Hidden Away –
During my recent trip to Barcelona, I was was mesmerised by the colour and variety of the street art both in and around the city. I briefly touched on this in part one of this post called ‘Barcelona Graffiti’. I still don’t know exactly why I was so drawn to the graffiti (street art), except to say that the colours were amazing! It seemed to relentlessly permeate throughout the whole fabric of the city, weaving a disjointed tapestry of colours. Indeed it could even be described in some places as a riot of colour on an otherwise typical traditional cityscape and its walls. All of this was in stark contrast to the walls of one of Barcelona’s most famous contemporary art museums, namely the MACBA. Here there was no graffiti. Everything inside was pristine with beautiful gleaming white walls.
A Short Recap
Below is short video recap from Barcelona Graffit part one. It helps to illustrate the scale of graffiti and street art that can be found in and around the city.
In stark contrast to the brightly coloured graffiti in the video above, the following image gallery illustrates the crisp, clean, neutral architectural lines and pristine walls of the MACBA. In my opinion this would be the perfect playground for any budding graffiti artist. As the saying goes (in terms of spaying the walls), it would be almost ‘rude not to’. Unfortunately if this was to happen in real life then I suspect there would probably be severe consequences attached? Fortunately, we have Photoshop, Ai and augmented reality that can help realise the idea of graffiti covered walls at the MACBA.
Creating Believable Imagery
When I began my visual exploration of the Barcelona Graffiti, I wasn’t entirely sure that my photoshop skills were up to producing authentic looking graffiti imagery. However, after watching a number of tutorials I felt able to try. The first stage in my process was to take some of my favourite graffiti images from my trip and have Ai create variations. The main reason for this step is because I knew Ai could quickly generate alternative graffiti imagery from the original images. This imagery would be close enough to the original graffiti preserving the design, colours and style etc. – all while being far enough away, so as not to impinge on anyone’s copyright.
Below are a few before and after examples.
Applying Graffiti to the MACBA Walls
i wasn’t entirely sure that Photoshop was going to be the best digital tool for this experiment but it’s the one that I know the best. So I decided to explore a number of tutorials to help me achieve the best results. There is a feature called ‘Vanishing Point’ that resides under the ‘Filter’ menu and this is for warping imagery to fit the perspective of any shape or view. I decided to give it a try and I’m glad that I did because I think it makes each scene look just that little bit more believable. Below are some before and after images of some of the MACBA walls with and without the reimagined digital graffiti applied.
As an aside I also investigated graffiti that I found in the city of Plymouth in the U.K. Although there were distinct differences the graffiti style was still completely recognisable. There was a lot more writing in the sample that I found in Plymouth. However I also found some really good examples of graffiti wall art closer to home. Therefore, my feeling was that the type of graffiti depended largely upon location. Demographics may also play a part. Indeed, there could be a whole study into graffiti. For the sake of comparison I have added a video short below of some of the Plymouth graffiti that I found.
MACBA Metamorphosis
The Light at Barcelona’s MACBA contemporary art museum is particularly beautiful. The building has high ceilings and pristine white walls that create a beautiful light bright and airy atmosphere. Outside on the walls of the city it is a different story. Barcelona is covered in a mix of street art and graffiti. There is a passion to this form of art evidenced by the beauty of the chosen colour palettes. There is so much graffiti that seems that the locals no longer shy from it, but actually embrace it as part of their culture.
The thinking behind this project was to bring together the beautiful street art from the outside to the pristine walls of the MACBA’s inside. It would be criminal to spray graffiti onto the actual walls of the MACBA so here the concept is explored digitally.
The original photographs were taken at the MACBA using a smartphone – then original Barcelona graffiti was then reimagined using Ai. This was to ensure that no copyrights were infringed. The resulting reimagined images were then animated using Ai. An augmented reality app was then utilised to hide the new graffiti animations inside a book made from the original images.
