ATHF LEDs all over Boston today

Over at MAKE, Phil Torrone blogs:

This is interesting - it seems that a group of artists have celebrated 1-31-07 in their own way and have created a series of political themed LED art sculptures and (you guessed it) placed them all over Boston. Pictured here, Bush & Bin Laden... Click on through to see more images and if you're in Boston the locations are listed to go on an art tour. Get there before the robots do.

Link (thanks, James P of GRL, who denies any connection to the event)

• [Kytsune]

  I am overjoyed to see this! The original lite-brites may have been part of a marketing campaign, but really they served to make an important point about the stupidity of CYA security and one of the failure modes of terrible public safety.

  Attempting to accuse the promoters of hoax devices and “infernal machines” had to have been the darkest hour of those pompous windbags.

  This is beautiful and I am extremely amused.

  Bravi.

• [runstop]

  I feel like my hair is pretty perfect.

• [oneswellfoop]

  OH NOES! THERE’S BOMBS ALL OVER BOSTON!

• [OM]

  …Serious question here: has anyone stated what the materials cost for just one of these signs is? Last time I actually priced LEDs, they were a) about $3 – $5 USD a pop, and b) the Blue LED was considered still impossible. So yeah, it’s been about 3 decades since I priced LEDs in bulk.

  So, anyone got a cost estimate?

• [Takuan]

  a helluva lot cheaper than that. Literally pennies apiece now.

• [Bottlekid]

  At least this year it’s actually art, and not just SPAM.

• [robgonzo]

  Bostonian, Randy Milholland of the webcomic Something Positive has made his own tribute.
  http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp01312008.shtml

• [jere7my]

  As of 3PM February 1st, the one on Brattle in Harvard Square is gone. (That’s the one seen beside a Victorinox Swiss Army knife logo in the photo.) A few silver brackets mark its former location.

  I believe it was attached to a roll-up loading door, which might not have been the optimal location.

• [noen]

  Given that Bush declared himself dictator by claiming the power to make treaties I suppose it’s appropriate.

• [jessemoya]

  NOES! I just spent three hours driving around looking for these and couldn’t find a single one!

• [jccalhoun]

  I love that in one of the attached pictures it says “This is not a bomb, it is just for the lulz.”
  I’m sure that the non-internet-speak-savvy would see that and freak out, “Who are the lulz?!?!?” “The Lebonease Underground Liberation Zionists are using these signs as ways to send secret messages!!!!”

• [Real Life Pixel]

  “I hope you can see this, because I’m doing it as hard as I can.”

• [ill lich]

  *sniff* this makes me proud to be a Bostonian (wipes a tear). The “Boston aThf Party.”

  In the original ATHF scare I thought the cops had so embarrassed themselves that they couldn’t back down (really– how often do the the police ever admit that they were mistaken?) and so they had to pin the blame on somebody else– a “buncha punk kids.” The Star Simpson “scare” a few months later was more of the same, the police had made their bed and they were gonna sleep in it: no tolerance for anything that might confuse a cop. I wonder what they’ll do about these. Maybe claim that because these say “this is not a bomb” it only implies that it IS a bomb? Oh those crafty terrorists.

  It’s the same all over: power-hunger politicians and clueless cops.

• [Eric Gjerde]

  #10: Wait, are you saying we should leave cans of Spam laying all over Boston?

  Now that would be a weapon of mass destruction, wouldn’t it?

  … make sure to open them all before leaving them, of course!