A Swiss artist duo have used GPS tracking and live webcams to follow a parcel addressed to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Domagoj Smoljo and Carmen Weisskopf have posted updates on the parcel’s progress online as part of the art project. The parcel was delivered to the embassy and was checked by security and delivered to the dissident media mogul.
The artists have stated; “We wanted to visualise the invisible journey a parcel takes through the postal system.”“The parcel is a live mail art piece. It is intended as ‘REAL WORLD PING, a SYSTEM TEST’. The artwork highlights a highly tense diplomatic crisis.” The email explaining the project read, “making reference to program code functions,The artists have asked Assange to take the camera contained in the parcel and provide a London view from the embassy, which is the location of the diplomatic crisis, then send the camera to whoever he chooses”.
Assange who took political refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy in London is fighting extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault charges. These have been stringently denied by the web-blogger. Assange entered the embassy in June, and Ecuador granted him political asylum in August, a day after Britain had threatened to raid the embassy and arrest him. Britain wants to extradite him to Sweden, where he is accused of rape and sexual assault. Assange has stated publicly that he believes Sweden will turn him over to the United States. President Obama wants to try him for espionage because Assange’s WikiLeaks website leaked hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic and military cables.