View allAll Photos Tagged circulating
Sammic corporate chef Enrique Fleischmann is one of the "7 Basque pianists" in the conference dedicated to the most relevant emerging (and not only emerging already) Basque chefs. Sammic SmartVide immersion circulators has been present on the stage.
Gen. James C. McConville, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, visited the Joint Readiness Training Center July 21 and circulated the battlefield to meet with Soldiers assigned to the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and its supporting elements during their combat exercise rotation at JRTC. (U.S. Army National Guard photos by the 119th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
The City of Laredo, El Metro Transit, and Council Member for District 7, Vanessa Perez, are proud to introduce the new C2 Green Ranch Circulator. The new C2 Green Ranch Circulator will bring public transportation services and connectivity to residents and workers in areas including Green Ranch Subdivision, Deer Creek, La Bota, and the Pan-American and Inter-America warehouse districts along FM 1472.
Project work including fire booster sets, packaged plant rooms and circulating pump sets are managed from concept to installation with the assurance of an efficient and seamless hand over.
Gen. James C. McConville, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, visited the Joint Readiness Training Center July 21 and circulated the battlefield to meet with Soldiers assigned to the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and its supporting elements during their combat exercise rotation at JRTC. (U.S. Army National Guard photos by the 119th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
Hong Kong Tramways (Chinese: 香港電車) is a tram system in Hong Kong and one of the earliest forms of public transport in the metropolis. Owned and operated by Veolia Transport RATP Asia, the tramway runs on Hong Kong Island between Shau Kei Wan and Kennedy Town, with a branch circulating through Happy Valley.
Trams in Hong Kong have not only been a form of commuter transport for over 110 years, but also a major tourist attraction and one of the most environmentally friendly ways of travelling in Hong Kong. The tram system is the only one in the world operated exclusively with double-decker trams, and is one of only three non-heritage tram systems in the world that use double-deck cars.
The tram is the cheapest mode of public transport on the island. The comparatively affordable fare is highlighted by Hong Kong Tramways' advertising slogan: "Hop on 1. $2.3. Tram so easy!"
HISTORY
Hong Kong's tram system was inaugurated using electric trams. It has never used horse or steam power.
TIMELINE
1881: Tramway system is proposed for Hong Kong.
1901: Proposal is accepted by Hong Kong Government.
1902: Hong Kong Tramway Electric Company Limited founded.
1902: Name changed to Electric Traction Company of Hong Kong Limited.
1903: Construction of a single-track system began, from Kennedy Town to Causeway Bay. The route was later extended to Shau Kei Wan.
1904: Bodies of the first fleet of 26 tramcars were built in the United Kingdom. They were then shipped in pieces Hung Hom to be assembled. The tramcars were all single-deck. Ten tramcars were designed for first class passengers and the others were for third class passengers. The first-class compartment was enclosed in the centre with two long benches on both sides, with both the front and back ends open. Seating capacity was 32 passengers. The third-class tramcars were open-sided, with six sets of benches running crossways, back to back, seating 48 passengers. Tram fares for the first and the third class were 10 cents and 5 cents respectively. Initially, the company planned to divide the trams into 3 classes, but subsequently only first and third class were chosen for ease of operation.
1910: Name of the company changed to The Hong Kong Tramway Company Limited.
1912: Owing to strong passenger demand, the first double-deck tramcar was introduced in 1912. The tramcar had an open top design, fitted with garden-type seats. The first class occupied the upper deck and one-third of the lower deck. Ten new tramcars were constructed.
1922: Electricity was contracted and supplied by Hong Kong Electric Co. Ltd (HEC). Company name changed to Hong Kong Tramways Limited.
1925: Enclosed double-decker trams replaced open-top trams.
1932: North Point Depot came into service.
1941: Japanese Occupation took place. Very limited tram service was provided. Only 12 tramcars were in operation daily from Causeway Bay to Western Market. One single-decker tram was used as freight transport.
1945: After three years and eight months of Japanese Occupation, all 109 tramcars still remained, but only 15 were operational. By October 1945, 40 tramcars were back in service.
1949: Single-track system was replaced by double-track system in August.
1950: Tramways undertook an extensive re-design and started building its own trams. Tram bodies adopted a "modern" design.
1954: North Point Depot closed and Russell Street Depot expanded and renamed Sharp Street Depot.
1964: Three locally made trams added, including the first single-deck trailer.
1965: Due to passenger demand, 10 single-deck trailers was introduced. The trailer was attached to the back of ordinary tramcar and designed to serve first class passengers only. The maximum capacity was 36 persons for each trailer.
1966: As trailers were well accepted by passengers, 22 single deck trailers were deployed in the fleet during 1966–67. Although trailers played a significant role in the tramways, they were finally withdrawn from the service in 1982.
1967: The last trailer built by the company.
1972: Class distinction abolished and flat fare introduced.
1974: The Hong Kong Tramways Limited acquired by Wharf Holdings
1976 – Drop-in coin boxes were installed on trams. A coin-box was fitted at the front exit, near the driver. Passengers had to drop in the exact fare on leaving the tram. Rotating turnstiles were fitted at the entrance, which is located at the rear of a tram. Conductors were no longer needed and most of them retrained to become motormen.
1986: Tram refurbishment has begun.
1989: Sharp Street Depot closed and terminus function split between Sai Wan Ho and the Whitty Street depots.
1992: Two double-deck trams made by Tramways were exported to the Wirral Tramway, Birkenhead, in the UK.
1992: Point Automation System deployed and points man system for altering the direction of tram manually was abolished.
2000: Coloured destination blinds had begun.
2000: Tramways launched the new "Millennium" tram on 24 October 2000, which was designed and manufactured by its own engineering team. The success of this tramcar marked an important milestone in the history of Hong Kong Tramways.
2001: The Octopus electronic smart card payment system introduced on trams.
2004: Hong Kong Tramways celebrates 100 years of service.
2007: Route map was re-installed on each tram stop. New driving panels were introduced in November.
2008: Air-conditioning was installed on antique tram #128.
2009: 50% stake and operating rights obtained by Veolia Transport RATP Asia; followed by full ownership by Veolia Transport RATP Asia.
2011: Hong Kong Tramways launched the seventh-generation tram on November 28, 2011. It is a combination of modern interior design with traditional tram body exterior. The face-lift allows tram’s iconic image to be maintained.
2014: Hong Kong Tramways celebrates 110 years of service.
2015: Following the opening of the West Island Line, daily tramway ridership drops 10% to 180,000.
OWNERSHIP
Hong Kong Tramway Electric Company Limited 1904-1974
The Wharf (Holdings) 1974-2009; retained 50% stake from 2009 to 2010
Veolia Transport RATP Asia 2010–present
TRAM ROUTES
The trams run on a double track tramline built parallel to the northern coastline of Hong Kong Island from Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan, with a single clockwise-running track of about 3 km around the Happy Valley Racecourse.
