This lightwriting project is the work of LICHTFAKTOR; on their MySpace page, they cite explanatory text from another blog, "colourlovers":
A number of graffiti artists have been tagging everything thought to be impossible without being caught. Well — it’s actually not illegal for them. They’re not using paint. As it turns out, time-lapse photography isn’t just for blooming flowers, skyscapes, or brake lights anymore. Termed Light Graffiti, tag artists are taking their colour to an all new level.
Using an exposure of about ten-to-thirty seconds and a tripod for best results, Light Graffiti artists start at the first click. Glowsticks, flashlights, reflectors, and even torches have been used as mediums to create all sorts of designs and tags, as the artist becomes a ghost of a blur, if visible at all.
Any person, place, or thing can become a central piece of the art. Because all it really takes is less than a minute, light tagging phone booth can be just as easy as something in the privacy of home, though staying home is certainly less fun. Some ‘hardcore’ taggers are set on Light Graffiti not actually being graffiti because it doesn’t have a physical presence, but after seeing photos of it, it’s not too different from tagging a building and having it covered or removed the next day.
See if you can make some yourself. The general rule of Light Graffiti seems to be experimentation and play, so, if your first ‘tag’ isn’t brilliance, keep at it.
Q&A: William Gibson Discusses Spook Country and Interactive Fiction
Topic: Arts
7:35 pm EDT, Jul 27, 2007
Gibson: Something that started with Pattern Recognition was that I discovered I could Google the world of the novel. I began to regard it as a sort of extended text — hypertext pages hovering just outside the printed page.
As a musician and pioneering turnable player-improviser, Christian Marclay has recorded with such collaborators as the Kronos Quartet, Sonic Youth and John Zorn. He has built "unplayable" musical instruments — including a 25-foot-long accordion — and created such signature works as "Video Quartet" and "Crossfire," film clip remixes powering mind-bending interactions among images, soundscapes and music.
Marclay's new photography book, "Shuffle," packaged as an oversize deck of cards, is an invitation to play along with his view of aural and visual potentialities.
Brian Eno once famously remarked that the problem with computers is that there isn't enough Africa in them. I kind of think that its the opposite: they're bringing the ideals of Africa: after all, computers are about connectivity, shareware, a sense of global discussion about topics and issues, the relentless density of info overload, and above all the willingness to engage and discuss it all - that's something you could find on any street corner in Africa.
I just wanted to highlight the point: Digital Africa is here, and has been here for a while. This isn't "retro" - it's about the future.
Noteworthy says: There's some great stuff at around 57:00, in conjunction with Duke Ellington's "Afro-Euraasian Eclipse". I first heard these samples on DJ/rupture's album, Minesweeper Suite, which I've been meaning to recommend for a while now. From the emusic review:
Barcelona-based DJ/rupture shows off his formidable turntable skills (and frighteningly deep record collection) with a three-deck mix that spans dancehall reggae, Middle Eastern drumming, underground London breakcore and Hot 97-ready a cappellas. ... /rupture's knack for drilling holes through genres (mashing up Aaliyah's "Resolution" with apocalyptic drum 'n' bass, screwing hip-hop into psychedelic glitch-folk) threads a groove that could spin any pair of hips out onto the dancefloor. The form (beat-oriented fusion) and the content (any sound you can imagine, never deracinated but instead radically re-contextualized) make the perfect icebreaker to get trainspotters talking politics, and vice versa.
It seems clear to a lot of us that there is a problem ...
What kind of art does the future deserve? How should we advance?
Much of the [current] work is repetitive and derivative in a way that starts to resemble planned cultural obsolescence.
A strange cycle has set in, whereby the most valuable attribute an artist can have is "promise." With a lot of big bets being placed, the artist has to be both young and verifiable. In other words, marketable. But almost none of our superstar artists have delivered on their promise.
A practical avant-garde is post-careerist. It seeks out low rent and private time, and it concentrates on powerful objects.
It takes real bravery and commitment to one's project to, essentially, take it underground, and eskew the financial resources of the system and their associated strings. Perhaps the art we're looking for is out there, but its looking for a way to find us that doesn't cost money.
