A Look Back at Norway's Nuart Festival, a Gathering of Street Artists From L.A. and Around the World

While the article by Shelly Leopold below describes me as an opportunist as opposed to an artist, it does show some of the wonderful AR quickly pulled off by the Re+Public team at this years NuArt festival. Artist's outdoor works for NuArt face harsh Norwegian conditions and paper works by Swoon are particularly susceptible to the elements. Bringing them back with AR seemed a worthy endeavor. Look for more from Re+Public in the next few weeks as we officially launch in 2013. 

VIA LA Weekly

In Stavanger, Norway, every September for the past 12 years, Nuart, one of the largest street art festivals in the world, transpires. Closeted in the beautiful Fijords, Stavanger is a quaint, oil-rich community with a high standard of living, sometimes making the list as most expensive in all of Europe. However, it is not easy to get to, rains 20 hours out of every day (at least in the fall) and has a zero tolerance law when it comes to tagging and graffiti. A perfect spot to host preeminent street art and its artists? More [HERE]

Landlords Have a Ball With Times Square Billboards

VIA The Wall Street Journal

It’s a good time to be a billboard in Times Square.

As explored in an article in Wednesday’s Journal, One Times Square—the mostly empty office building that hosts the New Year’s Eve ball drop—takes in more than $23 million a year from signage alone, according to mortgage documents that offer a rare, detailed look at the rents the property receives. More [HERE]

Konbit Shelter: Sustainable building in rural Haiti

I dont usually post things which are not related to advertising and art in public space but on this christmas eve I am making an exception. The Konbit shelter project is a sustainable building project that Calledonia Curry, aka Swoon, began after the devastating earthquake in 2010. The crew is going back to continue their work and are running a kickstarter campaign to fund it. Callie is one of the most interesting and wonderful people I have had the pleasure to meet and her dedication to community building and outreach is unparalleled. If you have any money to give this holiday season, please consider donating to the Konbit Shelter project. I can promise you it will be money well spent. Please donate [HERE]

New Work by Ludo - Bendy Warhola

Ludo just sent over this new work titled Bendy Warhola. With a consistent stream of takeover imagery Ludo keeps us impressed and wanting more.

An Ad Takeover Inside an Ad Takeover Inside an Ad Takeover

Over the years I have grown to love the phonebooth at Spring street and Bowery. It sits adjacent to Jay Maisel's infamous building, famous for its ever changing street art and graffiti exterior, and home to some interesting moments in the evolution of the street art scene. A while back I did a small takeover of this phonebooth for the White on White series. After installing the photograph of that takeover back at the location it was originally taken, it only seemed appropriate to continue to do so as the resulting images carry the weight of all of the documented takeovers before them. When I went back this time my favorite phonebooth looked a little beat up and frankly on its last legs. Only time will tell how far this project will go. Enjoy!

3rd round of installation

 2nd round of installation

 2nd round of installation

These iPod Ads Are Incredibly Familiar

These iPod ads looks incredibly familiar. The use of multiple ad frames and the woven pattern all remind me of work I have done in the past. Strange seeing some of my thoughts translated into advertising content, even if there is no direct correlation. 

Where is Due Process - CDC Action

VIA: The CDC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 14, 2012 - San Francisco, California

Liberated Billboards Salute U.S. Drones

The California Department of Corrections (CDC) has unveiled a new billboard campaign to welcome unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, into the U.S. airspace system.

On December 13, 2012 the CDC successfully apprehended and rehabilitated billboards across San Francisco, including the intersection of Folsom and 12th Street. The CDC released the corrected ads to support our colleagues in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), who have been mandated by the FAA Modernization and Reform Act to integrate drones into American airspace by 2015.

As a public-private partnership between the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security, the billboards feature a Predator drone patrolling the skies above a pastel-tinted suburban neighborhood. A missile streaks from the drone and bears down on adjacent text, which asks the question: WHERE IS DUE PROCESS?

The liberated ads can be seen on the CDC website at www.CorrectionsDepartment.org.

