Bringing hypertext to the street

Filed under Art: Real World

Grafedia.com is allowing people to tag URLs about the city which link to a bit of art that they store for you. Ostensibly, you do this with a cellphone, and you can retrieve the meaning behind the URL by sending a message to “@grafedia.net”

This is two things at once : one, kind of cool in a William Gibson novel from 1985 sort of a way, and two, ultimately lame, as the whole point of graffiti is to be free expression imposed by those with limited resources upon the corporate structures which have been imposed upon them. You get fed up with concrete walls, you spray paint your art on a wall. Transaction complete. Now, you’ve got graffiti that needs technology and subscription to that technology to mean anything, and so it ultimately feeds corporate structures. Misses the artistic point a wee bit, we think.

Still, we guess it could be handy for drug mules who want to add a second layer of obfuscation to their directions.

Grafedia.com seen @ We Make Money Not Art