Some real sickos are livestreaming the agony-filled collapse of a virus-ridden laptop

Typically, you would only expect to see computer loaded with six of the most infamous malware programs in history in the possession of, say, late ‘90s video game pirates or senior citizens who just discovered internet pornography, not a technology-focused artist and a cyber security company. But, it’s the latter—Guo O Dong and Deep Instinct—that are showing off their nightmare of a virus-choked laptop in a current livestream.

The stream is part of a project titled The Persistence of Chaos, an art project that involves a Samsung netbook running Windows XP, living in what we can only imagine is silent, machine-torment, after having been deliberately infected with, as the site puts it, “6 pieces of malware that have caused financial damages totaling $95B.” Those programs include a real demonologist’s notebook of headline-making viruses, like WannaCry, ILOVEYOU, MyDoom, BlackEnergy, SoBig, and DarkTequila. Dong and Deep Instinct are selling the plagued work as an art installation, taking bids for a sale that presumably doesn’t include the “isolated and airgapped” quarantine chamber it currently lives in so as “to prevent against spread of the malware.”