An Interactive Art Installation

DIGITAL GRAFFITI

For Digital Art History 4482, we the class were given the option to coordinate a research blog covering a digital artist or theory in digital art, or to create a digital project of our own. I chose the latter of the two options and created my own digital art installation.

My digital art installation was a fully interactive project that relied on participation from an audience. The basics of the installation were participants would draw on a wall or some sort of public surface using a computer. The image was displayed on the surface via projector. I was hoping to give the participant a feeling of creating graffiti in a public place, digitally.

The first step was to see if the whole concoction worked like I had imagined it would. I had the projector already, but I had never used it for anything. I wasn’t even sure if it worked. I started out in my living room with my laptop (MacBook Pro) and the projector sitting on milk crates. The projector was plugged in and facing the wall. I hooked it up to my laptop using a monitor plug (and a Mac adaptor) and voila! It worked! Since that was taken care of, I wanted to test out drawing on it to see if it was even an interesting concept. I knew if it was going to depend on interaction from an audience, it had to be fun enough to hold their attention. I plugged in a Wacom Bamboo pen tablet and I scribbled around some paintings hanging on the wall, drawing stick figures in the paintings and creating elaborate frames around them. I discovered it was entertaining enough for me! I chose to use a pen tablet so that participants would have more of a tradition type of drawing feeling rather than using a mouse, which is more ‘computerized’ in my opinion. I also wanted to give people another option that may be easier for some.

I knew if it were going to be a public display I was going to want it bigger than my living room wall, which meant I was going to need some distance. I took the whole concoction outside and set it up facing my fence. My worry was that the farther back I went, the dimmer the light would be. The prehistoric projector proved me wrong with its mighty ray of light. I proceeded to make doodles on my fence and my boyfriend, Max, came out to join me and add some creations. I set up my camera to document the process and to make a short explanation clip of how the project worked. I’m a very visual person myself, so I thought it would be nice for my blog readers to be able to see what I was doing rather then just using their imaginations with what I write.

Since the installation setup went so smoothly, I thought up a great idea to complicate things a great deal more. I wanted to involve the Internet. I learned that involving the Internet is not an easy task to do. My plan was to set up the installation at a location as originally intended, but instead of relying on participants to come to the event location, I was going to broadcast the installation live via a live-streaming video website. To do so I needed to connect a camera (my dSLR Canon 5D Mark II) to a laptop which was online and on a live-streaming video website. Then I needed to record the wall on which the projection was being displayed so that viewers at home could see what they were drawing. The projector needed to be set up on a separate computer system that was displaying only Adobe Photoshop. This is because I felt the live-streaming website needed to be monitored so that if something went wrong I would know about it immediately. I would not be able to monitor it on the same computer that the projection is on because whatever would be on that screen would be projected onto the wall.

I found a live-streaming website without a problem and registered for an account. Then I learned how to tether my camera to my computer for the first time, which also was no problem. The problem arose when I tried to use my dSLR camera on the website. For some reason, still not known to me, it would not register my camera as a webcam. Even though the website said it was possible to use a regular video camera with their services, it was not “seeing” my camera. I did a lot of research on how to live-stream from a 5D and came up with nothing. I asked every technical savvy person I knew if they knew how I could fix it. It was recommended I get a webcam, but that would not have worked either since the videoing was going to take place at night. Regular webcams do not have the capability of filming in low light conditions. Unfortunately I had to scrap the idea of connecting the installation to the Internet. I was really disappointed that I was not able to put the installation within grasp of more people, especially the online community. The idea of having people possibly from around the world participating in an installation was invigorating, but it would have to be done at another time.

It was decided then that I would have to hold an event for my installation, and I needed a location. From the very beginning I had LSU’s campus in mind for several reasons. It would be easily accessible for students to participate so if I spread the word I would get a good crowd. Not to mention there’s art students on LSU’s campus, so that would be a plus for the creative aspect. The main reason I wanted to use LSU’s campus was the allure of ‘graffiti’ on campus…legally. I went to Rod Parker, the director of the School of Art, and asked permission to do the installation on campus. I briefly explained the installation and he agree. After setting a date I went to the one site I knew I could promote the event well on, Facebook. A friend of mine, John Chauvin, made flyers and helped me post them around campus to spread the word also.

The night before the event took place we did a test run to make sure the lighting would be right and to get the appropriate distance I would need to be from the building. Max and I carried all the needed equipment to the Quad and set it up. It worked beautifully. Several people passed by and asked what was going on, which was quite reassuring to see people interested.

