#warchalking

Betsy Isaacson quoting /u/huckstah Homeless Millennials Are Transforming Hobo Culture for Newsweek.

It was actually very easy: Gene Bransfield simply fitted Coco the cat with a collar filled with electronics

Pic: Gene Bransfield

Then all he needed to do then was sit back and wait for the cat to come back from it's daily neighbourhood rambles, so he could collect the data. On his travels the cat mapped several wi-fi networks, including four still using old and easily hackable protection and four with no password protection at all.

The collar was built using a Spark Core open source wi-fi chip, which was created to help create what is known as IoT, or the 'Internet of Things'. Basically, the idea of being able to put objects online so they are controllable via the internet.

Pic: spark.io

Attached to a wi-fi card and a GPS locator, the collar became a wi-fi mapping device which, theoretically, when connected to an unprotected wireless network, could give access to more than just a flag of its location.

Of course, this would rely on the cat staying put long enough...

We all know cats though, they're active when out of the house and put in most of their hardcore snoozing back at home. They don't hang around unless there's something in it for them, so mapping is probably the most realistic use of the technology.

In the early days of wi-fi, warchalking was a common practice

Hackers would, when discovering an unprotected wi-fi network, chalk symbols on the pavement outside to indicate the level of free access available for anyone interested.

This evolved from wardialing in the 1980s, when hackers would leave their computers autodialing phone numbers until they discovered unprotected modems.

Warchalking symbols were chalked on the pavements outside unsecured wi-fi networks

Following from this, Bransfield is calling his new collar 'WarKitteh'

Pic: Gene Bransfield

The collar components shown next to a dollar bill for scale

It cost him less than $100 to make and was really done for a joke. Still, it worked surprisingly well.

If only there was a way of getting the cat to stay put and use the wifi when the signal was located...

I started the residency with a work in mind: a collection of computer-generated animations cataloguing the access points found in particular routes in Utrecht. These videos would be slices of the wireless topography of the city, maps of the network names projected 1:1 throughout the duration of their capture.

However, while making the videos, what still fascinated me were the many unusual addresses that became lost in the process. I felt it was necessary to materialize these names individually, underscoring their context and possible meanings. But how?

The solution finally came from the culture of wardriving – the same field from which I borrowed my basic techniques. In 2002, inspired by hobo codes, wardrivers devised a contextual way to share open access points, by the means of scribbling their names with chalk in the places where they had been found. As if to keep a pattern, this system was called warchalking. Despite the term, it is very a discreet and non-destructive method (since chalk is easy to wash).

It is arguable how useful warchalking still is. Nowadays, most networks are well protected. Those that aren’t, normally belong to business establishments that are happy to announce it with stickers on their shop windows. Moreover, it is much easier to find such information in any of the worldwide databases of free wifi spots currently available, such as wigle.

Nevertheless, warchalking suits my purposes very well. Its similarity to graffiti helps underscoring the dubious character of SSIDs as both navigational marks and a means of communication. In a similar way, it reveals the extend of a structural layer that does not necessarily respect the boundaries of the readily-accessible, physical space of the city.