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As you may have heard, or read in the papers before Christmas, one of Manchester's street artists Klutz (aka Jack Jones) has been sent down for six months for painting trains. He is just seventeen years old and has no previous criminal record. This sentence is far tougher than those often dished out to people who have killed people drunk driving.
It may seem an odd cause to take up, and you may think there are people in prison for much more worthy things than tagging, but nevertheless it is one more notch in the overall strategy of cleaning up the city so it can be sold to the highest bidder. The Manchester Evening News has been stirring things up too – they applied to the judge to get a minor's name and address printed in the 'public interest', scapegoating Klutz further.
This jailing and the media attention is all part of a wider crackdown in Manchester. In making an example of Klutz, they hope to deter other graffiti artists. Will the threat of massive sentences end up preventing people like you from painting you protests on, God forbid, a wall? Lets not let them wipe all the street culture in this place, just to make it look saleable to yuppies!
Want to know how you can sweat to show your support for Jack Jones and lodge your protest against the sentencing? Well…
For Starters...
One of the best ways is to write to Klutz himself, to help keep his spirits up while he's on the inside. He's asked us if you can do this by emailing him via RUDEKID@RUDEKID.ORG.UK Click this link. After reading please forward to your mates who might be interested.
Want To Do More?
Another way would be to get out there yourself. If you're a writer - get sweating writing up KLUTZ or FREE KLUTZ (or 3 KLUTZ as Jack suggests). It's probably not such a good idea to try and imitate Klutz's tag if you aren't a writer (poor copies of your tag are very depressing to see!) so we've made some stickers with his tag on that you can put up. (See link?) Also a stencil is on its way soon.
How Does Writing his Tag Help?
Apart from cheering Jack up, writing his tag up while he's locked away scuppers their ability to pick up Klutz for any more works without actually catching him in the act · if his tag goes up while he's obviously locked up there would be evidence that his tag has been used by other people. The cops strategy rests on the principle that taggers only use their own tag. If we produce precedents whereby anyone could be writing anybody's tag, it could help screw their future plans for us all.
He says his work is an art form, which is important to him and many others who share this view. It is unacceptable to reserve all avenues of expression for corporations with there millions, at the same time jailing those denied the opportunity to communicate their message because they aren't rich. There is no profit in making street art - it is created purely for the young and the appreciative.
Remember they're your streets!
Joe
rudekid@rudekid.org As you may have heard, or read in the papers before Christmas, one of Manchester's street artists Klutz (aka Jack Jones) has been sent down for six months for painting trains. He is just seventeen years old and has no previous criminal record. This sentence is far tougher than those often dished out to people who have killed people drunk driving.
It may seem an odd cause to take up, and you may think there are people in prison for much more worthy things than tagging, but nevertheless it is one more notch in the overall strategy of cleaning up the city so it can be sold to the highest bidder. The Manchester Evening News has been stirring things up too – they applied to the judge to get a minor's name and address printed in the 'public interest', scapegoating Klutz further.
This jailing and the media attention is all part of a wider crackdown in Manchester. In making an example of Klutz, they hope to deter other graffiti artists. Will the threat of massive sentences end up preventing people like you from painting you protests on, God forbid, a wall? Lets not let them wipe all the street culture in this place, just to make it look saleable to yuppies!
Want to know how you can sweat to show your support for Jack Jones and lodge your protest against the sentencing? Well…
For Starters...
One of the best ways is to write to Klutz himself, to help keep his spirits up while he's on the inside. He's asked us if you can do this by emailing him via
RUDEKID@RUDEKID.ORG.UK Click this link. After reading please forward to your mates who might be interested. Want To Do More?
Another way would be to get out there yourself. If you're a writer - get sweating writing up KLUTZ or FREE KLUTZ (or 3 KLUTZ as Jack suggests). It's probably not such a good idea to try and imitate Klutz's tag if you aren't a writer (poor copies of your tag are very depressing to see!) so we've made some stickers with his tag on that you can put up. (See link?) Also a stencil is on its way soon.
How Does Writing his Tag Help?
Apart from cheering Jack up, writing his tag up while he's locked away scuppers their ability to pick up Klutz for any more works without actually catching him in the act · if his tag goes up while he's obviously locked up there would be evidence that his tag has been used by other people. The cops strategy rests on the principle that taggers only use their own tag. If we produce precedents whereby anyone could be writing anybody's tag, it could help screw their future plans for us all.
He says his work is an art form, which is important to him and many others who share this view. It is unacceptable to reserve all avenues of expression for corporations with there millions, at the same time jailing those denied the opportunity to communicate their message because they aren't rich. There is no profit in making street art - it is created purely for the young and the appreciative.
Remember they're your streets!
Joe
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Comments
Hide the following 19 comments
Wanker
09.01.2004 14:05
Tim
I agree.... what a wanker
09.01.2004 14:49
Yes, and so are my stools.
each one personally created with loving care by me.
If you'd like me to smear them over walls around your way then just give me a call.
Other than that, I'd love to redecorate some little vandals face with a tin of red spray paint.
Is this really news for indymedia ? - or has it been taken over by teenagers.
bubba
you're the wanker
09.01.2004 15:28
dave
Where are you from? Cheshire!
