01.04.11 - 05.04.11

More time has flown by without even realising! I am starting to really worry how quickly it is all happening!

Friday Morning I went into university to find my theory lecture had been cancelled, so I waited for the next lecture which was at mid day, in the coffee house with my sketch book. We then had our lecture on the Danube strategy and at the end explained our proposals for which aspect of the study we would be looking at.

Saturday was a mixed day for me. I returned to the Danube canal by Schottenring to continue painting my piece and photograph my work properly, only to find a group with their rollers and paint buckets priming the wall. I felt the money I had spent on paint and hours I had put into the piece disappear. It was very frustrating as they had no regard to maybe working with some of the colours or patterns I had put painted. I believe there is the difference between Wall Art and Graffiti.

Wall Artists work with the unique character of the existing urban fabric, colours, patterns and textures. They strive to unite and nit together individual aspects and works to constantly try and improve the aesthetics of walls.

A Graffiti Artists wants only to make a statement by blanking out the rich existing canvas and place his work in a format that demands attention even if detached from its context.

I did not stay around to watch as I had the faint hope that maybe they were going to produce something beautiful and improve on what was there before. Instead I met up with Alexa and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in the sun on the canal. I retuned at the end of the day to where I had originally painted only to find the group were clearly not experienced graffiti writers, as to be honest their work was dreadful.

It took a while but I knew from the start that painting on walls has a very short life expectancy and that as it is legal anybody can paint there. In the UK the unwritten rule ‘you do not paint over unless you can improve’ clearly does not count here. A lesson was learnt and by the evening it had only fuelled me with more enthusiasm to return and further improve the legal walls, my work and continue working with pieces that were successful along the stretch of the canal.

On Monday I attended Technics and Civilisation and continued my discussions on my possible essay hypothesis. I found the session interesting but rather than narrowing my thoughts down, in fact opened up a number of other possible directions. After this session I decided that I must focus more clearly now and begin writing my essay.

Tuesday morning I attended my Image processing class and we were introduced to our next assignment. Every week I feel I am learning more useful tools and am able to apply these to my other work which has proved very helpful.