Blu has recently “vandalized the facade of Tate Modern,” as it is written in Blu’s sketch note-book, and it would be amazing to see, I’ve no doubt. I’m particularly intrigued, however, by Blu’s wall-painted animations, such as Muto, a fantastic and fantastical “ambiguous animation painted on public walls made in Buenos Aires and Baden.”

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

We normally think of animation as having the ability to transport us into a fantastical space often not possible in the “real” world, but this work raises the possibility of a “site-specific animation”; one that knowingly uses the 3D world to metaphorically animate the meaning of the animation.

On one level, Blu is literally animating the public sphere, although beyond the process itself, the result is screen-based playback. Would it be differently meaningful to see the animation projected back onto the walls used in the animation?

And what would it mean if all the “urban screens” popping up around the globe were blu(e) screen studios in the physical world for locals’ creativity not, primarily, a black hole through which to deliver globalized commodity advertising into a local context?

via jugaad