The plan for the installation was to set up and to have a friend of mine get it started. The participants would be given free reign to draw or write whatever they wanted to convey to the public. I had given some thought of having a specific topic for participants to work off of, but I decided against it. I felt that if I chose a topic it would reflect me in the work and I wanted the piece to be completely interactive with no barriers or guidelines. I was interested in making this piece about the viewers and what they had to say when given the chance to display it in the eye of the public, like graffiti. I was interested in seeing how much what people had to say resembled their own personalities, and how it differed from one person to the next. In all honesty, I had no idea what direction to go in for a topic. I of had to choose a topic it would probably be something along the lines of environmental concerns or peace. I wanted the installation to appeal to everyone, and not everyone cares about the environment or peace, sadly enough.

DIGITAL GRAFFITI – THE INSTALLATION

Digital Graffiti was intended to be interpreted a lot like graffiti, without the aspect of vandalism. The definition for graffiti as found on Wikipedia is
“The name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is any type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings.” [1]
Each graffiti artist has something that he or she wants to get into the eyes of the public. The messages vary from social and political, religious, gang related, messages of hope, peace, and love, to artists just trying to get their name and art out there.

The subject matter displayed at the Digital Graffiti installation showed all of the aspects of the varying types of graffiti artists. There were social and political references drawn in the form of a Nazi church adorned with a swastika, upside down crosses and a fist symbolizing white power. The upside down crosses as well as a later drawing containing “666 YOUR GOD IS DEAD” is a blatant statement against religion. Another participant drew a peace sign with the words “PEACE” and “LOVE” written over and under it. Several participants just drew their own art, abstract art and swirls, faces and stick figures, a centaur hunter, flowers, etc. There were also participants who just wanted to sign or draw their name on the wall to see it huge.

Digital Graffiti was in some was similar to Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s piece Displaced Emperors (Relation Architecture #2). Displaced Emperors consisted of a projection that transformed the façade of the Habsburg Castle in Linz [2]. Rafael’s piece, like Digital Graffiti, relied on participation from the audience to make the installation ‘work’. Instead of having pre-determined images to project onto a surface like Displaced Emperors, Digital Graffiti was completely interactive in the sense that the images being projected onto the surface were made up entirely by the participant.

Another installation Digital Graffiti resembled is Blinkenlights. Blinkenlights was an installation developed by Chaos Computer Club [3]. Lights were installed in the windows of a famous building in Berlin. Participants used their cell phones or computers to create animations (or to play a game). Both Digital Graffiti and Blinkenlights are interactive and use the surface of a building to display participants art.

The interaction that took place among the viewers and the current drawers had a direct reflection on the images being drawn on the wall. There were suggestions and comments from nearby friends on what the draw should draw. The artist would either take the suggestions to draw what was being asked of them, or the suggestions would spark other ideas.

Originally it was planned to separate the drawer from the viewers. The drawer would be 150 feet from the building and the participant were intended to sit on benches around the fountain close to the wall the projection was being shown on.
This was to ensure that the viewers did not hinder what the drawer had planned on drawing. Having the viewers separate from the drawer would ensure that more of the drawer’s personality came out through their drawing, which was a psychological point intended to show in the installation. It did not work out as planned because of societal standards. Friends or groups of people stay together and feel more comfortable staying together. Having the participants swayed by the viewers did not turn out to be a fault in the installation. It still turned out to be successful.

An interesting aspect that showed up in Digital graffiti was censorship. A participant and his friends were discussing ideas of what to draw when an idea came up that he assumed was not suitable for the projection. He was reassured that it was “ok, there are no limits or boundaries to what can be drawn or written.” The group seemed shocked that on LSU’s campus it would be ‘ok’ to write or draw anything they wanted. It was an idea that was not yet thought about for the installation. Censor –
“1. an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds.
2. any person who supervises the manners or morality of others.” [4]
It was interesting that without being told they could not write or draw things deemed offensive in society, the participants automatically took it upon themselves to make it an unspoken rule. It reflects on how much society is naturally being censored in today’s times. It was a moral censorship. He was afraid to offend someone, or of getting the installation shut down for offending someone.

The Digital Graffiti installation brought together diverse groups of people. Most were students from different majors, some attendees came because of the event on Facebook. Altogether about 25 participants took part in the installation.

In conclusion, Digital graffiti was an interactive digital art installation that gave participants the chance to express themselves publicly. It touched on societal aspects as well as psychological ones. It also showed how our minds and the way we express ourselves have automatically become censored.
1. Wikipedia. Graffiti. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti
2. Christiane Paul, Digital Art: Second Edition. Thames & Hudson world of art, 2008, 72-77.
3. Edward Shankin, Art and Electronic Media. Phaidon Press Limited, 2009. 114
4. Dictionary.com. Censor. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/censor