Following on from another thread regarding tags and other forms of graffiti
on railway structures, I'm actually quite surprised that no one has
suggested that all lineside cabinets, palisade fencing and other railway
furniture is painted, say, a uniform grey.

As soon as any variety of graffiti appears it would be a relatively trivial
exercise to simply paint over the offending writing or whatever as soon as
is practicable.  The best form of deterrent for this anti social behaviour
has been shown to be removing it as fast as possible.
-- 
Tessy @ nospam.com
Life is complex: it has real and imaginary parts

Err....it is.

Tessy  wrote in
news:0doqd11sdbfcno7vden8119pdcgo6sum2m@4ax.com: 


> Following on from another thread regarding tags and other forms of
> graffiti on railway structures, I'm actually quite surprised that no
> one has suggested that all lineside cabinets, palisade fencing and
> other railway furniture is painted, say, a uniform grey.


Surely the main objection to graffiti is that it's ugly. Would painting 
every graffiti-prone surface grey really be much of an improvement?


> The best form of deterrent for
> this anti social behaviour has been shown to be removing it as fast as
> possible. 


Or a solution which may not be to everyone's taste: I've travelled on a 
private German DMU which had its seats covered in material with a graffiti-
tag motif. But it /was/ graffiti-free ...

Rick.

Rick Hughes wrote:


> Surely the main objection to graffiti is that it's ugly. Would painting 
> every graffiti-prone surface grey really be much of an improvement?

> Or a solution which may not be to everyone's taste: I've travelled on a 
> private German DMU which had its seats covered in material with a graffiti-
> tag motif. But it /was/ graffiti-free ...


Alternatively, do as they do in Sweden, and arrange for safe access to 
certain areas for graffiti artists to brighten things up!

-- 
Jonathan Stott
Canterbury Weather: http://www.canterburyweather.co.uk/
Reverse my e-mail address to reply by e-mail

Jonathan Stott wrote:


> Alternatively, do as they do in Sweden, and arrange for safe access to
> certain areas for graffiti artists to brighten things up!
> 


Even better, arrange UNsafe access...

Steve Adams

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 22:14:52 +0100, Jonathan Stott 
wrote:


>Alternatively, do as they do in Sweden, and arrange for safe access to 
>certain areas for graffiti artists to brighten things up!


A good point, if it's actually art.  Some of it is, but tagging is
just ugly vandalism.

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

Neil Williams wrote:

> On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 22:14:52 +0100, Jonathan Stott 
> wrote:
>
> >Alternatively, do as they do in Sweden, and arrange for safe access to
> >certain areas for graffiti artists to brighten things up!
>
> A good point, if it's actually art.  Some of it is, but tagging is
> just ugly vandalism.



The beauty of it doesn't matter.  Artists shouldn't paint all over
other people's designs without consent, however much better they think
their own work is.

Does the Royal Swedish Army still issue hair-nets to its troops/troopettes..?

>> Following on from another thread regarding tags and other forms of
>> graffiti on railway structures, I'm actually quite surprised that no
>> one has suggested that all lineside cabinets, palisade fencing and
>> other railway furniture is painted, say, a uniform grey.
>
> Surely the main objection to graffiti is that it's ugly. Would painting
> every graffiti-prone surface grey really be much of an improvement?
>
>> The best form of deterrent for
>> this anti social behaviour has been shown to be removing it as fast as
>> possible.
>
> Or a solution which may not be to everyone's taste: I've travelled on a
> private German DMU which had its seats covered in material with a 
> graffiti-
> tag motif. But it /was/ graffiti-free ...


Down here in Southampton, they have employed some professional Graffiti 
artists to do something creative around the Underpasses here.. These look 
very nice, but it only takes a couple of days for , in my opinion very good 
artwork to be destroyed by crappy tags etc

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 20:32:39 GMT, Tessy  wrote:


>Following on from another thread regarding tags and other forms of graffiti
>on railway structures, I'm actually quite surprised that no one has
>suggested that all lineside cabinets, palisade fencing and other railway
>furniture is painted, say, a uniform grey.
>
>As soon as any variety of graffiti appears it would be a relatively trivial
>exercise to simply paint over the offending writing or whatever as soon as
>is practicable.  The best form of deterrent for this anti social behaviour
>has been shown to be removing it as fast as possible.

It has been mentioned in circles that they are working hard at a good
quality paint that doesnt accept graffiti for long, it can be washed
off easily.  How long this will be in coming if it does,  is anyones
guess, but it would be a good idea.  Also  Asbo's and community
service orders which are never carried out are useless, what we need,
is back to the prison ships on the River Fall, which used to have the
old Cunard ships laid up.  Give them a month of hard labour on one of
those.

MIG wrote:


>> A good point, if it's actually art.  Some of it is, but tagging
>> is just ugly vandalism.
> 
> The beauty of it doesn't matter.  Artists shouldn't paint all
> over other people's designs without consent, however much better
> they think their own work is.


How would you apply that thinking to a brick wall? A
good/amusing/witty set of lineside graffiti brightens up a journey.
It's art, and art is subversive.

-- 
Chris Game

It might look like I'm doing nothing, but at the cellular level
I'm really quite busy.

Chris Game  wrote in news:1jyssw9e313bg
$.dlg@example.net:


>> The beauty of it doesn't matter.  Artists shouldn't paint all
>> over other people's designs without consent, however much better
>> they think their own work is.
> 
> How would you apply that thinking to a brick wall? A
> good/amusing/witty set of lineside graffiti brightens up a journey.
> It's art, and art is subversive.


Oi! I resent that! There's a lot more art in a well-constructed brick (or 
even better, stone) wall than the daubings of graffiti vandals could ever 
hope to convey. Ask me nicely, and I'll show you how to set out a quoin in 
a 1-1/2 brick wall with 1/2 brick plinth in Flemish Bond. Subversive, 
that's me.

Rick.

Rick Hughes wrote:


>>> The beauty of it doesn't matter.  Artists shouldn't paint all
>>> over other people's designs without consent, however much better
>>> they think their own work is.
>> 
>> How would you apply that thinking to a brick wall? A
>> good/amusing/witty set of lineside graffiti brightens up a
>> journey. It's art, and art is subversive.
> 
> Oi! I resent that! There's a lot more art in a well-constructed
> brick (or even better, stone) wall than the daubings of graffiti
> vandals could ever hope to convey. Ask me nicely, and I'll show
> you how to set out a quoin in a 1-1/2 brick wall with 1/2 brick
> plinth in Flemish Bond. Subversive, that's me.


Well I suppose that makes sense, if the wall has a heritage value.

Up here we tend to make boundary walls out of stones with no mortar,
some last decades or more and certainly would be spoiled by
graffiti. The average back wall on an urban terrace in a town centre
is really of little value, culture wise though.

-- 
Chris Game

"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct,
not tried it." -- Donald E. Knuth

In message 
          Chris Game  wrote:

[snip]

> 
> Up here we tend to make boundary walls out of stones with no mortar,
> some last decades or more and certainly would be spoiled by
> graffiti. The average back wall on an urban terrace in a town centre
> is really of little value, culture wise though.
> 


That's a bit elitist, English Heritage and the National Trust don't appear to
agree with you.

-- 
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at <http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html>