Why Are There USB Drives Sticking out of Buildings in New York?

Ever seen a USB connector just sticking out of a wall in New York? That’s because artist Aram Bartholl came up with the idea called “Dead Drops”. Essentially, Aram has been creating a completely anonymous offline file-sharing network and while I wouldn’t imagine this kind of file sharing to be safe from viruses and other issues, I still love the idea.

Of course, plugging your laptop into a wall could cause it to get a few scratches, so a little care would be needed. However, the temptation to simply discover what others have left on the drives, as well as thinking about the kind of cool stuff you could leave on there too, is pretty awesome.

Each Dead Drop is installed with just one file on the device, a small .txt file which explains how the project works.