The Indypendent/WVRB Radio-A Conversation with Public Ad Campaign Founder Jordan Seiler

A while back I was asked to speak with Danny Valdes on his first radio broadcast of Radio Provocateur on WVRB radio. You can listen to our talk here. This discussion turned into an article for The Indypendent that you can read here. We were happy to see the first comment on the article was posted by Reverend Billy himself.

Everywhere you turn in New York City, there are advertisements— posters featuring attractive models schilling perfume, pop bands promoting their latest albums and celebrities endorsing soft drinks. The Public Ad Campaign, a collective of street artists, sees the prevalence of these advertisements as an intrusion into public space. Founded by Jordan Seiler in 2000, this group is dedicated to reclaiming the city’s sidewalks, subways and street corners by creating unauthorized public art installations. The group’s latest undertaking, an ongoing project called National Bestseller, incorporates bestselling or popular books that are taken apart and then wheat-pasted into a single sheet and installed over advertisements in phone booths.

Seiler, 31, a native New Yorker born in the Chelsea Hotel, started the Public Ad Campaign shortly after returning to New York City as a graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design. What started as a personal art project soon grew into much more of an activist-oriented effort against public advertising. As Seiler explains, the group’s mission is not to wreak havoc, but to defend the first amendment. “Public spaces are really our last democratic spaces. They are the only spaces that we have left as a society in which we all have an equal voice and can have open dialogue.”

The Indypendent’s Danny Valdes spoke with Seiler about the different ways people interact with public space and corporate advertising’s threat to the urban environment in New York City and beyond.

DANNY VALDES: Is there a difference between the way art and advertising affect us in public space?

JORDAN SEILER: The difference between outdoor advertising and art is the difference between a dialogue and a monologue. So you may look at images on an advertisement and find them to be very stunning. They may attract your attention. But the intention is not to have a conversation with you— it’s to impart you with a certain piece of knowledge. Marketing and advertising have gotten very good at creating imagery and ideas that are very quickly absorbed and don’t require any attention to come back to them. But with artwork in general, and specifically with the kind of work we do at the Public Ad Campaign, the intention is to only create dialogue; to create a moment of questioning, to create a moment of serendipity where the viewer becomes engaged in the space and they start to see their environment, themselves, the person standing next to them differently than they did before.

DV: While some people may question the legality of your work, many of the ads around the city that you cover with your installations are actually posted illegally by promotion companies, most notably NPA/City Outdoor. Does the Public Ad Campaign specifically target ads that are posted illegally?

JS: The Public Ad Campaign as a group doesn’t specifically target legal or illegal ads. We are against the commercialization of public space in general. I think one of the things that people don’t think about these days is advertising’s supremacy in the public environment. We take it for granted that advertisements should be there. I do my work over legally posted advertisements to bring home the point, but one of the ways we’ve been able to rally people around the cause is by specifically targeting illegal outdoor ads. NPA/City Outdoor is one of our main targets because they’re street-level wild-posters. They operate on construction sheds and framed spaces outdoors—anywhere they can put paper onto.

DV: In 2007, the city of São Paulo, Brazil, became the biggest city in the world to pass a ban on outdoor advertising. Would you like to see something similar happen in New York City? What would be the benefits of an ad-free city?

JS: We’d love to see that happen in New York City. It’s a long way off but that’s what we’re fighting for—a public that makes that decision and asks its representatives to enact some sort of law of that magnitude. One of the things I think we’ve seen in São Paulo since this happened is an increase in people using the public environment in a way that they find beneficial for themselves. There’s been a huge increase in street murals and artwork. People are getting out there and altering the physical environment. This creates a psychological connection between the public individual and the space he or she is occupying. The idea is that you make a drawing on the wall and then you become that drawing. When you leave it behind you leave a little bit of yourself along with it, and because you’ve left a little bit of yourself at that spot you then take care of it, and by wanting to take care of that specific location you want to take care of the community that space is in. We feel like it’s everyone’s responsibility to protect public space, and we are trying to reconnect the public individual and public space.

To listen to Danny Valdes’ complete interview with Jordan Seiler, which was broadcast on his show, Radio Provocateur on WVRB, click here.

For more information about the Public Ad Campaign in New York City, visit publicadcampaign.com.