This video shows the metamorphosis of parts of the MACBA, moving from clean crisp interiors to graffiti-clad walls. In many of the augmented reality videos hidden within the book, the MACBA metamorphosis is severe and in others less so. However it is a total metamorphosis combining the colour city exterior with the pristine inside of one of Barcelona’s most prestigious contemporary art museums. Welcome to the MACBA metamorphosis.
No Escape Yet!
I had decided that I was going to leave this project at this point, i.e. on completion of the augmented reality video. However, for some strange reason I felt that I was still being drawn back to the MACBA and the Barcelona graffiti. I was actually feeling somewhat torn. I actually need to move onto my research paper, and I also have a number of 3d experiments lined up to complete. No matter how I approached starting or recommencing other projects I felt this one needed to reach some level of closure. I particularly liked the idea of a hidden reality – my internal vision of graffiti ‘plastered’ all over the pristine white walls of the MACBA. Maybe this was reactionary or revolutionary thinking on my part. Secretly I’d love to take colourful spray paints and unleash my frustrations all over the MACBA by way of graffiti. I’d love to disrupt the beautiful pure crisp clean environment that I saw there. However, on a more practical level I don’t want to be arrested! I also felt that the unknown Barcelona graffiti artists were much more deserving than me. On trying to rationalise my thought processes about my interest in this project I came to the following conclusions.
Barcelona Graffiti and the MACBA interest me because:
- Unless the graffiti artists are as famous as Banksy, their work will possibly never appear in the MACBA.
- The MACBA is a beautiful pristine white space and simply rife for disruption with some riotous colourful graffiti.
- Putting graffiti art into the MACBA is (to me at least), synonymous with giving a voice to the otherwise nameless and voiceless.
- It’s a wacky idea!
- I can HIDE my ideas behind an innocent looking book that only comes alive through augmented reality.
- Because I can! – To superimpose graffiti onto otherwise white walls, and then to animate it and augment it, means stretching my digital knowledge. I’m always keen to learn.
- I don’t think anyone has done this before. However I don’t want to research it too hard, because they probably have – is anything ever new?
- I’m curious to see where it leads.
The Next Stage in My Journey
Since beginning this graffiti project there have been two defining moments. Firstly, seeing the beautiful final year work by 2nd year student George Harvey and thus questioning why I’m even bothering with graffiti. Secondly, realising that I am me – indeed everyone else is taken! I began to wonder if maybe I should move back to my camera and work on something more photographic or film based? I started to look at the work of other people and weigh my own very negatively against it. I became quite down about it. I’m sure everyone must do this at some stage or other, but it was George’s work that really made me think. His work was powerful, meaningful, insightful and beautifully shot. I decided at this point that I needed to significantly ‘raise my game’.
On reflection, I felt that the idea of placing graffiti in the MACBA was quite an insightful idea. I was taking the reimagined work of artists unknown and placing them in one of Barcelona’s leading contemporary art museums. A voice to the voiceless perhaps? Maybe the concept wasn’t actually that shallow after all? My next personal challenge (taking inspiration from George’s work), was to try to make the project more technically competent. It was at this stage that I decided to produce another augmented reality book. This second book would hopefully show not only a metamorphosis of the MACBA, but also a transformation of my own technical skills.
I began compiling another book…
MACBA Metamorphosis – Changing Spaces
The doorbell rang and I was really excited to open the door because I knew it was my book that I was expecting. This book is part two in what I have decided will be a three part series, namely:
- Beautiful Light – MACBA Barcelona
- MACBA Metamorphosis – Changing Spaces
- TBC as the journey continues
Below are some images of MACBA Metamorphosis – Changing Spaces’.
MACBA Metamorphosis – Changing Spaces
The photo gallery below contains a selection of stills from my book ‘MACBA Metamorphosis’. This is the second book in my proposed series of 3 books. This book explores ai re-imagined Barcelona graffiti and how it might look sprayed onto the walls of the MACBA museum. As with book one in the series ‘Beautiful Light’, the intention is to add a layer of augmented reality to this book. I am going to explore augmented reality in more depth as part of my 21 day challenge.
