The Economics of Graffiti

Everyblock's reporting: Graffiti and Noise

2008-05-20T02:34:00.000-07:00

From Did they report your graffiti binge? Ask Everyblock. on Pinkomag
"Everyblock does skew towards the graffiti reports and noise violations. But for someone getting to know a new community, it’s invaluable."

Speaking of value, if EveryBlock.com is mainly reporting on quality of life issues, is it just preserving the property values of the net savvy?

Just a thought.

Graffiti in GTA IV

2008-05-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

As far as I'm able to tell, you can't make graffiti in GTA IV. Maybe in V?

However, the walls of Liberty City do come replete with said notorious sign of urban decay and sometimes it contains hints for the game.

If graffiti is in a video game, is it automatically graffadi?

Graff-Fest '08 - a graffiti-off in Greensboro, NC

2008-04-12T20:30:00.001-07:00

The 915 Skate Park in Greensboro, NC is holding a graffiti contest.

It seems like an easy way to get their park painted by writers...

or maybe a trap by local law enforcement. Muh muh muh!

In any case, it's also a way for the public to see graf artists doing their work out in the open and in the light of day. Get out and make some friends, people.

"Future Arts," an "art brand"

2008-04-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

Future Classic, a Boston-based marketing company, will hold a launch party on April 19 at the Boston Center for the Arts for its new "art brand, FUTURE ARTS." They claim we can witness the future of urban art if we go.

However hokey the press release, there will be a couple artists there worth checking out: Rob 'React' Larsen and Yuko Adachi, to name a couple.

2008-04-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

From the North Andover Eagle Tribune: "Mike Rich, aka Too Rich, create a graffiti-style mural just outside the school's McQuade Library. He was at the school demonstrating his art as part of a self-titled exhibit inside the library."

"'I don't do so much bombing,' said the 34-year-old Rich, referring to the practice of 'tagging' a building illegally."

-FYI, Eagle Tribune, the term bombing, according to Subway Art (by Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper), the writer's bible, defines bombing as "prolific painting or marking with ink." It could be considered, on the scale of graf prolifics, in between a "throw-up" and a "burner."

I also like the quote from the Art professor, David Raymond: "The graffiti artist is a bandit, but that is not a reason to not call it art. It almost completely lacks pretense. It has a history of forbiddenness. I think that appeals to people. It's not like the art stuff they are studying in class."

Legends of Style returns to Boston.

2008-04-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

Though "an event based brand" and partnered with car maker Scion, Legends of Style will not be entirely bereft of authenticity. The Boston veterans Target and React will be exhibiting work, and you should go check it out.

Boston's setting an example?!

2008-04-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

So says this editorial in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. But don't bother getting all red in the face, the writer doesn't bother citing actual facts (you know, the stuff newspapers are based on (other than advertising)).

Here's a video that accompanies the piece - includes nice footage of graf artists in action:

"One Person’s Vandalism Is Another One’s Art"

2008-04-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Gotham Gazette editorial by Lenore Costello

Worth a read!

topics covered:

The Eye of the Beholder
see post's title.

The Official View
"[New York City's] City Council, though, does not share that view or distinguish much between street art and graffiti."

Into the Mainstream
"Some artists have stopped limiting themselves using the streets as a canvas and begun using actual canvases, which then sell in galleries for thousands of dollars."

Artists vs. Street Art
"As street art move more into the mainstream, some critics fear it will lose its essential edginess." - among other things...

Street-inspired Art at the ICA Boston

2008-03-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

STREET LEVEL: Mark Bradford, William Cordova & Robin Rhode. Now through 13 July 2008 at the ICA. Pictured: "Wholesellers, Retailers & Bullshitters" (detail), 2005. Ink, graphite, gold leaf on paper, William Cordova's painting of a graffitied delivery truck, an appropriation of urban imagery.

"Fly on the Wall" - graffiti film in IFFBoston

2008-03-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

From the press release: "The Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University (CDIA) will be showcasing a selection of the year's best student films to emerge from its Digital Filmmaking Program in the Independent Film Festival of Boston on Saturday, April 26, 11:30 a.m. at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, Somerville, MA."

""Fly on the Wall" chronicles the lives of underground graffiti artists."

And Now a Famous Graffiti Artist Buys Billboard Space

2008-03-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

The world is about to end...

(or at least they're ruining it for the kids)

priggishness or preserving the revolution?