London Street Art & Design-Interview With PublicAdCampaign

I was interviewed over the phone by Cyrus at London Street Art & Design a few weeks ago. At the time I didn't realize the entirety of our conversation would be used verbatim. Normally I wouldn't want my stream of conscious ramblings to be printed, but amidst the incoherence glimpses of my un-adulterated thoughts come through. There is some interesting content on some fantastic artists in the 3rd issue of this web magazine and I suggest taking a look.

"Much of the essence of street art and conscious living in general has the reclamation of our warped public spaces at its core. The endless pervasion of our realities by apathy and advertising alike has slowly eroded a sense of self defined community and a creative pride in the world we live in. Yet while many artists pirate the medium of public advertising to sow seeds of self questioning, few have been as dedicatedly activist as New York’s Jordan Seiler and his Public Ad Campaign. From hijacking legal advertising to creating forums for open and enlightened debate to taking on the behemoths of vested interest themselves, he has tirelessly worked to open up the conversation about the nature of our society and shine a light on indifference and conditioning. He spoke to us." [MORE]

Flair Magazine-Interview With PublicAdCampaign

You often meet interesting characters on the set of fashion shoots, but Jordan Seiler has a really unusual story. A photography lighting technician, he is also a very busy artist. He created PublicAdCampaign, a project that promotes, as works of art, the illegal occupation of public spaces designated for advertising. His goal? To protest against the distorted use of public spaces by the part of corporations and to return them to the public.

How did you start?

On a whim. I was studying at the Rhode Island School of Design and when I went home to New York and ride the subway, I thought that I would prefer seeing one of my images there instead of advertising.

What’s behind PublicAdCampaign?

Lots of money is made through advertising in public spaces. Unfortunately, we artists cannot afford to pay to exhibit our art; we can only do it illegally. Also, I would definitely like the streets more if we eliminated advertisements: it would reduce the corporate control of these places. They would return to the public, which could use it differently, more artistically.

What is your latest project?

My latest project is National Bestseller.

What is it about?

We took over the advertising spaces in phone booths with the pages of some bestsellers. It wasn’t so much about sharing the content of the book as much as the desire to return this space to the public. Books are loved and shared by many people and so it is only right that they substitute the corporate messages. It is a more democratic form of information.

And the next project?

I’ll be working with over a hundred artists and activists: we will take over 130 advertising billboards around New York.

Is there a political message behind this protest?

We move illegally and without permits, so this too is a form of “opposition”. We want the city to be returned to the public. It would be great if everyone could use it to display new and creative ideas. Public space is one of the last democratic spaces, where each one of us has the same power and the same “value” as the next person.

Working in fashion, you must have worked on the set of advertising campaigns. Isn’t that a contradiction?

Advertising is a tremendous force that guides our desires and persuades us to buy things that we might not even have thought of. When this content is in newspapers or on television or the radio, we can ignore it. But if it’s displayed on billboards, then we can only be subjected to it and we become unwitting slaves to the message, incapable of choosing. I don’t have a problem with advertising per se, but with how it is imposed on us in public spaces. So working in this industry is not a contradiction since I’m not participating in the creation of its content.

Do you know of similar initiatives in Europe?

In France they are at the forefront of this type of protest. I don’t know if this also exists in Italy.

Paola Salvatore

The 2009 Summer Arts Institute Filmmaking Workshop

This video was shot and edited by four incredibly talented high school students working in conjunction with the Tribeca Film Institute this past summer. I was excited to see PublicAdCampaign paired with two other direct action projects run by, Real Life Superhero Life, and Deborah Fisher of the Bed Stuy Meadow Project. All of these projects are ultimately about creating positive dialogue in our city about issues facing our public health, through alternative methods that better the environment and the people who live in this city. Thanks again to everyone involved and to Deborah and Life for being two inspirational public individuals.


Make it Happen

By Caroline Handel, Rayhan Islam, Milo Finnegan-Money, Rhakwaun “Rocko” Seymour

Three people in New York City, disillusioned by their political situations, have taken matters into their own hands. Make It Happen profiles each of these non-traditional activists as they tackle issues in their local communities through unusual forms of protest and with innovative ideas to make change.

