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This foxglove took on a very unusual form for just the topmost flower - all the rest were normal. Any ideas what caused this strange growth??
The Eurasian form has a horizontal white stripe along the back. Eurasian teal show up casually each year along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
Burnaby Lake
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some Background:
The story of the Dornier Do 36 started with a small vehicle, the “Wiesel”. This was a German Armored Weapons Carrier (AWC), a light air-transportable, lightly armored tracked weapons carrier, developed by Porsche and later produced by Rheinmetall. It was quite similar to historical scouting tankettes in size, form and function, and was the only true modern tankette in use in Western Europe. The Wiesel was developed for the German Army’s airborne troops, as the infantry of the German Bundeswehr, especially airborne infantry, were considered unprepared to successfully fight enemy main battle tanks (MBT) in the 1970s. The requirements were that the vehicle should fit in common NATO transport planes and could eventually be even air-dropped. At only 2.75 metric tons (3.03 short tons), it weighed less than the armored variant of the U.S. Humvee military light truck. It should be able to fight infantry as well as enemy tanks or aircraft. Porsche produced some prototypes of the future fighting vehicle for the Bundeswehr in 1975, but the Bundeswehr stopped the project in 1978 due to lack of funds. Nevertheless, Porsche continued development, because of interest from other countries.
This effort was not in vain because the demand for this type of light vehicle – beyond the armed infantry support role – was still unanswered, and with some modifications the chassis could be used for many other light vehicles like a troop transport, command post, field ambulance or a mortar carrier, too. The Bundeswehr eventually ordered 343 of the vehicles in 1985, and deliveries of the new weapon system for the Bundeswehr began in the late 1980s. The vehicle was named Wiesel ("weasel") because of its small size and agility, which make it very difficult to detect on the battlefield.
In parallel to the Wiesel’s development in the early Eighties the Bundeswehr was considering a new light tactical transport aircraft that would fill the gap between the indigenous light Dornier Do 28 Skyservant STOL transport aircraft, which was powered by two piston engines, and the much bigger C-160 Transall, which had been developed together with France. These thoughts were fueled even more by the unsuccessful attempts to drop the Wiesel from a C-160 with parachutes – despite many attempts and technological solutions to dampen the landing, the Wiesel could not be landed safely, not to speak about potential crews inside. A potential carrier, the ambitious VTOL Do 31, which had only made it to the prototype stage in the Seventies and had then been cancelled, was not available. Therefore, Dornier was requested to design a compact transport aircraft that would a) have a cargo space diameter and a tail ramp large enough to carry up to two Wiesel or other light Bundeswehr vehicle and their crews and still have STOL capability on unprepared airfields. Primary design target was an aircraft that could deploy small airborne commando troops and ensure their support close to moving frontline units.
Dornier initially considered the adaptation of its new Do 228, the turboprop-driven successor of the robust Do 28D, but eventually rejected the idea because the light aircraft would not have the required capacities. Augmenting its structure to integrate a tail ramp as well as a floor strong enough to carry two Wiesel AFVs (the Wiesel 1's length was 3.55 m (11.6 ft), height and width 1.82 m (6.0 ft) each) was eventually just as complicated as developing a new, tailor-made aircraft from scratch, and this route was eventually followed.
The resulting Dornier Do 36 was only slightly bigger than the compact and highly popular Do 28D. unlike the Skyservant, though, It was jet-powered, with a pair of General Electric TF34-GE-100A high-bypass turbofans. An unusual design feature of the Do 36 was the use of the Coandă effect to improve STOL performance, using engine exhaust gases blown over the wing's upper surface to boost lift. To achieve this airflow the engines were mounted in nacelles close to the fuselage over the wings’ leading edge, what also reduced the engines’ sound level. Dornier’s engineers had carried out a series of "powered lift" studies some time earlier, including both externally blown flaps, as well an upper-surface blowing (USB) system, an unusual variation. As a result, the aircraft received a T-tail to keep it outside the jet efflux. In the USB system, the engine is arranged over the top surface of the wing, blowing over the flaps. When the flaps are lowered, the Coandă effect makes the jet exhaust "stick" to the flaps and bend down toward the ground, creating additional lift. Another project the engineers were interested in was the supercritical airfoil, designed by Richard Whitcomb. The supercritical design promised to lower transonic drag greatly, as much as a swept wing in some situations. This allowed an aircraft with such a wing to have low drag in cruise while also having a wing planform more suitable for lower-speed flight—swept wings have several undesirable characteristics at low speed. Both these innovative concepts were combined and incorporated into the Do 36’s design.
