Facadeprinter: Graffiti Meets Paintball

Automating anti-establishment, or what street art has to do with disaster relief.

Much of street art revolves around the cult of the individual creator, creeping through the night to meticulously paint, stencil or tag a wall by hand. But can technology subvert this ethos? Facadeprinter is an inkjet printer in architectonical scale — a simple, software-controlled robot that shoots artwork from a distance of up to 12 meters, dot by dot, onto the target surface area. Think Banksy meets paintball meets ChalkBot — in other words, graffiti for geeks.

Designed by German duo Martin Fussenegger and Michael Sebastian, Facadeprinter can render artwork as large as 8 by 10 meters and, depending on the paint used, can produce permanent or temporary images. Besides the obvious uses in large-scale street art and advertising installations, the technology could have some interesting and rather useful applications in disaster relief, where the rapid printing process can enable quick and effective visual communication signaling shelter, food and water, danger zones, or medical aid.

Design is research. Driven by the desire to discover and understand. Above all a new design comes from a foreshadowing, which is looked into. Step by step this turns into an insight. If someone finally senses the result as being ‘beautiful’ or ‘new’, these are the many steps required of understanding, which produce a coherent whole. New aesthetics through new technology. Thus the Facadeprinter and the resulting rough printed appearance inseparably belong together.”

Here’s how it works: An integrated laser displays a bounding box of the artwork onto the wall, affixing its position. A paintball system converted into a printhead then shoots the color balls onto the wall, conveying the gelatine-encapsulated color balls to the marker where they are accelerated to a speed of 200km per hour. Upon contact with the wall, the balls burst, leaving dots 5 to 10 cm in diameter. The emptied out gelatine shells fall down to the ground where they can decompose naturally after rain without residue.

What makes Facadeprinter particularly interesting is that it’s an odd intersection of art and algorithm, raising questions of whether we can automate street art and preserve its message, and whether urban visual communication can serve as a design-driven humanitarian solution.

via

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 5:00 am in art, software, technology and was tagged art, cool, graffiti, innovation, software, street art, technology.

Facadeprinter: Graffiti Meets Paintball: Innovative inkjet printer in architectonical scale — a simple, software-… http://bit.ly/bSo6xK

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

SharedLooks on July 20th, 2010 at 6:15 am

Facadeprinter: Graffiti Meets Paintball http://tinyurl.com/2eer8zv

LenKendall on July 20th, 2010 at 6:30 am

Facadeprinter – Banksy meets paintball meets ChalkBot, what’s not to love? http://bit.ly/crkB3F

brainpicker on July 19th, 2010 at 11:30 pm

Fabulous indeed! RT @brainpicker Facadeprinter – Banksy meets paintball meets ChalkBot, what’s not to love? http://bit.ly/crkB3F

binnenstebinnen on July 20th, 2010 at 6:34 am

RT @brainpicker: Facadeprinter – Banksy meets paintball meets ChalkBot, what’s not to love? http://bit.ly/crkB3F

AntoineTwitts on July 20th, 2010 at 6:34 am

Algorithmic paintball graffiti – three words that were born to live together: http://bit.ly/a71IDY (via @brainpicker)

blprnt on July 20th, 2010 at 6:35 am

@brainpicker re: “much #streetart orbits cult of the individual creator” http://bit.ly/crkB3F (& in #highart! except: http://is.gd/dzpBH)

janeskanky on July 19th, 2010 at 11:46 pm

#graffiti for geeks: http://bit.ly/bChzf3 #facadeprinter #streetart

cayas on July 20th, 2010 at 6:57 am

#graffiti for geeks: http://bit.ly/bChzf3 #facadeprinter #streetart http://bit.ly/d1O8Wo

hntrgthrr on July 20th, 2010 at 7:01 am

@brainpicker re: “much #streetart orbits cult of the individual creator” http://bit.ly/crkB3F (& in #highart! exce… http://bit.ly/bnVD1S

hntrgthrr on July 20th, 2010 at 12:01 am

El Graffiti conoce el Paintball – http://bit.ly/amm3XQ

gustmv on July 20th, 2010 at 8:57 am

RT @gustmv

elcalvok on July 20th, 2010 at 8:58 am

RT @elcalvok: RT @gustmv

gaborios on July 20th, 2010 at 2:00 am

Facadeprinter: Graffiti Meets Paintball http://bit.ly/bQH90X

saoireobrien on July 20th, 2010 at 9:24 am

VERY cool! RT @saoireobrien Facadeprinter: Graffiti Meets Paintball http://bit.ly/bQH90X

melissa_djohnst on July 20th, 2010 at 9:29 am

Digital Graffiti! http://bit.ly/crkB3F

liveincirca on July 20th, 2010 at 2:29 am

RT @gustmv: El Graffiti conoce el Paintball – http://bit.ly/amm3XQ

mad_kick on July 20th, 2010 at 3:27 am

If you missed it ? Facadeprinter: Point-and-shoot graffiti printer – Banksy meets paintball, what’s not to love? http://bit.ly/crkB3F

brainpicker on July 20th, 2010 at 1:41 pm

Ao som de Radiohead, Banksy e paintball: RT @brainpicker: Banksy meets paintball, what’s not to love? http://bit.ly/crkB3F

roberto_fjr on July 20th, 2010 at 1:44 pm

Cool but automating street art makes it fake – Facadeprinter Point & shoot graffiti maker, street art meets paintball http://bit.ly/crkB3F

KSiddall on July 20th, 2010 at 1:49 pm

RT @roberto_fjr Ao som de Radiohead, Banksy e paintball: RT @brainpicker: Banksy meets paintball, what’s not to love? http://bit.ly/crkB3F

adalbertoasf on July 20th, 2010 at 1:50 pm

Edi Rama, mayor who gave us technicolor Tirana (http://bit.ly/bWaP03), needs a Facadeprinter Paintball Graffiti Machine http://bit.ly/biRdTt

DomusWeb on July 20th, 2010 at 1:52 pm

RT @brainpicker: If you missed it ? Facadeprinter: Point-and-shoot graffiti printer – Banksy meets paintball, what’s not to love? http://bit.ly/crkB3F

craftivista on July 20th, 2010 at 6:53 am

ztraveler88 on July 20th, 2010 at 7:32 am

KrzysBaszton on July 20th, 2010 at 7:59 am

RT @brainpicker Facadeprinter: Point-&-shoot graffiti printer – Banksy meets paintball, what’s not to love? http://bit.ly/crkB3F

lyndons on July 20th, 2010 at 10:52 am

Do NOT show this to my son! RT @brainpicker Point-and-shoot graffiti printer – Banksy meets paintball http://bit.ly/crkB3F )

d4v3g on July 20th, 2010 at 3:06 pm

Facadeprinter – Still a prototype but a great idea! Graffiti meets paintball: http://bit.ly/crkB3F

edutechnews on July 20th, 2010 at 5:11 pm

RT @brainpicker Banksy meets paintball, what’s not to love? http://bit.ly/crkB3F @SubismLive

thisisbazaar on July 20th, 2010 at 9:00 pm

folkek on July 21st, 2010 at 2:11 am

Facadeprinter: Graffiti Meets Paintball. http://bit.ly/biRdTt

angrylush on July 26th, 2010 at 5:48 am

RT @DomusWeb: Edi Rama, mayor who gave us technicolor Tirana (http://bit.ly/bWaP03), needs a Facadeprinter Paintball Graffiti Machine http://bit.ly/biRdTt