Open City, is an exhibition and series of public programs that focus on the innovations of graffiti, street art and urban intervention. Choosing not to bring this work, intended for the streets, into the gallery, Eyebeam has asked a NYC and international roster of artists and collaborative groups to present their process via video documentation of work in the gallery alongside displays of the actual tools used to generate the works on the streets. A series of screenings, presentations and workshops exploring tool building, tactics, techniques and approaches to communication by any means necessary within the urban context, will accompany the exhibition and turn Eyebeam into an active and participatory environment for the duration of the show.

Invited participants include:

Aram Bartholl, Berlin

BORF, Washington D.C.

Graffiti Research Lab, NYC

Institute for Applied Autonomy, USA

Improv Everywhere, NYC

Mark Jenkins, Washington D.C.

KATSU, NYC

KR, NYC

Object Orange, Detroit

Leon Reid, NYC

Matthias Wermke, Berlin

Krzysztof Wodiczko, PL/NYC

Using the activities of Graffiti Reseach Lab, a collaboration formed in Eyebeam’s R&D OpenLab in 2006, as a departure point, Open City examines graffiti as a form of action more akin to performance than visual art. By displaying only documentation and artifacts (tools and evidence of them in action) in the gallery, Open City strives to keep graffiti projects from being treated as precious objects and highlights the thought process and actions of its practitioners rather than the physical evidence of what is left behind.

Open City uses a broad definition of the term `graffiti’, encompassing anythingwhich happens in public space that doesn’t ask for permission. Projects included in the exhibition range from spray paint to digital projection, urban pranks, robotics, site specific sculpture and more. Materials and technologies range from high-tech projectors and custom machinery to simple homemade markers and inks, innovative uses of low-cost materials, the internet, hacking and re-appropriation of existing urban systems.