2008-03-28T15:52:00.000-07:00

A fashion blogger laments the appropriation of graffiti styles into mainstream graphic design . . .

while two art critics in Washington D.C. argue about graffiti's place in the gallery.

The Graffiti Creator

2008-03-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

Go to The Graffiti Creator to make your own 'graffiti styled' texts.

First, the Graffiti Research Lab, now this. It's artificial or 'virtual' graffiti. If there was a program out there that created Monet or Renoir-esque images out of bad drawings, I doubt it would change French Impressionism's position in the art world, but graffiti doesn't have that advantage.

Vista, CA has a $240k anti-graf budget.

2008-03-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

It's springtime - the kids are out and so are the power washers...

graffiti in the gallery - complete with Magritte reference

2008-03-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

This is not graffiti?

Perhaps not if it's in the gallery, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. According to Pixnit, "Defining graffiti solely by its illegality cripples its artistic value."

Maybe that's what graffiti needs - more appreciation as a fine art and to be in galleries. Who knows, maybe in a decade or so, white people will start to like it.

Graffiti Research Lab at MoMA

2008-03-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

G.R.L. @ M.o.M.A. from fi5e on Vimeo.

Student Tags His Pants, Loses Miranda Rights

2008-03-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

The Boston Globe article, When school needs counter student rights, tells the story of a student who was questioned by his principal with a police officer ("school resource officer") present to "monitor" the interview.

A bit off topic, but this is why it's important for students to take a civics class and get to know their constitutional rights. If they're being accused of a crime they could be arrested for, they must have every benefit of the legal system available to them, in this case, a lawyer. In public schools, students' constitutional rights are limited to protect the learning environment (think BONG HiTS 4 JESUS (Morse v. Frederick), Bethel School District v. Fraser, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier), but schools should never ever leverage this advantage to prosecute one of their students.

According to the principal, the police officer was there to provide the same protection as a lawyer - it doesn't seem to me that this principle knows how our legal system works.

Note to writers, graffiti artists, taggers and your colleagues: IF YOU TAG YOUR CLOTHES WITH THE SAME TAG THAT YOU'VE DEFACED PROPERTY WITH, YOU'RE GOING TO GET ARRESTED. The Globe doesn't note the outcome of the pants-tagging student's questioning, so my guess is that the tag on the student's pants was never written on someone else's property.

keeping the neighborhood watch busy

2008-03-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

"Members of the Oakland Hills Community Neighborhood Watch say they're determined to wipe it out for good. They say everytime (sic) graffiti goes up they plan to take it down."
from: Community Takes Stand Against Graffiti, Memphis Eyewitness News

Sometimes fighting graffiti can be like shoveling water.

I would like to suggest a more pro-active approach:
- catch the graffiti artists and make them clean up graffiti
- hire graffiti artists to create a mural where ever the problem occurs most frequent
- license the graffiti artists and public spaces where they can write

Man auctions wall painted by Banksy.

2008-03-24T21:01:00.001-07:00

Banksy, Portobello Road
Originally uploaded by cactusbones

According to the BBC, Luti Fagbenle auctioned the wall of his business located at Portobello Road in London. The wall fetched 208,100 GBP (about 407376.56 USD at the time the article was published) on ebay.

The price did not include the removal and transport of the wall.

I wonder if the wall that replaces the Banksy-painted one will be targeted again.

In an email, the graffiti artist Pixnit wrote this is "Turning the "destruction" of private property into a "gift.""

a children's book about identity and street art

2008-03-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

Lilman Makes a Name for Himself

Artist and writer Caleb Neelon's book about learning how to make a name for yourself looks at the development of a personal identity in children.

Pick it up as his site or Cantab Publishing.

"one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing"

2008-03-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

According to Banksy...
From The Times (New Zealand)

pro-active punishment for graffiti artists

2008-03-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

From "From university to a university of crime – smarter justice for the Deerbolt Two" “Graffiti-ing public property is wrong - but whats the point of a prison sentence? Around eight out of young people are reconvicted within two years of leaving prison, it’s an expensive way of making young people worse. Maybe they should meet up with members of the community who they are affecting and the people who have to clean up the graffiti and do compulsory work to pay back for what they have done”
Lucie Russell, SmartJustice Director

Seems to be a "no-brainer;" let the punishment fit the crime.

graffiti in the gallery - continued

2008-03-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

It's Our Wall
Haaretz
By Tahel Frosh
10 March 2008
"Ame72 calls the heightened interest in recent years in this art form in Israel "the Banksy effect," in reference to the British underground artist whose works sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have purchased work by Banksy, who painted on the West Bank separation fence a few months ago."
"Dr. Yochai Rosen of the Art History department of Haifa University agrees that graffiti art is a new phenomenon in Israel and that it was imported only in recent years. He believes that "because graffiti originated in marginal groups, it is sterile and lacks content when it becomes established.""

