Graffiti Analysis by fi5e

I just need to make a plug for fi5e, a student at Parsons School of Design in NYC who’s doing some brilliant graffiti-related geekwork.

His Graffiti Taxonomy project does with graf what Douglas Hofstadter did with typography in Metamagical Themas, and what Bernd and Hilla Becker did with coal tipples and water towers in Typologies. Small multiples rock my world. (Coincidentally, Adam Greenfield has been tracking one of his posters as it disintegrates over time. Here’s a detail of the same poster from fi5e’s blog.)

In fi5e’s most recent and ambitious project, Graffiti Analysis, he tracks a writer’s movements in 3D using a kind of light pen, manipulates the data, makes crazy videos out of them, and projects them onto walls and monuments. I think he’s just scratching the surface as far as what could be done with that data. But the videos have a tight esthetic quality about them that I like for its own sake. Check out his blog for more details and lots of moving pictures.

Hats off to you, fi5e! (And thanks, Mike, for the latest links.)

Back from northwest tour

I just got back from my tour of the Pacific Northwest. High on my agenda, of course, was to shoot flicks of graffiti everywhere I went. Traveling with an ulterior motive is a great way to travel. It makes you see things in a very different way. I highly recommend it.

I stopped in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and Eureka. Every city had something new to offer, as you’ll see from the photos.

Many thanks to everyone who gave me directions! In particular, respect and thanks to Fredy, Rob from NAC, and Atom from PNG. Check out their sites for lots of great graf from the Pacific Northwest.

Moose cleans up London

This would be pretty cool if it weren’t so corporate: Moose, public-spirited graffiti artist, cleans up (from The Independent via boingboing).

Update: NPR did a feature on Moose, which has some pictures on it: Artist Draws ‘Clean’ Graffiti from Dirty Walls

interesting NYT article

This article kind of sums up a lot of the conflicting factors surrounding graffiti these days: At a Wall That Invited Graffiti, Everyone’s an Art Critic (from the New York Times).

Interesting article in Slate

SADDAM WILL RETURN… THROUGH MY ASS! An interesting article about graffiti in Baghdad: The Writing on Baghdad’s Walls by Wendell Steavenson of Slate. Also see this page.

interesting article in WSJ

Graffiti Artists Put Their Mark On War Against Terrorism. “When the government stonewalled efforts by Greenpeace’s Toxics Campaign to find out about the shipment of dangerous chemicals through the U.S. capital, the organization turned to an unlikely source of railway information: graffiti artists.” (From the Wall Street Journal. Here is the original link, but you have to subscribe to read it, so I’ve reposted it here.

Venice beach story

From effyoo on the 12ozprophet forum: “when I was in LA, I was staying on Venice beach and checked the walls every morning after i got my orange juice. There was 2 or 3 new pieces every day. One morning I come out and it looked like someone smashed one of the walls with a sledge hammer or something. there was a crater 6 inches deep that was blasted away and you could see all the layers of paint that had been placed there over the years. It made me wonder just how everything had changed to create a layer of paint at least 6 inches deep. thats alot of fucking paint. and alot of pieces that people put heart into.”