Just in time for the holidays.
If you’re looking for the perfect gift for that tech junkie, conspiracy theorist or political agitator, look no further than the Big Data Pawn Shop. There, you can find the most banal items, but with a fun, even hot-button twist.
You see, Big Data Pawn Shop sells mouse pads, T-shirts, hoodies, ties, hats, flasks, ping pong paddles, night lights, coffee mugs ? you name it ? all with real NSA documents printed on them.
The store is the brainchild of three artists, Adam Harvey, Sam Lavigne and Surya Mattu, who view the emporium as the first step in a larger political action that attempts to reformat the privacy/surveillance dialogue that has sprung up since Edward Snowden did the world a favor and made big data public knowledge.
Big Data Pawn Shop is actually a Zazzle store that carries the numerous wares listed above and then some ? all printed in some way with pages from the 50-page leaked document known as the NSA ANT catalogue.
That catalogue was leaked last year and offers insight and details into the NSA arsenal for invasion.
The idea is really simplistic genius. Take sensitive information everyone should read, plaster it all over common, everyday things, and sell it as novelty gifts for people to wear and use on a daily basis. Think about how many people will now see that information if it is on a co-worker’s coffee mug or a friend’s T-shirt, for example. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s effective guerrilla means for raising awareness. And it’s even able to turn a profit, thereby supporting future actions by this creative group of artists. It’s win, win, win ? jackpot!
Harvey states:
?It’s intentionally made to soften the impact of discourse which for the most part is terrifying.?
Harvey, Lavigne and Mattu feel it is time for a fresh presentation of the information regarding privacy invasion because they understand that people get tired of hearing the same old discussion, the same old buzzwords in the media pounding at us day after day like a nagging parent. As important as the information is to hear, people just tune out after a while. It becomes Charlie Brown’s teacher wah-wahing gibberish at us, and the Big Data Pawn Shop helps us refocus our attention in a fun way.
Harvey states:
?At the simplest level, I want to continue the conversation about these topics.?
Harvey knows, too, through working with his Privacy Gift shop and larger company, Undisclosed, that the key is to making relevant information accessible, like, urinal cake accessible, dig?
It’s really a genius political tactic, too, in this case, to take the information regarding the invasion of our privacy and plaster it on so many banal items that the information about our invaded privacy begins, itself, invading our daily lives in a fresh manner that piques our curiosity and gets us to take a fresh look once again.
Yep, if you’re looking for fun, savvy, and strangely meaningful stocking stuffers, click on over to Big Data Pawn Shop and see what you might like to invade a loved one’s Christmas this year.
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H/T: wired.com | Featured image: bigdatapawnshop.com
Dylan Hock
is a poet, novelist, professor and social activist. He is published in a number of little magazines and has an essay on the muzzling of Ezra Pound included in the anthology Star Power: The Impact of Branded Celebrity. Currently, he also writes and edits for If You Only News, Addicting Info, Green Action News, and Take 10. Follow him on Ello, Google+, LinkedIn, RebelMouse and Goodreads. Hire him for freelance writing and editing work on Elance.
