Worth Reading?
+98 [114 votes]
Nintendo’s non-traditional interface for the Wii console lends itself to any number of odd controller hacks and designs, and the latest is this prototype Wiispray can. Part of Martin Lihs’ final thesis at Bauhaus-University in Weimar, Germany, the can-style casing contains a dismembered Wiimote coupled to a nozzle button. It can be used to manipulate an on-screen virtual spraycan, with different paints and color options that are controlled by realistic graffiti movements.
Although still early in the development process, it suggests another type of game platform and a fresh twist on the tired “art” app. The success of custom controllers for specific titles suggests that gamers are interested in a more realistic interaction than permitted by a standard joypad. Lihs plans to integrate a communal wall for collaborative graffiti in the eventual software title, that would allow ‘players’ to work on the same art project.
Rather than a specially designed can, though, it would seem easier to make a Wiispray ‘caddy’ into which the Wiimote could slot. Some clever thinking could link the nozzle button to one of the Wiimote’s controls via mechanical rather than electrical means; price would also be reduced.
[via core77]
As long as we wouldn’t have to dismember our Wiimotes-we could have the GREATEST Jet Grind Radio ever.
no way! PLEEEEEEASE don’t do this!!! do you have any idea what happened to graffiti after marc ecko sold it down the river?!! i’ve never seen so much crappy graffiti! every kid with a play station and a sharpie wants to be some kinda hero/vanda/thug now. it’s horrible. i mean it! marc ecko KILLED it. please don’t make it worse. release this thing, and you will see more crappy tags in more inappropriate places, scribbled by more stupid high school kids with no talent, respect or knowledge of the game than you could ever imagine…
Or an an actual Spray-paint-can-mote-caddy. So murals/graff could be made in reality and digitally.
Convergence is inevitable duder.
Who the **** says duder?
You can’t merge the virtual world with graffiti EVER.
Graff is real.
Pixels are not and never will be.
I unplug your console and shit is gone.
Graff is the act of living life and seizing the moment.
Video games are for the timid fools who can’t take actual risks in the real world. Have fun approximating adventure and experience in front of a screen.
Graffiti is not art.
Graffiti can be artistic, but graffiti is not art.
However, this controller is a very, very good idea, and I think the next logical step is probably a Wii Tool Box or Art Box suite. Imagine a racing or mecha simulation game in which one actually pops the hood and tunes up an engine, then made custom body panels, painted them, then attached them to a chassis.
*That* would be something uniquely engaging.
@AreaMZ
Yeah i get where your coming from but. I would be all over this like said high school kid with a sharpie, adventure and experience ive been there done that broken my back so yeah for me it would be ***** and giggles without trashing your neibourhood.
Great idea none the less, the idea of a caddy is not such a good one though (sorry)
i second areaMZ and genji…go out and live, and stop selling out graff! wii’s cool and all, but the end of the day you haven’t done ANYTHING.
Im a photographer, digital and analog. This looks awesome because i’m a terrible airbrusher, but Id love to try my hand at this. You guys really need to stop being so critical of something YOU HAVENT TRIED.
Games are cool and all, but at the end of the day you havent done ANYTHING, cept you know, have fun.
Awesome. My two fav things. Grafitti and Wii.
@ Genji - There has been and will always be bad graffiti anywhere there is good graffiti. For a good graff artist to get good they need to start somewhere. It’d be nice if they all started on chunks of wood in their own backyards and only took it to the street when they got good, but that’s never going to happen.
@AreaMZ - You’re an idiot. There are plenty of ‘real’ graf artists that also work in the digital realm. There are also hordes of fantastic stencil artists who start every project in photoshop. It doesn’t make their work any less amazing.
@Mutate - If graffiti can be artistic then by definition it has to be art. You can’t say it is artistic and not art that simply does not make sense.
I think this thing is awesome. I’d buy one in a second.
graff is an art form that only a few hundred people have mastered so is mechanics n yeah graff is vandalism is aswell
your a numpty….is calligraphy considered art *YES*….does calligraphy concist of letter forms….*YES* Is graffiti consisted of letter forms *YES* is graffiti art *YES*….there we go nice and easy for you :)
This is all really an age old disagreement. Truly anything can be an art if you take it to that level. Murder could be considered an art to a serial killer, but not all serial killers practice it as an art. I suppose you would have to ask the serial killer if he is practicing a form of expression or just getting kicks from killing people. To some graffiti writers it is an art…to others its just vandalism using paint. I think the choice is up to the writer themselves and not to the general populous. Whatever your opinion is though, its nothing to get all butt-hurt about.
genji pendragon has a point