Why Things Matter: Digital Graffiti

As boundaries between real and virtual are blurring, we can consider doing more stuff digitally instead of physically. The neighborhood I’m living every once in a while is under attack of graffiti artists. A recent MIT Media Lab project called Second Surface delivers a substitute: anyone can add his art and creativity on real life objects digitally and those can be seen by anyone else using Second Surface. It reminds me of Julian Bleecker’s “objects that blog”, explored in his “Manifesto for Networked Objects: Cohabiting with Pigeons, Arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things “. The short title of his Manifesto is “Why Things Matter”. A wall can be a digital blogject using MIT technology, and the real thing itself can stay as it is at the same time. And that’s nice, a wall is a thing that matters to me. Second Surface from Tangible Media Group on Vimeo.