Flash Drive In The Wall?
Check out the newest project of Aram Bartholl, a creative artist and writer on new media, who in his works blends urban landscapes, art, technology and media. He is building a series of USB dead drops in New York City. USB sticks are inserted into walls and other objects in public spaces. The idea behind it is to provide an offline place for people to exchange files.
‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. […] Each dead drop contains a readme.txt file explaining the project.
source laughingsquid.com
‘I am “injecting” USB flash drives into walls, buildings and curbs accessible to anybody in public space’ adds the author. ‘You are invited to go to these places to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your files and data.’
The question that might come to our minds is whether it is safe to use the same ‘syringe’ to do numerous injections? I mean if many people from different backgrounds take part in this happening, who knows what ‘ilnesses’ can we get. I am talking about various viruses and trojan horses that can easily spread through numerous of devices.
However, on the other hand thare is a lot of mysteriousness in the process, because you never know what you might get. And I think it is the key point of the author and that’s the beauty of it. I think that is very nice and original idea, that incorporates new media devices with urban landscapes. It is just a pity that it happens in New York only. However, all is not lost yet, because as Aram Bartholl says ‘Dead Drops is still in progress, to be continued here and in more cities.’ Which will be next?
I am waiting for more crazy and funny projects like this.
Sources:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/dead_drops_preview.html
http://laughingsquid.com/usb-flash-drive-dead-drops-installed-in-public-locations-around-nyc/
