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An odd art question

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Vendetagainst:
@ roxy vinyl

I get what you're saying but I think you might be dramatizing it a little. If it's permanent than the janitor isn't going to have to kill himself trying to get it out (that's why public bathrooms are covered in graffiti rather then dead janitors) and chances are that nice graffiti would be a pleasant addition to the poor guy's day. In fact, I think all civil-minded people should rally up and leave a message like "hey janitor, I think you're a pretty neat dude and I hope this brings a smile to your face" and wrap it in a heart, of course.

Jepser:

--- Quote from: facadeparade on 10 Jul 2008, 10:34 ---I would definitely attempt to continue it.
Personally I never go anywhere without at least one camera, and a few sharpies.
In my school, graffiti was always pretty typical in the washrooms. The really immature, high school sort of thing that one might expect. About halfway through last semester, kids started fighting back, and putting positive messages up instead. Things like "you are beautiful" "what have you got to lose?" "be spontaneous" etcetera etcetera.
I thought it was amazing, and obviously so did the janitors- they left most of it up for the rest of the year.

--- End quote ---
That is so awesome. I'm tempted to go do that when school starts again.

And roxie vinyl, what about graffiti on the outside of say, a parking garage or a warehouse? You think people would mind them having a little more colour, really?

Inlander:
I like the idea of a trans-global graffitied comic done by different, random people that would be essentially impossible to read all the sections of. It's not the kind of thing that I'd contribute to myself, but I like the idea of it.

Generally I'm in favour of graffiti. If the choice comes down to look at a completely blank, bland surface, or looking at something drawn or written on that surface to give it a touch of individuality, in most cases I'd be happier to see the latter. Even if it's just something banal like a tag: at least it lets me know that a real live actual person passed this way once, and felt the need to tell the world "Hey, I'm here! Don't ignore me!"

In Melbourne we have some pretty awesome street art. The stenciling scene here is particularly famous, but there's other cool stuff, too: for instance, the owl illustrating this article on Wikipedia, which is only a couple of blocks from my house (I walk past it every day on my way to the local shops). The best piece of graffiti I've seen was on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, which is one of the most popular areas of inner-city Melbourne: one night somebody wrote a long, meandering (both physically and narratively) monologue in coloured chalk down the footpath of the main drag of Brunswick Street. It went for several hundred metres, and consisted of the author musing on various topics, interspersed with comments on what the author was doing at that moment of writing ("the cops just came past to ask what I was doing"; "I'm going into this shop here to get a drink" - with an arrow pointing towards the shop door). All day long you could see people walking slowly up the street, reading the whole thing, smiling to themselves and taking photos and pointing it out to their friends. Naturally, as people used the footpath the writing got worn away, and after a couple of days it rained and everything that was left got washed away. It was awesome.

oogamous:
I'm all for permanent private graffiti, but non-permanent public graffiti unless it's been asked to be permanent as a form of public art.  So continuing the comic would depend on what surface it were on.

For example, there's a bridge in town where the weirdies sit and write beat poetry on it.  Other kids fee like they should write dumb shit like "Holden Lives", but things like that are soon ignored.

so it depends on where the public restroom is.

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