New layer: Harveys

I’m finally starting to get through my backlog of photos. Tonight’s addition? One new layer for the harveys wall, dated December 26, 2004, featuring GIANT, BLISTER and JASE. Word on the street is that there’s something new there already. With any luck I’ll check it out this weekend. Stay tuned…

Three new layers on Belmont building

The Belmont Art Park continues to get hit up on a regular basis, and people keep taking pictures of it and putting them up in our Flickr group. I’ve added three new layers on the old electrical building there. Thanks to Steve Rotman, Caspar van Ette, and Jonathan Tobin for the flicks!

Also, be sure to check out Caspar’s site, Art in Cities, for an impressive collection of photos of street art from all over the world.

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.

GRAFARC wins a Webby!

Wow. Graffiti Archaeology just won the Webby Award for 2005 in the Arts category. We are honored!

GRAFARC nominated for Webby Awards!

Wow! Graffiti Archaeology has been nominated for the 9th annual Webby Awards, in two categories: Arts and Best Navigation/Structure. It’s pretty funny to see our little site, which was basically developed by two people with the help of a handful of friends, up there next to sites like Google!

Since I don’t anticipate being up at a podium any time soon, let me take this opportunity to say a big public thank you to Eric at Stamen Design, and all of the photographers without whose contributions the site would be pretty boring, and of course all the writers out there for their tireless insanity.

Congratulations to all the other nominees, especially my friend Spot and his amazing project Electric Sheep!

GRAFARC gets a blog

I’ve updated the “news” section to be a proper blog using Movable Type. We are expecting a lot of changes over the next year as we incorporate new material into the site, and add features to the interface. We hope this blog format will make it easier to keep you informed of everything new as it happens. Feel free to subscribe using your favorite aggregator.

Two new spots: Belmont and Bluxome

I’m pleased to announce two new additions to the site.

Belmont, aka the Belmont Tunnel or the Toluca Train Yards, is our first spot in the graf mecca of Los Angeles. This spot has a tremendous history: it began in 1925 as a station for one of LA’s first public transit lines, the Pacific Electric Railway. The train lines were shut down in the 1950’s, and the abandoned tunnel was used in the 80’s as a set for the sci-fi TV series “V”. Around the same time, the tunnel and the walls around it became a focal point for graffiti writers from LA and beyond. It has remained a prime spot for at least twenty years. Now many of the walls are being illegally destroyed by a big condo developer, and residents of the neighborhood are fighting back. You can read more about it on the Belmont Art Park website.

Bluxome is another long-running favorite. This San Francisco alley has been the domain of the BA Crew and friends for many years now, a permission wall where the writers can take their time, and the work shows it. Expect more walls and more layers over the months to come.

Meanwhile, gigantic props are due to the Graffiti Archaeology group on Flickr! Now running 130 members strong, the group has contributed over 500 amazing photos, from four continents and an island. It’s going to take quite some time to process them all, but one way or another, we will! In the meantime, check out some of these tags for a preview:

Bunker by txmx .2

Kelvinbridge by duncan

Piece by Piece

It’s been many months since we’ve updated the site, but it’s not for lack of interest. My computer was busted, and it only just got fixed. I’ve been steadily gathering photos all this time, and there is some really special stuff coming your way very soon. Look for more updates sometime in the next month or two.

Also, I’ve started posting photos on Flickr, a kickass photo-sharing website. Check out the grafarc group photo pool if you want to see some of the raw photos that will someday get
incorporated into this site!

Meanwhile, here’s a plug for a local film you will not want to miss: Piece by Piece, a brand new documentary about the history of San Francisco graffiti, is playing this Thursday night only, January 13th, at the Roxie in San Francisco’s Mission district. Showtimes are 7 and 9pm. (I’ll be at the 9pm show if anyone wants to hook up.)

GRAFARC accepted to FILE Festival

Grafarc was just accepted to the FILE Festival (International Festival of Electronic Language) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The festival will be held from November 22nd to December 12th, 2004.

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