Pedal powered graffiti.

August 24, 2003 3:37 AM

bikewriter the newest weapon in the guerrilla graffiti arsenal. I wonder how long it will take before someone uses this to propose to his girlfriend.
posted by riffola (23 comments total)

Yeah, this is cool, some old fart destroying property. Y'know, there's an age where it's no longer cool for the aged to ride BMXs or skateboards, and this guy's passed it...

As much as I hate to quote an old reprobate like Paul:

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
posted by jpburns at 6:29 AM on August 24, 2003

Wow... looks like it works well too.
/sarcasm
posted by KnitWit at 7:23 AM on August 24, 2003

Been there, got the sandals...
posted by PenDevil at 7:28 AM on August 24, 2003

oh jpburns, you sad old fart, you are so not going to like what this 45 year old lady got for her birthday.
posted by andrew cooke at 7:39 AM on August 24, 2003

^innos+ |eg1pIe - sorry I wrote that with bikewriter. It's supposed to say "almost legible."
posted by Frank Grimes at 7:43 AM on August 24, 2003

oh jpburns, you sad old fart,

Who said I'm sad? I had a great time in my youth, but now it's time to celebrate other things and other stages in life. Move on, develop...I just think that youth is for the young, and it is indeed sad when old farts don't realize that, and try to co-opt that lifestyle.
(IMHO, of course... you don't have to agree with me...)
posted by jpburns at 8:34 AM on August 24, 2003

You sound sad to me.
posted by jpoulos at 9:05 AM on August 24, 2003

I think you're reading into it, jpoulos.

Here, does this make my emotions clearer?
:) ;} :]
posted by jpburns at 9:18 AM on August 24, 2003

I wonder how long it will take before someone uses this to propose to his girlfriend.

'MARRY ME AISH RAY, LOFF RIFFY OMG LOL!!1!!1'

Sorry.
posted by attackthetaxi at 9:35 AM on August 24, 2003

I couldn't read the text, but couldn't tell whether it was the video or the mechanism that wasn't quite delivering what was expected...

just another reason for people to look the other way when a bicyclist gets hit in NYC-
posted by Busithoth at 10:55 AM on August 24, 2003

Am I the only one who couldn't sit through that whole video?
posted by ArsncHeart at 11:22 AM on August 24, 2003

Alternative printing methods are cool. You don't have to be a wild young person to appreciate something like this. Legibility is an issue but those kind of things can be refined, I would think. Lots of interesting things could be done with several bike printers in tandem -- and a joint photography project to document the thing wouldn't be bad either.

p.s. In my opinion, the problem with a lot of so-called adults is that they lose the wonder they once had as children. It's not such a bad thing to think as a child now and again. It's my perception that people are so wrapped up in their specialized little lives (they are so mature and developed) that they lose sight of the big picture.
posted by pinto at 11:28 AM on August 24, 2003

GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE!
posted by majcher at 11:37 AM on August 24, 2003

Pinto:

Yes, I totally agree about the wonder and the ability to see things with fresh eyes. I was just saying that to my 11-year-old daughter. She was bummed out because the middle-school children weren't allowed to play on the little kid playground, and I explained that while one grew up, one didn't have to lose that sense of wonder and experimentation.

I was just being a curmudgeon about some old wanker riding a BMX, splattering paint everywhere. If he was doing it on his own property, then that'd be a valid conceptual art piece, but if he does it on someone else's, it's vandalism.

Hey you kids! Get outta my yard!!
posted by jpburns at 11:38 AM on August 24, 2003

I was just being a curmudgeon about some old wanker riding a BMX, splattering paint everywhere.

He's riding a moutain bike actually, and it looks like they are doing it in an industrial area, so it's not like people care about the ground much there. Also, since it's an architecture project at MIT, I assume it's being done for the sake of art and some grade in a class for coming up with clever stuff.

Y'know, there's an age where it's no longer cool for the aged to ride BMXs or skateboards, and this guy's passed it...

I'm 30, and pictured here riding. I don't know when, if ever, I will stop but I don't really care about looking cool anymore.
posted by mathowie at 12:18 PM on August 24, 2003

Here's the main page of the bikewriter site.
posted by riffola at 12:53 PM on August 24, 2003

Like I said, Matt, you don't have to agree with my opinion.

To be clear, I was saying that what annoyed me was:

1/ Oldsters adopting the "youth culture" by riding BMXs or skateboards. This was clearly a personal complaint of mine, and I don't expect everyone to agree with me.

2/ Property damage. I just can't celebrate tagging stuff with paint, having lived in neighborhoods (some of them pretty "industrial") where it has trashed up the place.

On the site it says; "Within the context of civil disobedience and non-violent protest, bike writing provides a means of expression that can happen any day, in any public space without the need for group organization." In "any public space". "Civil disobedience. "
Sounds like property damage, not an art project, but I could be wrong, here.
posted by jpburns at 12:59 PM on August 24, 2003

Why in the name of HOLY FUCK should people above the age of [insert age here] not ride [insert name of vehicle here]???? Get fucked you [insert insult here].
posted by chrid at 4:22 PM on August 24, 2003

in the snow it's cool. with ink or paint it ain't.
posted by tomplus2 at 5:17 PM on August 24, 2003

Well reasoned argument, chrid...

Why in the name of HOLY FUCK should people above the age of [2] not ride [a Panzer II tank]???? Get fucked you [Reasonable human being].

MadLibs!™ I love them!
posted by jpburns at 6:41 PM on August 24, 2003

Before I clicked the link I was imagining a bike with a line of spray cans across the back, timed to print dots forming letters like a dot matrix printer.
posted by teg at 10:14 AM on August 25, 2003

Yeah, it would be pretty incredible if the thing had variable text and some way to start and stop printing at a button press. Or even just one message would be fine, if you could pull off the targetted vandalism at 10 mph trick. Every cop station in town would have "F*CK THE STATE" scrawled across the parking garage entrance in no time...
posted by kaibutsu at 5:45 PM on August 25, 2003

teg, yeah - like GraffitiWriter. Wouldn't be too much harder to mount the same mechanism on a bike or skateboard.

(and I have to agree with others: jpburns, what's so awful about a 30-year-old riding a bmx bike or whatever? I think you're reading a lot into this guy's behavior.)
posted by hattifattener at 8:28 PM on August 25, 2003