There are 7 tram termini located along the tram line, namely, from west to east, Kennedy Town, Shek Tong Tsui (a.k.a. Whitty Street), Sheung Wan (Western Market), Happy Valley, Causeway Bay, North Point and Shau Kei Wan; some intermediate stops such as Sai Ying Pun, Admiralty MTR Station, Wan Chai, and Victoria Park are also equipped with crossovers so that they can be used as makeshift termini in emergency situations, such as en-route traffic accidents.
There are seven major overlapping routes:
Shau Kei Wan ↔ Western Market
Shau Kei Wan ↔ Happy Valley
Shau Kei Wan ↔ Kennedy Town
North Point ↔ Whitty Street
Happy Valley ↔ Kennedy Town
Causeway Bay ↔ Whitty Street
Western Market ↔ Kennedy Town
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Total length – 13 km (with a total track length of 30 km)
Operating Hours – 5:30 am to 12:30 am
Fare – HKD 2.3
On average, the headway between each tram departure is approximately 1.5 minutes during peak hours. In the past, trams had a maximum speed of 40 km/h. However, since early 2008, the maximum speed of some trams was increased, with a maximum speed of 50 km/h now enabled on most trams - a few of them even have a maximum speed of 60 km/h. The maximum capacity of each tramcar is 115 people.
TICKETS
The current fare is HK$2.30 for adults, HK$1.20 for children under 12, and HK$1.10 for senior citizens 65 and above. Unlike most other forms of public transport in Hong Kong, fare charged is uniform regardless of the distance travelled. Monthly tickets are also available at the cost of HK$200, sold at Shek Tong Tsui, Causeway Bay, and North Point Terminus at the end of each month.
Passengers pay upon alighting by either depositing the exact fare in coins into the farebox, or by tapping the Octopus card on the processor. The turnstile at the tram entrance and closed circuit television prevent fare evasion by passengers.
Ordinary and antique trams are available for private hire. The open-balcony antique trams are often used for parties and promotional events. Tourists can also travel on the open-top trams through tours organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
FLEET
Hong Kong Tramways now owns 163 double axle double-decker trams, including two open-balcony dim-sum tourist trams (Vehicle numbers 28 and 128) for tourist trips and private hire. There are three maintenance-only trams (Vehicle numbers 200, 300 and 400) which operate after tram service has stopped.
The trams themselves are sometimes called the "Ding Ding" (Chinese: 叮叮) by Hong Kong people, being the onomatopoeia of the iconic double bell ring trams use to warn pedestrians of their approach. The term "ding ding" is now often used to refer to the whole tram system, e.g. "travel by tram" (Chinese: 搭電車) as "take ding ding" (搭叮叮).
Hong Kong has the only fully double-decker tram fleet in the world. Most of the trams in operation were rebodied between 1987 to 1992. They are equipped with sliding windows. Since the early 2000s, these trams have been upgraded to provide better operating performance and safety. Almost all trams have full-body advertisements.
FLEET HISTORY
The tram fleet first consisted of 26 single-deck trams, with bodies 8.8 m long and 1.9 m wide, imported from England. However, they were quickly removed because of the rapid modernisation programmes. These tramcars were replaced by open-top double-deck tramcars from 1912 onwards. The introduction of permanent roofs for trams in 1923 was a big improvement to the system. In 1960s, adding trailers was proposed due to the increasing population and demands. In 1964, after testing a prototype built by Taikoo Dockyard in Hong Kong, 10 trailers were ordered from the UK and were added to the trams in Hong Kong in early 1965. Ten additional trailers were ordered from England in 1967, bringing the total number of trailers to 22. They were all withdrawn and scrapped by the end of 1982, since they used to derail frequently and were not economical to run – requiring a separate conductor for only 36 extra passengers.
Trams 12 and 50 are the only two trams still maintaining the original 1950s design, being restored at a railway museum in the United States and at a museum in Hong Kong, respectively. The cabins are varnished with their original light-green colour with teak-lined windows and rattan seats.
In 2000, three new aluminium alloy metal-bodied trams (officially called "Millennium trams"), #168 – 170, started operation. These trams have proven quite unpopular due to the poor ventilation in the summer – unlike on previous models, the front screen window cannot be opened to improve air-flow to passengers. A prototype air-conditioned tram, number 171, is under testing.
In 2007, a new maintenance tram was constructed, number 300, which is used to move trams in the depot. Besides electric power, it also uses a diesel motor.
Starting 7 November, new driving panels has been installed on trams after refurbishment. The first tram on the program was number 38.
In 2008, an air-conditioner was installed on the 'antique' tram #128.
Tram RefurbishmentIn October 2010, Veolia Transport showcased a prototype for the new model of trams. It plans to renovate the whole fleet at a cost of HKD 75 Million. The trams would keep their original exterior design, but the outer structure would be aluminium rather than teak as it is more durable. The benches on the lower deck would be replaced with single seats as well as a more modern look. Digital broadcasts would be placed inside trams to inform passengers of the next station, and LED lighting will be installed. AC motors and a new eddy current emergency braking system would be installed.
ALIGNMENT AND INTERCHANGES
In many places, trams shares route along with other vehicles.
Most of the tram stop locations have remained unchanged since their establishment. However, some have had their names changed, e.g. "Shu Shun Kwun" (Chinese 書信館), referring to the then General Post Office building in the 1940s, is now called "Pedder Street" - the GPO building was demolished in the 1970s, and World-Wide House now stands on its site. In 1934, Hong Kong Tramways introduced loading islands (waiting areas) at some busy tram stops to ensure the safety of passengers. Today, there are 123 tram stops in total, most of them are sheltered refuge islands.
Just like buses, trams in Hong Kong can be very crowded. During the busier periods of the day, trams often line up since there are many tramcars running at the same time. In 2002, the trams recorded an average of 240,000 passenger trips daily.
Tram stops are densely located in an average interval of 250 metres. Most of them are located in the middle of the road, connected by pedestrian crossings or footbridges. Major stops include Yee Wo Street stop at Causeway Bay, Pacific Place stop at Admiralty, and Prince's Building / The Landmark stop at Central.
Many termini of the Hong Kong Tramways are in the form of balloon loops, enabling the trams to reverse its travel direction efficiently.
The Island Line of the MTR is roughly parallel to the tramway line between Kennedy Town and Shau Kei Wan stations. Some sections of MTR tunnels are built directly under roads with tram tracks.
PUBLIC RECEPTION AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The trams have not only been a form of transportation for over a century, but also a major tourist attraction. The well-preserved tram lines still serve as a crucial means of transport in Hong Kong. Travelling in the lower deck of the tram allows travellers to have a close up view of the local street life, while occupying the front seats of the upper deck gives good views of the town as the tram rattles by.
Hong Kong's tram system is an icon of the city, like other Asian trams in Kolkata, Dalian and Sapporo.
As they run through the urban area of Hong Kong Island, the tram tracks have become an important icon of urban Hong Kong. Since the tracks were originally built along the waterfront before further land reclamation pushed the coastline northwards, the tracks can be used to identify directions and locations throughout urban Hong Kong Island.
