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# Skryf
- URL: https://www.protein.xyz/skryf/
- Published: 2014-02-05T10:43:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-05-28T11:00:08.000Z
- Description: A machine that writes in sand to show the impermanent nature of text
- Author: Protein
- Tags: Seeds, Art & Design, #protein, #Import 2024-06-11 13:25, #author-change-2025-05-28

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/S3/protein/9828/73c8502c-42fb-400f-b586-2b2a7c366163.jpg)

Dutch artist Gijs van Bon’s [Skryf](http://www.skryf.nl/?ref=protein.xyz) machine takes graffiti to a different level - one which the discerning public are more than happy to accommodate. Van Bon’s adapted CNC milling machine uses sand to write words on the ground, spelling out messages and texts, letter by letter, to be blown away by wind or scuffed out by the soles of pedestrian foot traffic.   
  
Connected to his laptop via a simple piece of custom software, van Bon controls Skryf remotely, typing in text – usually geographically relevant literature – which the machine replicates on the ground. Like a more analogue version the [Confession Machine](https://www.prote.in/en/feed/2014/01/confession-machine?ref=protein.xyz) we looked at last week, the idea behind the project is to show how lines of text and poetry exist only momentarily, before they are lost in flux. By the time Skryf has finished one line of text, the beginning of that line has usually disappeared.  
  
  
![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/S3/protein/9828/7ee3a1fe-ebf3-4eed-992e-a74e43df738e.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/S3/protein/9828/9315b364-aed5-44ba-ad22-569d412e9bb8.jpg)