May 28, 2010

When Matthew Morton began work on his Digital Media Senior Project, he had a vision for a very big and ambitious project. Now he’s made that vision into a reality and it will be unveiled for all of Philadelphia to see starting on Sunday, May 30th when his Social Graffiti project is projected onto the front façade of Nesbitt Hall, a huge wall that measures about 36 feet by 64 feet, making for one of the largest digital projection venues in the city. Morton’s project combines architecture, design and technology to produce a visually stimulating viewer experience through a series of animations designed to complement the architectural components of Nesbitt Hall.

The animations will be intertwined with messages from Twitter, taking the content normally displayed on smart-phone screens and projecting it on the side of a building.  The project will intercept ‘tweets’ directed to Twitter account @digmGraffiti and incorporate those messages into animations. Anyone, anywhere can ‘digitally tag’ a message onto our building. The project’s applications can vary from being a message board for university announcements, student-to-student communication, or Drexel branding. The large-venue projection will take place once the sun sets so “when the sun goes down, your messages go up,” according to Morton. The installation will run from Monday, May 31st through Sunday, June 6th,  as part of the Digital Media Senior Show which is on Saturday, June 5th. Morton hopes that the project will lead to a permanent installation on campus.

Morton worked under the guidance of faculty advisor Theo A. Artz and was supported by team members Chad Porche, second lead and Adobe Flash animator; Kerry Russo, lead programmer; Cara Schroeder, 3D modeler and animator; Kurt Gawinowicz, lead web developer and 3D modeler and animator and Burak Ozmucur, designer and animator.  Click here to learn more about the Social Graffiti project.

Because Social Graffiti required renting an expensive projection system and the installation of additional projectors inside Nesbitt, Matthew solicited and received support from many sources including Dean George Tsetsekos of the LeBow College of Business, Drexel Facilities, Ray Westphal, and the 3M Corporation.