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Dead Tea Trees form beautiful natural sculptures. This one is beside one of the several walking paths through the 560 hectare Point Nepean National Park.
Point Nepean is the most westerly point of the Mornington Peninsula, reaching finger-like almost to the other side of Port Phillip Bay (see my photo of the tip, known as "The Heads"). The quiet waters of Port Phillip Bay lap on one side of the Point, the Rip (the dangerous waters at the entrance to Port Phillip and hence into Melbourne) ravages the tip, and the Bass Strait crashes against the south side.
Point Nepean has a rich history, playing an important role in shaping the early settlement, quarantine and defence of Victoria. It includes military forts and tunnels, an historic Quarantine Station and a cemetery.
Many traders set up shops in the street in the form of metal kiosks, which have the advantage of being easy to move. Using computers makes it possible to create image compositions to promote services and improve screen printing processes to develop appropriate advertising materials. Unfortunately, these "new supports" in printed tarpaulins often show lousy taste to the detriment of local artists who previously painted original advertising panels in their remarkable style.
De nombreux commerçants installent des boutiques dans la rue sous forme de kiosks métalliques qui ont l'avantage de facilement pouvoir être déplacés. Le recours à l'informatique permet de créer des compositions d'images pour promouvoir les services offerts et les améliorations dans les procédés de sérigraphie de réaliser les supports publicitaires adéquats. Malheureusement, ces "nouveaux supports" sous forme de bâches imprimées font souvent preuve de mauvais goût au détriment des artistes locaux qui auparavant réalisaient à la peinture des panneaux publicitaires originaux dans leur style et remarquable.
Guateque de los 10 lustros de José Rodríguez "Habichuela"
Autor: José-María Moreno García. Fotógrafo humanista y documentalista.Cronista Oficial de la Villa de Madridejos.
Una de las mejores formas de conocer la historia de un pueblo es a través de sus imágenes; en ellas se conserva no sólo su realidad tangible, calles, plazas, monumentos, si no también sus costumbres, fiestas, tradiciones, lenguaje, indumentaria, gestos y miradas, que nos dicen sin palabras como se vivía, cuales eran sus esperanzas y temores, qué había en su pasado, qué esperaban del futuro. Uno de los objetivos más ambiciosos es recuperar y catalogar todo el material gráfico existente en nuestra familia desde 1.915, para después ponerlo a disposición de vosotros, que la historia volviera a sus protagonistas, y los que aún siguen con nosotros pudieran disfrutar con ello. VISITA La colección "CIEN AÑOS DE FOTOGRAFÍA FAMILIA MORENO (1915-2015)" en www.josemariamorenogarcia.es y www.madridejos.net
SI ALGUIEN NO DESEA APARECER EN EL ÁLBUM POR FAVOR COMUNÍCALO A josemariamorenogarcia@gmail.com
In Hindu system of religion to worship the God in a human form is regarded as the highest form of worship. In old Vedic era it is the Acharya (The Master/Teacher) who was worshipped as the embodiment of the God. Even today all the popular religious beliefs, like Vaishnavism, Bauls and the others, consider a human form as a temple of the God.
Kumari puja is one such ritual where the Goddess durga is being invoked and worshipped within the form of a virgin girl whose age is between 1 to 16 years. This ritual is being observed mostly on the third day, that is "Maha Astami", of Durga puja while in some places the fourth day, that is "Maha Navami", is considered to be the day for it. Kumari puja is actually a Tantrik ritual of Sadhana (worship) which is believed to bring great blessings on the worshipper. Different Tantras have extensive discussions on the methods and procedures to be followed by different categories of Sadhakas (worshipper); however I think the ritual is not being observed in all its rigorous details now-a-days during the puja, at least that is not realistically possible.
The choice of the virgin for Kumari puja is not made based on caste, religion or social backgroung, rather the physical, emotional and mental characteristics are taken into consideration. Swami Vivekananda is said to have worshipped a Muslim girl as a Kumari. The girls at different ages are believed to represent the different manifestations of the Goddess: A girl of 1 year is called Sandhya, of 2 years Saraswati, of 3 years Tridhamurti, of 4 years Kalika, of 5 years Subhaga, of 6 years Uma, of 7 years Malini, of 8 years Kuvjika, of 9 years Kalasandarbha, of 10 years Aparajita, of 11 years Rudrani, of 12 years Bhairavi, of 13 years Mahalaksmi, of 14 years Pithanayika, of 15 years Ksetrajna and of 16 years Annada or Amvika.
While chanting the "Mantras" (text from Holy Scriptures) different postures are assumed and these are strictly guided by the rituals of the puja.
Acknowledgement: I like to give thanks to the family members of Rani Rashmoni's house at Jaanbazar, Kolkata, for allowing me to photograph the rituals at their premises.
Jaanbazar, Kolkata.
October, 2007
All photos in this gallery are all rights reserved. If you want to use any of them, please send an email before. Thanks for collaboration.
After its transformation, most likely as the result of the same earthquake ca. 500 AD, the three northernmost rooms of the portico (E1, E2 and E5) formed a separate unit, located at a higher level. In contrast to the other rooms of the portico, they are not oriented towards the agora itself, but towards its north-eastern monumental entrance on the one hand, and towards the street between the portico and the Roman Baths on the other hand, and they are placed on a higher level. With the (late 5th-) early 6th century renovation of the walkway, the lower level of E5 (that most probably was the most northern room of the original, first century AD portico) was transformed into a cistern. At the same time, rooms E1 and E2 were built against the north wall of E5 and the actual entrance of the square was narrowed down. Upon excavation it was thought that this unit was a guard station, due to its strategic position and some isolated, military related finds. In depth artefactual analysis however, showed that the function of the room was rather related to storage, or commercial activities, although this does not exclude a military presence on the agora.
The water channel laid out in the debris layer is most likely to be related with the Mid Byzantine occupation on the promontory where the temple of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius used to be, which formed during the 8th-9th century AD the fortified core of the ‘kastron’ of Sagalassos.
On the other outer end of the Eastern Portico, several waste deposit units were excavated. In room E9, three succeeding layers, all illustrating different types of refuse could be identified.
In-between these outer ends, 5 other rooms were excavated (E3, E4, E6, E7 and E8, fig. 75). Layer 8 was considered to be a foundation fill, corresponding to the foundations of the walls of the first (1st century AD) building phase. Because the inclusions in layer 7 were distinctly different from layer 8 and 7 was considered to be a floor substrate. The last walking level was identified as layer 6, although it needs to be stressed that the layer in itself also comprised the foundations of later walls. In this way it also served as foundation fill for the final reorganisation of the rooms. Layer 4 was situated immediately above this floor. As such it contained material left behind upon abandonment and debris of the collapse of the roof.
According to Toon Putzeys, this complex served a private as well as a commercial function, being a thermopolium (a restaurant serving meals and hot drinks, rooms E4 and E8-the latter even being a kind of take-away shop) and at the same time the house of the caretaker/owner (E7). E3 and E6 were the preparation areas for the meals and drinks.
Source: www.sagalassos.be/en/monuments_sites/monumental_centre_so...
The Kamakshi Temple is a famous Hindu temple dedicated to Kamakshi, one of the forms of the goddess Parvati. It is located in the historic city of Kanchipuram, near Chennai, India and is popularly associated with Sankaracharya, one of the greatest Hindu gurus. The Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, the Akilandeswari temple in Thiruvanaikaval near Tiruchirappalli and this Kamakshi are the important centers of worship of Parvati as the mother goddess, in the state of Tamil Nadu. The temple was most probably built by the Pallava kings, whose capital was Kanchipuram, around 6 C.E.
