Comments on: The Blank Canvas ~ Joshua Tree, São Paulo, Vienna

By: Erich Redson

Erich Redson — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:04:16 +0000

haha nice! I learned it by watching you, love that ad.

Rio you ought to do a post on tagging in general, all opinions on the subject are welcome… one thing I would ad is that tags often are most prolific at abandoned buildings or places which are not well maintained, they are kind of like lichens on rocks or vines on an old shed… almost a natural reaction to decay. of course this isn’t always the case but that is part of tagging that i find interesting.

By: Río Kvisto

Río Kvisto — Wed, 16 May 2007 04:46:50 +0000

El Chavo, you bring up a really good point that I have been considering by really wasn't able to work into my piece. I appreciate large-scale murals and spray paint bombs, but I am not usually a fan of tagging. I think tagging is an adolescent reaction to -- with an adolescent understanding of -- the materialistic, pre-packaged, media saturated world we live in. It used to be that clothing was judged on its quality or character or innovation, and not on it's maker; the logo and label were kept on the inside. Now, the logo makes the clothes - the logo is the clothes, and everywhere we look, everywhere we go, there is a brand name or ad or logo trying to sell us something. And, in general, the more prominent and prolific the logo, the more prestige for the company. If these are our unspoken values, is it any wonder that many of our youngest citizens are emulating what they see, designing a logo that they can own, control, and reproduce, and then writing their names on anything they can get their hands on? They are just propagating a brand, designing a marketing plan before they've even developed a product. True, they often ignore or overlook the subtleties of things like property rights. And some of them might find a way to channel this into something more lucrative than just a hobby. At the same time, these kids could rightfully turn to the powerful groups that run this world and repeat the well-worn phrase from the old Partnership for a Drug Free America ads: "I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU." Because they did. Thanks for the ups, Kathy and frankiely. frankiely, you could cut and paste or use "Character Map" under System Tools, but I don't know of any easier ways to do it on IE in Windows.

By: Hadley

Hadley — Tue, 15 May 2007 20:32:30 +0000

Yeah, I saw that electronic billboard on Santa Monica and thought ‘I can’t wait to see somebody fuck those things up!’

By: frankiely

frankiely — Tue, 15 May 2007 19:44:25 +0000

Talking about intrusive ad space, I remember a couple of years ago when I lived in Koreatown and the MTA buses became live ads for film and tv shows. They used to have the ads on the side but all of a sudden the whole bus became the ad, even the passenger windows were covered up. You couldn’t see people in the bus anymore as if they’d been swallowed up.
I hope they stopped the practice of those cannibal ads.
Great great post sir Rio… Where do you find the accent for your i on the keyboard???

By: EL CHAVO!

EL CHAVO! — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:07:54 +0000

Though I don’t like all graffiti, I still consider it all as a method to reclaim stolen social space. Advertisements are just an accepted form of graffiti, and mostly a very boring one at that. If the voices that want to ban graf are serious, they should first get rid of all the corporate junk ads and then we can begin to contemplate the fate of graf. The rulers need to teach by example, no que no? Nothing less will do!
I agree with Kathy, this is a great post Río!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 15 May 2007 00:00:27 +0000

Great post!