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October 02, 2007
Graffiti Research Lab in San Jose!
GRL in Rotterdam, 2007 (Watch the movie)
James Powderly and Evan Roth of New York based Graffiti Research Lab drop in to San Jose this Wednesday as part of the FUSE lecture series. Powderly with his background in aerospace robotics and Roth emerging from coding, architecture and web design come together to develop new methods of self-expression. Their technological efforts have emerged back on the streets that inspire them using the transitory urban canvas as their showroom. Perhaps it's the ephemeral nature of their work, combined with their authentic voice, tools and open source idealism that has made their artistic efforts embraced on the many streets they have travelled to around the globe. Hope you can make it out. We highly recommend this lecture!
FUSE lecture series
featuring Graffiti Research Lab
Wednesday October 3rd, 7pm
San Jose City Hall, Council Chambers
200 East Santa Clara Street (at So. 4th St)
San Jose, CA 95113
The G.R.L. has embarked on a mission: to revolutionize tools and languages of urban artists with cheap technology and open knowledge. The lab is dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, artists and protesters with open source tools for urban communication. The goal of the G.R.L. is to technologically empower individuals to creatively alter and reclaim their surroundings from commercial and corporate culture. G.R.L. agents are currently working in the lab and in the field to develop and test a range of experimental technologies for the state-of-the-art graffiti writer. Their website documents those efforts with video documentation and DIY instructions for each project. < http://graffitiresearchlab.com>
James Powderly is a maverick hobbyist dabbling at the fringes of robotics, chemistry, writing, pyrotechnics, graffiti and art. As a Fellow in the Eyebeam R&D OpenLab for the last year James has developed experimental creative technologies and media for the public domain. Powderly was anengineer and the Director of Technology Development at Honeybee Robotics, and a Manhattan-based NASA contractor. He worked on developing the Mars Exploration Rover's Rock Abrasion Tool and built a wall drilling robot for Diller + Scofidio's retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Powderly has been awarded numerous grants, fellowships and awards, including an Award of Distinction in 2006 from Ars Electronica for his work with the Graffiti Research Lab. His work can be found on the surface of Mars and other people's walls throughout the U.S. and Europe. In the Spring, he will begin teaching a class at Parsons Communication Design and Technology program called, "Disruptive Home Economics".
Evan Roth is a recent MFA graduate from the Design Technology department at Parsons where he was his class valedictorian. He is the creator of Graffitti Analysis video, a project that uses motion tracking, computer vision technology, and a custom C++ application to record and analyze a graffiti writer's pen movement over time. Evan's media experiments also include Explicit Content Only, Postal Lables Against Bush video, and Graffiti Taxonomy.
If you can't make it physically, you can catch the G.R.L. in Second Life, the talk will be streamed live to Ars Virtua in Second Life.
Sam Gould of Red76 and Matthew Coolidge of CLUI's lectures are available as podcasts:
the rss ( for subscription with iTunes and such)
FUSE: conversation
cadre/montalvo artist research lecture series
in collaboration with ZERO1.
co-sponsored by the City of San Jose Public Art Program
FUSE: conversation is a series of lectures by renowned artists addressing some of the most pertinent issues of our time including globalization, sustainability, censorship, human rights, social responsibility, human centered design and the next generation of cultural production.
http://cadre.sjsu.edu/fuse
October lecture schedule
3 Graffiti Research Laboratory
12 Kevin and Jennifer McCoy
18 Natalie Jeremijenko
23 Rosina Gomez-Baeze Tinture**
26 Mongrel
Lectures are presented as part of FUSE:, a CADRE-Montalvo artist research residency in cooperation with ZERO1. One artist proposal will be selected for development in residency and featured at the 01SJ 2008 Biennale.
Unless otherwise noted:
Time: Lectures start at 7:00 p.m.
Location: San José City Hall Council Chambers – 200 East Santa Clara Street,
San José, CA 95113.
The lectures are free and open to the public. Please visit
http://www.sjdowntownparking.com/parking_map.php for information on parking downtown.
Lectures will be simulcast into Ars Vitura, a Second Life arts and media center.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seventh%20Eye/6/77/48
To request an accommodation or alternative format for City-sponsored meetings, events or
printed materials, please call Brooke Jones at 408 277-5144 X 18 or 408-294-9337 (TTY) as
soon as possible, but at least three business days before the meeting/event.
* At San Jose City Hall Room 118/119
**At San Jose State University, Art Building, Room 133, from 5-6 as part of the Tuesday Night Lecture
Series
Posted by Brian at October 2, 2007 09:45 AM