RED LIGHT MEALS
In the old days, the duration of meal breaks allocated to tram drivers were far from adequate. Most drivers would therefore take advantage of the time their trams are waiting at a red light to gulp down a portion of their meal before the signal turns to green, continuing this practice whenever the tram comes to a red light until the meal is finished. This kind of hurried, impromptu meal is commonly referred as "red light meals" (Chinese: 紅燈飯).
PROJECTS
MODERN TRAMWAY AT KAI TAK DEVELOPMENT
Hong Kong Tramways Limited announced its interest in constructing a 12-km modern tramway system in the Kai Tak Development, built on the vacated site of the former Kai Tak Airport, in place of the "Environmentally Friendly Linkage System" (monorail system) proposed by the Hong Kong Government. Possible extensions to neighbouring places such as To Kwa Wan, Kowloon City and Kwun Tong were suggested. The company appointed a consultancy firm to investigate on the feasibility of building such a modern tram system in 2010, and submitted a proposal to the Development Bureau on April 29, 2013.
The company pointed out that the cost of constructing the proposed tram system is HK$2.8 billion. which is comparatively low as compared to the cost of $12 billion needed for a monorail system. Bruno Charrade, Managing Director of HKT, said the design of tramcars can be in connection with their Hong Kong Island counterparts or in a totally new shape, depending on the Government's discretion.
ABANDONED EXTENSIONS
There have previously been two separate extensions planned that were subsequently modified to be developed as light rail and metro systems.
NEW TERRITORIES REAM SYSTEM
During the development of Tuen Mun New Town in the 1970s, the Government had reserved space for the construction of a rail transportation system to serve the area. In 1982, the Government invited the Hong Kong Tramways to construct and operate a tram system in the area. The company initially expressed interest in the construction of the railway and intended to operate with double-decker trams, but later withdrew. The government then invited KCRC to construct and operate a light rail way. The system opened to the public on 18 September 1988. Since 2007, it is now known as the Light Rail.
CHAI WAN LINE
In 1970, Chai Wan on eastern Hong Kong Island was developed into a residential and industrial area, which greatly increased the traffic demand to Central. Extending the tram line from Shau Kei Wan to Chai Wan was considered, but was ultimately rejected due to low cost-effectiveness, as hills exist between Chai Wan and Shau Kei Wan, and difficulties arise from tunneling through the hills to make level track. It was replaced by the Island Line service - linking Chai Wan and Admiralty - which was opened to the public on 31 May 1985.
WIKIPEDIA
The City of Laredo, El Metro Transit, and Council Member for District 8, Alyssa Cigarroa, are proud to introduce the new C3 Riverside Circulator. As part of the of the City of Laredo Master Plan and El Metro 5 Year Transit Plan, the C3 Riverside Circulator Service will provide mobility and connectivity options for residents, workers, and students in walkable urban and mixed-use spaces. Routes include Riverside Dr., Eagle Pass Ave., Santa Maria Ave., and the Laredo Regional Food Bank.
The City of Laredo, El Metro Transit, and Council Member for District 8, Alyssa Cigarroa, are proud to introduce the new C3 Riverside Circulator. As part of the of the City of Laredo Master Plan and El Metro 5 Year Transit Plan, the C3 Riverside Circulator Service will provide mobility and connectivity options for residents, workers, and students in walkable urban and mixed-use spaces. Routes include Riverside Dr., Eagle Pass Ave., Santa Maria Ave., and the Laredo Regional Food Bank.
After a Press Conference on Barracks Row, the Mayor, DC community leaders and others hopped on a Circulator bus to ride to Matchbox on Barracks Row for lunch. Capitol Hill BID's Clean and Safe team members greeted the Mayor.
DC Circulator . www.dccirculator.com . Streetcape . Penn Quarter . Northwest corner of Federal Trade Building . Intersection of 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW . WDC . Friday Night, 5 January 2007 . Elvert Xavier Barnes Photography
The City of Laredo, El Metro Transit, and Council Member for District 8, Alyssa Cigarroa, are proud to introduce the new C3 Riverside Circulator. As part of the of the City of Laredo Master Plan and El Metro 5 Year Transit Plan, the C3 Riverside Circulator Service will provide mobility and connectivity options for residents, workers, and students in walkable urban and mixed-use spaces. Routes include Riverside Dr., Eagle Pass Ave., Santa Maria Ave., and the Laredo Regional Food Bank.
REDMOND Sous Vide Cooker Immersion Circulator, Stainless Steel Sous Vide Machine with Accurate Temperature and Touchscreen Timer Control
$ 79.99
Specifications
Item Weight
3.06 pounds
Product Dimensions
3.14 x 4.52 x 14.33 inches
REDMOND Sous Vide Machine
Keep original taste, preserve food nutrition and flavor
Sous vide cooking is quite versatile and allows you to cook a wide range of proteins and produce. Some of the foods that benefit most from sous vide are steak, different types of fish, pork shoulder and a wide range of vegetables.Sous Vide cooking is one of the hottest new trends in food preparation. Cook evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, Use REDMOND sous vide, food will maintain in its own juices, which leaves the food moist, juicy and tender
Flexible Clip
The clamp on the sous vide cooker secures it fixed on the container. waterproof and stable that can be easily to use for making your kitchen more comfortable and safer. Suitable for all containers
Clear LCD Display
The LED panel shows the temperature and time clearly, easy to set your desired temperature and time based on your food
Water circulation motor
3D water circulation, powerful circulating water pump reatly reduce water press, heat up evenly and keep quiet. 800W powerful motor. Safety overheating protection
Step 1:
Place food in a food-grade sealed bag, vacuum-sealed or zipper lock bag. Add seasonings or spices like herbs, butter, and garlic.
Step 2:
Press “SET” button to set your desired Temp and Time, then press “POWER” button to start
Step 3:
Setiing desired temperature, place the food into water. Start to cook the food
Step 4:
The countdown is over with deep. Enjoy your food with your preferences
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.
The City of Laredo, El Metro Transit, and Council Member for District 7, Vanessa Perez, are proud to introduce the new C2 Green Ranch Circulator. The new C2 Green Ranch Circulator will bring public transportation services and connectivity to residents and workers in areas including Green Ranch Subdivision, Deer Creek, La Bota, and the Pan-American and Inter-America warehouse districts along FM 1472.
Hong Kong Tramways (Chinese: 香港電車) is a tram system in Hong Kong and one of the earliest forms of public transport in the metropolis. Owned and operated by Veolia Transport RATP Asia, the tramway runs on Hong Kong Island between Shau Kei Wan and Kennedy Town, with a branch circulating through Happy Valley.
Trams in Hong Kong have not only been a form of commuter transport for over 110 years, but also a major tourist attraction and one of the most environmentally friendly ways of travelling in Hong Kong. The tram system is the only one in the world operated exclusively with double-decker trams, and is one of only three non-heritage tram systems in the world that use double-deck cars.
