“Dead Drops” preview
I am pleased to preview ‘Dead Drops’ a new project which I started off as part of my ongoing EYEBEAM residency in NYC the last couple weeks. ‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. I am ‘injecting’ USB flash drives into walls, buildings and curbs accessable to anybody in public space. You are invited to go to these places (so far 5 in NYC) to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your favorite files and data. Each dead drop contains a readme.txt file explaining the project. ‘Dead Drops’ is still in progress, to be continued here and in more cities. Full documentation, movie, map and ‘How to make your own dead drop’ manual coming soon! Stay tuned.
Dead drop (Wikipedia)
In the meanwhile drop some files here!
87 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (Makerbot)
Empire Fulton Ferry Park, Brooklyn, NY (Dumbo)
235 Bowery, NY (New Museum)
Union Square, NY (Subway Station 14th St)
540 West 21st Street, NY (Eyebeam)
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Udate:
I have to admit I wasn’t prepared for this unbelievable feedback I am got in the recent days. The preview post became a major release! This means while I try to hold up against a journalistic DNS attack I am putting together this site on the fly with my left hand:
http://deaddrops.com
The site is still a bit naked but step by step I am adding content (FAQ, how to, movie docu etc). If you want to embed your own dead drop in your city you are free to go. Check the instructions here.
Dead Drops 'How to' – NYC from Aram Bartholl on Vimeo.
427 Responses to '“Dead Drops” preview'
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Besides the numerous amounts of people who have mentioned about possible virus leaks pertaining to the passing of information from one computer to the other, I think it’s incredible that this project highlights such an amazing device that we often taken for granted.
Patricia Ann
16 Nov 10 at 5:03 am
Wie ein Regenbogen，Wie bald ein Sommerwind。Die Sterne standen lachend auf dem Boden Nicht immer verstehen nicht genug wissen, Wenn ich verliebt in dein Lächeln，Wie, wie man eine Sammlung von Sind Sie froh, nicht für mich ，Won’t Let Go ist in der Tat 。 Wenn ein Windstoß blies den Drachen in den Himmel ，mbt preisGebet und Segen sei mit euch und bewegt durch ，Schließlich im Meer am Ende der Schatten verschwunden ，mbt sandalenNur auf der Suche nach den Schmerz zu weinen lachen
Dass du und ich diesen Hügel ，Song des Jahres als das Singen ，Genug, damit die Erinnerungen .mbt preis Genug für meinen Geschmack der Einsamkeit jeden Tag
guannuo
16 Nov 10 at 9:29 am
[…] “Dead Drops” preview at Aram Bartholl – BlogLike glory holes for artsy data. […]
EverydayUX morsels (November 15th – November 16th) — everydayUX
17 Nov 10 at 12:01 am
Thanks due to the fact that this worthy article, it’s extremely notable blogs
sodomie
17 Nov 10 at 9:02 am
прикольный сайтик! много чего интересного! создатели молодцы!!
Rindile
18 Nov 10 at 5:15 pm
Also mentioned here: http://www.potz.blitz.szpilman.de
Szplmn
20 Nov 10 at 10:36 am
So I went and found the one under the Brooklyn Bridge today, sadly it has been sealed up with cement. you can only see the very bottom edge of it if you look hard.
Alec
22 Nov 10 at 12:23 am
Virus protection will always be behind the compromise, or there would never be viruses. I watched Mark Russinovich talk at a conference and the two things that sticks in my head are:
1. Root kit creators are always one step ahead of detection.
2. He stated that if he ever found malware on his computer, he’d format it because you will never know if it’s been “cleaned”. He also suggested that everyone follow that rule.
C.
P.S This an excellent idea.
Chris
24 Nov 10 at 4:29 pm
“Interesting idea, but it will soon be trolled. People will erase all files, people will format it, people will install viruses in autorun.inf form. You can’t expect no trolling in publicly accessible data.”
I’m pretty sure when Wikipedia was created, someone said that.
Asdf
25 Nov 10 at 7:51 pm
I am an owner of a building restoration company in Ohio. Great concept – next time I restore a masonry structure I am “dead dropping” the project scope / restoration work in the structure.
Wideglide
27 Nov 10 at 1:54 pm
wow, somebody is about to get a virus
anon
7 Dec 10 at 5:06 pm
its great, but how bout instead of a USB stick. how about some sort of a hard drive. get rid of the physical dangers of it, like tearing clothes on it.
Spencer
21 Dec 10 at 7:36 am
dont those things stop working when they get wet?
tomato man
22 Dec 10 at 12:06 pm
these things will be used for illegal uses I can guarantee it for example it could be used for anonymously dropping off cp.
abc123
12 Feb 12 at 7:50 am
It is just awesome in its sheer pointlessness. It just puts the whole concept of a computer network on its head
kennet
15 Feb 12 at 12:11 pm
Interesting idea:)))
Atestat Informatica
17 Feb 12 at 9:18 pm
Greath Post, Thanks for share.. i Wanto bookmark this page :)
Mamovie
25 Feb 12 at 7:31 am
Aha! The ultimate, post-modern SneakerNet (VansNet if you’re a sk8boarder)…
Awesome!
BigDogRMF!
29 Feb 12 at 8:55 pm
hallo daar en bedankt voor je handige berichten. Ik heb er zeker iets van geleerd en ben er wijzer door geworden. Maar soms moest ik je blog een aantal keer herladen om hem correct te downloaden. Ik vroeg me af of jouw webprovider wel goed is? Niet dat ik iets te klagen heb, want je artikelen zijn echt leuk om te lezen. Ik zeg het jou alleen zodat je op de hoogte bent hoe de kwaliteit van je website is. Hoe dan ook, ik voeg dit blog aan mijn RSS Feed toe en kom snel weer eens langs!
Team Growshop Growline
2 Mar 12 at 1:20 am
Many thanks for that article thank you for useful recommendations and just great information i can consent using the post r u confident that is definitely true? Agriculture biologique
kennet
2 Mar 12 at 10:11 am
excellent blog I’m a big poker player from Norway
gregg
4 Mar 12 at 1:02 pm
Awesome project, Congratulations!
Jes Rocha
11 Dec 12 at 9:48 pm
[…] project. So far there’s over 1,000 USB flash drives scattered around the world and you can visit Aram’s blog to get more info for the locations of their USB flash drives. If you visit their official dead drop […]
USB Flash Drive FileSharing Network, Project Dead Drops | Strange News | Strange Or What
9 May 13 at 6:31 am
This project is so AWESOME,
this will have the DMCA really busy! LOL
imagine them going on the streets looking for these USB Flash drives!
I’ve shared your project on my site,
http://www.strangeorwhat.com/usb-flash-drive-filesharing-network-project-dead-drops/
hope more and more people will use this method,
Information is suppose to be FREE!!!
Brenian Strange
9 May 13 at 6:36 am
[…] 70 knows that there is a usb drive sticking out of that brick wall. This is a new project headed by Aram Bartholl. It’s real life offline peer to peer file sharing. The idea is that you drop files into […]
CREATIVE SHARING - House of Trill
11 May 13 at 8:11 pm
[…] is a worldwide network of USB drives called Project Dead Drop. It involves USB drives that are plastered into brick walls with the connector sticking out. People […]
» There is a worldwide network of USB driv … Crazy Facts
2 Jul 13 at 11:46 am
WONDERFUL way to spread viruses and malware!!! Let me know if you come up with more brilliant ideas … ROFLOL!
Plus, it will give the government more access to cyber attacks, their agents only need to load up their malware, and let you take it home — save them work of having to use the microsoft backdoor they have.
Winston Court
4 Jul 13 at 4:11 pm