The Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio is light sensitive...even to candle-light!

 

The light seems to put out ultra-low frequencies below audible range.

 

By raising the pitch very high in the Audio Hijack software, these sounds can be heard in the audible range!

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(•) – The Lockheed Martin HC-130J Hercules The Combat King II is the U.S. Air Force's only dedicated fixed-wing personnel recovery platform and is flown by the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and Air Combat Command (ACC). This C-130J variation specializes in tactical profiles and avoiding detection and recovery operations in austere environments. The HC-130J replaces HC-130P/Ns as the only dedicated fixed-wing Personnel Recovery platform in the Air Force inventory. It is an extended-range version of the C-130J Hercules transport. Its mission is to rapidly deploy to execute combatant commander directed recovery operations to austere airfields and denied territory for expeditionary, all weather personnel recovery operations to include airdrop, airland, helicopter air-to-air refueling, and forward area ground refueling missions. When tasked, the aircraft also conducts humanitarian assistance operations, disaster response, security cooperation/aviation advisory, emergency aeromedical evacuation, and noncombatant evacuation operations.

 

Features

Modifications to the HC-130J have improved navigation, threat detection and countermeasures systems. The aircraft fleet has a fully-integrated inertial navigation and global positioning systems, and night vision goggle, or NVG, compatible interior and exterior lighting. It also has forward-looking infrared, radar and missile warning receivers, chaff and flare dispensers, satellite and data-burst communications, and the ability to receive fuel inflight via a Universal Aerial Refueling Receptacle Slipway Installation (UARRSI).

 

The HC-130J can fly in the day; however, crews normally fly night at low to medium altitude levels in contested or sensitive environments, both over land or overwater. Crews use NVGs for tactical flight profiles to avoid detection to accomplish covert infiltration/exfiltration and transload operations. To enhance the probability of mission success and survivability near populated areas, crews employ tactics that include incorporating no external lighting or communications, and avoiding radar and weapons detection.

 

Drop zone objectives are done via personnel drops and equipment drops. Rescue bundles include illumination flares, marker smokes and rescue kits. Helicopter air-to-air refueling can be conducted at night, with blacked out communication with up to two simultaneous helicopters. Additionally, forward area refueling point operations can be executed to support a variety of joint and coalition partners.

 

Background

The HC-130J is a result of the HC/MC-130 recapitalization program and replaces Air Combat Command's aging HC-130P/N fleet as the dedicated fixed-wing personnel recovery platform in the Air Force inventory. The 71st and 79th Rescue Squadrons in Air Combat Command, the 550th Special Operations Squadron in Air Education and Training Command, the 920th Rescue Group in Air Force Reserve Command and the 106th Rescue Wing, 129th RQW and 176th Wing in the Air National Guard will operate the aircraft.

 

First flight was 29 July 2010, and the aircraft will serve the many roles and missions of the HC-130P/Ns. It is a modified KC-130J aircraft designed to conduct personnel recovery missions, provide a command and control platform, in-flight-refuel helicopters and carry supplemental fuel for extending range or air refueling.

 

In April 2006, the personnel recovery mission was transferred back to Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, Va. From 2003 to 2006, the mission was under the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Fla. Previously, HC-130s were assigned to ACC from 1992 to 2003. They were first assigned to the Air Rescue Service as part of Military Airlift Command.

 

General Characteristics

Primary function: Fixed-wing Personnel Recovery platform

Contractor: Lockheed Aircraft Corp.

Power Plant: Four Rolls Royce AE2100D3 turboprop engines

Thrust: 4,591 Propeller Shaft Horsepower, each engine

Wingspan: 132 feet, 7 inches (40.4 meters)

Length: 97 feet, 9 inches (29.57 meters)

Height: 38 feet, 9 inches (11.58 meters)

Operating Weight: 89,000 pounds (40,369 kilograms)

Maximum Takeoff Weight: 164,000 pounds (74,389 kilograms)

Fuel Capacity: 61,360 pounds (9,024 gallons)

Payload: 35,000 pounds (15,875 kilograms)

Speed: 316 knots indicated air speed at sea level

Range: beyond 4,000 miles (3,478 nautical miles)

Ceiling: 33,000 feet (10,000 meters)

Armament: countermeasures/flares, chaff

Basic Crew: Three officers (pilot, co-pilot, combat system officer) and two enlisted loadmasters

Unit Cost: $66 million (fiscal 2010 replacement cost)

Initial operating capability: 2013.

 

(•) – The Sikorsky MH-60G/HH-60G Pave Hawk is a twin turboshaft engine helicopter in service with the United States Air Force. It is a derivative of the UH-60 Black Hawk and incorporates the US Air Force PAVE electronic systems program. The HH-60/MH-60 is a member of the Sikorsky S-70 family.

