Graffiti Lite

POSTED JUNE 29 , 2007

The group that gathered at Franklin and Varick Streets one night last month was marking up the wall of a corner building in giant white strokes. They were having great fun, even when two cops pulled up in a squad car to check it out. Fearing nothing, one of the main instigators, Evan Roth, asked the officers to join in.

“It would have made some really awesome video,” Roth said.

The cops went on their way and the tag fest continued, not with a spray can but a laser pen, its marks vanishing almost as quickly as they appeared on the building across the street.

Roth is partners with James Powderly in the Graffiti Research Lab, an arts collective taking part last month in a weekend of arts events sponsored by Tribeca Enterprise’s Tomorrow Unlimited, backers of emerging media.

The pair invented the graffiti-writing system, which involves a computer, a motion camera that tracks the beam, and a projector that superimposes the writing  over the beam. The writing is programmed to be so graffiti-like that it even “drips.” On this evening the crowd that gathered took turns writing their names, or drawing faces, animals or expletives.

Roth and Powderly have taken their technology to Europe, where anti-Bush slogans are popular. In the U.S., the Vice President is a favorite target. “And everyone plays tick tac toe like they’re the first person to think of it,” Roth said.

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