Stereotypically secretive and serious, these posters from the 1950s and 60s show another side of the NSA, full of strange art and bizarre messaging spanning from internal security to the drug war.

Stylistically, they are signs of their times, spanning typography, colors and layouts one might expect to find on book covers, movie adverts or propaganda pamphlets of the time (or retro motivational posters today).

Santa, the Mona Lisa, aliens and death itself become strange characters in these various otherworldly dramas, some of which seem to be set inside Alice in Wonderland or on extraterrestrial planetary bodies.

Given their limited agency-internal audience, they are surprisingly artful and well-executed. They were declassified after a recent Freedom of Information Act request.

But unlike redacted documents, there isn’t much to protect here, so the posters are essentially shown in their entirety.

“Information which would reveal NSA/CSS functions and activities and names of NSA/CSS employees have been deleted from the enclosure. These deletions are exempt from disclosure pursuant to the third exemption of the FOIA, which provides for the withholding of information specifically protected from disclosure by statute.”

Simple called Seen, this font will frustrate you, redacting both expected and surprising things, as it checks what you type in realtime against a list of flagged words and phrases employed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Security, shooting, nuclear and outbreak are all fairly obvious, but drill, cloud, wave and sick seem so common as to be functionally useless for monitoring purposes, at least in isolation.

A London design student originally from Slovenia, Emil Kozole developed Project Seen as part of an awareness-raising campaign about security and privacy in and beyond the United States. He wants people to wonder why some words were included in the first place, and ask whether they should have to worry about self-censorship around broad (and in many cases bland) terms.

His custom Adobe OpenType font takes the aforementioned list, revealed originally through a Freedom of Information Act Request, and blacks them out just as you would expect to see in a top-secret document. While not intended to be practical, it is certainly an interesting exercise – try typing a few ordinary paragraphs and see for yourself the potentially surprising results.

Would a cute, artistically designed chameleon sculpture make you feel better about being watched? A new series of CCTV camera cases by Italian designer Eleonora Trevisanutto transforms ugly, ordinary security equipment into decorative objects that make surveillance seem a little less intimidating.

You’re still being watched, sure, but by a lizard, squirrel, grasshopper, owl or an adorable abstracted bird. It’s like a kinder, gentler Orwellian vision of the future. “The camera is no longer a ‘looming control’ means, but a decor element, an integral part of the place in which it is located.”

The need for less intimidating CCTV cameras does make sense for places like retail stores, daycares and other businesses where security is necessary, as well as private homes. The models don’t just differ visually; each animal offers its own individual functions, equipped with vision systems that can perform different operations like face recognition. That’s right – that lizard knows exactly who you are.

While many of us are so used to seeing ordinary cameras virtually everywhere we go that we don’t even notice them anymore, Parson’s ‘Animal’ series was made to be seen.

If you ever get that feeling you are being watched, well, for once it really is just your imagination – this fleet of surveillance cams is inactive but still startling to anyone caught by surprise. All they are missing is some George Orwell birthday party hats.

Street artist SpY, known for large and thought-provoking interventions, really lives up to his nom de plume in this installation set alongside a side street in Madrid, Spain.

Catching passers by off their guard, the neatly-arranged series features one hundred and fifty security cameras all pointed in roughly the same direction, all causing a cumulative sense of distinct unease that is only slightly irrational upon reflection.

While the prop cams are both inactive in practice and redundant in theory (since they all appear to be looking at the same spot), the effect of feeling watched by many eyes is still disproportionately unsettling.

The construction process was painstaking, involving a crane and the manual attachment and alignment of each camera along a carefully-planned grid.

Aside from their uniform focus, the consistent color and style of each unit adds another level of discomfort to the mix, like a marching army of emotionless robotic agents in some dystopian science fiction film.

Clubs, axes and bats are anything but typical furniture, and may be off-putting to ordinary people visiting your house. Hence these hybrid designs, in which weapons are built right into nightstands, coat racks and coffee tables.

First, a classic: the James McAdam bat-and-shield bedside-table set that started out as a concept design, but through a cycle of positive viral feedback has not made it into production and is available for purchase.

From its creator: “Here it is the [safest bedside table] you can buy. Made from Birch [plywood] Maple and Leather this table is priced at $245. It has been developed [since being] exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art NY and now being made in the UK for sale worldwide.”

Next, a spiked club from The Principals.  “Crossing a classic piece of sports equipment with an everyday household piece of furniture, the Bat Rack uses iconographic items to create a unique piece that functions both passively and actively, to serve and protect.

“As a weapon of self defense and a place to hang your belongings, the Bat Rack can be installed on any wall by swinging, spike-end first, or used to stop any burglar in their tracks. Constructed from solid Carolinian maple and hand-turned stainless steel, the Bat Rack is inspired by the supple curves of Danish mid-century masters and the crack of a bat heard from neighborhood sandlots.”

Finally, from designer Chris Duffy, the less-practical but quite-beautiful axe table. “Walnut veneer or light Oak veneer from Stewardship Council managed forests and other controlled sources, the solid hickory axe handles are specially imported from the USA. Resin composite axe heads.”