Lawmakers and homeowners continue to blame graffiti for defacing property and contributing to the overall decline of civil society. Old-school, permanent graffiti made with paint, markers, and stickers may still rule the streets, but nondestructive public messages enabled by the Internet, laptops, lasers, and mobile hardware are also on the rise.
Click on this image for a photo gallery of eco-friendly graffiti.
(Credit: Graffiti Research Lab)Graffiti artists with a political bent are exploring digital technologies to make a nondestructive point in public, whether in the name of ego, whimsy, the environment, or free speech. Some of their underground, open-source efforts are going mainstream as corporate marketeers mimic the tactics of graffiti artists.
Click here for a gallery of cutting-edge graffiti that uses high and low technologies.
Seattle photographer Ryan Welsh snapped this photo on Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., campus.
(Credit: RyanWelshPhotography.com)If you can count on geeks for one thing, it's a creative approach to traditional things.
For example, l33tspeak as an alternative to regular language. Or LOLCats as an alternative to the usual annoying pictures of cats.
That's why I wasn't surprised to find, over at Laughing Squid, a post about a site that is now collecting images of geek graffiti.
This, if you're wondering, is a small, but growing, trend in which geeks--or folks taking on geek tendencies--tag some public place with some kind of tech-inspired message.
For example, on the West Bank side of the Israeli security wall--the same side that artist Banksy added his masterpieces of visual political commentary--someone spray-painted the oh-so-familiar term "Ctrl+Alt+Delete."
Other examples are somone's having tagged the word "Linux" over a Microsoft Windows logo in a subway station ad, and someone stenciling the binary code for the Spanish word "amor," or "love," on a Barcelona wall. At least, that's what the photographer says the binary meant. Not being a proficient binary reader, I suppose it's possible it said "hate." What do I know?
The site that's pulling these all together only has 13 examples for now, but I bet there are countless others out there, just waiting to be discovered. So if you find any really good ones, please send them to me and I might just post it here at Geek Gestalt.
(Credit:
Home Cinema Accessories)
Now this is what we call retro chic. Forget those boombox remakes and arcade replicas--we're talking drive-in movie memorabilia here.
You too can own your own pair of free-standing speakers that look just like the kind we used to wedge into the fog-shrouded windows oif our misspent youth. All that's missing are the beat-up station wagon, decaying intermission hot dogs, and a cheap date.
Sure, $330 is a bit steep to bring back some teenage memories, as OhGizmo observes, but no one ever said the price of a midlife crisis would be a bargain. As for the movie itself, fear not--we've got that covered.
(Credit:
Ztore)
Sometimes, commissioning a pop artist to dress up a product is a good move; sometimes, it isn't. This is an example of the latter.
A year ago the "Nabaztag" Wi-Fi bunny was the darling of the digital pet world as others tried to figure out exactly what it was. (We're still not so sure.) For some reason, however, its creators at Violet have decided to subject the e-hare to the whims of French graffiti artist Andre.
The result, Luxist says, is a version with a tattooed ear and a "limited edition" price tag of $300. Somehow, as we study Andre's work in the image on the left, we can't help but think the joke's on us.
(Credit:
StrangeCo)
We've long wondered if there'd ever be a digital equivalent to two tin cans a string (other than our lousy cell phone, that is), and this is the closest thing we've ever seen.
The "Boosted Tin Can Speaker Set" is the product of a collaboration between Sprint's Boost Mobile and various graffiti artists, according to Tech Digest. The 5-inch speakers are more for looks than for sound, but that's just fine with us: Anything that applies graffitti to something other than our car or house is a good thing.
The StreetWriter in action
(Credit: We Make Money Not Art)Having had some fairly infuriating experiences with graffiti as property owners, we view the work of outfits like the Institute for Applied Autonomy with mixed feelings, to say the least. Its stated mission, after all, is "to study the forces and structures which affect self-determination and to provide technologies which extend the autonomy of human activists." Translation: They make stuff like graffiti robots.
Still, from a pure gadget-loving point of view, we can't help but admire their unabashed guerrilla-like audacity. Take, for example, the "StreetWriter" project, which is essentially a van that's been converted into a giant printer that uses paint instead of ink to leave political messages in its wake. It's the expanded version of the "GraffitiWriter," a remote-controlled robot that "employs a custom built array of spray cans to write linear text messages on the ground at a rate of 15 kilometers per hour." In other words, street graffiti.
Inside of the van, not down by the river
(Credit: Institute for Applied Autonomy )Both were featured along with other creations of subversion in a recent interview with the anonymous Applied Autonomy folks by We Make Money Not Art. They say they have other tools in the works but would rather not discuss them yet, presumably because of their acknowledgment that "many of our projects exist in a legal gray area."
If they truly consider examples like the StreetWriter to be "gray," they might want to adjust the colors on their printer spectrum.
(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)
A few months ago we wrote about the Graffiti Research Lab, a set of artists who have created LASER Tag, the hacked projector that can be used to create temporary laser graffiti. The guys at GRL got their start at Eyebeam, an art and technology center in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood that always has some Craveworthy stuff going on (a few months ago, they had a real live Mooninite on display!)
Last night, at Eyebeam's tenth-anniversary benefit party, I had the chance to play around with one of the GRL's laser pointers and tag the side of a building across the street. (It was the same building where I played Space Invaders last year. Don't I have the best job ever?) Most of the attendees were interested in drawing Mooninites or various unspeakable anatomical parts, but I chose to write "Crave is Awesome." Fellow Cravers, I <3 you guys!
Unfortunately, my camera wasn't taking very good pictures of it, so it's a little bit illegible, but I think you can still make the words out, right?
(Credit:
Flickr user urban_data)
At first I didn't think this was really Crave-related, but I've been seeing it on so many blogs these days--Popular Science, Gizmodo, Notcot.org--that I figured, "Hey, what the hell, if everybody else is posting about it, we might as well too." Basically, a group called the Graffiti Research Lab has built (excuse me, the cool term is "hacked") a projector that can use lasers to put any kind of "tagging" on a large building or wall. It's called the "LASERTAG," which is some kind of acronym, but the Graffiti Research Lab doesn't seem to explain its derivative. While right now it's being touted as a form of next-generation graffiti, I can see this being used for everything from giant advertisements to really pricey party decor.
The Graffiti Research Lab has made this an open-source project and all the details are available on its Web site. So, what are you waiting for? Get to it! I recommend that you project a Mooninite on some massive building in Boston. I hear they love that stuff over there.
UPDATE: Thanks to Crave reader "CanadianAvenger" for clearing this up--"LASER" stands for "Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation." "Tag" is just "tag." The formal name of the project is, consequently, "LASER Tag."
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