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Is graffiti vandalism or art?
Graffiti art is like if someone gives the permission for you to do it, and the other
one is if you don't get permission and you're just going along doing it on somebody else's
property.
Well if it's not allowed it wouldn't be vandalism - if somebody doesn't want it on their wall
or something.
You can get permission. Like you have to get permission or else it's illegal.
Or maybe like when somebody...when they draw a nice picture hopefully it's not…it's maybe
art. Then when people just draw something random just to do it.
Like I think you should only do like graffiti if you got asked to do it like for someone.
Graffiti is good but like it's vandalism if you do it on houses or anybody's property.
It's good to know the difference between vandalism and art.
Well if you really, if you really concentrate on when someone explains it you can understand
it quickly.
Well I think graffiti is really bad unless someone tells you to do it or it's your own
property that you're graffiting.
Graffiti is like - Vandalism graffiti would be like writing your name on a lamppost or
something, to say like Anto or something on a lamppost. Then like you can have street
art which would actually be something really nice on a huge wall like huge flowers or something.
Vandalism is just...it doesn't look nice and it just makes the area look bad. And then
other graffiti can be art so it could be at a graffiti wall and that might make it really
look nice.
Because you can see, because like there's no colour in it and like when you turn around
and like walls of estate, lampposts and traffic lights and names which no one really care
about. But if you had like nice designs like under bridges where people actually asked
them to do it would be nicer.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah that's art. But not if you're just going around, walking around
spraying things on the wall that you're not supposed to be that's vandalism and it's not
really art.
Yeah when it's art it's like inspiration for painters because sometimes graffiti is. But
graffiti is also vandalism like bad lads trying to wreck stuff and all. That's graffiti for
vandalism.
Yeah like good graffiti could be like a nice picture but bad graffiti is just kind of trying
to write their name in bubble writing or something.
Yeah because people could just do random designs that only they understand like signatures
and swiggles. Where like other people can do nice designs with lots of colour and it
makes the place look nicer, like if the place was bare they could just it would look better
colourful design on than if they just put an ugly tag with a name in it.
Actual street art where you make something really beautiful out of it not just a name
on a lamppost or on a playground or something.
The good stuff like we were looking through books and all the good stuff was like all
the art and all the bad stuff, like just writing quickly and like getting out of there and
illegal stuff that was like vandalism but we're doing some of the art stuff.
Well I think good graffiti is like so people would like the area but bad graffiti is just
trying to get them to know that they're here and like tag their names and draw pictures
but they're not very nice.
Yeah like good stuff and like you know let out what they want to do and stuff in the
graffiti and it'd be like really cool.
No I only, I didn't really know it that way. I just knew that graffiti is kinda like art
that you draw on walls and people don't really like it and it's usually just teenagers that
do it.
Yeah so if you're doing the wrong thing you won't say "ah it's just art" and that's your
excuse. So it's good to know the difference.
So like if they feel like they're out of place they could do graffiti and they think that
they might get more friends but they actually don't.
Here have a go on me marker write something on the wall. It's a buzz
What are you doing? we're gonna get caught.
No we won't. That's the buzz. We won't get caught. We never get caught.
I think they know what they're doing, doing graffiti and wrecking the place.
I'm in on my own again tonight Tony. No bingo because of vandals.
Yeah because if you're being told not to do something it makes you want to do it more.
Yeah if my ma told me not to do something I'd think maybe I'll do it to just to annoy
her or something. But you wouldn't be thinking that's the reason why not you'd just be thinking
I'm just gonna do it to annoy her. Same with teachers, especially teachers I'd say. Young
people won't listen to their teachers or maybe not even their parents. Maybe when they're
a lot younger like 7 or 8 they might listen to their parents but hitting teenage years
they stop listening.
I think down, deep down inside them there might be some art like graffiti art in there,
but I think they're just messing.
I think they're thinking they're doing graffiti but they're not. They think it's all mad they
way they can go around and write on walls but...
The people that do the tags just kind of want to be known.
They just do it so they think they won't get caught.
I think they're just thinking for a dare like, we're not going to get caught. We can just
do this it doesn't matter.
No, I think if someone did it they're probably like hurt or something that they're just trying
to get over something.
Just the self-expression so and they want to look cool or they just get pressured from
their friends.
Peer pressure. Yeah loads of times people do it because they might feel out of place
and because their friends would be all doing it and their friends would be calling them
chickens and all. So eventually they'd own up so their friends would leave them alone
but their friends won't leave them alone because once you do it once your friends will keep
on...well they're not actually your friends, they'll keep on doing it 'cos they know you'll
keep on doing it.
You should not let friends influence you in the wrong way and you have to choose the right company
It just looks like...it just looks kind of dirty on walls and buildings; just try to
keep the place clean and it just doesn't look nice.
It affects communities because it takes all their work to clean it up and they haven't
got time and it's just really nasty and people don't want to go anywhere and they're afraid
and all.
If they want to go to the library and there is graffiti and littering everywhere that's
not a safe environment and they shouldn't go.
I don't think it's good for the community like because if a child walks by and they
see it they're like "Oh yeah that looks fun I want to do that" so they'll want to copy
it.
