Looking for a Hoodie With NSA Documents on It? This Is Your Store

If youve ever dreamt of owning a mouse pad adorned with the contents of leaked classified documents (and who hasnt?) youre in luck. Just in time for the holidays: The Big Data Pawn Shop, an online emporium of useless items screen printed with very important information.

Screenshot: WIRED

The shop is the work of artists Adam Harvey, Sam Lavigne, and Surya Mattu, and its the first installment of an ongoing project dedicated to reframing the discussion around privacy, surveillance, and big data. In the Zazzle store you can buy any number of items emblazoned with text and graphics from the NSA ANT catalogue, a 50-page document leaked last year that details the NSAs technology arsenal. Youll see the pages of the document printed onto ping pong paddles, tank tops, clocks and pillows. I bought a coffee mug, says Harvey.

Repurposing the documents as consumer products could be read as a joke, and Harvey doesnt shy away from the idea that theres a certain lightheartedness to the idea. Its intentionally made to soften the impact of discourse which for the most part is terrifying, he says.

The way he sees it, the conversation could use areframinganyway. After more than a year of heavy media coverage dedicated to privacy and surveillance, Harvey worries people have begun to grow tired of the catch phrases and buzzwords. At the simplest level, I want to continue the conversation about these topics, he says. As heknows through his work with the Privacy Gift shop and his umbrella company Undisclosed, its not just about keeping these ideas relevant, its about making them accessible. And really, what better way to remind us of our discomforting lack of privacy than staring it in the face every day with our morning cup of coffee?

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Looking for a Hoodie With NSA Documents on It? This Is Your Store