World Gone Ad - Plastique Magazine

Plastique is a UK based fashion and art magazine that was kind enough to feature the PublicAdCampaign project in their last issue. A while back we posted the original text that we wrote for them. Here is the final layout and text, slightly edited to be more understandable than my original gibberish.

To all those that came out to the Lucid NYC event last night, thank you so much. To those who are still waiting on the NYSAT project micro site, we will have something up very soon, although it will be unfinished until we can figure out what can and cannot be posted to insure the protection of all those involved.

New York Magazine-Breaking Section

We were recently in the Breaking section of New York magazine after speaking to Erica Ogden for a lengthy amount of time over the phone. Erica had a wide range of interesting questions that got to the heart of some of the issues surrounding the NYSAT project and PublicAdCampaign's goals in general. Sadly none of this could be relayed in the 3 small paragraphs adorning a picture of me that I wish was left out so more text could have been included. I know this is not a function of the reporting so much as the section in which we were included. I want to take this opportunity to explain some things further.

Thank you Erica, and New York magazine for including the project in your pages. We greatly appreciate your interest and dedication to stories affecting all of our lives in NY.

First, the reasons we should exclude advertising from environments where we have no choice but to imbibe the intoxicating messages should be further explained. Advertising, without a doubt is a manipulative force. This becomes obvious when you look into the terminology advertising often uses to explain to its clients what it will be doing for them. Terms like "domination", "immersion", "saturation" pervade the language and give a good indication of advertising's intent to control viewer response. This manipulation, in pursuit of profit, has as it's goal not the psychological health of the viewer, but his or her wallet. While this may not be the worst thing in some cases, often products with commercial value fail to provide consumers with an object of any real value for their lives as productive engaged citizens of this world. Meaning these products do not enhance your relationship to your friends, neighbors, and others which you share the world with, instead offering signs of conspicuous worth used to flout your status above others. As trite as this may sound, the way you sell a Hummer is you tell the consumer it will make women swoon and guys cower in your presence. You do not tell the consumer it will get 12 miles to the gallon and help to destroy our collective environment, burdening your fellow man and making you a liability to those around you. If advertising were that honest, we would all be driving smart cars and prius'. Prone to the manipulations of advertising, we see many consumers driving Hummers unaware or blinded to the nature of their consumption. The danger of advertising's influence should be recognized for what it is and regulated, especially in those spaces where our collective identity and needs are paramount, like public space.

The article also glosses over the fact that the advertising locations we were targeting are in fact 100% illegal, quoting us as saying that "we believe [they] are put up illegally." To operate outdoor advertising in the city of NY, one must be registered with the city as an OAC and have a permit for every location that the company operates. The city requires this so that they can maintain control of an industry that often abuses the public in pursuit of ever increasing profits. Permitting is something NPA has failed to do for all of it's over 500 locations. Take for example the location at 100 avenue A where two participants were needlessly arrested in the first NSYAT project. This location, despite having a $25,000.00 fine associated with it continues to get new ad copy. This location is one of many that have been pursued by the DOB and is one of the 114 the last NYSAT project whitewashed in an attempt to bring this issue to the forefront of public consciousness. On top of this, NPA has the copyright on the term Wildposting, and admits to operating Wildposting services in NY on it's website, something which is all together illegal in the city. On top of this NPA is in a heated lawsuit with the city of San Francisco over its illegal ad locations run amok on these California residents. Clearly the company is ignoring the law and operating illegally.

Lastly, a quote taken slightly out of context needs to be amended. "I honestly believe that I’m right—that people should be allowed to make commentary like this and that I need to not be hiding." This quote came as a response to me being was asked why I use my name in association with this work and not a pseudonym. First, I honestly believe that WE are right. There were 80 participants who believe that this issue is a growing problem for this city and that our voices should be heard. At worst our actions should not be criminalized, at best we should be greeted by the city with respect for taking the initiative to help the city without interest in personal profit on an issue it is having a hard time controlling. Part of using my name is to remind people, the city, and the law that what we are doing is not vandalism, graffiti, or the wanton destruction of property. This is a project done out of the deepest respect for the city and all it's residents.

“I don’t really have a problem with advertising. I kind of enjoy it. And I’m a freelance photographer, so there are definitely times when I’ve shot advertisements. There’s a difference, though, between advertising that’s presented in situations where you have a choice as to whether or not to take in the message and places where you do not.