  

The MH-60G Pave Hawk's primary mission is insertion and recovery of special operations personnel, while the HH-60G Pave Hawk's core mission is recovery of personnel under stressful conditions, including search and rescue. Both versions conduct day or night operations into hostile environments. Because of its versatility, the HH-60G may also perform peace-time operations such as civil search and rescue, emergency aeromedical evacuation (MEDEVAC), disaster relief, international aid and counter-drug activities.

Longwood Gardens

I’ve always wondered why society is all crazy about censoring nudity in social media, television, and so on, when we’re surrounded by it in the art world? What’s the difference? Art is different not only due to the esthetic value of the pieces but the intention of the artists when capturing the nude body, and I understand that some nudes we see in mainstream media aren’t precisely art. But what about those that do fit the description? Why do platforms like Instagram censor an artistic photograph of a naked body and not a picture of a random sculpture on the streets? Is there really a difference? My first guess would be that most of these sculptures and statues are protected by the sole fact that they are considered classic art and thus cultural heritages, while a modern photograph is just an artistic expression. This makes me think about why are there so many nude artworks and why we love exhibiting them in public when we clearly can’t overcome those prudish behaviors that censor the body? But more importantly, how nudity in art was conceived and evolved from one historical period to the other and how has it helped set beauty standards that are still ingrained in our collective imagination? If you think about prehistoric art, the first works that come to our mind are the amazing cave paintings that portrayed everyday life at the time. Now, the human figures are portrayed more like shadows, so we can’t really talk about nudity here. However, there are some examples of sculptures, often called Venus figurines, that depict nude female bodies. They’re extremely interesting because, more than highlighting the shape of the female body, they are kind of deformed to emphasize those parts they worshiped as symbols of fertility like the hips, breasts, abdomen, and even the vulva. For people in the prehistoric period, more than praising the female body in terms of erotic pleasure, the idea of beauty was precisely a woman fit to reproduce and bear children. Interestingly, the figurines that have been found are mainly female, which has led historians to believe that they were actually used for ritualistic purposes, as amulets to conceive, or even as sexual accessories. However, almost no male figurines have been found. This clearly evolved as soon as civilizations settled and blossomed. Of course, when we think about nudity in art, the first images that come to our mind are the classic Greek and Roman marble sculptures, right? It was widely believed that the Greeks were more liberal when it came to nudity and that these sculptures were a faithful depiction of their everyday life. There are even texts suggesting that some people would go nude on the streets or with almost no clothes. Now, this hypothesis has been shattered for the past century, and actually historians found that nudity was seen as a way of glorifying the perfection of the human body.As you know, sports played an important role for the Ancient Greeks. They were part of the religious activities to praise and honor the gods. Therefore, athletes were seen as the perfect examples of humans who had been blessed by the gods with their abilities and strength. During competitions, athletes, all male, competed naked so that people and the gods could see those perfect bodies moving and contorting with the physical effort. Moreover, sculptures of athletes were placed near temples and in the stadiums where these competitions took place. These pieces captured athletes practicing the sport they excelled in, but also were used to represent the main gods, since they were the only human link close to them. They represented the best of humanity and were also were embodiments of glory, triumph, and moral excellence. All in all, athletes were some sort of mortal deities people looked up to. As for female nudity, they kept the idea that the female body represented the divine act of procreation. However, unlike our prehistoric ancestors, the Greeks did praise the eroticism of the female shape. Most of the statues of nude women were representations of the goddess Aphrodite, who not only represented love, eroticism, and sexual desire, but also a means to procreation. For that reason, sculptors now paid attention to the shape following mathematical proportions fit to represent the most beautiful female figure of the Olympus. Unlike male nude sculptures that depict men proudly showing their bodies, women were portrayed as if they had been just caught in an intimate moment. It wasn’t well seen for women to deliberately show their body, but at the same time, it gave the viewer a voyeuristic role. Both ideas of nudity, for male and female bodies, were followed by the Romans and other civilizations that came to belong to the empire, but more than showing the human body as diverse as it might be, the works stick to idealized representations of what was considered beautiful and appealing. All this naturally changed during the Middle Ages, a time reigned by Christianism and its more conservative ways of perceiving the world. If you take a look at the art created at the time, there are almost no nude artworks. Medieval art was more focused on religious subjects