SPOTHUNTERS @ THE NEW ART CENTER
Big RED and Shiny
by MICAH J. MALONE
March 5, 2006
"Graffiti art has been infiltrating its way into the “official” art world for more than two decades now. With artists like Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, to name only two of the most well known, paving the way for more contemporaries like Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen, the art of graffiti now seems to reside quite comfortably in the gallery world. Perhaps one of the most pressing questions about this phenomena, at least for this writer, is once graffiti leaves the street, is it really graffiti anymore?"

graffiti views split by age, not just legal/illegal

2008-03-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

In a 13 March 2008 editorial, the The Eagle Tribune of North Andover explained the adult view of graffiti. The piece begins, "Graffiti isn't "art." It's vandalism and a criminal act. Sensible, mature adults recognize the difference." And goes on to say, "Graffiti vandals may fancy themselves artists, but they are nothing more than selfish brats."

Though I understand their point, I don't think they're going to convince anyone with this crotchety rhetoric. The implicit "fuck you" in all graffiti must really piss off "adults" - this editorial is an example of the level of public discussion surrounding the graffiti problem.

The editorial: Our View: Grown-ups don't consider graffiti 'art'

The National Portrait Gallery has 'Recognized' graffiti

2008-03-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

Now through October 26, 2008, hip-hop art at the National Portrait Gallery.

RECOGNIZE! Hip-hop and Contemporary Portraiture

The New Museum's been tagged.

2008-03-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Now they've got some street cred. Gawker, who posted this on their blog, seems to think that a building's being tagged is an 'official welcome' to the neighborhood. Though their comments were very likely intended to be facetious, the city has begun its subsumption of the building, which opened just 4 months ago.

Watch out, New Museum! Next comes drug dealers, gangs, prostitution and riff raff of all imaginable sorts.

"Fuck you" implicit in all graffiti?

2008-03-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

At least the type that of graffiti that this sign has so far prevented. (from BoingBoing)

Tourist Tags Glacier in New Zealand

2008-03-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

Jan Philip Scharbert, a German tourist visiting New Zealand's Franz Josef Glacier left his mark on the glacier and a neighboring rock face. He was caught on film by English tourists and arrested later the same day.

Scharbert escaped a charge of "wilful damage" after his one-and-a-half-day clean-up job was considered adequate by New Zealand's Department of Conservation.

1.5 days to clean up: I wonder how long he spent on the work. (The work's execution was evident of inexperience or having been done very quickly. It's also worth noting that bare rock is a poor canvas for any paint job.)

Reportedly, Scharbert was chided by visitors to the glacier as he cleaned up after himself.

Banksy bombs the Swiss Embassy (in London)

2008-02-29T09:33:00.000-08:00

From the Arts section of The Guardian:
Underground art: how Banksy gave Swiss embassy an image makeover
Article from The Guardian

The article's sub-head:
"· Young graffiti artist drafted in for PR stunt
· Series of car park works worth £1m unveiled"

(Whatever is newsworthy, right guys?)

nine years

2008-02-25T15:43:00.000-08:00

Boston police think they have finally caught a graffiti artist named 'Spek,' whom they had been chasing for nine years. This is the stuff people make movies about--I wonder if Spek could option his story (Massachusetts doesn't have a "Son of Sam" statute).

There is good graffiti and bad graffiti and lots more that falls somewhere in the middle. It inspires varying degrees of rancor and awe amongst the public and, most of the time, it's considered vandalism.

I'd like to know how much money was spent chasing Spek and I wonder how much money was spent removing his works. There's also the question of how much money is spent on graffiti prevention and what types of prevention there are in Boston.

But why stop there? I also wonder how much time Spek spent creating his works and I wonder how much time people spend looking at them. The word on the street is that he was a decent 'writer,' and he'll be missed.