The Binary Graffiti Club

arebyte Gallery is pleased to announce The Binary Graffiti Club, a project inspiring people to see the city as canvas to create change through the use of code, workshops and activism.

The Binary Graffiti Club is a user friendly public participatory spectacle and public engagement event across the urban space, with the hope of creating new narratives for the playful engagement of the environment, which also encompasses performance, politics and art.

Formed of a group of members of the general public, The Binary Graffiti Club aims to explore themes of control and identity in the city, in response to a sense of disillusionment and lack of trust, as well as a general apathy within youth culture and culture in general. The exhibition at arebyte centres around a series of workshops and activities that asks the participants to be active and to engage in their own environment and local community.

The workshops include the creation of statements, where participants draw from expert speakers and brainstorm on their future and the future of politics. This is then translated into zeros and ones and made into graffiti stencils, so that participants use the graffiti works on the streets exploring the local area and creating a series of public interventions. The workshop is also collaborating with the Barbican as part of their Too young for what? day and is seeing the wider public interacting with the graffiti.
The production of a musical score composed of a series of binary codes extracted from the manifestos is also a component of the project, explored with the support of musician Richard Frostick. The final result is a singing workshop in binary code, in other words, a Binary Choir.

An extension of “flâneur” who wanders without aim, The Binary Graffiti Club creates a new sense of urgency and agency as the city is reclaimed for cultural change. This provides a platform to celebrate the pioneering spirit of digital innovation and culture, through creative collusion and a socially engaged artistic practice. We are nothing more than zeros and ones, however, this give us influence, hope and the ability to affect the code we are made of and therefore the system. We are active agents of change and as the assets we are responsible for directing the flow. The artwork created represents the hopes and aspirations of people set in various contexts.