I am currently enrolled at Parsons School of Design in NYC. I took a class called Geek Graffiti a couple of semester ago. In this class we worked in conjunction with the GRL to create technologies for urban communication. I was very familiar with the technology and LED art, so I had an idea what this was. By no means was I scared or thought was a bomb.

A couple of people outside the bar saw me climb the bridge and grab the LED Ad. People around said that they liked the Ad. “It has been up for a couple of weeks, its nice. It turns on at night.” They even mentioned some artist that they thought it was. By no means were these people scared or threatened by the LED Ad.

The Ad was far out on the bridge so I had a hard time getting to it. It was attached with magnets and hard to get off. I told Ryan to catch it but he missed and it broke. We brought it back to his place and started to dissecting it, I wanted to see how the circuit worked. After some testing I found out the construction of it.

The LEDS are attached to a circuit that takes an average level of the light using a photo resistor. Based on the level of light the LEDs will fade on or off. It is powered by 4 D batteries. The Ad life is about 2 – 3 weeks.

Ryan and I documenting the constriction of the piece and posted it to Make Blog and Flickr. This was about two weeks ago. The response was good. A little after this the creator contacted me and said:

“I am glad you got one of the adult swim signs, there are other’s out there as well so keep looking up. We were hoping that people would take them.” After this the story was over, well until the other day in Boston.

After speaking to many reporters I have to say the whole situation is getting out of hand. I respect the police and authorities for acting on the bomb scare. The bomb squad needed to sit back and realize what the Ad was. The word terrorist or bomb should never have been released to the public unless they were certain.

Take a look at this photo and this photo, The bomb squad should have been able to figure this out, before it got out of hand.

Taking “Geek Graffiti” this semester, good stuff going on. keep up.
Flickr Photos

Awesome installation done by Mark Jenkins. They are made out of packaging tape. The concept is that a giant stork is dropping off babies all over DC.

Site

Mega Man Yellow Arrow.

Charles River Yellow Arrow

Genzyme building Yellow Arrow

Hatch Shell Yellow Arrow

The Cyber Arts at Kenddal is fantastic, there are tons of really great exhibits there. You need to go down and take a look.

The end of the day.

Ryan found a treasure map.

What a great way to make public art more public. People point out art with yellow arrows that can be tracked by text messaging, creating a “real-world hyperlink”
Through this location-based exchange of text-messages, the Yellow Arrow becomes a symbol for the unique characteristics, personal histories, and hidden secrets that live within our everyday spaces

yellowarrow.net
Watch Video

I came across this today it is a must see, great fun. The power of technology and the power of creativity. “The King Has” put up pieces of wood that said to text message your secrets to a number. Oh course a everyone did so. The secrets were then printed on wood and posted. “The King Has”, sat back and watched the reactions to their work.

watch the video (very big download)
thekinghas.com

“The King Has” reminded me of a awesome lecture that I went to in New York. Even Roth a part of ni9e.com posted binary portraits of the New York council-men and posted them all of New York. The project was titled “All City Council”. Take a look at the site for more info.

Watch the video
ni9e.com

PS: Even Roth is a Pasons Design and Technology grad, hell ya!

Great Wooster Collection post, check out these street signs.visit

This is a great trick for all nerds out there. Take a picture of the area behind your computer and make it your desktop. Go make one and post it in the comments. visit

This is from Ryan.