well i’ve been a bit fucking slack really (that’s depression for you), but after taking much time off over the ‘festive season’, i’m starting again with a new approach: i’m going out in the middle of the day with the ambitious aim of being ‘caught’ every time — i’ll bore you with the details of why a bit later.
(for those people who hate ‘inverted commas’ being placed around ‘words’: i use inverted commas more freely now than i might have otherwise because i think people like you should get something better to hate on — if you think properly about what really matters most, and as a consequence can only feel passionately in accordance with that deep reflection, you will then find inverted commas are a non-issue, and you may become a better person)
i went out for the first time this year on february 14th to ‘southern cross station’, the new spencer street station, unique for the way it sells out the main/entrance area of the station to one advertiser (the future?).
some pictures:
the police pulled the posters down off the panel i had just finished when they rocked up (that’s what they are doing in the last photo above), but as it was such a hot day, the posters on the other two panels had dried.
it seemed like if they were able to pull off all the posters they wouldn’t have charged me, but because some were well stuck they said they were going to charge me (with posting bills i think) – they did a field interview, took my details, confiscated my paste bucket and brush, then let me go.
for my next outing i went to flinders street on the 27th of february to cover over some video screen ads, i had covered 3 screens and was pasting up the fourth when some ticket inspectors came over, flashed their badges and put their body between my paste brush and the corporate video screens.
then the cops came (they had been alerted by a concerned citizen), they spoke of charging me with criminal damage, then wilful damage, then settled for giving me a $276 fine under some transit act thing because it was in a train station (i’ll contest the fine in court, just for a bit of fun).
more pictures:
this guy below in the white shirt is a dibber dobber, i can only assume that he wears nappies:
here he is in the process of dibber dobbering to the police booth:
here he is admiring justice being done with his assistance:
what a fuckhead, i feel sorry for him and his stupid brain, having to suffer such a stupid brain together.
once the police were talking to me, the metro employees implored the cleaners (who had previously shown little concern about my actions) to remove the posters from the video screens — they did so promptly, leaving no sign of my activities as the police fined me for my activities.
i think next time i’ll go out in and around the cbd, not inside a public transport station, and while i expect to be caught, i might get away with it for a bit longer so that more people might get to see what i’m doing and read what i’m saying, instead of all posters being removed immediately.
okay, the reasons for this change of approach:
i had been going out at night because no one is around, the paste is dry by morning (no member of the public could get pasty by accident) and it is clear i was responsible without me having to be caught in the act.
i basically couldn’t be fucked interacting with anyone if i could achieve the desired effect while keeping confrontations to a minimum and providing myself with a more relaxing working environment.
it ended up that the ad company got too good with the cleaning (meaning a high percentage of posters were gone by the start of the next day), the police didn’t really care and were doing nothing, and i was going out in the middle of the night for basically no reason (going out in the middle of the night was a little inconvenient anyway).
so now, even though i am still not enthused about dealing with members of the public with punitive consciences and a confused and irritable constabulary, going out during the day seems the best option for both getting the message across and causing the confrontation with the legal system.
as it turns out, i have only been approached so far by supportive or inquisitive members of the public, even the security staff at southern cross station were apologetic for having to call the police on me.
one security guard started pulling off the posters as i was putting them up, but as i explained what i was on about and how i feel advertising is a destructive social force, he realised he largely agreed with me, didn’t like what advertising did to children, so he then allowed me to continue until the police arrived.
he said when he first saw me he thought i was some sort of tagger, just trying to put my own thing up, but once he realised it was a political thing he was much more understanding.
i’ll be back with more photos and reports of how i go around the city in the next few weeks.
