Web Urbanist

Have you ever considered the possibility of graffiti without vandalism? There is an impressive variety of legal urban street art, from light art to reverse graffiti. There are also eco-friendly leave-no-trace forms of illegal urban expression, such as urban exploration or guerilla gardening. Architectural light graffiti, or projection bombing, falls somewhere curiously in between.

The set up is simple: a programmed sequence (created in realtime or ahead of time) is fed through a high-powered digital projector. The Graffiti Research Lab has developed a sped-up video depicting the setup and projection resulting in the patterns above, as well as other creative and interactive displays. More information on how to develop these on your own can be found on Instructables.

If you want to try projecting light graffiti on a smaller scale, there are some fairly amazing ways to modify everyday items to this purpose. For example, with a little work, an ordinary disposable camera can be turned into a functional projector. This makeshift portable device can project image or text art onto urban surfaces.

If you’re not sure about creating your own urban light graffiti, you can always interact with the work of someone else. The above Light Brix are touch sensitive. Passers by can create their own patterns on Light Brix walls. Know of other creative urban light art (such as light grenades)? Feel free to share links, thoughts, or responses below!