Guerrilla Subway PSAs Urge Riders Not To 'Snitch' On Farebeaters

VIA: Gothamist

The MTA's hectoring poster campaign aimed at combatting fare evasion is getting a radical makeover, thanks to an anonymous group of New Yorkers with a simple message for their fellow riders: "Don't snitch. Swipe." More [HERE]

Rushing to Top Up Your SEPTA Key? You’ll Have to Watch This Ad First

VIA: Philly Magazine

It’s a rare thing, these days, to find a true example of what marketers call a captive audience. It used to be the case that an advertiser could slap an image along the inside of a subway car, and your options were essentially twofold: Distract yourself with a book or magazine, or give the ad a read (or three). It’s not like you had anything better to do as the train rumbled along. More [HERE]

Up-And-Coming Artists Transforming Parts Of SEPTA Subway Stations

VIA: CBS Local Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Every day Philadelphians are bombarded by advertisements. They’re on their phones, TVs and buildings. But would they feel differently if the ad space was actually art space? More [HERE]

Anarchists Poetry Greet Commuters in London

Special Patrol Group started the year off with some illicit anarchist poetry. In 2018 let us all remember that we are many, and they are few. More often than not your troubles are my troubles and mine yours. Solidarity with your fellow man and woman is the only way to build a collective will that could demand equality for all. 

Anarchists greet commuters in London with subversive anti-capitalist poetry on the first day back to work for many.

"Anarchist poetry" was illicitly installed into advertising spaces on the London Underground this morning. The designs mimicked Transport for London's official Poetry on the Underground campaign, in what is thought to be an act of "Subvertising". The poems both have an anti-capitalist theme, and their installation was timed to coincide with what is the first day back to work for many Londoners.

The ad-hack has been claimed by Special Patrol Group, who said:

"We wanted to invite our fellow workers to think about the nature of work under capitalism - especially after we've all just had a few days off. If you don't like it, perhaps 2018 can be the year we act together to replace useless toil with useful work and be done with Bullshit Jobs forever. A three-day week sounds nice, doesn't it?"

The Masque of Anarchy, written in 1832 by English Romantic poet Percy Shelley, has been updated to give it a feminist twist. After a year that saw scandals around the gender pay gap and sexual harassment, Special Patrol Group say they changed the poem to read "Women of England" (where it had previously been addressed to the men of England) to highlight the fact that "women are particularly oppressed by the workplace".

They further explained:

"From shitty pay to sexual harassment, women have the worst of it in the workplace. We hope that will change in 2018." 

The self-described "shadowy subvertising organisation" claimed that hundreds of the posters have been installed on the Underground by a network of autonomous volunteers. The group carried out a similar intervention on the first day back to work in January 2015:

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/yvq9qg/david-graeber-pointless-jobs-tube-poster-interview-912

Best,

SPG x.

MTA Board Bans Alcohol Ads on Subways, Buses and Trains

NEW YORK CITY — The MTA canned the sale of advertising to beer, wine or liquor producers, according to a decision made by board members Wednesday.

The MTA won't sell any new ads for alcohol of any MTA property, which includes Metro-North train cars, subway stations, inside cars, and on MTA buses, members of the authority's board decided at a Wednesday meeting. More [HERE]

  Vermibus - In Absentia from Vermibus on Vimeo.
Vermibus just released a beautiful new video shot by the talented Xar Lee, called In Absentia. It features his fashion image abstractions in the beautiful Paris subway setting, accompanied by soothing seductive audio. It is a short and seductive look into large scale public project, and of course I also love the fact that the dramatic ending happens at Jourdain station.

He writes. "Deliberating various imposed standards, Vermibus has built a recognizable oeuvre, which culminates with his project entitled “In Absentia”. Works from the project unveil another introspective layer of Vermibus’ work, where macrocosms of consumerism intertwine with microcosms of the artist’s subjective journey into the depths of the self. The project began with the creation of 21 solvent-based posters, each of them bearing an individual inspiration and significance, hidden in the title. As a crown of the series, Vermibus produced an atmospheric video, an autonomous work of art, a clear step forward from the documentary short films he was creating to date. “In Absentia” video is a brooding visual tale about urban life, cleared of every and any distraction, including people, alluding to a plethora of issues the citizens face daily, from visual pollution to personal loneliness. Inspired by one of the biggest subway systems in Europe, the Parisian Metro, the artist installed all the posters on the scene, where the video was shot as well. Asking some of the crucial questions about present reality in the post-truth world, “In Absentia” opened a possibility to observe Vermibus’ work in broader context, surpassing the realm of public urban art."

Vermibus Website [HERE]

NYC subway to get thousands of digital ad screens

Looks like the inevitable is happening and the moving image will become a more integral part of your daily commute.

