Hello all.
Thanks for all the great feedback so far. I was wondering if I could get your opinions on another idea I had which I was thinking of when I was discussing the problem of graffiti on busses. I was looking for ideas on how to legitimize the expression of creative people in Santa Monica, whether they be taggers, artists, interior designers or whomever else.
I thought about doing that either dedicating areas of the bus, interior and exterior, to Graffiti expressions by creating removable panels that could be routinely taken off the bus and placed on rotating exibit in some dedicated public space. These panels would be cheap and easy to replace.
I was also thinking that riders might want to do the same thing digitally, as in having those same panels perhaps respond to the touch of a hand by changing colors, having images created by touching the panels stay on the bus for a few hours or a day. Perhaps most of the surfaces of the bus (seats, ceiling, floors, windows, etc.) could have the capacity to display images in motion, so that anyone could plug in a USB key with some motion or still artwork that they could put into a Bus program to display it for a few days.
How do you guys like this??
Let me know.
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What should buses look and ride like in 2050? As gas prices and congestion increase and environmental quality decreases, these questions have never been more important. Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus has been asking bus manufacturers and the public to share their ideas via this blog, and Art Center College of Design students have been translating them into new and exciting designs for the Bus of the Future.
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10 comments:
The notion of allowing "taggers" to leave their work on a bus is absurd. Most taggers are part of tagging crews. A crews is just a gentle euphemisms for gang. The busses would become territorial battlegrounds for these crews.
Any form of interactive art would be giving a blank canvas to sickos and perverts who would love to leave some kind of foul or improper comment or image on a bus.
I am all for a nice presentable bus, but some people do not consider graffiti to be art.
Since we all have different tastes I feel "art" should be left off the bus in the same way that music should be left off the bus.
Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate your point of view. I have, however, been following the art community for some time now, and it appears that Graffiti has taken on many different guises and has influenced many forms of current work. On top of that, I figured that giving incentive to youth to express themselves, whether through "graffiti" as such, or through other types of visual art, would be a means of keeping their interest in bus ridership through a unique experience.
The problem of obsence pictograms and words would still remain, though, I guess.
I would love to hear from others to see if I could somehow modify the original intent of my idea and perhaps transform it into some other sort of visual interactivity.
Thanks Mr/Ms/Mrs Anonymous.
I am not keen on rotating art of the bus, especially if I don’t like it. People should be punished for graffiti, not encouraged. Let’s beat them, not join them as a way to keep our buses clean.
Perhaps the ceiling and top part of the walls on the bus could be used for a digital display. It could be mix of art and advertising. Information could be transmitted via the web and the sent wirelessly to the buses. This way select art pieces could be displayed at certain times on certain lines and there is not a competition among people loading things via USB ports.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it's a creative idea to "partner" and work with those who are going to tag by providing them space to do so and I do agree that graffiti has become an accepted art form in certain circles. However, in providing said space I'm concerned resources would be allocated where the might better be served elsewhere? How would the graffiti be monitored the art without being burdensome on the drivers and maintenance folks and without having a negative impact on children or other sensative riders? After writing this and thinking a bit more about it, I would rather resources be devoted to safety, and increasing the quality and quantity of public transportation.
Um, yeah.
The city is spending HOW MUCH to hire you guys, so you can enable vandals electronically?
Tagging is not art, and you shouldn't be bothering with anything other than preventing it, and prosecuting it.
The bus is a public resource, not a social agency. Make it safe and secure, please. Don't get sidetracked with WiFi, inflight movies, light shows and sound affects, onboard vending machines, Amber alerts, or rolling Etch-A-Sketching.
Make it fast and convenient and comfortable. Improve the fare payment system, the boarding system, provide REAL real-time tracking information, do something to either keep stinky people off the bus, or neutralize their odor (nuclear ionization?)
Last, provide a security-alerting system, so passengers can communicate with police dispatch, without having to explain they're on a bus.
The problem is that although some forms of graffitti can be considered art, other forms of graffitti is intentionally mischevious. Even if you have a "graffitti space", I guarantee you there will be plenty of "taggers" who will ignore it and focus on etching into a window or tagging a seat so that they can permanently leave their mark.
Plus, I agree with the previous comment that we should not reward criminal behavior.
Anyone who thinks tagging should be legitimized should read this article first:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D929LGMO4&show_article=1
Please do not paint over the windows, or cover tham in any other way so you can't see clearly out of them. This is the most important and interesting thing to do on a bus, look out the window. The Tide painted over the windows some years back and I felt absolutely claustrophobic and frustrated, and wanted to strangle the idiot who made such a decision.
I encourage empathy and understanding, and I also encourage the notion that public transportation is there for the public good. This extends beyond merely moving people from point A to point B. While this is it's primary purpose, a bus can also serve as a mode of expression, a way to help kids who may fall into the traps of "tagging crews" or much worse, full-blown "gangs."
I agree with the first poster, who said that "tagging crew is just a gentle euphemism for gang" - but what is the best way to react to these crews. To push them away and respond to them harshly, which, as you may see if you read the breitbart article, means that they will often begin to react with violence.
Instead, we should be listening to taggers and trying to understand the reasons why they tag. They are often young artists with a lot of passion for what they do, but a failing educational system and lack of community resources results in them taking their art to the only place they feel safe, the only place they feel they have any ownership - the streets and alleys of our neighborhoods. We should give these artists a chance, and with the correct monitoring systems and organization, our buses could be works of art created by the community, and more importantly, a way to help the community avoid the violent anger of passionate youth pushed aside.
To the original poster of this article - I would love to speak with you more about this. My email is fredbeebe2021@yahoo.com.
I don't believe that transit buses should be used as a forum for public art. While public transit agencies are public agencies, they also need to maintain a positive image in order to ensure support from the community. Also, the exterior of a transit vehicle would be better used to advertise the service (thereby encouraging more riders), rather than using it as a blank canvas for street artists.
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