Can there really be more to Spam than just processed food in a can or an inbox-clogger?

I do like the idea of "found art" evidenced by the spam clock (left) that sits on my desk. Some resourceful artist took an old spam can, added a battery and three hands, and voila: a fun and practical conversation starter.

But I never would have dreamed an artist would find a way to make e-mail spam into art. After all, it's one of the worst annoyances facing office workers, aside from soda machines that don't stock Dr. Pepper.

Artist Alex Dragulescu looks at it a different way. He uses algorithms to generate complex images based on spam content. (See image on right) "I have certain key words controlling, for example, the size. . .Like how many times is 'Viagra' in the text, and maybe it will control the size of the petals," he told the Christian Science Monitor recently.

It all started when he was in grad school--he and his friend used spam to create full multimedia presentations. He's currently at the Experimental Game Lab at the University of California, San Diego, where he continues to use spam as an artistic expression. Genius!