Spycraft on display in NYC venue
NEW YORK — Hello, recruit. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Learn about the elements of spying, its history, and find out what kind of spy you could be.
That’s the order of the day at Spyscape, a new attraction in Manhattan, where visitors can get a glimpse of spying’s past and present, from the codebreaking machines of World War II to the most famous names in espionage and their deeds of derring-do or, in some cases, dastardly deception.
Visitors also can take a series of tests that gauge factors such as their powers of observation and their willingness to take risks, to see what spy role they’d be suited for. (Don’t worry, there’s no secretagency recruiting station at the exit.)
“People are going to come here and find out spies are actually like we are,” said Shelby Prichard, chief of staff at Spyscape. “They’re probably the closest thing you can get to superheroes in the real world, but they’re people. With training, with tools, definitely intelligence, but I think at the end of the day, we’ll all discover we each have our own kinds of spy skills and aptitudes.”
The exhibition space is divided into galleries; each focuses on specific areas: encryption, deception, hacking, cyberwarfare, intelligence, surveillance and special ops.
In each of the galleries, visitors can see artifacts related to that area, such as an actual Enigma machine used by the Germans to encrypt messages during World War
II, or masks worn by members of the global hacking group Anonymous, some of which are signed with the code name of the person who wore it.
The exhibits don’t just focus on the past; there’s a segment talking about messaging programs such as WhatsApp and how long messages on it will remain encrypted, plus an area offering tips on how to limit your cyber exposure. An art exhibit is made up of video cameras representing some of the most wellknown and widely used social-media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The interactive tests that visitors can take to build up their profiles are varied. In one section, they’re asked to answer logic puzzles to rate their IQ. In the deception section, they’re taught about physical signs of lying and asked to determine whether someone being questioned is being truthful.
The most physical interactive area is Special Ops, where people take a run through a laser-beam maze, trying to hit targets along the way.
Advisers and consultants for Spyscape include former spies and members of intelligence agencies, plus hackers who became security consultants.