Rhizome pairs artists with technologists to create original works so Appelbaum, an exiled American Tor/Wikileaks hacker travelled to Beijing to work with Ai, whose government won’t let him leave, with Poitras there to document their time.
Kashmir Hill’s story of the time the three of them spent together opens with Appelbaum and Ai calling up Julian Assange, waking him in the middle of the night in the room where he lives in a kind of exile in the Ecuadoran embassy in London.
It’s a story of “global dissident elites,” who work under conditions of total surveillance and authoritarian rule, and horse around, mixing politics and comedy. It’s absurd and also scary.
An important quote from the piece: “‘The Department of Justice is conducting an investigation, and it remains ongoing,’ says a Department of Justice spokesperson by email.”
Even though Ai and Appelbaum have a lot in common, they make an odd pair. At 57, Ai is nearly twice Appelbaum’s age, with a long beard that contains more white than black. Ai is taciturn and calm, observing more than he speaks; Appelbaum, 32, is a high-energy talker who loves to tell tales of international intrigue. Ai travels with a constant entourage of assistants; Appelbaum gets nervous in large groups. Ai is an artist who prefers to make his mark through symbolism; Appelbaum is a radical who believes in direct action.
When authorities increased the number of surveillance cameras in front of Ai’s studio, he marked each one with a red Chinese lantern. “I was thinking we could replace all of the lanterns with helium balloons that would block the cameras,” said Appelbaum to Ai soon after meeting him.
“There is no need to provoke,” responds Ai. “The lanterns are enough.”
The two also have different notions of personal privacy. Ai, who is convinced that his phone is tapped because of police visits stemming from messages he received on it, nevertheless believes that the sheer volume of his self-documentation will protect him, by overwhelming the police with information. “I don’t think it’s possible to evade surveillance,” he says. “It becomes like a Cold War. They make a bigger effort. I am the one with no secrets. They have secrets. It is only because they have secrets that they can imagine everyone having them too.” Appelbaum, who is better-versed in the technical processes that allow governments to pick through enormous piles of personal information, prefers to keep his data private.
Three days in Beijing with Ai Weiwei, Jacob Appelbaum and Laura Poitras, the global dissident elite [Kashmir Hill/Fusion]
(via Kottke)
(Image: Heather Corcoran/Elena Scotti)