The tram is the cheapest mode of public transport on the island. The comparatively affordable fare is highlighted by Hong Kong Tramways' advertising slogan: "Hop on 1. $2.3. Tram so easy!"
HISTORY
Hong Kong's tram system was inaugurated using electric trams. It has never used horse or steam power.
TIMELINE
1881: Tramway system is proposed for Hong Kong.
1901: Proposal is accepted by Hong Kong Government.
1902: Hong Kong Tramway Electric Company Limited founded.
1902: Name changed to Electric Traction Company of Hong Kong Limited.
1903: Construction of a single-track system began, from Kennedy Town to Causeway Bay. The route was later extended to Shau Kei Wan.
1904: Bodies of the first fleet of 26 tramcars were built in the United Kingdom. They were then shipped in pieces Hung Hom to be assembled. The tramcars were all single-deck. Ten tramcars were designed for first class passengers and the others were for third class passengers. The first-class compartment was enclosed in the centre with two long benches on both sides, with both the front and back ends open. Seating capacity was 32 passengers. The third-class tramcars were open-sided, with six sets of benches running crossways, back to back, seating 48 passengers. Tram fares for the first and the third class were 10 cents and 5 cents respectively. Initially, the company planned to divide the trams into 3 classes, but subsequently only first and third class were chosen for ease of operation.
1910: Name of the company changed to The Hong Kong Tramway Company Limited.
1912: Owing to strong passenger demand, the first double-deck tramcar was introduced in 1912. The tramcar had an open top design, fitted with garden-type seats. The first class occupied the upper deck and one-third of the lower deck. Ten new tramcars were constructed.
1922: Electricity was contracted and supplied by Hong Kong Electric Co. Ltd (HEC). Company name changed to Hong Kong Tramways Limited.
1925: Enclosed double-decker trams replaced open-top trams.
1932: North Point Depot came into service.
1941: Japanese Occupation took place. Very limited tram service was provided. Only 12 tramcars were in operation daily from Causeway Bay to Western Market. One single-decker tram was used as freight transport.
1945: After three years and eight months of Japanese Occupation, all 109 tramcars still remained, but only 15 were operational. By October 1945, 40 tramcars were back in service.
1949: Single-track system was replaced by double-track system in August.
1950: Tramways undertook an extensive re-design and started building its own trams. Tram bodies adopted a "modern" design.
1954: North Point Depot closed and Russell Street Depot expanded and renamed Sharp Street Depot.
1964: Three locally made trams added, including the first single-deck trailer.
1965: Due to passenger demand, 10 single-deck trailers was introduced. The trailer was attached to the back of ordinary tramcar and designed to serve first class passengers only. The maximum capacity was 36 persons for each trailer.
1966: As trailers were well accepted by passengers, 22 single deck trailers were deployed in the fleet during 1966–67. Although trailers played a significant role in the tramways, they were finally withdrawn from the service in 1982.
1967: The last trailer built by the company.
1972: Class distinction abolished and flat fare introduced.
1974: The Hong Kong Tramways Limited acquired by Wharf Holdings
1976 – Drop-in coin boxes were installed on trams. A coin-box was fitted at the front exit, near the driver. Passengers had to drop in the exact fare on leaving the tram. Rotating turnstiles were fitted at the entrance, which is located at the rear of a tram. Conductors were no longer needed and most of them retrained to become motormen.
1986: Tram refurbishment has begun.
1989: Sharp Street Depot closed and terminus function split between Sai Wan Ho and the Whitty Street depots.
1992: Two double-deck trams made by Tramways were exported to the Wirral Tramway, Birkenhead, in the UK.
1992: Point Automation System deployed and points man system for altering the direction of tram manually was abolished.
2000: Coloured destination blinds had begun.
2000: Tramways launched the new "Millennium" tram on 24 October 2000, which was designed and manufactured by its own engineering team. The success of this tramcar marked an important milestone in the history of Hong Kong Tramways.
2001: The Octopus electronic smart card payment system introduced on trams.
2004: Hong Kong Tramways celebrates 100 years of service.
2007: Route map was re-installed on each tram stop. New driving panels were introduced in November.
2008: Air-conditioning was installed on antique tram #128.
2009: 50% stake and operating rights obtained by Veolia Transport RATP Asia; followed by full ownership by Veolia Transport RATP Asia.
2011: Hong Kong Tramways launched the seventh-generation tram on November 28, 2011. It is a combination of modern interior design with traditional tram body exterior. The face-lift allows tram’s iconic image to be maintained.
2014: Hong Kong Tramways celebrates 110 years of service.
2015: Following the opening of the West Island Line, daily tramway ridership drops 10% to 180,000.
OWNERSHIP
Hong Kong Tramway Electric Company Limited 1904-1974
The Wharf (Holdings) 1974-2009; retained 50% stake from 2009 to 2010
Veolia Transport RATP Asia 2010–present
TRAM ROUTES
The trams run on a double track tramline built parallel to the northern coastline of Hong Kong Island from Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan, with a single clockwise-running track of about 3 km around the Happy Valley Racecourse.
There are 7 tram termini located along the tram line, namely, from west to east, Kennedy Town, Shek Tong Tsui (a.k.a. Whitty Street), Sheung Wan (Western Market), Happy Valley, Causeway Bay, North Point and Shau Kei Wan; some intermediate stops such as Sai Ying Pun, Admiralty MTR Station, Wan Chai, and Victoria Park are also equipped with crossovers so that they can be used as makeshift termini in emergency situations, such as en-route traffic accidents.
There are seven major overlapping routes:
Shau Kei Wan ↔ Western Market
Shau Kei Wan ↔ Happy Valley
Shau Kei Wan ↔ Kennedy Town
North Point ↔ Whitty Street
Happy Valley ↔ Kennedy Town
Causeway Bay ↔ Whitty Street
Western Market ↔ Kennedy Town
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Total length – 13 km (with a total track length of 30 km)
Operating Hours – 5:30 am to 12:30 am
Fare – HKD 2.3
On average, the headway between each tram departure is approximately 1.5 minutes during peak hours. In the past, trams had a maximum speed of 40 km/h. However, since early 2008, the maximum speed of some trams was increased, with a maximum speed of 50 km/h now enabled on most trams - a few of them even have a maximum speed of 60 km/h. The maximum capacity of each tramcar is 115 people.
TICKETS
The current fare is HK$2.30 for adults, HK$1.20 for children under 12, and HK$1.10 for senior citizens 65 and above. Unlike most other forms of public transport in Hong Kong, fare charged is uniform regardless of the distance travelled. Monthly tickets are also available at the cost of HK$200, sold at Shek Tong Tsui, Causeway Bay, and North Point Terminus at the end of each month.
Passengers pay upon alighting by either depositing the exact fare in coins into the farebox, or by tapping the Octopus card on the processor. The turnstile at the tram entrance and closed circuit television prevent fare evasion by passengers.
