"THAT'S CODE-BLOODED": Graffiti Research Lab: LASER TAG in Rotterdam

its a bit of old news in terms of InterWeb time-speed, but I need to put out a word about the latest project from the Graffiti Research Lab, L.A.S.E.R. Tag, which went down in Rotterdam two weeks ago.

I've been knowing GRL for a minute now since interning at Eyebeam, and have done a few missions with them in the past. When they gave me the word that they needed an extra man for a european assault while I was over on this side of the pond, I got down with it real fast. I helped out with a lot of production stuff, just moving things around, gathering supplies, renting bikes, lots of documentation, photos, teaching people to make throwies. Basically being part of the illest digital laser graffiti crew out there.

All of the info is basically covered on GRL's page, I urge you to go there also for the official video of the happenings. But here it is from YouTube.

Basically the Dutch government offered GRL some $$$ to come do a large-scale public art event in connection with 'Art Rotteram,' a large (quite commercial) art fair. This little government organization is responsible for that 1% of government spending or new building construction that must go to the arts. (There is some similar program in the U.S. - for example thats where the money came from for Richard Serra's Tilted Arc) Our man on the inside, Huib, was totally awesome and accomodating, as was his boss for that matter.

To be totally honest, the art fair itself was fucking terrible. I've never been to an art fair before, but I imagine this is what most of them are like. A big building divided up into a million 3-sided white rooms, each gallery crams in as much work as possible into their tiny space. Basically there was too much work - there is no way to step back or appreciate anything, and so much mediocre work that even things that might be nice on their own just get dragged into this visual morass of crap. It was just way too commercial. I'm not saying everyone in there was some rich snob trying to buy a painting, but it kind of felt like thats what the galleries were catering to, with little snacks and drinks in each cubicle, SCHMOOZING, it was like an art supermarket. Plus the weather sucked, at least its hot at Miami Basel.

But enough smack talk. We were cozily situated in the parking lot. Outside. In the cold/fog/rain for a good 6 or so hours each night. Yeah but who am I kidding, it was totally cool, we were definately the 'edgy street element' of this commercial venture (whose official theme was "outsider art," bah!), hanging out next to a 70s camper van with a bunch of graffiti writers, drinking beers and catching infinite tags on a 70 foot high wall.
How it works:
Camera aimed at face of building, looks for green laser dot. Info from camera goes into software, using green laser dot as a brush or pen tip. Software uses green dot to draw a white line on a black background, which is then projected back onto the face of the building.
a bit simplified.
I talked to a couple people who read about it on the internet the first day we were there and then came from Brussels the next night just to check it out. There was a lot of press, which Huib and his dudes were psyched about - I think usually they do things like installations and sculptures in government buildings, so this was a bit more high-profile. Also, the other side of the building (designed by Renzo Piano) has built in LED panels on a 22 x 41 grid, so GRL also did an open call for quality low-res animations, I had a few in there, notably the guy rocking on his guitar.

At night-times we went out and kicked it with people who were laser-ing with us. Rotterdam is a small city, but one that I had missed on my family's Netherlands bicycle tour earlier this summer. I had some extra days after the fair (peace to Saskia for letting me stay at your house!!! check out her all-girl graff/street art/gangster style PDF-only mag CATFIGHT) and biked around a bit more, did a nice field recording on a Sunday afternoon of about a million kids in an animatronic dinosaurs exhibit at the Kunstahal. Remind me to post that up. (for now you can download a mix of tracks from the official Rotterdam playlist, as done by me. 186megs!) Yeah we met a lot of real nice people, graff peoples from throughout the Netherlands plus Berlin, all over.

making throwies in the bar

Here's a bonus video of some mobile projection unit action:

Evan covered the flicks, already uploaded most of mine, but there are a few bonus ones over on my Flickr.

On a personal note, it was really great to see Evan and James. Those two guys are really full of great ideas, and I think shit is really happening for them right now. GRL is something I'm really proud to be part of, and just being around it is really invigorating, the creativity flows like wine. Plus they were the first New York people I've seen in 6 weeks. Theo of course, too (yeah check GRL's site for links on Theos source code for his custom software), kept us in line. He's team for life. Its always good to get back up with some true internet gangsters. We're on your girlfriend's delicious. Oh yeah, and big props to 'whoever' rocked this GNU STYLE on the massive windows ad: