View allAll Photos Tagged texting
My model/bestie was in an abandoned house, holding a huge knife, and texting. Needless to say, this was a test shot.
You know that blue transparent box that pops up in the middle of your iPhone’s screen when you get a text? Yeah, I changed that to this. To me this is a lot sleeker than the stock notification. Amazing what a little time and jailbreaking can do…
helloimD4NNY
How to change character encoding of a text file on Linux
If you would like to use this photo, be sure to place a proper attribution linking to xmodulo.com
découvrez mon univers graphique et photographique aussi ici:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/L.Morand.creations
site perso: www.lm-crea.net/
instagram: www.instagram.com/morandlaurent/
à vendre ici: www.artloverplace.com/artistes/laurent-morand
et ici : www.ruedesbeauxarts.fr/vendre-oeuvre/achats-en-direct
My wife texting on her phone. She had the laptop in front of her, so i pulled up a green wallpaper to get some green light in there. Kinda noisy but i like it.
f5, 1/125, 1600 ISO
55-200mm VR 4.5-5.6G
FILE
FILE SÃO PAULO 2009
Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletrônica
Electronic Language International Festival
FILE 10 NURBS PROTO 4KT
10 anos de FILE, 10 anos de eventos realizados na cidade de São Paulo, 10 anos de discussão sobre arte e tecnologia no Brasil.
1. NURBS (Non Uniform Rational Basis Spline) é uma técnica muito conhecida de computação gráfica para representar curvas e superfícies, e que segundo o teórico russo Lev Manovich, no texto inédito que abre o catálogo desta edição, pode ser a nova ferramenta para a teoria cultural do sec. 21 juntamente com outras ferramentas de computação gráfica e visualização de dados. Lev Manovich participará do FILE Labo Workshop, no Mezanino do Centro Cultural Fiesp - Ruth Cardoso dia 30/07, das 9h às 13h.
2. PROTO de “Protomembrana”, performance do artista catalão Marcel.lí Antunez Roca, que acontecerá na abertura do evento (27/07) e dia 29/07, no Teatro do SESI – São Paulo.
3. 4KT, a primeira transmissão transcontinental em superalta definição, que está será feita no mundo do longa-metragem “Enquanto a Noite não Chega”, com direção de Beto Souza, dia 30/07, às 19 horas, no Teatro do SESI – São Paulo.
FILE 10 Highlights
10 years of FILE, 10 years of events accomplished in the city of São Paulo, 10 years of discussions on art and technology in Brazil.
1. NURBS (Non Uniform Rational Basis Spline) is the concept developed by Russian theoretician Lev Manovich in the unpublished text that opens this edition's catalog. Lev Manovich will participate in FILE Labo Workshop, at the Mezzanine of Fiesp - Ruth Cardoso Cultural Center, on July 30, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
2. PROTO from “Protomembrane”, performance by Catalan artist Marcel.lí Antúnez Roca, will happen in the event's opening (07/27) and on 07/29, at the SESI – São Paulo Theater.
3. 4KT, the first transcontinental broadcasting in super-high definition that will happen in the world of the feature film “While the Night Doesn't Come”, directed by Beto Souza, on 07/30, 7 p.m., at the SESI – São Paulo Theater.
INSTALAÇÕES
Abraham Manzanares (colorsound) _ Boreal Painte _ Espanha
Alexandra Dementieva_ Drama House _ Bélgica
Andreas Muxel e Martin Hesselmeier _ Capacitive Body _ Alemanha
3kta - Directed by André Rangel and Anne-Kathrin Siegel _ Graffonic _ Portugal e Alemanha
Christa Erickson _ Climate Shifts _ Estados Unidos
Daan Brinkmann _ Skinstrument _ Holanda
Blendid (Tim Olden e David Kousemaker) _ TouchMe _ Holanda
Emiliano Causa, Tarcisio Pirotta e Matías Costas _ Sensible _ Argentina
EunJoo Shin _ Vocal Trio _ Coréia do Sul
Fabiano Onça e Colméia _ Stogrepock _ Brasil
Giselle Beiguelman e Mauricio Fleury _ Suíte para Mobile Tags - Movimento #1 _ Brasil
Graziele Lautenschlaeger _ Don't Give Up! About a history that doesn't want to be told _ Brasil
Hakeem B. _ Once Upon a Time _ França
Hugues Bruyère _ Presence _ França
Jorge Luis Crowe _ Estero _ Argentina
Jörg Niehag _ samplingplong _ Alemanha
Juliana Cerqueira _ Corpo Digitalizado _ Brasil
the Demos _ Moving Mario _ China
Leo Nuñez _ Game of Life _ Argentina
Luis Felipe Carli _ Complexidade Organizada _ Brasil
He-Lin Luo _ Maelstrom _ China
Magdalena Pederin _ The Voice From the Loudspeaker _ Croácia
Marcel•lí Antúnez Roca_ Metamembrana _ Espanha
Marina Chernikova _ Urban Surfing Moscow _ Holanda
Masato Takahashi, Sho Hashimoto _ The Noses: Communication Organs _ Japão
Motomichi Nakamura _ Red Eyes _ Estados Unidos
Naomi Kaly _ Dualogue _ Estados Unidos
Nina Tommasi _ Biological Instrumentation _ Áustria
Nina Waisman; with pd programming by Marius Schebella_ Between Bodies (Tijuana), Estados Unidos
Phillip Stearns (Pixel Form) _ c. 15:33 _ Estados Unidos
Ricardo Nascimento _ Authority _ Áustria
Seokhwan Cheon _ Pondang _ Estados Unidos
Tim Coe _ Volatile Nexus _ Alemanha
Deletere // redSugar _ Augmented Reality _ França
Ebru Kurbak e Jona Hoier _ Hot & Cold Whisperer _ Áustria
Yonakani: Young ah Seong, Takuji Narumi, Tomohiro Akagawa _ Thermotaxis _ Japão
Artemis Moroni, Jônatas Manzolli, Mariana Shellard e Sidney Cunha _ AURAL _ Brasil
MÍDIA ARTE
Norberto Idiart Ritter, Rosario Lázaro Igoa, Andrew Orihuela e Cesar Funk _ La Palabra _ Brasil
A. Bill Miller _ gridworks2000-anim09 _ Estados Unidos
Jackson Marinho - Victor Valentim - Anibal Alexandre - Adriana Prado _ Autonomia Duvidosa _ Brasil
Agricola de Cologne _ SILENT CRY _ Alemanha
Agricola de Cologne _ TIMED OUT _ Alemanha
Alan Bigelow _ Deep Philosophical Questions _ Estados Unidos
Alan Bigelow _ What They Said _ Estados Unidos
