Angela Richter - Supernerds, Conversations with Heroes

Supernerds

Conversations with Heroes

Edited by Angela Richter

In collaboration with Julian Prksen

With drawings by Daniel Richter

Kindly supported by Hamburger Stiftung zur Frderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur.

This book was made during the production of Supernerds Ein berwachungsabend by Schauspiel Kln, gebrueder beetz filmproduktion and WDR.

by Alexander Verlag Berlin 2015

Alexander Wewerka, Fredericiastr. 8, 14050 Berlin

All rights reserved.

Editors: Julian Prksen, Rainer Lindheim

Proofreading: Harriet Curtis

Layout: Antje Wewerka

Cover Design: Daniel Richter

ISBN 978-3-89581-388-7 (eBook)

Angela Richter, born in 1970, has been house director at the Schauspiel Kln theater since the 2013/14 season. Her work combines the areas of theater, performance and journalistic research. In 2006 she founded the Fleet Street theater in Hamburg, which she ran until 2010. Artistically she has been dealing with the phenomenon of internet activists for quite some time. She lives in Berlin and Cologne.

Daniel Richter, born in 1962, is one of the most famous contemporary German painters. Since 2006 he has been lecturing at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and now lives in Berlin.

For David

World War III is a guerrilla information war with no
division between military and civilian participation.

Marshall McLuhan

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly,
the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Henry David Thoreau

Theres no need to fear or hope, but only to look for
new weapons.

Gilles Deleuze

@atopiary

Ah, Im sick to death of hearing things

From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites

All I want is the truth

Just gimme some truth

Ive had enough of reading things

By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians

All I want is the truth

Just gimme some truth

John Lennon

I met Julian Assange at the beginning of July 2011, at a dinner with Slavoj iek, which I had bought on Ebay. I used the occasion to tell Assange about my plan to do a piece on WikiLeaks, based on interviews with him. I didnt expect that Assange would go along with it, God knows he had enough problems at the time. He was under house arrest and was being monitored by an electronic tag attached to his ankle. His WikiLeaks publications had angered world power USA, and thoroughly disgraced them too. As we now know from the Stratfor-Leak, a secret grand jury was in meeting at the time preparing a sealed indictment against him. As well as that, he was being threatened with extradition to Sweden. He was to be questioned about allegations of the abuse and rape of two women with whom he had slept. The issue in this ongoing case is mainly about the use of condoms. Despite all that was going on, we still somewhat surprisingly managed to have our initial meeting at Soho House, London in March 2012. It lasted several hours, during which time it was Assange who mainly asked the questions. I was nervous at the time, and Im sure I wasnt making a great impression. As we were saying our goodbyes he casually said that I had convinced him, and gave me the nod. His staff member Joseph Farrell subsequently advised me that I should be ready, as the next meeting would take place very soon.

For the following weeks and months I waited for news from London. During that time I broadened my knowledge and spent a lot of time on Twitter, where I not only followed WikiLeaks, but also notorious members of Anonymous as well as the genius hacker group Lulzsec. Day and night I thought of nothing else, and also didnt talk about anything else, much to the annoyance of those around me. The more I found out, the more questions came up. I developed an obsession with the subject and got completely engrossed in the depths of the internet.

As I hadnt heard anything from WikiLeaks in months, I started to have my doubts about the whole endeavor. In mid-June I went on a long planned trip to Key West, to swim with dolphins in the wild. I had barely arrived when I got word from WikiLeaks that I should come to London immediately. Assange had lost his last case in Great Britain and was to be extradited to Sweden within two weeks. On Sunday 17 June 2012 a cocktail party was hosted for Assange at the home of Baroness Helena Kennedy, to which friends and potential supporters had also been invited. On the following Tuesday I was to meet Assange at his hideout in Kent, together with Chris Kondek, who was to film the meeting: the interview finally seemed within reach. I left the dolphins and booked the next flight to London.

I rushed from the airport straight to the party, unshowered and jet-lagged, and discovered to my surprise that the majority of his supporters were intellectuals and artists. There were also some representatives of the British establishment with a soft spot for freethinkers. I can still remember thinking that something like this would never happen in Germany. The hostess herself, Baroness Helena Kennedy, a lawyer and member of the House of Lords, supported Assange and gave him legal advice.

There were about two dozen people present: supporters, lawyers and the WikiLeaks team. I also recognized documentary film producer Laura Poitras, human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, and activists Peter Thatchell and Victoria Brittain. It was a hot summers day. Cold drinks were being served out in the villas garden. Finally Assange gave a small speech in which he thanked everyone for their tireless support. He looked strangely awkward and embarrassed and seemed very uncomfortable talking about his imminent trip to Sweden. When we spoke later on about how I planned to do the interview, he said to me that our Tuesday meeting might not happen, but only if he couldnt help it. I was immediately alarmed and asked him what he meant, but I only got an evasive cryptic answer as he mumbled something about political reasons. In order to distract me, he dragged me over to our hostesss husband, the famous plastic surgeon Professor Ian Hutchinson. Assange knew that I was working on a piece about plastic surgery and therefore wanted to introduce us. Months later this acquaintance would turn out to be of huge benefit to the piece I was working on. After saying goodbye to Assange, I asked his assistant Joseph Farrell if our meeting was in danger of not taking place. Joseph assured me that it would and that Julian had no idea about when his appointments were. I shouldnt worry.

On the Tuesday I finally with met Joseph and Chris at a railway station in central London and we boarded a regional train headed for Kent, complete with camera gear. On arrival we took a taxi, and Joseph then made us get out long before we reached the hideout so as not to be followed, he explained. Having taken many detours, he led us to the address. Slowly Chris and I started getting a little paranoid. We felt like we were in a spy movie, just without all the glamour. It was a fairly long journey on foot, lugging the equipment along with us in the humid weather. When we finally entered the house, I immediately recognized the ground floor surroundings, where Assanges talk show The World Tomorrow was filmed. We met some WikiLeaks members, as well as Laura Poitras. The atmosphere was tense, and there was no sign of Assange. We were slowly getting impatient.