SECOND COAT

An artifact from a growing fictional universe.

My entry in the Jamverse Jam, a shared-world fiction and art competition from Protocolized, the magazine and media hub for the Protocol Institute.

Civic communications in Mayaford may not be what they appear.

Concept

SECOND COAT is a new graffiti method in Mayaford that baits the city into turning cleanup/abatement efforts into a medium of its own. Participants place small, selectively perceptible “seeds” and the city responds by covering these unauthorized markings with cleaning solvents, primer fields, replacement panels, barricades, and work-order overlays. Then, SECOND COAT writers sample the geometry, timing, overlays, and residue of that official response in “chained” tags, sometimes with taunting commentary. They call a completed cleanup a “muni co-sign” because the city has unwittingly helped write, enlarge, legitimize, and maintain the message. The traffic jam is that graffiti artists exploit overlay-specific artifacts as a new medium for vandalism and communication. The city can’t ignore them and by acting they become participants and provide fodder to the unknown criminals.

The animated documents formally perform the perceptual effect of transitioning between authorized overlays. An overlay-privileged MPD bulletin resolves as a harmless civic maintenance notice unless the viewer has authorized credentials and a cleared Kapala-Halo.

Civic render

Classified render