Very strange art?

June 2, 2007 4:42 PM

What on earth is this thing?

I saw this one in London, at the top of the pedestrian subway on the south side of the Westminster Bridge. I also saw similar small mosaics in other parts of London, and also in Paris.

Are they just incredibly random graffiti, or do they actually relate to each other and/or mean something? They're pretty cool, either way, I'm just not sure what they are exactly...

posted by pdb to media & arts (20 comments total)

Those look like the things that caused the panic in Boston. (Except that these don't seem to glow in the dark.)

My guess: some sort of viral marketing.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:44 PM on June 2, 2007

Space invaders graffiti, baby.
posted by chrismear at 4:44 PM on June 2, 2007

Sorry, link. Mayhaps?
posted by chrismear at 4:46 PM on June 2, 2007

I second SCDB's guess.
posted by special-k at 4:54 PM on June 2, 2007

Odd, I saw a couple of those in Paris last winter.
posted by lubujackson at 5:00 PM on June 2, 2007

Seriously, it's not viral marketing. It's been going on for a while now.
posted by chrismear at 5:04 PM on June 2, 2007

http://www.space-invaders.com/
posted by agent99 at 5:10 PM on June 2, 2007

They're all over the world, though usually identifiable (iconic) video game characters. Supposedly started many years ago by the graffiti artist "invader" people have started copying him/her.

Link to a few
posted by Ookseer at 5:14 PM on June 2, 2007

There's a Q & A at Wooster Collective.
posted by O9scar at 5:23 PM on June 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

That one ooks more Galaxian to me.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:02 PM on June 2, 2007

Thanks for posting this. There's one in Montpéllier, not far from Place de la Comédie.
posted by jet_silver at 7:23 PM on June 2, 2007

There's one in Montpéllier, not far from Place de la Comédie

That's one of the ones we saw, along with one in the archway of one of the entries to the Louvre. Thanks for the info, everybody...
posted by pdb at 8:02 PM on June 2, 2007

I've seen a few here in L.A. also. In one place it even looks like they busted out the original 1/2" tiles on the side of the building and replaced them with an Invader.
posted by zengargoyle at 8:10 PM on June 2, 2007

See also: this flickr pool.
posted by nerdcore at 8:21 PM on June 2, 2007

There's one of these on Loop bar in Melbourne, Australia. For that reason, Loop has generally been known as 'Space Invader bar' among my group of friends.
posted by pompomtom at 12:48 AM on June 3, 2007

Londonist has started mapping the London ones.
posted by greycap at 1:02 AM on June 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

There's one in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Saw it just this week.
posted by reynir at 2:47 AM on June 3, 2007

There's quite a few around Hoxton in London (naturally). I've also seen some on the Brooklyn Bridge, NYC, and an alleyway in Edinburgh.
posted by influx at 3:44 AM on June 3, 2007

In the June 4 New Yorker, there's a profile of Paul McCartney, which mentions him taking a picture of one of these in an alley in London.
posted by beagle at 6:50 AM on June 3, 2007

Thanks for the Flickr pool link, nerdcore. I have a couple shots of them from Paris two years ago I can add!

Somehow I had heard of this (I think here on MeFi actually) before I went to Paris so when I came across them I knew what they were.
posted by dnash at 9:30 AM on June 3, 2007