As a private correctional institution, the CDC urges the rapid adoption of unmanned aerial vehicles by domestic law enforcement, which will introduce all Americans to the safety, discipline and security found in California’s penal facilities. Recognizing the benefits of increased efficiency found in private industry, the CDC applauds the use of drones to streamline and improve government operations. Unmanned aerial vehicles relieve federal courts of time-consuming litigation and simplify legal procedures under the executive branch, as demonstrated by the successful executions of U.S. citizens Anwar Al-Aulaqi, Samir Khan, and 16-year-old Abdulrahman Al-Aulaqi in Yemen last year.

The corrected billboards are currently at liberty and seem to have successfully readjusted to public life. However, these ads will remain under surveillance by department staff to prevent recidivism and any potential lapse into prior criminal behavior.

Founded in 1994, the CDC is a private correctional facility that protects the public through the secure management, discipline and rehabilitation of California's advertising. The department was initiated by individuals who felt that public correctional facilities were insufficiently managing the state's most criminal elements and that effective care and treatment would improve under the supervision of a private institution.

For more information on the department’s operations and programs, contact the CDC Office of Communications at cdc@revolutionist.com.

Vermibus Doing Amazing Work You Should Know About

Vermibus, a Berlin based ad takeover artist had a nice article on the Atlantic Cities website recently. His newest work, captured by photographer Just, is right there at Checkpoint Charlie, glaring back in all its bleakness. The process is great, and the results are quite beautiful. 

With this kind of placement I'm enjoying Vermibus as a relatively recent and strong addition to some amazing artists who happen to largely work over advertising. It's quite fantastic. Check out this process video below if you havent already seen it. 

Also see his No Ad project [HERE]

New Work by Peter Fuss 2012

This new work by Peter Fuss comes a bit late to my site but I just love this image. The juxtaposition of the church and mural in the back make for fantastic placement in my mind. See more work by Peter Fuss [HERE]

Watch OX at Work in 2008 - Amazing

Watch OX work his magic in broad daylight in 2008. Amazing

Brandlaism Project's - Cultural Values

The Brandalism project has a few new articles on culture and advertising that are definitely worth taking a look at. Below is the start of one I found interesting but take a look at them all. Also, keep an eye on these guys becuase with dedication this deep I dont see them going anywhere soon.

VIA Brandalism Website

As artists we want to understand our culture – the spaces and places where society tells its stories about itself. These are the same spaces and places where our individual and collective values are expressed. In western culture it is advertising that dominates these spaces.

If we look at the statistics for 2011, we can see how much of our culture is influenced by advertising – 100% of television revenue comes from advertising, 100% of radio funding, 80% of our newspapers and around 50% of our magazines are funded by advertising revenues. Sponsorship by commercial companies underwrites most of our cultural institutions and public services including our museums, galleries, transport networks and universities. This subsidization of public institutions and services can be beneficial however it means that a large amount of our cultural spaces and places are controlled by large multinational corporations because they control the flow of money and with this power they get to say who says what, where. This leaves little democratic control and influence in the hands of the public. More [HERE]

NEKO - Consumers Go Home

NEKO isn't happy about the holiday crowds on one of the busiest shopping streets in the world. This influx of outsiders required a little of his attention. 

Will L.A.’s Digital Billboards Be Going Dark? And If So, When?

The hits just keep on coming. It does not matter if the company is a small time wildposting OOH like NPA outdoor, or a mega giant like CBS, the quest is for profit without consideration. Something about the practice of selling public space to the highest bidder for commercial products we all don't need, makes you act above the law. I do not understand why our cities allow OOH companies to outright bully them despite having clear set laws imposed by citizens. The fact that we spend so much to defend ourselves from these agressive business maneuvers, instead of filling our schools with more teachers, boggles my mind. The business as a whole has proven its inability to get along with our cities and our rules and should be outright banned from operating at all. We would all be better off for it. 

