Every so often someone will write in with a fun search challenge. And a while ago, regular reader Dave M., send in this question:
I was able to figure this one out in about 3 minutes.
How long will it take you? What's the story with the yellow blotch?
Also... a quick reminder: If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll probably enjoy the MOOC that I'll be running beginning next Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013. It's the "Advanced Power Searching With Google" Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This class will cover some of the advanced research methods that we discuss in the blog every week.
Sign up now and join in the fun.
Search on!
Enclosed is a picture I took in downtown Chicago while crossing the street. The YELLOW blotch on the crosswalk looks like a little man to me. I didn't think it very significant until I was on a trip to Washington D.C. where I saw the YELLOW blotch again in the crosswalk. Now I am on a mission to get an explanation.
I was able to figure this one out in about 3 minutes.
How long will it take you? What's the story with the yellow blotch?
Also... a quick reminder: If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll probably enjoy the MOOC that I'll be running beginning next Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013. It's the "Advanced Power Searching With Google" Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This class will cover some of the advanced research methods that we discuss in the blog every week. Sign up now and join in the fun.
Search on!
This is Stikman! It's street art by an anonymous artist from Philadelphia (called either Stikman, Stickman, or Bob), and I found a great article on this series at this site:
ReplyDeletehttp://simonesmith.hubpages.com/hub/Stikman-a-Look-at-Mysterious-Stickman-Street-Art
My search was [street art crosswalk yellow man].
It took me about 30 seconds (if that) because I saw "Exit Through the Gift Shop" a few years ago, and also had the pleasure of seeing a bunch of the Invader (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_(artist)) pieces in Paris last year.
For several years people have been fascinated by small, robot-like figures popping up in city streets and other innocuous places. These figures, now documented in flickr pools and blog posts from cities arose the world, can be attributed to Stikman (sometimes searched for and referred to as "stickman"), an anonymous graffiti artist, sometimes perhaps going by the alias "Bob," who has been putting these images up since at least 2006.
ReplyDeleteSearch for 'painted yellow man robot' yielded 'stickman' for a better explanation.
About 3 minutes
Stikman!
ReplyDeletehttp://simonesmith.hubpages.com/hub/Stikman-a-Look-at-Mysterious-Stickman-Street-Art
stikman... didn't need to search
ReplyDeleteA Google image search of the term "yellow stencil man crosswalk" gave me this result:http://daydreamtourist.com/2012/07/ That led me to http://pandemicgallery.blogspot.com/2012/03/opening-31612.html Took about two minutes. Great challenge, there are many of these around my workplace in DC
ReplyDeleteIts a Stikman. Done with sticky tape by maybe a graffiti artist of that moniker and/or other people.
ReplyDeleteThis gives a good explanation http://simonesmith.hubpages.com/hub/Stikman-a-Look-at-Mysterious-Stickman-Street-Art
It took me the time it took to ask Search for [yellow figure crosswalk] 20 seconds or so
Then asking Images for [stikman] to find many more across the US.
jon
Took around 5 minutes.
ReplyDeleteGoogle image search for "yellow robot man sidewalk" and filtered for yellow images.
Found this link:
http://beejweir.blogspot.in/2010/09/crosswalk-colorforms-part-2.html
Looks like someone else has been asking the same question!
Found that he is called the "Stikman" from one of the comments.
A search for stikman led me to the washington post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439.html
So, apparently the creator "Bob" does it for kicks.
And here is more:
http://simonesmith.hubpages.com/hub/Stikman-a-Look-at-Mysterious-Stickman-Street-Art
Started with an image search [pedestrian killed] then [pedestrian killed crosswalk] until [pedestrian killed crosswalk mark yellow] and realized I was assuming too much.
ReplyDeleteBacktracked and image searched for [crosswalk skeleton]
Got it.
