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The Morning GIF: Assange’s postcards from Ecuador

The WikiLeaks founder puts on a little postal show for Swiss art organization Bitnik.

 

Lorraine Murphy

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Posted on Jan 18, 2013   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 3:18 am CDT

Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we’re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, political hot potato, and wanted man, is currently ensconced in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, accepting visitors by special arrangement and post by even more special arrangement.

Two days ago, Bitnik, a Swiss art organization, mailed him a very special package: On the outside was a window, and on the inside was a digital camera, taking a picture every 30 seconds from the moment of mailing. They got some fascinating urbanology shots and quite a lot of pitch black before finally turning up unscathed at the Embassy, some 30 hours after posting time.

Hijinks ensued.

With the help of some nearby tchotchkes and a stack of index cards, Assange proceeded to stage a series of tableaux for those following along on Twitter, either via the 1.7 million followers of WikiLeaks, or the 1,300 on the Bitnik feed. The first shots are focused on the objects, then disembodied hands hold cards, and finally, you get the big reveal: Yes, it really is him!

And by the time I tweeted that I should make one, the GIF already existed, courtesy of Twitter user Zéphyrin Touristryon.

GIF via Zephyrin Touristryon/Twitpic

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*First Published: Jan 18, 2013, 9:34 am CST