The group of 12 graffiti artists surrounds its target, a sculpture in Manhattan known as The Cube,
and waits for the signal to begin tagging it up. It’s a daunting task
– the 15-foot sculpture in Astor Place was recently coated with
anti-graffiti paint.

But within seconds, The Cube is covered in LED Throwies, the latest
innovation from the Graffiti Research Lab, or GRL, an open-source think
tank dedicated to developing new methods and tools for street artists.

Despite its coating of Acrolon paint and extra lacquer, the metallic
sculpture isn’t protected from the magnetic, multicolored LEDs, which
attach themselves to every surface.

The commotion soon attracts a crowd of passersby, and suddenly everyone, including kids, are throwing Throwies.

The GRL was started by graffiti writers Q-Branch and Fi5e after a
brainstorm on, among other things, how to get around anti-graffiti
paint.

To them, the lab is part of the cat-and-mouse game that graffiti
artists constantly play with city authorities. Anti-graffiti paint is
simply the most recent weapon in the battle against the artists, but
"if the cat ramps up, so does the mouse," said Fi5e.

LED Throwies, which cost only 75 cents to make and stay bright for
two weeks, are one of several DIY, street-ready technologies that the
GRL has dreamed up since its inception in February.

Another development is the Electro-Graf,
a technique that lets street artists embed LEDs, motors, solar panels
or other electrical objects into a wall using conductive spray paint.
Electro-Graf techniques give traditional tags a vibrant shine or even
moving parts.

The ragtag group making its mark on The Cube includes students from the Geek Graffiti class at Parsons and members of the graffiti group Visual Resistance.

"Graffiti is such a mainstay here that New Yorkers pass over it, but
this catches their eye and maybe makes them think about how they
interact with public space," said Jack, a member of Visual Resistance
who withheld her last name.

The group prepared for the night’s activities by making more than 600 LED Throwies and playing the new video game Getting Up by fashion designer Marc Ecko, whose main character, "Trane," is a rebellious graffiti artist.

Although this is only the second group outing for LED Throwies, the adventure in new age graffiti is hailed a success.

"It’s nondestructive graffiti, which is great," said Valorie Gentile, who is walking by The Cube
when the LED assault begins. "Usually graffiti is a negative thing but
this seems to have children and families involved, which is not typical
of graffiti."

The tagging begins when Fi5e places an LED arrangement spelling
"Free Borf" on The Cube. It’s an example of a "night writer" that
spells out different taggers’ names. In this case "Borf" is a pseudonym
for John Tsombikos, an 18-year-old graffiti artist in Washington, D.C.,
who was recently arrested.

The field test helps GRL smooth out any kinks, such as the fact that
LED Throwies often bounce off their targets instead of sticking.

By David Cohn
Wired.com