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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Graffiti Writer
Institute for Applied Autonomy,
Institute of Applied Autonomy
Original: PR_2000_graffitiwriter_001_o.jpg | 295 * 295px | 68.4 KB
Original: PR_2000_graffitiwriter_002_o.jpg | 295 * 215px | 71.2 KB
A Tactical Platform for
Remote Content Deployment
The advent of next generation military/police technologies for urban use has made engaging in active social insurgency an increasingly risky venture. Real-time video surveillance systems1, networked databases, urban infiltration robots2, and a flurry of “nonviolent” restraint and subjugation technologies threaten to have a chilling effect on traditional methods of cultural resistance, particularly the creation and dissemination of subversive texts. The Robotic GraffitiWriter (GW) was developed in response to the need for a high speed, teleoperated, portable platform that operates beyond the line of sight (BLOS) to disseminate unsanctioned content in the dynamic adversarial urban environment. In repeated testing, this system has proven its effectiveness on such high risk/high profile targets as the U.S. Capital Building as well as numerous urban commercial and municipal spaces in the US and abroad.
Following its first full year of active service, an in-depth technological assessment was performed on GraffitiWriter. During this time several significant upgrades were made to GraffitiWriter including a full mechanical and electronic sub-system overhaul. With these improvements, GW now meets the requirements of strategic transportability, operating with extreme confidence in standard threat scenarios including public parks, federal
buildings, and shopping malls.
References
1 Kanade, Collins and Lipton. “Advances in Cooperative Multi-Sensor Video Surveillance”. Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1998.2 US Army Research Laboratories, “Pandora: A Robotic System for Operations in Urban Environments - Final Design Document”, official contract report submission, March 1998.
Remote Content Deployment
The advent of next generation military/police technologies for urban use has made engaging in active social insurgency an increasingly risky venture. Real-time video surveillance systems1, networked databases, urban infiltration robots2, and a flurry of “nonviolent” restraint and subjugation technologies threaten to have a chilling effect on traditional methods of cultural resistance, particularly the creation and dissemination of subversive texts. The Robotic GraffitiWriter (GW) was developed in response to the need for a high speed, teleoperated, portable platform that operates beyond the line of sight (BLOS) to disseminate unsanctioned content in the dynamic adversarial urban environment. In repeated testing, this system has proven its effectiveness on such high risk/high profile targets as the U.S. Capital Building as well as numerous urban commercial and municipal spaces in the US and abroad.
Following its first full year of active service, an in-depth technological assessment was performed on GraffitiWriter. During this time several significant upgrades were made to GraffitiWriter including a full mechanical and electronic sub-system overhaul. With these improvements, GW now meets the requirements of strategic transportability, operating with extreme confidence in standard threat scenarios including public parks, federal
buildings, and shopping malls.
References
1 Kanade, Collins and Lipton. “Advances in Cooperative Multi-Sensor Video Surveillance”. Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1998.2 US Army Research Laboratories, “Pandora: A Robotic System for Operations in Urban Environments - Final Design Document”, official contract report submission, March 1998.
The Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA), was found in 1998 as a technological research and development organization concerned with individual and collective self-determination. The IAA is comprised of engineers, computer scientists, artists, designers and activists who choose to work collectively while remaining anonymous as individuals. The IAA has exhibited as technologists at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation; as artists at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany; and as activists in numerous illegal actions.