Ideas worth spreading

Art that lets you talk back to NSA spies

1,006,660 views |

Mathias Jud |

TEDGlobal>London

• September 2015

In 2013, the world learned that the NSA and its UK equivalent, GCHQ, routinely spied on the German government. Amid the outrage, artists Mathias Jud and Christoph Wachter thought: Well, if they're listening ... let's talk to them. With antennas mounted on the roof of the Swiss Embassy in Berlin's government district, they set up an open network that let the world send messages to US and UK spies listening nearby. It's one of three bold, often funny, and frankly subversive works detailed in this talk, which highlights the world's growing discontent with surveillance and closed networks.

In 2013, the world learned that the NSA and its UK equivalent, GCHQ, routinely spied on the German government. Amid the outrage, artists Mathias Jud and Christoph Wachter thought: Well, if they're listening ... let's talk to them. With antennas mounted on the roof of the Swiss Embassy in Berlin's government district, they set up an open network that let the world send messages to US and UK spies listening nearby. It's one of three bold, often funny, and frankly subversive works detailed in this talk, which highlights the world's growing discontent with surveillance and closed networks.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Mathias Jud

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The work of artists Mathias Jud and Christoph Wachter questions the limits of our communication possibilities and, therefore, of our identity.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.