The main deity, Kamakshi, is seated in a majestic Padmasana, an yogic posture signifying peace and prosperity, instead of the traditional standing pose. The goddess holds a sugarcane bow and bunch of flowers in the lower two of her arms and has a pasha (lasso), an ankusha (goad) in her upper two arms. There is also a parrot perched near the flower bunch. There are no other Parvati temples in the city of Kanchipuram, apart from this temple, which is unusual in a traditional city that has hundreds of traditional temples. There are various legends that account for this fact. One of them according to Kamakshivilasa is that the Goddess had to absorb all the other shakthi forms to give a boon to Kama, the Hindu god of love. Another legend attributes it to the Raja Rajeswari pose of the deity that signifies an absolute control over the land under the deity's control. Legend has it that Kamakshi offered worship to a Shivalingam made out of sand, under a mango tree and gained Shiva's hand in marriage.
FESTIVALS
Four worship services are offered each day. The annual festival falls in Spring, in the Tamil month of Masi, which runs from mid-March to mid-April. During this time the chariot festival (Ther) and float festival, (Theppam) are held. Other festivals include Navaratri, Aadi and Aippasi Pooram, Sankara Jayanthi and Vasanta Utsavam in the Tamil month of Vaikasi. All Fridays are considered sacred, though the Fridays in the Tamil months of Adi (mid-July to mid-August) and Thai (mid-January to mid-February) are celebrated.
THE OLD KAMAKSHI DEVI TEMPLE
The original Kamakshi Devi Temple is what is now known as Adi Peeteswari or the Adi Peeta Parameswari. This temple is just adjacent to the Kumarakottam, and is near to the Kamakshi Devi temple.
Adi Shankaracharya, the famous 8th-century CE scholar and saint, established the Sri Chakra at this original Kamakshi Devi temple in the trough-like structure in that shrine. This Sri Chakra soon became the All India famous Kamakoti Peeta. The Acharya's Lalitha Trishati Bhashya comments Kamakoti Peetam as Sri Chakra.
The Acharya changed the fierce form of worship into a sowmya form. The Devi in this original Kamakshi temple is called by various names like Kirtimati, Devagarbha in extant Tantric works like Tantrachudamani. She has four hands containing in each of them respectively, Ankusa, PAsa, Abhaya and a Kapala. This description corresponds to those extant old tantric works. Further, Girvanendra Saraswathi describes precisely this swaroopa as Kameswari.
Sundaramurthi Nayanar, the Saiva saint of the 12th century is aware of the Kamakottam. He in fact mentions that the Kamakottam has come in existence just at that time.
THE MODERN KAMAKSHI DEVI TEMPLE AT KANCHI
The Siruthondar Puranam of Sekkilar Peruman, written during this time, is aware of both the temples and mentions the original temple as the Yoga Peeta and the present Kamakshi devi temple as Bhoga peetam. The reference to the present Kamakshi Devi as Aram Purappaval (bestower of boons)by Sekilar Peruman is noteworthy, as the present name of the street in which this new temple is located in Kanchipuram is called Arapanak Ara Theru.
The present Kamakshi temple too, has a Sri Chakra which was established during the 16th Century by NrusimhAdvari, of the famous dathamAnji family. There is a stone inscription inside the new temple, near this Sri Chakra, which states this fact. It is noteworthy that Arunagirinathar a 15th Century Tamil Saint, sings in praise of the Goddess as devi of dark emarald complexion and the mother of Muruga of Kumarakottam. The Original Kamakshi Devi temple i.e. Adi PeeteswariKamakshi Devi temple is just adjucant to the Kumarakottam. Arunagirinathar mentions the Sri Yantra in the Kamakshi Devi temple, which can apply, during the 15th century, only to the original Adi Peeteswari Kamakshi Devi, which contained the Sri Chakra installed by Adi Shankara. Arunagirinathar does not make any reference to the new temple.
Also noteworthy is the fact that this new temple's legend considers the Bangaru Kamakshi at Thanjavur as Dharmadevi This is the metallic counterpart of the stone image of Dharmadevi, which is at present at Thiruparuthikunram (Jina Kanchi) to where it was removed from this present Kamakshi (Tara Devi) temple after the conversion of the Jain Tara Devi temple into Hindu Sakta tradition has become stronger. There is a stone inscription at the Jina Kanchi temple which explains this fact. There are strong evidences that Dharadevi was worshipped in the present day main shrine.
THE KANCHI KAMAKSHI AMMAN TEMPLE AS A
SHAKTI PEETH
The mythology of Daksha yaga and Sati's self immolation is the main theme in the origin of Shakti Peethas.
Shakti Peethas are divine temples of Adiparashakti. The cause of the presence of Devi's presence is due to the falling of body parts of the corpse of Sati Devi. The eyes/back of Sati Devi is believed to have fallen here. There are 51 Shakti Peeth linking to the 51 alphabets in Sanskrit. There are also arguments that the old Kanchi temple is the Shakti peetha, where Sankaracharya has installed the Shri Chakra. It is reverred world wide as Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham.
TIRUKKALAVANUR
In the shrine of Kamakshi Amman close the sanctum, the Tirukalavanur Divya Desam, the temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu glorified by the 7th-10th century alwars (Tamil saint poets) is present. The temple faced west went to ruins and the deity is now placed inside the Kamakshi Amman temple. There are shrines over the vimana.
WIKIPEDIA
Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion at Philadelphia Museum of Art. Video at VernissageTV: vernissage.tv/blog/2011/09/30/zaha-hadid-form-in-motion-p...
Christian leaders gather in the steps of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles to urge our leaders to form a circle of protection around programs that impact hungry and poor people here and abroad.
Photo by Joanne Nazarian
Die Caineville Wash Road zweigt zwischen den Milemarkern 99 und 98 nach Norden von der Utah State Route 24 ab und führt ins Cathedral Valley, einem abgelegenen Teil im Norden des Capitol Reef National Parks.
Sie ist nur mit allradgetriebenen Fahrzeugen befahrbar.
Final inspection for concrete housing forms destine for the Bahammas. For more information on formwork visit Concrete Forms
Featured Image from Sonata Series
Sonata concentrates on seeing rather than looking. In our waking-state, we look at things all the time but consciously unless chosen to do we make the effort to see. This on-going series concentrates on the elements of design ; color, line, shape texture form and pattern. Each image composes of a singular point of interest to achieve photographic satisfaction. Here the visible, mundane & overlooked has its moment.
