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UER Forum > Rookie Forum > Thoughts on Graffiti (Viewed 9226 times)
blackhawk 

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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 20 on 4/4/2020 11:15 PM >
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Posted by "ghost"

I'm no photographer or anything, but what do you mean by this? From your photos (lotta cool stuff btw) it looks like you prefer to take photos of very specific things, in which case I could see how tags might be annoying. But, at the same time, don't they form cool backgrounds for portraits and stuff? There's a reason all the easily accessible tagging spots are littered with obnoxious glamour girls trying to take "edgy" profile pictures. I usually think a bright tag can bring a lot of color into an otherwise bland photo.


I hate tags at sites; they are a blight.
A linger doubt of confidence follows UER members who like them.
Especially newbies.
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selectedgrub 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 21 on 4/5/2020 9:10 PM >
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Hi Ghost, How often do you see a comment like this

Posted by decayed state
So sad the vandals made their way in.. This place looks prestigious


Most people on here feel the same way.
I wanna see "prestigious" decay and not some scribble.





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"ghost" 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 22 on 4/6/2020 5:55 AM >
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Posted by selectedgrub
I wanna see "prestigious" decay and not some scribble.

Ah, that is an interesting argument and I most definitely agree. Some of the coolest places I've ventured gave me the peculiar sensation that time had frozen, and a big neon tag definitely kills that completely.

I think this gets back to my main internal conflict and why I wrote this post. For me at least, tags work some places and totally kill the experience others; I'm trying to figure out why that is. Looking at it from this angle, I think the condition of the building/whatever makes a huge difference. If it looks like the people got up and left yesterday (even though it was 20 years ago), then for me painting on that snapshot of history would be sacrilege. On the other hand, if it's a "forgotten" hollowed out husk of a building, then paint seems like a potential (key word choice - depends on the content) way to make a place a bit less hard on the eyes.

I dunno, if my argument's dumb then I'd love to hear why.

Posted by blackhawk
A linger doubt of confidence follows UER members who like them.

Obviously I'm new to this forum, and you've probably been exploring places since I was shittin in diapers, but I don't agree with you here. Just to be clear, I don't want some stupid pointless argument, I actually want your opinion if you're willing to share.

One of the biggest reasons I go exploring new areas is to be able to see, up close and personal, snapshots from the Before Time (whenever that may be). Just by walking through an old school room or a long forgotten work office, you can see how Real People lived and worked back in the day. From exploring enough places of varying ages, it seems clear to me that every single building goes through different stages between when it's built and when it turns to ash. There's construction, then the main use, then the peaceful slumber of abandonment, followed finally by... artwork? Obviously the most rewarding exploration (for me at least) is when you find an untouched, preserved area, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the beauty in a derelict structure that's been brought forward in history and repurposed as a canvas.

But, like I said, a lot depends on what's painted where, so I'll concede that most of the time it's annoying bullshit. I guess I just view it as part of the lifecycle of the location... I'm not an optimist.


Also, anyone who thinks I'm blindly advocating for graffiti needs to reread this thread - I'm interested in learning different (and more developed) arguments on the matter, to see what you guys think. In retrospect, I probably could've picked a more PC topic as my introduction to this community, but I've never been a fan of all that spoon-fed PC bullshit anyway.

The weather's great, cloudy with a chance of plague!




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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 23 on 4/6/2020 7:02 AM >
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Blackhawk is right that anyone posting anything too positive about graffiti is going to raise suspicion, and that will have an effect in things like full member applications.

Let's face it, most urban explorers who've been active long enough have been contacted by people who were secretly taggers, sometimes even posing as urban explorers, looking for information about sites to ruin. It's on all of us to be vigilant against them.




ChaseMcDude 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 24 on 4/6/2020 1:38 PM >
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The only time I'm anti graffiti is when its the only graffiti in a place good or bad. There's one dude in my city known for painting in several places no one else has painted, and he definitely takes flack for it from both the graffiti and urbex scene.




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blackhawk 

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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 25 on 4/6/2020 1:47 PM >
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Posted by ChaseMcDude
The only time I'm anti graffiti is when its the only graffiti in a place good or bad.


So once the corner store gets robbed once, it's ok to do again...




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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 26 on 4/6/2020 3:08 PM >
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Posted by ChaseMcDude
The only time I'm anti graffiti is when its the only graffiti in a place good or bad. There's one dude in my city known for painting in several places no one else has painted, and he definitely takes flack for it from both the graffiti and urbex scene.