that reflected not only stories present on the Bible, but images that could encourage people to lead a morally accepted life, or that would work as morality tales to prevent them from sinning. As you can guess, the few nude artworks were from that category, and the protagonists were basically our first sinful ancestors, Adam and Eve. In these images, they’re often portrayed right at the moment when Eve is tempted by the snake or right when they’re about to be thrown away from paradise. Nudity in that age was used to show how an impious life can condemn you for eternity. This last point was specifically for full nudity, since there were plenty images portraying Madonnas breastfeeding baby Jesus. According to art historian Margaret Miles, the main reason why there were so many paintings with this motif that was used until the early Renaissance was more of a propagandistic resource. Rich families used to hire nurses to feed their babies and naturally, most of them were poor and sometimes “sinful” women. According to Miles, the Church believed that it was the obligation of every Christian mother to nurse their children, and so Virgin Mary became the example to follow. The Renaissance wasn’t just an era of innovations in more scientific terms, but it was also a cultural movement where art played an important role. It was a time of awakening and rediscovery, so the classic art from Ancient times that was banned and conceived as sinful during the Middle Ages was seen now as a rich source of inspiration artists extolled. The moral values that the Church established were still prioritized, so there weren’t many nude artworks depicting normal people. Instead, artists made use of the inexhaustible lore of stories and images from Ancient mythology and traditions. So, besides exploring those rich cultures from the past, artists were well aware of the sexual and erotic connotations of nudity. Through these mythological characters and scenes they sought to highlight the sensuality of both the male and female naked body, (although they focused more on the female figure). Unlike the few naked bodies portrayed during the Middle Ages, where artists emphasized Eve’s belly as symbol of motherhood and the long process of carrying a child, Renaissance’s artists, like their Ancient counterparts, were looking for an idealized image of the body: a beautiful and well-shaped body that could awake everyone’s passions. That enthrallment for ancient motifs continued, and perhaps it still fascinates us. However, it was the Baroque current the one that gave us for the first time a more realistic and less idealized perception of the naked body. Both male and female bodies were often represented, but here the idea was to show the most lavished side. While they attempted to show more realistic bodies, conveying the idea that even certain flaws can be beautiful and alluring, that doesn’t mean the art at the time didn’t care for beauty ideals. We can still see some of these patterns being reinforced in the images that were being made. Yes, Rubens’ graces don’t really have the body of Botticelli’s Venus or Ancient sculptures have, but at the same time, they were seen as models of beauty. It was more of a change on beauty standards than being more inclusive and diverse. By the late eighteenth and the nineteenth century, the themes and motifs of nudity in art changed. For the first time, artists dared to portray common women and their nakedness without having to convey any moral message or disguising them through mythical characters. Artists explored new techniques and subjects in a freer way. There were bolder and more controversial paintings, like Gustave Courbet’s L’origine du monde, or Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe. They wanted to show that beauty can be seen in everyday life and even challenged the art academia and the public by painting what no one had painted before, or at least nothing that had been displayed publicly, like prostitutes and their daily life. There were more provocative faces looking directly at the spectator, instead of the blushing woman who had been surprised while being naked. The social perception of nudity changed forever. Finally, let’s talk a bit about modern and contemporary art. There were no boundaries for the modern artist to explore it, and thus it is reflected in the many styles, motifs, and currents of the time. Now, even though we have nude paintings like Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon where there’s a completely different approach to the body, we can’t really talk about a disappearance of beauty ideals. Although they evolved to fit different social standards throughout history, they still prevail in our conception of what’s beautiful and attractive and what’s not. This has been a long journey throughout the history of nudity in art, but let’s go back to our initial question. Why do we like seeing nudes in public? The obvious answer for me is that we still have some ingrained ideas of morality and censorship, so when art subverts them and allows us to explore our interest in a more open way, we feel a sort of rebellious pleasure. Still, that doesn’t mean this pleasure doesn’t allow us to understand and enjoy the artistic beauty of these works of art. On the contrary, the esthetic quality makes them even more alluring. Now, another possibility that would require a deeper sociological analysis is our constant need to establish certain beauty standards. We love looking at an idealized image. It doesn’t matter if they’re naked or not, and no matter how free, inclusive, and diverse art has become, we’ll always be enthralled by the ideal beauty of classic art.

