Street Art in POST-COVID World | Tbilisi Graffiti

User Generated Street Art

It's clear to me that ideas and many forms of human expression cant be all intellectualized and put into words in books, theories, or frameworks. Art is a fundamental way to share and ignite dialogue, emotions, and source inspiration in humans. Therefore art should be available to everyone and it should have a constant impact on our everyday lives. Art should not just be — stuck in museums. Now during the time of the pandemic urban and street life is changing and will change, and I see an opportunity and a stronger need for people to express ideas, emotions, and feelings that are experiencing during this time in a more open and unrestricted way! Now, my fundamental question for this post is:

Can we create more open spaces for unrestricted artistic expression in cities?

Street and especially graffiti art have been the ultimate expression of urban art and in a way a channel for many artists to express their ideas in a less formal and unrestrictive setting. I feel this pandemic can create an opportunity to formulate and create open street and urban spaces for people to interact with and express whatever they need to express in a nonformal setting. what I call now user-generated street open art.

Tbilisi Graffiti Art Exposed

Tbilisi has an impressive collection of graffiti art across the streets some example you should check out are the Baratashvili bridge underpass, Fabrika, and surroundings! And I feel Tbilisi brings about a strong openness for artistic expression around the city.

(Commentary on graffiti videos)

Now, what can we learn from graffiti art and create more open spaces for more people share their creative work? I call it a user-generated street open art model.

Collective Art Expression through VR/AR and Social Networks

The fundamental and key aspect of graffiti art is that is real, open, ignites the urban spirit, and could be seen by everyone walking by and affecting our everyday lives. The problem with graffiti art is that many times is associated with vandalism and invading the private and public property. But this problem could be combated with tech especially VR/AR and Social Networks, and make it available to everyone. An artist with the name of (Elicser Elliott) Elicserz, created this hashtag on Instagram #dontknowitsart asking people to share things they find on the street that people could deem as art and/or beautiful but not necessarily think its actual art. Now, tech like AR/VR can bridge the space between the physical and virtual, and empower people to create more art and share in social networks. Google has already created a tool called TiltBrush and lets you paint in 3D space with virtual reality.

Enhancing street life and inspire more people.

Projection Mapping art is already making use of buildings and creating amazing digital and interactive experiences in open public spaces. So I envision a network that empowers users to utilize digital tools via their smartphone using software and other hardware and creating a new space for expression to enhance and inspire our everyday urban experiences and pushing the boundaries out of virtual and real. But at the same time empower people to share new ideas and forms of expression.

The time is now for new collective art forms

I think this pandemic is a huge opportunity to engage more people and allow them to be more creative express themselves, and share their creations in open street spaces. And make use of our mighty powerful social networks, software, and harware. Now, who should start this kind of initiative governments, startups, or art collectives? Do you have any more ideas on how we can make this happen? What tools could we use? And what combinations can you think of?