‘Freedom is Slavery’. The slogan from George Orwell’s 1984 (1949) is becoming relevant again in the UK. Facial recognition technology, the NHS contact tracing app, even Brexit, have created an environment where the private lives of ordinary citizens are constantly encroached upon. As an instrument of societal safekeeping, the evolving risks of surveillance as a ‘digital spy’ are easily discounted. Many organisations, including Big Brother Watch and Amnesty International UK have attempted to tackle the issue of mass surveillance by raising public awareness, but is that really enough?

As the UK hurls towards a surveillance state under the COVID-19 crisis, the project seeks to create an anti-surveillance government body that is ‘hidden in plain sight’ by being temporarily ‘blinded’, ‘muted’, or ‘deafened’ with the help of a series of playful mechanisms inspired by children’s games. 'The Ministry of Anti-surveillance' is more than a protest: it is a campaign against a deeply disrupted system, a step towards equilibrium. Guided by the games, the polarity of the ‘obvious’ and the ‘obscure’ become intertwined and almost inverted. Eventually, navigating through the architecture itself becomes an exercise in ‘doublethink’.