culturacolectiva.com/en/art/nudity-in-art-museums-through...

  

It’s a talk my students know is coming from the whispered rumors that circulate the hallways.

 

Of course, I’m talking about nudity in art.

You might think middle school—a time rife with the three “G’s” of gossip, giggles, and goofiness—is a terrible time to try and discuss this mature topic. However, I wholeheartedly disagree.

 

Kids love to be treated like adults. It makes them feel important, capable, and trustworthy. If handled in the right way, this discussion can do just that.

 

In other words, the success or failure of this discussion lies with us, the educators. So, how can we make sure it goes smoothly?

1. Let your students know you trust them.

Preface the delicate discussion with the fact that this is a conversation for mature students only, students that can be serious and sophisticated. Make it dramatic, pause, and change the volume or tone of your voice… it adds gravitas. Immediately, they will sit at attention, eager to hear what you have to share, showing off their very sophisticated manners. It works every time.

 

2. Discuss the difference between “naked” and “nude.”

I have the talk with my students before they dive into their annual artist research project. Of course, during their exploration, they will, in most cases, come across some type of nudity in art. Whether it be the slightly-exposed breast in Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus or the enormity of Michelangelo’s marble David bearing down on them, it’s all nudity. The Venus and David are certainly not NAKED.

 

“Naked” implies a certain element of surprise, an accidental viewing and possibly even embarrassment. You are accidentally caught naked getting out of the shower when your mom tries to enter the bathroom and you weren’t expecting it. (Insert riotous laughter here). You are not posing waiting for her to sculpt you in the nude sans towel.

 

This example highlights the difference nicely. Nudity is intentional. It has a purpose and it is not usually vulgar. While there certainly are examples to disprove this claim, I intentionally do not provide the students with artists that focus on risqué or indecorous content in their work.

 

nude statue

3. Explain why artists study nudes and how different people feel about it.

Another thing that helps is to explain that nude models serve as subjects for artists learning to better paint and sculpt the human form. It’s also nice to discuss the idea of nudity in art from a historical and cultural perspective; what is covered and when changes based on culture, religion, and time period.

 

For example, in 1857, the Grand Duke of Tuscany quite generously gifted Queen Victoria with a cast of David by Michelangelo only to find she was shocked by the nudity. She immediately turned the statue over to a museum and ordered that a “proportionally accurate fig leaf” be created and hung over the offending area to protect the modesty of women visitors. Recently in Rome, statues displaying nudity were covered with large white panels when the President of Iran visited (see image below). Many Italian art lovers took to social media to express their outrage.

 

image courtesy of cnn.com

image courtesy of cnn.com

4. Have students censor their own art to see how it feels.

To hammer home your point, lead students through the quick exercise below.

 

Group students into partners.

Have each partner choose a piece of art they feel proud of. Then, have them switch pieces.

Using small scraps of black construction paper, have students censor parts of each other’s work.

Ask students how they feel. Is their piece whole, or has it been changed by their neighbor’s action? Many students will express feeling outraged.

It becomes clear that censoring even small parts of an artwork changes the piece without the artist’s consent. What the artist chooses to depict is what they want the viewer to see.

 

5. Let students know it’s OK not to feel comfortable with nudity.

Of course, I do not insist students be comfortable with the nudity. I make it very clear that is their prerogative. If a student wishes to avoid it in their presentations, they can. I simply insist they acknowledge the difference between naked and nude. It’s an important distinction.

 

Worried about parent reactions?

While I’ve never once fielded a phone call or had a parent concerned after this discussion, I can imagine some teachers might be apprehensive. Consider this: what middle school student has not watched any number of pop-stars writhe around with little to no clothing on during primetime television, to speak nothing of what children have access to on the web? We are not condoning bad or lewd behavior. We are sharing masterpieces of art that enlighten and enrich our world.

 

This is about art that fills museums, which have no “R” ratings. This is for everyone. Learning how to discern the difference between artistic nudity and crass nakedness is a critical step towards ensuring that aware children become cultured adults.

 

Do you (or would you) address this issue in your classroom? What hints do you have to ensure it goes well?

 

Do you agree or disagree with the idea that omission or censoring is an affront to an artist and their work?

theartofeducation.edu/2016/04/april-naked-vs-nude-discuss...

The allegations against Chuck Close raise new questions about how to work with nudity. Here's a guide for artists and models.

 

Sarah Cascone, January 30, 2018

 

Michael Grimaldi (standing, right) draws Iggy Pop in the Life Class by Jeremy Deller st the Brooklyn Museum, February 21, 2016. Photo courtesy of Elena Olivo and the Brooklyn Museum.

Michael Grimaldi (standing, right) draws Iggy Pop in the "Life Class" by Jeremy Deller at the Brooklyn Museum, 2016. Photo courtesy of Elena Olivo and the Brooklyn Museum.

Last month, several women came forward with complaints that artist Chuck Close sexually harassed them while they were modeling in his studio. The allegations, published in the Huffington Post and Hyperallergic, tended to follow a common pattern: A woman was invited to pose for the artist, asked to undress, and then endured lewd sexual remarks from Close. The women tended to leave feeling exploited and disrespected, they said.

 

From time immemorial, the nude body has played a vital function in art across cultures and eras. But in the 21st century, we have come to expect a certain level of professionalism to safeguard both models and artists in what can be a sensitive interaction.

 

Regardless of one’s opinions about Close, the controversy offers a teaching opportunity: What is and is not acceptable behavior when it comes to working with nude models?

