This article was published on August 17, 2011

The software heist of the century, or a modern art masterpiece?


The software heist of the century, or a modern art masterpiece?

Is it the software heist of the century? Actually, it’s modern art.

A new exhibit at the Art 404 gallery, 5 Million Dollars, 1 Terabyte, blurs the boundaries of between sculpture and skullduggery, conspicuously displaying a hard drive with $5 million of stolen property.

“5 Million Dollars 1 Terrabyte” (2011) is a sculpture consisting of a 1 TB Black External Hard Drive containing $5,000,000 worth of illegally downloaded files. A full list of the files with clickable download links can be found by visiting this link. Fair warning: when I tried to open the PDF, it crashed my browser.

The 5 Million Dollars 1 Terrabyte exhibit, and it’s companion, Google Search for Meaning, ask us to interrogate what technology means in our lives, and how we interact with objects that are either functional or fashionable, but are rarely seen as both.

ART 404 IS AN ONLINE PORTAL AND EXHIBITION SPACE INTERESTED IN THE CONTEMPORARY TECHNOLOGICAL ART MOVEMENT. THROUGH ART 404’S EXHIBITION SPACE,
LOW BUDGET GALLERY, ART 404 ACTS AS A MEDIUM FOR ARTISTS TO SHOW WORK AS WELL AS A PLACE FOR GLOBALLY ACCESSIBLE EXPERIMENTAL ART PROJECTS

There might be a lesson in this for illegal downloaders. If you get busted, just say that your hard drive is a work of art, and see if you can skate.

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.