simulation of a fading overprint.)

Materials related to the fruit-fly gene that provided the raw feed (the “ACGT” DNA sequences) for the body text in Agrippa (a book of the dead)

Other archival materials related to the creation, publication, and reception of Agrippa (a book of the dead)

Documents, code, analysis of the code, and an emulation related to the functioning of the Mac diskette containing William Gibson’s poem in Agrippa. The diskette contained a custom-built set of programs that decrypted a pre-encrypted copy of the poem, rendered it as black text on white background scrolling up the screen at an unstoppable pace, and then created the illusion of re-encrypting the poem and making it “disappear” forever after it had been seen once. (In reality, the “Cracking the Agrippa Code” contest showed in 2012, there was no encryption program on the disk. Instead, the decrypted text was left behind in computer memory, while a simple cipher substitution generated through a reuse of the decryption routine created the appearance of reencryption on the screen.  A brute-force algorithm initiated at the start of running the disk also destroyed the disk’s stored routines by overwriting them with the alphabetic ACGT letters of faux-DNA code.) In the documents related to the creation of the code in 1992, the hired programmer’s name and signature have been blacked out due to his wish (according to Agrippa’s publisher) to remain anonymous.

Materials related to “Agrippa – The Transmission” (Dec. 9, 1992), which was originally planned as a multi-location “fibre optic and modem line” simulcast of live readings and images of the scrolling text of William Gibson’s poem. Not all the planned sites, events, and technologies of the “Transmission” actually occurred; and some sites, such as the Americas Society in New York City, featured only a local screening of Gibson’s poem.

Early anticipation and discussion of Agrippa on the New York City-based ECHO BBS.

Press releases for the publication and exhibition of Agrippa (a book of the dead).

Letters related to the design, publication, and exhibition of Agrippa (a book of the dead)

Exhibition announcements, catalog material, and other documents related to showings of Agrippa. See also “The Transmission”