 

artnet News spoke with two nude models and the director of the drawing department at the New York Academy of Art, which relies heavily on figure drawing in its curricula, and provides handbooks outlining protocols to its roster of around 68 models. From these interviews we compiled a list of guidelines for both the artist and model.

 

Michael Grimaldi teaching figure drawing. Courtesy of the New York Academy of Art.

Michael Grimaldi teaching figure drawing. Courtesy of the New York Academy of Art.

 

Do: Communicate up front whether or not the model will pose nude.

Some of the women who complained about Close said that they went to his studio with the belief that he would paint their face for a large-scale portrait. They were not expecting to be asked to take off their clothes, they said.

 

“Most of the time the artist and the subject discuss ideas about what the concept of the final product will look like, including the wardrobe or lack thereof,” said Natalie White, an artist and model, who has posed nude for George Condo, Peter Beard, Marc Quinn, Spencer Tunick, and Close himself.

 

“If the model isn’t well known for taking their clothes off it should definitely be discussed ahead of time. And if the artist feels that the subject should take their clothes off in the middle of the session, they should schedule the unclothed session for a later day to give the model a chance to think about it,” said White, but pointed out that there may be exceptions with models who frequently pose nude. Otherwise, a model may change her mind afterward, meaning “you’ve just wasted time and resources on something you may not be able to use, or left the model feeling bad about what they have just done.”

 

The British actors’ union has laid this issue out in its code of conduct, which states that “any nudity/semi nudity will be personally approved by the model before the shoot takes place.”

  

Photo courtesy of Natalie White.

 

Don’t: Touch the models.

That is the most important rule, said White. “Don’t move their arm to a different angle, don’t touch their face to change the angle in which it’s tilted,” she says. “If you want a nude model to alter their pose it should be described with words, or the photographer or artist can show them by [demonstrating with their own body].”

 

Michael Grimaldi, faculty chair and director of New York Academy of Art’s drawing program, agreed—but offered a few limited exceptions. “The only instances where [touching] may occur is during the marking of a long pose and, in my experience, during lectures focusing on anatomical structures. For instance, using calipers to measure a distance directly on the model or using resistance to activate a muscle action. Whatever the circumstance, any potential physical contact is brought up beforehand, always with consent, boundaries respected, and exclusively work-based and professional.”

 

George Condo, Toy Face with Ponytail (2014). Artist and model Natalie White posed nude for this painting. Courtesy of the artist/Skarstedt Gallery.

George Condo, Toy Face with Ponytail (2014), a painting for which Natalie White posed nude. Courtesy of the artist/Skarstedt Gallery.

 

Do: Put the model’s comfort before the artist’s interests.

Carla Rodriguez, a former intern at New York’s 20×24 Studio, an instant photography studio that worked regularly with Close on his large-format Polaroid portraits, was invited to pose for the artist in 2009. She told Hyperallergic that she was surprised when Close allegedly asked her to undress beneath a spotlight in the darkened studio, rather than in a dressing room. “Having been a figure model, I’m used to being able to undress privately. It’s mostly inappropriate to take your clothes off in the middle of the classroom,” she said.

 

Like the artist, a model is a working professional and should be treated as such. “This includes making sure that the model stand, drapery, and props are clean and in place; that the model’s changing room is secure and clean; that the temperature is comfortable and additional space heaters are in place in consideration that the model will be nude and in a relatively static pose, potentially for an extended period of time,” said Grimaldi.

 

“If a nude subject is uncomfortable in any way, whether it’s the temperature being too cold or they want assistants out of the room, they should say so immediately,” said White. “You need to be direct about how you feel. If you are uncomfortable it will come out in the images, and for that reason the artist should want you to be comfortable because they understand that too.”

 

Kurt McVey modeling for the Artful Bachelorette. Photo courtesy of Kristy May/the Artful Bachelorette.

Kurt McVey modeling for the Artful Bachelorette. Photo courtesy of Kristy May/the Artful Bachelorette.

 

Don’t: Ignore red flags.

“I can’t stress enough, if you are uncomfortable in any way it’s really important for you to say it out loud,” said White. “Good people don’t want you to feel uncomfortable in a work environment, so if they don’t react well to you telling them you feel uncomfortable then they aren’t a good person and you probably are not in a good work environment.”

 

“Red flags for a model might be requests from students, requests to be photographed, inappropriate language, poses that might threaten their physical or mental comfort,” Grimaldi said. “That does not necessarily mean a sexual pose—it could even mean a pose that the model says would be physically difficult to execute and hold the pose for the necessary time.”

 

Do: Decide what environment is most comfortable for you.

Some situations may be strictly silent, such as at the academy, where “students do not initiate conversation with the model,” Grimaldi said. But model Kurt McVey finds such buttoned-up atmospheres stifling.

