Graffiti Research Lab, founded by Evan Roth

Evan Roth

Evan Roth is an artist whose work focuses on tools of empowerment, open source and popular culture. He has previously released work under the name "fi5e".-Biography:...

 and James Powderly

James Powderly

James Powderly is an artist and engineer whose work has focused on creating tools for graffiti artists and political activists, designing robots and promoting open source culture.- Biography :...

 during their fellowships at the Eyebeam OpenLab

Openlab

Openlab is a software package for doing 2D Microscope image processing, and for integrating and controlling a diverse array of instrumentation in a laboratory environment. It consists of a core application which can manage large arrays of image data, and a series of separate plug-in modules which...

, is an art group dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, artists and protesters with open source technologies for urban communication. The members of the group experiment in a lab and in the field to develop and test a range of experimental technologies. They document those efforts with video documentation and DIY instructions for each project and make it available for everybody. The GRL is particularly well-known for inventing LED Throwies.

The Graffiti Research Lab is currently housed at Free Art and Technology Lab

Free Art and Technology Lab

The Free Art and Technology Lab a.k.a. F.A.T. Lab is a collective of artists, engineers, scientists, lawyers, and musicians, dedicated to the merging of popular culture with open source technology. F.A.T. Lab is known for producing artwork critical of traditional Intellectual Property Law in the...

 (a.k.a. FAT Lab), a non-profit research lab that supports artists, engineers, designers and entertainers whose work directly enriches the public domain. (FATLAB website)

Each extension of Graffiti Research Lab is called a cell. Localized cells were founded in Vienna, Amsterdam, and Mexico, copying and extending the work of the NY based organization. For example, the inventions are reproduced and deployed locally and the exhibition of the MBU at Prix Ars Electronica

Prix Ars Electronica

The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music...

 was done in cooperation with GRL Vienna. The cells cooperate and communicate, but are not one formal organization.

Inventions

• LED Throwies
• L.A.S.E.R. Tag, a computer vision
  Computer vision
  Computer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analysing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions...
  
   system paired with a projector that enables one to write on walls using a high-power laser pointer
  Laser pointer
  A laser pointer or laser pen is a small portable device with a power source and a laser emitting a very narrow coherent low-powered beam of visible light, intended to be used to highlight something of interest by illuminating it with a small bright spot of colored light...
  
  .
• Electrograf, a technique for building circuits on any surface using electrically conductive paint and/or tape
• High Writer, an extension pole for tagging hard-to-reach locations, based on an initial design by Barry McGee
  Barry McGee
  Barry McGee is a painter and graffiti artist. He is also known by monikers such as Ray Fong, Lydia Fong, Bernon Vernon, P.Kin, Ray Virgil, Twist and further variations of Twist, such as Twister, Twisty, Twisto and others.-Life and career:McGee graduated from El Camino High School in South...
  
  .
• Night Writer, for putting LED throwies in hard-to-reach locations by mounting them on a grid to write text.
• Graffiti POV CAM
• Homeland Security Advisory System, installed at 11 Spring Street in Soho, NYC

Projects

Projects include: Powerthief, 24C3, Berlin, Lazah Pong, Make Magazine's Laser Marker How-To, and Urban Hacking, among others.

Members

• Founders
  • Evan Roth
    Evan Roth
    Evan Roth is an artist whose work focuses on tools of empowerment, open source and popular culture. He has previously released work under the name "fi5e".-Biography:...
    
    
  • James Powderly
    James Powderly
    James Powderly is an artist and engineer whose work has focused on creating tools for graffiti artists and political activists, designing robots and promoting open source culture.- Biography :...
    
    
• Collaborators
  • Bennett Williamson
  • Theo Watson
    Theo Watson
    Theo Watson is a British artist and programmer. His art work includes interactive video, large-scale public projections, computer vision projects, and interactive sound recordings...
    
     (G.R.L. Amsterdam)
  • Steve Lambert
    Steve Lambert (artist)
    Steve Lambert is an American artist who works with issues of advertising and the use of public space. He is a founder of , an artist-run initiative which critiques advertising through artistic interventions, and of the which creates exhibitions by painting over outdoor advertisements and hanging...
    
    
  • Jamie Wilkinson
    Jamie Wilkinson
    Jamie “Dubs” Wilkinson is an internet culture researcher and software engineer. Wilkinson started Know Your Meme, a database of viral internet memes whilst working at Rocketboom in New York City...
    
    
  • Mike Baca
  • Todd Polenberg
  • Michael Zeltner & Florian Hufsky
    Florian Hufsky
    Florian Hufsky was an Austrian new media artist, political activist, founder and former board member of the Pirate Party of Austria...
    
     (G.R.L. Vienna)

Exhibitions

• Prix Ars Electronica
  Prix Ars Electronica
  The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music...
  
  , Linz, Austria, (Official Website 2006), (Official Website 2007)
• NUART, Stavanger, Norway, (Official Website 2006)
• SIGGRAPH
  SIGGRAPH
  SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
  
  , Boston, USA, (Official Website 2006)
• Maker Faire, SF Bay Area, USA,(Official Website 2006)
• Transitio, Mexico City, Mexico, 2007, (Official Website)
• Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2007, (Official Website)
• OFFF, Barcelona, Spain, (Official Website 2007)
• Open City
  Open city
  In war, in the event of the imminent capture of a city, the government/military structure of the nation that controls the city will sometimes declare it an open city, thus announcing that they have abandoned all defensive efforts....
  
  , Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, NYC, 2007, (Official Website)
• Sundance Film Festival
  Sundance Film Festival
  The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
  
  , Park City, USA, 2008(Official Website)
• Museum of Modern Art
  Museum of Modern Art
  The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
  
  , New York City, USA, 2008 (Official Website)

External links

• Graffiti Research Lab
• Eyebeam
• Artkrush.com feature on Graffiti Research Lab, January 2007
• Article: Geek Graffiti Takes on New York
• Article: The Writing's On the Wall (The Writing's Off the Wall) (New York Times)
• Article: Graffiti Goes LED (Wired)
• Article: Food for the Eyes and Ears (TIME)
• Article: Graffiti by the (Extensively Analyzed) Numbers (New York Times)
• L.A.S.E.R. Tag video of interventions. 2007–08