The GOOD 100: Jason Eppink

There's No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

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Public space belongs to everyone: you, people you know, people you don't know, and people you'll never know. And that mystery is magical. Anything can happen because everyone is invited. Who are these people, why are they there, and what are they passionate about and good at? And how are they an integral part of your home, even if you've never met them before?There are enough potential spectators and collaborators in urban public spaces to make things worth doing. When everyone is bringing their ideas and making things happen where everyone else can see them, that's exciting. In most of the world, you have to search this stuff out, but in the city, people are putting it right out there, for you, on your walk to the subway."Protest" is too strong a word for what I do. Protesting is often pedantic and polarizing and shortsighted. I'm not interested in getting in people's faces; I want to encourage, not insist. In fact, much of my work is meant to blend in with its surroundings and rewards observation.Perhaps the best way to describe what I do is to say that I create prototypes for transforming the city-my home-into a more livable place. Whether that's art or design or engineering or activism or pranks, I don't know or really care. In the end, my ideas are intended to engage and inspire.Eppink is an artist who uses the city as his canvas, not for graffiti but for art that interacts and informs the urban environment in unexpected, often hilarious ways.