 

That’s why he got involved with the Artful Bachelorette, which hosts nude figure drawing classes for brides-to-be and their friends. He was struck by the amount of laughter in the room, which he found to be “a counterbalance to the often pretentious New York art world,” McVey told artnet News.

 

“They encourage engagement with the model and the people in the class,” he said. “As the model, I’m providing a space for what I like to call consensual objectification!”

 

He finds the experience of modeling in this environment to be “continually cathartic and therapeutic for me as an individual—and incredibly liberating for the women.”

 

A party with nude figure drawing hosted by the Artful Bachelorette. Photo courtesy of the Artful Bachelorette.

A party with nude figure drawing hosted by the Artful Bachelorette. Photo courtesy of the Artful Bachelorette.

 

Don’t: Bring your cell phone.

Posing nude for a drawing or painting is a completely different beast than posing for a photograph—and permission for one does not imply permission for the other.

 

“Because cell phones have the capability of taking photographs (along with the instant ability to post images on social media), students are notified that cell phone use under any circumstance is strictly forbidden in the classroom,” said Grimaldi. “The models are also encouraged that should they see a cell phone, they have every right to terminate the pose.”

  

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Images of the naked human body provoke conflicting feelings: shame, admiration, curiosity, desire, disgust, anger. This is especially true when these images appear in public spaces, whether physical or virtual. Nudity on European beaches, for example, is falling in popularity because of shame linked to social media. Facebook has drawn ire for removing images of naked bodies by celebrated artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and Pablo Picasso. And here in Los Angeles, art museums are not allowed to display nude images on street banners and billboards because they may offend, but perhaps also because they divert drivers’ eyes from the road. This is why you will see only a discreet detail on the street banners for The Renaissance Nude, an exhibition opening at the Getty Center on October 30.

 

None of these conflicted responses to the human body, however, is especially new. Ever since the Renaissance of the 1400s and 1500s, the nude—the unclothed human form—has been one of the defining features of art in Europe. Yet artists’ and viewers’ attitudes toward the nude were as varied and complex centuries ago as they are today.

 

The exhibition The Renaissance Nude (October 30, 2018–January 27, 2019), for which I served as lead curator, explores precisely this theme. It traces the gradual emergence of the naturalistic nude to artistic prominence over the course of more than a century and explores the many ways nudes appeared in art, how and where they were displayed, and how people reacted to them. Along the way, the exhibition and accompanying book explode some long-held myths about the nude in the European art tradition, revealing parallels between Renaissance Europe and our own cultural moment.

 

Myth #1: Renaissance Europeans Were Comfortable with Nude Bodies in Art

The rise of the nude in art in the Renaissance was driven by a revival of interest in Greek and Roman art, which is centered on the body, and by a rise in the closer study of nature. In Italy during the later 1400s, drawing of undressed models became common practice for artists. Within a few decades, this new practice spread to northern Europe as well. In fact, the dominant role of observing and sketching from the nude in an artist’s training has lasted into our own era.

 

But the use of the nude in art, particularly religious art, was controversial during the Renaissance. Images of beautiful bodies can be highly sensual, which made some observers uncomfortable—then as much as now.

 

The classical revival resulted in new types of Christian imagery, such as in the depictions of Christ and Christian martyr-saints as partially or fully undressed heroes. In the exhibition you can see this transformation between two paintings of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, one by the Italian artist Michele Giambono (shown below), and another by his compatriot Marco Zoppo, which shows Christ as a much more muscular, heroic figure.

 

Myth #2: Renaissance Nudes Always Reflected the Highest Ideals of Humankind

Graceful, classically inspired representations of the unclothed human body became the ideal for artists from the Renaissance onward, first in Italy and France during the 1400s and soon thereafter in the rest of Europe.

 

As a result, intellectuals devised elaborate justifications for the representation of the sensual nude. A Greek humanist of the time living in Italy did so by admitting that it is sinful to admire a woman for her physical allure, but that depictions of the human body undressed can and should be appreciated as a reflection of the intelligence and abilities of the artist. In the Renaissance, achievement in representing the body became the standard for measuring artistic genius.

 

The humanist’s argument, intended for an elevated circle of cultivated, largely male patrons and collectors, may seem a bit disingenuous today. Scholars have argued that some men of that era commissioned major artists to paint images of erotic subjects such as the Loves of the Gods as metaphorical tributes to their own sexual prowess. Painted for Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, Correggio’s Danaë, with its exquisitely rendered and ethereal representation of female beauty, is a good example This painting was enjoyed then for its erotic appeal, and is still by some viewers today. Others find it challenging to reconcile the painting’s exceptional artistry with its objectification of the female body.

