Two Swiss artists have used GPS tracking and live webcam to follow the progress of a parcel intended to reach Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

The Zurich-based group Bitnik posted this x-ray scan of its package: "Dear embassy security, for your convenience please find the x-ray image of the parcel hereby attached."

group of Swiss artists has come up with a novel way to try to communicate with Julian Assange, currently being given asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy: they have sent him a package.

Bitnik, an artist collective based in Zurich, Switzerland, said that its parcel contains “a cell phone, camera and battery pack. Through [the] hole in the packet the camera takes pictures of the packet's surroundings and uploads them to our website.”

The group has been live-tweeting the progress of the package since it was sent Wednesday by postal mail from another London location to the WikiLeaks founder. So far, the group knows that the package has arrived inside the embassy, but it has not been opened yet—WikiLeaks has confirmed it by Twitter as well.

Domajgoj Smoljo, a Swiss media artist who is part of the group, told Ars via Skype from London that the group sees the project as a “radical real-time” piece of performance art. “We see the camera as something which produces a performance stage, where [Assange] can interact with the public,” he said. “We think Assange knows how to deal with this situation. We are happy if he just holds it outside of his room and pretends it’s normal.”

He said the group was inspired by other 4chan/Anonymous-style gags, which involved sending pizzas and taxis to the Ecuadorian Embassy on the day that Assange received asylum.

So we have this diplomatic crisis, with the UK government trying to arrest him as soon as he leaves,” Smoljo said. “We wanted to discuss this in an artistic way and feature this discussion inside, with our artistic impression. We’re not activists, we don’t have to claim a political position. We are artists. But, we can go inside and try to create a situation where things are possible.”Domagoj Smoljo and Carmen Weisskopf have posted updates on the parcel's progress online.

At the time of writing, the parcel had reached the embassy and appeared to be being checked over by security.

For the past seven months Mr Assange has taken refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

He faces extradition to Sweden over sexual assault claims, which he denies.

We wanted to visualise the invisible journey a parcel takes through the postal system”

The artists posted the parcel at a post office in east London on Wednesday at 12:43 GMT. Later, they emailed Mr Assange to explain the project.

"The parcel is a live mail art piece. It is intended as REAL_WORLD_PING, a SYSTEM_TEST inserted into a highly tense diplomatic crisis," the email read, making reference to program code functions.

"Since you took refuge there in June last year, the Ecuadorean embassy in London has been the spectacular staging of an intense clash between the international order and freedom of information activists.

"We want to see where the parcel will end. Which route it takes and whether it reaches you."

The artists requested that Mr Assange use the camera to "show us your view of the diplomatic crisis unfolding outside the embassy".

When finished, Mr Assange has been encouraged to send the camera on to another person of his choosing.

Prior to its arrival, the package broadcast pictures of its position within a Royal Mail sorting office - before being put into the back of a van and taken across the city.
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The GPS locator tracked the parcel as getting to Mr Assange via the South London Mail Centre Artist Ms Weisskopf told the BBC that they did not know what to expect when they sent the parcel.

"We were actually expecting everything, from the parcel not being accepted to it being taken out of the system and destroyed," she said.

Explaining the motivation behind the project, she added: "We like to experiment with technological systems and see how far we can take them. We wanted to visualise the invisible journey a parcel takes through the postal system."

Sorting office staff can be seen in some of the photographs taken. The Royal Mail told the BBC it had no comment on the project - or whether it would encourage similar tracking or broadcasting of parcels.