Graffiti Archaeology

Graffiti Archaeology
Originally uploaded by ideateller.

From the
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/arts/design/21boxe.html?ex=111958560

0&en=ef187607c2bbbab5&ei=5070">NYTimes



Digital 'Antigraffiti' Peels Away the Years



By SARAH BOXER

Published: June 21, 2005



This month the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences awarded

its annual Webby (the online equivalent of an Oscar) for the best art site

to Graffiti Archaeology, grafarc.org, a pictorial study of graffiti-covered

walls as they evolve. At first entry, the site looks like Batman's cave

bathed in blue light. You go spelunking along a railroad track until you

reach the heart of Graffiti Archaeology. There you will find a list of eight

locations in California (most in San Francisco) where graffiti grows, gets

erased and grows again.

Skip to next paragraph

Enlarge This Image

From top left: Jim Stubchaer (1949); Bill Volkmer (1955); Martin Schall

(2000); Graffiti V?rit? (2002); Ladytribe (2003); Amy McKenzie (March 2004,

May 2004); Aaron Bocanegra (July 2004); Cassidy Curtis (August 2004).



A Tunnel's Tale A historical photo of the Belmont Tunnel in Los Angeles,

1949, top left. The award-winning Web site Graffiti Archaeology traces the

tunnel's evolution from 1955, top center. From top right: the shifting look

from 2000 through August 2004, bottom right.

Related Web Site: Graffiti Archaeology

Readers

Forum: Artists and Exhibitions



Enlarge This Image

Jonathan Tobin



An Updated Look The Belmont Tunnel, Nov. 6, 2004, on the Graffiti

Archaeology site.



The creator of the site, Cassidy Curtis, a San Francisco animator in his

30's, isn't just being cute when he calls it "graffiti archaeology." It

really is archaeology. You start at the surface and then peel away layers to

look into the past. When you choose one of the locales and pick which wall

you want to see, you are shown a recent photograph first. Then you can move

backward in time or hop around, using a timeline at the bottom of the page.

You can also zoom in to see details and navigate around the surface of the

walls.



In effect, Mr. Curtis has made antigraffiti. He uncovers the layers that

each successive graffiti artist has covered up.



What's amazing is that Mr. Curtis, who was a character animator for the

movie "Madagascar," constructed his archaeological site not by taking all

the pictures himself (though he did take a lot of them) but by finding other

photographers' work and stitching together a history. At the top of each

picture is a label saying when the photograph was taken and by whom.



Take the case of the he Belmont Tunnel wall in Los Angeles. The most recent

photograph, taken on Nov. 6, 2004, by Jonathan Tobin, shows huge letters,

CAR, arched over a bricked-up tunnel. Below are blobby blue and white

letters and, farther down, scribbles.



Peel a layer back, to August 7, 2004, and CAR is still there, but just about

everything else is different. Instead of blobby blue letters, you see the

blocky black and white letters, LSC, about to be flooded by a rising tide of

shapes, colors and alphabetic flotsam.