Geek Graffiti

As computing technology continues to become increasingly affordable and powerful, it allows us new ways to interact with the city and the MFADT program is fast becoming THE program for technology based urban / graffiti projects. Within the last several years, it has produced Yuri’s wireless bike, Josh’s Bikes Against Bush, Stephen’s Fugitive Images, and my All City Council and Graffiti Analysis (just to name a few). will continue and extend this line of inquiry. Students will create projects that exist not within the confines of a computer monitor, but live within the context of New York City.

We will spend time looking at precedents from graffiti, street art, guerrilla marketing and other technology-based urban projects, and will collaborate with the Wooster Collective, a New York based arts group which has leveraged the web to change the world of street art and graffiti (www.woostercollective.com). Similarities between hacker and graffiti cultures will be explored, in particular their interest in creating new and unexpected uses of pre-existing systems.
Faculty: Evan Roth

Course Work

Proposals for sticker project:

trees
the stickers are designed to emulate the plaques that identify trees. each of the stickers bears the name of a tree that is indigenous to the original forests in new york city. they would be placed on lampposts, our "urban trees" as a memorial to the natural environment that once resided here

subtalk
language that we see every day is subtly shifted to convey a different message...

if you see something...
the language of terrorism "awareness" encourages everyone to be suspicious of anything unusual. these stickers would be intended to encourage people to look more closely at things, people, and situations before making assumptions about them.

Final sticker project
Urban Flora

Proposals for final project
Project concepts (PDF)

FINAL PROJECT
The Concrete Jungle