Myth #4: Renaissance Artists Were Only Interested in Ideal Bodies

Expressions of the flawless body were an important manifestation of the nude in the Renaissance. But artists also depicted nude figures in a range of human conditions, both physical and spiritual. Images of the sick, the anxious, and the aged are an important part of the story of the Renaissance nude.

 

Christian figures and stories were the most widespread subject in Renaissance art, serving to decorate churches, private chapels, and homes. And these religious figures often look very different from the ideal body.

  

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I have to use this sunscreen as I seem to be quite allergic to normal sunscreen lotion.

She is stunning, really, cant stop seeing at her, even when she is in her place in glass vitrine ^_^ Made today a few new pictures with her, maybe will upload today later or tomorrow!

This plant's leaves close when touched

 

For information about this Plant:

www.business.qld.gov.au/industry/agriculture/species/inva...

 

A context free grammar with associated transforms in the plane and RGB space made these...

rules like

a -> bc

b -> bd

but never like:

d -> dd

each symbol is associated with a rotation, shift and scale in the plane, and a step in a direction in the RGB color space.

There are no real terminal symbols, termination occurs when the sub-tree would be less than a pixel in size, and the pixel at the resulting position is coloured.

Much like an L-System, I would say.

Actually because the tree overwrites itself in the image, does that make it context-sensitive, in that the result depends on other symbols? Certainly you need the image buffer as well as the stack to represent the process.

Caterpillar of the Cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia), the largest moth of North America. The caterpillar is rather large as well. This is the first caterpillar of the species I have ever seen. It was crawling across the road by the Troy Highway Department and I swung to miss it, turned around and picked it up; for its safety and for some photos. Some young folks applauded me for doing so, but it's just what I do. I've seen only one adult moth in my life; as a young kid in Foremost, Alberta. My dad was there on 'business' and we found a mature moth under a street light at night. Quite taken by it I wanted to keep it. Very young, sensitive and naive I wasn't aware that "keeping" it required killing it; which my dad did, or attempted to do, by repeatedly driving a pin through it and leaving it overnight in the glove box of the car. Rushing out next morning to see it we found that, far from dead when we put it in, it had laid hundreds of egg, all to be wasted, in the glove box before it died. The scene still haunts me and any future days of capturing butterflies or moths, except by camera, were forever over. Same goes for spiders but that's another story.

Only got a couple of light sensitive cells functioning as his eyes. Eats mostly ant's larva. Taken April 8th, 2007, South of Carmel mountain, Israel.

 

For more pictures & information see the "Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Israel".

 

Contact Me

לוכד נחשים

1/4/19 6:05:32 PM

 

I need to be careful and sensitive!

 

As the road rager and tailgater here almost had a very bad day. He was on his phone and riding my bumper as I was taking my wife to work. I pulled up to a stop sign and thought I saw a piano hinge, a long two-foot-long hinge with nails right under my tire. I wasn’t going to go forward. And here is where honesty might get me. I put her in reverse and caught the eye of this guy screaming at me. I wanted to get out and move the hinge. I put her in reverse and barely rolled back from the shift and this guy was so close my ball on my trailer put a ping pong ball imprint on his bumper. Before I could get out and look The guy in the Batman pajamas and pink Crocs jumps out and had already called the Cops. The cars behind him sped off in disgust because they were also road raging and late for something. The Cop was nice and I couldn’t just tell him the guy was on my ass and pulled up under my hitch. I had to tell him I actually put it in reverse so the guy could see my back up lights so he would know to back the hell up! In just that second I put it in gear to see through the back up monitor I could see him go whoa. I don’t even remember rolling. Even when the good Cop asked us to pull over the man in the Batman Pajamas look like his car disappeared under my truck and like he wanted to be under the bumper!

 

My wife who has never been late to work, had to walk a few blocks to clock in on time! By the time I got home the man in the Batman pajamas and pink crocs had filed a claim.

 

The piano hinge was a long piece of metallic balloon string reflecting in the sun.

 

I told the officer I had concealed. He didn’t even bat an eye and was kind to everyone! The guy in the Batman Pajamas went and waited in his car so he would stay dry. The Officer said this is between your insurance companies now. We shook hands and went on our way.

 

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.

Early May. Sensitive Ferns were named because pioneers observed the ferns' tendency to die with the first frost. I've found them to be a hardy fern, easily spreading and crowding out other ferns. For me, the name seems more appropriate for its springtime unfurling.

 

Made with Picnik and Photoshop

Stubbed toe - not mine!

