Laser Graffiti: Turning buildings into billboards

After enduring years of pathetic Toronto fireworks displays, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw this new form of nighttime entertainment. As beautiful and stunning as traditional pyrotechnic and light shows, but totally interactive rather than passive, I couldn’t stop thinking about its power and its potential. After all, it allows anyone – from ordinary citizens to artists and social activists – to freely write what’s on their mind in public on a massive scale previously only available to advertisers, corporations and governments. I also thought about how fun it could be, as people can write personal messages, such as birthday greetings and love notes, and play games like tic-tac-toe or hangman.

Developed only a couple of years ago by the Graffiti Research Lab - an artist collective in New York dedicated to expanding graffiti beyond spray paint - and requiring only a few pieces of equipment (a 60 mW green laser pointer and a high-power projector connected to a laptop), it is one of those inventions that seem so simple and obvious that you wonder why no one came up with this idea earlier!

Laser graffiti has all the characteristics of a well-designed interaction:

1. It is TRUSTWORTHY in that it requires expensive, high-quality, state-of-the-art technology that most likely won’t break easily. And because green lasers are dangerous and thus, illegal for the average citizen to own in most countries, those operating these technologies are properly trained and licensed by the government to ensure that the activity will be safe.
2. It is APPROPRIATE as it is just another example of the democratization of media that has been occurring since the rise of the Internet and Web 2.0 applications such as blogging and YouTube.
3. It is SMART since it replicates writing with a regular pen or using a regular store-bought laser pointer, so the user doesn’t have to learn a new technology.
4. It is RESPONSIVE since it provides an immediate response as if you were truly writing on the wall with spray paint or putting pen to paper.
5. It is CLEVER in that it is so simple yet so powerful and gives ordinary individuals the power to write and communicate on a massive scale which previously would be impossible for the average person unless they had a lot of money.
6. It is LUDIC in that it is only temporary, which encourages people to experiment and play since mistakes will disappear within a few seconds.
7. It is PLEASURABLE because the options for what a user can write is only limited by their imagination and because its technology, interface and output design is so simple, people of all ages and writing abilities are able to create beautiful messages easily.



If I were on the design team, I’d be most interested in the brainstorming and testing phases of the design process. It would be fun to choose which buildings to use and to see if it would be possible to write across an entire skyline or on a hill or mountain. It would also be interesting to explore the use of different colours of light.

http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76 (official website)
http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2007-02-27/fusaro-graffiti (photos)