I could see the humorous frustration in Jens Hauser’s face when the Men In Grey (Julian Oliver & Danja Vasiliev) came to the stage to “talk” about their project which was a prize winner in the Hybrid Art category. Two fellows, straitlaced and quite automaton-like, showing up at the podium; über-briefcases in hand, then on the floor, doing all of the speaking for them.
Living in an era of government wiretaps and feeling the ever increasing pressure of the jack-booted heel of para-corporations, we nevertheless feel mostly secure and trusting while we network online. The Men In Grey are here to present a type of situationist activity that dissects wireless network traffic, then presents it back to us as if we were looking at ourselves in a fun-house mirror – comical, yet unsettling. The video that they’ve put together is fairly self-explanatory, but I want to mention the basic tactics that may appear during an MIG situational-event:
• The Glance: Any image downloaded by a user of the network may appear on a screen on the side of their hardware and software filled briefcases.
• The Utterance: Facebook, AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN Messenger chat, Yahoo, a.o. may also appear on the briefcase with built-in audio speaker recitation using text-to-speech synthesis.
• The Mirror: Full webpages browsed by a user on the network may appear on the briefcase display.
• The Forgotten: Earlier browsing sessions may be “replayed” to the user on their computer with each successive click.
• The Lost Identity: Webpages may be manipulated, URLs redirected, chat text altered, and images seen on one laptop could replace those in webpages of another.
• The Trace: Detailed network topology, system fingerprints, routing tables and host-names may be displayed on the side of the briefcase.
Importantly, the Men In Grey never view the output of the briefcases; nor do they store any data. All logs are destroyed by crushing the storage device – a small SD card – under foot at the point of departure. This act doubles as their calling card.
(thanks to Julian Oliver & Danja Vasiliev)