Aram Bartholl is a Berlin-based artist behind this amazing rock creation known as ‘Keepalive’. It is placed in a small clearing located in the woods’ part of an outdoor museum situated in Germany. This seemingly ‘conventional’ 1.5-ton boulder isn’t ordinary as it features an installation that relies on fire for powering up a Wi-Fi router and a USB drive located inside the rock.
It is created to demonstrate a contrast between the modern and ancient survival techniques. Bartholl’s inspiration was derived from the people who were selling BioLite after Hurricane Sandy struck. He says,
“It was funny – the power goes out, and people would buy these little stoves and make a fire to charge their phone.”
He ended up creating a rock that relies solely on the power that is generated using a thermoelectric generator that can convert heat into electricity. People visiting the Springhornhof Museum will have to make a fire next to the rock to see it in action. Once it is provided with a required amount of heat, the router powers up and smartphones can be connected to it.
The network utilizes Piratebox, a DIY software that is capable of generating offline wireless networks. By using these networks, visitors can access, browse, and download the files that were stored on the USB drive. The drive features some amazingly interesting and bizarre PDF survival guides like a DIY divorce guide and drone survival guide.
It is obvious that some of these bizarre uploads are the gifts by naughty visitors. However, Bartholl is least bothered regarding that as he is all-in as far as the public data sharing goes. He is also the guy behind the idea of ‘Dead Drops,’ the USB flash drives embedded into walls all over the world. Bartholl says,
“It’s not about easy access. It has a whole dystopian idea to it, like, will we need something like this in the future? Or somebody finding this in a hundred years – is it still working and they figure something out and they make a fire, or is there going to be a moment where we’re going to need to make fire again to get access to the data?”
This rock will survive every disaster to keep on providing you an efficient and fast wifi access. Creative and unique!