Last week, I (along with about twenty other like-minded people) attended an Urban Typography workshop at Mediamatic. This was the course description:

Inspiration from the streets! A two-day course centered on experimenting and iteratively fine-tuning urban designs with FabLab. Use materials such as frames and stencil sheets in combination with light and mirrors in order to create spatial constructs.

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to create a visual language for the very people I have had difficulty communicating with since our first arrival to the Netherlands. No, I’m not talking about the Dutch, I’m talking about the crackheads. You know, the ones that spent all summer fighting with each other, writing poetry on our door paneling, and sitting on our stoop (what else?) smoking crack.

Well, this summer is going to be different. My theory is, because the Crackheads are inherently unhappy, they can’t be expected to have any respect for the space that both they and I share. So, if I make the space that we share into a happier, more whimsical place, maybe they won’t want to smoke crack. Well, at least in front of our house.

Using different media provided by the FabLab, these are the pieces I have made featuring the bean character I’ve painted for the living room.

Garden Pops

These acrylic, neon green garden pops slip easily into the unmotared bricks anywhere in Amsterdam. Little villages of them can pop out of nowhere creating a playful and imaginative space that makes it impossible for anyone to sit down on and take a toke.

Vinyl Stickers

These vinyls sticker can do a couple of things. They can be used as a way to communicate with the existing graffiti the addicts leave behind (by giving the sticker something to say back to it), or it can be used to cover it up.

Garden Pop Stoop Mate

A long, connected piece of acrylic can be mounted onto any staircase or stoop to prevent junkies from sitting there all night long. Also, if they fall on to the floor, they will have a plethera of little buddies to talk to.