That sounds sort of like an internal acknowledgement that graffiti is inherently bad.




theradioguy 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 27 on 4/8/2020 6:25 PM >
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There's a 1920's-era power plant in my 'hood that was abandoned in the 70's.
It's quite well-known locally for being a graffiti hotspot, and there's some pretty cool art there. I'm mostly OK with the graf there now, as it's become the main attraction, however, back when it was a new abandonment I'm sure it would have been great to explore without all the graffiti and I would have been choked when the first pieces started showing up.

There's a fairly well-known drain 'round these parts which also boasts the graffiti as being the main draw. I'm a lot less conflicted about this one as it would have been a lot of featureless concrete and the graf definitely spices it up a bit.

Definitely get upset when I see jerks tagging over some of the better art pieces. The drain I mentioned has a few cool murals that taggers are slowly starting to tag over.




"ghost" 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 28 on 4/13/2020 5:55 AM >
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There was an alleyway in my old town that was dedicated to graffiti - in fact, it was completely legal in that small section. It seemed like the best of both worlds, concentrating all the paint in one area it kept most of the other walls more or less clean. It had some interesting dynamics, the crazy elaborate tags would stick around for longer but the wall would still look completely different week by week. Here are some of the cooler tags I saw if you're curious https://imgur.com/a/GgoqXzw




ty21 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 29 on 4/13/2020 2:36 PM >
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Posted by Aran
I think it's fine in plain RCP concrete drains and such because it can add character, but that's about it. Buildings, caves (unless already blown out like ToT) and especially brick drains ought to be left untouched for the most part. Of course, opposition decreases with art quality- a good artistic mural gets a lot more leeway than fifteen dicks and a swastika.


CAVES! That one pisses me off the most. Natural spots should be left natural. Period. As for everything else it's almost a case by case basis, there's a time and a place kind of thing. Some spots become unintentional art museums because there's so much good graffiti, others are just being defaced by it.




Big Poppa 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 30 on 4/13/2020 3:34 PM >
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I don't dislike graffiti. To me it reinforces the marginal nature of urbex as a hobby. We're out here in these places that time and normal people have forgotten.
I get frustrated by the narcissism of graffiti writers sometimes though. If your first thought upon seeing a pristine abandoned building is to put your tag up everywhere you can fuck off.




stealthwraith 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 31 on 4/13/2020 8:11 PM >
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Overall I dislike graffiti and if you’ve chatted about it with me irl I’ve probably told you that I consider it a human behavior that has its equivalent in canine marking practices. But, there are also “good” artistic expressions that are in the format of graffiti. I have encountered utterly delightful art pieces in my adventures. I also consider this to be the exception rather than the rule as most of the graffiti I’ve seen is absolute shit that’s completely ruined the art that is the building and human vacated space.

As an art historian, who makes no money in the field but goddamn it I have the degree, I also think that there is something interesting about graffiti even within the construct of humans enacting canine marking behavior. Take trains for example, the cars travel trans-continent and layers of graffiti from all across the continent stack like tree rings or sedimentary layers. Exchanges and edits of artistic style take place in a way that is unique in our now digital world.

The few great art pieces I’ve encountered in no way balance the overall shit that most graffiti is and since murals are often permitted if an artist is on the level of producing art on walls they can likely do it in the above board manner of permitted murals. This would solve the ugly crap ruining the art of the space problem and grant increased viewer numbers to the moralists. Everyone wins.




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Natchraz 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 32 on 4/13/2020 10:59 PM >
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Posted by ty21


CAVES! That one pisses me off the most. Natural spots should be left natural. Period. As for everything else it's almost a case by case basis, there's a time and a place kind of thing. Some spots become unintentional art museums because there's so much good graffiti, others are just being defaced by it.


From my background knowledge, most actual graffiti artists stick by a set of “morals” which includes not tagging houses, cars, churches, natural sites etc..

And if you put yourself in the position of a graffiti artist, painting on an uneven rocky surface is completely unideal.

That’s why you’ll usually see small scribbles out in caves, along with the other shit kids with spray paint tend to draw.




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Abby Normal 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 33 on 4/14/2020 12:12 AM >
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As someone who primarily explores old mines, I really hate to see mines all marked up with graffiti. Mostly it's people who paint their name all over. That's not art, that's destruction of a historical location. If your life is so meaningless that you have to paint your name on things to feel better about yourself, then you need to fix your life, not paint your name everywhere.

Abby





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"ghost" 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 34 on 4/14/2020 2:58 AM >
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yeah, fuck any graffiti on natural stone. People who paint rock are the same people who have the nerve to carve their initials on trees...




