Kinda looks * Scavy * : Vehicles & structs from RL...

[Rman Virgil]

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The subject of Scav grafitti on thier buses came up a few weeks ago. I'll add my thoughts on the matter here l8r but for now take in this work by Buenos Aires grafitti artist Nerf, highlighting his signature "cubes" style. 2 short words could be legible at normal playing distance, I think, if the whole wide side panels of the bus are used.

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[Rman Virgil]

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Military graffiti has a long history.

The 3 randomly selected attachments below are from WW 2. Check out that one from D-day. Pretty involved and intellectual. 'Course, with scale & pixel considerations, such wouldn't do with our Scavs (& NOT because they lack intellect or cannot translate their emotions into coherent terms).  

But what about the famous Flying Tigers squadron making use of the predator big cat motif ? Something else to think about - the absence of any language.  

This last also reminds me of the WW 1 battleships painted after the new school of fine art created at the turn of the 20th century, jointly by Picasso and Braque, called Cubism.  

Now take these strictly text examples, directly inspired from my first cut effort, and better suited to scale considerations.    

   
~ Resist always.    

~ Cross us not.    

~ Over our corpses.    

~ Links rot.    

~ Let us be.  
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Shorter is better from a pixel and scale vantage. That is square one. Now let's move on to other legitimate considerations.  

Egoic or ideological (excluding smut or befuddling slang, for obvious reasons) would seem areas to focus on. (Humor could be understood as a sub-catagory of either, thus expanding the areas from 2 to 3 in pure language terms.)  

Which leaves graffiti with language falling into 3 basic types that could serve meaning, if there is to be any, as I have seen from NYC to LA.  

The 3 types, with concision, represented by these examples:

Killroy here.

   

Resist to exist.

   

Bring it Mekkas.

   

In a sense, I think, the graffiti could be a way of getting at a representation of a Scav psyche, if having a serious meaning is a goal - or it can be an occasion for humor with the goal being not terribly serious at all.  

Is any particular context written in stone beyond the practicality of pixels themselves ?  

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Some more on Scavengers, thier various natures and thier graffiti to what end.  

In RL you have Scavs that range the gamut from the homeless, to survivalists, to junkers, to insurrectionists, to freegans. Some just trying to survive day to day, some trying to make buck, and some walking the talk of an ideology, peacefully or militantly. I would imagine the graffiti of each differing and refelective of where they were coming from - thier worldview if you will.  

I guess what I'm getting at is that if the graffiti is to have any meaning it would be connected to a particular understanding of what WZ Scavs are all about - thier profile.

And what is that profile in the Pumpkin canon beyond the words "barbarians" and "marauders", from The Project PoV ?

Classic demonizing propaganda that last, going all the way back, at least, to the Euro invasion of the Americas, to make the enemy sub-human and thus "justify" the several hundred years of rapine, pillage and genocide of mere "beasts" - not really human beings.

This history is why my approach in the entire corpus of my story and graphic portrayal of Scavs has been one of 4 dimensions imagined with rich cultural values alongside a core set of ethical precepts.    

But, again, this presumes the grafitti based in a story world meaning, serious or otherwise.  

Perhaps it could be based instead on what tickles players fancy on a humor continuum, irrespective of any story world Scav portrayal. There is also the pure graphic tack, without language, like the Flying Tigers.  

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Mulling over this subject of scav graffiti triggered what I call my MAIN process (Motivation, Action, Imagination, Nerve) resulting in a short story in which the following played a part, literally, metaphorically and graphically.    

   
~ Resist to exist.    

~ Frak links !  

~ All flesh.    

~ Scav on !  

 

And there you have it, another set of substantive engagements in thought, word and deed, offered almost totally in the spirit of tidying-up what seems mainly cloud storage.

That done, exiting stage left.

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[Rman Virgil]

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Some samples of RL art painted ships mentioned in the last post.

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[Rman Virgil]

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From a flip suggestion to put graffiti on a scav bus, this journey of discovery began, leading to fresh understandings and novel notions to blend in future acts of making.

Such has been the course charted that I would add to this apt cloud storage. Would submit these boons of effort beyond mere passive spectating (reformulating the consequence of syntopical explorations into pithy posts of relevance) which lead directly, on my behalf, to optimized retention and retrieval of all this new stuff, even onto dearth's desiccated byways. A learning that endures, can make new connections of a sudden from the subterranean wellsprings of an engaged & brimming mind.

In short, nothing dared, nothing to be gained for the lily livered ever languishing in sunless spaces. Who can say with conviction, yet I dare say, why bother otherwise.

So, more related stuff of interest, born directly of scav graffiti investigations.

An organization called Graffiti of War, a name that speaks for itself, takes the proceeds of its sales to benefit homeless veterans scavenging the mean streets to keep body and soul together.

Thier website:

http://www.graffitiofwar.com

Thier latest shows:

http://www.graffitiofwar.com/recent-exhibits.html

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The Post Collapse desolation of WZ can be seen as a global junkyard.

And like the hard scrabble existence in a hostile world, with predators at every turn, that our cave painting ancestors of 30, 000 years ago faced (and yet could still be moved to create what had no immediate survival benefit) I posit there would be scavs inspired to artful assemblages made from ubiquitous junk in the midst of war without end.

Here are some RL examples, attached below, of art made from junk. Why ? Because I see this as an opportunity for artists to extend the WZ canon of map feature assets, without violating it, to non war machine artifacts that are singularly creative, compelling and could serve to visually distinguish factions and their turf.

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And lastly, here's a peculiar example of art repurposing a former military installation. It was a mainland last line of defense, a fort, in 2 world wars. Abandoned, it has become both a wildlife sanctuary and an unofficial gallery for graffiti art:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... tuary.html

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[Jorzi]

The van cow actually used to be in Helsinki only a few kilometres from my home, it's made by a finnish artist. She has cows of a slightly wilder variety, which are kept very loosely, wandering the forest, finding food themselves and only returning for the night.

[Rman Virgil]

The van cow actually used to be in Helsinki only a few kilometres from my home, it's made by a finnish artist. She has cows of a slightly wilder variety, which are kept very loosely, wandering the forest, finding food themselves and only returning for the night.

How cool is that. It's one thing to see a photo that piques your interest and a whole other realm of experience to stand before the work itself. I envy you having such work in your own backyard.

In a similar fashion I consider myself very fortunate to live a 5 minute walk from the Clyfford Still Museum which is the home to over 3000 works of this towering 20th century artist whom I think of as the American Picasso in his prodigious originality. For years I could only see photos of just a few of his canvases from less than a handful of one man shows he did over the course of half a century. It is what I will miss most when I leave Denver Colorado.
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[Rman Virgil]

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It's common knowledge that WZ Scavs were inspired by Mel Gibson's "Mad Max / Road Warrior" movies.

What recently came to my attention was that a group was inspired by the same movies to create an annual event called Post Apocalyptic Wasteland Weekend were you dress and do stuff like the Scavs in the movies.

It started in 2010 so the upcomming weekend of Sept 25 - 28 will be the 5th year. This is some hardcore roleplaying.

The buddy who told me about it is going for the first time this month and is looking forward to the scav weapons demos and the arena scav combat that is styled after the "Mad Max at Thunderdome" movie !

Supposedly they are also gonna have the largest collection of scavenger vehicles assembled in one place this year so I asked him to take some photos of those for me to post in this thread sometime around the begining of Oct.. I'm hoping he gets those shots before participating in any of the combat events.

Here's the event's website with photos and vids from past years:

http://wastelandweekend.com/entertainment2014/

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