VIRII – a DVD full of viruses
I always wanted to make this DVD! During deaddrops.com people warned there could be viruses on the USB drive! Yes, there could be! But now, look! Here is a DVD full of viruses (and artefacts of their history) OMG!! ;)))
VIRII
DVD Dead Drop vol. 8
at the Museum of Moving Image
June 26–July 30, 2013
by Aram Bartholl
“VIRII examines the history and aesthetics, real and imagined, of the computer virus. The volume, a full 4.7GB, includes more than 30,000 actual computer viruses in a password-protected folder, video documentation of nearly a dozen computer viruses, a selection of articles about historically significant viruses, and a gallery of virus clip art.
Viruses, software programs named for their nefarious ability to self-replicate, captured the public’s imagination in the 1980s as personal computers became widely adopted. Viruses of this era would often lie dormant until certain days, when they would activate and create a visible disturbance on screen or erase parts of a computer’s hard drive.
By contrast, today’s viruses are designed to be invisible: hijacking computer resources to send unsolicited email, mask a criminal’s tracks, wage denial-of-service attacks, or spy on the user. Once the domain of tech-savvy pranksters and mischievous hackers, today viruses serve as lucrative tools for economic fraud and weapons regularly deployed for espionage and cyber warfare.