VIA Ban Billboard Blight

Yesterday’s California Appeals Court decision ordering the revocation of permits issued for 100 digital billboards in Los Angeles was ample cause for celebration by those who have been saying since 2006 that the backroom deal struck with Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor to allow more than 800 of the brightly-lit signs with their rapidly changing messages was illegal because it violated the city’s own ordinances. More [HERE]

NPA/Contest Promotions on the Verge of Collapse? Or Just the Best Birthday Present Ever?

DISCLAIMER: This post is based on completely unauthenticated conjecture and potentially inaccurate information. That said, PublicAdCampaign has for 10 years made outdoor advertising in public space a core issue in its campaign to understand how public space can be used in more authentic and productive ways. On that journey we have made friends and enemies. Those friends sometimes tell us things. 

The short story: PublicAdCampaign noticed NPA outdoor was running hundreds of illegal bilboards totaling hundreds of thousands of square feet of illegal signage in NY. We ran an illegal civil disobedience project called NYSAT that reclaimed nearly 20,000 square feet of that signage for public projects. Documentation [HERE] Over 100 people participated in two events, 9 were arrested, 360 hours of jail time logged, 10k in legal fees and one emboldened public later, things started to change. 

First the illegal ads went white, but not with our makeshift buckets of low grade housepaint, with the paper posters of the company itself. For whatever reasons, the city had come out in force and I was ecstatic thinking that direct action projects like NYSAT could have near immediate affects on public space. More projects were planned for other cities and PublicAdCampaign forged on to new destinations ripe for civil disobedience with a social consciousness. In fact, some of those illegal billboards that were painted white eventually came down completely. There was fire in our bellies.

 

But then it began, the illegal signage became active again, topped with a message about prizes and raffles. It seemed that NPA had dodged a bullet (no doubt with serious legal prowess) by dissolving as a company and re-emerging as Contest Promotions. The new bussiness model walked a tightrope directly over the heads of the city itself demanding that the advertising they once illegally posted, was not advertising at all but now, representations of products that one could find inside the building. By this definition the advertising images (movie posters, albums and fashion) were no different than a deli awning. If you could win a taylor swift poster inside this parking garage, they could cover the facade with taylor swift signage and call it legit. It was legal gymnastics of olympic proportions.

On my birthday, I received a wonderful email from a little bird telling me of things to come. There were sordid details that I am unable to communicate but the long story short was...

"NPA/Contest Promotions is over as of Tues there will no longer be a single panel left with AD copy on them. The City is issuing restraining orders against everyone and finally they have cracked the case against the partners and left them w/bankruptcy as the only option. All the panels will be white washed and removed by the city - white washed first - by Tuesday 4:30 pm."

Again, this information comes from an unknown and potentially untrustworthy source. That said, I anxiously await tomorrow and hope to see the streets go white as we bid farewell to a devious company now called Contest Promotions. I am obviously skeptical. The company has done a great job of reaping huge profits at the expense of the public good, by making the city spends massive amounts of money to police laws which its citizens have demanded. They act in self interest while using the space which we so desperately need to serve the many. It is not only a crime what they have done, but a disservice to society brought upon us by greedy individuals. For over three years we have awaited this day.

I look forward to their departure.

PosterBoy in Miami

Wherever there are ads, there is PosterBoy taking a crack at them with incisive low brow critiques. They stand out at you and make their point bluntly, a detournement that often cant be missed for its jarring cultural and capitol criticisms. This piece in Miami was hand painted and I thought a bit more soft because of it, making it one of my favorite from the artist yet.

What Should New York's Phone Booth of the Future Look Like?

While I am positive this will not eliminate the advertising on the sides of phonebooths, re-imagining NY's iconic sidewalk stalwart in this day and age is a good idea. Community hubs sounds like a good place to start to me. Submit your proposals to the Reinvent Payphones Page!

VIA CurbedNY

When was the last time you used a public phone booth? There are still 11,000 of them around the city (down from 35,000 15 years ago), but thanks to cell phones, most people barely even think about pay phones, let alone use them. People have experimented with transforming the booths into things like mini libraries and...More [HERE]