Wooster Collective: December 4, 2005 - December 10, 2005 Archives

December 9, 2005

Our Favorite New Artist of the Year - The CUTUP COLLECTIVE

It's almost that time of year when we ask artists all over the world their "Favorites of 2005" list. One of the questions we always ask is "Who is your favorite artist this year (that you didn't know about last year)?"

Here's a preview of our answer to that questions:

THE CUTUP COLLECTIVE in London.

To create the work billboard posters are taken down, sliced up into pieces, then reorder and put back up on the streets.

The original image for the posters below was NESCAFE "Lift your Cups"

Click Image To Enlarge

Posted by marc at 8:00 AM in | Recommend this! |

Street Spiders From Juan Chavez in Chicago

Posted by marc at 7:45 AM in | Recommend this! |

Fresh Stuff From Ragweed

Posted by marc at 7:27 AM in | Recommend this! |

Arlington, Texas

"my friend liz in arlington texas puts styrofoam cups in chain link fences to spell messages for people. i guess its like non-destructive graffiti, but either way you put it, its definitely street art."

-blake

Posted by marc at 7:24 AM in | Recommend this! |

Fresh Stuff From The Streets of Bucharest, Romania

Photos by Sinboy

Posted by marc at 7:20 AM in | Recommend this! |

Seen On The Streets of Rio

Artist: Lelo

Posted by marc at 7:10 AM in | Recommend this! |

December 7, 2005

Wooster Fact Checkin'

It's now been three full days since the Wired News piece about the Sony graffiti ads ran on the internet. As of tonight, the story is still continuing to grow and pick up steam.

Immediately after the Wired piece ran, hundreds of weblogs (including ours) began picking up the sentiments expressed in the story and began spreading it far and wide on the web. As the story spreads, along with it comes increased passion, dialogue, and, in this case, negativity. But it's not over yet, because its now starting to spread into the mainstream - ie offline - press.

Today we were contacted by three different news organizations working on the story. Because "Wooster Collective" comes up first when you Google the words "street art", they called us. Many, not all, have never checked out the Wooster site before interviewing us. Some have no idea what this story is really about before calling. And a few have a pre-conceived agenda so that basically the story is written in their head before even doing the interviews. They need the interviews only to confirm what they want to write, not to learn anything new.

(This is a pretty cynical view of the press we know, but many times - not all - this has been our experience)

So this time, even more then others, we're nervous about speaking to the press about this specific story. Not because we don't have strong opinions, but because we don't want to be misquoted or have something we said be misinterpreted.

So what we thought we would do tonight was to use this site as our own personal fact checker. If you're a reporter and you interviewed us today, compare what we said against the comments below.

Here's our take ....

Why did Sony become such a target? Why did the negativity towards this campaign get so big so fast?

The true graffiti movement is by its very nature a counter-culture, anti-establishment movement that is an alternative to the mainstream. It is a rejection of the status quo.

When you decide - usually at a very young age - that you are going to go up against the establishment, the only way you can survive is to protect yourself. If you don't protect yourself, you basically die. (perhaps not literally, but figuratively) But because you don't have any resources given to you by the mainstream (being that you've rejected it) to give you strength (ie money), the only way you can protect yourself is to develop your own personal moral code that allows you to survive in a world that is outside "the norm" It is this code that fuels you. Not money. Not a house with a white picket fence. Only your beliefs. The code is what gives you piece of mind when things get tough. It's what allows you to go to jail for your actions and then get right back out there to get up once again.

It's the code that allows you not to go crazy.

So where do you develop this code?

You develop it on the streets.

You learn it from watching and talking to others.

But most importantly, you get it from experiencing life.

And that's why graf culture is so powerful to people who do it. You get to experience life to the fullest. You are truly alive, risking what you have, rejecting the establishment, but living your life the way you have defined it. You have real, true freedom.

As you experience life on the street you begin to pick up experiences like they were little scraps of paper. And you start to make a collage with the experiences. You put all of the scraps together and it becomes your own personal fabric that defines who you are.

You are defined by reality, not by television.

You are defined by experience, not by aspiration.

It's your code and nobody elses. And nobody can take it away from you.

And now, suddenly, you have a weapon.

The code itself becomes your weapon.

Your life is on the street. And there's an order to it. You know where things are meant to be. Things are where they should belong. Ads go on billboards. Graffiti goes on walls and doors. The two co-exist. They clash, but they know where they each should be.

If you're living the life of a true graffiti artist, you're livin' by the code you have created for yourself.

And what this means is...

Graffiti shouldn't be in ads and ads shouldn't be in graffiti.

Graffiti in an ad is an ad. It's not graffiti.

Graffiti done legally is public art sanctioned by the establishment. It's not graffiti.

For graffiti to be graffiti, it has to be done illegally.

Period.

So now, suddenly you realize that someone has betrayed the agreed upon arrangement. They've crossed the line. They've entered into your space. And they've done it deceptively. They made it look like they should be there, but actually they shouldn't. They faked it to get there. And you have no fuckin' idea who they are. Where did they come from?

And then you find out that the guy who disrupted the agreed upon arrangement is fuckin' Sony.

Sony.

The establishment.

The same people who you rejected so that you could define yourself outside of the mainstream.

So what do you do?

You use your weapon. You fall back on your code. You get stronger in your beliefs and you strike. You take out the tools that you have, your cans and your keyboard, and you let Sony know exactly how you feel. You tell them to get the fuck out of your hood. Go back to where they belong.

You run Sony out of town by defacing their ads. You run Sony out of town by emailing Wooster or posting a comment on a messageboard.

So if you do this at 17, or 18, or 19, or in your twenties, it makes your code stronger. It confirms who you are and who you want to be. If defines you as the way you want to be defined, not how others want to define you.

So what does this mean for Sony?

If means you never fuckin' buy another Sony again.

Ever.

To you, Sony is your dads tv. Sony is the failed Walkman. Sony means nothing to you other than reminding you of the establishment that you've rejected.

So did this campaign hurt Sony?

Abso- fuckin-lutely.

The people who are upset about these ads are the very same people who Sony is trying to win over with them.

Does my mother walk down Ludlow Street and see one of these ads?

No. The skaters do.

Does my dad see the fake Sony stencil in the alleyway?

No. The goths and punks do.

The ads are there to be seen by the people who Sony wants to sell their PSPs to.

The very same kids who are running them out of town.

But things get worse. 1. The story grows on the internet and gets picked up internationally. 2. The counter- culture hardens their anti-establishement feelings against Sony to the point that not only won't they buy the Sony PSP, but they won't buy another Sony product again.

And that is what has happened here.

Sony screwed up mainly because of the internet. And because they didn't understand the code of the counter-culture, and because they launched a campaign that was ill-conceived and confusing to the very people they wanted to win over.

Next - Tat's Cru.

What's their role in all of this?

Tat's Cru are fuckin' legends. And they should be. They do an incredible amount of good, helping kids get their lives together. They involvement in Hunt's Point is amazing.

We are huge fans of Tat's Cru.

But in our opinion, Tat's Cru messed it up a bit.

But not in this campaign. They screwed up before it.

They should never have done the Hummer ads. That's when things went sideways for us. When they did the Hummer ads they came across as saying "fuck you" to the very people who supported them.

Hummer not only represents the worst of the establishment, but its the personification of excess and greed. It goes completely against the code of ethics for people who love graffiti.

And because Tats Cru took the ads, they came off as being greedy.

Greed is a death sentence to the counter-culture and anti-establishment.

There's nothing wrong with wanting fame. Fame is in the DNA of graf culture. But greed isn't. If you get in bed with Hummer, you come off as doing it because you're greedy.

Do we think Tat's Cru is actually greedy?

No.

So in our opinion, the negativity towards Tat's Cru started with the Hummer ads. And because of those ads, Tat's Cru has received more shit about the Sony ads than they deserve. The negativity has been building up for a while now.

In our opinion, nobody should be pissed at Tat's Cru for their Sony work.

Why?

Because the thing about Tat's Cru is that they always sign their work.

It's obvious that it's a commercial ad. It is what it is. Nobody is hiding anything.

And because of this, Tat's Cru shouldn't be lumped in with the other ads that were not signed. The ones that looked like they were illegally done, rather than paid for.

The fault comes in the fact that the campaign itself was confusing as hell, not that Tat's Cru was involved.

Here's our confusion - How can your perception of the exact same image be both illegal and legal at the same time?

They can't.

And this is what makes no sense in what Sony did. Why are there wheatpastes done legally and then the same image on walls to make it look as if they were done illegally? Who the hell made that call? They outed themselved by not thinking that people would notice the schizophrenic nature of the whole thing.

So do we think Sony is actually evil?

No.

But then again we're not living the life of the counter culture who hates the establishment each day. Sara and I are not anti-establishment. We both have day jobs and we live lives that intersect with the establishment each and every day.

So how are we able to have a foot in both worlds? I guess over time we earned people's trust. In both camps. Our moral code is that we'll never fuck anyone over. That a good conversation or experience is worth more than money can buy. That the guy on the street selling hot dogs is far more interesting then Donald Trump.

We've never taken advantage of anything. We've played by the rules. We stayed true to our beleifs and true to not only who we are, but who we want to be.

And little by little we've been accepted by both the establishment and the counter-culture.

And if you've ever met Sara or I, then you know that we are the last people you would ever expect to be accepted into a world that we didn't come from.

But how do we survive? We live by our own moral code. One that we made up from life experiences. One that defines who were are and who we want to be. Is it the exact same code as a graf purist? No. Is it close? Yes.

So for us, Sony's mistake is a) they don't have any moral code and b) like the true outsider they that they are, they never took the time, nor shown the effort, to try to see if they could be accepted by a group that they didn't grow up with or have shared experiences. Sony should have taken the tact of having one person accept them, and then having that person tell their mates that they're actually much more cool then they look. That they can be trusted. And then wait until more and more people accept them because they never betrayed their trust. This is the way to sell PSPs. The slow, calculated way. But big companies can't do this. They have quarterly earnings. They don't have the time nor the ability to treat their "targets" like real people.

So instead Sony invaded the space that they wanted to enter. They took it over.

So Sony screwed it up a bit. Can they bounce back from it? Sure. Will they? Probably not. Why? Because they can't speak like human beings. Who speaks for Sony? Nobody. If there was a person they would have said something already.

Are there ways for brands to "get this right"?

Absolutely.