[More]

NY Post-Painters in Brush With Law

VIA The New York Post

By AMBER SUTHERLAND and LEONARD GREENE

Posted: 4:03 AM, October 26, 2009

Five people were arrested yesterday for defacing billboards in an effort to replace ads with art.<p> </p><br />The five were among dozens armed with paint and brushes who spread out over lower Manhattan and whitewashed billboards to "reclaim" public space as part of a protest organized by the Public Ad Campaign.<p> </p><br />Three of the artists were charged with criminal mischief and making graffiti. The other two were still being processed last night.<p> </p><br />Adda Birnir, 24, and her boyfriend were painting flowers on a whitewashed billboard on Mulberry Street when cops hauled them off.<p> </p><br />"They were being completely peaceful," said Birnir's father, Bjorn, 56, who was visiting from California.<p> </p><br />About 80 members attacked advertisements throughout Manhattan with white paint and roller brushes, and filled the new blank canvasses with their own creations.<p> </p><br />Jordan Seiler, director of the Public Ad Campaign, said his group identified about 5,000 illegal billboards in the city.<p> </p><br />"New York is a beautiful, wonderful city," Seiler said "When you fill it with commercial messages, you turn it into a commercial space rather than a public space."<p> </p><br />Representatives from National Promotions and Advertising, which posts many of the ads, were monitoring the protest, and, in some cases, called police. A spokesman for the organization could not be reached for comment.<p> </p><br />In April, a similar protest resulted in four arrests.<p> </p><br />Kaylina Holman, 18, a high-school senior from Brooklyn, managed to paint green and orange abstract shapes on an Eldridge Street billboard without getting arrested.<p> </p><br />"I don't think the public needs to constantly have corporate agendas shoved down their throats," Holman said.<p> </p><br />Jonathan Askin, a Public Ad Campaign lawyer, said there is a double standard when it comes to billboards and art.<p> </p><br />"The city has lost several millions of dollars by not combating unlawfully posted commercial billboards," Askin said. "The enforcement is arbitrary."<p> </p><br />leonard.greene@nypost.com

Five people were arrested yesterday for defacing billboards in an effort to replace ads with art.

The five were among dozens armed with paint and brushes who spread out over lower Manhattan and whitewashed billboards to "reclaim" public space as part of a protest organized by the Public Ad Campaign.

Three of the artists were charged with criminal mischief and making graffiti. The other two were still being processed last night.

Adda Birnir, 24, and her boyfriend were painting flowers on a whitewashed billboard on Mulberry Street when cops hauled them off.

"They were being completely peaceful," said Birnir's father, Bjorn, 56, who was visiting from California.

About 80 members attacked advertisements throughout Manhattan with white paint and roller brushes, and filled the new blank canvasses with their own creations.

Jordan Seiler, director of the Public Ad Campaign, said his group identified about 5,000 illegal billboards in the city.

"New York is a beautiful, wonderful city," Seiler said "When you fill it with commercial messages, you turn it into a commercial space rather than a public space."

Representatives from National Promotions and Advertising, which posts many of the ads, were monitoring the protest, and, in some cases, called police. A spokesman for the organization could not be reached for comment.

In April, a similar protest resulted in four arrests.

Kaylina Holman, 18, a high-school senior from Brooklyn, managed to paint green and orange abstract shapes on an Eldridge Street billboard without getting arrested.

"I don't think the public needs to constantly have corporate agendas shoved down their throats," Holman said.

Jonathan Askin, a Public Ad Campaign lawyer, said there is a double standard when it comes to billboards and art.

"The city has lost several millions of dollars by not combating unlawfully posted commercial billboards," Askin said. "The enforcement is arbitrary."

NY Times Artcle-A Battle, on Billboards, of Ads vs. Art

An artist called Gaia was part of a group that removed advertising posters in Lower Manhattan.

By COLIN MOYNIHAN

Published: October 25, 2009

It was a bizarre cat-and-mouse game, played on Sunday across scores of makeshift billboards in New York.

One group of artists and activists spread across Lower Manhattan, transforming innumerous wheat-pasted posters — the ones that readily sprout over scaffolding — into their own canvas.

They would whitewash the posters and then create their own work, or allow anti-advertising advocates to spread their own messages.

