Item #D5. Part of the code used to generate the scrolling text of William Gibson’s poem in Agrippa.
See also the encryption code used to make the poem seem to “disappear” after it had run once.
Item #D9. Letter of 1992 (exact date unknown) from publisher Kevin Begos, Jr., to William Gibson regarding Agrippa.
For the “Kodak book” referred to, see 1920 Kodak catalog advertising “The Agrippa Album.” The plan for using the special vintage Whatman papers was never implemented.
Item #D40. Another letter of 1992 (exact date unknown) from publisher Kevin Begos, Jr., to William Gibson regarding Agrippa.
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Transcription
For the article from Print Collectors Newsletter referred to, see article.
Item #D27. Letter from Kevin Begos to William Gibson (probably October 1992)
See also press release and technical specs for “The Transmission” on December 9, 1992.
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Item #D15. Letter from Kevin Begos, Jr., to Alan Liu regarding the genesis of Agrippa. Original Web posting of letter
This retrospective letter ten years after the publication of Agrippa was sent by email from Begos on 26, October, 2002, and later posted by Liu with permission on the Web on 3 February 2003. The “essay” that Begos refers to is chapter 11 of Liu’s The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information (2004), which discusses Agrippa and William Gibson’s poem in the work. (Excerpt from Liu’s chapter on The Agrippa Files site) |
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Item #D4. Mathematical basis of the encryption used to make the pre-encrypted copy of Gibson’s poem on Agrippa’s disk. (This is the work referred to by the programmer in the last paragraph of his letter of 28 March 1992). Facsimile Images Bibliographical Information See also the programmer’s letter on the encryption code. |
Item #D44. Introduction by “Templar” to the First Online Copy of William Gibson’s “Agrippa” poem
This introduction, which claims that the code of the Agrippa diskette was “hacked & cracked,” announced the first version of Gibson’s poem posted online (to the MindVox BBS) on Dec. 10, 1992. The transcript here is from a now defunct Web page version of the MindVox posting available until early 2005 at http://riverbbs.net/pub4/ebook/Agripp.Txt (currently available only in the Google cache here) For the way the poem leaked online and different views about whether it was ever actually hacked, see Matthew G. Kirschenbaum’s discussion and follow-up discussion. See also the bootleg video recorded at the Dec. 9, 1992, “transmission” event at the Americas Society in New York City, as well as the 1993 experimental video Re:Agrippa based on the bootleg footage. (One theory was that transcribing from this footage may be the low-tech way the poem was hacked. Subsequent evidence, including the discovery of the original bootleg video recorded Dec. 9, 1992, at the Americas Society and correspondence with Templar’s partner video maker, “Rosehammer,” confirms this theory.)
Item #D11. Press release from the publisher regarding the December 9, 1992, “transmission” of Agrippa.
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Transcription
This press release was attached to a faxed letter of Dec. 1, 1992, from Kevin Begos to David Leslie of The Kitchen in NYC. (Excerpt from letter)
Item #D47. Original hand-drawn technical plan and specs for the December 9, 1992, “transmission” of Agrippa.
This drawing by Marc Scarpa was the basis for his later, typed technical specs for “the Transmission” (see Item #D12)
Item #D12. Outline and flowchart for the December 9, 1992, “transmission” of Agrippa.
These plans and specs were typed by Marc Scarpa based on his original hand-drawn plans (see Item #D47)