The cockpit was pressurized but the cargo bay, separated with a sealable bulkhead, not. The landing gear was fully retractable and featured low-pressure tires and struts with long suspension travel at allow operations on semi-prepared airfields. The front landing gear had twin wheels to lower ground pressure, and the wheels were outfitted with mudguards to protect the fuselage underside, which had relatively little ground clearance to accommodate the short tail ramp. The main landing gear struts retracted inwards and folded into sponsons on the lower side of the rear fuselage which also housed a APU for independent operations, avionics and chaff/flare dispensers.
The Do 36’s first flight was made on 31 August 1984, but production was delayed well into the late 1980s. Two major problems were found and corrected during testing: The first was a problem with air circulating around the wing when operating at low speeds, esp. when taxiing or flying close to the ground, which had a serious effect on the spreading of the jet flow through the nozzle. This led to flow separation near the flap, and a decrease in the effectiveness of the USB system. In response, Dornier’s engineers added a series of vortex generators on the upper surface of the wing, which retracted when the flap was raised above 30°. Additionally, the tail surfaces were initially placed well aft to maximize control effectiveness. But this positioning turned out to interfere with the airflow over the wings during USB operations, and a new T-tail was introduced that moved the elevator forward.
Mending the airflow troubles lasted until 1987, when the Do 36 was eventually cleared for production and officially called “Skymaster”. The first customer became the German Bundesluftwaffe with an order for six pre-production aircraft for field tests and international promotion, followed by thirty more machines that were all allocated to the newly established LTLG (Lufttransport- und Lande-Geschwader) 64, which was closely attached to the German Army’s parachutist troops (Fallschirmjäger) and its headquarters.
The trials with the six pre-production machines lasted until 1989, and during this phase of almost two years the Luftwaffe Do 36s visited several potential customer countries, including many European states, plus Israel, the USA and Canada. However, only the USA ordered twelve Do 36’s for Special Forces units under the designation C-39, which was then internationally adapted for the type.
After its introduction the Luftwaffe Do 36 saw frequent use, also outside of Germany. From 1991, German paratroopers were, together with Do 36s, regularly part of the first German contingent on foreign missions, e. g. 1993 during the German support in Somalia. Four machines accompanied the troops.
