Natural Cryptography for Postcards

6 Dec 2013

Helsinki, Finland

Led by Markus Decker and Peter Wagenhofer

Produced in collaboration with Pixelache

 

In his Ars Bioarctica residency Markus Decker investigated natural random phenomena like natural radioactivity or natural electromagnetic noise as a means for cryptography. This workshop practically introduced 10 participants to the basic theories of cryptography. It included terminology to text and code, key and encryption, language as interpretation of signs and strings, and the first cryptographic techniques. There was hands on exploration of very simple cryptographic mechanisms, which can be used for instance to "encrypt" postcards. Participants encrypted postcard messages and deciphered them with cryptoanalysis.