So if Sony is not getting it, who is?

Here's a few:

Kangol. They've spent years slowly gaining the trust of the artists. They're doing it right. They listen and learn. They have fun. They're not rushing things.

Addidas, Converse, Vans. They are supporting artists and allowing artists to do art with their backing. They've become patrons.

Triple Five Soul and 55dsl. They've stuck with the artists. They didn't do a hit and run.

Scion. At first we were skeptical, but they've won us over. They keep supporting the artists and doing cool new shit. And most importantly, they've partnered with the right people.

Posted by marc at 8:09 PM in | Recommend this! |

Damn... Say It Isn't So.

Nothing lasts forever. We know that. But change is always a bit unsettling. Case in point - We received an email from WK yesterday letting us know that his gallery on Stanton Street will closing December 31st.

For us, the work of WK and the Lower East Side of New York are absolutely linked. Not just from the work WK puts on the street which define the neighborhood, but from the gallery the WK has had for years on Stanton Street. Most often you can find him there. We've brough tons of artists to WK's gallery, and each and every time WK has been more than gracious.

Change happens. The loss of WK's space is one more indication that what was is not always what will be. We'll miss it for sure. But we hope WK finds another spot soon. It'll be wierd not stopping buy and saying hello.

If you're in the hood this month, definately stop by the 101 gallery and check it out. You'll realize that some of WK's best work is in there.

If you haven't checked out WK's website in a while, now is a good time, as he recently did a major update. The image above is from a new project. Eight months in the making. You can find it here.

Posted by marc at 6:34 AM in | Recommend this! |

A Banksy We Hadn't Seen Yet

(Photo nicked from here)

Posted by marc at 6:27 AM in | Recommend this! |

Cut 4 Arm From Royal in Canada

"The cut 4 arm stands for cutting the consumer arm that we all have and, leaving it on the ground as you walk away."

... Royal

Posted by marc at 6:21 AM in | Recommend this! |

Numskull Baby Devil Tattoo

"A guy emailed me a few months back and told me that he'd gotten my baby devil stencil tattooed on his arm. At first i was a bit annoyed, but the weeks went on and I slowly began to LOVE the idea of my baby walking around being seen by hoards of people!"

peace,

Numskull

Posted by marc at 6:05 AM in | Recommend this! |

"I Don't Want This For Chistmas"

From Flickr here.

Posted by marc at 5:56 AM in | Recommend this! |

December 6, 2005

More....

Here's some additional perspectives on the Sony stuff. But first a few comments from us:

1. Do we think that Sony "wins" with the campaign simply because we're talking extensively about it on the Wooster site? Absolutely fucking not. Our coverage is about the subject of advertising and graf colliding, not so much about Sony specifically. This type of coverage does not sell PSPs. And if it does, all the power to them. Then yes, their campaign was effective. We have no reason to want Sony to sell less PSPs. That's not our argument. But again, does this add to the eyeballs that will see the campaign? Yes. Does it sell units? No fucking way.

One way to solve this - If you've bought a PSP, or intend to buy one, because of the discussion of the campaign on this site, please raise your hand and send us an email with a proof of purchase. :)

2. We agree with Bucky (see below). For us, he's exactly right and if Sony was smart they should have hired him then, and they should still hire him now. Again, the problem here, for us anyway, is not the ads themselves. It's the fact that Sony made it appear that the ads were mimic graffiti as if they were done illegally. They weren't. This smacks, to us, of not knowing your audience well enough. If you are a fraud, eventually you'll be ratted out. That's what happened here. If they had stuck to wheat pastes on construction sites, party stamps, and a few Tats Cru commissions, things would have been fine. But instead they made it seem, at first, that these ads were organic. They weren't. Again, this is the mistake that we find they made. Not the ads themselves. We actually like the ads. It's where and how they were placed that's the problem.

3. For those of you who think that we're spending too much time on this subject, we also don't agree. This site is about these issues as much as it is about the art itself. If you don't debate the issues, what's the point?

Okay, so here are some more responses:

From Nomad:

HERE?s Another proposal for you guys, concerning the SON-Y PSP2 Discussion :

You all are doing exactly what SON - Y expects you, to do. You discuss this shit-campaign , and name the product + the company a hundred times on your page. The more that you spread this bullshit, the more items they are going to sell. Got it ?

Fuck Sony + anybody who wastes his time with computergames. If you catch those kids - break their fuckin?Hands..

Peace (haha...)

From Bucky (on the Gothamist messageboards):

Gosh... so many of you commenters are just so blind and dumb. You completely miss the point and then go off on your own tangents. There appear to be two problems that bother both the folks at Wooster and Gothamist. It has to do with the fact that the ads were designed to look like and mimic graffiti and street art and that these ads are not going up on just spots usually reserved for wild postings or what is commonly referred to as wheat pastings. They are going up in spots that usually don't sell or rent advertising space so that the ads appear to be unsanctioned and/or illegal. The fact that Sony is trying to post these ads up as if they were graffiti is the problem. If you don't think there is a thin line between getting it right and wrong well then you never worked on a pitch and certainly never executed one. Advertising and marketing is a funny business and a lot of common folk don't really understand the small details and dynamics it takes to actually make ideas and concepts that are cool, effective, and don't piss off the creative community they are trying to reach in the first place. When dealing with youth culture (and graffiti especially) make sure you know what the fuck you are doing. For example you can always hire ANIMAL as a consultant (that for e.g. was a blatant plug) to review the "urban marketing" campaign that has been created for your brand by some "urban marketing" company in some ivory tower. But what bothers me on a bigger scale is that many brands see graffiti as the only medium to reach kids in the city. It's their golden fleece of urban (not meaning black) communication and they often misuse it and get it wrong. And for all that bullshit about ad blockers and stuff, again you missed the point. Take it from someone who publishes an art and lifestyle magazine with the tagline "cashing in on culture" that this is by no means a wholesale refutation of advertising, sponsorship of art or culture, or the usual predictable banter. It's just about doing it right, period.