Alex Hetherington _ SARAH WINCHESTER MADE ME HARDCORE _ Reino Unido
Aline X _ DVD Golpes - Uma investigação interativa _ Brasil
Alisson R. Ribeiro, Bruna Ongaro, Eric Notarnicola, Magda Martins, Marcel Melfi, Michel Adão Teixeira, Rafael Nery _ Metadoxo - O sentir e interpretar da trilogia das cores _ Brasil
Ana Genduso, Bernardo Duca, Denise Brito, Mariana Roncalli, Renan Petrecca, Robson Silva e Victor Hugo Luz _ Universo Visceral _ Brasil
André Anaya de Carvalho, Beatriz Castanho,Denisson de Sousa, Diego Gregor Martins, Fabrício Novak, Kleber Nunes Domingues e Nelson Rico Gutierres Junior _ Espaço e Movimento _ Brasil
André Sier _ Corrida Espacial #1 _ Portugal
André Sier _ Corrida Espacial #3 _ Portugal
Andrei Thomaz _ Somewhere in Time _ Brasil
Andrei Thomaz _ A caça e o caçador _ Brasil
Anibal Diniz, Colaboração de Victor Valentim na Programação Sonora _ Caixa de Dados _ Brasil
Anis _ 109 _ Estados Unidos
Antoine Schmitt _ Time Slip _ França
Audrei Carvalho _ E-poetamentos (tradução intersemiótica de poemas de Augusto de Campos) _ Brasil
Bárbara de Azevedo _ O oculto do planeta azul_ Brasil
Bárbara de Azevedo _ Substância _ Brasil
blackhole-factory e David Bickerstaff _ SONG _ Alemanha e Reino Unido
Brian Maniere _ Sandbox Project _ Estados Unidos
Brit Bunkley _ Floral _ Nova Zelândia
calin man _ _ Romênia
Carlindo da Conceição Barbosa, Guilerme Tetsuo Takei, Kauê de Oliveira Souza, Renato Michalischen, Ricardo Rodrigues Martins, Tássia Deusdará Manso e Thalyta de Almeida Barbosa _ Stickerlog - um registro da história, produção e disseminação dos stickers _ Brasil
carlo sansolo _ art conquest _ Brasil
Carlos Praude _ stratus _ Brasil
Carolien Hermans _ BODY IN BITS AND PIECES _ Holanda
casadalapa (Julio Dojscar, Pedro Noizyman e Newber) _ Bem me quer, mal me quer _ Brasil
Céline TROUILLET _ SONG N°7 _ França
Céline TROUILLET _ SONG N°8 _ França
Céline TROUILLET _ SONG N°10 _ França
Claudia Sandoval _ Living Cemetery _ Brasil
cristine de bem e canto _ cartão postal _ Brasil
cyriaco lopes _ CORRESPONDENCES _ Estados Unidos
DANIEL HANAI _ KINDER PROJEKT _ Brasil
David Muth _ Counterclockwise _ Reino Unido
David Muth _ Up And Down _ Reino Unido
Denise Agassi e Nacho Durán _ Virtual Velázquez _ Brasil
Eric Schockmel _ Syscapes # Interlude _ Luxemburgo
Fernando Velázquez, Bruno Favaretto, Francisco Lapetina _ Your life, our movie _ Brasil/Uruguai
Gabriela Canale Miola e Guilherme Baracat _ ANEMIC CINEMA, MESMO _ Brasil
Ger Ger _ Luxor 22.145 _ Alemanha
Ger Ger _ Black Balloons _ Alemanha
Ger Ger _ What the Fuck _ Alemanha
grégoire zabé _ sharedscapes - points of view on landscapes _ França
Hugo Solís _ Ojos Te Vean _ Estados Unidos
Intermedia Writing Systems: Matthew Butler e Aaron Sachs _ A Box Full of Angels _ Estados Unidos
Jorn Ebner _ (»Feuerland«) _ Alemanha
José Luis de Vicente, Irma Vilà e Bestiario _ The Atlas of Electromagnetic Space _ Espanha
Julian Konczak _ J9 _ Reino Unido
Karel Doing _ Antipode136 _ Holanda
Karla Muner e Claudio Bitencourt _ Saudade _ Brasil
lemeh42 _ Illusion for movements _ Itália
Mateus Knelsen, Felipe Szulc, Ana Claudia Pátria, Mileine Assai Ishii, Renata Nogueira de Martinez, Tânia Taura, Pamela Cardoso _ Prismática: a narratividade no Cinema e na Hipermídia em uma releitura do filme 21 Gramas _ Brasil
Michael Takeo Magruder _ Reflection (hope and reconciliation) _ Reino Unido
Michael Takeo Magruder _ Last Days…_ Reino Unido
Miguel Leal e Luís Armento _ Clouds of Clouds _ Portugal
Miriam Duarte Teixeira _ Passagens _ Brasil
miska _ windtracing _ Finlândia
miska _ kiasma cafe north _ Finlândia
miska _ longlapses: mannerheimintie south _ Finlândia
nano _ Face Invader _ Estados Unidos
Nick Briz _ an-uh-mit data _ Estados Unidos
olaconmuchospeces _ Cajas _ Argentina
osvaldo cibils _ caracolaplysia _ Itália
Pedro Talarico Lacerda e grupo Akronon (Silvio Ferraz, Rogério Costa e Edson Ezequiel) _ Espaços _ Brasil
Perry Bard _ Man With A Movie Camera:The Global Remake _ Estados Unidos
Peter Horvath _ Boulevard _ Canadá
rachelmauricio castro _ leleXZoom _ Brasil
rachelmauricio castro _ Xx**xX _ Brasil
rachelmauricio castro _ ¬¬ 7 ¬¬ _ Brasil
Regina Pinto _ Café com Pão _ Brasil
Richard O'Sullivan _ Fragments of the Los Angeles River _ Reino Unido
Richard O'Sullivan _ Femdale, Western Canyon, Los Angeles _ Reino Unido
Richard O'Sullivan _ Palimpsest _ Reino Unido
Richard O'Sullivan _ The Other Image _ Reino Unido
Richard O'Sullivan _ Transit _ Reino Unido
Richard O'Sullivan _ Present Tense _ Reino Unido
Roderick Coover _ Unknown Territories _ Estados Unidos
Rodrigo Assis o, Daniel Pitorri e Karen Mota _ Construção e Desconstrução _ Brasil
Roni Ribeiro _ Apólogo _ Brasil
Same _ "The Way North" _ Estados Unidos
simon welch _ Final Call _ França
simon welch _ Tam Tam _ França
simon welch _ Flotsum _ França
Stefan Linecker _ nettime _ Áustria
Stuart Pound _ Speech _ Reino Unido
Stuart Pound _ The crying of the forest _ Reino Unido
Stuart Pound _ Retro disk chunter _ Reino Unido
susanne berkenheger _ movement-for-account-corpses.de _ Alemanha
Vanessa Louzon _ Ordinary Show _ Reino Unido
Yara Rondon Guasque Araujo, Fabian Antunes Silva, Silvia Guadagnini e Hermes Renato Hildebrand _ Visualização do Manguezal Ratones _ Brasil
Zach Blas _ Queer Technologies _ Estados Unidos
GAME
Andrei Thomaz _ Labirintos Invisíveis _ Brasil
Cavalo Voador - Fabrício Fava, JJ Marreiro e Daniel Valente _ Pranayama _ Brasil
Chris Basmajian _ Attention Hog _ Estados Unidos
Daniel Ferreira _ Nibballs _ Brasil
Fernando Chamis _ Surfínia _ Brasil
Josh Fishburn _ Survive/Progress _ Estados Unidos
