Anti-Surveillance Tool

Background

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a children's series that I had a keen fondness for growing up. The author heavily employs irony, secret messages, and frequently breaks the fourth wall in recounting the story of the Baudelaire orphans.

In the series, the children learn of a secret organization their parents were members of, called the V.F.D. The organization experienced a schism several years ago and it is believed that the Baudelaire parents were murdered by those from the other side of the V.F.D. One way that V.F.D. members stay covert is through the use of Sebald Code. The Sebald Code is a cipher created by Gustav Sebald that is widely used in letters between volunteers to prevent them from being intercepted.

The beginning of a coded passage is signaled by the ringing, or mention of the ringing, of a bell. The first word to come after this signal is the first word of the coded message. Every eleventh word after this first word is another part of the coded message, making it so that ten uncoded words fall between every coded word. This pattern continues until the first bell stops ringing, a second bell rings, or a bell's ringing is again mentioned.

Young members are recruited into the V.F.D. by responding correctly to certain strange, staged events that occur to them as prospective candidates. One example is when a prospective is approached by a well-dressed elderly gentleman who will remark "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion," meaning, "I have a message for you." If the prospective replies, "The world is quiet here," then the message will be delievered. This generally spoken by a soon-to-be Volunteer on the night of their recruitment.

Description, Process, Reflection

In the canvas, an example of Sebald code is used which reveals how a prospective candidate should respond. The background contains an 11x11 grid to hint that every 11th word is skipped. The eye motif is a popular symbol used throughout the books, so it is included as an artistic cursor. The color pallete evokes a dark moodiness that the books use as well. The sender of this message is a V.F.D. member, and the receiver is a prospective V.F.D. candidate. When the correct message is typed in, a greeting into the organization is revealed, and the Sebald code is broken. Try it: "The world is quiet here"

Here is the original transcript I created for the Sebald code:

Through this assignment, I not only employed for loops, nested for loops, and previous weeks' lessons, but I also had the opportunity to incorporate an input and button. The following details required the most amount of trial and error

• 1. Using multiple functions and if/else statements to change the heading once the correct response is used
• 2. Figuring out the best way to reveal the Sebald code (highlighted text? different colors?)
• 3. Using a matrix to distribute the script across the page

Ultimately, I enjoyed paying homage to my childhood through this artistic representation of stenganography. Assuming both the role of sender and receiver was a great exercise in understanding how complex to make this tool.