From Fono:

Having watched the Sony/PSP thing develop over the last few days, I thought I'd mention a couple of things that have come to mind:

I have to admit I find the way Sony has approached this to be rather baffling. At first, it seemed like they were using street artists to undertake something illegal for them - seemingly because they didn't want to take the risk of putting the ads up using their own people. Now, with the knowledge that the walls were actually RENTED, it brings a whole new question to mind: why not just send out the ad agency's teaboy out with a bucket of paste? Why use street artists as hired decorators? Ok, granted, some were sprayed, and that requires a particular set of skills that are hard to fake - but even so they could have stuck to stencils and posters... why involve street artists at all?

loving wooster for a long time now, but have to give a short note on that PSP thing:

did you realize that sony totally won with this campain?
your whole page is a huge sony billboard now
you present their adverts
you present the company's name
and the company's product

and your traffic might not be that bad your visitors are the perfect PSP consumers as well...

should be enough to give a short story about it and link to a forum or something and keep posting real streetart with no business aim on wooster...
or just ignore the whole thing...

just because a poster is pasted somewhere "illegal" doesn't make it art or street art...if i was sony i would love to see what you are doing with my campain - even the defaced posters are more reaction then a usual advert gets.

well, that's it hope to see that advert shit breaking down in ignorance.

props from germany

What bugs me the most however, is that they've fostered a debate, and here
we are, talking and considering them and their product. If you subscribe to
the 'There is no such thing as bad press' school of thought, then Sony's
advertising agency have done their job. Bugger.

From Goods:

When you said "...it smacks of corporate invasion of a space that they shouldn't be in." meaning that the corporations have no right being there, don't they have the same rights as the street artists themselves? The "legit" street artists have no right being there either, but that is the appeal to them? I don't think the big wigs at Sony are checking your site everyday, the people doing that are working in the ad agencies. Some of whom I'm sure are even street artists themselves. Isn't street art about advertising to the masses anyway? Sure you may not be selling a product at first, but many of the "legit" street artists that "make it" end up selling their work. Whether it be in galleries or in an ad for a Vodka company. You are getting your work and or name out there for other people to see and hopefully appreciate. Otherwise a "true artist" would only make art for themselves and show it to no one like Henry Darger. Sure this is not even close to the scale of a company like Sony, but I really don't see a difference here. The streets are everyone's, not just artists. I am not for or against it, and this campaign is not going to get me to buy a psp or make me love or hate Sony any more for it. I just don't understand all of the complaints from artists. Surely a street artist can identify an ad when they see one. I don't even own a psp and I recognized them in the campaign immediately when I saw them appearing here in NYC(which was long after their initial campaign), and I'm
extremely surprised that the posters are not plastered with logo's, product shots, release dates, legal, etc. like most ads are. I'd say their campaign is a huge success because a lot of people seem to be talking about it.

Posted by marc at 6:13 PM in | Recommend this! |

The Dialogue Continues

We've received some interesting emails this morning continuing the dialogue about the Sony PSP ads. We've included them below.

But before we get to them, here's some additional thoughts of ours:

1. The debate about the intersection of graffiti/street art and advertising is very complex. It's not so black-and-white. For many reasons. It seems to us that if you stand at one end of the debeate - either side - then you are limiting your view on this. We think that the view "advertising has every right to be on these walls" then your thinking is short-sighted. But the same goes for the view - "All advertising is evil and there is no place for brands and graffiti to co-exist" then you're thinking is short sighted as well. Perhaps this is a debate that doesn't have a "right" and a "wrong" answer. Perhaps it's somewhere in the middle - where we are.

2. The issue with the Sony ads is not that they blasted cities with their cute characters. Rather, it's that they made it look like it was done by artists on the street illegally and uncommissioned. They faked it. They made it seem that they had illegally taken the walls, when what they actually did was to purchase them. It seems that none of the ads were done illegally. All of the walls were rented from various owners. But what was interesting is that they picked walls that made it seem like the ads didn't belong there as ads, and this appeared to be, at least at first, as real graffiti done illegally. It wasn't. If they had done all of these characters on billboards and bus shelters then it wouldn't have been so devisive. But because they faked it, and made it seem like the ads were done illegally, it smacks of corporate invasion of a space that they shouldn't be in.

3. A lot of people think that all of the attention the campaign has received from debates like ours on the Wooster site only makes the campaign more successful. We disagree. The only reason you invade a sub- culture or mindset is to be accepted by that sub-culture. It's clear that the subculture that Sony tried to penetrate with these ads, rejected them. Press alone doesn't sell PSPs. Strong positive word-of-mouth does. Not a lot of positive dialogue has resulted from the campaign.