Personal Cinema & the Erasers _ Folded in _ Grécia
Picolargo Software _ Guerra no Sertão _ Brasil
INOVAÇÃO
C.E.S.A.R _ Centro de Estudos e Sistemas Avançados do Recife _ Brasil
Cietec _ Centro Incubador de Empresas Tecnológicas _ Brasil
FINEP _ Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos _ Brasil
INATEL _ Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicações _ Brasil
SENAI _ Inovação tecnológica _ Brasil
HIPERSÔNICA PERFORMANCE
*spark _ rbn_esc____av _ Reino Unido
Author & Punisher _ Dub Machines (nextGen of Drone Machines) _ Estados Unidos
blackhole-factory / Elke Utermoehlen and Martin Slawig _ RESTMETALL _ Alemanha
D-Fuse / Michael Faulkner, Matthias Kispert _ Particle _ Reino Unido
Het vleesgeworden videowoord (The videoword made flesh): Albert van Abbe, Roel Dijcks, Wim-Jan Smits, Ties van de Ven _ A/V Scaping series _ Holanda
Mesa de Luz. Integrantes: Hieronimus do Vale, Marta Mencarini e Tomás Sefenin _ Mesa de Luz: Cotidiano _ Brasil
Playboy's Bend _ The playboy's Bend show _ Bélgica
Sadmb _ Cubie _ Japão
Tetsu Kondo _ Dendraw _ Japão
Vj Motomichi _ "No Rules, No Boundaries" Motomichi Nakamura's live video mixing _ Estados Unidos
Yroyto _ EILE _ França
Marcel•lí Antúnez Roca _ Protomembrana _ Espanha
Emotic _ RAW _ Espanha
HIPERÔNICA SCREENING
ATZ119 - Laurent Antonczak, Patricia Burgetsmaier, James Hayday _ Hamster Squaredance _ Nova Zelândia
Bret Battey _ Sinus Aestum _ Reino Unido
David Sullivan _ sunset refinery _ Estados Unidos
Jen-Kuang Chang _ OM _ Estados Unidos
Jen-Kuang Chang _ Drishti III _ Estados Unidos
Joao Vasco Paiva _ wide rothko _ Hong Kong
Marcela Pavia & LeoNilde Varabba _ Dancing around the One _ Itália
Max Jacob _ Risonanze _ Itália
Michal Levy _ One _ Estados Unidos
Nigel Power _ Becoming: Sao Paulo _ Tailândia
Sebastian Blank _ A Dialogue between Art and Society I-III _ Alemanha
soundsthatmatter _ illzeno _ Brasil
soundsthatmatter _ cKtroos _ Brasil
soundsthatmatter _ bismust-jet _ Brasil
Tammy Renee Brackett _ teXt _ Estados Unidos
Telcosystems: Lucas van der Velden | Gideon Kiers | David Kiers _ Semaphore _ Holanda
Timothy Weaver _ Biological Narrative #9: manuMindo _ Estados Unidos
VJ ELetro-I-Man _ Proyecto Representa Corisco _ Espanha
zabara _ Elm _ Rússia
HIPERSÔNICA PARTICIPANTES
Agricola de Cologne _ SoundLAB VI - soundPOOL _ Alemanha
Anaracecar _ Essential Slime _ Estados Unidos
Brian Maniere _ Sleepless _ Estados Unidos
CONCÍLIO - DANIEL GAZANA _ CONCÍLIO _ Brasil
Jen-Kuang Chang _ Karma _ Estados Unidos
Kunkuni Mix Project: Rosa Apablaza & Federico Duret _ Busco trabajo urgente _ Holanda
Melanie Menard _ Mathematically Generated Seascape _ Reino Unido
Panayiotis KOKORAS _ Waltz at the edge of Lorros _ Grécia
Ricardo Dal Farra _ Memorias _ Canadá
Ricardo Dal Farra _ On the Liquid Edge _ Canadá
Rune Søchting _ Sound performance _ Dinamarca
Scant Intone _ Scant Intone _ Canadá
SIMPLE.NORMAL _ Imagenabilis _ Brasil
Tablet Visual Music _ Tablet Visual Music _ Brasil
Tetsu Kondo _ Dendraw _ Japão
Victor Valentim _ Semisfera - Para Sons Eletroacústicos _ Brasil
zabara _ Elm _ Rússia
CINEMA DOCUMENTA
Cadu Porto Oliveira _ CONECTION _ Brasil
Dominic Gagnon _ RIP IN PIECES AMERICA _ Canadá
Hans Fjellestad _ MOOG _ Estados Unidos
Joe Hiscott _ THE TELEPHONE EULOGIES _ Canadá
Joesér Alvarez & Coletivo Madeirista _ INVENTÁRIO DAS SOMBRAS _ Brasil
Laurent Lemonnier _ MONGOLIA EXPEDISOUND _ França / Mongólia
Mike Mills _ AIR: EATING SLEEPING WAITING AND PLAYING _ Estados Unidos
Reynald Weidenaar _ MAGIC MUSIC FROM TELHARMONIUM _ Estados Unidos
Scott Hessels _ NINE LIVES _ Singapura
Simon Power _ TECHNOMANIA _ Reino Unido
MAQUINEMA
"Land of Illusion" in Second Life: Lily & Honglei _ Land of Illusion _ Estados Unidos
J. Joshua Diltz _ Mercy of the Sea _ Estados Unidos
Pineapple Pictures: Kate Fosk and Michael R. Joyce _ Revenge _ Estados Unidos e Reino Unido
Lainy Voom _ GIW (from The Path) _ Reino Unido
Lainy Voom _ The Dumb Man _ Reino Unido
Nebulosus Severine _ Spiral Walcher _ Estados Unidos
Piotr Kopik _ Psychosomatic Rebuilders Animation #000 _ Polônia
Tony Bannan _ Dark Previz _ Austrália
Following, a text, in english, from Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia:
Foro Romano
Roma, Largo della Salara Vecchia 5/6
The valley of Foro, nestled between the seven hills of Rome, was in ancient times a marsh. From the end of the seventh century B.C., after the improvement and drainage of the marshes, the Foro Romano (a forum) was constructed and this served as the centre of public life in Rome for over a thousand years. Over the course of the centuries, the various monuments were constructed: firstly, those structures which served political, religious and economic purposes and, later, during the second century B.C., the civil buildings or ‘basilicas’, which functioned as juridical centres. At the end of the Republic era of Ancient Rome, the Foro Romano was inadequate in its functioning as a civil and administrative centre. The various Emperors and their dynasties added only monuments of prestige: The Temple of Vespasian and Titus and that of Antoninus Pio and Faustina dedicated to the memory of the Divine Emperors, the monumental arch of Settimo Severo, built on the extreme west of the square in 203 A.D. to celebrate his military victories. The last great addition was made in the first years of the fourth century A.D. under the Emperor Massenzio, a temple dedicated to the memory of his son Romulus. The imposing Basilica on the Velia was restructured at the end of the fourth century A.D. and the last monument to be erected in the Foro was the Column of 608 A.D. in honour of the Byzantine Emperor Foca.
