Photo-bombing is so 2002 (and just a lil’ bit rude).
Do you know what’s cooler and better? Eyebombing.
And best still, someone is willing to ship you a whole pack of googly eyes to do it in your neighbourhood – for free! We signed up, and can’t wait for it to come. You can too. Find out how at the bottom of this article.
Not idea what we’re talking about? We’re talking about this amazing new street art movement:
When Did Eyebombing Start?
Eyebombing seems to have started in a town in Bulgaria by a man named Vanyu Krastev, but Gawker magazine suggests that the earliest eyebombing photo posted on the Internet was on July 22 2006. Uploaded on Flickr by user bestbib&tucker, it’s part of a series that includes a single googly eye peeking out on a shopping trolley sign.
There’s a subreddit dedicated to capturing eyebombs out in the wild too, but the best resource we’ve found so far is the Googly Eyes Foundation. That’s where we signed up to get our free googly eyes, and where you can too!
Possibly the first eyebombing photo uploaded to the Internet.
Why Eyebombing Is Awesome
We live in a world that can be kinda depressing. More of the world’s population is living in concrete jungles in the cities – including in Malaysia, where the World Bank estimated in 2015 that more than half, or 15 million of our population are living in urban areas.
The rise of the smartphone also means that we spend a lot of time with our eyes glued to our screens – studies claim that we spend over 4 hours a day, and probably more if you’re a student.
All of which makes us love eyebombing.
All the seriousness, stress and fighting that goes on everyday means we all need something to lighten the mood.
It humanises our cities, turning broken or everyday objects into pieces of art and expression.
It might make us look up from our screens once in a while.
And maybe it might mean a shared smile with a stranger who’s looking at those googly eyes too – and who knows, that smile could turn into a conversation, and a stranger could turn into a friend.
But most of all, they’re just adorably hilarious.
The Googly Eyes Foundation believes that “every human being has the right to spread googly eyes.”
From their Facebook page, the foundation describes itself as “a group of artists, creatives and happy people living in three different continents that decided to spread happiness around the world.”
Their mission is to spread googly eyes all over the world. A look at their map shows that they’ve succeeded in spreading the power of the eyes to Brazil, Jerusalem, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States – which is pretty impressive!
The whole of Asia’s still eye-less right now…
Let’s Eyebomb Malaysia, You Guys
Like we said, we love this and we wish we saw more of it around. We’ve already signed up to be part of the movement, and we’re waiting for our googly eyes to come. You could buy some from your favourite art shop (and maybe we will!) but you could also get the Googly Eyes Foundation to ship you some, for free!
Simply fill up your details in the form here. The foundation states that it’s free, and that they “will send you between 2 and 3 pairs of googly eyes in diverse sizes. The delivery can take from 30 to 60 days.”
You can even donate to the movement.
We’ll keep you updated if our package comes in.
We hope you do too! Drop us a message on our Facebook or Twitter if you’ve gone eyebombing – we’ll share it to the world.
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