4. Do we think that this campaign, and the resulting discussion has "hurt" Sony and PSP? No. Not really. They'll still sell a ton of them this Christmas. (And perhaps they should) But rather, we look at it from this standpoint. It was more of a waste of money and effort than anything else. They tried something daring and ambitious and it didn't work. It's money wasted more then anything else. Most of the people who are pissed off wouldn't have bought the Sony PSP anyways. So for us, other than sparking a lively debate, it's a net zero loss.

5. We get emails every day from various brands and companies asking for help and advice and connections to artists. And with a lot of them, mostly the smaller ones, we help out all the time. But never do we get contacted by the big companies like Sony. We know that they read the site each day. But they never contact us. What we can't understand is why more big brands who are getting involved in this space - the Sonys of the world - don't just email us asking for thoughts and advice. Success in this space is knowing the details. It's more about what not to do, rather than what to do. We give free advice to people all the time. It's strange to us that the bigger the companies the least interested they are in getting new perspectives and opinions. They always seem to feel that they "know it already." Very rarely do they.

Anyway, enough of this - here are some more thoughts from Wooster readers.

From Renato in Brazil:

hi, just to drop in my 5 cents on the sony discussion. I personally dislike the campaign and strategy, but it is an interesting discussion.
Companies have been capitalizing on street art and culture for a while now, and no major complains there up to now. It was as everyside was benefiting from the "mutual apropriation"(or "my money for a bit of your style"). What seems to me is that with this, Sony has crossed some sort of line, messing with other issues by not explicitly mentioning itself on the pieces, like pretending to be someone else. However in the end, what we are seeing in my humble opinion (and I mean humble, for I am just a small stenciler in my spare time) is the shift of direction, where instead of artistis apropriating from brands and industries, companies are finding it profitable to apropriate back. From what I understand, it is their right as a participating part of our society to experiment with it, as well as deal with the possibles reactions and consequences, just like we all do. In time, I wonder how the issue between the contractor (sony) and the "invasion and degradation of public and private spaces" stand...(i don't know whether or not the wallspaces were paid for)

From Chris:

I've been keeping up on all the posts on your site about the sony spaced out kids sort of conceptually unsound and nobody's actually brought up how kind of lame looking they are street art vs. advertising debate of the century.

I've been thinking about it off and on for a bunch of days now, because I work in advertising, and I also love the idea of street art/your site/a ton of the artist's work that I see everyday in new york city. I've also had some experience in dealing with a few of the artists in a partnership capacity on a few projects for the agency I work for. None of it was for anything on the scope of the sony work, and it was all very much in the spirit of a partnership. I wanted to hire/work with these people because I thought that they were amazing artists, and I feel that part of any project involving an artist that one respects and admires, whose work flat out kills, is giving them as much room to work as possible. And even given that the opportunities that I contacted people about were for good, even non-profit causes, and even though it was made clear that most if not all of the creative process would be in the artist's hands, some turned us down. Some were just uncomfortable being hired by an advertising agency, and didn't want to involve that aspect of the art business in their lives. Some we couldn't hire because they wanted too much money. Some thought it sounded like a good time. Nobody ever told us to fuck off. Nobody ever emailed us a rant about art vs. advertising. It was always all very civil, and not that big of a deal.

I bring this up because after a lot of thought, I don't really think it is that big of a deal. Maybe this ugly ass sony stuff is a sort of a milestone in street art's timeline, because of the scale, and because it's causing such a stir, but I really see it as more of a normal continual evolution.

What a number of street artists, and fans of street art, are seeming to say, is that this is an unwelcome and unsavory intrusion by corporate culture into a world, lifestyle, and aesthetic that is very important to them. The sentiment of "KEEP YOUR DESPERATE CORPORATE LONG ARM OUT OF A MOVEMENT THAT IS THE ONLY THING THAT IS OURS!!!!!" and that the Tats Cru is a bunch of cabbage heads for helping them spray up the cabbage patch. My take on it is some what in agreeance, but I guess also a lot more laid back.

Street art is an intrusive art form. It's usually unwelcome by the majority of cities, and also probably the majority of citizens. That's what gives it much of it's cache, as well as what is responsible for much of it's ingenuity and variety. Street artists are people who regularly intrude on property, laws, and people's visual landscape. I love street art. I also think that, the same as every other subjective
medium, a lot of it is shit. And I don't want to look at shit. But it's on the way to work, or the bar, or a friend's house, so I do look at it because somebody put it up there. That's just street art. You can't really change the channel or leave the gallery or put down the magazine to get away from it if you don't like it. But then it's like an amazing surprise when you look over and there's something that totally blows your mind that's not really supposed to be there. But it for sure is an intrusive form of expression. And it seems to me, that a lot of artists that are used to being the intruders are now completely pissed off and mortified that their lifestyle is being intruded upon. To me, that just seems like the breaks. The artists intrude upon everyone that walks by their piece. If you can dish out, you should be prepared to take it a little bit. Everything eventually gets coopted. The artists coopt the city to make their art, ad agencies coopt the art to coopt the city. Everybody's bounderies and buttons get pushed, and everybody is forced to take stock and adept/react. That's what makes it all so interesting.

