Crime Travellers.

Graffiti Seminar. Utrecht, Netherlands – 2019.

• For graffiti writers the “prime directive is getting up;

whilst style, form and methodology are major concerns,

they are secondary.”Castleman, C., Getting Up: Subway Graffiti in New York, 1982: 19.

• Therefore, only someone with a very determined “sense

of vocation will put in the necessary amount of work.”Martinez, H., ‘A Brief Background in Graffiti’ in United Graffiti Artists, 1975.

‘Getting Up’

Image Credit: thefridgedc.com

• The history of modern graffiti, its evolution and diaspora is a little

over 50 years old!

• The genesis of modern graffiti can be traced to the City of

Philadelphia – circa 1965.

• Then, as now – the ethos of graffiti was rooted in the practice of

‘bombing’.

• The over-arching objective for ‘writers’ then and now is ‘to acquire

fame’. Caputo, A., All City Writers, 2012: 4

Philadelphia

“The more people talked about me, the more I wrote”

Daryl McCRAY aka CORNBREAD

The ‘Father of Modern Graffiti’

Image credit: pinterestImage Credit: street-art

• By 1969 graffiti had migrated 100 miles north from Philadelphia to New York, where it flourished.

• By 1980 graffiti had made its way to the UK and has since spread around the world.

• In 1981, FUTURA 2000, from New York’s - Fab Five Crew was the first ‘foreign writer’ to get up on a trackside wall at Ladbroke Grove, London.

FUTURA 2000, The Westway, London - 1981

Image Credit: fatcapmagazine via Google

‘It’s a ‘Spraycation!’

What is Graffiti Tourism?

Image Credit: Ruk Image Credit: Stagramer

Graffiti is a Competition

Writers Compete For: -

SPACE

PROLIFICACY

STYLE

FAME

REWARDS

LABELS

Gif Credit: Dave Y.'s (celsius46)

TOURISTS

• Tourists can be categorized into two distinct groups.

• The ‘institutionalised’ – or regular tourist and the ‘non-

institutionalised tourist’ which includes ‘explorers’ and

‘drifters’. Cohen, E., Towards a Sociology of International Tourism, Social Research, 1972: 39: 1., pp. 164-182

• Whilst most on-tour graffiti writers are ‘explorers’ there are

exceptions. UTAH and ETHER were true GRIFTERS.

• The deviant tourists strategy is to visit places where they

can indulge in their desired deviant activity.Brunt, P. and Brophy, K. (2004). English Seaside Resorts and the Deviant Tourist Acta Turistica, 16, (1) 3-30.

To have fun

The pursuit of fame

To take up the challenge of taking out a new city OR system

The creation of a new category of writer

O.M.T.Why are writers travelling to and from various countries?

Image Credit: Tripadvisor

HAVE FUN

THE PURSUIT OF FAME THNROGH GETTING UP

Image credit: reddit.com/

TAKING OUT A NEW CITY OR TRANSIT SYSTEM

Image Credits: Google Images

INCEPTED in 2011 by MOSES & TAPS

The Latest Accolade

Image Credit: Ginko Press

What other factors have contributed to Graffiti Tourism?

The Schengen Agreement

The Fall of Communism

The Effects of Globalization – e.g., Smartphones

Cheap International Travel

Graffiti Festivals

No Dedicated Anti-Graffiti Police Units

Fractured, Insular, or no Intelligence Sharing Protocols

Other Factors

Image Credit: visitluxembourg.com

The Schengen Agreement

Image Credit: EU Commission

Image Credit: US Department of Defense

GLOBILISATION

Image Credit: production-and-consumption-bs.weebly.com

Image Credit: Boston Herald.

CHEAP TRAVEL

Image Credit: aclassictour.com

INTELLIGENCE

Image Credit: sagedatasecurity.com

• There are innumerable magazines, books and DVD’s that are commercially available in many countries.

• However, the UK graffiti magazine scene has become seriously interested with the activities of ‘BRITS ABROAD’ as well as ‘FOREIGNERS IN THE UK’.

• Many magazines and books now give over numerous pages in each issue to the activities of graffiti writers ‘on tour’.

• Additionally, there are many online sites e.g. Flickr, Photobucket, Instagram and YouTube, that provide platforms for graffiti vandals to post their trophy photos and videos.

• This has the effect of glamorising graffiti tourism whilst promoting it as a ‘cool thing’ to do and as a way of maximising an actors personal utility.

Graff Mag’s & The Internet

www.12ozProphet.com

Image Credit: egowarmagazine.com

http://aet7lmoi4advnqhy.onion

Graff World

Graffworld’s claim:

“Graffworld is a deep

web forum for graffiti

vandals around the

world. The aim of this

is to share knowledge

and information

about systems and

cities world-wide.”

EUROPE13-16 June 2019 – Wiesbaden (Germany)21-23 June 2019 – Madrid (Spain)28-30 June 2019 – Barcelona (Spain)19-21 July 2019 – Copenhagen (Denmark)26-28 July 2019 – Pristina (Kosovo)02-04 August 2019 – Lublin (Poland)09-11 August 2019 – Antwerp (Belgium)

AMERICAS27-29 September 2019 – Los Angeles (USA)04-06 October 2019 – Mexico11-13 October 2019 – Mexico18-20 October 2019 – Mexico25-27 October 2019 – Lima (Peru)01-03 November 2019 – Armenia (Colombia)15-17 November 2019 – Rio Grande/Pelotas (Brasil)13-15 December 2019 – Santiago De Chile (Chile)

MEETING OF STYLESGRAFFITI FESTIVAL

Image Credit: Gent48 & Rize AK

How do writers get

about?

Inter-Rail

Image Credit: cargocollective.com

Summer Lovin’

Case Study Redacted.

Any ??

Colin SaysellZero Graffiti Ltd.

Please ask me for a business card.

Image Credit: Reddit

Where applicable, copyright credit has been applied and no infringement is intended. This presentation is intended for scholarly, educational, data analysis, research and journalistic purposes. The presentation has been made with good intent and where appropriate, privacy has been afforded. The presentation has been created by Zero Graffiti Ltd.