Ordinary and antique trams are available for private hire. The open-balcony antique trams are often used for parties and promotional events. Tourists can also travel on the open-top trams through tours organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
FLEET
Hong Kong Tramways now owns 163 double axle double-decker trams, including two open-balcony dim-sum tourist trams (Vehicle numbers 28 and 128) for tourist trips and private hire. There are three maintenance-only trams (Vehicle numbers 200, 300 and 400) which operate after tram service has stopped.
The trams themselves are sometimes called the "Ding Ding" (Chinese: 叮叮) by Hong Kong people, being the onomatopoeia of the iconic double bell ring trams use to warn pedestrians of their approach. The term "ding ding" is now often used to refer to the whole tram system, e.g. "travel by tram" (Chinese: 搭電車) as "take ding ding" (搭叮叮).
Hong Kong has the only fully double-decker tram fleet in the world. Most of the trams in operation were rebodied between 1987 to 1992. They are equipped with sliding windows. Since the early 2000s, these trams have been upgraded to provide better operating performance and safety. Almost all trams have full-body advertisements.
FLEET HISTORY
The tram fleet first consisted of 26 single-deck trams, with bodies 8.8 m long and 1.9 m wide, imported from England. However, they were quickly removed because of the rapid modernisation programmes. These tramcars were replaced by open-top double-deck tramcars from 1912 onwards. The introduction of permanent roofs for trams in 1923 was a big improvement to the system. In 1960s, adding trailers was proposed due to the increasing population and demands. In 1964, after testing a prototype built by Taikoo Dockyard in Hong Kong, 10 trailers were ordered from the UK and were added to the trams in Hong Kong in early 1965. Ten additional trailers were ordered from England in 1967, bringing the total number of trailers to 22. They were all withdrawn and scrapped by the end of 1982, since they used to derail frequently and were not economical to run – requiring a separate conductor for only 36 extra passengers.
Trams 12 and 50 are the only two trams still maintaining the original 1950s design, being restored at a railway museum in the United States and at a museum in Hong Kong, respectively. The cabins are varnished with their original light-green colour with teak-lined windows and rattan seats.
In 2000, three new aluminium alloy metal-bodied trams (officially called "Millennium trams"), #168 – 170, started operation. These trams have proven quite unpopular due to the poor ventilation in the summer – unlike on previous models, the front screen window cannot be opened to improve air-flow to passengers. A prototype air-conditioned tram, number 171, is under testing.
In 2007, a new maintenance tram was constructed, number 300, which is used to move trams in the depot. Besides electric power, it also uses a diesel motor.
Starting 7 November, new driving panels has been installed on trams after refurbishment. The first tram on the program was number 38.
In 2008, an air-conditioner was installed on the 'antique' tram #128.
Tram RefurbishmentIn October 2010, Veolia Transport showcased a prototype for the new model of trams. It plans to renovate the whole fleet at a cost of HKD 75 Million. The trams would keep their original exterior design, but the outer structure would be aluminium rather than teak as it is more durable. The benches on the lower deck would be replaced with single seats as well as a more modern look. Digital broadcasts would be placed inside trams to inform passengers of the next station, and LED lighting will be installed. AC motors and a new eddy current emergency braking system would be installed.
ALIGNMENT AND INTERCHANGES
In many places, trams shares route along with other vehicles.
Most of the tram stop locations have remained unchanged since their establishment. However, some have had their names changed, e.g. "Shu Shun Kwun" (Chinese 書信館), referring to the then General Post Office building in the 1940s, is now called "Pedder Street" - the GPO building was demolished in the 1970s, and World-Wide House now stands on its site. In 1934, Hong Kong Tramways introduced loading islands (waiting areas) at some busy tram stops to ensure the safety of passengers. Today, there are 123 tram stops in total, most of them are sheltered refuge islands.
Just like buses, trams in Hong Kong can be very crowded. During the busier periods of the day, trams often line up since there are many tramcars running at the same time. In 2002, the trams recorded an average of 240,000 passenger trips daily.
Tram stops are densely located in an average interval of 250 metres. Most of them are located in the middle of the road, connected by pedestrian crossings or footbridges. Major stops include Yee Wo Street stop at Causeway Bay, Pacific Place stop at Admiralty, and Prince's Building / The Landmark stop at Central.
Many termini of the Hong Kong Tramways are in the form of balloon loops, enabling the trams to reverse its travel direction efficiently.
The Island Line of the MTR is roughly parallel to the tramway line between Kennedy Town and Shau Kei Wan stations. Some sections of MTR tunnels are built directly under roads with tram tracks.
PUBLIC RECEPTION AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The trams have not only been a form of transportation for over a century, but also a major tourist attraction. The well-preserved tram lines still serve as a crucial means of transport in Hong Kong. Travelling in the lower deck of the tram allows travellers to have a close up view of the local street life, while occupying the front seats of the upper deck gives good views of the town as the tram rattles by.
Hong Kong's tram system is an icon of the city, like other Asian trams in Kolkata, Dalian and Sapporo.
As they run through the urban area of Hong Kong Island, the tram tracks have become an important icon of urban Hong Kong. Since the tracks were originally built along the waterfront before further land reclamation pushed the coastline northwards, the tracks can be used to identify directions and locations throughout urban Hong Kong Island.
RED LIGHT MEALS
In the old days, the duration of meal breaks allocated to tram drivers were far from adequate. Most drivers would therefore take advantage of the time their trams are waiting at a red light to gulp down a portion of their meal before the signal turns to green, continuing this practice whenever the tram comes to a red light until the meal is finished. This kind of hurried, impromptu meal is commonly referred as "red light meals" (Chinese: 紅燈飯).
PROJECTS
MODERN TRAMWAY AT KAI TAK DEVELOPMENT
Hong Kong Tramways Limited announced its interest in constructing a 12-km modern tramway system in the Kai Tak Development, built on the vacated site of the former Kai Tak Airport, in place of the "Environmentally Friendly Linkage System" (monorail system) proposed by the Hong Kong Government. Possible extensions to neighbouring places such as To Kwa Wan, Kowloon City and Kwun Tong were suggested. The company appointed a consultancy firm to investigate on the feasibility of building such a modern tram system in 2010, and submitted a proposal to the Development Bureau on April 29, 2013.
The company pointed out that the cost of constructing the proposed tram system is HK$2.8 billion. which is comparatively low as compared to the cost of $12 billion needed for a monorail system. Bruno Charrade, Managing Director of HKT, said the design of tramcars can be in connection with their Hong Kong Island counterparts or in a totally new shape, depending on the Government's discretion.
ABANDONED EXTENSIONS
There have previously been two separate extensions planned that were subsequently modified to be developed as light rail and metro systems.
NEW TERRITORIES REAM SYSTEM
During the development of Tuen Mun New Town in the 1970s, the Government had reserved space for the construction of a rail transportation system to serve the area. In 1982, the Government invited the Hong Kong Tramways to construct and operate a tram system in the area. The company initially expressed interest in the construction of the railway and intended to operate with double-decker trams, but later withdrew. The government then invited KCRC to construct and operate a light rail way. The system opened to the public on 18 September 1988. Since 2007, it is now known as the Light Rail.