I don't think Sony necessarilly went about things the right way. More than anything, it just seems sort of dorky and lame. Like the nerd who buy's the same cool jacket as his friends thinking that it will make him cool. But a watershed moment? I'm not so sure. They could have done it in a more responsible way. They could have done it in a way that better involved street art, that was smarter and less of a dork manuever. And I think a lot of agencies do. Probably the ones that legitametely love street art and everything that it entails. I think that J.P is right. Everybody should try to " DO IT WrIghTE". But not everybody will. I think that the people who don't like it are right in writing over it and covering it up. It's on the street, that's what ought to happen. But treating this like some kind of pinnacle moment seems a little dramatic to me. To me, it seems like some people got offered some money to draw some shit. They're artists, it's good that they get offered money. They decided to take the money, probably because they could use it, and they did some commissioned advertising. If people find that intrusive on their neighborhood, or lifestyle, or
principles, then cover it up and get it out of their. The same way you would change the channel or close the magazine. And what's the worst that will happen? Maybe some people will cover it up with some real hot shit, maybe some people walking by will see a sort of conversation about advertising written on a wall and think a little bit. Good. It just seems like if we want to believe that the streets are fair game,
that we ought to realize that they're fair game for everyone. What's the big deal. No public medium can expect to remain insular. Artists tag up advertising, now advertising is starting to encroach on street art. I don't think it's an enormous moment, so much as I think it's the beginning of a conversation. I think the best thing that seems to be happening is that a lot of people are arguing their points on the walls, which will make any neighborhood interesting.

Posted by marc at 2:08 PM in | Recommend this! |

J.P on the Sony PSP Graffiti Ads

Been following the the whole sony thing and Dixon's comment got my response reflex going,

"KEEP YOUR DESPERATE CORPORATE LONG ARM OUT OF A MOVEMENT THAT IS THE ONLY THING THAT IS OURS!!!!!"

While I share those feelings, I am well aware that everything held sacred by one tribe or another is ingested, digested, and shit right back out the corporate machine down onto the flock. From their prospective why not, expose this aspect of culture, profit, and convert or kill that wing of the culture (more often than not counter culture). They don't try to beat you any more they invite one of the "leaders" in to join up. Everybody has to eat, but we don't need to eat on corporate jets @30,000 feet. We don't need to eat at the NIKE Campus. And we don't need to eat while peeping the new PSP prior to its release. But some folks do.

Duncan Phillips opened America's first Modern Art Museum in the Washington DC about 100 years ago. He said in 1931:

"The true Artist needs a friend and the true patron of the arts has nothing better to give the world then the helping hand he extends to any lonely, lofty life made perilous because a free spirit cannot or will not see eye to eye with crowd."

A quick run through art history from a content issue will tell you who the patrons of any given era were. Today's Patron for today's "Modern" artist is Big Business. Personally I think this is for 2 reasons, one of which is the trickle down result of maplethorpe and his whip, The Arts lost Government funding. Which goes to speak about the responsibility we have to shock but not make them flee forever. Secondly I think the Uber Rich who could be patrons individually are too caught up in what they know, which is what everyone knows of art the basic, safe, classic.

To me being an artist is not as simple as painting something, singing something etc. There is an element which i think the Duncan Phillips quote hits on, this element makes its way into the art that is recognized amongst the artists themselves, collectively as worthy. He could have said:

The true Artist needs a friend and the true patron of the arts has nothing better to give the world then the helping hand he extends to any Artist. but he did not. he used "lonely, lofty life made perilous because a free spirit cannot or will not see eye to eye with crowd."

(Being married to an artist I would imagine he knew a thing or two about the artists whims.)

That element is the same thing which draws your attention to the Fakeness of fake tits or teeth. Fake art has the element of non honesty no matter how well executed. The Eye can not be lied to. You guys ran a picture of a sticker saying " real eyes realize real lies" and basically that is it 100% sony was a lie and we recognized it. some of us profited off it. some of us exposed it, buffed it, etc.

Now street art is nothing new, we did not invent it with the web sites, we just exposed it's reach. It is silly to think that Dubai is not gonna have Graf or street art somewhere, there are people there after all and that is where art comes from.
There are many reasons why this art is hitting the streets with the magnitude with which it is now, but mostly I think what is hitting the streets is not art, it is arts response to a corp. politico environment that can not be left blank, because "free spirits can not or will not see eye to eye with the crowd"

You mentioned meeting an artist in B.A. that was 100% political, and the streets art should be nothing more as far as i am concerned. the true artist have said no to corp. patronage and the gallery scene that is not interested in truly new, unknown so you take your art to the people where they are. you break down the unknown barrier and many of you walk right in the galleries that turned you away previously. sell out? that is a person by person case by case type thing. one mans red is another woman's Pantone 187.

So SONY was just the First one to take it on at that scale, and why not? who else has the budget??? Well collectively we do. so that leads to...

I have been trying to get a project rolling for a while and this seems like maybe a good chance/place/time to bring it up, as I have been following your posts for a very long time now getting the 2 of involved has been in my head. The Project idea stems from the simple little bit of text i started playing with in my sketch book.