From 1996 onwards, the Airborne Brigade was disbanded with the parallel formation of the Special Forces Command as a new branch of service at the old location in Calw. At the same time, Fernspähkompanie 100 and 300 as well as the former paratrooper command companies were disbanded, and parts transferred to the KSK (Kommando Spezialkräfte). Paratroopers and KSK were jointly subordinated to the Division “Schnelle Kräfte” (Rapid Forces Division), with LTLG 64 as a central air transport and logistics Luftwaffe unit now re-located to Lechfeld near Augsburg in Southern Germany, close to the KSK headquarter.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1 or 2
Capacity: 24 passengers / 5.500 kg (12,115 lb) max. payload
Length: 14.18 m (46 ft 5½ in)
Wingspan: 18.14 m (59 ft 5 in)
Height: 4.82 m (15 ft 9½ in)
Wing area: 40 m2 (430 sq ft)
Aspect ratio: 8.3:1
Empty weight: 9.100 kg (20,062 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 15,660 kg (34,524 lb)
Fuel capacity: 1,885 kg (4,156 lb)
Powerplant:
2× General Electric TF34-GE-100A high-bypass turbofans with 9,065 lbf (40.32 kN) thrust each
Performance
Maximum speed: 795 km/h (494 mph, 429 kn)
Cruise speed: 650 km/h (400 mph, 350 kn)
Stall speed (power off, flaps down): 104 km/h (65 mph, 56 kn)
Minimum control speed (power on, flaps down): 65 km/h (40 mph, 35 kn)
Range: 2,950 km (1,830 mi, 1,590 nmi) with max fuel
1,852 km (1,151 mi, 1,000 nmi) in standard configuration
Service ceiling: 11,000 m (35,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 26 m/s (5,120 ft/min)
Armament:
No internal weapons;
2x underwing hardpoints for loads of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) each,
incl. drop tanks or defensive ECM/chaff/flare pods
The kit and its assembly:
This whiffy Frankenstein creation had been lingering in the back of my mind for a couple of years, and I also had, over time, two Matchbox Do 28D Skyservant kits stashed away to build this rather special transport aircraft someday. The “Re-Engine” group build at whatifmodellers.com in summer 2023 was a good motivation to finally tackle this project, because I had always pushed it back because I knew that it would be challenging and thorough.
The original idea was to outfit a Do 28D with jet engines and a tricycle landing gear – after I came across some leftover Matchbox A-10 turbofan pods from my youth. These, like the Do 28D kit, were/are rather primitive (if not false) affairs but combining them could probably yield an interesting result. The large pods immediately reminded me of the American YC-14 prototype and the very similar Russian An-72 transport aircraft, both with large turbofans on the wings’ leading edges and exploiting the Coandă effect for STOL performance. However, from that simple starting point on things took a VERY demanding route through PSR surgery.
Two Do 28Ds were necessary because converting just a single kit was not enough. For a tricycle landing gear, the fuselage had to be extended with a plug in front of the wings, which was taken from the 2nd Do 28D kit behind the wings, including the side doors, because these had to be removed due to the new landing gear arrangement (see below). However, this turned out to be too low, so that the roof had to be raised with a styrene sheet plug. With the longer fuselage the wings had to be elongated to keep the proportions, too, and this was again solved with plugs (inner wing sections) from the 2nd kit – thankfully this was quite easy due to the straight leading and trailing edges.
To add value to the aircraft and to better exploit a higher payload, I also decided to modify the tail and add a ramp – bold stunt, but it worked better than expected. I used mostly the original Do 28D tail and the fin but widened the tapered tail through long cuts along the upper roof edges, with inserted styrene sheet wedges to fill the gaps, and the lower parts were cut away to make room for a flush ramp, which was scratched from styrene sheet and other bits. Since the interior would be visible now, I added basic interior to the cargo bay: a structured styrene sheet floor, and the side walls and the roof were covered with paper tissue drenched in white glue, what mimics open insulation mats inside of C-160 Transall aircraft. Additionally, side bumpers made from thin styrene profile were added to the walls, too. To display the model later in flight (for the respective pictures) I also added a vertical styrene tube inside of the fuselage as an adapter for a metal rod holder.
From the clear parts only the (poorly fitting) windscreen was used; except for six side windows any other fuselage opening was concealed – after all it’s supposed to be a military transporter for goods and vehicles and not a passenger aircraft like the Do 28D – and the windows after painting created with ClearFix (see below).
To accommodate the new retractable landing gear I implanted a well under the cockpit floor, which required some mods to the cockpit, which was mostly taken OOB but placed on a higher floor, and the cockpit section was separated from the cargo bay with a bulkhead.
The main landing gear was mounted into boxy sponsons on the lower fuselage flanks, the Do 28D’s OOB engine pods could be used/converted and match the aircraft’s overall boxy design well.
The landing gear as such caused some headaches, though, because the aircraft would require a relatively low stance for the tail ramp. I eventually settled upon parts from an Academy MiG-23 kit for both the twin front wheel (including suitable mudguards!) and the main struts, which received a wide stance for extra ground stability. Looks odd, but at the same time very purposeful and plausible, too.
