What happens when people get obsessed with photographic letters and numbers? They start using them to say things against their will, that’s what. And there are no better examples of this when it comes to computing technology than the “found characters” projects by Erik Kastner and Blu Dot.
Kastner has repurposed Flickr photos to spell whatever you like. Seriously clever use of tags. Think of it as a modern version of the original Mac’s San Francisco font. Then, it was about using the power of bit-mapped graphics to write ransom notes. Today, it’s about writing ransom notes through the emergent power of tags that allow us to harness seemingly random collections of community-generated data. It’s all about kidnapping, really. Try it at Spell with Flickr.
The good folks at Blu Dot, on the other hand, have become infatuated with patterns of numbers — they see time in everything, everywhere. To prove it, they’ve created a working clock based on “found time” photos. It’s diverse, creative stuff. Use it for a day and you’ll never look at random jumbles of numbers the same way again. Talk about spreading the obsession. Download the clock and check out the accompanying video.
Visual remixing for the masses. And, in the case of Spell with Flickr, from the masses, too.
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