DO IT WrIghTE. the double meaning should be clear, spray/correctly. It was a response to an attack i took from an angry neighbor who had their car tagged, and who had seen me spray painting canvases in my parking cove. I live in Belgium and I don't speak either of the languages so this was odd situation and took some time to clear up after a local police and english speaking third party became involved.

Now there are loads of ideas on what is what red vs Pantone 187. not all grafers want art thrown in their face, bob ross probably did not want to hear people who were gonna tell him happy little trees are not art, but millions of the crowd paint happy little trees in thier kitchen, ART?

SO What is the Right way to Write? I thought the car tag was funny, (often think about tagging hummers and escalates with some relevant stencil to Excessive size,myself). My laughing was what escalated the situation. My mother in laws car was tagged recently too. Laughed but it just one kid with a red can spraying 5 cars as he runs by. pure vandalism, he cops the art urge plea? so what is right. and who decides? artist versus vandal versus corporate whore, skill wielding, mac drivers. This much I can say if my town were one of the real anti street art towns and talking about fining the companies who stickers were found etc. I would be cutting SONY stencils and waiting for night fall.... tryin to DoIT wRIGHTe

marc sara you rock! Thanks so much.

J.P

Posted by marc at 9:06 AM in | Recommend this! |

Don't Gve Up (Africa) Now Available on iTunes

Last week, on World AIDS Day, we mentioned our strong support for an amazing charity called Keep A Child Alive. We also told you that beginning today, a new song from Alicia Keys and Bono will be made available exclusively on Apple iTunes. All proceeds from the song go to Keep A Child Alive. KCA's sole mission is to get life sustaining drugs into communities in Africa that don't have access to the drugs that can keep children and families alive while they battle the AIDS virus.

Starting this morning, DON'T GIVE UP (AFRICA) is available via iTunes around the world.

If you can, it would mean a lot to us - and to the clinics that KCA supports - if you could spend a dollar today by downloading the song. It's a great track, and a labor of love for everyone involved in the project.

If you have a website or weblog, please nick the image above and put it on your site. If you are a journalist, please try to get the world out for us. There will be no advertising for this effort, only word-of-mouth. We're relying on all of you.

If the image above doesn't work on your site, please make a new one or drop us an email and we'll make one for you.

Our goal today is to make this song the most downloaded digital single in history. With the support of the Wooster community around the world, we can make this happen.

Thanks for listening and thanks for caring,

Much love,

Marc and Sara

Posted by marc at 7:03 AM in | Recommend this! |

December 5, 2005

Dixon on the *ony PSP Ads

Hi Guys!! Great to see you making a debate about the *ony add campaign.

I see this move on the part of *ony as a desperate move...although it comes across as a creative one. If Joe from the local chip stand asked me to paint a sign for him, I'd do it. The owner has asked me and is paying me from his pocket, the deal sealed with a hand shake. If *ony approached me with $ to take part in the assimilation, I would have to decline. If I take a minute to think about it though....I may actually paint the adds, take the money and the picture they need as proof and immediately paint over it. *uck *ony. As far as I'm concerned, *ony has won. The fact that they are getting the press for good or for evil is a huge gain for them. Sales of that item will rise simply because they've planted the seed in our minds that said, WERE HERE.
Consumerism is driven by emotion. If you need electronics and you walk into an electronics store, you'll go to the item that creates that emotional contact. The product that feels and looks and makes you think of quality, although it may not be true. Once the *ony logo takes hold by entering your sites and mind, it will be very hard for you to release it. That other huge corporation, the one that rhymes with Mikey knows all about emotional links to product. That's why they buy out all the top athletes. They make you believe that to be a champ, you gotta wear their brand. Like some magical, high performance dust was sprayed on their clothes. These athletes will be great athletes with or with out that logo. When I see brands, I see....sweat shops, enough plastic wrapping in the land fills to choke a horse and one dozen men in the belly of the machine, driving their S.U.V.s while sipping a $5 latte. I was told that you guys have some kind of connection to the corporations? Tell them this. KEEP YOUR DESPERATE CORPORATE LONG ARM OUT OF A MOVEMENT THAT IS THE ONLY THING THAT IS OURS!!!!!

dixon

Posted by marc at 7:10 PM in | Recommend this! |

Woosters Gallery of Defaced Sony PSP Ads #2

From Flickr:

Posted by marc at 7:05 PM in | Recommend this! |

The Sony PSP Graffiti Campaign May Be A Watershed Moment in the Battle

Maybe it's just us, but as we start to receive photos from all over the country showing defaced Sony PSP ads, we're starting to think that the SonyPSP "graffiti" campaign may indeed be a watershed moment in the battle between graffiti culture and advertising.

Why?

1. Because of it's scale.

With the Sony PSP ads, activists now have possibly hundreds of the same ads from one single campaign in many different cities to deface and to make a statement. To our knowledge, no brand has ever done as many ads like this for one single campaign. Collectively, as more and more of the graffiti ads get defaced, it makes for a very strong statement. Individuals are now joining a collective group.

2. Because it's Sony.

Obviously Sony is not a small company. Their size gives them the resources to pull off this campaign. Because it's Sony, more people will take up the fight to rebel against it (as we're seeing now)

3. Because of the Internet.

The internet brings activists quickly together. The internet assisted in the speed in getting the ads up, and now will assist in the speed of getting them defaced and taken down.

