It wasn't meant to be in purple, and I'm glad you think I'm dumb. Graffiti isn't a victimless crime, legalization of drugs whores and the like make sense to me. Saying tagging isn't every going away doesn't make sense to me. As I've said before, if you want your car or hour or business hit thats fine, but most of us don't.
I didn't say you were dumb. I said what you'd written was dumb. I also didn't say it was victimless, I questioned whether your iron fisted policing was actually a way of fixing the situation.
Yeah, graffiti has been around for millennia - no amount of enforcement is going to make it go away. How's that war on drugs doing? How much money and effort have been put into that?
I realize you didn't call my dumb, but I stand by the statement and the concept so I assumed it would extrapolate out to that. And I think making examples of Utah et al etc is a great way to show you do the crime you end up doing the time. As for developing a style, kids can buy some paper or paint their own property. Being edge for almost all my adult life, I think the war on drugs is stupid, and as I said, an entirely different concept. Also, drawing on your cave walls is a lot different than drawing on someones car, business etc. Ownership concepts are a lot different now than in the past millennia.
I go back a lil ways in the graff world and know that utah used to get up quite a bit around..not doing much besides her utah throw ups..which are ok..if your into graff... but she is a snitch who told on a few other people.so they can hang her for all i care!
Yeah, and we are certainly all the better for it. When you're not making these inflammatory statements, I tend to agree with your sentiment. Do the crime pay the time. Make the occasional example. Scrawling on someone's car isn't cool. Yup, agreed. In reality. None of that makes a blind bit of difference, and throwing away more taxpayer money to reduce what is a minor crime with no realistic end in sight is silly. It is like the war on drugs. If they legalised drugs, not all problems would go away, but lots of problems would be reduced. Legalising tagging won't make it go away, but if you wander down the South Bank in London, they have given an entire area to taggers and artists. And strangely the only graff you see down there is by Banksy or some other acclaimed street artist.... hmmm Actually, Banksy did hit the nail on the head with his "Official Graffiti Zone"
The war on crime is not entirely different than the war on graffiti - they're both unwinnable no matter how much money you put into them. I'm not saying it's cool to vandalize someone's property, but it's gonna happen regardless of the punishments involved. And I'm not talking about cave paintings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8
That reminds me NT, I was in Gloucester Cathedral, the one in Harry Potter (though I was wandering through it for unrelated reasons) and there's shit tons of old cravings in the walls & the wood, I think the oldest I spotted was dated 1650, blatantly some bored choir boy as well. I have seen it in a few I've been to in France as well. For me I find that exciting, sort of like the old desks at school. AD - I'm trying really hard to drag a debate out of you and your one line responses aren't helping me, it's not even as thought they are adding any depth or insight into your initial statement. Anyway, understanding of ownership is not universal, I would even say that it is not agreed upon across the whole of the US, I imagine the Native Americans have a different view of ownership and how it has effected society. I personally like the history of tagging and city wide etc. Wasn't it TAKI 183 who was among the first?
Thats called a 'Mission brown dragline' Attempts at enforcement only drive things underground. The subject of cleaning up graffiti has been going in cycles for over 30 or so years. How many times have you seen TV reports or read articles in you local paper outlining a graffiti crack down or clean up initiative? Before you know it, it’s back to business as usual and all is forgotten. More often than not these witch hunts are politically motivated. Authorities should be trying to foster a better connect with graffiti artists and the local community through publically sanctioned walls and art projects. Personally I think you need a balance between illegal and legal painting. Younger or diehard writers are always going to want to paint illegally and that’s really what the subculture is about.
Looks like he had fun on his trip downunder. Tagging Melbourne Magistrates Court would not have helped his cause. What a stupid move. Damn, he would not be a happy chappie.
hahaha i love it how he really doesnt care. Im living in Melbourne at the moment. This city is covered in graff and its famous for it, Theres even graffiti tour guides.. No wonder he went nuts when he was down here.
with over 250 burning cars in berlin this year so far, graffiti vandalism has become a minor problem. good graffiti is too good to complain about the bad.
No real need to debate since we won't see eye to eye on this. I acutally like some well done street art but the tags and the vandalism overall just have turned it off to me over the past 10-15 years. I also find it really amusing to debate ownership on a board dedicated soley to mass addiction consumption of luxury goods.
That revok video is pretty mad. He just did it cause the comp was cancelled. As for my edits, i realized i've been a memeber of this board for a week or so and was already taking things too seriously.....do not want to fall into that trap.
p.s. im generally not really a fan of tags or graffiti art anymore either but there was a point when i thought it was amazing and can see how easy it could be to get really into it as a subculture.
In my teens I definitely did it. I was young dumb and awful at it. I had friends, on the other hand, who were prolific and went on to destroy the DC area. Some now have legitimate careers in art, Amir who is the Founder and editor of Beautiful Decay magazine is one of them. In my eyes it is and always will be a crime and no amount of legal walls or commercial success will ever change the public's opinion of that. I have friends who are writers here in SF and I will always be fond of that subculture. Although about a year and a half ago someone tagged the awning of Super7. You better believe I wanted to break his fingers and still plan to when I meet him.
This has always kind of confused me. Do many writers themselves even want the publics opinion to change?
Exactly my point. It always seems that the "piece" and legal wall people seem to be the ones who are trying legitimize themselves to the public.
