Horse Nor Spambot Behind @Horse_Ebooks Twitter Account
On the Internet not everything is as it seems.
Sept. 24, 2013 — -- On the Internet not everything is as it seems, that much we know. Yet thousands who followed a Twitter account called @Horse_ebooks were surprised to learn today that the account was not run by a spambot or a robot but by two human beings as an elaborate "conceptual art installation."
First some background for those unfamiliar with the Twitter account. Multiple times a day @Horse_ebooks fires off random messages from what many assumed was passages in an ebooks. It has been assumed that through an automated algorithm the account chose random, sometimes meaningful, passages and tweeted them out.
That is until this morning , when The New Yorker revealed that the account has been powered by not a robot or a horse, but by Jacob Bakkila and Thomas Bender, two media professionals in New York City.
The two revealed themselves today at an event at Manhattan's Fitzroy Gallery. There they not only announced their next interactive video series project, but also set up a hotline for followers of the @Horse_ebooks account to call. When you dial (213) 444-0102, the two read some of the tweets.
When ABC News called the line we were greeted by a dramatic reading of "Seven clever ways to beat your speeding ticket without cross examining the police officer."
If you're a fan of the account, you'll want to get your calls in today. The creators told The New Yorker they are planning to stop tweeting to the account's 200,000 plus followers.
"No one wants to work on a painting forever," Bakkila told The New Yorker. "When it's done it's done. We're ready for the experience of whatever this next piece is."