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All the United States California San Jose Show Your Stripes
AO Edited

Show Your Stripes

Anyone can control this glittery light installation with just a phone call.

San Jose, California

Added By
Anne Ewbank
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Pride Madness, 1730   Anne Ewbank for Atlas Obscura
Shrek’s Path, 1610   Anne Ewbank for Atlas Obscura
Xmas Dance, 6610   Anne Ewbank for Atlas Obscura
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About

Usually, looking at public art is a fairly passive experience. Often, viewers are completely forbidden from directly interacting with art, much less changing how it looks entirely.

But Show Your Stripes by Jim Conti, a glittery piece of public art above a vacant San Jose storefront, is different. It's pretty enough to look at as-is, when night falls and it's fully visible. Bars of light flicker across two sides of the building, in shifting designs and hues. But what few locals know is that anyone with a phone can control Show Your Stripes.

Simply call (408) 287-0128, punch in a three-digit number from 111 to 999 followed by zero, then hang up. Almost instantly, Show Your Stripes will morph into a new pattern. But the codes are not random.

Artist Conti appealed to the community for help coming up with themed designs for the installation, and every code is named on this PDF. Punching in 1730 will kick off Pride Madness, a glorious rainbow pattern, 1610 will display the swampy green Shrek's Path, and 7570 is SJSU, a blue-and-gold tribute to the nearby university. 

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Art Public Art

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Show Your Stripes is at the corner of Second and San Fernando streets.

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Anne Ewbank

Published

January 12, 2021

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Show Your Stripes
88 East San Fernando Street
San Jose, California, 95113
United States
37.33491, -121.887336
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