VIA: NY Times
More [HERE]

Cuomo To Corporate America: Please Adopt A Subway Station

VIA: Gothamist

Governor Andrew Cuomo stood before a room of labor leaders and business interests at an Association for a Better New York breakfast Thursday, flashing a slide decorated with corporate logos: Blackstone, Estee Lauder, Hearst, MasterCard. For contributions in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Cuomo said, private business can join these companies in a new initiative to sponsor subway improvements. A separate "adopt-a-subway" program will allow companies to sponsor individual stations. More [HERE]

The Citizens Advertising Takeover Service - Washington, DC

As much as I love the idea of a cat advertising filled station, I cringe at the idea that in order to rid ourselves of the oppressive force of advertising in public space we need to crowd fund 30k+. Not only does this money support the ad infrastructure it critiques, but it further ingrains a public in which purchase is the determining factor for who gets a voice. Ugh. If they make thier goal I will take a field trip to DC to enjoy this. Everyone's invited. 

More [HERE]

An Artist Swapped 'If You See Something, Say Something' Subway Posters With Pleas for Civic Engagement

VIA: City Lab

On Wednesday night, an artist swapped out a handful of MTA’s iconic “If You See Something, Say Something” subway posters with a more politically charged call to action. City Lab [HERE]

Gothamist [HERE]

MTA's 'See Something Say Something' Ads Have Been Remixed (Now With 100% Less Fearmongering)

Simple, effective and all around proper public participation in the curation of our shared environment. Bravo to those at the helm of this project. 

VIA: The Village Voice

The MTA's long-running "If You See Something, Say Something" ad campaign has already been through nine official iterations over its lifetime. Now, thanks to some anonymous New Yorkers, there's a tenth, unofficial version, that attempts to repurpose a campaign born of the fear and suspicion of the 9/11 era into a statement of solidarity in the Age of Trump. More [HERE]

Subway Therapy Project Returning Public Space to its Utopic Potential

Be it graffiti, street art, public art, or just plain scrawl, the need to mark and make meaning in public space is intrinsic to its proper function for both the individual and the collective. By monopolizing the walls of our city, and normalizing commercial discourse over public interests, advertising erodes our ability, desire, and right to use public space in meaningful and impactful ways. The Subway Therapy project at Union Square is a fine example of necessity overcoming expectation, and of public space returning to its utopic potential. More info about the Subway Therapy project [HERE]

All the ads in this London subway station are gone ... and replaced with cats

When you pay the advertising company to replace ads with art or other public messaging you are reinforcing the belief that public space should be bought and sold to the highest bidder. I love this idea but I hate that it doesn't demand more.

VIA: CNN

If your dog travels with you, it might be better to avoid Clapham Common Tube station for the next couple of weeks. More [HERE]

Art Commission approves rehab of 5th Street El station, denies digital displays at SEPTA entrances

Philadelphia has a backbone and because of it they will resist the increasing digital blight blanketing major metropolitan cities across the United States. At this point I am beginning to see Intersection without the rose colored glasses they gave me a few years back when they were looking for community engagement strategies and other ways to ingratiate thier network of digital advertising structures into the NYC landscape. Thank god for Mary Tracy and the rest of the Scenic Philadelphia team. 

VIA: Plan Philly

What we won’t see at SEPTA’s 5th Street/ Independence Hall Station is digital displays on the new entrances. The Art Commission rejected the permanent installation of 42 digital outdoor displays proposed for SEPTA entrances as part of a public-private partnership. More [HERE]

A company is crowdfunding to replace all the adverts in a tube station with photos of cats

I've said it once and I will say it again, paying outdoor advertising companies to replace commercial messages with a more publicly oriented imagery is a horrendous idea. The money raised to alleviate commuters for a moment in time is much better spent advocating for the removal of commercial media from not only our public spaces, but our public media systems in general. Would you crowd fund to pay a coal fired plant to stop belching smoke into your backyard for a few hours only knowing that they would continue to do so after your funds ran out, using the money you had given them to advocate for thier own continued existence? 

VIA: Mashable

LONDON — Imagine a world in which you didn't have to go on the Internet to see pictures of cats — they were right there in front of your face on your daily commute. More [HERE]

These New NYC Subway Ad Screens Know Who's Looking at Them

VIA: Fortune Magazine

Digital advertising is going big—very big—and will soon be everywhere. The out-of-home advertising market (OOH), which includes everything from billboards to posters to Jumbotrons, is finally making a big push into the digital landscape, changing what used to be static canvases into dynamic advertising displays. More [HERE]

Riding the trains with veteran graff writer Nic 707

VIA: Vandalog

Back in 1976, Nic 707 founded the Bronx-based crew OTB, and, along with his crew, regularly hit the trains. These days Nic 707 is back on the trains. But his interventions, this time around, are eliciting mostly curiosity and expressions of gratitude form subway riders. I accompanied him last night on his Instafame Phantom Art Project. Here’s a bit of what I witnessed: More [HERE]

New PublicAdCampaign Street/Gallery Work - Collisions 2015

In 2015 I installed three simple black and white designs over three consecutive advertising panels in order to create a stark contrast with the environment that would arrest viewers and allow them to see that an intervention had taken place. I have since then continued to make interventions using this same design motif, calling it the Collisions series. Here are a few images from that series thus far. 

