A high-tech collaboration between an artist and… a producer of luxury sanitation. Surprising though it may seem it can, and has, been done. The result is spectacular: an interactive digital graffiti wall that lights up when it comes into contact with water.

French digital artist Antonin Fourneau worked together with Grohe, an international producer of taps, showerheads and more. The installation, placed outside Grohe’s New York showroom during the summer, has been dubbed the ‘water graffiti wall’ or ‘water light graffiti’.

The trick is a surface which consists of thousands of LED lights. These are triggered to light up when brought into contact with water, generating pixels of illumination. Spraying the wall with rain or a garden hose, a water pistol turns the lights on. Basically anything wet can be used to ‘paint’ a picture with the LED surface.

As the damp evaporates, or is wiped off, the lighting fades and the drawing disappears. So the wall constantly refreshes itself, allowing new messages and masterpieces to be composed. Fourneau claimed that the inspiration for the idea came when we saw someone in China painting on the pavement using water. The artist is working on an updated light wall, which will  be really exciting, as it will display full motion video, also through ‘water-painting’.

Details and more inspiration in this video.

Images by Antonin Fourneau and Grohe.