As mentioned earlier, the engines came from a (“used”) Matchbox A-10, and I left them OOB except for cutouts so that they would fit onto the wings, placed upside down so that the exhausts were directed downwards. Since they would now be placed directly in the jets’ efflux the stabilizers had to be move higher, too, and I settled for a T-tail, just like the benchmark YC-14 an An-72, with a clipped original fin. The central body was taken/adapted from a Matchbox Blackburn Buccaneer, the stabilizers themselves are highly modified wings from an AZ Model Kawasaki Ki-78 that better match the increased wingspan than the thin OOB parts with a fabric structure.
Lots of PSR! The resulting airframe looks quite simple and clean, but getting there was a real long and heavy ride!
Painting and markings:
As in many cases, I wanted a rather subtle Luftwaffe paint scheme for this PSR monster, yet something unusual. Even though the time frame would promote a Norm ’83 wraparound scheme in black and two shades of green (seen on Luftwaffe Transalls, Tornados and late RF-104Gs) I rather settled for the earlier, less known Norm ’76 pattern that was applied to the first Luftwaffe Tornados. It was a more disruptive evolution of the Norm ’72 splinter scheme with a more organic pattern and an additional dark contrast color for improved low-level concealment from above. To make things really confusing, there were two Norm ’76 schemes: one for the Marineflieger and a totally different one for the Luftwaffe, yet both carried by the Tornado IDS’. While the Navy’s variant (simple Basaltgrau upper surfaces and Lichtgrau underneath) was worn by several types, the Luftwaffe scheme was exclusively carried by the first production Tornados, and probably only by those trainer aircraft operated by the Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment (TTTE) at Cottesmore. It consisted of Black (RAL 9005, even though I rather used RAL 7021 Schwarzgrau, Gelboliv (RAL 6014, a dark olive drab tone, (FS.24064) and Basaltgrau (RAL 7012, very close to RAF Dark Sea Grey), plus Silbergrau (RAL 7001 (FS.26373) underneath with a low and straight waterline.
The pattern is an adaptation from a Chilean F-80C with a tricolor camouflage – it matched the Do 36’s outlines much better than the Tornado shape. I was a bit uncertain about the engine pods, but due to their round shape (anything else is boxy with a flat underside) I gave them a wrap-around camouflage. The radome and the anti-glare panel became deep black, the landing gear and the inside of the air intakes were painted white. The cockpit interior (hard to see) and the cargo bay floor as well as the ramp were painted in a medium grey while the padded cargo bay walls were painted with a very light grey-beige mix – both inspired by Luftwaffe Transall interiors.
The decals were a mix from various resources, iron crosses, fin flashes and tactical codes were created with TL Modellbau material, plus unit badges and stencils from Luftwaffe F-84Gs. The code 59+47 was never allocated to a Luftwaffe aircraft (yet), but it is a continuation of the real Do 28D code block.
Finally, everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and the side windows were created with Clearfix (instead of using the OOB parts, which lack locator support and would have ended in a mess, anyway).
Tutti i vestiti nella foto sono stati confezionati da Inika ♥ e sono il risultato di un giorno di shopping al "Bambole a Roma" ^.^
From the Oct 1, 2008 Glens Falls, NY, Post Star Newspaper feature article about me making breads using sourdough cultures. In this photo I am forming a round loaf.
Madison, Ireland mission trip, collects information to form discipleship groups for the Ireland team.
Went out for a ride through the woods this afternoon and ended up at the beach. Came across this along the way.
EL VÍTOR - Horcajo de Santiago 7-12-2012
Horcajo de Santiago (Cuenca), celebra sus fiestas del VÍTOR, en honor a la INMACULADA CONCEPCIÓN, durante los días 7 y 8 de Diciembre, declaradas de INTERÉS TURÍSTICO REGIONAL.
