Clever Graffiti

[jopsuk]

Normally I would condemn vandalism outright, and to be fair, this does somewhat endanger people, but frankly sometimes you have to give a round of applause:

If you can't quite see it (or read german):

ENGLISH (approximately): Anonymous graffiti artists used paint to turn a train door into a window, and a train window into a double door, including the rubber doorjambs and touch buttons. the whole thing was so realistic, the conductor had to put "door not in use" signs on the window so people wouldn't try to walk through it.

 

[starrymarkb]

I've heard of similar door pranks, a bunch of students modified a lift so that the second and third floor buttons were swapped, they then swapped all the signs in the lobbies on those floors, confused people for most of the day...

 

[Fred26]

Brilliant.

 

[YorkshireRider]

ha ha

 

[Geezertronic]

No such thing as clever graffiti, a useless prank and someone is going to have to foot the bill to put it right.

 

[cuccir]

No such thing as clever graffiti, a useless prank and someone is going to have to foot the bill to put it right.

Yes, the world must never be fun!

 

[Geezertronic]

Yes, the world must never be fun!

What is fun about vandalism?

 

[4SRKT]

What is fun about vandalism?

See post #1 for an obvious answer to this.

Vandalism itself is not 'fun', except perhaps for those doing it, but the outcome in this case is plainly funny, and witty to boot. A world without any sort of humour or art, on the grounds that they are 'useless' and 'someone has to foot the bill', would be a little bit too utilitarian for most of us I think.

There is a park near my parents' house called 'West Bank Park'. It has arched signs above the gates containing the park's name in individual brass letters. Someone climbed up and knocked out the W of West and B of Bank and gaffer taped them back in the opposite places.

I don't know about you, but this is not just funny, but a masterstroke of planning and organisation. To do this the culprit will have had to bring a 10' ladder, hammer and gaffer tape to a park gate by a main road. OK, so he will have done it in the dark, but the road is busy enough with cars and pedestrians even in the evening. He must have then set himself up, knocked out both letters, taped them back, and made good his escape. This must have taken at least 5 minutes, and all without been seen. Genius!

 

[jopsuk]

And in this case, it is either been done with very, very exacting skill with the paint, or has required some prescion planning (if done with vinyls). If it was done with vinyls, it proabably won't have been too tricky to deal with, either. A lot better than tagging!

 

[Bittern]

And yet all we get is ugly, failed attempts at art.

 

[4SRKT]

And yet all we get is ugly, failed attempts at art.

Well, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, and little is more subjective than art.

 

[Geezertronic]

But someone still has to go to the hassle of putting it right including paying for it. Understandable if it had been done as a publicity stunt and the rectification cost was paid for, not to understandable as this was a case of vandalism

 

[bengley]

But someone still has to go to the hassle of putting it right including paying for it. Understandable if it had been done as a publicity stunt and the rectification cost was paid for, not to understandable as this was a case of vandalism

Boo-hoo. Money is set aside for things like this, it's an awesome prank and I'd love to see something like that over here. It'd make people laugh and smile, brighten up a bit.

Besides, it's almost definitely done with vinyls, you'd have to use a paintbrush to get a realistic effect like that. Plus it would have taken hours.

 

[Geezertronic]

Boo-hoo. Money is set aside for things like this, it's an awesome prank and I'd love to see something like that over here. It'd make people laugh and smile, brighten up a bit.

Besides, it's almost definitely done with vinyls, you'd have to use a paintbrush to get a realistic effect like that. Plus it would have taken hours.

Is that money added onto ticket prices to fix damage caused by vandals?

 

[scotsman]

Is that money added onto ticket prices to fix damage caused by vandals?

That'll be along with the money from the fare evaders then!

 

[bengley]

Is that money added onto ticket prices to fix damage caused by vandals?

Ticket prices are already high enough, they have plenty of money to rub a bit of graffiti off a train. I totally agree that graffiti is disgusting when it's just mindlessly scrawled on a train such as in this case:

But when people put a bit of thought into it and it's clever/funny then I see it as money/time well spent removing it seeing as it's made a few people smile.

 

[starrymarkb]

I agree, political and creative graffiti can be a good thing.

In Exeter there was recently a large piece of Graffiti added to the wall behind the "Heavitree Arch" public art piece (monstrosity if you ask me - Exeter seems to like poor public art) depicting a large white elephant and generally being anti council.

You can just see it behind the arch

I believe it cost the council several thousand pounds to get it removed. The gun shop who owned the wall refused to paint over it! IIRC the council had to make an offer the owner couldn't refuse to get the elephant painted over

 

[YorkshireRider]

wow, never mind the elephant, check out the ghost car

 

[4SRKT]

The 'hole' in the centre of Bradford where a developer demolished loads of terrible 60s buildings and then left a massive fenced off crater, making the city centre even more offputting to visitors has been the scene of ironic, angry, but clever 'vandalism'. A number of panels of the fence have been painted with massive 'Wastefield, Bradford' logos in the saming lettering as the developer's official signs 'Westfield, Bradford'.

This is making a point that citizens of this city are justifiably angry about the laughing stock to which the centre has now been reduced, still further removing any chance at all that any sort of regeneration can ever take place. Grrrr.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'm wondering if that German train at the start of this thread might have been an "inside job" at the depot?

If so... it's a far cry from "Mike of the Shed" in the 1980s...