Copyright © 2003-2007 Pierreci
The Roman Forum, Forum Romanum, (although the Romans called it more often the Forum Magnum or just the Forum) was the central area around which ancient Rome developed, in which commerce and the administration of justice took place. The communal hearth was also located here. It was built on the site of a past cemetery.
Sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the surrounding hills was already raising the level of the forum in early Republican times. Originally it had been marshy ground, which was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima. Its final travertine paving, still visible, dates from the reign of Augustus.
Structures within the Forum
The ruins within the forum clearly show how urban spaces were utilized during the Roman Age. The Roman Forum includes a modern statue of Julius Caesar and the following major monuments, buildings, and ancient ruins:
Temples
Temple of Castor and Pollux
Temple of Saturn
Temple of Vesta
Temple of Venus and Roma
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Temple of Caesar
Temple of Vespasian and Titus
Temple of Concord
Shrine of Venus Cloacina
Basilicas
Basilica Aemilia
Basilica Julia
Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine
Arches
Arch of Septimius Severus
Arch of Titus
Arch of Tiberius
Arch of Augustus
Temple of Saturn
Temple of Castor and Pollux
Temple of Vesta
Temple of Venus and Roma
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Temple of Concord
Campo Vaccino, by Claude Lorrain
The Roman Forum
Other structures
Regia, originally the residence of the kings of Rome or at least their main headquarters, and later the office of the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Roman religion.
Rostra, from where politicians made their speeches to the Roman citizens
Curia Hostilia (later rebuilt as the Curia Julia), the site of the Roman Senate
Tabularium
Gemonian stairs
Clivus Capitolinus was the street that started at the Arch of Tiberius, wound around the Temple of Saturn, and ended at Capitoline Hill.
Umbilicus Urbi, the designated centre of the city from which and to which all distances in Rome and the Roman Empire were measured
Milliarium Aureum
Lapis Niger, a shrine also known as the Black Stone
Atrium Vestae, the house of the Vestal Virgins
A processional street, the Via Sacra, linked the Atrium Vetae with the Colosseum. By the end of the Empire, it had lost its everyday use but remained a sacred place.
Column of Phocas, the last monument built within the Forum
Tullianum, the prison used to hold various foreign leaders and generals.
Excavation and preservation
An anonymous 8th century traveler from Einsiedeln (now in Switzerland) reported that the Forum was already falling apart in his time. During the Middle Ages, though the memory of the Forum Romanum persisted, its monuments were for the most part buried under debris, and its location was designated the "Campo Vaccino" or "cattle field," located between the Capitoline Hill and the Colosseum. The return of Pope Urban V from Avignon in 1367 led to an increased interest in ancient monuments, partly for their moral lesson and partly as a quarry for new buildings being undertaken in Rome after a long lapse. Artists from the late 15th century drew the ruins in the Forum, antiquaries copied inscriptions in the 16th century, and a tentative excavation was begun in the late 18th century.
A cardinal took measures to drain it again and built the Alessandrine neighborhood over it. But the excavation by Carlo Fea, who began clearing the debris from the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1803, and archaeologists under the Napoleonic regime marked the beginning of clearing the Forum, which was only fully excavated in the early 20th century.
Remains from several centuries are shown together, due to the Roman practice of building over earlier ruins.
Other forums in Rome
Other fora existed in other areas of the city; remains of most of them, sometimes substantial, still exist. The most important of these are a number of large imperial fora forming a complex with the Forum Romanum: the Forum Iulium, Forum Augustum, the Forum Transitorium (also: Forum Nervae), and Trajan's Forum. The planners of the Mussolini era removed most of the Medieval and Baroque strata and built the Via dei Fori Imperiali road between the Imperial Fora and the Forum. There is also:
The Forum Boarium, dedicated to the commerce of cattle, between the Palatine Hill and the river Tiber,
The Forum Holitorium, dedicated to the commerce of herbs and vegetables, between the Capitoline Hill and the Servian walls,
The Forum Piscarium, dedicated to the commerce of fish, between the Capitoline hill and the Tiber, in the area of the current Roman Ghetto,
The Forum Suarium, dedicated to the commerce of pork, near the barracks of the cohortes urbanae in the northern part of the campus Martius,
The Forum Vinarium, dedicated to the commerce of wine, in the area now of the "quartiere" Testaccio, between Aventine Hill and the Tiber.
Other markets were known but remain unidentifiable due to a lack of precise information on the function of the sites. Among these, the Forum cuppedinis, was known as a general market for many goods.
Fórum Romano.
O principal fórum da Roma antiga.
O Fórum Romano ( latim : Forum Romanum, italiano : Foro Romano) é um pequeno retângulo aberto rodeado pelas ruínas de antigos edifícios do governo no centro da cidade de Roma . Os cidadãos da cidade antiga referência a este mercado como a Magnum Fórum, ou simplesmente o Fórum . Foi durante séculos o centro da vida pública romana: o local de procissões triunfais e as eleições, palco para discursos públicos e núcleo de assuntos comerciais. Aqui estátuas e monumentos comemorou os grandes homens da cidade. O coração cheio de Roma antiga , foi chamado o local de encontro mais célebre do mundo, e em toda a história. [1] Localizado no pequeno vale entre o Palatino e Capitolino Hills , hoje o Fórum é um imenso arruinar de fragmentos de arquitetura intermitente e escavações arqueológicas atrair turistas numerosos.
