PowerSource

What are LED “throwies” and how can they used as a form of civil protest?

Throwies were popularized by GRL, Graffiti Research Labs, with instructions for making them appearing on the popular DIY site, Instructables, among others. An LED throwie is a lithium ion button battery, an LED, and a magnet, all taped together. No switch, no circuit board: Just inexpensive, readily available components and tape. With a bunch of throwies, any large, ferromagnetic surface becomes your canvas: Throw them -- randomly, in a pattern, whatever -- and they exist as lighted graffiti until the battery runs out in a couple of days, at which point they’re just litter. GRL, as its name implies, offers encouragement for graffiti artists, with light, rather than a paint can, as the graffiti medium.  

On Monday, “…five pro-Tibet activists unfurled a banner spelling out “Free Tibet” in English and Chinese in blue LED “throwie” lights in Beijing’s Olympic Park tonight. The five were detained by security personnel after displaying the banner for about 20 seconds at 11:48 pm August 19th. Their whereabouts are unknown.” 

Now these LEDs were sewn to the banner, so I’d say that technically they weren’t throwies, just LEDs taped to batteries, but the protesters refer to them as throwies.

The picture shows an interesting juxtaposition: The protest banner with “Free Tibet” in LEDs, shown with the famous Beijing Bird’s Nest stadium in the background, another quite different showcase for LEDs.