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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 35 on 4/14/2020 4:27 AM >
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Posted by Natchraz


From my background knowledge, most actual graffiti artists stick by a set of “morals” which includes not tagging houses, cars, churches, natural sites etc..


This seems meaningless. If there are "ethical" taggers, they're probably unpopular and overshadowed by the more influential taggers who will go a little farther, sort of like how Instagram explorers have more followers than UER members.




"ghost" 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 36 on 4/14/2020 5:10 AM >
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Posted by Steed
If there are "ethical" taggers, they're probably unpopular and overshadowed by the more influential taggers who will go a little farther

Maybe? I'm not so sure though, I think a lot of serious artists define "going further" not as "I'm going to go paint a dick on this church steeple" but more as trying to get crazier artwork that uses more advanced techniques. From what I've seen on this thread, it seems like a lot of the graffiti most of us have a problem with is the super low effort names and dicks that take 5 seconds to put up. If an artist tries to "go further" by posting themselves writing their name 200 times, I think they'd be shelled just as hard by the graffiti community as they would be by the urbex community. I can't say I know much about the graffiti community though, so I'm not sure.

It does seem to me like the intricate, high-effort paintings seem to follow some ethics though, they don't just pop up everywhere.




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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 37 on 4/14/2020 5:33 AM >
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Posted by "ghost"

Maybe? I'm not so sure though, I think a lot of serious artists define "going further" not as "I'm going to go paint a dick on this church steeple" but more as trying to get crazier artwork that uses more advanced techniques. From what I've seen on this thread, it seems like a lot of the graffiti most of us have a problem with is the super low effort names and dicks that take 5 seconds to put up. If an artist tries to "go further" by posting themselves writing their name 200 times, I think they'd be shelled just as hard by the graffiti community as they would be by the urbex community. I can't say I know much about the graffiti community though, so I'm not sure.

It does seem to me like the intricate, high-effort paintings seem to follow some ethics though, they don't just pop up everywhere.


My limited experience seems to suggest the top taggers are the ones who have the most tags in the craziest places, and the ones who have done it in the most countries. It's about quantity, not quality, and someone who spends more than 10 minutes making a nice mural is just making their work a target for taggers.

Also as I've seen, there can be one tagger who does some nice murals, as well as scribbles his tag everywhere.




Natchraz 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 38 on 4/14/2020 6:05 AM >
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Posted by Steed


This seems meaningless. If there are "ethical" taggers, they're probably unpopular and overshadowed by the more influential taggers who will go a little farther, sort of like how Instagram explorers have more followers than UER members.


Well yeah, the ones who keep it subtle and low-key are usually overshadowed by more “influential” taggers.

Most of the low-key writers are pretty much in the center of both the UE and graffiti community.

They’re accepted by some explorers, respected by other writers, but aren’t the ones to blow spots and strive to get their name known by tagging over everything.

At least that’s the situation around where I am, since the great majority of spots around here have graffiti among them, which has brought me to notice who’s who.




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Speed 


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Re: Thoughts on Graffiti
< Reply # 39 on 4/14/2020 9:20 PM >
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I have followed the graffiti culture for years as it intrigues me. Even read a few books about it. I have a good amount of graffiti pictures as there is a active train yard close to my house.
While I am not a writer (I dabble a bit on paper but definitely a toy)
I know a few that are somewhat prolific in my area and extremely talented. My youngest son did a workshop a few years back and I got to meet a few "alleged" writers.


Posted by Natchraz
A toy is usually a “graffiti artist” who scrawls smaller unreadable tags everywhere, and doesn’t have actual pieces.


A "toy" is a few things... mainly someone that is just starting out and lacks skill. It can also be someone who has some skill but has not earned the respect of others in the graff community. Basically anyone that starts out in the subculture is a toy. Toy and rookie are synonymous.


Posted by Natchraz
From my background knowledge, most actual graffiti artists stick by a set of “morals” which includes not tagging houses, cars, churches, natural sites etc..


This is wholly accurate. There is absolutely a "code" among writers just as there is a code amongst explorers. "take only pictures, leave only footprints"
Does everyone follow the code?... absolutely not.
The are many, many parallels between the 2 subcultures.

There are also codes, or rules if you will about covering pieces and damaging another artists work.
This is taken extremely seriously among writers. There have been some epic graffiti beefs through the years. some have ended tragically.
Theres a few good youtube vids on graffiti beefs.

you may enjoy this old thread... http://www.uer.ca/...id=1&msgid=1907012

Love it or hate it graffiti is a natural progression of decay. No different that broken windows, soggy floors and lonely chairs.




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