Muitas das estruturas mais antigas e importantes da cidade antiga foram localizadas sobre ou próximo ao Fórum. O Reino de primeiros santuários e templos foram localizados na borda sudeste. Estes incluíram a sua antiga residência real antiga, a Regia ( século 8 aC ), bem como os arredores do complexo virgens vestais , as quais foram reconstruídas depois da ascensão de Roma imperial . Outros santuários arcaico para o noroeste desenvolvido na República formal Comitium , onde o Senado - bem como do governo republicano em si - começou. A Casa do Senado, repartições públicas, tribunais, templos, monumentos e estátuas gradualmente a área desordenado. Com o tempo a Comitium arcaica foi substituída pelo Fórum maiores eo foco da atividade judicial movida para a nova Basílica Emília (179 aC). Cerca de 130 anos depois, Júlio César construiu a basílica Julia , juntamente com a nova Cúria Júlia , a recentragem ambos os cargos judiciais e do próprio Senado. O Fórum serviu então como uma praça revitalizada em que o povo de Roma pudesse se reunir para comercial, político, judicial e religioso buscas em um número cada vez maior.
Eventualmente negócio muito económico e judicial seria a transferência de distância do Fórum de estruturas maiores e mais extravagantes para o norte. Após a construção do Fórum de Trajano (110 dC), essas atividades transferidas para o Ulpia Basílica . O reinado de Constantino, o Grande viu a divisão do império em suas metades oriental e ocidental, bem como a construção da Basílica de Maxêncio (312 dC), as principais última expansão do complexo do Fórum. Este devolveu o centro político do Fórum, até a queda do Império Romano do Ocidente quase dois séculos mais tarde.
Descrição
A plateia grego antigo (πλατεία), uma praça pública ou praça da cidade , foi o modelo utilizado como base para o fórum romano. No período Imperial os edifícios públicos de grande porte que se aglomeraram ao redor da praça central havia reduzido a área aberta a um retângulo de aproximadamente 130 por 50 metros, a sua dimensão de longo foi orientado de noroeste para sudeste e estendia desde o sopé da colina do Capitólio ao do Hill Velian . O Fórum bom incluídos nesta praça, os prédios de frente para ele e, às vezes, uma área adicional (o Adjectum Forum ) que prorroga a sudeste até o Arco de Tito . [2] O Fórum basílicas , embora originalmente concebido como escritórios do governo, foram as bases dos primeiros elaborados cristã igrejas. A arquitetura dos templos e edifícios judiciais do fórum romano pode ser visto copiado em muitas das estruturas atuais do governo moderno que ainda estão organizadas em torno de um espaço público central.
Originalmente, o site do Fórum foi pantanoso terreno, que foi drenada por Tarquínio com a Cloaca Máxima . Devido à sua localização, nos sedimentos de ambas as inundações do Rio Tibre ea erosão das colinas circundantes foram o aumento do nível do piso do Fórum durante séculos. Escavada seqüências de remanescentes de pavimento mostram que o sedimento corroído das colinas circundantes já levantava o nível no início republicano vezes. Como o chão em torno dos edifícios começou a subir, os moradores simplesmente abriu sobre os escombros que foi demais para remover. Seu final de travertino pavimentação, ainda visível, as datas do reinado de Augusto . As escavações no século 19 revelou uma camada em cima da outra. O nível mais profundo escavado foi de 3,60 metros acima do nível do mar. Achados arqueológicos mostram a atividade humana a esse nível com a descoberta de madeira carbonizada.
Uma importante função do Fórum, durante os dois republicanos e os tempos imperiais, era o de servir como local para os militares que culminou desfiles comemorativos conhecidos como Triunfos . generais vitoriosos entrou na cidade pelo oeste do Triunfo Gate ( Porta Triumphalis ) e circum o Palatino (esquerda) antes de prosseguir a partir do monte Velian abaixo da Via Sacra e no Fórum. A partir daí eles montar o Rise Capitolino ( Clivus Capitolinus ) até o Templo de Júpiter Optimus Maximus na cúpula do Capitólio. Pródiga banquetes públicos seguiu para baixo sobre o Fórum.
A área do Fórum foi originalmente uma gramínea pantanal . Ele foi drenado no século 7 aC, com a construção da Cloaca Maxima , um sistema de esgotos cobertos de grandes dimensões que desaguava no rio Tibre , quanto mais pessoas começaram a se estabelecer entre os dois morros.
Segundo a tradição, o começo do Fórum estão relacionadas com a aliança entre Rômulo , primeiro rei de Roma controlar o Monte Palatino , e seu rival, Tito Tácio , que ocupou a colina do Capitólio . Assim, uma aliança formada após o combate havia sido interrompida pelas orações e gritos de Sabine mulheres. Como o vale estava entre os dois assentamentos, foi o local designado para os dois povos se conhecerem. Como a área do Fórum adiantados incluíram poças de água estagnada, a área mais acessível foi a parte norte do vale, que foi designado como o Comitium . Foi aqui que, de acordo com a história, as duas partes depuseram as armas e formaram uma aliança. [4]
O fórum foi fora das muralhas da fortaleza original Sabine, que foi inserido através da Porta Saturni. Estas paredes foram destruídas na maior parte, quando os dois morros foram apensados. [5] O Fórum original começou como um mercado ao ar livre perto da Comitium, mas ampliou sua dia-a-dia de compras e as necessidades do mercado. Como a política, questões judiciais e julgamentos começaram a assumir cada vez mais espaço, fóruns por toda a cidade começou a surgir a expandir as necessidades específicas da população em crescimento. Fora de gado, porco, legumes e vinho especializada em produtos de seu nicho e as divindades associadas ao seu redor.
O segundo rei, Numa Pompilius , é dito ter começado o culto de Vesta, construção de sua casa e no templo, bem como a Regia como a primeira cidade real do palácio. Mais tarde Tullus Hostilius fechado Comitium ao redor do templo etrusco antigo, onde o senado se reunir no local do conflito Sabine. Ele disse ter convertido o templo ao Hostilia Curia perto de onde o Senado se conheceram em uma velha cabana etrusca. Em 600 aC, Tarquínio Prisco teve a área pavimentada, pela primeira vez.
Durante o período republicano Comitium continuou a ser o local central para todos e vida política judiciária, na cidade de Roma. [6] No entanto, a fim de criar um espaço, bem como local de reunião maior, o Senado começou a expandir tanto o Fórum e Comitium através da compra de casas particulares existentes e removê-los para uso público. construção de projetos de vários cônsules e imperadores repaved e construída em ambos os Comitium e do Fórum. [7]
O século V aC viu a construção do Templo de Castor e Pólux . O templo de Concord foi introduzido no século IV aC, possivelmente por Marcus Furius Camillus. A Basílica Emília é uma estrutura republicana, mas teve vários nomes após a sua dedicação inicial em 179 aC. Muitas das tradições do Comitium tais como assembléias populares, os funerais da nobreza e os jogos foram transferidos para o Fórum. [8] Caio Graco é creditado com (ou acusados de) perturbar mos maiorum ("costume dos pais / ancestrais" ) na antiga Roma. Um realizada longa tradição de falar nos alto-falantes elevados " Rostra frente para o norte em direção à Casa do Senado para os políticos ea elite montada colocar de volta o orador para o povo reunido no Fórum Romano atrás do Comitium. A tribuna conhecido como Caio Licínio foi o primeiro a afastar-se da elite romana para as pessoas no Forum, um ato repetido posteriormente por Gracchus. [9] Isso começou a tradição de popularis locus, onde, ainda jovens nobres eram esperados para falar da Rostra.