09.01.2004 17:03
monkeyboy
Yep, here we go.
09.01.2004 18:01
Something you've probably yet to do where ever you live.
I had 30 years of graffiti, crime, piss stained stairwells and urban decay so please dont stop your homework in order to try and lecture me on how great tagging, graffiti or any other anti-social shit is.
they were doing it when i was in school in the early 80's - it aint new and it certainly aint clever
Scrawling illegible bollocks over everything in sight does NOT impress anyone but your close friends ( and if they've half a brain they probably think you're a twat )
Banksy may have turned into a corporate slut but at least he had imagination.
I'm sure you have all the answers in the world at the moment... just give it a few years and your attitudes will change.
As for corporate bill boards and the like - id rather not have graffiti OR billboards thanks very much... I didnt ask for either of them and neither did the huge majority of people that are forced to look at them day in day out either.
Wanna be *really* radical ? - then do some good - try NOT destroying or scrawling your shit over everything in sight like some sad child desparate for recognition.
huh... Kids eh ?
bubba
and his momma cried....
09.01.2004 18:07
No, I imagine I'll probably be too busy "hanging with my homies"...
Ghetto, Oh please. I Nearly fell off my chair.
bubba
and finally.....
09.01.2004 18:39
No. They belong to US , not "you".
bubba
...URBAN GRAFFITI-THE SOCIAL ......BACKGROUND INDICATORS
09.01.2004 21:32
.......................................Issue:"Protecting the environment"
.......................................................To be published in PRINT:2004
A PERSONAL FOREWORD:
2 years ago London Assembly first time invited me to send them a statement about graffiti from an expert`s point of view.
In 2002,when the report was published I could see that there was a predetermination only to permit and desire REPRES
SIVE statements.The few experts,among them I,acted as "useful idiots".I hope this time assembly is displaying at least a minimum of brains......
But I also know a seldom spoken about "natural human right" exists:
The will to stay as uninformed as possible-to put it very politely........
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HISTORY:
After having participated in previous report to LONDON ASSEMBLY GRAFFITI INVESTIGATIVE COMMIT-TEE (see:litterature:2002) whose results have been published,and in sector of graffiti-research now since 28 years,here some answers to questions,politically possibly not very pleasing but correct.It also may be helpful to realize graffiti-reseach now already having 300 years of tradition and hundreds of millions of Pounds,Dollars,Francs and Marks have been spent to successfully do so and publications into thousands,only TODAY to read it all being "vandalism".You may be well advised to think TWICE before babbling nonsense and "chewing the cud" from propaganda-sources and from "graf
fiti-preventers" that show a policy that hardly can be surpassed in "excellence" of "optimal suboptimal" management and "highly competent incompetence".Discussion today being proof they FAILED.
"There ain`t no easy answers to complex problems!"
Graffiti is "nothing but vandalism" only showing you know nothing about the Vandals and the term "vandalism" invented to
denounce a small victorious migrating people having been able to DEFEAT the "Roman Empire".But the technique-rever
sal to the opposite,very much liked by the "specialists" we talk about......with questionable outcomes.
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BACKGROUND:
Having screened ca. 100 000 documents in 28 years of graffiti-research and having had to recognize that all "anti-graffiti"
Strategies failed,only escalating an aspect of "graffiti-as-commerce" making a global,annual output of $70 billions (from zero 30 years ago),not bad for all those tries by "experts" only surpassed by "drug-prevention".
"Oh Lord,throw brains from above!"
The summative results have been published in 15 parts of "VOCABULARY OF GRAFFITI-RESEARCH",volumes 1,2,3 only exist in print:
Where you find all the facts,names,addresses,sources,publications,URLs,contacts etc.
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SOCIAL ASPECTS:
The origin of modern form of graffiti-"writing(American style)",having been invented in 60-ies of 20.century,rooted in po-verty-sections of urban areas (slum,ghetto) as a means of establishing a NON-VIOLENT method to measure and de-velope ability,competence and creativity (instead of killing each other),being cut off from education, training,jobs and this way "futures".Since thousands of years on walls we read about man`s hopes and hates,during times of heavy conflicts the
"walls speak" and a study of the graffiti-contents show a "history-writing from below".So we know graffiti being SOCIAL INDICATORS showing into directions where changes already take place ("worse-betterings") or soon may surface,like we all so well know from the most famous graffiti-executed by God Himself-the MENETEKEL.As first reports from US
communicated news about "TAKI 183" from New York,raising attention,sensitive young males (99% of "sprayers" are men) accepted,globally,this SOCIAL INVENTION (as it is) as their way of RITES DU PASSAGE,the traditional way to show your abilities also to survive under extreme conditions in the "Urban Jungle".With the global spread of what now became HIP-HOP movement (with 3 "roots":rap=laguage-skills,breakdance=body language-skills and graffiti) modern graffiti became the global fashion it is today,and as chances for education,jobs and thus "futures" also in other and more and more countries DECREASED,the once root-motivation to secure a possible survival was the deep psychological background this unique way of expressionspread so quickly now being a real GLOBAL ART,via creolisation where all
"writers" from all countries cooperate and influence each other up to the unique 3-D-style so well developed by DAIM:
for example.The psychological "background" of this developement has been looked into by me:
Only young persons having ample chances in education,jobs,training etc. could make shure they`re so deadbeat and tired that they won`t be willing to go out at night on spraying-sprees.And,like a German policeman once saif ADVOCATING LEGAL-WALLS:
"All spraycans being emptied HERE (=legal walls) cant`t be used a second time on other walls!"