CHAI WAN LINE
In 1970, Chai Wan on eastern Hong Kong Island was developed into a residential and industrial area, which greatly increased the traffic demand to Central. Extending the tram line from Shau Kei Wan to Chai Wan was considered, but was ultimately rejected due to low cost-effectiveness, as hills exist between Chai Wan and Shau Kei Wan, and difficulties arise from tunneling through the hills to make level track. It was replaced by the Island Line service - linking Chai Wan and Admiralty - which was opened to the public on 31 May 1985.
WIKIPEDIA
Sous vide polycarbonate water bath covered with polypropylene insulation balls. Immersion circulator. Côte à l'os with herbs and spices vacuum-sealed in sous vide polyethylene bag. High point of view
Gen. James C. McConville, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, visited the Joint Readiness Training Center July 21 and circulated the battlefield to meet with Soldiers assigned to the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and its supporting elements during their combat exercise rotation at JRTC. (U.S. Army National Guard photos by the 119th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
looking through the rear window of the circulator bus. they've got these decals on the window that from the outside, look like an advertisement, and from the inside, look like a perforated screen. on the inside, the farther away you are from the window, the more clearly you can see through it (this works well for drivers looking through their rearview mirrors).
blogged at: www.elswifterino.com/2008/10/perforations/
Sammic corporate chef Enrique Fleischmann is one of the "7 Basque pianists" in the conference dedicated to the most relevant emerging (and not only emerging already) Basque chefs. Sammic SmartVide immersion circulators has been present on the stage.
Sammic corporate chef Enrique Fleischmann is one of the "7 Basque pianists" in the conference dedicated to the most relevant emerging (and not only emerging already) Basque chefs. Sammic SmartVide immersion circulators has been present on the stage.
The orchid circulates with 4 names: in the U.S. 'Kirch' HCC/AOS, 'Rosminah', and 'Don Brown'. A Japanese clone with the name 'Fujimusume' is, I believe, the same clone. Kirch (in Hawaii) originally meristemmed it, then Stewarts meristemmed it again. Someone from Japan bought most of Stewarts meristems. Both of its parents were coeruleas. Sometimes it shows a bit of blue, but maybe pink is predominant. See the other photo.
collage circulating around social media
taken from www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152030347219384&set...
Sammic corporate chef Enrique Fleischmann is one of the "7 Basque pianists" in the conference dedicated to the most relevant emerging (and not only emerging already) Basque chefs. Sammic SmartVide immersion circulators has been present on the stage.
The City of Laredo, El Metro Transit, and Council Member for District 8, Alyssa Cigarroa, are proud to introduce the new C3 Riverside Circulator. As part of the of the City of Laredo Master Plan and El Metro 5 Year Transit Plan, the C3 Riverside Circulator Service will provide mobility and connectivity options for residents, workers, and students in walkable urban and mixed-use spaces. Routes include Riverside Dr., Eagle Pass Ave., Santa Maria Ave., and the Laredo Regional Food Bank.
Sammic corporate chef Enrique Fleischmann is one of the "7 Basque pianists" in the conference dedicated to the most relevant emerging (and not only emerging already) Basque chefs. Sammic SmartVide immersion circulators has been present on the stage.
On April 1, 2009, Mayor Adrian Fenty spoke at a press conference to announce the arrival of 2 new Circulator bus routes: Woodley Park/Adams Morgan - McPherson Square and Union Station - Navy Yard
This information was circulating back in 1939 and to this day there has been absolutely no proof of any kind to support this data. The names reflected on this list are a combination of Robert and Elizabeth Looney's children and some of their grandchildren. There has never been a record found of a John and Luellyn Looney living in America. Handwriting of Mack D Looney.
The City of Laredo, El Metro Transit, and Council Member for District 8, Alyssa Cigarroa, are proud to introduce the new C3 Riverside Circulator. As part of the of the City of Laredo Master Plan and El Metro 5 Year Transit Plan, the C3 Riverside Circulator Service will provide mobility and connectivity options for residents, workers, and students in walkable urban and mixed-use spaces. Routes include Riverside Dr., Eagle Pass Ave., Santa Maria Ave., and the Laredo Regional Food Bank.
Gen. James C. McConville, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, visited the Joint Readiness Training Center July 21 and circulated the battlefield to meet with Soldiers assigned to the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and its supporting elements during their combat exercise rotation at JRTC. (U.S. Army National Guard photos by the 119th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
Gen. James C. McConville, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, visited the Joint Readiness Training Center July 21 and circulated the battlefield to meet with Soldiers assigned to the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and its supporting elements during their combat exercise rotation at JRTC. (U.S. Army National Guard photos by the 119th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
Hong Kong Tramways (Chinese: 香港電車) is a tram system in Hong Kong and one of the earliest forms of public transport in the metropolis. Owned and operated by Veolia Transport RATP Asia, the tramway runs on Hong Kong Island between Shau Kei Wan and Kennedy Town, with a branch circulating through Happy Valley.
Trams in Hong Kong have not only been a form of commuter transport for over 110 years, but also a major tourist attraction and one of the most environmentally friendly ways of travelling in Hong Kong. The tram system is the only one in the world operated exclusively with double-decker trams, and is one of only three non-heritage tram systems in the world that use double-deck cars.
The tram is the cheapest mode of public transport on the island. The comparatively affordable fare is highlighted by Hong Kong Tramways' advertising slogan: "Hop on 1. $2.3. Tram so easy!"
HISTORY
Hong Kong's tram system was inaugurated using electric trams. It has never used horse or steam power.
TIMELINE
1881: Tramway system is proposed for Hong Kong.
1901: Proposal is accepted by Hong Kong Government.
1902: Hong Kong Tramway Electric Company Limited founded.
1902: Name changed to Electric Traction Company of Hong Kong Limited.
1903: Construction of a single-track system began, from Kennedy Town to Causeway Bay. The route was later extended to Shau Kei Wan.
1904: Bodies of the first fleet of 26 tramcars were built in the United Kingdom. They were then shipped in pieces Hung Hom to be assembled. The tramcars were all single-deck. Ten tramcars were designed for first class passengers and the others were for third class passengers. The first-class compartment was enclosed in the centre with two long benches on both sides, with both the front and back ends open. Seating capacity was 32 passengers. The third-class tramcars were open-sided, with six sets of benches running crossways, back to back, seating 48 passengers. Tram fares for the first and the third class were 10 cents and 5 cents respectively. Initially, the company planned to divide the trams into 3 classes, but subsequently only first and third class were chosen for ease of operation.
1910: Name of the company changed to The Hong Kong Tramway Company Limited.
1912: Owing to strong passenger demand, the first double-deck tramcar was introduced in 1912. The tramcar had an open top design, fitted with garden-type seats. The first class occupied the upper deck and one-third of the lower deck. Ten new tramcars were constructed.
1922: Electricity was contracted and supplied by Hong Kong Electric Co. Ltd (HEC). Company name changed to Hong Kong Tramways Limited.