This blog post had a lot of comments http://www.popville.com/2009/06/cool-street-level-art-crosswalk-dread-by-charles/
Included was a link to my hometown newspaper regarding the image here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439.html
I'm not happy with this result because the reporter didn't necessarily research his story and just took Bob at his word that he created it.
I'll need to do more research on this after work.
Street art - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439.html
ReplyDeleteGot lucky I guess - quick find, used [yellow figure in crosswalk] and the top hit was this:
ReplyDeletestikman/bob
seemed pretty thorough with video & links to Flickr & WaPost stories...
even found a twitter page for stikman:
twitter
Stik's older uncle? -
kilroy was
time to find: 10 seconds
time to check links & do other support search: ≈10 minutes
This one was pretty simple. My initial search was [street art chicago yellow robot]. The first result was http://theogeo.com/blog/art/full-on-yellow-tape-robot-graffiti-%E2%80%94-what-does-it-mean/ which gave me a blog entry. While there is no real information there about what it is, the page does confirm the same image and provides a clue to the creator, who is 'stikman'.
ReplyDeleteThen a search for [stikman] leads to an article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439.html) in the Washington Post about stikman, his street art, and the mystery surrounding his sticker art.
The author interviews the alleged creator, simply referred to as Bob, who says he has left about 150 stikmen figures/creations in DC alone. Another article on Vandalog (http://blog.vandalog.com/2012/03/20-years-of-stikman/) estimates that stikman has been at it for 20 years.
It only took a couple of minutes. I did a search for "yellow robot tag crosswalk" without quotes. The first link that came up was: http://www.city-data.com/forum/washington-dc/466569-what-these-stickers-robot-like-men.html and the second reply to the original post led me: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439.html
ReplyDeleteFrom there I had the name of the artist and was able to find his flickr pool:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/stikman/pool/
1. Google Search by Image - no results, of course, but I had to try
ReplyDelete2. Still on Image Search, [yellow crosswalk stencil man] gave me one result only, the same question posted on a forum some 4 years ago: http://goo.gl/LmdSO
3. From the answers I could derive the name Stikman
4. [Stikman], uncorrected (because Google corrected it to Stickman) first result: http://goo.gl/3i5bL, very informative
5. Still, I wanted to read more about the 20 years of Stikman exhibition, so I followed the Pandemic Gallery link (http://pandemicgallery.blogspot.pt) and crtl+F to find this post by Stikman himself on the opening of the exhibition: http://goo.gl/gJ6ek
Fast (a few minutes) but very interesting! I like street art and I didn't know Stikman. The first link on the vandalog post takes you to a huge amount of photos of Stikman's art: http://goo.gl/48o0l
I think this is an example of Stickman art. I first tried doing an image search that didn't work so next I did a search for yellow figure in crosswalk and the first result was for an article on Stickman art. Very interesting reading about this type of art. I had never heard of this before. Took me about 5 mins.
ReplyDeletehttp://daydreamtourist.com/2012/07/31/new-stikmen-in-boston/
ReplyDelete-
The road stickers are just one aspect of the stikman project that was started 20 years ago. The artist “Bob” (who has remained anonymous throughout) had a solo exhibition at pandemic gallery in NYC this past Spring. The stikman project began with 3D stick figures (hence the name) affixed to city elements and has since branched out to stencils, hidden components in posters and, of course, the road stickers.
Took me about 30 secounds:
ReplyDeleteFirst search: street yellow man stencil
Adjusted to: street yellow man grafett
and that was a hit: Stikman
It is known as the stikman and is made by street artists. Took me about five minutes
ReplyDeleteSearch for images [yellow man on the street]
ReplyDeleteFind a similar to the challenge: http://frankturnerphoto.com/2011/02/i-love-street-art-yellow-man.html
Reverse image on that image: http://www.kathleencole.net/95657/898283/-portfolio/shepard-fairey-and-other-street-art-around-dc
Epigraph in the right picture: Stickman on the sidewalk
Search for: [Stickman on the sidewalk]: http://simonesmith.hubpages.com/hub/Stikman-a-Look-at-Mysterious-Stickman-Street-Art
less than 3 minutes.
