Story
Digital Graffiti 2014 Photo Gallery and Storylines
June 9, 2014 by Kurt Lischka
Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach gives artists a complex canvas to explore the intersections of art and architecture - projecting digital video creations onto the town's white walls. Once darkness falls, the town is set aglow each June as artists compete for $10,000 in cash prizes. A panel of judges select six award winners including Best of Show; Best in Florida; Curator’s Choice; and three Honorable Mentions.
This year featured a Thursday night Curator's Tour, Friday night Gallery Stroll, and Saturdays' main event, preceeeded by a soiree inside the tent with local DJ Lady Muse at Fonville Press hosted by Emerald Coast Magazine.
DJ Lady Muse is a local favorite on the SoWal music scene.
“Watching our beautiful, stark, white washed walls and roofs become completely transformed by the colorful and evocative swirling pieces of digital art is truly an inspiring experience, says town architect and DG 2014 Judge Marieanne Khoury-Vogt. “The projected vivid images that mold and melt against the backdrop of our sculptural architecture are fascinating to observe.”
Parade and lantern artist Chantelle Rytter of New Orleans says, “I love the idea of a culture that allows people to get together. I love the idea of something that transforms us,” Rytter says.
For DG2014, Rytter presented the world debut of “Magical Anxiety,” a performance art piece that stars a 20-foot animated and illuminated albino alligator, fondly referred to as Alys, in an unexpected place - Lake Marilyn.
“It’s about how absurd it can be when your fears take on a life of their own,” she says of the storyline.
Live performance of "Magical Anxiety" included Albino Alligator and Lake Marylin Bridge.
Saturday night ended with a phantasmagoria of sight and sound at Caliza Pool with digital projections, Facetime photo booth, libations, and a deck-pounding danceathon. VJ and DG2014 Artist Finalist Amber Bushnell and DJ Nick James kept the crowd rocking until midnight.
Nick James under the palms at Caliza Pool
Proceeds benefit The Alys Foundation, which supports select local charities. For more information on the event, email events@alysbeach.com, call (866) 481-8390 or visit www.digitalgraffiti.com.
The Digital Graffiti 2014 Finalists
USA
David Bennett of Nashville, Tennessee for “SCAN-A-MATION”
Zlatko Cosic of St Louis, Missouri for “Elans”
Terri Dilling of Atlanta, Georgia for “COLORCAST” (top photo)
Jason Giles of Boulder, Colorado for “Dubstep Dispute”
Irene Mamiye of New York, New York for “Veils”
Aaron O’Laughlin of Green Cove Springs, Florida for “The Hifi Envelope — Cold Day, Warm Tide”
Onur Senturk of Los Angeles, California & Instanbul, Turkey for “Triangle”
Matt Swift of Columbus, Ohio for “City Lights — Oglebay Park Festival of Lights”
Joseph Toney and Aaron Fairbanks of Boone, North Carolina for “Imbroglio”
Michael Wyshock of Sarasota, Florida for “Perpetual Muscle Memory”
CANADA
Claire Bennett of Toronto, Ontario, Canada for “Phylogeny”
Evond Mediah Blake of Toronto, Ontario, Canada for “DAXIM14”
EUROPE
Sandra Araújo of Porto, Portugal for “runtime error”
John Clive of London, United Kingdom for “transitions”
Mickael Doczekalski of Paris, France for “Atlantis”
John-Paul Frenay of Brussels, Belgium for “Artificial Paradise”
LIA of Vienna, Austria for “Transition 89-2.0”
Marco Mendeni of Milano, Italy for “r lightTweakSunlight 01”
Christian Niccoli of Berlin, Germany for “Ohne Titel (untitled)”
Robert Seidel of Berlin, Germany for “folds”
Matteo Pasin of Ponzano Veneto, Treviso Italy for “idclip”
AUSTRALIA
Brit Bunkley of Wanganui, New Zealand for “Paradox of Plenty”
ASIA
Gunja Bose and Sajid Hasan Dilawar of Kolkata, India for “Ballet”
In addition to the finalists, the festival showcased the site-specific work of four American artists who workshopped their pieces during the Artist in Residency program at Alys Beach last January:
Amber Bushnell of Missoula, Montana
Dmitry Kmelnitsky of Los Angeles, California
Richard Kroehling of New York, New York
David Montgomery of Fernandina Beach, Florida
David Montgomery presents "The Digital Zoetrope" - the 19th century meets the 21st century in this reproduction of Tim Wheatley's "The Cylotrope" - analaog meets digital in a 200-year cinematic cycle.
Author's selfie silhouette, getting lost in “Artificial Paradise” by John-Paul Frenay of Brussels, Belgium.
SoWal.com is a proud sponsor of Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach for the seventh year - see you for Digital Graffiti 2015!
Tagged
As a happy ambassador of South Walton, Kurt loves to share SoWal with the world through stories, photos, videos, texting, social media, and even telephone.
