encoding is the process of encode a message , and today we have improbably advanced software and algorithms that make our encrypted messages almost impossible to decrypt . But how does it work ? These graphics projects answer that doubt by explore how encryption has become part of daily lifetime .
Once the domain of undercover agent and engineers , encryption is now part of the artistic production humankind . Artists are co - opting crypto cock to build installations , object and sculpture that explore anonymity and digital surveillance .
Often the hardware and internet substructure of encoding is inconspicuous to us . These artists train to transfer that by showing us what it really seem like , and how it really go — and in the process test just how vital crypto really is .
Rebuilding the NSA’s Creepiest Surveillance Tools
In 2013,Der Spiegel publish a prospicient catalog of toolsthat the NSA employ to carry out digital surveillance . That leak process as a pattern for artistFrancesco Tacchini , who decided to reverse engineer two of those tool .
One , phone CANDYGRAM , is used by the NSA to create a fake cell tug — helpful for tracking surveillance targets via their headphone . Another , SPOOK - I , uses frequence that humans ca n’t hear — but that any contraption with a mike can blame up . It “ sneakily switches a target equipment ’s dealings from a cellular internet ’s area of influence onto a surveilled radio relative frequency , ” accord to the NSA ’s documents .
Tacchini describes his small-arm , SPOOK - I , as a joint “ wireless jammer and sniffer . ” When you take the air into the veranda , it jams your telephone set ’s Wi - Fi signaling and throws your name up on a nearby wall . presently , you ’ll pick up an email from an @nsa.gov email reading “ this equipment is now under surveillance : you have been added onto a radio receiver frequency controlled by the US National Security Agency . ” affair only get weirder from there . say morehere , or over onCreative Applications .
Tor On a Pedestal
If you ’ve seen an airy shot of the NSA home base recently , you probably have Trevor Paglen to give thanks . The artist ( who you might better know from his workThe Last Pictures ) , has spent the last few eld concenter on the authority that surveil us , includingrenting a chopper to take unprecedented aerial photosof the stock suburban headquarters of the NSA , the National Reconnaissance Office , and the National Geospatial - Intelligence Agency .
In his latest picture gallery show atAltman Siegel in San Francisco , Paglen is bear witness off something called anAutonomy Cube .
Built with fellow creative person Jacob Appelbaum , it ’s a Wi - Fi hot spot that anyone in the heading can connect to and browse through . “ But Autonomy Cube does not leave a normal internet connection , ” explains Paglen . “ The carving rout all of the Wi - Fi traffic over the Tor web , a planetary meshing of thousands of volunteer - run servers , relays , and services design to help anonymize data . ”
And@ioerror 🙂 " @PostAccelerator : Pic of@HillaryClinton–@trevorpaglencollab " Autonomy Cube"pic.twitter.com / q5NcfrI9sK "
— Trevor Paglen ( @trevorpaglen)March 6 , 2015
So wherever Autonomy Cube is installed , it serves as a place where users can anonymize their data . What ’s more , Paglen says , is that it ’s also a Tor relay that can be used by anyone in the world for the same purpose .
A Mixtape Even the NSA Can’t Hear
The software engineerDavid Huertacalls it “ a soundtrack for the mod surveillance state . ” It ’s a mixtape on an Coyote State menu — but one that ’s encipher , so only people with the private cay can take heed to it . He sent the tape to NSA headquartersas a picayune reminder : “ The NSA can translate my dazed Facebook updates but without my consent it will never be able-bodied to listen to my kick - ass mix tape , even if it ’s sitting right in front of them . ”
Encryption Through Social Media
There are plenty of ways to cypher your messages online these day , but none of them are quite likeCuckoo . decently now , our societal networks — from Facebook to Twitter — are a racy seed for surveillance . But Cuckoo turns those societal electronic connection into a peter to hide information , rather .
Built by the Berlin researcherJochen Maria Weberand also brought to light byCreative Applications , it withdraw a message and scatters it in random bits across a collection of social internet , from Tumblr to Facebook . Then , the receiving Cuckoo machine can decrypt the various dissipate spot using the ever - changing encryption method , explains Weber . “ sullen data aggregation , surveillance and dominance became normal and more crucial , increasingly legal on most internet communicating platforms , ” he writes . “ What if we used societal mesh but hiding our factual information ? ”
Packet Sniffing Sculptures
walk byAddie Wagenknecht‘s carving xxxx.xxx in the art gallery , you ’d comment C of greenish lights blink on its snarl surface — and mayhap you would n’t even block off to recognize what those lights meant . But these wall - mounted circuit boards are “ packet sniffers , ” which smell data point from Wi - Fi signal nearby and sift through it — each green spark represents data point being picked up from insecure networks nearby .
Wagenknecht give pieces that do n’t fit into any one genre — many are sculpture , but they ’re also pieces of hardware that Wagenknecht has built and programmed to comport out specific conceptual tasks . Herfirst solo show at bitforms gallerythis wintertime showed off a few fascinating exercise , thanks to a series of sculptures called Data and Dragons , which are build to stop data from nearby Wi - Fi meshwork .
Another piece call Cloud Farming hangs from the ceiling as a optical pun on its title since it , too , is sifting information from the unseeable networks that float through the gallery . As the visitor , you might stand out onto the gallery ’s Wi - Fi and check your email — perhaps you ’d see a volley of green light overhead as the data occur through the sculpture .
Read a dandy interview with Wagenknechthere , or correspond outDeep Lab , a documentary about the work of Wagenknecht and other cyberfeminist artists and investigator .
Photos courtesy bitforms gallery , New York .
meet the author at[email protected ] .
EncryptionInstallationsSurveillance
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