Digital Graffiti 2024

The 17th Annual International Projection Art Festival in Alys Beach, FL

Photos courtesy of Alys Beach

The 17th Annual Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach festival, underwritten by The Alys Foundation, will be held May 17-18, 2024.

The Scenic 30A community of Alys Beach, located along the northwest Florida Emerald Coast, provides the environment for the Digital Graffiti festival – an open-air, organic gallery for the display of projection art. The festival’s juried show featured the works of artists from the worldwide arena, unique in its display by digital projection onto the white walls of the architecture of Alys Beach and into the broader exterior landscape. Digital Graffiti provides a special and specific context for artists to explore the visual intersection of art and architecture as the nighttime festival illuminates the town with the latest in design, animation, and projection technologies; two glowing evenings of innovation and inspiration, with artists exhibiting works of projection mapping, generative art, experimental short films, and animation, as well as sound, motion, and light-responsive installations.

With curator John Colette at the helm, Digital Graffiti enjoys the perspective of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) motion media design professor and eight-year veteran participant. Colette views the festival as an opportunity for the audience to engage with art outside of the traditional gallery space in a presentation that “makes the art much more of a living experience,” allowing the audience to “get deeper into the work” outside of the confinesstructured by “what we think we should do in that (gallery) environment.” His hope isthat the festival offers the audience a “cue for the imagination,” an opportunity to step into a living, breathing town and allow the interaction between the art and the environment, and the impact of the audience’s own input and physical influence on the art projections, to change their overall perspective; to change the way they see the world.

Digital Graffiti will partner with area schools, university programs, and local non-profits to provide a platform and collaborative “laboratory” space for emerging artists

In 2024, the festival will also incorporate panel discussions and student outreach with an educational initiative. This DG + E programming includes panels with festival curator, John Colette, technical specialists, and DG artists, providing the audience with more opportunity to learn about the installations, processes, technology, and production behind Digital Graffiti. In addition, Digital Graffiti will partner with area schools, university programs, and local non-profits to provide a platform and collaborative “laboratory” space for emerging artists, and to further the educational reach of the festival experience. For the audience, the Digital Graffiti app, in its fourth year of application, provides a resource for artist information, festival map, and will expand this year to include a glossary of terms to provide festival goers access to the lexicon of the art and technology. To engage younger audiences and in partnership with The Paper Bear Film Project, a Saturday scavenger hunt will introduce the animated characters from the soon-to-release film, hidden throughout the festival path, in addition to “Easter eggs” found within the artworks themselves. Each find will be marked as a stamp in the corresponding passport, and a completed passport will be awarded a Digital Graffiti X The Paper Bear t-shirt. Additionally, festival production will be chronicled by the DGTV initiative, which is following the behind-the-scenes show production and curation process and will include interviews with artists and residency artists, technicians, audience, students, teachers, curator, events production, architects, and others for a compelling look into the whole Digital Graffiti experience from start to finish.

Digital Graffiti is a juried show of original works of digital projection art. The 2024 awards include Best of Show ($5,000 prize), Curator’s Choice ($2,000 prize) and three Special Recognition honors (at $1,000 prize each), selected by the festival’s curator, John Colette, and esteemed panel of judges. The Alys Foundation has donated more than $300,000 in awards and artist stipends over the past 16 years, all to further digital work in the public realm

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To learn more about the Digital Graffiti festival, the esteemed judges, and the finalists presenting this year, please visit the website. Festival tickets are on sale now via Big Tickets.