Es una de las tradiciones cuyo origen se sitúa en la Edad Media, en el tiempo de la Reconquista, cuando la Orden de Santiago, otorgándole el distintivo de encomienda. Los priores de la Orden venían desde Uclés, a caballo, portando el estandarte de la Virgen, y el pueblo aclamaba la imagen de María Inmaculada. ( versión de D. Angel Horcajada) Es tal la devoción a la virgen, que los portadores del estandarte están esperando años para poder llevar la imagen a caballo por las calles de la localidad, desde la noche del siete hasta la caída de la tarde del 8 de diciembre; el último en solicitarlo hasta las fechas en el 2071.
Se trata sin duda de la procesión más larga de todo la Cristiandad, iniciándose al atardecer del día 7 de diciembre, cuando por la puerta de la sacristía de la Iglesia Parroquial aparece el estandarte con la imagen de la INMACULADA que es entregado en la Puerta del Sol a los tres caballeros, que lo portearán durante toda la noche y parte del día siguiente por todos los rincones y ermitas del municipio, intentando avanzar entre la multitud de personas que vitorean sin cesar el grito de "VÍTOR LA PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN DE MARIA SANTÍSIMA CONCEBIDA SIN MANCHA DE PECADO ORIGINAL, VÍTOR,VÍTOR,VÍTOR ....".
La procesión concluye con la entrega del estandarte de nuevo a la Iglesia. Se trata de una tradición que arranca desde 1.650, influenciada por la Orden de Santiago.
El VÍTOR es una fiesta de profundas raíces que espera vengas a conocerla, vívela, no lo olvidarás.
microVIDEOS www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhOGO1Wd2-SrebHCFWM-CRFQUW...
+INFO EN www.horcajodesantiago.es/htm/elvitor.htm
Autor: José-María Moreno García. Fotógrafo humanista y documentalista. Una de las mejores formas de conocer la historia de un pueblo es a través de sus imágenes; en ellas se conserva no sólo su realidad tangible, calles, plazas, monumentos, sino también sus costumbres, fiestas, tradiciones, lenguaje, indumentaria, gestos y miradas, que nos dicen sin palabras como se vivía, cuales eran sus esperanzas y temores, qué había en su pasado, qué esperaban del futuro. Uno de los objetivos más ambiciosos es recuperar y catalogar todo el material gráfico existente en nuestra familia desde 1.915, para después ponerlo a disposición de vosotros, que la historia volviera a sus protagonistas, y los que aún siguen con nosotros pudieran disfrutar con ello. VISITA La colección "CIEN AÑOS DE FOTOGRAFÍA FAMILIA MORENO (1915-2015)" en www.josemariamorenogarcia.es y www.madridejos.net
SI ALGUIEN NO DESEA APARECER EN EL ÁLBUM POR FAVOR COMUNICALO A josemariamorenogarcia@gmail.com
ENDLESS FORMS MOST BEAUTIFUL WORLD TOUR
The Coliseum, Hard Rock Hotel, Singapore
18th January 2016
Photo by Alvin H.
Special thanks to the Impact Live team
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hellen Obol (second right), the Contingent Commander of the ninth Uganda Formed Police Unit, serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), flanked by members of the senior leadership, interacts with a welder in a workshop at Jazeera Camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 3 September 2021.
AMISOM Photo / Mukhtar Nuur
Barrio Flotante en Valdivia Forma parte del proyecto de Transporte Fluvial Sustentable. El objetivo del proyecto es impulsar el transporte fluvial, teniendo en cuenta que ya existen tres taxis fluviales auto sustentables que funcionan gracias a la energía solar. Además se piensa como un espacio ciudadano y cultural.
El proyecto es parteimpulsado por Visión Valdivia, recibió el apoyo del astillero Alwplast, con el fin de impulsar el transporte fluvial, teniendo en cuenta que ya existen tres taxis fluviales auto sustentables, que funcionan gracias a la energía solar.
El barrio está ubicado zona denominada Costanera Cultural de Valdivia, dando así vida a un espacio público que fue gestado también para iniciativas culturales de la ciudad.
