Inside Julian Assange’s office – CNET

A room of one's own

This office looks like any other, but it's a scale re-creation of the tiny London room where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been in self-imposed exile for almost five years, since June 19, 2012.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Artists Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoj Smoljo created this scale replica of Julian Assange's office after visiting him in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. They say it's a perfect re-creation of the space where the WikiLeaks founder has lived and worked for five years.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

I visited the faux office earlier this year when it was exhibited at Liverpool, England, art centre FACT. Through the windows I could see people bustling about while music drifted in. Unlike Julian Assange, I could leave at any time.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Seen here guarded by a British police officer, this is the actual Ecuadorian Embassy building in London where Julian Assange has lived and worked for five years. The embassy takes up just the ground floor and has no outdoor space.

Photo by: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

Assange steps outside only when addressing the media from a tiny balcony at the Ecuadorian Embassy.

Photo by: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Julian Assange can only interact with the world through a computer. Back in the replica office in Liverpool, I tried to get a sense of the isolation that comes with being confined in a room this size.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Thanks to this equipment, the WikiLeaks founder influences a world he cannot physically interact with.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

An aging silver MacBook labeled "Twitter." Artists Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoj Smoljo claim to have meticulously recorded and reconstructed every detail of Assange's 43-square-foot sanctuary.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

A meeting room table and chairs fill the office, which next will be displayed at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland. On the table are papers that includeemails from the US government.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

A copy of Sun Tzu's "Art of War" displayed casually next to a glass of whiskey.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Folders arrayed on the bookshelves labeled "Iraq," "Scientology," "Snowden" and "Sweden." Who knows what secrets they hold...

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

An Anonymous mask gazes down of photos showing Julian Assange and Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm exchanging messages to one another from their respective confinements. Svartholm has been in prison in Sweden and Denmark on hacking and fraud charges.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

The view from Julian Assange's desk, snacks and all.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

A jumble of primitive Samsung and Nokia feature phones, presumably burners, sit on the mantlepiece.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Like many of the books and films in the office, 1969 satire "Putney Swope" tells the story of an individual standing up to authority.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Books about Richard Nixon and the Black Panther protest movement join maverick works by authors like James Joyce, Irvine Welsh, Slavoj iek and Quentin Tarantino.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Among the DVDs is Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining," about a man going mad from isolation.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Official papers fill the room.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

From this tiny room in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Julian Assange continues to oversee WikiLeaks.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Julian Assange has made it his mission to pull back the curtain and expose those in power, but his ties to Russia make some worry about the extent of WikiLeaks' influence.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

A train map and cinema ticket are stark reminders of the things Julian Assange, a father of two, cannot do.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Cables snake across the room to stacks of computer equipment.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Nestled behind the desk is an oxygen mask, in case of fire -- or even a gas attack.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

In a psychological assessment released by WikiLeaks, Julian Assange said he no longer noticed the clutter.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

Fixed to one cream-colored wall, a fantasy of escape. After only a few hours between these four walls, I knew the feeling.

Photo by: Richard Trenholm/CNET

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Inside Julian Assange's office - CNET