Nkosi.artiste@gmail.com
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chance Nkosi Gomez known initiated by H.H Swami Jyotirmayanda as Sri Govinda walks an integral yogic path in which photography is the primary creative field of expression. The medium was introduced during sophomore year of high school by educator Dr. Devin Marsh of Robert Morgan Educational Center. Coming into alignment with light, its nature and articulating the camera was the focus during that time. Thereafter while completing a Photographic Technology Degree, the realization of what made an image “striking” came to the foreground of the inner dialogue. These college years brought forth major absorption and reflection as an apprentice to photographer and educator Tony A. Chirinos of Miami Dade College. The process of working towards a singular idea of interest and thus building a series became the heading from here on while the camera aided in cultivating an adherence to the present moment. The viewfinder resembles a doorway to the unified field of consciousness in which line, shape, form, color, value, texture all dissolve. It is here that the yogi is reminded of sat-chit-ananda (the supreme reality as all-pervading; pure consciousness). As of May 2024 Govinda has completed his 300hr yoga teacher training program at Sattva Yoga Academy studying from Master Yogi Anand Mehrotra in Rishikesh, India, Himalayas. This has strengthened his personal Sadhana and allows one to carry and share ancient Vedic Technology leading others in ultimately directing their intellect to bloom into intuition. As awareness and self-realization grows so does the imagery that is all at once divine in the mastery of capturing and controlling light. Over the last seven years he has self-published six photographic books, Follow me i’ll be right behind you (2017), Sonata - Minimal Study (2018), Birds Singing Lies (2018), Rwanda (2019), Where does the body begin? (2019) & Swayam Jyotis (2023). Currently, Govinda is employed at the Leica Store Miami as a camera specialist and starting his journey as a practitioner of yoga ॐ
Flaque du : 11 Mars 2011, 15h20
Pieds : 1 Seul (le droit)
Formes Principales Possibles : Visage de côté avec un gros œil (larme possible) et un pinch // une Silhouette d’un Homme (à l’envers) // Un oiseau qui tombe avec des plumes (juste le haut de la flaque) et une branche ou un serpent
Résidus d’eau : Beaucoup
État Physique : Normal, un peu fatigué
État Mental à la prise de vue : Neutre, un peu préoccupé, mais calme, impression de solitude
État Mental à la fin de la journée : Assez heureux, après une soirée entre amis
Évocation D’un Futur Possible : N/A
Évocation D’un Passé Possible : N/A
Autre : Oiseau : J’ai entendus les premiers corbeaux du printemps le matin suivant
Analyse :
Le visage : il me représente quand même bien … la larme et la barbe
La silhouette : elle est obscure et semble émané du noir… il lui manque une jambe et sa tête est rabaissée
L’oiseau : ressemble étrangement au signe du groupe de musique Insomnium… l’oiseau semble en chute libre, le reste de la flaque tente de le rejoindre … ou est-ce un serpent qui vient pour manger sa victime?
Try to capture him and the Greek Sea God of Antiquity, Proteus, would suddenly change form and escape. In his description of Quisqualis indica, Georg Eberhard Rumphius (1627-1702), refers to Proteus to qualify the name he gave to this pretty plant. Rumphius - a merchant of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company on the Indonesian island Ambon - was an avid naturalist. After he went blind of glaucoma he pressed his wife and family and servants to further assist him in his endeavors. His notes were later published in a grand set of volumes in The Netherlands.
His writing shows tongue-in-cheek humor and a fine sense of punning. Thus he puns on the native word for Quisqualis as 'udani' (in which the 'u' is slightly aspirated to '(h)u'). Alternatively, Rumphius - originally from Germany - may have been used to the pronunciation of Dutch in Zeeland [many VOC officials came from that area] in which the 'h' is often dropped and the 'g' at the end of the word is very weak). He doesn't give 'udani''s actual meaning, but it sounds homonynously to Rumphius as the Dutch 'hoedanig'. This means something like: 'what way is it now?!', or: 'in which way', or 'what kind': 'Quis qualis' in Latin.
Rumphius is perplexed by the forms this plant can take; he's observed it in his garden: then it is tree-like, then it's a vine, again it's thorny, then smooth again. Like the God Proteus, it defies definition: hence 'Quis qualis', by botanists later joined together as 'Quisqualis'.
Quisqualis indica is found all over the tropics and goes by a variety of names. The most well-known are, I think, Burma Creeper or Rangoon Creeper. And as Rumphius writes: it's not native either to Ambon but appears to have been imported to that isle from Sulawesi.
The Taman Tasik Perdana here in Kuala Lumpur is still in the throes of an entire makeover and renovation. It's becoming really nice, and great strides have been made forward since the last time I was here this past Summer. But our Quisqualis has remarkably found its ground in what was once the 'Edible Garden', of kitchen garden plants. No doubt, this, too, will be changed and corrected...
(PS Those interested in the Latin and Dutch texts of Rumphius's Herbarium Amboinense do well to look at it through 'Botanicus.org'. There its pages are scanned neatly and clearly. Beware: there's also a word-scanned version on the internet in which all the medial esses come out as 'f', and, among other faults , the 'c' is confused with the 'e', etc.)
© All Rights Reserved
No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent of Serena Livingston
Now you don't see this everyday........This Australian Cattle dog.....is a big help to the trainers........she was making sure all the elephants were where they were suppose to be and doing what they were suppose to do............very smart dog.
African Lion Safari is a Canadian owned family business created in the name of conservation. Their manner of exhibiting animals is completely different from the traditional approach; that is, the visitor is caged in the car, and the animals roam in 2 to 20 hectare (5 to 50 acre) reserves.
African Lion Safari first opened their gates to the public in 1969 with 40 lions in 3 reserves; today the park houses in excess of 1000 animals of over 100 species. After 40 years they have been successful with breeding 30 species that are considered endangered, and 20 or more species that are considered threatened. The original idea of "maintaining self-sustaining populations of species in decline" is still their priority.
Courtesy of African Lion Safari
Sacred but exploited, the Asian elephant has been worshipped for centuries and is still used today for ceremonial and religious purposes. Not only is it revered for its role within Asian culture and religion, it is also a key biological species in the tropical forests of Asia.
We do hope this stretches a smile on your face...
KOXBOX Live (Twisted Records/ Ibiza/Denemark)
Formed in Copenhagen early in the '90s, Koxbox made some of the first moves toward
the psychedelic trance sound that became a standard later in the decade. The duo
was formed by Frank E (aka Frank Madsen) and Peter Candy, who first met back in 1980
while playing in rock bands around Copenhagen. Even though the KoxBox evolution has
taken many twists and turns, one thing stayed constant: the music is of unimaginable
quality and they can surely be called legends in our scene. We are very excited to
host one of the only artists that have constantely elevated their music to be on top
of the psychedelic trance scene.
OCELOT Live (Vertigo Records/ Portugal)
oCeLoT aka Aaron Peacock is based in Portugal after many years in San Fran. Aaron produces
high-impact psychedelic trance, sometimes deviating into fresh morning goa style creating
music for your nonstop dancing, listening pleasure. While producing since 1993, the oCeLoT
project began in the year 2000 and has been heard on 5 continents in forests, on beaches,
on mountains, in clubs, warehouses, in fields, and just about anywhere a trance party has
been held.
Frank'E DJ Set (Twisted Records/ Ibiza/Denemark)
By the words of the DJ, get ready for a "KILLER" DJ set by the mastermind of KoxBox.
Ocelot chill set (Vertigo Records/ Portugal)
We are treated by this multi talented artist to a couple of hours of on the chill stage
that will surely have you levitating..
Progress Live (YogiBogeyBox/ NYC)
Yuriy Vaskevich is a discoverer of musical dreamscapes. His immense musical background
is not to be missed. He pushes the limits of psychedelic experimental music and reached
sounds that are progressively unique. By popular demand we bring back Yuriy. We assure
you that if you have not heard Yuriy before you will go back to your computers to have
another listen.
DJ K E N (Dreamcatcher / Psychollective, NYC / JP)
K e N's Psytrance style can be described as Full-On that is neither too bright or too dark.
Yet, powerful with a message, his infectious sounds make you smile & dance He plays for
the love of the music and the people. Always evolving, and trying to further define that
special moment, to make the crowd feel special on the dance floor.
