The third annual ‘Digital Graffiti’ event – billed as the world’s first projection art festival – will illuminate the town of Alys Beach, Florida, tonight.
The perfect (white) backdrop: All buildings in Alys Beach, a Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) master-planned town with New Urbanism roots (emphasizing walkability, community, connectedness), are energy-efficient, white stucco-covered masonry with white tile roofs.
Event organizer Mike Ragsdale said the festival was inspired by the town’s founder, Jason Comer, who challenged his people to create an “extraordinary” annual event that would attract people to Alys Beach, which was founded in 2004.
“My company once wrote video game reviews for Time Warner, and we often tested the games by projecting them onto a huge white wall in our office,” said Ragsdale.
“Because the buildings in Alys Beach are white, it occurred to me that our town is like one giant blank canvas. So the notion of fusing together art, architecture and technology eventually evolved into the Digital Graffiti event.”
The event’s 36 participating artists, selected from a field of more than 300 applicants, will compete for $10,000 in cash prizes.