I fully agree.So I strictly vote against the artificial escalation and criminalisation of creative young persons INSTEAD of using their skills for other porposes.But this only will work if you also realize that "money talks" (the financial aspect of $70 billions annually)=and no wonder many "preventive councils" very much look like "distributing agents" of taxpayers`money to house-owners INSTEAD of solving social problems that would be extremely EXPENSIVE.And one of the question I am mostly being asked:"IF we put up sufficient "legal walls",would that definitely end the "graf
fiti-problem?!"
I only can say:"No,the more social conflicts exist the more persons having a cause they will vent on outer walls to make it public".
Which brings us back to the money-problem,and the distribution in cities and countries.This means to POLITICS.They can solve them,or continue to tolerate the SOCIAL DISINTEGRATION of societies,and next developemental stage will be CIVIL WAR in societies that already show traits of DICTATORSHIPS ("home security").You can bet on that,
history teaches.Especially after 9/11.................just another "Menetekel".Especially countries with very mixed populations from various cultural and religious backgrounds may have graver problems compared to an artificial generation of "art-crimes" only turning a highly creative part of youth into "enemies" and "criminals" generated by an emotionally "high-strung" pseudo-discussion from propaganda-sources,"graffiti-haters" and comparable "social idiots" befuddling the brains of po-pulace.Form,outlines,colors,content and context of images do NOT really damage any substance,or people,are not de-structing buildings but represent SYMBOLIC AGGRESSION using the "safety-valve-function" we so well know being integral part of the "graffiti.-phenomenon".Politics should be aware that escalation might change that symbolic quality and reverse and transform it into REAL destruction.Then the SYMBOLIC WEAPONS= spraycans could be replaced by
guns,explosives etc.We already can identify following developemental traits:chalk-normal colors-spraycans-stencils-scrat-
chings-acid etching.......REFLECTING the escalation via repression and results of ongoing criminalisation.
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"GRAFFITI-PREVENTION":
NO try to "finally solve the problem","waging war on graffiti",from "scribbles","smearings","vandalism" up to "visual terro-rism","ecoterrorism" and "envirocrime"-in the end-was really successful.No wonder because you can`t erase a collective memory of free wall-use during 50 000 years of mankinds`sign-developement.Today "wall-writing" is the means of com-plaints and defence of the poor,desperate,helpless,disoriented and creative.This escalative process of "criminalisation" of wall-writing is generating the transgressions of the laws that feed the law-system and benefits police,commerce and re-pressive agencies.If we knew the real sums all those "specialists" need and cost to make a good living AND imagine these sums being invested into youth=FUTURE-projects.....
.......................................................................................................................................................................................
CLEANLINESS MYTHS:
From Cities like New York and Berlin we know about promises and threats via "zero-tolerance" to end urban scourge
But capitals and urban spaces always have had (and are famous for that) SUBCULTURES living deviant lives,just pure statistics will tell you about possible numbers of "crackpots" we have to live along with except you adopt policy of "End-loesung" (final solution) like Germany did during 3.Reich with Jews and other cohorts.And from state of New York I just read they had to remove 19 000 000 square-feet of graffiti/writing,that much to the often hailed "zero tolerance".ALL those "promising policies" survived as long as money has been available and "instantly got removed" because of fiscal changes.The many "do-gooders" wanting to have nice shopping-opportunities usually forget that children,young people,
poor persons may have different and equally justified needs,only latter not having a lobby.Modern complex western so-cieties in the wave of "globalisation" more and more showing anti-and a-social traits.
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"URBAN SPRAWL" AND/AS INIMICAL ENVIRONMENT:
Not only material poverty but also spatial ("inimical environment") and psychological ("psycho-social abortion,psychotoxi-
dity) having damaging and dangerous influences.Formerly open spaces free for roaming and play today are being conver-
ted into PRIVATE PROPERTY,and none seems to remember that "private" has Latin root "privatio" meaning theft.
What single persons and/or companies own must be taken away from the public.More and more children grow up lacking
Water,mud,fire,hedges to play in and being a little among themselves....all of this is being removed from more and more persons and only available for the rich.To have to live in such an environment-barely tolerated and in bad housing-means
A dramatic experience and if some people do not agree with the values communicated and invented by the "haves" you should not really wonder.That owners of property also may-at any time-put up billboards etc. and create a "visually pollu
ted space" which I must accept,and becoming more and more all the time (I am waiting for toilet-paper with ads...) is just intolerable.
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THE MIRRORING-PRINCIPLE OF GRAFFITI AND BEHAVIOR:
The dirtying of an environment-("Protecting the City Environment" is the name of this scrutiny)- reflects persons be-havior,and this-in return-mirrors general traits in a society whereas graffiti/writing reflects the psycho-social outcomes be-
ing transformed and translated into form,color,outline,context and content:"Walls that talk".People experience behavior
against themselves-and poor,marginalized people have more negative experiences (absence of care and respect)-and re-act accordningly.Values and morals-before being accepted and adopted-have to be experienced PREVIOUSLY as cre-
dible and practicable ways of living.For too long and too often too much has been asked from and by them from religions
and philosophies.So if a society sees that something is happening to the general environment not exactly looking "healthy"
it is time to ask questions.Being treated like "garbage"(surplus-lives,psycho-social abortion) asks for revenge,the "social
climate" also being reflected in "mobbing" as one outcrop of marginalizing processes."What YOU do to me,I will PAY BACK".
