Cyber Graffiti
Cyber Graffiti is a software art project and computer painting application by Andrew Rosinski. In homage to early ASCII art and terminal art cyber communities, to graffiti artists, and to early computer painting and graphics programs, it takes the label “computer painting,” a title propagated by Albert Oehlen in the '90s, and develops it through praxis by embracing processes and aesthetics that are native to computation, not merely simulated by it.
As cyberspace and its media artifacts continue to age, a new frontier emerges: cyber graffiti, the act of repurposing, deconstructing, defacing, tagging, and reassembling both new and old forms of visual media.
Cyber Graffiti uses the street art techniques of graffiti — from the Italian graffio, ‘a scratch,’ adopted into English in the mid-19th century — and applies them to computer painting as a starting point for visual composition by way of painting, drawing, and typography. The app tiles a repurposed image of a red brick wall into a digital simulacrum of an urban facade, a virtual surface to graffiti, and that cyberspace is the starting point as the user navigates between distinct cyberscapes using each as a virtual surface for composition.
Technically, Cyber Graffiti is a computer painting and graphics and design application built around a core toolkit of brushes, color and pattern palettes, text tools and typographic effects, and animated .gif “charms.” Its export engine produces still images, video, and animated .gifs in square, portrait, or landscape aspect ratios. It is an anti-corporate, experimental software tool for new ideas.
Support
For questions, bug reports, or feedback about Cyber Graffiti, email andrew.rosinski@gmail.com. Please include your device model, operating system version, and a description of the issue.