1925: Enclosed double-decker trams replaced open-top trams.
1932: North Point Depot came into service.
1941: Japanese Occupation took place. Very limited tram service was provided. Only 12 tramcars were in operation daily from Causeway Bay to Western Market. One single-decker tram was used as freight transport.
1945: After three years and eight months of Japanese Occupation, all 109 tramcars still remained, but only 15 were operational. By October 1945, 40 tramcars were back in service.
1949: Single-track system was replaced by double-track system in August.
1950: Tramways undertook an extensive re-design and started building its own trams. Tram bodies adopted a "modern" design.
1954: North Point Depot closed and Russell Street Depot expanded and renamed Sharp Street Depot.
1964: Three locally made trams added, including the first single-deck trailer.
1965: Due to passenger demand, 10 single-deck trailers was introduced. The trailer was attached to the back of ordinary tramcar and designed to serve first class passengers only. The maximum capacity was 36 persons for each trailer.
1966: As trailers were well accepted by passengers, 22 single deck trailers were deployed in the fleet during 1966–67. Although trailers played a significant role in the tramways, they were finally withdrawn from the service in 1982.
1967: The last trailer built by the company.
1972: Class distinction abolished and flat fare introduced.
1974: The Hong Kong Tramways Limited acquired by Wharf Holdings
1976 – Drop-in coin boxes were installed on trams. A coin-box was fitted at the front exit, near the driver. Passengers had to drop in the exact fare on leaving the tram. Rotating turnstiles were fitted at the entrance, which is located at the rear of a tram. Conductors were no longer needed and most of them retrained to become motormen.
1986: Tram refurbishment has begun.
1989: Sharp Street Depot closed and terminus function split between Sai Wan Ho and the Whitty Street depots.
1992: Two double-deck trams made by Tramways were exported to the Wirral Tramway, Birkenhead, in the UK.
1992: Point Automation System deployed and points man system for altering the direction of tram manually was abolished.
2000: Coloured destination blinds had begun.
2000: Tramways launched the new "Millennium" tram on 24 October 2000, which was designed and manufactured by its own engineering team. The success of this tramcar marked an important milestone in the history of Hong Kong Tramways.
2001: The Octopus electronic smart card payment system introduced on trams.
2004: Hong Kong Tramways celebrates 100 years of service.
2007: Route map was re-installed on each tram stop. New driving panels were introduced in November.
2008: Air-conditioning was installed on antique tram #128.
2009: 50% stake and operating rights obtained by Veolia Transport RATP Asia; followed by full ownership by Veolia Transport RATP Asia.
2011: Hong Kong Tramways launched the seventh-generation tram on November 28, 2011. It is a combination of modern interior design with traditional tram body exterior. The face-lift allows tram’s iconic image to be maintained.
2014: Hong Kong Tramways celebrates 110 years of service.
2015: Following the opening of the West Island Line, daily tramway ridership drops 10% to 180,000.
OWNERSHIP
Hong Kong Tramway Electric Company Limited 1904-1974
The Wharf (Holdings) 1974-2009; retained 50% stake from 2009 to 2010
Veolia Transport RATP Asia 2010–present
TRAM ROUTES
The trams run on a double track tramline built parallel to the northern coastline of Hong Kong Island from Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan, with a single clockwise-running track of about 3 km around the Happy Valley Racecourse.
There are 7 tram termini located along the tram line, namely, from west to east, Kennedy Town, Shek Tong Tsui (a.k.a. Whitty Street), Sheung Wan (Western Market), Happy Valley, Causeway Bay, North Point and Shau Kei Wan; some intermediate stops such as Sai Ying Pun, Admiralty MTR Station, Wan Chai, and Victoria Park are also equipped with crossovers so that they can be used as makeshift termini in emergency situations, such as en-route traffic accidents.
There are seven major overlapping routes:
Shau Kei Wan ↔ Western Market
Shau Kei Wan ↔ Happy Valley
Shau Kei Wan ↔ Kennedy Town
North Point ↔ Whitty Street
Happy Valley ↔ Kennedy Town
Causeway Bay ↔ Whitty Street
Western Market ↔ Kennedy Town
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Total length – 13 km (with a total track length of 30 km)
Operating Hours – 5:30 am to 12:30 am
Fare – HKD 2.3
On average, the headway between each tram departure is approximately 1.5 minutes during peak hours. In the past, trams had a maximum speed of 40 km/h. However, since early 2008, the maximum speed of some trams was increased, with a maximum speed of 50 km/h now enabled on most trams - a few of them even have a maximum speed of 60 km/h. The maximum capacity of each tramcar is 115 people.
TICKETS
The current fare is HK$2.30 for adults, HK$1.20 for children under 12, and HK$1.10 for senior citizens 65 and above. Unlike most other forms of public transport in Hong Kong, fare charged is uniform regardless of the distance travelled. Monthly tickets are also available at the cost of HK$200, sold at Shek Tong Tsui, Causeway Bay, and North Point Terminus at the end of each month.
Passengers pay upon alighting by either depositing the exact fare in coins into the farebox, or by tapping the Octopus card on the processor. The turnstile at the tram entrance and closed circuit television prevent fare evasion by passengers.
Ordinary and antique trams are available for private hire. The open-balcony antique trams are often used for parties and promotional events. Tourists can also travel on the open-top trams through tours organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
FLEET
Hong Kong Tramways now owns 163 double axle double-decker trams, including two open-balcony dim-sum tourist trams (Vehicle numbers 28 and 128) for tourist trips and private hire. There are three maintenance-only trams (Vehicle numbers 200, 300 and 400) which operate after tram service has stopped.
The trams themselves are sometimes called the "Ding Ding" (Chinese: 叮叮) by Hong Kong people, being the onomatopoeia of the iconic double bell ring trams use to warn pedestrians of their approach. The term "ding ding" is now often used to refer to the whole tram system, e.g. "travel by tram" (Chinese: 搭電車) as "take ding ding" (搭叮叮).
Hong Kong has the only fully double-decker tram fleet in the world. Most of the trams in operation were rebodied between 1987 to 1992. They are equipped with sliding windows. Since the early 2000s, these trams have been upgraded to provide better operating performance and safety. Almost all trams have full-body advertisements.
FLEET HISTORY
The tram fleet first consisted of 26 single-deck trams, with bodies 8.8 m long and 1.9 m wide, imported from England. However, they were quickly removed because of the rapid modernisation programmes. These tramcars were replaced by open-top double-deck tramcars from 1912 onwards. The introduction of permanent roofs for trams in 1923 was a big improvement to the system. In 1960s, adding trailers was proposed due to the increasing population and demands. In 1964, after testing a prototype built by Taikoo Dockyard in Hong Kong, 10 trailers were ordered from the UK and were added to the trams in Hong Kong in early 1965. Ten additional trailers were ordered from England in 1967, bringing the total number of trailers to 22. They were all withdrawn and scrapped by the end of 1982, since they used to derail frequently and were not economical to run – requiring a separate conductor for only 36 extra passengers.
