Evan Roth

Evan Roth is quite the artist. Working through a studio via Eyebeam in New York City, Roth has made name for himself by means of popular culture research and design. A few works that stuck out to me in his presentation at Hofstra were his “L.A.S.E.R. Tag” project and his graffiti analysis project. Both do with defacing public structures, but they also both show the beautiful art of graffiti artists. L.A.S.E.R. Tag involves a projector that traces a light source held by an artist so that the artist can scribe graffiti on enormous scales (sides of buildings, the coliseum in Rome, etc.) with actually damaging property. At nighttime, the graffiti is so bright and big, people form miles away can experience the tag. Then, it can be erased instantly to give clean canvas for the next tag. The graffiti analysis project was interesting because it really breaks down the style and technique of famous taggers and thereby it creates the first ever intricate database of the art.

In general, Even Roth is about freedom of speech and freedom from censorship. He is an open source promoter and has worked with names like Jay-Z. His style and philosophy has garnered himself a great amount of attention in the design world.

As a speaker, Roth is very conversational. He was very intimate and interactive with his presentation, and his slideshow involved images, videos, and more. (I’m glad he stood up to speak, for it would have been difficult to hear him across the room.) Overall, he made a truly engaging presentation.