A psycho-social deterioration of cities-absence of playgrounds etc.-is being caused by influence of property and owner-
ship.So no wonder in case of graffiti/writing the "answers" surface on exactly that medium:OUTER WALLS representing one of the "scared cows" in societies as we daily see.Following a famous graffiti-sentence:
"Sacred cows make great hamburgers!"
So the behavioral-"natural law" here translates:
If YOU infringe MY territory by whatever means,violating my interests,YOU can be shure it will and must have consequences.
The issuing of "anti-social" laws is part of an overall repressive strategy NON-VERBALLY admitting the "war against poverty" has been lost.What still makes some sentence,you increase the number of "security" specialists,one of the few booming businesses.Which brings us back to probability modern,complex western societies sowly converting into "dicta-torships" and "police-states".Naturally,they use other words here......Such laws actually DOUBLE the problems of peop-le (in question) and generate a good conscience for those being responsible for the ongoing marginalisation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAFFITI..................AN BYOND?:
Question is what-along lines of plausibility and probability-will happen if repression and criminalisation of graffiti will con-
tinue?We already can see the "shadows" a future is "throwing before":MATERIAL DAMAGE sums growing all the ti
me.Even tody`s children know they live in a material world where THINGS often seem to matter more,compared to people,and here especially the poor.And soon you realize you may "pay back" and anonymously take revenge if you da-
mage some goods,especially expensive ones.So we can predict matters becoming much more costly......Or prefer waiting for more "unexplainable" Amok-runs?!......The technique of "pushing people over the edges" without raising too much at-
tention has become very "refined" during last 50 years,also the ways of scapegoating.To have accusable culprits always`s coming in handy.If societies did not have "writers",they would have to be invented and introduced.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LITTERATURE:
ANONYMUS:"Hip-Hop Lexikon",AT:
"ART CRIMES",AT:
BOSMANS,B./THIEL,A.:"Guide to graffiti-research",Gent 1995,ISBN90-802903-1-9
BRACHT,U.:"Gestoerte psychosoziale Verhaeltnisse im Spiegel von Schulbank-Graffiti",Kassel 1982 (dissertation)
JACOBSON,S.:"The international dictionary of aerosol art",AT:
KAPLAN,D.E./MARSHALL,A.:"AUM,eine Sekte greift nach der Welt",Berlin 1998,ISBN 3-548-35717-2
KESAB/HALSEY,M./YOUNG,A.(Eds):"Graffiti culture research project",AT:
KREUZER,P.:"Das Graffiti-Lexikon",Muenchen 1986,ISBN 3-453-35068-5
LIFTON,R.J.:"Terror fuer die Unsterblichkeit",Muenchen 1999,ISBN 3-446-19879-2
LONDON ASSEMBLY(Eds):"Graffiti in London,report of the London Assembly Graffiti Investigative Committee,May 2002",London 2002,ISBN 1-85261-366-1,pp:8,51,81,AT:
MUELLER-BRAUNSCHWEIG,H.:"Die Funktion der Symbolbildung fuer den Spannungsausgleich in psychopa-thologischen und kreativen Prozessen",Frankfurt 1975 (dissertation)
PHILLIPS,S.A.:"Wallbangin,graffiti and gangs in L.A.",Chicago 1999,ISBN 0-226-66772-3
SUTER,B.:"Graffiti-Rebellion der Zeichen"(3.),Frankfurt 1994,ISBN 3-89501-032-4
THIEL,A.:"A.Thiel`s graffiti-related publications",AT:
THIEL,A.(Ed.):"An internet-textbook of graffiti-research",2003,AT:
Axel
Axel THIEL
It's all about proportion.......
10.01.2004 15:39
Yes graffitti when done badly and when there is a proliferation of it can look pretty shit, but to lump it in with having piss-smelling streets, crime and urban decay or whatever you compared it to is way over the top. Those things are the result of inadequate investment into inner city areas which is the fault of the state, graffitti is a REACTION to that, not part of the problem. If the taggers had a way to express themselves, and if the place they were living in was a clean, well-maintained place to live then they wouldn't deface it. OK some people still would, but not on the same scale.
All the money that is spent on catching, prosecuting and imprisoning graffitti artists would be far better spent on providing them with means of expressing themselves to prevent their urge to deface public property. Did anyone see that thing about rail police on TV this week? A group of officers spent a whole night hanging around a train depot trying to catch graffitti artists - what a waste of police time and public money. If that time and money was spent providing space for graffitti incidence would go right down. As I said, some people will continue to deface trains and the like with pointless tags and maybe for them a punishment should be introduced, but nothing more than a small fine just as a deterrent - six months imprisonment is absolutely ridiculous and we should all rally together to fight it.
