Why I’m Drawn to Invaders and Street Art
I’ve been thinking about why I’m so drawn to Invaders’ work, especially after someone asked about it on Farcaster Fridays a few months ago. At its core, I love how Invaders represents art in its purest form - creation purely for joy. The artist started simply because he loved Space Invaders and wanted to bring that aesthetic to the streets. There’s something beautiful about that simplicity of motivation.
Street art, at least as we know it, first came around in the ~1960s, and the Internet transformed it. The ability to share images online pushed the movement forward dramatically. This intersection of physical and digital documentation particularly interests me because street art is truly ephemeral. I’ve seen this firsthand - Invaders get removed, sometimes by local authorities looking to remove it, sometimes by private individuals who just want one, sometimes by people who want to resell them, and then...sometimes mysteriously reappear.
Documentation and Preservation
I’m working on creating a decentralized way to document street art using smart contracts. Storing pictures (flashes) of these mosaics, on a decentralized ledger would provide persistence to an ephemeral medium. This applies to both storage blockchains such as Arweave, and data blockchains such as Ethereum (L2's are making this documentation a lot more feasible). The public nature of blockchain could enable others to build on top of this documentation, similar to how the Space Invaders API has enabled projects like Invaded Map, Invaders Fun & my new social project, Flashcastr.
What Makes Invaders Special
The intentionality behind Invaders’ work fascinates me. Their eyes sometimes look at something specific - a skyline, a view, a particular aspect of the city. Just yesterday in the Hollywood Hills, I found two installations specifically positioned to view the LA skyline. They serve as artistic tour guides, leading people to parts of cities they’d never normally visit.
The mosaic medium itself is significant. Unlike graffiti that can be painted over, these pieces have a different kind of permanence. You can trace the artist’s evolution from basic swimming pool tiles in the late 90s to specialized tiles that break when removed, adding another layer to the installation’s permanence and meaning.
Connection to Digital Art and Bright Moments
My appreciation for this art form deepened through my work with Bright Moments, where we traveled globally working with generative artists. Our Crypto Citizens project, which harnesses pixel art, parallels Invaders’ work in interesting ways. We were creating digital street art on the Ethereum blockchain - making permanent marks in a digital space, just as street artists make their mark in physical space.
The Broader Impact
These installations serve multiple purposes - they’re good for mental health (getting people outside), physical health (walking to find them), and cultural exposure (exploring different parts of cities). The parallel between blockchain and street art strikes me - both are spaces intended for one purpose that people have adapted for artistic expression. Just as street signs collect stickers and tags, blockchain has evolved beyond financial tools to become a canvas for digital art. This beautiful evolution of spaces, both physical and digital, continues to inspire my work in documenting and preserving these artistic movements.
