Alternate Transportation Pt. 1

When I lived in Washington D.C. I took public transit alot. The subway, the bus, it just made sense and it was easy. In Los Angeles, I don't know if I've ever taken a bus and I've rode the Subway twice simply as a novelty. I've actually grown to loath busses here, or I guess I should say Bus Drivers, they drive like New York cabbies, but with vehicles three times bigger!

Regardless, I think alternate sources of transportation are desperately needed in this town, let alone in this world. Any way to make these options seem more appealing to the mass audience is desperately needed.

Some artists in Berlin created a guerilla art tool they call Parasite. It and the media created for it entitled Parallel Worlds is part of a series of proposals for Moving Canvas.

"They all have emerged from our reflection on the visual and symbolical importance of trains in an urban context and the possibility of exploiting their short-lived prominence as brief communicative moments."

The Parasite is basically a Projector and computer built into a case with a suction cup on one side. The case is covertly attached to the side of a subway car. As the car flies through tunnels, the projecter shoots images and words onto the walls of the tunnel.

In this day in age, I found it amazing that someone could so easily slap what looks potentially like a giant bomb to the side of a subway car.

Regardless, Integrating "public art" into a typically binalle process of commuting is novel and could actually encourage public transit. If such a technology was officially integrated with trains here in LA maybe people would be provoked to use them, if simply just to see what was going to be projected next.

Or maybe we should listen to the brilliant ideas of Mr. Hal Fishman.

Stay tuned for more rants on Los Angeles transportation and my attempts to use my car less and less.