The Esthetics of Circuit Design
Some unreported facts behind the Boston terror scare:
The "hoax devices" are based on Night Writers, a low-cost electronic LED graffiti device developed by Graffiti Research Lab.
Here is G.R.L.'s mission statement:
"Outfitting graffiti writers, artists and protesters with open-source tools for urban communication."
Unfortunately this statement contains an internal contradiction: "open-source" by definition means the tools are available for use by anyone, including the ideological opposites of "graffiti writers, artists and protesters." Read: corporate ad agencies.
As a result, the G.R.L. home page currently reads as follows:
You may have heard about the most recent terror attacks in Boston. This is NOT the work of the Graffiti Research Lab. ... It’s just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still wanna be a graffiti artist?
The Anti-Advertising Agency offers a cogent explanation of how the soon-to-be-defunct ad agency Interference Inc. ended up creating a nationwide terror scare, while G.R.L. and its followers threw up Night Writers without ever catching radar:
The G.R.L. Night Writer is done with materials bought at a hardware store. It’s made with cheap LED’s, tape, and magnets. It’s designed to be a low-cost, small-scale project with a strong visual impact. It works well, but it takes about an hour to make if you are experienced, work quickly, and have some help. This wouldn’t work for mass production, so Interference Inc built on the idea, adding a custom designed and manufactured circuit board, a photo cell, wiring, resistors, and large D cell batteries. Arguably a better design if you are producing 400 at a time to distribute around the country and you have backing funds from Turner Broadcasting. ... The perfect irony to this story is that advertisers can’t get it right. What attracted the attention of the bomb squad was the wiring, circuitry, and large batteries that Interference Inc. added to G.R.L.'s original design...
An object lesson in how 9/11 has made unauthorized public sculpture a vastly trickier proposition: the problem being how to create and install unidentified public objects which read as harmless while still hitting esthetic goals.
Comments
This is classic. It's just another example that graffiti is meant to instill fear and provoke deep change. The fact that these dudes were doing this for money rather than social and ideological change is a little questionable, but if the major media companies want to support anarchy I'm all for it. I know I could sure use a budget. What’s really interesting is that people see sculpture with LEDs and wires and always think "bomb" instead of "innocent corporate art object". Most people will think it’s unfair that the network has to pay for the emergency response by the bomb squad but I think it actually shows a sense of fairness by the city. They would fine a young kid an equally inflated amount to clean his hit ups from a wall. Justice is justice. God help us all when they finally invent paint polymers with explosive potential. Then the guv'ment can really put a stranglehold on artists and instill aesthetic fascism.
Posted by: kai | février 2, 2007 08:22 AM
iPods are to Big Macs as naked electronics are to blood-spattered cow intestines: both relations involve a lot of consumer ignorance and denial.
So when one encounters the real thing on a city street, the response is likely fear.
Posted by: RG | février 2, 2007 09:34 AM
Just by chance the other day, I met some people from Boston on vaction here, so I asked them what they thought about all the panic and hysteria. They generally thought it was a good call - law enforcement, bomb squad etc. - and it was better to be safe than sorry. One person even suggested that Bostonians are generally a little bit more conservative and high strung - meaning having less humor? - then their southern west coast counterparts.
I agree with Kai, if you get popped you get popped so step up and pay the price - except your average young graffiti artist doesn't have the same pocket change as Turner broadcasting does - hmmmm....
In my wildest fantasy though, I still wouldn't be able to fathome Al Queda operatives - had it actually been the case and given that someone turned them on to Lite Brights - would out of all the possibilties imaginable and with all the pretty colored pegs in order to make a design with, could come up with a robot figure flipping the bird. Yes there's the potential f**k America nuance to it all, but I still think they would be a tad bit more direct in their use of (explosive) language.
Posted by: Kevin Freitas | février 4, 2007 09:53 PM