Hi Dan, and thanks for making a little simpler this time around . . . Simple search brought up lots of links describing these shapes and their background [yellow figure painted in crosswalk] Took me only seconds. Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteooops! guess I was being cocky & wrong... apparently the "yellow blotch" is Lance Armstrong's reputation becoming one with the asphalt.
ReplyDeleteLiveWrongLiveLong
used news search function and extrapolated the subtle bike humor used in the Windy & D.C. - confirmed with GooMaps that the figure in the photo is pointed toward Paris and using the Google tread tool, was able to identify that the faint tire pattern was from a 1971 Citroën DS.
Lost track of the time as I started a 6 week holiday - Adieu & Mahalo
Well I finally solved one with two clicks of the mouse. Maybe three, or four.
ReplyDeleteThey are called stikman and maybe 'Bob' made some of them.
I just put [little yellow man on the street] in the search box and got a blog from Boston University.
http://buquad.com/2009/11/17/who-is-stikman/
and they linked to a WaPo article from 2008 that explains them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439.html
"Created by an unknown guerrilla street artist from corrugated plastic, vinyl records, burlap sacks or scraps of wood, metal or cloth, the robot figure, dubbed stikman, can be seen all over town."
So they are a street art in the Banksy style.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy
For more on street art also try
http://www.woostercollective.com/#grid-view
Looking forward to the MOOC next week.
These are street art placed by an anonymous artist. This link takes you to an article in the Washington Post in 2008 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439.html perhaps there is more recent information, but I wasn't interested in searching further. I Googled yellow robot on pavement and this took me to entries for Stickman or stikman as the artist prefers. It took about 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteWith a verbatim Google search on [crosswalk "yellow man"], I found on Flickr that this little yellow man on the crosswalk is called “stikman” or “stickman”.
ReplyDeleteIt was easy to find more details on this street art.
On the Trail of the Mysterious Stikman: http://goo.gl/Svmg
Stikman - a Look at Mysterious Stickman Street Art in Crosswalks: http://goo.gl/KZseh
Keep an eye out for Stikmen in the crosswalk: http://goo.gl/QTGnx
Has 'stikman' left his mark?: http://goo.gl/M0YpZ
STIKMAN SIGHTINGS: http://goo.gl/6Mu1I
Stikman 20.1: Celebrating 20 Years in Philly at Stupid Easy Gallery: http://goo.gl/nd1ld
1 minute
This appears to be the work of stikman from Philadelphia.
ReplyDeleteTime about 2 minutes using "Yellow man crossing" in image search. This lead me to flickr which lead me to TimeOut Chicago.
Well, I wasted a bit of time trying to use image search. Then I went a bit more left-brained and searched for [yellow man pavement] which didn't seem to bear much useful fruit. Then I tried
ReplyDelete[yellow robot pavement]
And the top hit was this http://simonesmith.hubpages.com/hub/Stikman-a-Look-at-Mysterious-Stickman-Street-Art
Then I searched for just stikman and got lots of hits.
Even though Stikman, the artist appears to preserve his/her? anonymity that doesn't prevent gallery shows
http://stupideasyideas.com/2012/10/24/stikman-20-1-celebrating-20-years-hanging-around-philly/
I was interrupted so not able to keep track of how long it took, but I'm sure it was only a few minutes. I dropped the image into google image search, but that wasn't helpful. But I thought as I was doing it that the image was so small in relation to the picture that it might be hard. So then I cropped out most of the crosswalk and did an image search again. Still no luck, so I started adding words to my image search. I started with crosswalk. still nothing. Then I added Washington, one of the cities where it was seen. When I did this google suggested D.C. and robot. I thought to myself, yes, it looks like a robot. So I tried that. That brought me to a discussion on citydata.com entitled "What are these stickers of robot-like men at intersections...." Bingo. I clicked on the discussion and found a link to an article in the Washington Post entitled "On the Trail of the Mysterious Stikman."