But just as quickly as they whitewashed and put up art, workers arrived to put up new posters where the artists had obscured the old ones.

And so it went, back and forth, with drama, confrontation and even a few arrests by day’s end.

The takeover efforts were organized by an artist, Jordan Seiler, who founded a group called the Public Ad Campaign to question and challenge the use of outdoor ads in public areas.

Shortly after 9 a.m. on Sunday, Mr. Seiler and about a dozen other participants met in his Chelsea studio, where they went over lists of targets: 114 street-level billboards that Mr. Seiler said were operated by companies that he believed were putting up ads without proper permission from the city.

A spokeswoman for the City Department of Buildings, Ryan Fitzgibbon, said on Sunday that it was difficult to immediately address Mr. Seiler’s claims.

“If outdoor advertisement is allowed, a permit from D.O.B. must be obtained in order to post an advertisement or a sign,” she said. “Advertisements are not allowed on construction fences.”

It is no secret, however, that such advertisements abound, and on Sunday morning Mr. Seiler pointed to a construction fence near his studio that was covered with dozens of pasted posters.

“We’re bombarded by ads every day,” he said. “Advertising frames the public environment as being for sale but public space is not inherently commercial.”

At 10:30, Mr. Seiler and his confederates broke up into pairs, bringing along five-gallon buckets of white paint and long-handled rollers to use to spread the paint over ads.

There were ads for drinks (Bulldog Gin, Hendrick’s Gin and Dr Pepper), movies (a comedy called “Black Dynamite,” along with a documentary about President Obama called “By the People”) and albums (“World Painted Blood” by Slayer was pasted next to “Soulbook” by Rod Stewart).

Some passers-by liked the commandolike cover-ups; an artist named Jane Gennaro, who was not connected to the project, approved of the men painting over an ad for the video game Grand Theft Auto, saying, “We need to get rid of all the visual noise.”

But on West 25th Street, a man chased two of the whitewashers, shouting, “I will sue you.”

In any event, the newly painted-over spots were not to remain blank for long. Within hours, men driving pickup trucks with New Jersey license plates put up new ads where the artists had obscured the old ones.

One of those men, on West 25th Street, refused to identify himself or the company he was working for, instead responding to an inquiry from a reporter with an epithet, and the directive, “Take a walk.”

Over the next hour or so, control of the billboards changed hands several times, with the pickup truck drivers pasting up ads for movies and parties, as — sometimes separated by only a block or so — groups of artists pasted their own images over the ads.

Meanwhile, Mr. Seiler said, five people taking part in the project were arrested on unspecified charges.

Near the end of the afternoon, one of the artists, who gave his name as Gaia, donned a disguise consisting of a black eye mask and a plastic bag that he pulled over his head like a hood. He then pasted up an image he had made of a snarling grizzly bear.

“Hopefully, this gets a chance to engage in some dialogue with the viewers,” said the artist. “In two hours it’s going to be gone.”

La "intervención" de la publicidad, una nueva forma de arte callejero

An article in Argentina's largest paper Clarin was published yesterday and it includes PublicAdCampaign. My Spanish is pretty poor, even after some 5 years of study in junior high school and high school, so if anyone is itching to translate this we would love to know exactly what it says. A big thank you to Maria for her interest and concern in this growing worldwide movement.

photo by Adam Amengual

La movida comenzó en Nueva York. Es una forma de recuperar el espacio público.

Por: María Paula Bandera

Hace tiempo que el arte se apoderó de la ciudad. Paredes, posters y portones son como un lienzo en blanco para los artistas callejeros, quienes ahora encontraron un nuevo soporte para desplegar su arte: los carteles publicitarios. Jordan Seiler es un artista neoyorquino que a través del sitio web Public Ad Campaign organizó una creativa manifestación para luchar contra la invasión publicitaria en el espacio público. La iniciativa, conocida como New York Street Advertising Take Over (NYSAT), movilizó cerca de 80 personas, que, disfrazadas de empleados municipales, tomaron las calles de Nueva York y colocaron obras de arte de su propia producción sobre cientos de publicidades.

