In the least expected corners of the streets, a project has emerged that challenges the conventions of information exchange: Dead Drops. This initiative, devised by the German artist Aram Bartholl, consists of embedding USB drives in public places to allow anonymous file sharing. However, the intervention of the police at some points due to alleged bomb information has added an element of controversy to this artistic experiment.
Dead Drops, started about 14 years ago in Germany, has spread throughout the world. The main goal is to create a space for anonymous sharing of digital files, challenging the nature of modern connectivity. The project's official website offers detailed tutorials on how to add USB in different locations around the world, thus promoting an unconventional global data sharing network in which funny messages, photographs, drawings, and even family videos have been found as part of the project to share with other users anonymously.
However, the initiative is not without controversy. A journalist's review of one of the USBs in 2015 revealed that it contained instructions for making bombs and drugs, sparking debate about the limits of artistic expression and responsibility. Aram Bartholl, who pronounced in X After learning of the situation, he addressed the incident in an interview with Süddeutschen Zeitung, defending the artistic exhibition, but acknowledging the risks inherent in the technology.
Bartholl, in defending the Dead Drops art exhibition, highlights the importance of preserving this technology as a way to explore the boundaries between the digital and the physical. Comparing the project to other historical technological advances, the artist highlights the inevitability of some using technology for less benign purposes, but this does not have to be a reason for censorship: “We always point to China and its great, evil “Great Firewall.” , which censors everything. But the same thing happens here. In England, filters are being diligently installed (…) That is why projects like the Tor encryption network are so important, also for journalists. In some countries, a project like Dead Drops could have a completely different meaning.”
Currently, there are more than 2 thousand USBs around the world.
Ironically, in an attempt to intervene, the police irreparably damaged one of the USBs, leaving its contents unreadable, which, for Barthol, is support: “A friend of mine wrote at the beginning of the action in an article that even those who “They break the USB in some way they participate in the art project.” While this setback won't be an obstacle to replacing it with another device in the future, it does serve as a reminder of the potential dangers of connecting to electronic devices found on the street. Although Dead Drops is an innovative artistic expression, caution regarding sensitive information and the possibility of encountering harmful malware is always present.