We do hope this stretches a smile on your face...
KOXBOX Live (Twisted Records/ Ibiza/Denemark)
Formed in Copenhagen early in the '90s, Koxbox made some of the first moves toward
the psychedelic trance sound that became a standard later in the decade. The duo
was formed by Frank E (aka Frank Madsen) and Peter Candy, who first met back in 1980
while playing in rock bands around Copenhagen. Even though the KoxBox evolution has
taken many twists and turns, one thing stayed constant: the music is of unimaginable
quality and they can surely be called legends in our scene. We are very excited to
host one of the only artists that have constantely elevated their music to be on top
of the psychedelic trance scene.
OCELOT Live (Vertigo Records/ Portugal)
oCeLoT aka Aaron Peacock is based in Portugal after many years in San Fran. Aaron produces
high-impact psychedelic trance, sometimes deviating into fresh morning goa style creating
music for your nonstop dancing, listening pleasure. While producing since 1993, the oCeLoT
project began in the year 2000 and has been heard on 5 continents in forests, on beaches,
on mountains, in clubs, warehouses, in fields, and just about anywhere a trance party has
been held.
Frank'E DJ Set (Twisted Records/ Ibiza/Denemark)
By the words of the DJ, get ready for a "KILLER" DJ set by the mastermind of KoxBox.
Ocelot chill set (Vertigo Records/ Portugal)
We are treated by this multi talented artist to a couple of hours of on the chill stage
that will surely have you levitating..
Progress Live (YogiBogeyBox/ NYC)
Yuriy Vaskevich is a discoverer of musical dreamscapes. His immense musical background
is not to be missed. He pushes the limits of psychedelic experimental music and reached
sounds that are progressively unique. By popular demand we bring back Yuriy. We assure
you that if you have not heard Yuriy before you will go back to your computers to have
another listen.
DJ K E N (Dreamcatcher / Psychollective, NYC / JP)
K e N's Psytrance style can be described as Full-On that is neither too bright or too dark.
Yet, powerful with a message, his infectious sounds make you smile & dance He plays for
the love of the music and the people. Always evolving, and trying to further define that
special moment, to make the crowd feel special on the dance floor.
Fig. 1. Häufigste Form des Nordlichts in Deutschland und dem südlichen Skandinavien.
Fig. 2. Nordlicht, beobachtet von Hayes zu Port Foulke in Grönland, 6. Januar 1861.
Fig. 3. Nordlicht, beobachtet von Capron zu Guildford in England, 24. Oktober 1870.
Fig. 4. Nordlicht, beobachtet von Capron auf der Hebrideninsel Skye, 11. September 1874.
Polarlicht (hierzu Tafel "Polarlicht"), eine Lichterscheinung des Himmels, welche sich in ihrer vollsten Pracht in den Polarländern zeigt, aber auch zuweilen in unsern Breiten gesehen wird, wie z. B. in den glanzvollen Erscheinungen des 7. Jan. 1831, 18. Okt. 1836, 24. u. 25. Okt. 1870, 4. Febr. 1872, 2. Okt. 1882 u. a. Je nachdem die Lichterscheinung in den Nordpolar- oder in den Südpolarländern auftritt, pflegt man sie mit dem Namen Nordlicht (Aurora borealis) oder Südlicht (Aurora australis, Australlicht) zu bezeichnen, wofür jetzt der gemeinschaftliche Name P. üblich geworden ist. Die Polarlichter treten, je nach Zeit und Ort, unter sehr verschiedenen Formen auf; am häufigsten (Fig. 1 u. 4 der Tafel) bilden sie einen leuchtenden Bogen am Horizont, dessen unterer Rand schärfer begrenzt zu sein pflegt als der mehr verschwommene obere. Unter dem Lichtbogen sieht der Himmel schwärzer aus als gewöhnlich, wie eine dunkle Wolke oder Nebelwand in der Gestalt eines kreisförmigen, vom Horizont begrenzten Segments. Der höchste Punkt des Lichtbogens liegt ziemlich nahe in der Richtung, nach welcher die Kompaßnadel hinweist, also im magnetischen Meridian. Der Polarlichtbogen ist häufig aus einzelnen Strahlen zusammengesetzt, welche von seinem untern Rand nach oben hin gerichtet und von verschiedener Länge sind und oft über den ganzen Bogen hinzuwandern scheinen. Der Polarlichtbogen steht nicht selten ziemlich hoch am Himmel, und seine Erhebung ist über dem Horizont von dem Standort des Beobachters abhängig. Manchmal zeigen sich gleichzeitig mehrere Polarlichtbogen übereinander, welche ihre Form und Stellung am Himmelsgewölbe ziemlich rasch ändern. Zuweilen ist das P. auch ohne Zusammenhang über einen größern Teil des Himmels zerstreut. Diese Art der Polarlichter und nicht minder das Licht der Polarlichtbogen zeigt häufig eine stark flackernde oder flammende Bewegung, indem verschieden gefärbte Strahlen bald hier, bald dort am Himmel aufleuchten. Zuweilen erscheinen diese Strahlen wie ein vom Wind bewegtes leuchtendes Band oder eine Lichtwelle (Fig. 2), zuweilen erfüllt sich der ganze Himmel oder wenigstens ein Teil desselben mit solchen flammenden Polarlichtstrahlen, welche in einem Punkte des Himmelsgewölbes zusammenzulaufen scheinen, der nach neuern Untersuchungen in der Richtung der magnetischen Inklinations-(Neigungs-) Nadel liegt, da, wo das obere Ende derselben hinweist. Dieser Punkt heißt die Krone des Polarlichts. Man kann daher der Hauptsache nach fünf verschiedene Formen beim P. unterscheiden, je nachdem dasselbe 1) als heller Bogen 2) in Form eines wogenden Bandes, 3) als Strahlen, 4) als Krone erscheint oder 5) als heller Schein über den Himmel verbreitet ist. Die Farbe des Polarlichts ist gewöhnlich weißlich oder gelblich; es gibt aber auch rote Polarlichter, die sehr glänzend werden können, wie z. B. das vom 24. u. 25. Okt. 1870 (Fig. 3). Weyprecht, der sich auf der österreichisch-ungarischen arktischen Expedition zwei Jahre lang (1872-74) unter dem Gürtel größter Häufigkeit der Nordlichter befand, teilt über die Farben des Polarlichts mit, daß ihre Reihenfolge die einzige gesetzmäßige Eigenschaft der Polarlichter war, von welcher niemals eine Ausnahme beobachtet wurde. Nach seiner Beschreibung ist die normale Farbe weiß mit leichter grünlicher Betonung, bei trübem Wetter schmutzig gelb. Bei größerer Intensität des Polarlichts tritt Grün und Rot auf, und zwar bildet bei der häufigsten Form, dem breiten Lichtband, das Rot den untern Saum, dem dann das viel breitere Weiß der Mitte und dann das Grün des obern Saums in ungefähr gleicher Breite wie das untere Rot folgt. Violett tritt häufig bei den nur geringe Lichtintensität besitzenden Erscheinungen auf, welche formlosen, schwach leuchtenden Nebeln gleichen. Das Spektrum des leuchtenden Bogens des Polarlichts besteht nach Angström aus einer einzigen, dem P. charakteristischen hellen Linie zwischen den Fraunhoferschen Linien D und E. Außerdem beobachtete Angström noch drei schwache Streifen nach der Fraunhoferschen Linie F zu. Bei dem prachtvollen P. vom 25. Okt. 1870 beobachtete Zöllner außer der charakteristischen Linie zwischen D und E eine rote Linie, doch erschien diese nur an solchen Stellen des Himmels, die auch dem unbewaffneten Auge stark gerötet