SKYLIFT is a geolocation emulator that virtually relocates visitors to Julian Assange’s residence at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The device was made for !Mediengruppe Bitnik’s Assange room (currently at Zoo Galerie) and works by broadcasting WiFi signals that exploit a smartphone’s reliance on using nearby MAC addresses for location services.
I did the inital research and worked on the proof-of-concept for this piece.
Background
This piece focuses on exposing the novel ways in which we are now tracked through our geolocation. While traditionally geolocation was only done using GPS, since the early teens smartphone have relied on GPS and Wi-Fi information to accurately geolocate devices. In order to spoof a devices location we only needed to generate Wi-Fi beacons that were captured from somewhere, in this case, Julian Assannges residence at the Ecudorian Embassy. This was done using a raspberry pi.
For more information on this piece I reccomend checking out Adam Harveys post on the subject.