"Todos somos conscientes de la manipulación que genera la publicidad. Muchas veces podemos evitar esos mensajes apagando el televisor, pasando de página en una revista o bajando el volumen de la radio, mientras que en el espacio publico no hay opción por eso es necesario detener la coerción que la publicidad ejerce en la calle", dice Seiler. Para el artista. el blanco principal son los anuncios ilegales, es decir aquellos que no pagan el canon correspondiente a la ciudad, quizás por eso sus obras de arte no tienen como propósito subvertir los mensajes publicitarios, sino "combatir el espacio que ocupan en detrimento de otras formas de expresión como los mensajes políticos y las intervenciones artísticas". Sus obras se destacan por transformar el sentido de los mensajes publicitarios. Los artistas callejeros están acostumbrados a escapar de la policía, sin embargo, cuando se perjudican los intereses de grandes compañías el asunto se torna más serio. Si bien nunca fue arrestado, Seiler recibió varias citaciones de la Justicia por desplegar su arte en las cabinas telefónicas.

Claro que para luchar contra el avance de las publicidades en el espacio público no hace falta ser artista. Así lo demuestran el "Proyecto Burbuja" y el "Pop Down Project". Se trata de dos movimientos mundiales, aunque sólo el primero tiene representación en nuestro país. Valentín Muro y Mateo Ferley son los responsables de haber importado la idea. Para participar sólo basta con ingresar al sitio Web (www.proyectoburbuja.com) e imprimir las plantillas de lo que ellos llaman "burbujas" -aquellos globitos que se usan en las historietas para insertar diálogos-, después sólo hay que pegarlas en las publicidades. "El Proyecto Burbuja transforma los molestos monólogos corporativos en diálogos abiertos y públicos. Alientan a cualquiera a llenar las burbujas con cualquier expresión, libres de la censura", reza su manifiesto. Oriundo de Bariloche, Muro cuenta que llegó al proyecto de casualidad, navegando en Internet encontró el sitio de "Bubble Project", la Web madre del movimiento. "Me interesé tanto que en una noche lo traduje todo al castellano. Apenas terminé se lo envié a Ji Lee - el creador de la idea original- quien se entusiasmó con mi iniciativa de divulgar el proyecto en castellano". Fue en su ciudad natal que Muro pegó las primeras burbujas y, cuenta, "la respuesta fue prácticamente nula. De hecho, la primera burbuja que llenaron estaba en inglés". Ferley señala que "en Bariloche, la mayoría de las burbujas eran arrancadas. En Buenos Aires hubo una respuesta más participativa". Sin embargo, si se comparan las intervenciones en Nueva York o Milán, la participación por estos pagos todavía es muy baja. "Creo que se debe a que la gente tarda en darse cuenta que la burbuja es una herramienta para intervenir la publicidad y responder al bombardeo del mercado", agrega Ferley.

El "Pop Down Project" hace referencia a otro tipo de publicidad, los "Pop Ups" que aquejan a los cibernautas. En la Web es fácil: un click en la cruz y el aviso desaparece, pero en la calle las cosas se complican. Filipe Vilas Boas, creador de la iniciativa, cuenta que estaba viajando en el metro de París cuando se sintió "abusado por la contaminación visual y mental que generaban los anuncios".

El funcionamiento es similar al del "Proyecto Burbuja", con un lema que podría sintetizarse en "hágalo usted mismo". Para participar, los seguidores del "Pop Down Project" ingresan a la web (http://pop-down.blogspot.com), imprimen las cruces y las pegan "donde quieran, en una publicidad que no les gusta o que los perturba. Sin miedo, ya que están brindando un servicio comunitario".

Spending Time With PublicAdCampaign-NYSAT Video

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the fundraiser last night. I had a fantastic time and I hope you did too! See more great videos and artist interviews on Keith Haskel's website. [HERE]

Good Magazine's Top 100, Or So.

The recent issue of Good Magazine just came out and we are in the top 100, or so, people "changing the way we live". We couldn't be more proud to be listed amongst some amazing projects as well as on the same page as Jason Eppink, a fantastic artist and good friend. Check your local news stands and pick up a copy today, it is well worth it.

Paper Tiger Video - April 25th NYSAT Project

This video was created by my good friends over at Paper Tiger TV, a non-profit volunteer video collective. It was very close to the project go date when they interviewed me and I was running on less than optimal sleep. Some of the other people they talked to had some incredible things to say about their reasons for participating and their motivations. Thanks again to Sarah Strahan and everyone who worked on the video. With such a fast recovery by NPA City Outdoor, these small snippets of what happened are all that's left of a lot of hard work by a huge group of incredible people.

