TEXT BY MARK PHILLIPS / TRANSLATION DAISY WONG
In December last year, the back streets around Praca de Ponte e Horte were given a colourful makeover at the !Outloud International Street Art Festival, with 40 street artists from around the region painting their creations on the old walls around the district. But not all the artwork was being created with traditional spray cans and paint brushes. Also featured at the Festival was a cutting-edge digital graffiti wall by Canadian company Graffiti+.
The system combines a high-resolution screen with specialized software, 3D tracking and an innovative digital ‘spray can’ allowing people to create highly realistic street art and graffiti on a screen, minus the smell of paint fumes and any drippy mess.
“The system tracks the can in 3D space, so we immediately know the position of the can in relation to the screen, and the angle and the speed it’s moving,” explains Alex Biem, the creator of the system and founder of Graffiti+. “We create a point of contact between the can and the surface of the screen, and then we can develop a paint system that allows us to change according to the distance and the angle. So if you’re really close, you can write pretty small, but as you pull away, it starts to get bigger and lighter, exactly the way a real spray can works.”
The spray can itself also acts like a mouse on a computer, and with the press of a button on the side, you can choose different colours and cap styles for different effects, and of course a variety of backgrounds to paint on. As well as painting on two dimensional ‘walls’ you can even choose three dimensional objects to decorate.
“Once we figured out the technology and the painting system, we were like, ‘Okay, what else can we do?’ Then the sky is the limit, in terms of videos and interactivity, it never stops.”
Alex now tours the world with the system attending both artistic and corporate events. One of the largest displays was on massive 60-foot LED screen at the Panorama Music Festival on Randall’s Island in New York City.
“We had a full-sized subway train come in on the screen, and then a bunch of old school graffiti artists just came and tagged the train and created original artwork,” says Alex.
Once the graffiti was finished, the animated train left the station and began its digital journey through the city.
“I’ve been doing interactive art installations for 17 years, and I started coming up with ideas for how to get people to play with technology, but not in the traditional way immersed in a screen, but using the technology in a way that could facilitate more community interaction and play,” Alex notes.
Originally from Uruguay, Alex grew up under a military dictatorship, which he credits for inspiring his creative, rebellious spirit.
“I wouldn’t say I was an artist, more of a vandal,” Alex laughs. “I lived under a military government until I was 15, and then at that time all the dictatorships in Latin America started to collapse, so it was like a huge moment of freedom and rebellion. I was quite engaged with political stuff, so we would take spray cans and go out on the street and write things on walls. But then also with my friends we would just be tagging walls, so there was this strange duality between doing something political and with good intentions, and something that was just stupid and dumb.”
Now with his Graffiti+ technology, Alex believes the world of graffiti and street art can be made more accessible to people who might otherwise not have a chance to try it.
“I think it opens it up to people, and unexpectedly they find this thing they can try. And it also helps you to realize just how hard it is to do the stuff you see on the street and appreciate that work much more.”