Will other brands now think twice before venturing into this area? If the protests continue, then yes, advertisers will think twice between trying to replicate something like this on the scale that Sony attempted.

One additional thing to note - it's not just Sony who are under the cross-hairs. Tats Cru seem to also to be under attack.

Tats Cru, reveared for their dedication to graffiti culture, is coming under strong fire this time for their participation in creating not only these ads but many other like them .

For us, all of this does not have simple black and white answers. To be honest, we go back and forth on this debate. At first we liked the Sony ads a bit. That was until we saw the massive scale of the campaign and the amount of sites that have been hit.

The Wired article has set things in motion. Because the Sony campaign is so huge, and because so many people have now joined the fight against it, this may indeed be a moment were the advertisers start to lose and the activists and artists start to win.

We'll continue to follow it.

Posted by marc at 4:53 PM in | Recommend this! |

Wooster's Growing Gallery of Defaced Sony PSP Graffiti Ads

A growing gallery of defaced Sony PSP ads:

New From Cassidy :

NEW, From Cory:

From Secondary Screening:

From Wired News:

From Joystiq:

More to come... (If you have any photos, send to woostercollective@hotmail.com)

Posted by marc at 3:31 PM in | Recommend this! (1) |

Wired Takes The Lead on the Sony PSP Backlash

A couple of weeks ago we first broke the story that Sony was hiring kids to create guerilla graf-like PSP ads in New York and San Francisco. Back when we first mentioned it, the ads were fairly few in just a couple of different cities. But since then, they've exploded everywhere. In New York you see them in practically every neighborhood. The shere amount of stealth PSP ads that have gone up is incredible - and stupid.

Wired News takes the lead today in writing about the backlash. You can read it here.

(Photo above nicked from Kotaku)

Posted by marc at 1:05 PM in | Recommend this! |

Amazing Train Takeover Video

From the terrific weblog Screenhead comes a link to a video on You Tube that shows a gang of graf artists completely taking over a train car as it pauses for a stop. You can check it out by clicking here.

Posted by marc at 10:10 AM in | Recommend this! (1) |

The Lepos Hit Venice Beach in Los Angeles

Posted by marc at 7:46 AM in | Recommend this! |

ABOVE'S EUROPEAN TRAVELS 2005: MILAN, ITALY.

"I was previously warned by other travelers that Milan in August was like a ghost-town and every thing was closed for Summer Holiday. What else could a kid hungry to paint and create in the streets ask for? After finding a Youth Hostel I walked the city and was amazed to witness just how empty the streets really were. Milan appeared to be the victim or some hurricane that swept all the locals out of the city. In addition to the emptiness of inhabitants I was excited to see street level pieces that were still running from the late 90's. Perhaps this is why Milan has such a booming and strong scene in Europe, because locals don't seem to mind paint on the walls, or simply 'cause they are not around to see them? On my second day in Milan my Friends Bo130 and Microbo came back to Milan (they too were away on vacation) and we hooked up from there on out. Microbo's Enthusiasm and Bo130's chilled laid back style were the perfect mix and Combination for wild nights.

... Above

Until this photo I don't think I saw any Polizia in the city. I suppose they too were out of town on Summer Holiday, which was just fine by me. "No Cops, No Stops."

I assume for subliminal reasons I see this Arrow's Pattern and get a feeling of Christmas paper wrapping. I'm not the least bit timid to share that, but more curious as to why I get that feeling?

The MESSAGE is the medium! This roller tag was sketchy and its shown in the letters. Clean is fun for only so long. Climbing behind the 3 leveled billboard with a cardboard box as my drip pan, 2 liter bottle as my paint bucket and jenky roller made me connect with the gritty nature of the decaying baby diapers, junkie syringes, and broken bottles that were hidden with me behind that billboard facade.

Vespa scooters, Coffee, Great street works, and a strong fashion flair = Milano, Italia!

*Milan would not of been as thrilling or understandable if it were not for the help of my friends Bo130, and Microbo!! Having said that I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Bo130, and Microbo for your hospitality, Sicilian style meals, and late night city tours.

Posted by marc at 7:34 AM in | Recommend this! |

Fresh Stuff From Sez and Monkey Webfoot

You can see the work of Sez here and MKWF here

Posted by marc at 7:31 AM in | Recommend this! |

Wooster Artists Tattoo Gallery

Damion Silver

Darkclouds

D*Face

Posted by marc at 7:26 AM in | Recommend this! |

Borf Goes To High School

"My art club at my school (scarsdale high school, ny) wanted me to teach them how to cut stencils so for the example stencil i used Borf's kid stencil. i explained to them a little bit about the origin of the face and that Borf had been caught a little while ago."... Nick

Posted by marc at 7:17 AM in | Recommend this! |

Color Your City

"My local city council recently commissioned the painting of traffic light boxes by local artists, community groups etc.. It is ridiculous that public art is seen as "legitimate" if it is sanctioned by some government authority, but artists who put up un-commissioned work are prosecuted and given police records.

As a subversive response to these commissioned works I have taken things into my own hands, appropriated one of these boxes and painted it to espouse a pro-graffiti dialect. Such a work would hardly get through the first process of bureaucratic panel review by community officials."

Enjoy

Happy

Posted by marc at 7:06 AM in | Recommend this! |