The dA-Zed guide to surveillance

Screen shot of Dazed Digital feature.

Drones in the sky, whistleblowers in jail: how art is responding to Big Brother's watch is the sub-title for Dazed Digital's A-Z of surveillance in art. Scroll down the article for 'X is for Station X'. The feature also includes Miranda July's 'We Think Alone' and Simon Norfolk's 'Data Centres'. 

The Station X exhibition is still installed in Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, which has a brand new website, take a look! 

Wartime carrier pigeon found in chimney

Pigeon code from BBC News site (link below)

Delighted by today's news that the remains of a carrier pigeon have been found in a Surrey chimney, with the red canister still attached. (Not so good for the unfortunate pigeon of course). According to Colin Hill, who looks after the Pigeon Exhibition at Bletchley Park, the message is unusual because it is in code not longhand. GCHQ are now tasked with decoding it. See the report by the BBC's John Maguire here. A photograph of the bones and the code can be found here (thanks to Bletchley Park Research).

Further pigeon news: War Horse author Michael Morpurgo has revealed that he's writing a story about a wartime pigeon.

And more pigeonry: Dennis da Silva's short film Gustav was premiered on the final day of the Ghost Station exhibition at Bletchley Park (which Station X was part of). The film is based on the story of the  pigeon that delivered the first message of the D Day Landings at Normandy on 6th June 1944. 

An update to the chimney pigeon story from the BBC News site, December 16, 2012. 

Dr Black's book (and socks)

Rachael Marshall, Histories, Block D, Bletchley Park. Photograph printed on acoustically transparent speaker grille, 23.3 x 15.2 x 0.3 inches. 2010. [On speaker]

Caroline Devine, Carrier Waves right channel (dur 35'50") [Audio]

While installing Station X in Hut 8 during the blisteringly hot first week in September I spotted a familiar face being filmed outside Hut 3. With pillar-box-red hair and a black 'Enigma' t-shirt it could only be Dr. Sue Black. We haven't actually met yet but Sue is very well known at Bletchley Park and on Twitter for her Saving Bletchley Park campaign. 

Sue has written a book about how it all started with her first visit to the site back in 2008, her tweet to a certain Mr Fry, (who happened to be stuck in a lift when he received it) and all the people involved with raising awareness of, and raising funds for this unique and historic place. The book, also called Saving Bletchley Park is being crowdfunded on Unbound Books. Please take a look here to find out how to make a pledge, and to see the video that Sue was making in the sunshine while I was building things in the blacked-out Teleprinter Room of Hut 8. (I'm disappointed that the limited edition Enigma socks had already been snapped up by the time I saw the page). Ten per cent of all profits from the book will go to the Bletchley Park Trust.

Here's an extract of the pitch about the Saving Bletchley Park on Unbound Books: 

On more than one occasion Bletchley Park has been in the shadow of bulldozers, but it still stands as a testament to those who worked there during World War II, and those who have tirelessly campaigned to save it. During the many years that Bletchley Park’s future has hung in the balance, the campaign has been kept alive by the unerring belief that something so significant to our wartime victory in 1945 should be preserved for future generations. 

Selecting an image for this post was easy: it's called 'Histories'.