erschienen. Im blauen Teil des Spektrums traten nur zuweilen bandartige Streifen auf. Die Linien im Spektrum des Polarlichts stimmen nicht mit dem Spektrum eines verdünnten Gases in den Geißlerschen Röhren überein, während sich nach Angström die charakteristische Polarlichtlinie im Spektrum des Zodiakallichts (s. d.) wiederfindet. Ist das P. überhaupt elektrischer Natur wie die Lichtentwickelung der verdünnten Gase in den Geißlerschen Röhren, so muß es einer so niedrigen Temperatur angehören, wie sie bei diesen nicht gut hergestellt werden kann. Über die Höhe der Polarlichter sind die Ansichten der Naturforscher sehr geteilt. Nach Plücker fängt das elektrische Licht im luftverdünnten Raum an zu verschwinden bei einem Druck von 0,3 mm und ist bei 0,1 mm Druck vollständig fort. Daraus würde folgen, daß das P. bis 9 Meilen hoch sein könnte. Nach Waltenhofen tritt das elektrische Licht noch bei 20,000maliger Verdünnung der Luft auf und könnte deshalb das P. weit über 10 Meilen oberhalb der Erde vorhanden sein. Eine direkte Messung der Höhe des Polarlichts ist in der Art ausgeführt, daß man an verschiedenen Punkten der Erdoberfläche, die womöglich auf demselben Meridian lagen, die Erhebung einzelner charakteristischer Stellen des Polarlichts, wie unteres oder oberes Ende eines bestimmten Lichtstrahls etc., über den Horizont beobachtete und aus der so gefundenen Parallaxe seine Höhe berechnete. Auf diese Weise wurde aus den Beobachtungen über das P. vom 25. Okt. 1870 von Heis in Münster und Flögel in Schleswig abgeleitet, daß die Basis der Strahlen 20-35 Meilen und die Spitzen derselben 70, wahrscheinlich bis über 100 Meilen hoch waren. Zu ähnlichen Resultaten kamen auch Galle und Reimann in Breslau. Nach andern Beobachtungen tritt das P. auch in den untern Luftschichten auf, und namentlich ist dieses in den Polargegenden der Fall, wo z. B. Lemström u. a. das P. unterhalb von Berggipfeln und Wolken sowie von Nebeln und leuchtenden Wolken ausgehend beobachtet haben und es deshalb weniger als 4000 Fuß hoch gewesen sein muß. Aber auch im hohen Norden tritt das P. in größerer Höhe auf, wie z. B. in Wester-Norrland am 19. Febr. 1876 ein prachtvolles P. mit der Corona borealis nach 11 Uhr abends oberhalb der Cirruswolken, also in sehr großer Höhe, gesehen wurde. Daß das P. einen Einfluß auf den Zustand der untern Luftschichten ausübt, geht daraus hervor, daß der Himmel beim Auftreten eines starken Polarlichts, zumal wenn die Krone sich zeigt, in ungewöhnlich schneller Wechselfolge sich bewölkt und wieder aufklärt. Das Verhalten des Polarlichts zu den großen Bewegungen der Atmosphäre, zu den Winden, den Temperatur- und Luftdruckerscheinungen ist noch nicht genauer untersucht und noch nicht genügend festgestellt.
Bei starken Polarlichtern wollen einzelne Beobachter bisweilen ein eigentümliches knisterndes Geräusch, wie das Rascheln eines Seidenstoffs, gehört haben, während von andern die Existenz eines Geräusches ausdrücklich geleugnet wird. In neuester Zeit ist darauf hingewiesen, daß die Entdeckungen von Bleuler und Lehmann in Zürich über "zwangsmäßige Lichtempfindungen durch Schall und verwandte Erscheinungen" (Leipz. 1881) zur Erklärung des von einzelnen Beobachtern gehörten Geräusches dienen können. In ähnlicher Weise, wie solche Photismen oder Farbenvorstellungen durch Schall entstehen, werden nämlich auch bei gewissen Personen zwangsmäßige Schallempfindungen, Phonismen, durch Licht hervorgerufen, und da gleichzeitig mit jedem Aufflackern des Polarlichts ein Ton gehört werden soll, so deutet diese Gleichzeitigkeit ebenso wie die Beschränkung der Empfindung auf gewisse Personen darauf hin, daß die Schallempfindungen als Phonismen aufzufassen sind. Manche Polarlichter werden nur auf verhältnismäßig kleinen Strecken beobachtet, während andre eine außerordentlich große Verbreitung haben. So war z. B. das schöne P. vom 7. Jun. 1831 im ganzen nördlichen und mittlern Europa sowie auch am Eriesee in Nordamerika sichtbar. In diesem Fall können nicht überall dieselben leuchtenden Strahlen gesehen sein, sondern am Eriesee wird man einen andern Teil des Phänomens wahrgenommen haben als in Europa. Wahrscheinlich hatte sich damals ein großer Strahlenkamm gebildet, welcher, ungefähr der Richtung eines magnetischen Parallelkreises folgend, vom Eriesee über den Atlantischen Ozean bis nach Norwegen und Schweden reichte. Eine bedeutsame Thatsache ist es, daß die Polarlichter am Nord- und Südpol sehr oft gleichzeitig erscheinen. Aus den vergleichenden Zusammenstellungen der Polarlichtserscheinungen durch Fritz und Loomis ergibt sich, daß das P. im allgemeinen zwar in den nördlichen Ländern der kalten und nördlichen gemäßigten Zone am häufigsten vorkommt, seltener in der südlichen oder wärmern gemäßigten Zone (von 45°-23½° nördl. Br.) und noch seltener in den tropischen Gegenden; aber keineswegs sind die Zonen gleich großer Häufigkeit der Nordlichter parallel dem Äquator, und noch viel weniger findet die größte Häufigkeit in der größern Nähe des geographischen Nordpols statt. Vielmehr liegen die Orte, wo man das P. am häufigsten und in seiner intensivsten Entfaltung sieht, in einer Zone von ovaler Form, welche sich von der Barrowspitze in Nordamerika über den Großen Bärensee nach der Hudsonbai hinzieht, diese unter 60° nördl. Br. schneidet und dann über Labrador, südlich vom Kap Farewell zwischen Island und den Färöern in die Nähe des Nordkaps nach dem Nördlichen Eismeer geht. Nach den weiter zu Gebote stehenden Beobachtungen soll die Linie um Nowaja Semlja und um das Kap Tscheljuskin gehen, sich im östlichen Sibirien der Küste nähern und von da zur Barrowspitze zurückkehren. Nördlich und südlich von dieser Zone nimmt die Häufigkeit und Intensität des Polarlichts ab, und zwar nach N. zu in stärkerm Grad als nach S. (s. Isochasmen). Südlich von dieser Zone sieht man das P. in der Regel im Norden (daher der Name Nordlicht); aber nördlich von ihr erscheint das P. gewöhnlich am südlichen Teil des Himmels. Innerhalb der jährlichen Periode ist das P. zur Zeit der Äquinoktien (s. d.) am häufigsten und zur Zeit der Solstitien (s. d.) am seltensten. Außerdem hat das P. eine Periode von ca. 11 Jahren, in welcher seine Häufigkeit gleichzeitig mit der Häufigkeit der Sonnenflecke zu- und abnimmt, so daß P.- und Sonnenflecken-Maxima und -Minima gleichzeitig eintreffen. Dabei drückt sich der periodische Wechsel in den Nordlichtern viel energischer aus als in den Sonnenflecken. Neben dieser einjährigen Periode zeigt sich noch eine Periode von 55½ Jahren und wahrscheinlich eine noch größere von 222 Jahren, die man in den Nordlichtsverzeichnungen verfolgen kann (vgl. H. Fritz, Verzeichnis beobachteter Polarlichter, Wien 1873, und Loomis in Sillimans "American Journal"). Die bisher vorliegenden Beobachtungen der Südlichter (1841-48 zu Hobarttown u. 1857-62 zu Melbourne) sprechen dafür, daß bei ihnen dieselbe Periodizität vorhanden ist wie bei den Nordlichtern.
