In Catch Me If You Can: Designing a Disobedient Object to Protest Against GSM Surveillance,
I discuss the process of designing an object to protest against a specific surveillance device:
the IMSI catcher.
The IMSI catcher is a controversial object used to monitor GSM networks by mimicking
the activity of a cell tower.
Being widely used in protests, I developed a tactical approach based on obfuscation
to be adopted collectively by demonstrators to counteract IMSI catchers.
I take as a starting point the reconstitution process that I used to better understand
the functioning of IMSI catchers, highlighting their limits and flaws.
The issue I wanted to address was how to disrupt them in order to question their legitimacy;
as a researcher in the fields of art and design and as a designer, I wanted to do so through
the conception and production of an object.
I take as examples the objects shown in the Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition curated
by Catherine Flood and Gavin Grindon to explain the specific status of a disobedient object.
The final artefact, called BlocBalloon consists in an inflatable cell tower with embedded electronics.
The inflatable relates to the long history of inflatables in WWII as decoys as well as
in USSR parades and more recently in protests as shields against water cannons.
The embedded hardware enables the use of obfuscation: a strategic approach to hide something from
a surveillance system – or to disrupt it.
At the most basic level, obfuscation consists in hiding a true information (or signal) in a set of false ones.
is achieved through the following steps:
First, prior to the demonstration, the operator needs to generate IMSIs and burn them to SIM cards:
this can be done with programmable SIM cards, usually designed to operate within
non-commercial low-cost GSM picocells; alternatively, the operator can use anonymous SIM cards
(“pay-as-you-go” SIM cards, available in some countries).
Second, the IMSI catcher (or Cell Site Simulator)
embedded in the BlocBalloon “catches” the phones of protesters in its scope.
In this way the phones caught cannot be caught by another IMSI catcher (i.e. a law enforcement one).
the device handling the programmed SIM cards substitutes it with an anonymous or a fake one;
the embedded IMSI catcher uses filters so it doesn’t catch fake IMSIs emitted by the system.
on the network, the protesters receive a message informing them that they are under the protection of the BlocBalloon.
the same thing as having protesters turn their phone off, it still allows them to use other
functionalities of their phone such as taking pictures, filming or communicating via WiFi.
The BlocBallon is supposed to act as a physical shield as well as an “electromagnetic”
or “hertzian” shield, protecting demonstrators against GSM surveillance.
The highly symbolic – transparent – version of the inflatable cell tower is dedicated
to be shown in exhibitions, but the BlocBalloon was first thought as an anti-surveillance
device embedded into “ready-made” inflatables in the shape of pink flamingos.
The BlocBalloon has never been tested in real conditions and it is not possible to evaluate
its level of protection at the moment.
The Bloc Ballon incarnates a potential scenario against surveillance and unfolds a discursive
space in which the contestational nature of the object gives the protesters the opportunity
to demonstrate their opposition against surveillance.