Bubblicious
At first glance, Ji Lee is a pioneer in facilitating semiotic disobedience. Take a second look and you will discover the beginning of what in the future can be regarded as “outdoor media 2.0,” or OOH2.0, which is probably a better fit for the acronym-obsessed business community.
OOH2.0 is the offline manifestation of the so-called Web 2.0 movement, which defines a new media model that exploits lightweight web-based businesses based on strong collective intelligence. People collaborating as opposed to just cold mathematical processing. Think of Wikipedia, del.icio.us, etc.
As any new media form, OOH2.0 is still not properly understood by the communications community, which most likely regards it as vandalism. Artists see it as another (if innovative) manifestation of activism. In reality Lee created a structure, a simple platform for people to participate in the advertising game on their own terms.
The bubble project has been defined as “a worldwide counterattack against aggressive public marketing,” through blank speech bubbles adhered to street advertising so anyone can alter the ad in a sort of clean, organized manner that sparks a collective conversation, replacing the monologue of traditional ads.
The project materialized in a book, “Talking Back: The Bubble Project,” published by Mark Batty Publisher in New York and that promises to be the first in an ongoing series. There is also an online version that keeps the project alive in real time with virtual bubbles inserted in digital photos (see below for a sample of my favorites).
As the artist himself expressed in multiple interviews, his work exists partly because traditional advertising has done a poor job at truly connecting with people. In my view the problem has always existed but now we actually see it courtesy of media fragmentation, which is an industry term for “choice.” Given the choice people will walk (or click) away from meaningless, boring ads. That is not to say that all advertising fall in this category but certainly there is plenty, enough to create a crisis in such a gigantic industry.
It will be interesting to see whether brands realize that street advertising does not have to be about advertising, that it can also be about art, people, or even useful objects. There are infinite ways to communicate and develop a dialogue that can make life a bit more interesting rather than a lot more boring. The Bubble Project ratifies that the old formula is obsolete.
Thanks to my good friend José Ignacio for the lead.