MUMN
what is the big deal
11.01.2004 00:03
the world is so depressed and fucked-up with injustice, war, poverty, environmental collapse, and our inner-cities are becoming huge deserts of heavily polluted concrete corporate monoculture, devoid of culture, trees, life....
the two comments from blubba and whoever else are so lamentable it reminds me of Cliff Ricard's campaign against peole spitting a few years back
whether you think tagging is annoying or artistic is a matter of opinion. some see tagging as mindless vandalism, others as self-expression in a corporate-controlled world that has almost outlawed spontaneous self-expression for good and a cry of help from young adults in deprived areas and the alienation of big cities/suburbia.
some think it is good as economic sabotage against corporations
however you see it, if that kid had done what many of his peers are doing, by aquiring a BMX, a knife and blaclava and terrorising his local area, mugging old ladies etc, he might have got a lighter sentence than he did for spraypainting.
i live on a deprived and neglected council estate in central manchester
graffitti doesn't bother me. i never remember walking past a tag-less brick wall or looking at some breeze blocks or a train and thinking 'wow that it truly beautiful'
graffitti doesn't usually make any difference in my opinion as those things are boring/shit/monotonous/dirty in the first place (i could understand your anger if kids were spraying on english heritage buildings or whatever but not a bog standardbrick wall)
what does bother me is that muggings are getting more violent and frequent here on my extate and its like mob rule
teenagers have nothing to do and no future
smoking crack and mugging people is the best option they see available and you get an adrenaline rush to boot
so i am saddened to see the Manchester Evening News and manchester police targeting kids who opt out of that and pick up a spray can and not a gun and apparently ignoring the muggers
it is all about corporate money and power
manchester has been completely sold out to corporations...the hacienda, gay village, free trade hall...you name it have been sold off to big money
taggers cost our corporate rulers money...that is why Jack Jones is in Strangeways and branded an 'evil yob'
people have been writing on walls for tens of thousands of years for fcuks sake.
'checkbook vandalism' is the real problem
p.s. you can see almost anything as anti-social. it's just whether or not you buy the mainstream generalised view on things. should all car drivers be imprisoned for driving a car? (tens of thousands a year are killed by motorists)
cars are the second biggest problem about where i live...it's got a motorway running
through it. the noise is hurrendous. and it's not exactly asthetically pleasing either
not to mention the increased rate of cancer and athsma
Colin Montgomery Flinchard iv
Yawn.
11.01.2004 03:50
Well, that may be your opinion, to which you're entitled.
You are NOT entitled to write your opinions all over other peoples flats, properties, front doors etc.
>the world is so depressed and fucked-up with injustice, war, poverty, environmental >collapse, and our inner-cities are becoming huge deserts of heavily polluted concrete >corporate monoculture, devoid of culture, trees, life....
And the people who end up living in these deprived depressed inner-cities are lifted out of this mire bye teenagers endlessly scrawling their name all over the walls of the hallways in the godawful slums on sticks that they end up spending their last days in right ?
>the two comments from blubba
oooh ... pithy...
>and whoever else are so lamentable it reminds me of Cliff >Ricard's campaign against >peole spitting a few years back
Whatever.... I guess I'll come round your house and gob all over your front step and then discuss how i'm making a statement about the corporate criminals that are fucking up our world.
Get real dickwad.
I never mentioned that i thought the punishment did or didnt fit the crime.
I was commenting on the fact that in some peoples eyes this kid is held up as some sort of model citizen or freedom fighter for justice or some other bollocks when in fact, he's just a kid scrawling his name on walls.
Posting it on indymedia dont make him a hero.
Show me some interesting or challenging acts of subversion that he's performed.
Show me how his work has made people stop and consider their wasteful consumptive slave-like stupid lives.... no, oh, ok, just go scrawl on some walls then !
>i live on a deprived and neglected council estate in central manchester
Really. Thats nice for you. Where i lived, the old folks were afraid to leave their houses in the day light and walk down the halways outside their front doors because they were covered in graffiti and this , of course, is not going to inspire confidence in anyone as to the safety of the area that they live in.
Now, chances are, the grafitti "artists" may have been the most wonderful warmhearted individuals in the world, but...
1) I bet their parents wouldn't have been pleased if theyd known (because sooner or later you have to bring an adult into this discussion !) - perhaps their parents urged their children to go out and make the place where they live look like a living hell - yeah right, i'm sure that happened !
2) They didnt live where they were "tagging"
3) If anyone tells me that making the last few years of an old ladies life miserable is in any way admirable, i'll happily come round your house and poke your fucking eyes out.
>graffitti doesn't bother me. i never remember walking past a tag-less brick wall or
>looking at some breeze blocks or a train and thinking 'wow that it truly beautiful'
>what does bother me is that muggings are getting more violent and frequent here on my >extate and its like mob ruleteenagers have nothing to do and no future
>smoking crack and mugging people is the best option they see available and you get an >adrenaline rush to boot
And of course, the proliferation of vandalism doesnt add to the sense of lawlessness so prevalent on many council estates.
(You'll moan about the council not cleaning it up, but I'd argue, dont do it in the first place)
>so i am saddened to see the Manchester Evening News and manchester police targeting kids >who opt out of that and pick up a spray can and not a gun and apparently ignoring the >muggers
Ah, i see, its not vandalism, its more of an artistic outreach program !
