Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Have you ever....?

So I've seen this idea twice recently, in other contexts... a tire with text or art carved into the treads. Here it is at the blog Letterology, in a detail from an illustration from 19c. Paris. The rider has a tank of ink attached to the back of his three-wheeled cycle, to continuously coat the tires and print words on the pavement as he rides... detail from a 19c. printInk would probably make this an illegal device in a lot of cities; but that post also links to a vimeo video, called "Tricycle Calligraphy," where Nicholas Hanna is doing a very similar thing in China, but with water as his "ink"--the lettering is only visible until it dries.

I also saw some pretty carved tires on Pinterest--by this artist, though I see from google image search that there are several folks carving used automobile tires:

So maybe you're getting the idea of my question. Has anyone ever carved images or words into wheelchair tires, so as to leave a legible or at least artistic trail when the tires are wet (with water, with ink, with paint, etc.)? I don't imagine it would be an everyday thing--wheelchair tires have to be working tires, and these don't look like they'd be very functional or durable in the longterm. But maybe for an occasion? A protest? A celebration? Might need to be a more concise message than an automobile tire's, given the smaller surface. (Note, however, that the two tires in the upper image above have different slogans, to make a longer overall text.) Certainly folks have worn shoes with custom treads for various purposes (here are some flipflops with custom soles, for leaving sand imprints); I'm wondering if anyone has made or used a custom-treaded wheelchair tire, similar to the ideas above.

4 comments:

jana said...

The pegleg prosthetic that I use at the beach leaves round smiley-face footsteps in the sand. Sometimes they stay there on the beach for weeks around the area where I launch my canoe. :)

Penny L. Richards said...

Yeah Jana! Got any photos of the print in sand? (Shows you how wasted the beach is on me, that I didn't even think of that surface as a possibility.) Did you carve the smiley face, did someone else, or did it come that way?

seeandbesafe said...

Imprints in the sand are impossible for me as the power chair that I use can't drive over a loose, sandy surface. The idea of using tire imprints and sand as a protest medium is a very interesting one though.

seeandbesafe said...

Wheelchair tire patterns as a protest method? Sounds extremely interesting. Considering that the tires for my power chair are about 300 bucks a pop, I had better make sure that those tires are also functional. It does sound intriguing thoug.