Graffiti Bridges Worlds for Cell User

babokd wrote with a follow up to a piece we ran about the phenomenon of Grafedia, graffiti with links to the internet. The idea has caught on, and 'a communion of the real world with the Internet' may become more and more common. From the article: "It's all around you -- and not just in the phone lines and cables running under the streets or in the airborne Wi-Fi streams....If you send a text message to an e-mail address scrawled in paint on a subway advertisement or on a sidewalk, for example, you could get some digital pop art on your phone in return. An adhesive arrow on a telephone pole could hold the key to the history of a nearby building."

Seen it before

[CaseyB]

This sounds much like the whole "warchalking" phenomenon that was picked up by the media when it became SO popular a couple years ago.

Not that anyone ever saw real examples of it.

visions of 90s viral marketing

[bombastinator]

Smells like someone is trying to bring back viral marketing again. It was a stupid idea the first time.

Overblown hoohah

[Webs 101]

I wrote this two months ago:

Clickable Graffiti, or Not

When we first heard of Grafedia, we thought it was an amazing new technology: take a photo of a word with your camera phone and it turns into a clickable link. The truth is more mundane, although you wouldn't guess that from the hype. The word does indicate an e-mail account - e.g. [e-mail] - but the picture-taking is superfluous. All Grafedia really is is a mailserver whose e-mail accounts return files to anyone who e-mails. The "twist" is that the person who creates the account has to upload a file and then tattoo, spraypaint, or engrave the word out in the wild. It's more like an invitation to urban blight than an honest-to-goodness new medium. John Geraci, who dreamed this up, sees it as an extension of the Internet. He and at least one Grafedia fan Wired interviewed claim that they don't advocate vandalism. Meanwhile, we wait for software that can read words from photos and turn them into links.

am I the only one who believes that...

[xutopia]

there are 4 types of graffiti?

1. beautiful art
2. tags - the equivalent of a dog pissing to mark his territory.
3. ugly scribblings just for the sheer pleasure of vandalising
4. text to express a view point or provoque

Am I the only one feeling that only a minute amount of graffiti fits into the first category?

graffiti is not art

[eclectro]

Graffiti is not art, it is vandalism. Anything that encourages it should be outlawed.

I know that their are possible legitimate uses, but vandalism centric services really should not exist.

Eye-spam is just as bad as other spam.

You now have to add...

[Stoutlimb]

5. Advertising.

Graffiti

[kevin_conaway]

Graffiti in general. I don't understand it. Whats the appeal of wrecking the apperance of otherwise beautiful communities? Just to say you were there? Do you dipshits realize how UGLY spraypaint and pseudo-old-english looks sprawled across an overpass or on the side of the building? Its bullshit and it needs to stop.

Re:graffiti is not art

[eclectro]

In my opinion, urban public spaces and surfaces belong to the public.

Yes, and your opinion is wrong. The notion of "private property" is a well established legal principle.

If you owned the property, you wouldn't want people painting whatever they wanted on it, art or not.

But your opinion does not matter, as you fall under the "rule of law." And most places have laws against vandalism.

Re:for a good time, call...

[erlenic]

Almost a haiku, but not quite. Change "How's" to "how is", take out the "any" and you're there (if you slur your "different" into "diffrent" like everyone I've ever met.)

Re:Graffiti

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, because overpasses are so incredibly beautiful that writing on them would be a crime.

Jesus. 99% of cities are fugly, and if it distracts some kids from real crime I'm all for graffiti...

Re:graffiti is not art

[RegularFry]

You're right, graffiti isn't art. It's just a medium. A medium through which some quite astonishing art has been expressed. Nmap is just a network analysis tool, and bittorrent is just an efficient file-streamer. Don't blame the tool.

Eye-spam is just as bad as other spam.
So we should outlaw email?

Re:Graffiti

[Anonymous Coward]

Insightful??

He just said he doesn't understand it. By summarizing that it's bullshit and needs to stop proves that he's right- he doesn't understand it.

Re:graffiti is not art

[Sin Nombre]

Then who lets you walk around? Who are you to decide what is and what isn't art?