Class Warfare has always been asymmetrical, but lately the Other Side has outdone itself at Orwellian Olympic Shark Jumping. On January 17th it's time to bite back.
If you ever wanted to pick up a spray can, slip a sharpie out of your pocket, cut out a stencil, boil wheat paste, put chalk to sidewalk, improve a billboard, or you've had it up to here (here being being the sides of ever encroaching skyscrapers) with saturation tagging by corporate gangs, and you can take some time off tomorrow before noon, then come on down to San Francisco.
(link will follow the diary, with thanks to Nicholas Carr)
This week San Francisco hosts Zero Graffiti International, a conference dedicated to, well- I'm gonna go out on a limb here since there is no mission statement on their website- getting rid of graffiti. Just like any kind of confab, it has speakers (lots of law enforcement), breakout sessions, vendors, and on Friday, a choice of two mural tours. Missing Mission Statement, meet Lost Irony.
But this conference is not about Tagging or Property Damage, otherwise it would go after the biggest perpetrators in any city: corporations. You want vandalism? I dare you to go from Point A to Point B in San Francisco and compare the extent of gang associated (real or imagined) tags with corporate creep.
Lost Irony, I know why you're waving, because when you view the Zero Graffiti home page and scroll all the way down, what you will find, near the very bottom level of sponsorships, is a tag from the baddest tagger of all, Clear Channel. (Property Damage, don't worry, you get a haiku later).
What's really going on here is the further constriction of freedom of speech and the freedom of expressing ideas: narrowing the limits of acceptable media while expanding the 'pay to say' canvas.
Activists, you know this: 'graffiti abatement' is a softer way of saying we're cutting your communication lines, the very communication lines that are the hardest to censor, spy on and market to. You know how the term 'vandalism' is used to stop you, even if it's in your own mind. Don't wave the white flag before you've had your say.
The well meaning folks at Zero Graffiti have graciously declared the morning of Thursday, January 17th open to the public. Keynote addresses ('Portrait of a Vandal' at 9:00, 'Expertise and Education' at 10:30) and the Press Conference at 11:00 are free!
8:45 - noon
St. Mary's Event Center
1111 Gough Street
And if you're an early bird, get there at 7:30 and see if you can get some free continental breakfast.
Please feel french to join me for some freedom; share your personally acceptable media with people who need to experience it.
And with that, as promised, a haiku on Property Damage...
links:
Zero Graffiti International