PGPoetry (Pretty Good Poetry) celebrates the aesthetic, poetic, and political possibilities of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption protocol. Using PGP encryption protocol, I create abstract random poetry, readable only for the eyes of a specific recipient, and of spying agencies (if they can decrypt them). For the rest of the world, the poems are basically digital Rorschach inkblot, and its meaning, as in every piece of art – depends on the audience’s interpretation (interpretation is decryption!). With the rise of state surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic, this project is more relevant than ever. PGPoetry workshop is an algorithmic poetry workshop which is also a crypto party for emergency times. In the workshop, the participants will try to figure out (and probably fail) how to read these poems, while I put them in the context and tradition of digital poetry and encrypted poetry, and their artistic value. Then, I will teach the participants how to use PGP protocol, and guide them as they experiment with creating pretty good poetry.
Artist: Yoav Lifshitz