Die Beziehungen, welche zwischen dem P. und dem Erdmagnetismus bestehen, zeigen sich zunächst darin, daß während eines Polarlichts die Deklinationsnadel sehr starke und unregelmäßig Schwankungen zeigt, weshalb A. v. Humboldt die Nordlichter sehr bezeichnend magnetische Gewitter genannt hat. Diese magnetischen Störungen treten an den verschiedenen Orten gleichzeitig auf, wie die Polarlichter selbst, und sind um so stärker, je intensiver und je weiter verbreitet am Himmel das P. ist; sie zeigen sich auch an Orten, wo das P. selbst nicht sichtbar ist, so daß man aus einer solchen unruhigen Bewegung der Magnetnadel mit Sicherheit auf ein in entfernten Gegenden sichtbares P. schließen kann. Am unzweifelhaftesten aber ergibt sich die Beziehung des Polarlichts zum Erdmagnetismus aus der Bildung der Polarlichtkrone an dem Punkte des Himmels, nach welchem die magnetische Inklinations- (Neigungs-) Nadel hinweist. Der gewöhnliche Polarlichtbogen rührt nach der Ansicht Nordenskjölds von einem leuchtenden Ring her, der um den magnetischen Pol in beträchtlicher Höhe über der Erde schwebt, und welcher von einem zweiten größern konzentrisch umgeben ist, von dem die großen und prächtigen Polarlichter ausgehen. Je nach der Stellung des Beobachters zu diesen leuchtenden Ringen wird das P. eine verschiedene Form annehmen. An einem Punkte der Erdoberfläche, der weit südlich liegt, wird nur der äußere Ring sichtbar sein, von dem das prachtvolle Draperienlicht mit lebhaften Strahlen ausgeht. Befindet sich der Beobachter weiter nördlich, so wird der Polarlichtbogen die gewöhnliche Erscheinung sein, bei welcher man unter dem hellen Bogen den dunkeln Himmel oder das sogen. dunkle Segment erblickt. Unter den leuchtenden Ringen werden die meisten für den Beobachter sichtbaren Strahlen die Richtung der magnetischen Kraft am Beobachtungsort haben, d. h. einander parallel sein, und werden deshalb nach den Gesetzen der Perspektive in einem Punkte des Himmelsgewölbes zusammenzulaufen scheinen und die Polarlichtkrone an dem Punkte des Himmels bilden, nach welchem die magnetische Inklinationsnadel gerichtet ist. Ein Beobachter im Norden des Polarlichtrings sieht das P. selten, und da nach innen fast gar keine Strahlen ausgesendet werden, wird es hier meist nur als lichter Nebel am Horizont beobachtet werden. Nachdem schon früher die Ansicht ausgesprochen war, daß das P. elektrischer Natur sei, ging de la Rive davon aus, daß das Meerwasser beständig mit positiver Elektrizität geladen sei, daß diese positive Elektrizität durch die aufsteigenden Dämpfe in die höhern Schichten der Atmosphäre getragen und durch den obern Passat (s. d.) den Polen zugeführt werde, so daß sie eine positiv elektrische Hülle für die Erde bildet, welche selbst mit negativer Elektrizität geladen bleibt. Da sowohl die Erde als auch die verdünnte Luft in den höhern Regionen der Atmosphäre gute Leiter sind, so werden sich die verschiedenen Elektrizitäten besonders da verdichten, wo die positive Luftschicht und die negative Erde einander am nächsten sind, d. h. in der Nähe der Pole. Ein Ausgleich der entgegengesetzten Elektrizitäten wird wegen der schlechten Leistungsfähigkeit der untern Luftschichten, durch welche sie erfolgen muß, nur allmählich in successiven, mehr oder weniger kontinuierlichen Entladungen von veränderlicher Intensität stattfinden, und während einer solchen Entladung wird die negative Elektrizität auf der Erde vom Äquator nach den Polen und die positive umgekehrt von den Polen nach dem Äquator strömen. Durch diese Ströme wird die Deklinationsnadel nach W. abgelenkt und ein Strom in den Telegraphendrähten hervorgerufen, der sich in der That auch als eine Störung kenntlich macht. 1878 hat Edlund in Stockholm die Erklärung der Polarlichter sowie die Erklärung aller elektrischen Erscheinungen im Luftkreis auf die von Faraday entdeckte sogen. unipolare Induktion und zwar in folgender (auf die Erde angewandter) Weise reduziert. Läßt man einen Magnet (Erde) mit einer gut leitenden Umhüllung (Erdkruste) rotieren, und verbindet man dabei einen dem Pol benachbarten Punkt dieser Umhüllung (also in der Polarzone) durch einen Leiter (Atmosphäre) mit einem andern Punkte der Umhüllung in der Nähe der Mitte zwischen beiden Polen (in der Äquatorialzone), so entsteht während der Rotation ein elektrischer Strom zwischen den beiden Zonen, dessen Richtung und Intensität von Richtung und Geschwindigkeit der Rotation abhängen. Da nun die Atmosphäre in ihren untern Schichten im allgemeinen ein schlechter, in ihren obern aber ein guter Leiter ist, welcher den elektrischen Kreislauf zwischen der Äquatorialzone und den beiden Polarzonen schließt, so ist nun der elektrische Stromverlauf auf der Erde folgender. In allen Zonen zwischen dem Äquator und den beiden Polarzonen findet ein Aufsteigen der positiven Elektrizität statt, welches am Äquator am stärksten ist, aber immer schwächer wird, je mehr man sich den Polen nähert, und in deren Nähe ganz aufhört. Die in die Höhe getriebenen Mengen von positiver Elektrizität sind noch einer Tangentialkraft unterworfen, welche am Äquator und an den Polen gleich Null ist und zwischen beiden ihren größten Wert erreicht. Auf der nördlichen Halbkugel ist die Tangentialkraft nach Norden, auf der südlichen Halbkugel nach Süden gerichtet, und deshalb wird die in die Höhe gestiegene positive Elektrizität in den obern Luftschichten nach den Polen zu abfließen. Die geringe Leitungsfähigkeit der Luft setzt der Ausgleichung dieser positiven Elektrizität mit der durch Influenz auf der Erdoberfläche hervorgerufenen negativen Elektrizität einen Widerstand entgegen, so daß die Ausgleichung nur dann erfolgen kann, wenn eine gewisse elektrische Spannung erreicht ist, und zwar entweder durch Entladungsschläge, d. h. Gewitter, oder durch kontinuierliche Ströme, d. h. Polarlichter. Das Erglühen der Luft durch die elektrischen Rückströmungen aus den höhern Luftschichten nach der Erdoberfläche erfolgt nach dieser Theorie (analog wie in den Geißlerschen Röhren) in der Regel nur in den höhern dünnern Luftschichten, während der Durchgang durch die untern Schichten im allgemeinen lichtlos stattzufinden scheint. 1885 hat Unterweger das P. durch die Bewegung des Sonnensystems im Weltraum zu erklären versucht, indem durch Kompressen des Weltäthers an der Stirnseite der Weltkörper und durch Verdünnung desselben an der Rückenseite Differenzen der elektrischen Spannung in den Atmosphären entstehen, welche die uns wahrnehmbaren elektrischen Erscheinungen, zu denen auch das P. gehört, hervorrufen. 1882 ist es Lemström aus Helsingfors gelungen, durch geeignete elektrische Armierung von Berggipfeln Lichtsäulen bis zu ansehnlicher Höhe über diesen Gipfeln hervorzurufen, welche sowohl ihrem äußern Anschein nach als auch in Bezug auf die charakteristischen Eigenschaften mit den Polarlichtern übereinstimmten. Diese Versuche wurden im nördlichen Finnland auf zwei Bergen von 800 und 1100 m Höhe ausgeführt und bestanden darin, daß die betreffenden Hochflächen mit einem Netz von Kupferdrähten, die mit nach oben gerichteten Spitzen versehen und gegen den Erdboden isoliert waren, überzogen wurden. Das Drahtnetz wurde durch einen gegen die Erde isolierten Draht am Fuß des Bergs mittels einer Zinkplatte mit einer tiefern, Wasser führenden Erdschicht verbunden. Sobald die Verbindung hergestellt war, wurden unaufhörlich elektrische Ströme von schwankender Intensität in der Drahtleitung beobachtet, der positive Strom war von der Atmosphäre nach der Erde zu gerichtet. Gleichzeitig erhob sich über den Spitzen des Drahtnetzes ein gelblichweißes Leuchten, welches die charakteristische Polarlichtlinie im Spektroskop zeigte, und über einer der beiden Bergspitzen wurde sogar ein Polarlichtstrahl von 120 m Länge beobachtet. Vgl. Capron, Aurorae, their characters and spectra (Lond. 1879); Fritz, Das P. (Leipz. 1881).
