Live Mail Art.

January 16, 2013 5:37 PM

Delivery for Mr. Assange.

"!Mediengruppe Bitnik is a Zurich-based media collective that became notorious, amongst others, by bugging the Zurich opera with radio transmitters and offering free live telephone broadcasts of the opera performances to the neighborhood, aesthetic hacking of movie files, and a pirate TV station based on media illegally downloaded from the Internet." -- KABK

Links:
"A Trail of Images" - CCTV Hacking Workshop (1)
Also somehow related to "Surveillance Chess"
A Google translated web page about !Mediengruppe Bitnik. (original)
«Opera Calling»

Livetweeting: @bitnk

posted by azarbayejani (18 comments total)

The Hacker News thread is probably worth following, too.
posted by azarbayejani at 5:38 PM on January 16, 2013

Wouldn't it be a better idea to disguise the camera peephole a little more and then only release the video after it's been delivered? Doing it this way seems like a guarantee that it won't be delivered.
posted by Potsy at 5:43 PM on January 16, 2013

Your link sir appears to be dead.
posted by KeSetAffinityThread at 5:43 PM on January 16, 2013

He's still in the Ecuadorian embassy?
posted by mediated self at 6:04 PM on January 16, 2013

I don't really get this at all. Why send it to Assange?
posted by rebent at 6:13 PM on January 16, 2013

Because he's a slightly notorious chap and might be expected to have his mail read if the government were really that interested in him.
posted by arcticseal at 6:23 PM on January 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

Related
posted by unliteral at 7:13 PM on January 16, 2013

I agree, it would have been wise to (at first, anyway) send a package without announcing anything. The best way to catch them intercepting a package is if they don't know there's a camera in it.
posted by dunkadunc at 8:34 PM on January 16, 2013

They are not trying to sneak a camera into the embassy. They are trying to publicize the situation and communicate with Assange.

"The parcel is a REAL_WORLD_PING, a SYSTEM_TEST, inserted into a highly tense diplomatic crisis."
posted by agropyron at 9:31 PM on January 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Isn't it illegal to open someone's mail? Wouldn't that be interesting to watch happen as we'll?
posted by chapps at 9:49 PM on January 16, 2013

84 Interfering with the mail: general

(1) A person commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, he—
(a) intentionally delays or opens a postal packet in the course of its transmission by post, or
(b) intentionally opens a mail-bag.
(2) Subsections (2) to (5) of section 83 apply to subsection (1) above as they apply to subsection (1) of that section.
(3) A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him.
(4) Subsections (2) and (3) of section 83 (so far as they relate to the opening of postal packets) apply to subsection (3) above as they apply to subsection (1) of that section.
(5) A person who commits an offence under subsection (1) or (3) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.

I believe that the mail might belong to the Crown while it's in transit, though?
posted by forgetful snow at 4:18 AM on January 17, 2013

Seems to have quit at 1:05 this morning. Kind of late to be moving express packages (it's nearly half past noon, London time). But the weather is snowy there this morning, with lots of distruptions.
posted by Goofyy at 4:27 AM on January 17, 2013

Weather is fine and clear, albeit a little frosty. There has been a fire at Victoria Station today and a helicopter crash yesterday, which are clogging up transport a bit, but the Royal Jubilee Mail Centre seems to be well out of central London. Must be fag break time. Or the camera might have frozen.
posted by forgetful snow at 4:32 AM on January 17, 2013

Odd. A friend of mine said it took him a half hour to get a few blocks...Ah. He said the tubes were suspended, so traffic was a snarl.
posted by Goofyy at 4:57 AM on January 17, 2013

They are updating the twitter feed more than the web site. It looks like the package is inside the embassy.
posted by agropyron at 6:19 AM on January 17, 2013

The end: the package has come in the hands of Assange, who fed it to his lynx.
posted by mahershalal at 1:04 PM on January 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

That's no lynx, that's a jaguarundi!
posted by dunkadunc at 2:27 PM on January 17, 2013

I am delighted that it reached him! Nice to see the man smile. @Potsy: It reached him!
posted by ysangkok at 3:06 PM on February 4, 2013