So far the research has amounted to a few different findings, pointing towards different directions I can potentially take this project to. They are:
- A moving collage, made from my gov.uk browsing experiences
- Exploring objects that testify the physical presence of gov.uk’s digital authority
- Dismantle the familiar visuals of gov.uk, by translating the content into codes
- Investigate the brand: iconography, palette, typeface etc.
- Kinetic aspect of the website: click heatmap, cursor movements etc.
Amongst which the video collage inspired the most immediate response. Suggestions were given that nudge me to develop my project on this direction, I did not wish to leave out the other directions – some of them are really intriguing. This led me to the idea of combining all outcomes in a staged scavenger hunt.
Cicada 3301 is the most elaborated online scavenger hunt in the history of Internet. It is so successful that the latest puzzle (2015) remains unresolved today. My plan is to stage a smaller scale hunt according to such a model. Moreover, Cicada is openly motivated by certain ideologies: complete privacy and anonymity is a fundamental right, and information should be absolutely free. These radical ethos intrigues me because they reflect the constitution of a nation, a government, an administration.
Final layer of Cicada 3301, yet to be cracked
Due to the constraint of time, I aimed to draft a simple but spot-on scavenger hunt, following the couple of rules I have set for myself:
- the experience needs to stay close to gov.uk,
- puzzles occupy both online and offline realms, and
- operates under an elusive identity.