Old City Hall gets projection bombed

With the Street Art Showcase set to take place this weekend, organizers have scheduled a number of projection bombing events around the city in anticipation of the main event. And what better place to get into the virtual graffiti game than at Nathan Phillips Square, the mayor's figurative backyard? Most of the images were projected onto Old City Hall, but based on a few of the selections I think the message was clear enough.

Or was it? The thing about projection style graffiti is that its lack of permanence tends to free it from designations of vandalism. All you have to do to get rid of it, after all, is turn off the light source. This has led some to speculate that it could be a way to foster street art without inconveniencing those who aren't keen on having their property "improved." While it'd be completely naive to think that street artists will mass-migrate to projection-based works, there's no denying that there's significant potential for this relatively new medium, one which is well-suited to showcasing a variety of work and interactive applications in general.

If you're interested in checking out a projection bombing session or seeing one of your own images blown up, the Street Art Showcase will be using their Twitter feed to reveal upcoming locations.

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Photos by Tony Chen