Em 78 aC, o tabularium (Registros Hall) foi construído no final Capitólio do Fórum, por despacho dos cônsules para o ano, M. Emílio Lépido e Q. Lutatius Catulus . Com o tempo a Comitium foi perdida para o crescimento Cúria sempre e Júlio César s rearranjos "antes de seu assassinato em 44 aC. Naquele ano, dois dramáticos eventos extremamente foram testemunhados pelo Fórum, talvez o mais famoso de sempre a acontecer lá: Marc Antony é oração fúnebre de César (imortalizada em Shakespeare é famosa peça ) foi entregue a partir parcialmente falante concluída a plataforma conhecida como a Nova Rostra ea queima pública de corpo de César ocorreu em um local em frente ao Rostra torno do qual o Templo para o César Deificado foi posteriormente construída por grandes Octavius sobrinho dele (Augusto). [10] Quase dois anos depois, Marc Antony adicionado a notoriedade da Rostra por exibir publicamente a cabeça cortada e mão direita de seu inimigo de Cícero lá.
A estreita relação entre a Comitium eo Fórum Romano eventualmente sumiu a partir dos escritos dos antigos. O primeiro é o último mencionado no reinado de Sétimo Severo .
Após a morte de Júlio César, e no final do subsequente Guerra Civil , Augusto terminou grande tio, seu trabalho no Fórum. Ele teria declarado "Achei Roma, uma cidade de tijolos e deixou uma cidade de mármore". O que é verdade é que ele continuou a construção de projetos de seu antecessor e começou a muitos de seus próprios diretamente no Fórum. Durante primeiros tempos imperiais, no entanto, os negócios económicos e judiciais transferidos muito longe do Fórum de estruturas maiores e mais extravagantes para o norte. Após a construção do Fórum de Trajano (110 dC), essas atividades transferidas para o Ulpia Basílica .
O reinado de Constantino, o Grande viu a divisão do império em suas metades oriental e ocidental, bem como a construção da Basílica de Maxêncio (312 dC), as principais última expansão do complexo do Fórum. Este devolveu o centro político do Fórum, até a queda do Império Romano do Ocidente quase dois séculos mais tarde.
No século 5 a velhos edifícios no âmbito do Fórum começaram a ser transformados em igrejas cristãs. Por volta do século 8, todo o espaço foi cercado por igrejas cristãs tomando o lugar das ruínas e templos abandonados. [11]
Um viajante do século 8 anônimas de Einsiedeln (agora na Suíça) informou que o Fórum já caía aos pedaços em seu tempo. Durante a Idade Média, embora a memória do Fórum Romano persistisse, seus monumentos foram em sua maioria enterrados embaixo do entulho, e sua localização foi designado "Campo Vaccino" ou "campo de gado", localizado entre o Capitólio eo Coliseu .
Após o século 8 as estruturas do Fórum foram desmontadas, re-arranjadas e usado para construir torres e castelos feudais dentro da área local. No século 13 dessas estruturas reorganizadas foram derrubadas eo local se tornou uma lixeira. Isto, junto com os restos da construção medieval desmontado e estruturas antigas, ajudou a contribuir para o aumento do nível do solo. [12]
O retorno do Papa Urbano V de Avinhão em 1367 levou a um interesse crescente em monumentos antigos, em parte para sua lição moral e em parte como uma pedreira para os edifícios novos que estão sendo empreendidos em Roma depois de um longo lapso.
Artistas do final do século 15 atraiu as ruínas do Fórum, os antiquários copiaram inscrições no século 16, e uma tentativa de escavação teve início no final do século 18.
Um cardeal tomou medidas para drená-lo novamente e construiu a vizinhaça Alessandrina sobre ele. Mas a escavação por Carlo Fea , que começou a limpar o entulho do Arco de Septímio Severo em 1803, e arqueólogos sob o regime napoleônico marcaram o início do clareamento do Fórum, que só foi totalmente escavado no início do século 20.
Restos de vários séculos são mostrados em conjunto, devido à prática romana de construir sobre ruínas anteriores.
Hoje, as escavações arqueológicas continuam, juntamente com a restauração e preservação permanente. Por muito tempo um dos principais destinos turísticos na cidade, o Fórum está aberto para tráfego de pedestres ao longo das ruas da Roma antiga que são restauradas para o nível Imperial tarde. O Museu do Forum (Antiquarium Forense) é encontrado no final Coliseu de uma estrada moderna, a Via dei Fori Imperiali . Este pequeno museu tem uma importante colecção de esculturas e fragmentos arquitetônicos. Há também reconstruções do Fórum e nas proximidades Imperial Fora, bem como um pequeno vídeo em vários idiomas. Ele é realizado a partir do Fórum ao lado de Santa Francesca Romana (n º 53 Piazza S. Maria Nova) e está aberto das 08:30 h às uma hora antes do anoitecer. A entrada é gratuita.
Em 2008, as fortes chuvas causaram danos estruturais da cobertura de concreto segurando o moderno "Black Stone" de mármore em conjunto durante os Vulcanal .
Muitos dos templos do Fórum de data para os períodos do Reino e da República, embora a maioria foi destruída e reconstruída várias vezes. As ruínas no âmbito do Fórum mostram claramente como os espaços urbanos foram utilizados durante a época romana. O Fórum inclui actualmente uma estátua moderna de Júlio César e os principais monumentos seguintes, prédios antigos e ruínas :
Templos
Esta seção requer expansão .
