Unfortunately, the city of Northfield has been savaged lately by gaggles of bored, pimply little punks who get a kick out of spray painting historic buildings along the river. There are always the usual methods for putting an end to the problem---public executions, poison ivy, punji sticks, wild cougars---but these often come at the expense of the community.
What if there was a way to let the little bastards channel their angst and mischief in ways that wouldn't bother the rest of us? Obviously, Grand Theft Auto must not be doing the trick.
Instead of picking up a can of paint, they could just grab a camera; a couple of flashlights, and write or draw whatever their heart desired with Light Graffiti.
It's actually really fun. What you do is you set up the camera on a tripod, set it to a fifteen second exposure, press the button, and then wave LED's around in the frame. The result is an effect that makes it look like you've painted with light. Every movement from a bright light source that the sensor picks up during those fifteen seconds is going to register on the final image as a continuous line. Using Light
Graffiti, kids could still get the thrill of sneaking around the city after curfew, and they'd still be able to come to school the next day with impressive pictures of what they did the night before.
I don't know, maybe I'm missing the point. After all, I've never been much of a vandal myself (I personally love the police and always feel a little pang of guilt when I jaywalk). It'd kinda go along the same line as root beer and nicotine patches.
And for those of you who are stealing flower pots from the kind old ladies on main street, you're going to hell. Even if there was some kind of Light Graffiti Flower-pot-stealing substitute, we'd still be going over to Bridge Square for a hanging.
The illustrious Mateo Trujillo has created a more in depth light graffiti photo essay that can be found at his website.
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