FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Entertainment

In Light Of Banksy's New York Return, Here Is The Best Tech-Focused Graffiti

Exit Through The GIF-Shop
Image via Banksy's website

Banksy, the patron saint of the graffiti world, is back in the States for the first time in a minute. The notoriously elusive artist has stayed fairly quiet in the past few years since his 2010 documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop. Some of his Manhattan-based work -- including the laudable "Love Is The Answer" tag on W 10th Street -- has been tagged over and sent to spray paint heaven.

He's back to continue his legacy, though. This week, the British icon announced on his website, "For the next month Banksy will be attempting to host an entire show on the streets of New York." The project is called "BETTER OUT THAN IN" and little details are known, in typical Banksy fashion.

Advertisement

So far, two new tags have been posted on Banksy's website, as well as a note that each work comes with "an audio guide is provided via cell phone. Simply call the number next to the painting and select the appropriate option on the keypad. This is a toll free service." The number is 1-800-656-4271 (then #1) for the lucky ones who find his art on the side streets of Chinatown before the Internet spotlights it.

There's a similar audio guide on the website, which includes a sardonic operator voice describing the work. "This is a type of picture called graffiti," the voice drones. "It comes from the Latin word 'grafito' which means graffiti with an o." The voice then makes some accurate analysis of Banksy's work before saying "Are you kidding me? Who writes this stuff? Anyway, you decide [what the art means]. I have no idea."  In light of Banksy's return, here are some of our favorite tech-focused graffiti artists in recent memory. Even if these artists don't use the same stencil and paint style (read: analog) as him, we're sure these artists cite Banksy as a top influence.

Image courtesy of urban_data

Theo Watson:

In cohoots with Eyebeam's Graffiti Research Lab, Theo Watson uses digital projections that interplay with the structure they're projected on. Billed as "interactive architecture," these installations are more like high-tech tags that use particle-based drawing systems that respond to window light to generate images. Like magnets, the images get repelled from dark windows, yielding a tag that responds to the electricity-use habits of the building's tenants. See a video of Watson's work here. He has made some pretty damn cool interactive magazine covers, too.

Advertisement

Insa's GIF-iti:

Last December, The Creator's Project's Kevin Holmes wrote about the [double-take worthy collaboration](http:// http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/insa-brings-armageddon-to-los-angeles-in-his-latest-gif-iti) among artist Insa, Stanley Donwood and XL Records. The team tagged the XL office in L.A. to promote Atoms For Peace's recent album AMOK.

Donwood designed the cover of the supergroup's LP, but he and Insa expanded the scope of the album art by re-painting the XL building several times to look like the dystopian cover, and then photographing each transition so it could be GIF-ified online. Insa said the GIF "may only live online, but some would argue that is where most now live their lives…"  Exit Through The GIF-Shop, right?

Evan Roth x Graffiti Markup Language

The Creator's Project is a big fan of Evan Roth and his Graffiti Analysis project. Call him a kinetic graffiti maestro, as Roth uses custom-created software that takes the motion data of a tagger as he paints and turns that information into a 3D printed model. The models are made of Chrome-dipped ABS Thermoplastic, as seen above.

All the subtleties of a graffiti artist spraying a tag across a wall are captured and translated into Graffiti Markup Language (.gml) files before he makes his 3D sculptures. The kinetic details are specific enough so that savvy data analysis specialists could discern such information as whether the tagger is a lefty or righty, or if they used a specific type of spray paint can.

Dok Kim's SPrAyCE

Last year, Dok Kim collaborated with MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interface Group to develop SPrAyCE, a project that implemented an Arduino board, joystick and graffiti can-like object to allow users to virtually tag on a screen. This is XBox Kinect for the graffiti-minded.

Kim's work is a solid way for graffiti fans to practice tagging without having to climb tall buildings, worry about police or smell like chemicals (though, let's be honest, those are some of the most alluring parts of the graffiti underworld). SPrAyCe -- meaning the intersection of 'spray' and space' -- is the type of project that could become the most addicting museum exhibition for street art fans in a museum setting.

Banksy may be a traditionalist in terms of technology use, but that doesn't mean he isn't ground-breaking or sui generis. Above is a tag from him that went up today, and his toying with typography is cheeky and whip-smart, as expected from him. We gladly welcome him back to NYC, and maybe one day we'll see him using advanced technology to make his tags weirder than ever.

Keep up with Banksy's "BETTER OUT THAN IN" project at his website: http://www.banksyny.com/