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From November 5- 16, 2009 founders of Graffiti Research Lab, Evan Roth and James Powderly will be coming to Kyoto to celebrate the launching event of Graffiti Research Lab Kyoto. During this period, the two founders of GRL will be presenting the original software that leave temporary graffiti and visual images on city's public walls, with tools and DIY vehicles invented by GRL Kyoto. There will be also the workshop called "Kyoto Protocol Hacking," as well as lectures discussing the relationships between public spaces and the expression of ideas as well as between art and activism. The Base including a cafe, temporary library, and vegetable stand will be open for the duration of their visit as a place for people to engage in discussions over coffee, books and vegetables. It will be an exciting and a surprising twelve days of serious fun using tools that are accessible and easy-to-use for anyone. Playing and experimenting with GRL tools means to explore the versatility of technology, understanding the roles, tactics, values and powers embedded in the society, and taking back spaces filled with overflowing advertisement and other elements of consumerism.
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The Graffiti Research Lab is dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, artists, pranksters and protesters with open source tools for urban communication. The goal of the G.R.L. is to technologically empower individuals to creatively alter their surroundings on the scale of advertisers and the authorities in order to reclaim public space. They have shown their work in the MoMA, the Tate Modern and on the streets in five continents, and their first film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Thousands of ubiquitous, clandestine agents have been trained, via the web, to use GRL tools and techniques to create their own public interventions all over the globe. Graffiti Research Lab splinter cells have formed in Amsterdam, Vienna, Toronto, Vancouver, Brazil, London, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kyoto, Minneapolis, Utah, Dallas and Australia. The GRL is a