let yourself l̴͓̥̠̼̏̑̃̂̂͘ḛ̷̺̟͓͈̜̓̋̍̄̆ä̸̞̝̳́̾̓̈̾k̷͎̰̓̒͘ a little

2024, video essay, 7’49”, single channel, HD, color, sound, subtitled

l̶̩͔̻̔e̵͎͆͂̉͋ą̶̲͓̩͛̇k̴̜̠͆̍͌ is ubiquitous, bursting gas, leaking pipes and oozing tears, and so ubiquitous that its figurative meaning sounds even more native, circulating gossips are leaks, whistleblowers are, too, leaks. Metaphorical leak, inheriting the brokenness from physical leak, is associated with illegality, immorality or at least shamefulness. But, is it?

In the video essay, l̴͓̥̠̼̏̑̃̂̂͘ḛ̷̺̟͓͈̜̓̋̍̄̆ä̸̞̝̳́̾̓̈̾k̷͎̰̓̒͘ in the promiscuous machines and prurient governing entities is brought to the forefront as systemic vulnerabilities. A message you send out to your loved one over the TCP/IP protocol, as Chun noted, is slutty. Audio and video signal cables are constantly radiating RF emanations. Buffer overflows when data overwrites, memory leaks can be used to navigate into forbidden memory, software ages, like human beings, aging leads to more l̷͚̙͋ė̸̺̅ạ̸̇k̴͈̃̑s. In addition to that, our faces are reduced to facial features for machine learning, personal medical records end as image embedding in a training dataset. Our voices leak as analyzable waves, irises leak as unique high-contrast photographs. We, as users and as citizens, are encouraged by the tech giants and governments to leak, while the large language models trained from the data we leaked, refuse to “participate in or encourage any illegal activities, including leaking.”

let yourself l̴͓̥̠̼̏̑̃̂̂͘ḛ̷̺̟͓͈̜̓̋̍̄̆ä̸̞̝̳́̾̓̈̾k̷͎̰̓̒͘ a little leaks through the cracks on the leaking gas pipe, the space station, the express warehouse, into the leaking signals, leaky compression algorithms, leaky network packets, leaking categories, leaked tiny face and tiny activity dataset, to ask who is making it’s not ok to l̵͚̗̠͋̀͘é̴̮̲á̶̜̊k̶̥̎̓̒͊, who is capturing l̴͊̈́ͅe̵̜̞̐ȧ̷͇k̶̫̮̓, how l̸̯̏e̷̙̅a̷̛̗̔͐k̸̫͈̓̀ is weaponized and who is killing ḷ̶̢̓́́e̶̼̅̾a̴̟͆k̸̖͑̎́ to stop solidarity from happening.

research/scripting/editing/animation/voiceover:
jiawen uffline

sound design:
kazu*2

camera:
jiawen uffline, Jimmy Dao Sheng Liu

thanks to:
Lotta Stöver, I-Chieh Tsai, Fabian Mosele, Miki Nigo, Alethia Pinźon-Rodríguez

subtitle typeface:
Times New Bastard by Wei Huang

reference:
Wendy Chun, Habits of Leaking: Of Sluts and Network Cards, 2015
Emma Pask, Becoming a Leak, 2017

Clip credits:
00:03, 00:17
VideoFromSpace, Soyuz spacecraft at space station leaking 'particles' into space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-WJcih2Zsw
00:05
Global News, Mauritius oil spill: Experts fear catastrophic ecological disaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdggYF11uy0
00:07
Swedish Coast Guard, Nord Stream pipeline leaking gas footage: https://www.kustbevakningen.se
00:10
Bloomberg Television, Watch: Danish Armed Force, Nord Stream Pipeline Leaks Gas Bubbles in Baltic Sea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gx9_9vmwAA
00:14
Jim Overton - Jimson's Stuff, Vacuum Chamber - mould making: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDPsLqFudI&t=479s
00:26
Screenshot from Hito Steyerl, A Sea of Data: Apophenia and Pattern (Mis-)Recognition: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/72/60480/a-sea-of-data-apophenia-and-pattern-mis-recognition/
00:29
A leaked document Anarchist-Training-mod5-Redacted-Compat contributed by The Intercept: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2699846-Anarchist-Training-mod5-Redacted-Compat
00:36
Microcontroller_Texas-Instruments_MSP430_MSP430G2001IPW14R_substrate_1500x from: https://www.texplained.com/ressources/
00:52
Screen recording from Architecture of Radio by Richard Vijgen: https://architectureofradio.com/
01:18
DW Documentary, China - Surveillance state or way of the future? | DW Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSU_Xes3GQ
01:23, 01:25
Screenshots of data notation uploaded by users on the RED app
01:27
element14 presents, Antennas Part I: Exploring the Fundamentals of Antennas - DC To Daylight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks8RQ9CD72Q
01:37
Logo of Information Awareness Office: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Awareness_Office#/media/File:IAO-logo.png
01:44, 01:49
Screenshots from Ron Broersma’s NLNOG presentation: https://nlnog.net/static/nlnogday2016/10_InternetHistory-RonBroersma-NLNOG.pdf
03:26
Microsoft Research, Microsoft tests Project Natick, self-sustaining underwater datacenter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvvJc4Uw3aA
03:32
MIT Technology, A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/19/1065306/roomba-irobot-robot-vacuums-artificial-intelligence-training-data-privacy/
03:52
Yu et al., Scale Match for Tiny Person Detection: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.10664
04:14
TinyVIRAT-v2: https://github.com/aayushjr/tinyAction
05:13
TinyFace: Face Recognition in Native Low-resolution Imagery: https://qmul-tinyface.github.io/
05:16
The Wall Street Journal, How Hong Kong Protesters Evade Surveillance With Tech | WSJ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32KTKXZZ-BI