Templo Data construída Construtor Localização dentro do Fórum
Templo de Castor e Pollux 494 aC Aulus Postumius Albino Lado sul, leste da Basílica Júlia
Templo de Saturno 501 aC Tarquínio Superbus Lado sul, a oeste da Basílica Júlia
Templo de Vesta 7 º século aC Numa Pompilius Canto sudeste, junto ao Templo de Castor e Pollux
Templo de Vênus e Roma 135 Adriano Late expansão fórum Imperial para a mais distante da Regia , em frente ao Coliseu
Templo de Antonino e Faustina 141 Antonino Pio Lado norte, a leste da Basílica Emília
Templo de César 29 aC Augustus Lado Leste, a oeste da Regia
Templo de Vespasiano e Tito 79 Tito e Domiciano West borda abaixo do tabularium Sul do Templo da Concórdia e no norte do Dii Portico Consentes
Templo de Rômulo 309 Maxêncio
Santuário de Vênus Cloacina
Templo de Rômulo Divus 309 Maxêncio
Basílicas
Basílica Emília
Basílica Júlia
Basílica de Maxêncio e Constantino
Arcos
Arco de Septímio Severo
Arco de Tito
edifícios públicos ou residências oficiais
Regia , originalmente a residência dos reis de Roma ou, pelo menos, a sua sede principal, e mais tarde do escritório do Pontifex Maximus, o sumo sacerdote da religião romana.
Cúria Júlia (mais tarde reconstrução por Diocleciano ), o site do Senado romano .
Tabularium , o escritório de registros de Roma.
Portico Dii Consentes
Atrium Vestae , a casa das virgens vestais.
Tullianum , a prisão usado para prender vários líderes estrangeiros e de generais.
monumentos menores
Rostra , de onde os políticos discursavam aos cidadãos romanos.
Urbi umbigo , o centro da cidade designados a partir da qual e para o qual todas as distâncias em Roma e no Império Romano foram medidos.
Milliarium Aureum Depois de Augustus erguido este monumento, todas as estradas foram consideradas para começar aqui e todas as distâncias no Império Romano foram medidos em relação a esse ponto.
Coluna de Focas , o último monumento construído dentro do Fórum.
Lapis Niger ("Pedra Negra"), um antigo santuário, que foi muito obscura, mesmo para os romanos.
Piscinas, molas
O Lacus Curtius , o site de uma piscina misteriosa venerado pelos romanos, mesmo depois de terem esquecido o que significava.
O Iuturnae Lacus ("Primavera de Juturna"), uma piscina de cura, onde Castor e Pólux foram disse ter regado os seus cavalos
Estradas, ruas, escadarias
Gemonian stairssteps situado na parte central de Roma, líder da Arx do Capitólio até o Fórum Romano.
Clivus Capitolinus era a rua que começou no Arco de Tibério, enrolado em torno do Templo de Saturno, e terminou no Capitólio.
Via Sacra , a famosa procissão de rua de Roman triunfos ; ligados a Vestae Atrium com o Coliseu .
Vanished (ou quase desapareceu) estruturas
Arco de Augusto
Arco de Fabius
Arco de Tibério
Basílica Fulvia
Basílica Opimia
Basílica Porcia
Basílica Sempronia
Golden House of Nero (Domus Aurea)
Instituto dos escribas e Arautos do Aediles
Santuário de Faustina, o Jovem
Santuário de Vulcano (Vulcanal)
Estátua de Navius Attus
Estátua de Constantino, o Grande
Estátua de Domiciano
Estátua de Tremulus
Estátua de Vertumno
Templo de Augusto
Templo de Baco
Templo da Concórdia
Templo de Janus
Tribunal do Marco Aurélio
Tribunal da Cidade do Pretor (Praetor Urbanus)
Tribunal do Pretor para Estrangeiros (Praetor Peregrinus)
Bem-chefe de Libo (Puteal Libonus ou Scribonianum)
Estátuas de vários outros deuses e os homens
So Herr Windgasse, ich habe die Blümchen im letzten Jahr nicht vergessen.
Ich wünsche Dir phantastische Abenteuer voller magischer Momente! (hexhex) :-)
MODERN TIMES! COMMUNICATION.
From a very young age you see children with mobile phones, nowadays.
I personally think that it is still a very expensive must have 'gadget'? How did we all ever survive without it????????
Anyway, here, this girl was only playing with her mum's phone, pretending, it was great fun!
Please view the series? View On Black
thanx for your time and comments, greatly appreciated, M, (*_*)
Please do not use any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
Why not view the set as a slide-show?
Also I often upload more than one image at the same time, I see a tendency to only view the last uploaded...
Loopy soulrelics font I thought I'd chuck up here. I went in with a brazilian vibe.
Holding alot of the work we have been producing lately back for various reasons. so thats why there hasnt been a great deal up.
Supa Pewee Kids B-Pop Mason Valentine Comic Story Cartoon Book Pages CD Coloring Japanimation Asian Art Form Text Symbol History Manhua Chinese Art Artist Graph Animation Movie Action Graphic Cartoons Characters Novel Poetry Anime Manga Music Day Supa Oshikko Kizzu Kodomo Kawaii Cute Love Chibi Pee Wee Pastel Colors Hair Decal Skateboard Sticker Valentines Day Card Candy Gift Flower Child Comic Story Cartoon Book Pages CD Coloring Japanimation Asian Art Form Text Symbol History Martian Chinese Art Artist Graph Animation Movie Action Graphic Christmas Tree Stocking Santa Clause Snow Holidays October Cartoons Characters Novel Poetry Artistry Magazine Music Day Villain Oceanic Kazoo Cool Key Cute Love Clothes Pee Wee Pastel Colors Hair Decal Skateboard Sticker Halloween Trick Treat Outfit Mask Character Custom Costume Ghost Ghoul Goblin Bats Toys Dress Party Bag Shoes Stop Pumpkin Pick Carve Clothing Pewee Kids B-Pop Mason Valentine Comic Story Cartoon Book Pages CD Coloring Sneakers Asian Art Form Text Symbol History Powers Chinese Art Artist Graph Animation Movie Action Graphic Cartoons Characters Novel Poetry Engine Manta Music Day Soupy Ocean Kiss Colombo Hawaii Cute Love Chilli Pee Wee Pastel Colors Hair Decal Skateboard Sticker Animals Bat Big Hero Doctor Firefly Frankenstein Dracula Frozen Lake Super Baseball Game Gate Big Sky Grand Prix Gum Ball Guardians How Metal Climb Solid Cliff Retro Toys Scrabble Flowers Sports Basketball Star Team Go Kart Princess Castle Crown Fortress Cart Transformers Monkey Evil Snake Despicable Horror Monsters Classic Film Smash Mouth Fangs Teeth Costume Vampire Movie Silver Hello Wacky Fold Gold Action Figures Collectibles Car Train Final Gears Ghost Graphic Mouse Novels God Rat Cheese Circle Bubble Bobble Zoo Friend Halo Shop Portal Ship Pirate Jewels Gem Terminator Crystal Lightning Weather Thunder Twilight Storm Dragon Sailor World Think Transformer Fighters Gear Head Doctor Mad Giant Horse Dark Engine Star Coral Monsters Me Who Arcade Video Game System Thrones Chair Teacher King Steve Fantasy Fandom Lil Moon Earth Planet Big Cup Cat Novelty Cape Claws Mug Master Mug Baby Think Seed Tank Moon Mars Ring Saga Fish Tank Bros. Pool Sea Bowl Craft Wrestling Fighters Dark Hollywood Collectibles Brother Hot Toys Mad Men Green Grass Yellow Old Engine Monogram Text Symbol Cold Bush Universe Horse Kitty Kitten Dress Shoe Party Halloween Christmas New Era Comic Cap Ripple Junction Museum Triad Replicas Sideshow Business Tee Tea Album Fashion Accessories Sneakers Shoes Record Movie Con T-Shirts Hats Triad Underground Toys Movie Monsters Wacky Doctor Collectibles Sword War Hunter Buster Race RC Amusement Park Ride Roller Coaster Me Like Rap Album Download Gadget Phone App Carnival Logo Art Paint By Number Herman Wayne Wiggle Select Coloring Book CD DVD Disc Car Plane Tracker Mono Resort Land Park Gram Logo Banner UFO Earth Lights Serenity Game System Joy Stick Star Player Vinyl Figures Play Arts Candy Bat Portrait Dark Ink Caricature Frame Head Aquarium Tin Bike Collectibles Canvas Balloon Worm Farm Ant Carnival Toy Gun Sugar Wet Boo Ghoul Who Wobbler Up Club Superhero Outfit Clothes Suit Cape Boots Cape Sticker Decal Film Cell Tattoo Chinese Girl Fashion Japanese Girl Dress Style Doll China Book Chinese Cartoon Story Japan Tokyo Picture Action Movie Martial Arts Television Toy Store Japanese Animation Comic Book Graphic Novel Animation Movie Film Music Digital Journeymen Novel Film Video Library Song Lyrics Rap Download Plush Doll Toy
While marginally less stupid than texting and driving , texting while walking on a busy street is not for the smartest cookies , I love Darwinism , some people are just too stupid to exist
What is a good text editor on Linux
If you would like to use this photo, be sure to place a proper attribution linking to xmodulo.com
Text in numbers: the number '28', in white on black 'P&O' style, on the street-side brickwork of a house.