I have also been experimenting with Augmented Reality and my gallery work so if you are feeling ambitious, download the PublicAdCampaign app (700mb) for iOS [HERE] and Android [HERE] Once you launch the app, point it at any of the images below and enjoy some extra content buried in the digital world. 

NYC, 2015

Berlin, 2015

Paris, 2015

Paris, 2015

Barcelona, 2015

Brussels, 2015

Brussels, 2015

London, 2015

London, 2015

London, 2015

London, 2015

Paris, 2015

Collaboration with OX, Paris 2015

Ad-free art on the underground: Düsseldorf's 'pure' new metro line

These days, our public spaces are thought of as opportunities to tap into the vast wealth of attention that we collectively possess as we move through our shared environments. Typically that attention is directed towards advertising and our thoughts are asked to ruminate on our relationship to the automobile we drive, the type of detergent we wash our clothes in, or the entertainment we will use to pass the hours post dinner and pre sleep. Public space as a vehicle to promote conspicuous consumption, and this demand of our attention for specified motivations can leave us feeling intruded upon, taken advantage of, or manipulated. It makes sense because this is precisely what is happening, although we might not couch it in such terms, having become so comfortable with advertising's ever presence in our lives, and particularly in our public. The truth of the matter is we are being used when we step out of the house and that is no way to be treated in a space which is at least partially your own.

The recent opening of several new train stations in Dusseldorf, Germany seems to deeply understand this idea, as well as the power of art to expand ones attention as opposed to focusing it singularly.

"What is perhaps most inspiring about the project is how the lack of adverts means people can be people, and not consumers. Klussmann says: “Art is often used to attract people to buy things.” But here it is just about the art and the space, and wherever your imagination takes you. "

This notion reminded me of an obvious little piece of advice that in the digital age we fail to recognize and surely follow. Our minds need, in fact thrive on down time, those moments in between when our attention is unfocused and our thoughts drift. It is in these moments of drift that my mind makes new connections and novel thoughts bubble up to the surface without prompting. In the age of smartphones, we are woefully inept at allowing ourselves these moments of drift as we incessantly check Facebook, Instagram, Feedly, or some other constantly updating source of attention fodder attempting to fill those down moments.

Public space treated correctly can allow our minds the space to drift, or it can be used as a vehicle to distract us and keep our minds mulling over the minutia of capitalism. It seems like we should demand the later as it is in our best interest, and yet a newly minted subway system like this one in Dusseldorf is a noteworthy anomaly.

VIA: The Gaurdian

It was an unusual project,” says Berlin-based artist Heike Klussmann, a lead designer of the new U-Bahn line, which opens on Saturday in the German city of Düsseldorf. Fifteen years in the making, the Wehrhahn metro line consists of six new stations running east to west beneath the city centre, collaboratively designed by architects, artists and engineers. “Normally the construction part happens first and then the artists are commissioned. Here the architects, artists and engineers worked together from the beginning,” she says. More [HERE]

Image of the Stockholm subway as another example of Germany's progressive use of thier public spaces.

NO AD NYC: Another Face In The Crowd by Hugh Lippe

As you may have heard, NO AD NYC is shutting down at the end of the month so that we can work on other projects and take the time to look for meaningful institutional support for the NO AD app. Before we do, we are blessed to be able to present a final exhibition from my good friend Hugh Lippe. I went to school with Hugh at the Rhode Island School of Design and we were close friends. As photography students we worked with each other on numerous projects and even presented our final graduating exhibitions together in 2002. 

I have always felt strongly about Hugh's eye. He has an uncanny ability to see deeply with his lens and find beauty in often unsettling subjects and environments. When I saw his most recent body of work entitled Another Face In The Crowd, I reached out to him immediately, knowing I wanted to present them as the final NO AD exhibition. These photos of NYC residents are intrusive and voyeuristic, and yet compassion runs through them all as I find myself deeply attached to the emotional lives that my mind builds for these individuals. A huge thanks to Hugh for allowing us access to this unfinished body of work and I hope everyone takes a moment to explore this final exhibition of photographs. 

Today, 10-06-15, the NO AD app updates to feature Another Face In The Crowd, a selection of images from Hugh Lippe's ongoing body of work by the same name.

Another Face In The Crowd: In Hugh Lippe's latest body of work the faces of NYC come into sharp, and often unsettling focus. These photos, taken with a telephoto lens, isolate the individual and hone in on the subject with a compelling sense of compassion. Presented here as an unfinished project and as the final exhibition for the NO AD app, we hope NO AD viewers will find a glimpse of themselves in the images presented and are brought closer to those around them. We can't thank Hugh enough for his incredible work, so befitting our final exhibition.

Originally from Texas, Hugh relocated to the East Coast in pursuit of an art education. Having graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002, he developed a strong foundation within the arts. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including the Amsterdam-based museum FOAM. Hugh has had several solo exhibitions, his most recent, "The Dirt Under My Nails" exhibited at Rare Gallery NYC.

Hugh attributes his honest, humanistic and at times 'raw' approach to the many colorful memories he has experienced over the years.