Sketches Of Tagging

Graffiti - Sketches Of 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.

1. Michael Kroeger -- Chess on Stamps
... 3; Knight = 3; Rook = 5. The chess stamp sketches above where made with a 2B pencil. The theme ... ... of a stamp from its original face value. Tagging - Chemical marking applied to stamps so they ...
http://www.mkgraphic.com/chess.html

2. KnowNet - sinList
... into a weblog, we've made it easier to track my tagging via RSS, and begun to integrate social ... ... the web2.0 approach with screenshots, and sketches some issues and opportunities for leveraging ...
http://www.knownet.com/si ...map=From_Our_Weblogs2

3. Australia
... information is provided, with biographical sketches for different career specialities. veterinary ... ... live baiting, fishing competitions, and fish tagging. Provided on the Web by the Division of Animal ...
http://vetgate.ac.uk/brow ...07fb8ca9a49b98ed.html

4. digital digs: Professional Writing
... the art community invested. In return they got sketches and other objects they could display and sell ... ... we'd have a whole new mode of assessment. Tagging would give us access to what faculty and ...
http://alexreid.typepad.c ...al_writing/index.html

5. New Media at the University of Maine | Feature
... when lobstering. The MELobster functions by tagging the GPS coordinates captured from the boats ... ... the completed black book, I will scan the sketches in and organize them to be projected on a ...
http://newmedia.umaine.edu/feature.php?id=456

6. Citizen Keith » 2005 » September
... del.icio.us and flickr. Listen here. Tagging enters the mainstream& Permalink Comments 09 ... ... 22, 4:00 pm (406 minutes ago) Daniel Lanois - Sketches played on: June 22, 1:11 pm (575 minutes ago ...
http://www.citizenkeith.com/archives/2005/09/

7. Razorfine Review: 2.0
... to work and provide some inconsistantly funny sketches. Fawlty Towers by Alan Rapp on Wednesday ... ... great detective Sherlock Holmes with Ian Hart tagging along as Dr. Watson. Good performances and the ...
http://www.razorfine.com/ .../category/Television/

8. Jason Murphy: Business, Marketing, SEO, & Web 2.0 - Gadgets and Geekdom
... Sleeping ...Sudoku Four Five people Im tagging: ...pappy ...chad r (and/or his band ... ... will all be black and white "fantasy" pencil sketches. Every ride will be taken off some sweet ...
http://www.thejasonmurphyshow.com/index.php?cat=25

9. Send a Mail
... WORK Experimental work performed such as sketches, drawings, composition, screens, and ... ... packaged . Bulk packaged. Individual folding, tagging, bagging, etc., if desired shall be charged at ...
http://www.signprosonora.com/htmlmail/send.htm

10. AAUP - Books for Understanding
... Press. 1998 Containing the Threat from Illegal Bombings: An Integrated National Strategy for Marking, Tagging, Rendering Inert, and Licensing Explosives and Their Precursors National Research Council ...
http://www.aaupnet.org/news/bfu/september11.html

11. 2005 June archive at Binary Bonsai
... on writing down ideas, keywords and making sketches of whatever I come up with in the spur of the ... ... works better! So what if it's tragically hip... Tagging Others Blogs 24 comments Published late in ...
http://binarybonsai.com/archives/2005/06/

12. tech ronin
... It is chock full of Dan's wonderful original sketches with mostly hand-lettering. Beautiful book. I ... ... Technorati Tags: email, GTD, Macintosh, tagging 10:24 PM in Macintosh, Tagging, Web/Tech ...
http://tokerud.typepad.com/blog/

13. Construction Industry Digest
U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration www.osha.gov MyOSHA [skip ...
http://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha2202.html

14. jh-01 services: information architecture and user experience design
... level solutions using wireframes and interface sketches Close collaboration with designers and ... ... design and the build process Measurement and tagging of key customer journeys Site analysis ...
http://www.jh-01.com/services/bundle_two.php

15. Nancy Street - Visitor Book
... files onto media devices and I need to add tagging support. I am not currently considering ... ... We Love You. Googled for Monty Python's sketches (search string "Monty Python" "Architects ...
http://www.orthogonal.com.au/visbook/