Architectural Light Graffiti: Projection Bombing Images on Urban Surfaces

Architectural Light Examples

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.

Architectural Light

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.

Homemade Light Projector

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.

Architectural Light Wall

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!

Want More? Check Out These Great Related Articles:

Posted by Urbanist September 7th, 2007
Architecture, Graffiti, Street Art, Urban, Urban Art, Urban Images
Comments: 21

Comments

Comment from John Lampard
Time: September 7, 2007, 2:40 am

Cool - no need to scale walls or clamber over rooftops to place your message in a high visibility spot anymore!

Comment from Dave
Time: September 7, 2007, 12:44 pm

I love this blog.

Keep it up
Dave

Comment from Winbolo
Time: September 7, 2007, 8:58 pm

Neat stuff. light brix r kool

Comment from Al Ebaster
Time: September 7, 2007, 9:04 pm

You guys never fail to impress.

Comment from Web Urbanist
Time: September 8, 2007, 11:14 am

Thanks! Glad you all enjoyed it. The tutorial on how to ‘make your own’ was clicked thousands of times, so hopefully we’ll all see some more light and color in the streets soon ;)

Comment from Alan Carter
Time: September 8, 2007, 11:43 am

In 1985 I saw Krzysztof Wodiczko project a swastika onto South Africa House in London, himself positioned in the public space of Trafalgar Square. This was while Nelson Mandela was still a prisoner of course.

http://citizen.nfb.ca/onf/info?aid=3921&eid=10343&hlp=true

Comment from Save Videos
Time: September 9, 2007, 1:33 am

that is amazing, I’ve never seen anything like that. maybe I have, but I’d just assume that it was all planned and allowed..that’s amazing.

Comment from Tom
Time: September 9, 2007, 5:49 am

Two related projects:

“Beamvertisin”: Skateboarding on walls..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgqZMgRijXo

Monet au pixels, in Rouen, France:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonio_vega/sets/72157594515710036/

In this project Monet’s paintings of the cathedral of Rouen were projected ON that same cathedral, which made it look like a painting. Really amazing!

Comment from Tom
Time: September 9, 2007, 5:56 am

Oops, wrong link:

Monet from pixels:
http://www.rouentourisme.com/default.asp?ext=en&file=330

Comment from WebUrbanist
Time: September 9, 2007, 2:56 pm

Wow those are some great images and an excellent video. Thanks for adding them into the mix - highly relevant!

Comment from groodi
Time: December 18, 2007, 3:23 am

that’s great. you inspired us to do that light graffiti animation.
it takes 60 photos and 2 days to make that spiderwalk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR0HE5vBJy0