Little Bird Spreads Secret Messages In Public Space

How to leave secret messages in a place where everyone can see or hear them? Art science student Matthijs Munnik has developed a digital bird that’s able to chirp secret messages right there where everybody hears them. Using special software, the bird’s messages are encrypted into an undefined series of beeps. No-one will be able to hear what the actual message is, but if you use a special app on a smartphone you can translate the sounds to text. This way a secret layer is added to the city’s public space. Great for senseless nerd talk, funny gossip and more…

Creating hidden audio posts, Munnik’s system proposes a new way to share information outside of the Internet, in real acoustic space. Besides an interesting intervention to send love messages with, the installation makes an argument about the ongoing limitations in free Internet use. According to the maker, the Internet becomes a controlled medium in an increasing way. Little Bird is an installation that tries to find new ways of transferring information secretly that is potentially accessible to everyone.

Currently the installation chirps information from WikiLeaks to invigorate this statement. Although I think nobody would be interested in translating pretty boring Wikileaks information on the street, the installation is potentially interesting for secret information exchange, because a bird house that beeps doesn’t look very subversive in the first place. As long as nobody understands the real significance of the installation it can freely publish sensible information.

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