Durga Puja (Worshiping Goddess Durga-- the symbol of Supreme Power) is the biggest religious festival of Bengali people all over the world. In autumn (usually in September-October) this festival is celebrated in grand manner. Temporary temples are constructed with light construction materials. The idols of Mother Goddess Durga with the idols of Her two sons & two daughters are placed inside the temporary temples & the PUJA (worship) is performed as per Hindu religious rights. Thousands of people visit the places. Different local committees set up different varieties of temporary temples & a healthy rivalry goes on between them to show off their artistic creations. This is such a temporary temple from the place where I live, & the local committee is called Marconi Avenue Committee. Here they've created a beautiful palace with Biodegradable materials (Eco-consciousness is IN nowdays!) like straw & the whole thing is exquisitely decorated with sea-shells. Awesome!

Here the interior of the temporary "palace" is shown with the idols on the far end.

On snow.

 

Taken and processed with an iPhone 3GS.

 

© Lea Zimany

Sensitive & colorful knitting

for the SariSilkProject

on the Silk Road to heaven....

 

infinite wearing options

like most of my creations

Please keep off the dune grass at Higgins Beach.

Photo: Olga Szewczuk

Rey - minifee chloe

My Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica) flowered over night, couldn't resist trying to get a macro shot of the flower. Wasn't coming out too well so I used my flash (a Jessops 360afd) off camera on a tripod with a stofen diffuser. I think it came out rather well!

 

16/12/2012 Edit: Replaced the photo with a new edit to remove some ghosting left over from a stem in the top left of the picture that's been bugging me everytime I saw the photo.

 

 

Officials with the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) operations at the Sarasota Sterile Insect Rearing Facility, host a ribbon-cutting ceremony, April 17, 2019, in Sarasota, Fla.

 

Plant Protection and Quarantine releases sterile adult Medflies over the highest-risk urban areas of the state (approximately 633 square miles) in Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward Counties. The target release rate is 125,000 flies/square mile/week. One-hundred million irradiated pupae are received weekly from Guatemala, eclosed at the Sterile Insect Release Facility (SIRF), and released by airplane from an altitude of 1600-2000 feet. These pupae are temperature-sensitive lethal (tsl) strain, rendering the flies released 99.8% male.

New Sterile Insect Release Facility in Sarasota, FL: This facility supports the Medfly Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) Preventive Release Program (PRP), and is the work unit for 24 personnel. The Sarasota PRP was initiated in 2002 in an old ice cream factory, but due to the need to replace the existing aging SIRF, solicitations for a new facility (~30,000 square feet) began in spring 2015 and a lease was awarded in fall 2015 for a new facility located north of the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Ground-breaking for this facility took place in November 2016 and USDA accepted the building on July 23, 2018. This is the first time a facility like this has been built in the continental U.S. The objective is to facilitate and improve efficiency and effectiveness of the program for years to come.

USDA Photo by Preston Keres

flickr.com/photos/dixiall/

designed by Jean Nouvel.

 

The Arab World Institute (abbreviated "AWI"; French: Institut du Monde Arabe, abbreviated "IMA") is an organization founded in Paris in 1980 by eighteen Arab countries with France to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural and spiritual values. The Institute was established as a result of a perceived lack of representation for the Arab world in France, and seeks to provide a secular location for the promotion of Arab civilization, art, knowledge, and aesthetics. Housed within the institution are a museum, library, auditorium, restaurant, offices and meeting rooms.

 

The building was constructed from 1981 to 1987 and has floor space of 181,850 square feet (16,894 m2). The Architecture-Studio together with Jean Nouvel, won the 1981 design competition.[3] This project is a result of funds from both the League of Arab States and the French government, with the cost of the building totaling around €230,000,000. The building acts as a buffer zone between the Jussieu Campus of Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI), built in large rationalist urban blocks, and the Seine. The river façade follows the curve of the waterway, reducing the hardness of a rectangular grid and offering an inviting view from the Sully Bridge. At the same time the building appears to fold itself back in the direction of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district.

 

In contrast to the curved surface on the river side, the southwest façade is an uncompromisingly rectangular glass-clad curtain wall. It faces a large square public space that opens in the direction of the Île de la Cité and Notre Dame. Visible behind the glass wall, a metallic screen unfolds with moving geometric motifs. The motifs are actually 240 photo-sensitive motor-controlled apertures, or shutters, which act as a sophisticated brise soleil that automatically opens and closes to control the amount of light and heat entering the building from the sun. The mechanism creates interior spaces with filtered light — an effect often used in Islamic architecture with its climate-oriented strategies. The innovative use of technology and success of the building's design catapulted Nouvel to fame and is one of the cultural reference points of Paris.

 

The building was the recipient of the 1989 Aga Khan Award for Architectural Excellence. Jury members included historian Oleg Grabar.

Maxie, the family pet. This picture was taken an hour or so after Grandma had been taken into hospital after suffering a stroke, he was full of concern. Grandma is home now, she's very frail but she's being well looked after.

Sensitive & colorful knitting

for the SariSilkProject

on the Silk Road to heaven....

 

infinite wearing options

like most of my creations