Visual Art Wall Rickroll Hack

For MIT's 2008 Campus Preview Weekend, hackers modified the List Visual Arts Center Media Test Wall so that it played Rick Astley's 1987 music video Never Gonna Give You Up after every four repeats of the usual art-house film. (The Media Test Wall is a rear-projection screen installed in the lobby of MIT's building 56. It's so known for playing inaccessible and often bizarre art films that in lieu of editing the existing art film, the hackers simply replaced it with one they found equally incomprehensible under the assumption that nobody would notice a difference.) The hack was meant as a reference to the Internet meme of 'rickrolling,' where a person provides a link to the Rick Astley video under the pretense that it is a link to some relevant website.

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For MIT's 2008 Campus Preview Weekend, hackers modified the List Visual Arts Center Media Test Wall so that it played Rick Astley's 1987 music video Never Gonna Give You Up after every four repeats of the usual art-house film. (The Media Test Wall is a rear-projection screen installed in the lobby of MIT's building 56. It's so known for playing inaccessible and often bizarre art films that in lieu of editing the existing art film, the hackers simply replaced it with one they found equally...
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Copyright: 2008 Eric Schmiedl

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