Daniel Samson

Here is a list of DVD’s and Books I have been consuming, all of them interesting in some way.

Beautiful Losers

I have already posted a video to this below, but just wanted to re-iterate how good this documentary is. Very inspiring.

Meta-Graffiti

This is basically the next steps in graffiti, perhaps… Basically its a bunch of short films about graffiti in a whole load of different styles, qualities etc. It has kids Clean Bombing trains, people creating animation from graffiti and short narratives. Its pretty much about everything except normal graffiti.

Rash

This is an Australian graffiti documentary, about the scene in Melbourne. There is some very interesting work and also an interesting attitude taken by some of the councils. What I like here is that they cover stencils, stickers, tagging and graffiti, aswell people doing wilder stuff.

Piece By Piece

This is about the history of the San Francisco graffiti culture, very interesting stuff. It starts in about 1982 and goes up to 2004.

Graffiti Instincts

This is a straight up visuals thing, just sit back and enjoy while these guys create. This is a section taken from the DVD, not the full thing.

Brasil Inspired

This is a book on Brazilian art, some of it is street art, some of it graphic design. All quite fresh and interesting though.

New Skateboard Graphics

A book devoted to skateboard deck graphics, some interesting things in here. Perhaps a little light on text though.

Concrete to Canvas: Skateboarders Art

This is about the art that skateboarders create, some of it graffiti some of gallery pieces. All sorts of styles and influences here. This book is really quite relevant to what I am doing.

Sticker City

Although the title is sticker city, its mainly about large scale stickers or pasteups. It has smaller stuff, it has 3D stuff. This is an interesting look at a variety of artists spanning the world.

While looking into stickers of all kinds and graffiti, I have come across some interesting links and bits of advice. This is a list of them.

Paste Ups

This is basically a giant sticker, where you prepare it at home, go out and paste it around town. Sometimes they are hand drawn onto paper, then cut out and pasted. Some times designed on a computer and printed. Below is a variety of pastes for putting them up.

Wallpaper Paste

This is your standard wallpaper paste, it used to put up wallpaper all over the place. I dont think its that weather resistant.

www.wickes.co.uk/Powdered-Wallpaper-Adhesive/invt/610087

Cellulose Paste

This stuff you can buy fairly cheap,it is derived from plants and is odourless. I think one of the main advantages here is that you dont have to carry some premixed paste around with you in a bucket, all you need is the powder and a few bottles of water in your backpack, this can be in a squeezy bottle for ease of spraying.

www.homecrafts.co.uk/products-Cellulose-Paste-Powder_B276.htm

Wheat Paste

This is the standard as far as I can tell, its basically flour and water boiled up, there are different measures, techniques etc. I think this is the cheapest method, but perhaps not the most long lasting.

monumentlimited.com/tutorials/how-to-make-wheat-paste/

Terror Paste

This stuff doesnt sound that nice to make, you need ground glass,wood clue and wallpaper paste. Apparently it is very hard wearing though. The only thing is that you need to use it quite quickly.

www.cultdeadcow.com/cDc_files/cDc-0402.html

Stickers

Vinyl Cut Stickers

These are the stickers you see everywhere, from bands to giant corporations. They are quite cheap and they are very weather resistant.

www.diginate.com/

Label Stickers

This is where you use a laser printer to print onto those white labels you can buy in shops. I dont think these are that durable. Or you can pay for someone else to do it, but if doing this, why not just get vinyl.

www.diginate.com/

Graffiti

Traditional

This is where you sit and create a Burner or other piece on a wall, this can be as quick and simple as you like or as time consuming, some pieces taking several hours to complete.

Stencil

A quick and dirty method of graffiti production, its quick, cheap and easily repeatable. You can use one stencil many times over.

www.stencilrevolution.com

Tagging

One of the most basic forms of urban art, this is about getting your name out there as much as you can. Using spray paints, markers or stickers. Its just about “bombing” your name everywhere.

Debris & 3D

This is where you take found objects or buy objects and stick them places, creating sculpture on the street. So Invader uses small tiles to create retro space invader style mosaics on the side of buildings, others have used toys and stuck them to walls.

This has been extended even further by people like the Graffiti Research Lab, with projects like their LED based tagging and graffiti.

Not to mention their EyeWriter project. This is a piece of software built using Openframeworks, it detects eye movements and lets someone create graffiti without using their hands on a computer, this sounds in itself as slightly useless, until you watch the video. I found it very touching.

I have been thinking and looking into a lot of aspects of city youth culture. I have been trying to take a look at the stereotypes of youth culture. One of the interesting aspects I am coming to appreciate is the huge influx of other cultures into the UK. Interestingly I have noticed things that may have started as American say and then ended up being mutated as they enter into South American culture for instance, I saw this with some of the graffiti books I have been reading. But then these visual styles come over here, continually bouncing back and forth. Of course all of this is because of the internet, being able to share styles, techniques etc quickly and easily I think has made a huge difference to how world culture develops.

This idea of global “cool” has been written about before, in a negative light here. There are indeed some interesting points to be made, it can destroy the sense of culture that a single place has. But at the same time, I think the internet promotes rapid change and evolution of ideas, because the entire thing is designed to be semi permanent in a state of flux and development. It would be interesting to see what kind of an effect the internet has on my age group, does it change the way they socialise, does it change the music they listen to, etc. I think probably Bebo is the best choice for youth social networks. Taking a look at people from certain areas of London was quite interesting.

This is quite an interesting film I watched regarding the Beautiful Losers group of artists. In it they talk about Graffiti, making, doing, being part of a culture. Running a gallery and a variety of other bits and bobs. Really worth watching. Below is the trailer.

I started writing this post a few days ago and seem to have lost the feeling and intention I had with it, but none the less I shall post what I have written already.