Lo innovador de esta iniciativa es que el barrio flotante está alojado sobre el río Valdivia y cuenta con paneles de energía solar y con materiales elaborados procurando la sustentabilidad de su construcción para que se inserte en el entorno natural y resguarde el patrimonio paisajístico de la ciudad.
Los visitantes podrán visitar la cafetería y su terraza alojada en el lugar con una panorámica del río y la ciudad. El espacio también cuenta con baños públicos, uno de ellos para personas con discapacidad y con 2 oficinas para administración, una de ellas destinada a la organización Turismo Fluvial Sustentable.
Fuente: Barrio Flotante en Valdivia ya está en marcha por elnaveghable.cl CC BY NC SA
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/deed.es
www.elnaveghable.cl/noticia/emprendimiento-regional/barri...
ET22, affectionately nicknamed by rail enthusiasts as the "Bull" (Byk). ET22 has a $Co'Co'$ axle arrangement, which gives it a characteristic, massive appearance with a large distance between the bogies. Pulling a heavy train of cars (auto-transport) is a task perfectly suited for the ET22, which was designed specifically for heavy freight trains
Another surveyor, Sidahmed Bulahi, is himself disabled. Despite missing fingers on his right hand, he is filling forms describing the disabilities of fellow Saharawis.
FORMS OF HANDS 15
24th - 25th April 2015
Bönen (Ruhr area/Germany)
Winterkälte
Ah Cama-Sotz
Ancient Methods
Synth-Etik
S.K.E.T.
Maschinenkrieger KR52 vs. Disraptor
Totakeke
13th Monkey
Hysteresis
Illegal Trade
Norm
Sylvgheist Maelström
Yurayura
Supersimmetria
We tested out a new (old) manufacturing technology in the Jocelyn H. Lee Innovation Lab - vacuum forming! We fabricated a platen and frame using the laser cutter, then used a toaster oven and a shop-vac to complete the process. Participants were able to vacuum-form a range of shapes out of plastic plates to use as candy molds or decorative artwork! Special thanks to the volunteers who helped make this project a success.
Las montañas Cairngorms forman el Parque Nacional más grande de Gran Bretaña y la zona más extensa de paisaje ártico montañoso en las islas británicas. Este fascinante lugar es también considerado como el último gran espacio salvaje de Europa. El corazón del Parque Nacional está formado por una impresionante cadena montañosa que contiene 4 de las 5 montañas más altas de Escocia. También alberga el 25% de los pájaros, animales y plantas en peligro de extinción del Reino Unido. Incluye áreas montañosas de un gran valor ecológico y antiguos bosques, ríos, lagos, valles y páramos que constituyen frágiles ecosistemas de una gran biodiversidad.
La espectacular meseta central está dividida por diferentes valles donde se encuentran los últimos reductos de los bosques primigenios de pino rojo que cubrían todas las Highlands en la antigüedad. Estos bosques son el hogar de innumerables especies animales como la ardilla roja, el urogallo, la marta, el gato montés, el corzo o el tejón, entre otras. También habitan en las proximidades grandes manadas de ciervos rojos o venados, un rebaño de renos y el grupo más numeroso de águilas reales del Reino Unido.
No podemos olvidarnos de la rica herencia cultural que tiene el P.N. Cairngorms y que contribuye a hacer de este espacio un lugar único, mágico y encantador.
Learn more about Tuff Forms playground climbers! mrcrec.com/www/mrc-products/themed-playground-equipment/147
Learn more about Tuff Forms playground climbers! mrcrec.com/www/mrc-products/themed-playground-equipment/147
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.
Photo by Matt Koroulis
Camera: Pentax ZX-60
Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 Black & White 35mm
Developed and scanned at Panda Lab in Seattle.
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We are not able to supply customed items without permission of the license customer. None of the posted photographs on this page could be used, copied or reproduced in any form without Tracy gifts' specific prior authorization, made public, copied or used to the disadvantage of Tracy gifts.