It’s a shopping cart pushed by a half human robot! Creator GroG explains:
I was interested in the concept of automating aspects of society that were considered not so “glamorous”. Robotics are often used in environments which are considered dangerous to humans. Deep sea exploration, nuclear cleanup and volcanism are some of the “higher profile” adverse environments which robots are used. My question was, “What about other dangerous or hazardous areas?”. For example, homeless people live in extremely dangerous environments. Shouldn’t there be automated equipment used by this strata of society? So, for this project I chose to implement an automated walking, homeless shopping cart.
The Post More Bills project is attacking public spaces worldwide and offering an alternative to those that would request we “Post No Bills.” Check out the video of a recent installation in New York City:
Their website explains:
Post More Bills campaign calls for posting as much bills as possible. Bills – A response to “Post No Bills”–attack New York City. Bills likes to appear wherever they are not wanted. A humorous approach to posting your own thoughts on the street. There is no hidden program, there is no bigger meaning, other than to spreading Bills far and wide and bring a bit of playful relief in our visually saturated media environment. As you walk through the city you will find yourself bombarded with images that promise or imply or accuse. We want to find the space in-between this visual cacophony and place there a part of you. And we want you to help. We want the Bills to grow and flourish, so please feel free to help them grow, include them in your own designs.The only condition we ask is that you make no money from the image. The bills are free for you to download, reproduce and modify, so long as they are not used for commercial gain.
Master Prankster Rob Cockerham and his friends around the country recently added some extra signage to the sheds on display in their local Home Depot parking lots.
Rob explains:
Home Depot, forced to lure customers inside without glitzy display windows, seed the warehouse perimeter with their products. This is only practical with hard-to-shoplift items, such as bags of steer manure and storage sheds.
Unfortunately, these sun-baked displays are all but abandoned by the sales staff, and must rely on graphics and signage to speak to their potential customers.
Despite an ambitious number of signs, I felt my local home depot wasn’t addressing some of the strongest benefits of owning a garden/storage/privacy shed/mini-garage/closet. I decided to make some new signs and try them out!
With nine eager volunteers poised to help, I sent signs to try out across the country.
Artist Michael Rakowitz came up with a clever way to camp out on an urban street, make your tent look like it’s a covered car!
He writes:
(P)LOT questions the occupation and dedication of public space and encourages reconsiderations of “legitimate” participation in city life. Contrary to the common procedure of using municipal parking spaces as storage surfaces for vehicles, (P)LOT proposes the rental of these parcels of land for alternative purposes. The acquisition of municipal permits and simple payment of parking meters could enable citizens to, for example, establish temporary encampments or use the leased ground for different kinds of activities, such as temporary gardens, outdoor dining, game playing, etc. A first initiative for this re-dedication is realized through the conversion of ordinary car covers to portable tents for use as living units or leisure spaces. Ranging from a common sedan to a luxurious Porsche or Lexus, the tents enable a broadcast of desire within the marginalized space of need.
Here’s a great site specific piece by Supakitch. It looks like a sweet bear during the day, but at night when the green subway entrance light comes on, it looks totally sinister.
For their latest mission, 20 Improv Everywhere agents personally welcomed home total strangers at JFK airport. Grabbing first and last names from car driver signs, they greeted strangers with personalized posters, flowers, balloons, and a 10-foot wide banner reading, “Welcome Back.”
Dave Hoffer, a creative director at Frog Design, recently coined the term “Disruptive Realism” to describe much of what we post about on this blog. He introduces the term in the video above and then elaborates:
Disruptive Realism is an expression presented in an everyday context that disrupts peoples perceptions about different things. Expression can mean many things and it a way it’s art but it’s also much more expansive a term than just art.
Banksy’s graffiti looks real enough that you might do a double take looking at it. It draws you into the content which is disruptive…like a little girl flying a refrigerator kite in New Orleans.
The other two examples are even more non-conventional than the word Art implies. Most people hear the word art and they think of a painting in a museum. Because Bruno Taylor’s work is an experience that involves physical designs like the swing set in the bus stop, the viewer is no longer viewing, they’re interacting and the videos he takes of people enjoying the installations are, in fact, part of the art. So this example is difficult to define, but definitely real and definitely disruptive.
Improv Everywhere is one part performance art and one part massive, crowdsourced goof. People get together (often strangers) to collaborate on a kind of a joke on the unsuspecting and unknowing non-participants. In a way, it’s almost an anti-terrorism…Humorism? But again, very real and very disruptive.
The amount of media coverage the Fake New York Times stunt received was staggering. It spread to news outlets all over the globe like wildfire. The chief organizers of the event, Andy Bichlbaum from The Yes Men and Steve Lambert from the Anti-Advertising Agency appeared on CNN the day after the storm to discuss the project.
