Portal

Have finally decided on a logo for 'Fifth Column' - barcode type design, and this will be used as a spray paint stencil for distribution around the city (still in early stages of design), and also being used to put on badges and stickers. I have also looked at getting a 'portal' set up with interaction, forums etc and also obtaining some web space to set the portal up on. Through research for my thesis I also looked at some of the history of graffiti and started to look more into how it is a means of communicating whilst engaging with your environment and started to also look at hidden messages and more senatology, and how we don't actually look at our environment and surroundings but take it for granted due to being bombarded with digital visuals from billboards, screens, advertising, branding etc.

Throwies and Text messaging

Have started to put together tutorials for creating standard stencilling graffiti but have also thought about using black light pens / ink to create hidden messages and also started looking at digital steganography, hidden pictures and messages within a digital image. This could then also be used within the portal. My main aim this week is to get some ideas together for producing something that will allow me to create an interactive portal. I also want to look at how to start creating interactive projections too.

Inspiration

This week along with a nasty does of the 'flu I have been looking at some of Justin Orde's suggestions for areas to project the temporary graffiti, and also looking at other artists creating this kind of stuff including the group fi5e who filmed four local taggers as they used a marker attached to a penlight to write their names on sheets of plexiglass. Then he beamed the footage onto office buildings, hospitals, and the stone arch in Manhattan's Washington Square Park, using a digital projector and a laptop running software he wrote that enables him to manipulate the projected images. The result: graffiti on a monumental scale. The project, titled Graffiti Analysis, recently toured the US as part of the Resfest 2005 film festival, bringing fi5e's tag artists to a wider audience. I also loved Tunnel Visions idea which consisted of three art students who packed a briefcase and headed to graffiti's gallery: the subway. Using suction cups, they fastened the attachtment containing a projector, a Mac mini, and a battery pack - to a train car in Berlin and aimed the projector lens at the tunnel wall. As commuters looked out their windows, they glimpsed an animated aquatic world.

I also looked at the materials I would need for creating 'throwies' to 'bus bomb' or 'train bomb'. Which looks like quite an inexpensive way of starting off. I also met with Stewart Cuthbert to brainstorm and try and get some ideas together for a logo for 'fifth column' and also looked through some of his initial street art that he has created. He also has a sticker making machine and I now have a badge making machine so together we can conquer Aberdeen!!

I have a meeting tonight with Jack & Monika at Peacock to throw some ideas around and I am waiting for Station House to get back to me with a suitable time to go up and vist their premises and see what they do up there after receiving an email from them last week.

Over and over.....