The Milker Corporation (nom de guerre of Irish composer Jennifer Walshe) has announced a new ‘text score initiative’, in which participants will receive instructional messages to their smartphone a number of times a week.

The project, titled THMOTES, uses the Snapchat app, which allows real-time picture chatting on smartphones and is available on the iOS and Android platforms. Images sent to friends disappear moments after they are viewed. ‘The allure of fleeting messages reminds us about the beauty of friendship,’ say the makers of Snapchat.

The app, which was developed at Stanford University, was subject of a recent editorial in the Guardian, focussing on the app’s wide-spread use for sexting. ‘In an age where social media can lay down a digital trace of one’s every youthful indiscretion, the records of these little foolishnesses spell trouble for a whole generation as they make the familiar journey from the folly of youth to the respectability of middle age — and particular trouble for public figures,’ wrote the newspaper. ‘Any technology that protects our future selves from our teenage stupidities is surely worthy of some degree of praise.’

The Milker Corportation outlines the steps for participation as follows:

• Download and install the Snapchat app on your phone. [The app is free from the various app stores — visit snapchat.com for more information.]
• Go to ‘My Friends
• Click the ‘+’ sign
• Search for the username ‘milker_corp’ and click ‘Add’

Anyone is welcome to take part in THMOTES, whether as an observer or a more active participant. ‘The score will exist on your phone for only a few seconds before vanishing into the ether, never to be seen again,’ says the Milker Corporation. ‘The results of that brief interaction are in your kind and capable hands/brain.’

milker.org