USB drive, putty and a hole…

What would you do if you saw a USB sticking out of a wall? The correct answer is to get your laptop out and plug it in!

A unique project by Aram Batholl; “Dead Drops is an anonymous, offline, peer-to-peer file sharing network in a public space.” USB drives are embedded (with putty or cement) into a wall, brick crevice or any other hole found in a city and followers can connect it to their laptop. The user can then download any files that are on the USB stick or upload files they’d like to share with the world – I suppose it’s a bit like a modern-day message in a bottle! It also has a spy element to the concept as Wikipedia states that “spies have also been known to use ‘dead drops’ in order to hide secrets or instructions.”

Batholl says that ‘Dead Drops’ has evolved from a number of projects where he enjoys mixing up the digital world with the physical world, by injecting the city walls and surfaces with data.

So the big question that you’re probably wondering is what do people upload on to their USB drive? Maybe a band could upload their new record, an author could upload their new unpublished book or you could leave photos of something personal to you. Well unfortunately it’s a secret! The whole point of a ‘Dead Drop’ is that the information isn’t on the internet already. Not to worry though – with the amount of people leaving ‘Dead Drops’ I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough. Currently there are 236 ‘Dead Drops’ containing 512 GB in cities ranging from Brighton to Brussels and Madrid to Montreal.   

Now it’s your turn to create your own... ‘Dead Drops’ is open for anyone to participate. If you want to install your own dead drop in your city click ‘how to’ instructions and remember to submit your location and photos to make sure we can find it!

References
http://deaddrops.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_drop