I think it would be bad if the little kid saw their brother doing a load of graffiti
then they'll pick it up and if they had a little brother they'll pick it up as well.
If it's a nice place and they see like loads of graffiti they might stop going because
it makes the place look dirty and maybe rough.
Some old people might be living for ages and it probably wasn't graffiti back then but
it is now and maybe they don't like it.
Don't just spray paint other...'cos other people get hurt over it because they don't
want somebody to be drawing all over their property.
It makes the area look bad because you don't really want to go out in it because it looks
kind of dirty.
Is it because it shows that the area is kind of...it doesn't have nice people there. There's
people that are walking around with spray paint and it shows that the atmosphere there
isn't the best.
It's just not right for people to do that and it's not their property to be spraying
things on the wall.
It's just ruining the community and it probably makes them feel that some other people don't
care and some other people are there longer and they just want the area to look nicer.
Because like there's in alleys, there's graffiti in the alleys and there's graffiti on sometimes
houses so it's not very nice.
I think they'll never go out and they'll just stay in their house. They just won't go out
and play soccer because there's lots of rubbish on the ground and the library is covered in
graffiti that no one wants to see.
Well if you're going across the bridge or if you're about to walk across the bridge
you can usually see graffiti and that kind of puts off you because if you're walking
across the bridge and you see graffiti then you think maybe this isn't the area I should
have went to and you might turn back and leave.
But I think people might have heard of it and they might never want to go there even
if it's new, a new garden or something.
They don't realise how much accidents or how much troubles it causes.
Don't spray-paint because when you think about it you shouldn't do that because other people
has to clean up after you and that's hard work as well.
If the police catches them they have to pay usually just one little word might cost €500.
No I didn't...I was surprised when I heard I had to pay that much.
I think that's a lot of money to just fine. I would say €200 but not 500 that's a bit much
Well if they thought that the fine was €500 they'd cop on and know I can't afford €500
euro and stop doing it.
Yeah, I had no clue about the fine and I had no clue...I had a slight idea that you had
to go and clean all your tagging up but I didn't know you had to do community service
as well.
Yeah my idea was to get a graffiti wall.
They should have those places as well to say "oh you can go there and do your graffiti
and whatever". Instead of just going "oh don't do graffiti"
Yeah that would actually be good if you had one zone of a city where you could do all
your graffiti and everything. Then the other zone, just keep it clean.
So people can go in there and graffiti on the wall instead of graffiting out in public
and ruining our area.
You'd preoccupy all the kids around here so they wouldn't be doing it on walls or everything
- just writing their names.
Yeah I think graffiti wall is a good idea and then it's a bad idea. Because it is a
good idea because they might not be doing it in the area then but then it's a bad idea
because it's making them keep doing graffiti when they could just stop.
No I think that would be encouraging them to doing graffiti because it's just a wall
that they can graffiti that's not theirs and then they'll think they can do it anywhere.
Well I think a graffiti wall would be bad for the area because it would just be loads
of bad graffiti in a certain place and I don't think people would like the idea of that because
it's bad graffiti and why should we be letting them do it. And they might not even come to
it because then they'd know that now everyone else knows that they'd been doing the bad
graffiti and they'd catch them so they probably wouldn't even go to it.
It might be better the way less kids would be doing vandalism then. They'd have places
to do it like properly and legally and they'd know they can do it there and it'd be fun
for them.
If you could you could plan for stuff in libraries or in schools and places like skate parks
and all.
Yeah I think people can change if they think someone cares about them.
I think there should be something like where...I think the libraries should set it up more
often, where they can do it again and stuff.
If they did it in every library around the Dublin area it'd be very good. It would probably
stop more of the graffiti vandalism.
Well you could make this kind of...these graffiti club and then like teenagers go there and
it would occupy them.
I think they should have cameras to know who graffitied where.
Well I think if you see someone doing graffiti and you don't want it there you should get
someone older than him and tell him "you have to clean that up and scrub it down."
Well I don't know if there is anyone really responsible but if there's graffiti near you
area you could get together with someone else and you could like raise money and then buy
some paint and then paint over it or wash it off with a power washer if anyone has one.
Well we were thinking of writing a letter to the community to say that we in St. Pat's
don't like that there's graffiti everywhere and we want you to come over and do something
about it.
Yeah I think every once or twice a year we could wash it or something...the walls and
the graffitists might not like to do it anymore because they know that they're just going
to wash it off so there's no real point. We could nominate people from the community to
do it we could raise money from volunteers or from doing a walk or something.
Well I think that we could improve the park by having more things to do. So like maybe
more seats beside the river and take some of the litter out of the river and more flowers
on the other side of the river. Because they'd know that there's loads of people in the area
now and the people that are doing graffiti might know...they might realise that then
that graffiti is a bad thing.
Maybe if we did get more seats in the park that we should...that maybe if there was graffiti
every month or two we could paint over it.
There's lots of people in the community that don't like the graffiti and if they all got
together lots of people would do it and then we could paint over it and put up lots of
banners and they wouldn't like that then and they might stop graffiting.
I'd say if they came to this class they'd...if they were doing it... I think if they came
and got taught by the woman they'd stop doing it completely because like it's inspiring
the way that she taught us.