This data squid was seen at the big demonstration against surveillance that took place in Berlin on October 11, as part of the international privacy action day “Freedom not Fear.”
The German is Datenkrake, which has a bad connotation to it, like sucking in everything it can get.
Stefan W. • October 24, 2008 5:41 PM
In this video there are two sequences of squids, (the first very early, the second at about 4:00 min) in a broadcast about photos and drawings in science:
http://www.sf.tv/sf1/sternstunden/einzel.php?docid=videos
(You have to click on the picture, showing a man and two women, labeled “Sternstunde Philosophie am 19.10.2008:” – now the topmost entry, but I guess it will move down one step per week and finally vanish.)
The language of the video is german, and the squidname is Vampyroteutis infernalis http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampirtintenfisch .
Adrian Lane • October 24, 2008 5:47 PM
Sure, it’s a data squid … but what is the binary number printed on it?
Anonymaus • October 25, 2008 3:26 AM
Hello from Germany 🙂
I thought I’d give a bit of background and clear up the semantical nitpicks.
In German you can string nouns together to form new nouns with deeper or more precise meaning. The word Datenkrake is a good example for that.
Daten means data. Krake (singular, plural: Kraken) means kraken.
The image the kraken transports comes from the middle ages, where dangerous or unmapped sea areas were pictured with kraken dragging ships down “mit Mann und Maus” (with man and mouse).
Later that imagery was taken up by political propaganda. In the early 20th century there were numerous posters showing, respectively, capitalists, communists, Nazis and Jews as kraken, straddling and suffocating the world. Which goes to show that imagery and ideology have no direct connection, I guess.
The image of the kraken has mostly left political iconography and stayed only in the form of the Datenkrake. In that image, the relation between group and image has been reversed. Today, you can become a member of the group described as Datenkrake without belonging to a specific social or political group first.
Marcel • October 25, 2008 6:06 PM
Wow, a few years ago, Dr. Motte (a German DJ from Berlin) still gave speeches in front of 1.5 million people at the “Abschlusskundgebung” of the Loveparade in Berlin that he brought into being. And now this… congratulations!
Ralf Bendrath • October 27, 2008 8:07 AM
Marcel, guess what: Dr. Motte was speaking at the anti-surveillance demonstration in Berlin as a surpise guest. And what did he do? He read from Michel Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish”. Ain’t that cool?
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
Chris S • October 24, 2008 4:45 PM
Looking at the picture – which IS cool – I thought, “Gee, looks more like an octopus.”
Turns out that Datenkrake is more likely to be “data octopus”. Google’s translation of “octopus squid” gives “Krake Tintenfisch”. This is likely good, because ‘Datentintenfisch’ would be quite a mouthful, even if tasty.
Either way – it’s certainly a “data cephalopod”. Which would be Datenkopffüßer. Now that’s a mouthful!