…the opening reception for Open City is Thursday night.

From March 1st – April 7th, the Graffiti Research Lab is declaring NYC an OPEN CITY. All the streets and walls have been turned over to the bombers, pranksters and protesters. As a triumph for the GRL’s foreign conquests, and for all the anonymous public works made by servants of the street at home and abroad, Eyebeam is presenting an exhibition and series of free screenings and workshops that reveal the tools and tactics of graffiti writers, artists, protesters, pranksters and hackers who are reclaiming our cities by any means necessary.

Presented by Eyebeam, Open City: Tools for Public Action is an exhibition documenting the ingenuity of graffiti writers, artists, protesters, pranksters and hackers reclaiming the public realm. By presenting the artifacts and tools of the artists, the exhibition offers a deeper look at the means and motivations of urban action and creativity. Open City hopes to inspire its audience to make their own tools for public action. To encourage community participation, a series of screenings, presentations and workshops exploring tool building, tactics and approaches to communication by any means necessary will occur at Eyebeam throughout the month-long exhibition. Among the means and materials presented will be: paint, tape, stencils, digital projection, large-scale public pranks, hacking urban infrastructure, homemade markers and ink recipes, lasers, etch, the internet, social engineering and activist robots.

Featured Artists include:

Aram Bartholl (Berlin)
BORF (Washington D.C.)
Graffiti Research Lab (NYC)
Institute for Applied Autonomy (USA):
Improv Everywhere (NYC)
Mark Jenkins (Washington D.C.)
KATSU (NYC)
KR (NYC)
Object Orange (Detroit)
Leon Reid (NYC)
Matthias Wermke (Berlin)
Krzysztof Wodiczko (PL/NYC)

This exhibition is on view from March 1 – April 7, Tues-Sat 12-6pm.
For directions to Eyebeam or more information about the exhibition, public presentations or workshops, click here.

Defense contractors say that within the next 10 years they’ll have a solid state laser mounted on a Hummer that can put a hole in a sheet of metal from several miles away. Well Dutch graffiti writers can pretty much do that now with this Hymermobil-mounted L.A.S.E.R. Tagging system dope off the assembly line at the Graffiti Research Lab.

You might want to sit down before clicking here.

Produced by the GRL. That’s why we’re standing in the photo like it’s our rap video. Bling’n harder than Diddy.

In truth it’s your opening night with over sixty uncurated 22 x 41 pixel animations submitted via email from writers, artists, activists, jokers, lunatics and 13 year-olds out there on the web.

Turn off your cell phone. Here’s the feature presentation.

New work from the GRL in the fog of Rotterdam.

Justseeds Art Show & Street Art Workers release party.

Justseeds.org and Visual Resistance present a one-night benefit art show and sale at Ad Hoc Art, Thursday February 8, 2007

Ad Hoc Art (www.adhocart.org)
49 Bogart St.
Brooklyn NY 11206

I love the smell of stimulated radiation in the morning.

Last night @ 2200 hours, the GRL laser-tag system went online and fully operational. The laser tag system status is GO and we are calling all writers in the Netherlands to please report to Rotterdam most riki-tik for training and deployment. The GRL will be turning over control of the system to writers, protesters, artists and the citizens of Rotterdam from the 7th to the 10th of February, starting each night around 1600 hours at the KPN building in Rotterdam. If you’ve ever wanted to catch a 20-story high tag with a laser beam, WE WANT YOU!