Secret Banksy Show Location Revealed

Well, it’s “official.” If you’re in LA, go check it out:

Banksy hits Disneyland

Prolific UK graffiti artist Banksy switched gears this week, following up on his cheeky hack of Paris Hilton’s CD launch with a disturbing attack on that bulwark of all things wholesome and good, Disneyland. Somehow, Bansky managed to get into the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Ride with a life-size figurine of a Guantanamo Bay detainee. The figurine was positioned behind a fence so as to appear imprisoned to passers-by. According to the BBC, the figurine stood for about 90 minutes before the ride was shut down.

Flickr user madeofchalk has a banksy photoset with a couple shots from the installation. Also, if you’re going to be in LA between September 15th and 17th, keep an eye on Banksy’s site for the location of a secret “three day vandalized warehouse extravaganza.”

LED Throwies Resources

Since their appearance on the web back in February of 2006, LED throwies have really caught on. Something about this impermanent, non-destructive (though slightly wasteful) method of modding one’s environment seems to have struck a chord with people in cities around the world. Here are a few handy resources and inspiring installations I found via a recent Technorati and Google search:

Making Your Own Throwies

• Instructables has a very comprehensive step-by-step guide to making throwies, from sourcing the parts to finding appropriate ferromagnetic surfaces upon which to affix your glowing works of art. You can also search their site for several other throwie-related projects like this one.

• Flickr user EverythingDigital has a nice series of annotated pictures showing how to mod your throwies such that they have a handy on/off tab. There’s also a podcast on EverythingDigital’s weblog that touches on the subject.

• If you’ve got a lot of extra time, you might want to try making the microchip-controlled Computerized Throwie, which blinks.

Supplies

• Europeans should check out German online retailer dotlight, which sells pre-packaged throwie kits for about 5 euros each.

• A good list of UK suppliers of throwie components can be found here.

• Alan’s Electronic Projects seems to be a decent bet for North American shoppers. And you can always try eBay…

Installations

• Graffiti Research Lab came up with the whole idea in the first place, and their site has an inspiring video clip of a rather large throwie installation, along with many of the links found here.

• Ruairi Glynn at Interactive Architecture dot org has a description and some photos of a recent GRL installation at Ars Electronica 2006:

While I was in Linz, Austria for Ars Electronica, the Graffiti Research Lab put together a workshop to make as many LED throwies as they could and then organised a meeting in the town center to decorate the trams that run through the city… You should have seen the passengers of the trams faces when the crowd from Ars Electronica decended on them. (interactivearchitecture.org)

• And, of course, videos and images (like this and these) of installations worldwide can be found all over YouTube and Flickr.