ReplyDeleteThey're apparently street art created by an anonymous artist called stikman and they've been spotted in many major U.S. cities. My guess would be that some of them are knock offs. They are often, but not always, yellow.
Stikman streetart - Took me a few minutes...
ReplyDeleteBegan searching on Google with the term: little yellow man crosswalk
Read some of the postings and found out that they are called stikman. They appeared on many streets. Somebody wrote that people died at this specific location, but I did not find any proof for this argument.
stikman
ReplyDeleteAbout 30 seconds, first result for for "yellow crosswalk man" came to this: http://www.city-data.com/forum/washington-dc/466569-what-these-stickers-robot-like-men.html
which led to this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439.html
Searched: Whats with the yellow guy and came up with this
ReplyDeletehttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100628155213AAMOGty
which had several more credible links.
My original post was for some reason not posted. I guess it was because I didnt see right the first Captcha. So here it is again.
ReplyDelete[yellow guy mark crosswalks chicago]
Found: Stikman - a Look at Mysterious Stickman Street Art in Crosswalks
http://simonesmith.hubpages.com/hub/Stikman-a-Look-at-Mysterious-Stickman-Street-Art
Your image adding text [Stikman]
Found: On the Trail of the Mysterious Stikman http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439.html
20 years of Stikman
http://blog.vandalog.com/2012/03/20-years-of-stikman/
And http://issuu.com/elmerjladlad/docs/teak_bracket
What's the story with the yellow blotch?
A: Stikman. "Bob" Created this Street Art in 1992 and has more than 150 pieces of art. "The goal is not to provoke, Bob says, but simply to cause those gazing down to pause and wonder."
See you in the MOOC, Dr. Russell. Have a great week
Oddly enough, there may have been tire tacks off a mis-shoed Peugeot 403 cabriolet over the yellow blotch too.... starting to think there is a shadowy Stinkman involved in all these street appearances. Maybe it's an East coast thing, but I did see that Stikman has been spotted in multiple SF locations - Dan, do you have any first hand exposure?
ReplyDeletestikSF
YSF
Search: yellow man in crosswalk brought up all kinds of stuff on Stikman street art.
ReplyDeleteAbout two min.
1. Did an image search for [stick figure crosswalk] and filtered to the color yellow. The yellow man image came up on the second result, which I clicked on.
ReplyDelete2. That took me to a Flickr Hive Mind page. From there, I clicked on the first image, which took me to its home Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/84867026@N00/2609880495.
3. Then I clicked on the Flickr group one commenter suggested, which included a description of robot/ghost/stikman tiles.
4. I switched over to Web search for [stickman crosswalk] and found the top result about it being street art by an anonymous artist who goes by the name Stikman or Bob. http://simonesmith.hubpages.com/hub/Stikman-a-Look-at-Mysterious-Stickman-Street-Art
5. After I found the answer, I typed my initial query into the Web search [stick figure crosswalk], and the article came up as the first result. I definitely should have tried a general web search first. Still, it took me under 5 minutes with the image+ general search. It was nice to have a faster challenge this time!
The stikman creator is anonymous. Attributed to a man calling himself "Bob," who considers himself "an artistic Johnny Appleseed, spreading stikmen instead of seeds."
ReplyDeleteSeen in Washington DC, Boston, Hollywood, Philadelphia, Wheeling, WV, Ann Arbor, and Minneapolis, Chicago and San Francisco.
I see a lot of you searched with the word [crosswalk]. We don't use that word. I tried [crossing] and [pedestrian crossing] in my searches and found him.
ReplyDeletePam, NZ
That's an excellent point--even everyday words (like "crosswalk") often have variants in other languages / cultures (even for "English," which has well-known variations between local instances).
Delete