02/28/12

Artists Research

Graffiti Research Lab

Graffiti Research Lab is an art group founded by Evan Roth and James Powderly in New York. The group was created for graffiti writers, protesters, and other artists to employ a variety of open source technology for public, typically urban, communication. Their statements are normally political, bold, and interactive with the public, whether people are joining in the throwing of “throwies” or watching as projection graffiti is written on corporate buildings. The group experiments and tests all different types of experimental technology even including things like an “eye writer” and “audio tricycle.” The group also documents all their work with video up on their site along with technical instruction steps on how to construct similar projects

1. Projection Beef

One of the projects they did I liked a lot was titled, “Blood Wars.” The project was essentially two projections running at the same time in the same place on a building as another. It was the combination of different styles of projection, words both typed and drawn with the falling snow flakes with the label. The two different styles overlapped each other creating a strange dialogue and in a sense, a battle between which was the stronger of the two.

I found this one to be interesting because of the way that the two interact, especially since the project we’re about to work on is a collaborative one. This isn’t necessarily directly what we will do when we are working on the project, but it is helpful when considering how our two different styles will co-exist with each other. The styles can either move together in a constant way or completely contrast each other, which can also work in a way.

2. L.A.S.E.R Tag

The other project created by Graffiti Research Lab I enjoyed watching was L.A.S.E.R tag. The L.A.S.E.R tag project used computer vision program with a projector so that a person can, with light, write on walls. Their projection project took a more political stance, but the project also played with the definition of what graffiti can be and emphasising the medium's impermance. These concepts are something that I'd like to look more at when entering into the coming project.