La Plaza Bolívar Chávez, forma parte de un proyecto de reconstrucción del eje costero que incluye una serie de obras de infraestructura que se extienden desde La Guaira hasta Macuto. Cuenta con 36.000 metros cuadrados y sectores comunicados por caminerías, bulevares y ciclovías, cuenta con un espacio de 1.220 metros cuadrados con juegos de caídas y espejos de agua.
La Guaira es considerada la puerta de entrada de Venezuela y está separada de Caracas por tan sólo 30 km. Fueron los indios Arauacos quienes primero marcaron con su huella el litoral central venezolano. La ciudad antiguamente conocida como Huaira, por ser un asentamiento indígena, fue fundada oficialmente en el año 1589 por Diego de Osorio con el nombre de San Pedro de La Guaira. Su importancia marítima no viene de hace poco, desde el comienzo la ciudad fue el más importante centro naval del país, pues fue allí donde se estableció la Compañía Guipuzcoana, cuya casa hasta hoy se mantiene en su casco histórico, habiendo sobrevivido a terremotos (como el de 1810), así como las inundaciones de 1999.
En está ciudad han nacido importantes proceres de la independencia venezolana, como José María España y Manuel Gual; dos presidentes de la república como Carlos Soublette y José María Vargas, además el héroe venezolano-curazoleño, Manuel Piar, quien pasó buena parte de su vida en La Guaira.
MUSEO FORMA DE EL SALVADOR
Ubicado en las proximidades del monumento a El Salvador del Mundo, punto clave de la trama urbana de la ciudad, el Museo FORMA abre sus puertas a espacios y actividades para la educación cultural de los salvadoreños. Su enorme compromiso está hacia el público nacional en pos de contribuir en su educación y en el cultivo de su valoración hacia el significado de las artes plásticas nacionales.
Fundado en 1983, tras la iniciativa de la prestigiosa pintora Julia Díaz primera dama en la profesión, el proyecto FORMA se planteo como el misionero para resguardar con celo y altruismo las creaciones salvadoreñas con el fin de legarlas a las futuras generaciones. Por otra parte su fundadora tenía como precepto dedicar salas o galerías (no importa su término o función arquitectónica) para la incorporación de exposiciones temporales de nuevos talentos.
Dirección: Alameda Manuel Enrique Araujo,pasaje Senda Florida sur, costado poniente de AFP/CONFIA, San Salvador, El Salvador Centroamérica.
Telefono: (503) 22984269
Email: info@museoforma.com
Web: www.museoforma.com
Horarios:
De lunes a viernes de 8:00 a.m. a 5:00 p.m.
Sábados de 8:00 a.m. a 12:00 p.m.
Second day-trip to Panthertown Valley, NC. This is a near-wilderness area that has been set aside for hiking, fishing, and outdoor enjoyment. The first day up there was anything but enjoyable for us. Long story short: we missed the first (and most important) trail turnoff, and got lost. Many hours later, we happened upon a Boy Scout group that seemed to know their way around, and gave us directions back to where we began the day...
The second day was much more productive, since we met up with our photography buddy, KT, who had been in the area a time or two previously.
On this day, our final destination was to be a white pine "plantation" that provided cover for a large group of Cypripedium acaule (Pink Lady's-slipper Orchids). We had no trouble finding several rather large populations of this beautiful orchid as well a a rare white form. During this part of the spring season, there are other wildflowers in the area, as well: Rhododendron, Flame Azalea, and Mountain Laurel to mention a few...
Esta es la cascada que forma el río Anllons al pasar por la presa del molino.
La foto esta tomada desde la ventana del salón pequeño en la planta baja
Google Earth
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
Pennsylvania Railroad Form 47, commuter timetable for trains between Pittsburgh and Schenley, and Pittsburgh and Kiskiminetas Jct. This service was discontinued November 27, 1964.
Part of Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier
(May to October 2018)
Azzedine Alaïa’s innovations in stretch fabrics were at least as important as his elevation of leather. In his hands, these transformed the silhouette of the wearer.
Rather than creating clothes anchored at strategic points – conventionally, the waist and the shoulders – Alaïa’s bandage dresses cling to the wearer’s form, conscious of the entire body. The stretch fabric allows these minimal silhouettes to move freely.
Debuted in 1986, these variations on the ‘Bandelette’ (bandage) dress are clearly inspired by ancient Egyptian mummification, but also perhaps by the swaddling of infants. The garments join Western and Eastern traditions – highly fitted and precision-cut, with a body simply and sensually wrapped in cloth.
The dresses seem simple, but each band of fabric is precisely engineered and cut to specific dimensions, according to its place on the figure. These creations ushered in the notion of physique-delineating ‘bodycon’ dressing, the defining aesthetic of the early 1990s.
Conceived and co-curated with Monsieur Alaïa before his death in November 2017, the exhibition charts his incredible journey from sculptor to couturier, his nonconformist nature and his infectious energy for fashion, friendship and the female body.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Alaïa personally constructed each garment by hand and refused to bow to the pressures of fashion week deadlines, instead working to his own schedule. His collaborative approach earned him an esteemed client list, including Greta Garbo, Grace Jones, Michelle Obama and Rihanna.
Rather than a retrospective, the show interlaces stories of his life and career alongside personally selected garments, ranging from the rare to the iconic and spanning the early 1980s to his most recent collection in 2017.
