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Graffiti - Graffiti Legend Tagging
It doesn't matter where you live in the world, chances are
you've seen graffiti somewhere around your local community.
It seems to spring up in every culture, although it tends to
be more prevalent in big cities.
But is it vandalism? Or is it art? That's a difficult
question to answer, mainly because there are so many
different types and styles of graffiti. The most basic form
of graffiti is "tagging" - which is usually a simple
graphic, usually letters, perhaps a play on the creator's
initials or nicknames. Often small and monochrome, it's
probably one of the most annoying and frustrating types of
graffiti, because it is small enough to deface almost any
surface, and is almost universally condemned as having no
artistic merit.
Graffiti, however, isn't restricted to tagging. On larger
surfaces, many graffiti artists employ multiple colors and
intricate designs to create their pictures. This is the type
of graffiti that starts to cross the line into being
artistic. It's this type of graffiti art that is now being
showcased in a number of art galleries, both in the USA and
around the world.
The other problem with graffiti as art is that the issue is
clouded by the location of the art. If some of these
stunning designs were created on a canvas, or a wall
specially set aside for the purpose, then it would be easier
to recognize them as art. Unfortunately most graffiti is
placed on private property, without the owner's consent, and
so is less likely to be viewed as a welcome addition.
Around the world, communities and governments have become
more vigilant in their attempts to reduce the amount of
graffiti. In many places there are community groups or
government funded teams who guarantee to clean up graffiti
in 24 hours after it's reported. Trains in New York were
given new coatings that allowed paint to just be "dissolved"
off their surfaces.
In my own local area, the sale of spray paint to persons
under 18 is illegal, and all spray paints are kept in locked
display cupboards. Another area has a team of painters who
regularly go around and repaint any fences that have been
covered in graffiti. One homeowner I know has had his fence
repainted 7 times so far! Over time, however, the amount of
graffiti reappearing is reducing, which is a victory for the
opponents of graffiti.
Still, simply removing the problem may in fact be a loss to
the artistic community in general. If graffiti is considered
in its most highly refined form, then are we in fact
stopping artistic development in its tracks by making it
impossible for budding graffiti artists to practice their
craft?
When you illegally deface someone else's property, no matter
how beautiful the art you create, you have still committed a
crime. Maybe what we need to do is find ways that graffiti
artists can learn and practice their craft, without needing
to deface hundreds of properties in the process. Some
communities now provide blank spaces and invite local
graffiti artists to paint them. Others have graffiti walls,
where anyone can paint whatever they want.
Maybe there needs to be a shift in the thinking of graffiti
artists, so they can discover the value of painting on
paper, rather than walls. Would the great painters of the
past still be as famous today if they had painted on walls,
rather than on canvas? The problem is complex, so finding a
solution that makes everyone happy is unlikely to be simple.
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Some Other Useful Web Resources
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1. Extreme Gamer - Canadian Gaming News & Reviews /Reviews
... videogame industry with his graffiti inspired action game Getting ... a good few hours of hazardous tagging in Getting Up. Read on for ... Yellow 05.16| Tomb Raider Legend 05.08| Pre-E3 Eye Catchers 05 ...
http://www.extremegamer.ca/reviews.php |
2. news
... offenders to carry out the unpaid work on the graffiti on the canal bridges. Property damaged by ... ... This was of course on the much maligned tagging system, which of course, like many others, he ...
http://www.narrowboatworld.com/news.html |
3. BBoy Zone.com - breakdance move guides, breakdance forums, breakdance videos...
... to track them down by their tagging signs and by investigating a ... role do you tink you take in graffiti...? Paperboy/Papergirl (one ... only) 6 Toy 2 Writer 1 King 0 Legend 0 Total Votes: 9 View Forum ...
http://www.bboyzone.com/ |
4. Absinthe & Cookies (a bit bitter, a bit sweet): ARGH!! Archives
... I care :) Later: apparently, it's an urban legend, but it was part of the news on the radio this ... ... think Iím getting soft, and think you can start tagging me with abandon, errr, donít! [insert bone ...
http://bittersweet.ondrag ...archives/cat_argh.php |
5. hip hop
... Lost Children of Babylon - Legend of the Fall Euphrates ... New York Citys ban on graffiti instruments, reports the ... responsible for last months tagging Air Force One hoax. The rules ...
http://www.inoveryourhead.net/category/hip-hop/ |
6. Usability In The News: 12/2005Usability In The News
... Via Off the Top) Learning Graffiti. Full Article 12:29 PM ... implementation of distributed tagging (i.e. TÄôrati doesnÄôt own ... use the fieldset and legend tags to group the elements ...
http://www.usernomics.com ...05_12_01_archive.html |
7. Wurzelfichte
... 2.0 7 April 2006 | Permalink | foo, geek, graffiti | No Comments Hat was von ... ... macht sich hier ein paar Gedanken zum Thema tagging in social-software. Dazu sollte ich mir ...
http://kaspar.datenfreihafen.de/ |
8. The Shifted Librarian
... In short, I think semantic tagging and Web services are useful ... attached to the Palm. Palm's Graffiti input system for chatting in ... playing the original ìLegend of Zeldaî back in 1988 on his ...
http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/2002/04/19.html |
9. GRAFFITI : GRAFFITILINKS : GRAFFITIBANNERS : GRAFFITINETWERK : GRAFFITI STAR...
... style " store " bombing " tagging " kunst nederlandse GRAFFITI ... 8000 Arhus trainflix Female GRAFFITI Dani (klub7) Fafi Faile ... landen Bbarak (Slowakije) BTK Legend (Rusland) Canadian Vapours ...
http://www.graffitilinks.nl/ |
10. The Corner on National Review Online
... attacks on the school by vandals spraying graffiti offensive to white people and the school did ... ... is anyone else as irritated as I am by this tagging of legislation with the names of victims ...
http://www.nationalreview ...28_corner-archive.asp |
11. A History of Rap and Hip Hop
... had been home to saxophone legend King Curtis, and in 1979 it ... FR] [DE] [UK] Some call it tagging, some call it writing, still ... call it bombing--it's all graffiti. Whether it's art or not is ...
http://www.jahsonic.com/Rap.html |
12. finding datura: issue 1
... from CrimethInc. The Walls are Alive! This zine is a detailed guide to graffiti. Everything you want to know about tagging and urban art is included. Personally Iím not one for graffiti, but after ...
http://findingdatura.com/zine/zine_issue2.html |
13. Be.BIKE Presents: "The Shift Exhibition"
... Futura. HAZE began writing graffiti in 1972, tagging subway trains at the dawn of New York Citys ... ... fact that over 20 years after Haze became a graffiti legend in New York, he has now reached a ...
http://www.dreamsomuch.com/shift/index.html |
14. Graffiti biography .ms
... and others. A new form of tagging was created 1995 in Berlin by ... 3-9806846-0-1 HamburgCity Graffiti, 2003, Publikat Verlag ... 3-980-74786-7 Cope 2, True Legend, Donatien B. Orns. 2003 ...
http://graffiti.biography.ms/ |
15.
... non-gang-related tagging became more common, practised for its own sake. Graffiti artists would ... ... Thos who distinguish between tagging and graffiti generally accept tagging as gang-motivated or ...
http://graffiti.ask.dyndns.dk/ |
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