graffiti - Is it bad?

[justanotheruser]

Recently all those who receive emails from here would have received one saying that we need to do more to stop graffitti and some suggetions for how to do this.

Personally any graffitti that is done in an artful way I prefer. There is nothing I hate more than plain old boring same white colour (or red brick). If it is just a scrawled signature then I agree get rid of it. however look at the Ipswich motorway. There are pictures painted on the brown fencing on the side of the road. This lightens things up and helps prevent boredom. Why not arrange for artful well thought out graffitti instead? That is one way to encourage people to own and care for our public transport infrastructure.

Any opinions?

[ozbob]

The positive art programs are great.  The murals etc. around the network are  excellent.  The graffiti that is just vandalism is creating a mess.

See http://www.citytrain.com.au/safety_education/safety_education/overview.asp  for the art programs.  We have previously suggested painting the trains but never has been taken up.

See here --> http://freshpics.blogspot.com/2008/12/painted-trains-in-japan.html for some painted trains.  There is a difference between art and graffiti.

[mufreight]

Graffiti by any other name is Graffiti not art, it is vandalisim and I like most do not like to look at it or have it defacing my property.  I like to be able to look out the window of a train unadorned by the pathetic scratchings of some mentaly deficent moron.
Streetscape art is a different story but even that needs to be maintained so that it remains a positive.
To Justanotheruser everyone is entitled to their opinion but if you are in favor of Graffiti no doubt it could be arranged for your car, house or fence to be suitably adorned.

[haakon]

Graffiti art doesn't bother me so much. It is the tagging that annoys me no end.

[Derwan]

I appreciate the talent that goes into graffiti artwork.  However, unless it's authorised, it's vandalism - and cannot be allowed.

[O_128]

organise a day for some of the youth to paint one of the old EMUs

[ButFli]

organise a day for some of the youth to paint one of the old EMUs

I proposed the painting of EMUs to QR through R-BOT. Nothing ever came of it. I can only assume that QR don't care.

There is no point in allowing EMUs to be covered in politically censored art; we already have art galleries for that. Authorised graffiti is meaningless. Graffiti is about rising above oppression. It symbolises the struggle. If writers are allowed to paint EMUs at their leisure the piece has no soul.

[#Metro]

Most graffiti I see is absolute gibberish rubbish, and it looks pug ugly! On some very very rare occasions, graffiti can be beautiful, but I stress, this is unbelievably rare. I wouldn't like it if someone decided to paint the Mona Lisa on my car, on my front fence, or the walls of my house, I'm sure many others would be annoyed too.

The things I don't like about QR are when people use metal scouring pads to scratch etch the glass windows/mirrors. It looks so ugly! BCC rarely has this problem with buses, so it might be a matter of tinting the windows a dark colour, or if that fails, etching them with a frosted pattern or something. The same idea could be applied to metal. If you can't stop them, at least don't give them a blank canvas!

The graffiti removal near stations is just counter-productive. Someone comes and makes a mess, and then green paint is applied to give them a blank canvas... which then just invites more people to make a mess, and the cycle continues, never-ending and wasting heaps and heaps of money in the process. There must be hundreds of kilometers of railway corridor, you can imagine how much it must cost to paint it all green, and then go back and repeat over and over...

There is one other thing that really don't like- Station Toilets! Many look like some prison cell, and are pretty gross.
I think pay toilets should be introduced/go card access toilets to prevent damage.

[justanotheruser]

Graffiti by any other name is Graffiti not art, it is vandalisim and I like most do not like to look at it or have it defacing my property.  I like to be able to look out the window of a train unadorned by the pathetic scratchings of some mentaly deficent moron.

With all due respect this kind of attitude just contributes to problems. I also disagree gerafitti is art but as another poster said when unauthorised it is vandalism.

Another interesting point is that many of the great artists (painters) were thought very poorly of at the time they were alive and painting.

[mufreight]

There is no justification for some mindless moron defacing someone elses property as the only means of gaining some self recognition as their only means of making a mark in this world, this is without any consideration of the levels of risk that they place themselves in by their illegal entry into operating corridors.
Maybe having been involved in a number or rail related fatilities where someone was somewhere they should not have been has coloured my opinion and I have no doubt had you been involved in any such incidents your views might be considerably different.

[justanotheruser]

There is no justification for some mindless moron defacing someone elses property as the only means of gaining some self recognition as their only means of making a mark in this world, this is without any consideration of the levels of risk that they place themselves in by their illegal entry into operating corridors.
Maybe having been involved in a number or rail related fatilities where someone was somewhere they should not have been has coloured my opinion and I have no doubt had you been involved in any such incidents your views might be considerably different.

You may be right. However I was mainly talking about calling people a mindless moron as being unhelpful in solving the problem. It is just like people complaining about young people hanging out in malls. A mall is a natural meeting place and there may be no alternative place. SO to stop people just hanging out in malls you can give police the power to move them on (which is normal solution sadly) which just moves the problem elsewhere. It doesn't solve the underlying issue. Likewise calling people who do graffitti mindless morons is not addressing the underlying issue.
Personally I don't like the pictures at Toowong station but I don't say they are done by immature idiots and a better job could be done by a one year old. I still appreciate that it is not a plain boring white wall.