Trams 12 and 50 are the only two trams still maintaining the original 1950s design, being restored at a railway museum in the United States and at a museum in Hong Kong, respectively. The cabins are varnished with their original light-green colour with teak-lined windows and rattan seats.
In 2000, three new aluminium alloy metal-bodied trams (officially called "Millennium trams"), #168 – 170, started operation. These trams have proven quite unpopular due to the poor ventilation in the summer – unlike on previous models, the front screen window cannot be opened to improve air-flow to passengers. A prototype air-conditioned tram, number 171, is under testing.
In 2007, a new maintenance tram was constructed, number 300, which is used to move trams in the depot. Besides electric power, it also uses a diesel motor.
Starting 7 November, new driving panels has been installed on trams after refurbishment. The first tram on the program was number 38.
In 2008, an air-conditioner was installed on the 'antique' tram #128.
Tram RefurbishmentIn October 2010, Veolia Transport showcased a prototype for the new model of trams. It plans to renovate the whole fleet at a cost of HKD 75 Million. The trams would keep their original exterior design, but the outer structure would be aluminium rather than teak as it is more durable. The benches on the lower deck would be replaced with single seats as well as a more modern look. Digital broadcasts would be placed inside trams to inform passengers of the next station, and LED lighting will be installed. AC motors and a new eddy current emergency braking system would be installed.
ALIGNMENT AND INTERCHANGES
In many places, trams shares route along with other vehicles.
Most of the tram stop locations have remained unchanged since their establishment. However, some have had their names changed, e.g. "Shu Shun Kwun" (Chinese 書信館), referring to the then General Post Office building in the 1940s, is now called "Pedder Street" - the GPO building was demolished in the 1970s, and World-Wide House now stands on its site. In 1934, Hong Kong Tramways introduced loading islands (waiting areas) at some busy tram stops to ensure the safety of passengers. Today, there are 123 tram stops in total, most of them are sheltered refuge islands.
Just like buses, trams in Hong Kong can be very crowded. During the busier periods of the day, trams often line up since there are many tramcars running at the same time. In 2002, the trams recorded an average of 240,000 passenger trips daily.
Tram stops are densely located in an average interval of 250 metres. Most of them are located in the middle of the road, connected by pedestrian crossings or footbridges. Major stops include Yee Wo Street stop at Causeway Bay, Pacific Place stop at Admiralty, and Prince's Building / The Landmark stop at Central.
Many termini of the Hong Kong Tramways are in the form of balloon loops, enabling the trams to reverse its travel direction efficiently.
The Island Line of the MTR is roughly parallel to the tramway line between Kennedy Town and Shau Kei Wan stations. Some sections of MTR tunnels are built directly under roads with tram tracks.
PUBLIC RECEPTION AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The trams have not only been a form of transportation for over a century, but also a major tourist attraction. The well-preserved tram lines still serve as a crucial means of transport in Hong Kong. Travelling in the lower deck of the tram allows travellers to have a close up view of the local street life, while occupying the front seats of the upper deck gives good views of the town as the tram rattles by.
Hong Kong's tram system is an icon of the city, like other Asian trams in Kolkata, Dalian and Sapporo.
As they run through the urban area of Hong Kong Island, the tram tracks have become an important icon of urban Hong Kong. Since the tracks were originally built along the waterfront before further land reclamation pushed the coastline northwards, the tracks can be used to identify directions and locations throughout urban Hong Kong Island.
RED LIGHT MEALS
In the old days, the duration of meal breaks allocated to tram drivers were far from adequate. Most drivers would therefore take advantage of the time their trams are waiting at a red light to gulp down a portion of their meal before the signal turns to green, continuing this practice whenever the tram comes to a red light until the meal is finished. This kind of hurried, impromptu meal is commonly referred as "red light meals" (Chinese: 紅燈飯).
PROJECTS
MODERN TRAMWAY AT KAI TAK DEVELOPMENT
Hong Kong Tramways Limited announced its interest in constructing a 12-km modern tramway system in the Kai Tak Development, built on the vacated site of the former Kai Tak Airport, in place of the "Environmentally Friendly Linkage System" (monorail system) proposed by the Hong Kong Government. Possible extensions to neighbouring places such as To Kwa Wan, Kowloon City and Kwun Tong were suggested. The company appointed a consultancy firm to investigate on the feasibility of building such a modern tram system in 2010, and submitted a proposal to the Development Bureau on April 29, 2013.
The company pointed out that the cost of constructing the proposed tram system is HK$2.8 billion. which is comparatively low as compared to the cost of $12 billion needed for a monorail system. Bruno Charrade, Managing Director of HKT, said the design of tramcars can be in connection with their Hong Kong Island counterparts or in a totally new shape, depending on the Government's discretion.
ABANDONED EXTENSIONS
There have previously been two separate extensions planned that were subsequently modified to be developed as light rail and metro systems.
NEW TERRITORIES REAM SYSTEM
During the development of Tuen Mun New Town in the 1970s, the Government had reserved space for the construction of a rail transportation system to serve the area. In 1982, the Government invited the Hong Kong Tramways to construct and operate a tram system in the area. The company initially expressed interest in the construction of the railway and intended to operate with double-decker trams, but later withdrew. The government then invited KCRC to construct and operate a light rail way. The system opened to the public on 18 September 1988. Since 2007, it is now known as the Light Rail.
CHAI WAN LINE
In 1970, Chai Wan on eastern Hong Kong Island was developed into a residential and industrial area, which greatly increased the traffic demand to Central. Extending the tram line from Shau Kei Wan to Chai Wan was considered, but was ultimately rejected due to low cost-effectiveness, as hills exist between Chai Wan and Shau Kei Wan, and difficulties arise from tunneling through the hills to make level track. It was replaced by the Island Line service - linking Chai Wan and Admiralty - which was opened to the public on 31 May 1985.
WIKIPEDIA
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.
Baymro Technology Polarization Maintaining (PM) Optic Circulators are non-reciprocating, unidirectional, three-port devices that are used in a wide range of optical setups. The circulator is Low Back Reflection, High Extinction Ratio, Low Insertion Loss, and High Return Loss. For more details visit www.baymrotech.com/fiber-optic-circulator/
The corn crib was located at the Bartholomew/Jackson County line. The high and narrow corn crib was used to store corn for drying for feeding livestock. The crib has wooden vertical slats to allow air to circulate through the corn, allowing it to dry. Horizontal slats at the top also assisted in ventilation. The crib is elevated on a concrete floor to keep rodents out and probably has a wire mesh inside as further protection against rodent or vermin infestations. It has a shed roof to prevent settling and to shed water. Hatches in the roof were used to fill the crib with field corn. Corn was removed from the bottom of the crib by removing upward facing overlapping slats on wedges at the different interval along the base of the crib. In this way the removal of corn could be done more systematically and uniform. The slats on the narrow end of the crib could be removed to enter the crib to remove corn.