A dashing arrangement in an elegant color scheme (white on black). 'P&O' was a variant of Art Deco, especially popular in seaside suburbs in Australia. Manly Council has an interesting Art Deco brochure, with good illustrations, to assist residents doing work on houses retain important style elements.
This mini-exhibition of type and text was inspired by the designer PennyCandy (Amy Peppler Adams)'s tutorial on typography; one of Amy's tips is to "Try to choose appropriate typefaces to convey your message. A great way to get in the habit is to observe type around you; it's everywhere!" I set out to see if this was so.
- See more at: en.blog.spoonflower.com/2016/03/design-a-day-spoonchallen...
[Text_The P+O number 28_Gordon_IMG_9438]
Day 267 [9-23-2016]
It is autumn! Yesterday I forgot to mention that it was the first day of autumn. Now my second favorite season has arrived! Winter is my favorite. Why do I love autumn? I will explain. Autumn is what I like to call, the season of mystery. The feeling that I get seeing all of the dead trees, the color orange filling the world, and the cold weather rushing in is one of mystery and thrill. I love it! This is my go to storytelling season. Every time I write a piece of fiction i write it taking place in the season of autumn. I have just always had a special connection to it. Anyway, today George stopped by and gave me a taste of freedom from my home which I can't thank him enough for. We got drinks at Starbucks, picked up Alex from work, and took some pictures at the reservoir that is so low that it is kind of scary. Hopefully we get some damn rain in this town soon. For what is to come, this weekend will either be a lot of fun or just another do nothing weekend. Lets hope for the fun.
I can't wait to see what the next day brings!
Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.
Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.
Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.
ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES
Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.
The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).
Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).
A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".
In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.
In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.
ICONOGRAPHY
Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.
Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.
The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.
COMMON ATTRIBUTES
Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.
Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.
VAHANAS
The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.
Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.
The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.
ASSOCIATIONS
OBSTACLES
Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."
Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.
BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)
Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".
AUM
Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:
(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).
Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.
FIRST CHAKRA
According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".
FAMILY AND CONSORTS
Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.
The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.
Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.
The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.
WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS
Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.
Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).
Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.
Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."
GANESH CHATURTI
An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.
TEMPLES
In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.
There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.
T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.
RISE TO PROMINENCE
FIRST APEARANCE
Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:
What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.
POSSIBLE INFLUENCES
Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:
In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.
Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."
One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.
A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.
First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).
VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE
The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .
Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".
Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.
PURANIC PERIOD
Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.
In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:
Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.
Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.
SCRIPTURES
Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.
The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.
R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.
BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM
Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.
Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.
Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.
Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.
Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.
The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
WIKIPEDIA
Texting refers to the sending of a typed message on a phone from a sender to a receiver. Texting is one of the most popular forms of communication today for its easy and quick message transmission.
(Image by Erin)
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.
I promised a stereopticon of the Union Pacific Cheyenne round house and this view is the reverse of my fake stereopticon card. I studied some old stereopticon view cards and found one to clean the images and titles from the old front and the text on the reverse for blank old stereo original. I made it from an old Abraham Lincoln card. The blanked card style mimics an original card pretty well. I took some of my own views sepia toned and reproduced them on these blanks as stereo cards to an Estes Park historic meeting to display. One fellow loved one of my built up stereo cards and wanted to buy it swearing it was real antique prize. I replied that it I was pretty sure it was fake having just knocked it out and gave it to him. I assembled it from layers of parts and used pins, sand paper and an Xacto to aged it. Scuffing them on a concrete floor does wonders too. I bet a microscope could detect pixels. This construction was done in Photoshop but I like it pretty well and the illustration shows how to cobble an "original" up from parts and layers then age it properly for the Antiques Roadshow.
Card text: Sherman, Wyoming.
The Union Pacific Transcontinental Railroad considers Sherman, Wyoming Territory their summit station. It is named to honor the great Military Savannah Campaign through Georgia, November 15 to December 21, 1864, commander Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. They have built a Henry Hobson Richardson designed monument to honor benefactors Oakes and Oliver Ames. The brothers are credited for connecting the nation by rail upon completion of the United States' great transcontinental railroad.
The whistle stop at Sherman in the 1869 was strewn with barrels between the rails and elsewhere. Barrels transported new rail spikes. All the grading is done and the ties and rails freshly laid. The view west shows several wooden buildings and the depot. Two men are on the platform next to the main line in front of the water tank down the line. The line was recently strung for the telegraphic route communications. The new station agent is seen on the dock. Station agents control reporting and controls the Sherman division railroad traffic. Each agent is also in charge of the railway express office.
William Henry Jackson shot this stereopticon viewing slide card for the USGS "United States Geological Survey" and the completion of the route. Collect the entire set for your family's entertaining and informative parlor viewing. Expand your world... Order other views and entire collections from the Detroit Photographic Co.