Ok. If its just art then why the necessity to keep practicing over other peoples property.
Pick up a brush and paint a canvas, spray on your own bedroom wall, not the outside of somebody elses flat.
As far as the police go, many times in my life i've not been their greatest fan, but i say punish vandals AND muggers. A tagger is much easier to catch you understand, due to the fact that they are so stupid they keep writing their fucking name everywere (and then publish a website !) - if only we could get muggers to leave a business card !
>it is all about corporate money and power
Bullshit. Its all about mindless teenagers, with idiots for parents and not the imagination to see that there is opportunity for stuff other than mindless vandalism.
Its ok. They WILL grow out of it in a few years, but no matter what they do, it DOES have a piss poor effect on the estates that it happens on.
You claim to moan about the inner cities and how run down they are but will almost condone their vandalism ???
>manchester has been completely sold out to corporations...the hacienda, gay village, free >trade hall...you name it have been sold off to big money
Cant comment on manchester, I've only seen Withington Hospital (worked their on a number of occassions) and as you know, thats right by Moss Side , manchesters "infamous" area. I must say it didnt actually look that bad to me - but I guess i didnt do the grand tour.
>taggers cost our corporate rulers money...that is why Jack Jones is in Strangeways and >branded an 'evil yob'
I never branded him an 'evil yob'. I brand him a mindless little wanker who needs a clip round the ear and to spend some time explaining his actions to the people that he's affecting (the residents who - given no choice must now live with his "artwork")
Taggers actually affect the lives and overall happiness of the residents forced to live on a council estate thats been covered by some bored kid.
If you want to cost "our corporate rulers" money - Go smash up a merc or BMW - Stop picking on the poor.
>people have been writing on walls for tens of thousands of years for fcuks sake.
Thats right. But usually for a purpose.
Endlessely writing the same shit over every possible surface can not be defended as art, subversion , political action or free speech.
>'checkbook vandalism' is the real problem
No. Thats "a" problem. One of many. But I guarantee you that endlessly scrawling your name on walls will not cure it and can not be held up as a result of it either.
>p.s. you can see almost anything as anti-social. it's just whether or not you buy the >mainstream generalised view on things. should all car drivers be imprisoned for driving a >car? (tens of thousands a year are killed by motorists)
Well, the "mainstream generalised view" is that i should not come round to your house and punch your mother in the face.
If I held the opinion that i should, but accept that it is NOT the "generalised mainstream view" , does that make it ok with you ?
>cars are the second biggest problem about where i live...it's got a motorway running
>through it. the noise is hurrendous. and it's not exactly asthetically pleasing either
>not to mention the increased rate of cancer and athsma
Oh, hey, you wont find me arguing for cars. I say dig up the roads, do something constructive, but dont, i repeat dont just write your name on walls - that really WONT cure anything.
Also, pretending that it IS for some higher purpose just makes you look silly to the adults watching.
"blubba"
klutz?
11.01.2004 12:09
But lets look at Klutz's art! it is a badly formed tag with no techniques and no creation! his work as shown in the webpage set (first entry) only shows some messy tags! Is Klutz an artist or a bored little kid with a marker in his hand! Maybe if his "art work" was a bit more interesting he might have been free!yeah artists like UHC and NATO , even the messy NonComposMentis2003, at least have something to show and have some interesting things but come on not a tagger Klutz!There's no thought, no emotion, no creativity, not even an idea that quite hasn't worked out in the choisen form!
from the ghetto!
plutz
Thanks but no thanks
11.01.2004 17:57
thanks for your comment about NATO and our mates UHC. we are glad you like what we're upto
it is however relevant in this debate.
no-one involved in NATO grew up in the kind of surroundings that Klutz/Jack Jones did.
(with the air of desperation, poverty and deprivation)
we are all commited activists involved in many campaigns and community projects, but admittedly all had a comfortable middle-class upbringing with an option of higher education almost from birth
this cannot be said of jack jones
some indian farmers were in manchester last year seeting up a fair-trade tea exchange (from probably some of the poorest villages in India)
they described the area that jack jones grew up in as 'probably the worst poverty they had experienced in their lives (they measured this not in TV's per person, or car ownership, but in general quality of life , mental and physical)
they described this area as 'spiritually dead'
bubba: if you were to live in Manchester, you'd know that klutz mainly tagged corporate areas. apart from the odd pissed idiot, people's doors, etc tend to be left alone by taggers
the witch hunt which had our local paper describing j.jones as an 'evil yob',
was due to the fact that he was becoming an increasing pain in the backside for Manchester's corporations (which are intertwined with the council and 'evening news')
they are all in the same rich men's club (you should have heard the paper/council's opinions about manchester airport or the recent corporate wealth games)
they are working in unison to entirely privatise manchester and bleed its culture dry then sell you a corporate desert)
if he'd been tagging council estates he wouldn't be inside
he crossed the line, and is a victim
NATO rep.
When lobotomies go wrong.