[Design Museum]
Barockkirche
Als die Bruderschaft der heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit 1676 feierlich in die Peterskirche eingeführt wurde, erreichte sie bald einen hohen Mitgliederstand. Ein großer Teil der Mitglieder zählte zu den reichsten und angesehensten Bürgern von Wien. Auch der Adel war bis in die höchsten Spitzen vertreten. Die Bruderschaft verfügte daher über die entsprechenden Mittel und so fasste sie im Jahr 1700 den Entschluss, die alte Kirche niederzureißen und einen Neubau aufzuführen, dessen Form an die Peterskirche zu Rom erinnern sollte. Bereits ein Jahr zuvor, im Pestjahr 1679 gelobte Leopold I., anstelle der baufälligen Kirche einen der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit gewidmeten Neubau zu errichten. Man ließ von Baumeister Jankel einen Kosten-Überschlag machen. Für den von ihm gezeichneten Bauriss erhielt er 50 Gulden.
Nach dem technischen Führer durch Wien (Ing. Martin Paul) werden die Erbauer in den Inschriften im Kuppelknauf angegeben: Francesco Martinelli, Franz Jänggl und Christian Oettl. Die Literaturangaben gehen jedoch hierüber weit auseinander. Nach dem Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler von Georg Dehio wurde der Bau nach dem Plan von Gabriele Montani 1702 begonnen, von diesem bis 1703 weitergeführt, sodann, wahrscheinlich von Johann Lukas Hildebrandt nach verändertem Plan 1708 im Rohbau vollendet und am 25. Oktober 1708 geweiht. 1708-1715 folgte die Innenausstattung, 1713-1717 wurde der Kuppelraum in seiner gegenwärtigen malerischen und plastischen Ausgestaltung vollendet, jedoch erst 1730-1733 baute man den Hauptchor. 1733 weihte Kardinal Kollonitsch die Peterskirche. Das Grabmal des Wolfgang Lazius, der in der alten Peterskirche 1565 bestattet worden war, wurde in die neue Peterskirche übertragen. Nach wie vor umgab der Petersfreithof die Kirche; er wurde erst unter Joseph II. aufgelassen. 1844 restaurierte man die Fassade, wobei auch die vielen an die Kirche angebauten Verkaufsbuden verschwanden, die nach der Auflassung des Friedhofs entstanden waren.
Die Geschichte von St. Peter im Barock
Als man 1701 die alte Kirche abtrug, will man bei dieser Gelegenheit den Grundstein der ersten Kirche gefunden haben, der "eine alten Paritkel von Papst Leo III.“, dem Freunde und Zeitgenossen Karls des Großen, enthielt.
Ein altes Gedenkbuch aus der Pfarre bemerkt, dass der Partikel noch 1749 vorhanden war, schreibt aber nichts über die Art desselben. Die Auffinder des merkwürdigen Grundsteines behaupteten, dass er im Jahr 800 gelegt worden sein müsse und an dieser Überzeugung hielt man fest, sodass danach die Inschrift des Grundsteines für die neue Kirche verfasst wurde, welche lautet:
"Ecclesia quae IX ultra saecula steterat, fundata supra firmam Petram prinzipis Apostolorum Petri Coeli Clavigeri Sacris honoribus a Carolo I. Caesare Magno anno post virginis partum DCCC extructe novis ex fundamentis D.O.M- uni in Trinitate Deo et S. Petri honoriter augusta surrexit. Lapidem in titulum cen alter Jacob restauravit Leopoldus uterque Felix.“
Die deutsche Übersetzung ist etwa wie folgt:
"Diese Kirche, die über neun Jahrhunderte stand, gegründet zu heiligen Ehren auf dem festen Felsen des Apostelfürsten Paulus, des Schlüsselträgers des Himmels, von Karl dem Großen Kaiser im Jahr 800, nachdem die Jungfrau gebar, ist dem allmächtigen Gott, der einig ist in der Dreiheit und dem heiligen Petrus zu Ehren prachtvoll wiedererstanden. Als zweiter Jakob hat den Grundstein gelegt Leopold der ebenso Große als Glückliche."
Diese Grundsteinlegung geschah in feierlicher Weise durch Kaiser Leopold I. am 30. Juni 1702 (laut Harrer; Czeike benennt den 22. April 1702).
Schon zur Zeit des Baubeginnes war ein Unfall zu verzeichnen:
Anlässlich einer feierlichen Prozession am 29. Oktober 1702, an der auch der Kaiser mit seinem Hofstaat teilnahm, stürzte infolge der Überlastung die über die Fundamente gelegten Bretter ein und etwa 50 Personen, meistens Hofkavaliere und Pagen stürzten in die Tiefe.
Die Vollendung der Kirche ging sehr langsam voran. Noch während des Baues wurde das Holz der Kuppel schadhaft, sodass dieses 1722 durch eine Kuppeldeckung ersetzt werden musste, wozu Kaiser Karl VI. als oberster Schutzherr und Mitglied der Bruderschaft der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit das Kupfer lieferte. Jahrelang fehlte die Fassade und die Türme hatten keinen Abschluss.
Am 17. Mai 1733 konnte die Kirche endlich durch den Kardinal Graf Sigismund Kollonitsch geweiht werden.
Äußeres
Das äußere Bild das die Peterskirche darbietet, wird beherrschend bestimmt durch die 56 Meter hohe, gewaltige Kuppel, die in ihrer Konfiguration an die Kuppel von St. Peter erinnert. Es handelt sich um eine zweigeschossige Fassade von gedrungener Wirkung, deren schräggestellte Türme den konkav einschwingenden Mittelteil flankieren und der von der Kuppel des Zentralbaus überragt wird. Der Bau selbst verherrlicht die Regierung des Kaisers Leopold I., dessen Wahlspruch im Innen über dem Chorbogen prangt. Der reizvolle, pavillonartige Portalvorbau aus grauem Marmor wurde nach einem Entwurfe von Andrea Altomonte erst 1751 bis 1753 errichtet. Figürlicher Schmuck aus Blei von Franz Kohl, einem Schüler und Gehilfen von Georg Raphael Donner, ziert ihn. Zu Oberst die Statuen Glaube, Hoffnung und Liebe, sowie Engelfiguren, welche Tiara und Schlüssel, die Insignien der päpstlichen Souveränität, tragen. Am Giebelfenster an der Vorderseite und den Vasen an der Seite Reliefs: Darstellungen aus dem Leben Petri. Das Hauptportal zeigt reiches Schnitzwerk und schöne Beschläge; eine Inschrift erinnert an das kaiserliche Pestgelübde.
In den Nischen unterhalb der beiden schiefgestellten Türme, welche die Vorderseite der Kirche flankieren, stehen folgende Sandsteinfiguren: St. Petrus und St. Simon, Johannes Evangelist (laut Paul Harrer St. Paulus) und Judas Thaddäus. An der Rückseite des Chores (Außenwand der Kirche) befinden sich Steinplastiken vom heiligen Petrus und vom Heiligen Michael, die von Lorenz Matitelli um 1730 ausgeführt wurden.
An der östlichen Seitenwand des Gotteshauses, gegenüber dem Ausgang der Goldschmiedgasse ist in die Steinmauer ein Marmorrelief eingelassen, das die sagenhafte Kreuzerrichtung an dieser Stelle durch Karl den Großen vergegenwärtigt. Von Rudolf Weyr geschafften, wurde es 1906 enthüllt.