THERE'S A PYTHON IN THE LAND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
You may be just now downloading a short video file.*
Within this file is a digital archive of several Chinese woman who have disappeared in the last few years.
Some disappearances are due to residential detentions, abducted by the government due to their public activism on behalf of industrial laborers, women, democracy and public transparency.
Some disappearances are biological: bodies found drowned in water, their last days marked by volatile combinations of sociopolitical exhaustion, mental illness, gender-based violence, and immigrant poverty.
As a means of resistance to the state-sponsored digital erasure of these women, here is a snapshot of their digital lives preserved in perpetuity: photographs of the disappeared, screenshots of social media posts by and about, stills from online videos, and contextualizing articles.
The video files from The Land At The Bottom of the Sea are packed through the process of steganography. A single hidden image lives in each frame of the video. Every second of the video is a suitcase, each containing 25 hidden images, easily unpacked with a few lines of code.
Follow the directions below to unpack this archive, second by second. There are 25 frames per second, so each second you unpack will open 25 windows, each with its own image.
If this is not for you, nevertheless please enjoy these videos.
First, you must be on a laptop or a desktop computer to do this, it is not advisable to try this on mobile devices or smart pads.
Copy this page link or video file from your mobile device, including smartpads(iPad, Galaxy Tab, etc) - to a laptop or desktop now.
Second, are you MAC or Windows?
MAC STEPS:
SET UP THE UNPACKER CODE
1. If you don’t have Python, install the latest version here.
2. Make sure the video that just downloaded is in your Downloads folder. If it’s not there, move it.
3. Open the video file.
4. Open Terminal.
Instructions: Open Spotlight (Command + Space Bar OR F4) > Type in “Terminal” > Open Terminal.
5. Type the following text in the Terminal window:
a. cd Downloads (press Return)
If there’s a pop up asking to grant access to your Downloads folder, press ‘Ok’.
b. python3 -m ensurepip --upgrade (press Return)
c. pip3 install opencv-python Pillow bottomofthesea (press Return)
The first command will navigate to the Downloads folder.
The second command will begin the installation of python code that is needed for the following steps to work.
It may take up to a few minutes depending on your system.
UNPACK THE IMAGES
6. Type into Terminal: bottomofthesea (press Return)
7. Follow the instructions in the Terminal to choose the video and second you want to unpack.
a. For the video file, enter the name with the extension (e.g., "BOTS_1.mov").
b. For the second, enter a single number: e.g., 9 (for 9 seconds in). If it exceeds the length of the video, nothing will pop up. If this happens, start again from Step #7.
8. Multiple Preview windows will appear with different content, unpacked from each pixel in each frame of the video.
9. In the Terminal window, you will be prompted to select more content from the same video. In this way, you can unpack all the hidden content of the video, second by second. To quit, close the Terminal window.
Here's a directory of all current archives:
You can download these and proceed with unpacking them from Step #6 above: no need to download Python more than once.
WINDOWS STEPS:
SET UP THE UNPACKER
1. if you don’t have Python, install the latest version here.
2. Make sure the video that just downloaded is in your Hard Drive Downloads folder. If it’s not there, move it.
3. Open the video file.
4. Open Command Prompt: search for ‘command’ on your computer.
5. Type these into the Command Prompt window:
cd Downloads (press Enter)
Python -m venv test (press Enter)
test\Script\Activate (press Enter)
pip install opencv-python Pillow bottomofthesea (press Enter)
The first command will navigate to the Downloads folder.
The second and third commands will create and activate a virtual environment so this code won’t affect your other systems.
The Fourth will begin the installation of python code that is needed for the following steps to work.
It may take up to a few minutes depending on your system.
UNPACK THE IMAGES
6. Type into Command Prompt: bottomofthesea (press Enter)
7. Follow the instructions in the Command Prompt to choose the video and second you want to unpack.
a. For the video file, enter the name with the extension (e.g., "01_wuyi.mov").
b. For the second, enter a single number: e.g., 9 (for 9 seconds in). If it exceeds the length of the video, nothing will pop up. If this happens, start Step #7 again.
8. Multiple Preview windows will appear with different content, unpacked from each pixel in each frame of the video.
9. If you want more content, repeat the process in the Command Prompt with a different second number.
In this way, you can unpack the hidden contents of the video second by second. If you want to quit, press control+c or close the Terminal window.
Here's a directory of all current archives:
You can download these and proceed with unpacking them from Step #6 above: no need to download Python more than once.