13.01.2004 09:54
Afinkawan
A Better Translation of Axel THIEL's Piece you really should read
13.01.2004 16:31
Published for the: "LONDON ASSEMBLY ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE"-
Issue:"Protecting the environment"
To be published in PRINT: 2004
A PERSONAL FOREWORD:
2 years ago the Greater London Assembly invited me to send them a statement about graffiti from an expert`s point of view. In 2002, when the report was published, I could see that there was a predetermination only to permit and desire REPRESSIVE statements. The few experts among them, acted as "useful idiots." I hope this that time the Assembly will display at least a minimum of brains......
But I also know a seldom spoken about "natural human right" exists: The will to stay as uninformed as possible - to put it very politely........
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HISTORY:
After having participated in a previous report to the Greater London Assembly Graffiti Investigative Committee (see:literature: 2002) whose results have been published, and in the sector of graffiti-research now for 28 years, I feel I have the answers to some questions, politically possibly not very pleasing but correct. It also may be helpful to realize that graffiti-reseach has been going on for 300 years and that hundreds of millions of Pounds, Dollars, Francs and Marks have been spent on researching thousands of publications, only for graffiti today to be dismissed as vandalism. You may be well advised to think TWICE before babbling the nonsense from propaganda sources and from "graffiti-preventers." These have developed policies that hardly can be surpassed in "excellence" of "optimal suboptimal" management and "highly competent incompetence." The fact that the discussion is ongoing is proof that they have failed.
"There ain`t no easy answers to complex problems!"
Saying that graffiti is "nothing but vandalism" only shows that you know nothing about the Vandals and that the term "vandalism" was invented to denounce a small but victorious migrating people which had been able to defeat the Roman Empire.
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BACKGROUND:
Having screened ca. 100 000 documents in 28 years of graffiti-research and I have had to recognize that all "anti-graffiti" strategies have failed, and have simply increased "graffiti-as-commerce." This has become a global, annual industry of $70 billion (from zero 30 years ago) - not bad for all those tries by "experts" (only surpassed by the efforts of "drug-prevention" agencies).
"Oh Lord,throw brains from above!"
The summative results have been published in 15 parts of "VOCABULARY OF GRAFFITI-RESEARCH." Only volumes 1,2,3 exist in print. These contain all the relevant facts, names,addresses, sources, publications, URLs etc.
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SOCIAL ASPECTS:
The origin of the modern form of graffiti-"writing" (the American style), is in the 1960, rooted in poor urban areas (slum,ghetto), was as a means of establishing a NON-VIOLENT method to measure and develop ability, competence and creativity (instead of killing each other). The people who developed this art form were cut off from education, training, jobs and thus a recognised "future." For thousands of years we read about man`s hopes and hates on walls, during times of heavy conflicts the "walls speak" and a study of the graffiti-contents show a "history-writing from below."
So we can see graffiti as a social indicator, showing the directions where changes have taken place or are about to occur – seen in the most famous piece of graffiti, executed by God himself, the Menetekel (the 'writing on the wall' at Belshazzar's feast, warning that the Babylonian king would be defeated by the Persians).
The first recorded tagger, Taki 183 from New York, attracted the attention of young men (99% of sprayers are male) at a point in their lives where they needed a right of passage to express the tensions in their lives and to demonstrate their place and abilities in the conditions of the 'urban jungle.' With the global spread of what has now become the hip-hop movement (with 3 roots: rap – representing language skills, breakdancing – body skills and graffiti – artistic skills) modern graffiti became the global fashion that it is today. As the chances for education, jobs and secure futures in many countries decreased, this decline provided the deep psychological background for this means of expression. Graffiti spread quickly to become a global art form, changed by processes such as creolisation, where writers from different countries co-operate and influence each other, leading to the creation of, for example, the unique 3D style developed by Daim (
I have looked into the psychological background of such developments (
One of the questions I am most often asked is:"If we put up sufficient "legal walls," would that definitely end the "graffiti problem?" I only can say: "No, the more social conflict exists, the more people will have grievances that they will vent on walls to make it public."
Which brings us back to the problem of money, and its unequal distribution between different cities and countries. This means looking at the politics of the situation. The authorities can solve them, or they can continue to tolerate the disintegration of societies, and next developmental stage will be CIVIL WAR in societies that already show traits of dictatorships ("home security"). We need to learn the lessons of history and see 9/11 as another Menetekel.
Countries with very culturally and religiously mixed populations suffer from graver problems than the artificial creation of a 'crime of art.' This simply turns a highly creative part of youth into "enemies" and "criminals" generated by an emotionally "high-strung" pseudo-discussion from propaganda-sources, "graffiti-haters" and comparable "social idiots" befuddling the brains of the po-pulace. Form, outlines, colours, content and images don't really damage any substance, or people, or destroy building. They represent symbolic aggression and act as a safety-valve – one of the most important functions of graffiti. Those involved in politics should be aware that this situation could escalate, so that the symbolic is transformed into genuine destruction, and the symbolic weapons (spray cans) are replaced by guns and explosives. We already can identify the following developmental sequence: chalk - normal colours – spray cans – stencils -scratchings - acid etching. These reflect the escalation of frustration caused by repression and the results of ongoing criminalisation.
