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The city is revoking a party permit for Ecko and Atari's party for the new graffiti game, Getting Up. The party, scheduled for August 24, would have had a number of graffiti artists decorating models of subway cars on West 22nd Street, but after complaints by City Councilman Peter Vallone last week, the Mayor, and then city, acted to stop the block party. Even though Marc Ecko, the lifestyle brand owner who designed the game, worked with the community and actually got a permit, the NY Times reports that the city said Ecko did not say the permit was a video game party, because apparently that makes all the difference. Mayor Bloomberg said, "Look, there is a fine line here between freedom of expression and going out and encouraging people to hurt this city...Defacing subway cars is hardly a joke; encouraging people, kids in particular, to do that after all the money we've spent, all the time we've spent removing graffiti." Yeah, given the Mayor's anti-graffiti initiatives, it's not surprising he's acting this way. The Mayor added that if the live graffiti element were dropped ("This is not really art or expression, this is, let's be honest about what it is: It's trying to encourage people to do something that's not in anybody's interest."), Ecko could still get a permit, which basically takes the wind out of what the game is. Ecko's spokesman tells the Times that they may look for a private space for the graffiti decoration part of the party because "We're not going to fight City Hall. We're not going to win." Hey, is that the spirit of Getting Up? By letting the man walk all over you? Gothamist can only assume that a truly "authentic" graffiti game launch party - yes, a totally contradictory turn of phrase - would have some sort of underground party as well.
And on a side note, the Daily News say they reported the "initial outcry about the event" from City Councilman Vallone yesterday, but we read about it in the Post last Friday.
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It is in the interest of street art to NOT have coorporate or government approval. As soon as street art is given a proper place in the coorporate/marketing/city government world, it will destroy it as an art by taking away it's very reason for existence. Long live street art! Long live the goon squad!
I'm more concerned about the censorship part of it.
this is not at all about freedom of expression for Atari & Ecko, this is about a video game company and a millionaire clothing company owner trying to make more money by pimping a valid urban phenomenon to kids.
C makes a good point. If it was a genuine case of government censoring the arts, I'd be upset. But it's not - it's about a corporate party to promote a product.
Regardless of your feelings for Ecko, Atari, or the whole sell out culture argument, should the mayor be allowed to pull the plug on an event that involved an artistic component he didn't find favorable. We can argue all day long about corporate sponsorship of the underground, but this is outright censorship. And regardless if it's a corporate giant or 20 graffiti writers, shouldn't they be allowed to express themselves without restriction?
Just asking....
Bucky, it's the idea that the art being created is a replica of illegal activity which has a huge and storied history in NYC: train bombing. It's the same idea as if someone wanted to, say, stage a re-inactment of lynchings in the South or the riots in LA under the guise of art...even if there was a video game component. Not that it's on the same level but you get the idea. I think the mayor is wrong and it's pure censorship, but that's the way things are.
Graffiti is boring.
matt made that flyer... but the type is screwed up
reading these makes me want to stab myself in the face...
and Hector..."Graffiti is boring."? Dood, you participate in a blog...it clearly doesn't take much to entertain you. The reason graffiti is boring to you is because you don't do it. But obviously this $hit wasn't put up FOR you. It's about the action of "bombing". I find it hard to believe you wouldn't stop and watch for a minute if stroling home at 3am one night caught a kid, 50 feet in the air catching a fill while hanging on with one hand off a 6 inch i-Beam.
To the rest...this is censorship. It's not the mayors preferred brand of "art" so he doesn't like it. I don't expect him to, it IS still held as a crime and he IS the mayor. What I do expect him to do, is, however, honor a permit for an entirely legal event, that was approached in all the legal and necessary ways of getting a city permit. Otherwise, why wouldn't it be resonable for the city to stop alowing permits to those who shoot music videos in the city that have criminal violence in them, or anything else that is deemed reprehensible by the governing party.
to the cat who said...
"this is not at all about freedom of expression for Atari & Ecko, this is about a video game company and a millionaire clothing company owner trying to make more money by pimping a valid urban phenomenon to kids." I would typically aggree with this, had it been any other party. BUT a respect for graffiti culture is what ecko is based on. Keeping it tied to the legit rawness of the culture is more of what this game is than anything. Granted i don't even play video games, and I'm more of an advocate for "get off your ass and do the real $hit" as opposed to synthesizing it on a screen, but the market is there. So fill it. That's the hustle, and we all know you can't knock the hustle. Besides this won't endanger graffiti, because there will always be disenfranchised fame-starved kids and graf always be illegal. That's all you need for that bread to rise.
Sure the're might be more yoyo's trying to bomb after all this, but that inevitable with a pop culture that we have these days with rapping McD's comercials and Xtreeeeem Mountain Dew. It just means more kids that AREN'T me getting locked up for this garbage, while I'm running around under the radar.
some good points above, but I disagree on 2 points:
just because a market is there, it doesn't mean that it needs to be filled.
I thinkt that it would be pretty safe to say that the game is not made with just having a respect for graffiti culture in mind.
yo people graffiti is all bout gettin respect and expressing your self and the game just gives u a lil tast bout what we do in real life.(((graffiti 4 life)))by .unique. +88_________________+880_______
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