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"GRAFFITI-PREVENTION"
No effort to "finally solve the problem” or "wage war on graffiti," from "scribbles," "smearings," or "vandalism" up to "visual terrorism," "eco-terrorism" and "envirocrime,” has ever been genuinely successful. This is no surprise, because you can't erase a collective memory of free wall-use built up over 50,000 years of mankind's development of symbolic use. Today "wall-writing" is the means of complaint and defence of the poor, desperate, helpless, disoriented and creative. The escalatory process of "criminalisation" of wall-writing is generating the transgressions of the laws that feed the legal system and benefits the police, commerce and repressive agencies. If we knew the real sums all those "specialists" cost it can only be imagined the benefits that might come from investing that money into the development of young people and their talents.
................................................................................................................................................................
CLEANLINESS MYTHS:
Cities such as New York and Berlin have developed campaigns and threats under headings such as 'zero tolerance' in order to end urban problems. But capitals and urban environments have always been home to 'subcultures' of those living 'deviant' lives. Unless a policy such as "End-loesung" (final solution) is adopted, by the German Third Reich, there will always be misfits and 'crackpots.' In New York alone 19,000,000 square feet of graffiti was removed as part of the much-quoted Zero Tolerance campaign. Such policies often survive only as long as money is plentiful, and are removed as soon as taxes have to be cut. And the many rich wanting sanitised shopping spaces forget that children, young people and the poor have different and equally justifiable needs – they just don't have a lobby group to represent them.
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"URBAN SPRAWL" AND/AS INIMICAL ENVIRONMENT:
Not only material poverty but also spatial ("inimical environment") and psychological ("psycho-social abortion, psychotoxicity) poverty have damaging and dangerous influences. Formerly open spaces, previously free for playing and roaming, are being converted into private property - and no-one seems to remember that "private" has the Latin root "privatio" meaning theft. More and more children grow up lacking water, mud, fire, hedges to play in and spend time with other children or alone.. all of this is being increasingly preserved solely for the rich. Children grow up barely tolerated by society and in bad housing – it is no wonder that they do not take on the values communicated by the 'haves' in society. Property owners are free to put up the visual pollution of billboards and advertisements, and we must all accept this 'vandalism.'
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THE MIRRORING-PRINCIPLE OF GRAFFITI AND BEHAVIOR:
The dirtying of an environment ("Protecting the City Environment" is the name of this report) reflects people's behaviour, and this in turn mirrors general traits in a society, whereas graffiti/writing reflects the psycho-social outcomes being transformed and translated into form, colour, outline, context and content: "Walls that talk." People experience behaviour against themselves (and poor, marginalized people have more negative experiences, such as absence of care and respect) and react accordingly. Values and morals, before being accepted and adopted, have to be experienced as credible and practicable ways of living. For too long and too often too much has been asked from and by them from religions and philosophies. So if a society sees that something is happening to the general environment which is not "healthy" it is time to ask questions. Being treated like "garbage" (surplus-lives, psycho-social abortion) asks for revenge, the "social
climate" also being reflected in "mobbing" as one outcrop of marginalizing processes. "What YOU do to me, I will PAY BACK."
A psycho-social deterioration of cities-absence of playgrounds etc.-is being caused by influence of property and private ownership. So no wonder in case of graffiti/writing the "answers" surface on exactly that medium: OUTER WALLS represent one of the "sacred cows" in society. Following a famous graffiti-sentence "Sacred cows make great hamburgers!" the behavioural "natural law" translates into: If you infringe my territory by whatever means, violating my interests, you can be sure it will have consequences.
The issuing of "anti-social" laws is part of an overall repressive strategy which non-verbally admits that the "war against poverty" has been lost. The number of 'security specialists' is booming – one of the few businesses expanding in today's economy. Which brings us back to probability that modern, complex western societies are slowly converting into "dictatorships" and "police states."
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GRAFFITI..................AND BEYOND?:
The question is what – retaining plausibility and probability - will happen if repression and criminalisation of graffiti continue? We can already see the "shadows" thrown by the future. Material damage is increased when children grow up in a material world where things often seem to matter more than people, especially poor ones. And people are realising that damaging property, especially expensive items, is therefore a way of taking revenge. So the prediction must be that the costliness must increase. The techniques of pushing people to the edge, or of scapegoating them, have become very refined in the last 50 years – it is always handy to have culprits to blame. If societies did not have taggers, they would have to invent them.
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Axel THIEL
monkeyboy
chill out
13.01.2004 19:47
love
from the messy NCM2003 (according to plutz)
go on spray them ugly walls!:-)
NonComposMentis (the messy one!)
Homepage:
http://www.geocities.com/non_compos_mentis2003
elvis knows...
13.01.2004 21:27
aha ha yeah
Non_Compos_Mentis2003
There is no graffitti in Seattle
19.01.2004 16:30
Nh@
nh@
Freedom of Expression
11.05.2004 16:15
My only comment, I used to be a tagger and wish I had the foresight to use it as a medium to express a message rather than to fight my own battle against my invisible oppressors, look at the likes of Banksy and T[error]ist? two stencil writers who have produced some prolific political statements through graffiti. Want to be a graffiti writer? Follow their lead, spread your message through your art and stand up and be counted.
All political comment aside, imprisoning a seventeen year old boy for painting anything is ARCHAIC in todays modern society why do we not address the issues and reasons rather than the outcome? It's easy to criticise much harder to get up and do. check out www.banksy.co.uk
Jay