RocketBoom Video for NYSAT Project

Special thanks to RocketBoom, Andrew and Ronen for making the RocketBoom video possible. It's wonderful to watch these illegal ad locations go mute, and wonder what the city might put up for itself if given the opportunity.

El Pais-05-09-2009-NYSAT

This article was written by Barbara Celis for the Spanish newspaper El Pais. In it she explores the details of the recent NYSAT project in New York City. Barbara was not only the first to report on this city wide project, but also the only one to write about the project for a major international publication.

WNYC-New York

I was asked to be on WNYC earlier this week and obviously jumped at the opportunity. For a section called "Your Uncommon Economic Indicators", Mr. Lehrer talks about different things around the city which might give us a glimpse into the economy where we wouldn't expect one. The first part of this section is a discussion with Clear Channel Spectracolor president, Harry Coglin and Liz Goldwin, a video artist. They talk about a recent collaboration in Times Square that gives Liz use of Clear Channel's digital technology for her artwork. There is little mention of whether or not this is actually because the billboard space isn't selling well these days, or because Clear Channel suddenly decided it was time to dabble in the arts, but my guess is it's the former. Around 7 minutes in, Brian Talks with me about the PublicAdCampaign Project. I must admit I was a little nervous.

Metro NY - Grafitti Group Takes on Ads

El Pais-03-13-2009

This article was written by Barbara Celis for the Spanish Paper, El Pais. In it, PublicAdCampaign discusses the work of PosterBoy and its relationship to our shared public spaces.

NYC Interactive

I guess the cat's out of the bag on this one so I might as well post it here too. This interactive piece was done by Joe Bernstien, and Ben Piven on the fine art of Subvertising. In it I install another weaving piece and Steve Lambert gives a brief explanation of his Ad Art Firefox hack. Thanks again to both of those guys for taking interest in our projects.

New York City's Struggle to Take Down Illegal Billboards

This article, written by Elizabeth Dwoskin, will appear in tomorrow's issue of The Village Voice. PublicAdCampaign is mentioned as part of a group of renegade artists and individuals attempting to aid the DOB in its uphill battle with the major outdoor advertising groups in NYC. Enjoy

Cool'eh Magazine Issue No.4-Vol No.2

Cool'eh ran an arts issue in which they gave a whole bunch of artists two pages to show their work. This image was taken by Adam Amengual for a Tank Theory print advertisement, which only ran in magazines. I was glad to be able to put this image to work for better things and along more legitimate documentation of my work. Obviously there are some contradictions here in my choice to be in an advertisement at all. The issue for me is not with advertising, but its overwhelming presence in areas where the viewer has no choice but to take in the messages. Public space is an environment built for public communication and reciprocal interactions. Advertising is a sanctioned invasion of the public sphere by private entities. www.coolehmag.com

Animal New York Issue 6

This interview appeared in Animal New York magazine issue 6 and was setup by the Wooster Collective. Marc was asked to pick seven of his favorite international street artists and ask them to answer fifteen questions. I have always been grateful to Marc for all his support, but this was an exceptional privilege. www.woostercollective.com www.animalnewyork.com

DW Rail Magazine Issue 1

This five page spread for DWRail magazine was made from a request for me to answer interview questions as well as provide them with imagery. I decided that it would be a good idea to combine them into a single piece which is why it is so damn difficult to read. but hey.... sometimes you gotta put in a little work. Sadly this magazine does not exist anymore.

New York Sun-on the town

This article was written by James Carmichael, a freelance journalist who in the end not only wrote the article, but actively participated in posting the night of the Paper Champion project. Through a series of interviews and then by riding along with me and my crew, Mr. Carmichael dove deep into the process of my work and the many issues which arise around it's production. What resulted was not only a look into the PublicAdCampaign project but the Paper Champion series which was one of the most ambitious projects to date and in the end, the one mired in the most problems.

Fly Magazine Vol.2 Issue 1

This seven page spread for FLY magazine is unique in that the magazine launched before the project it describes was posted. In the layout it details both the times and locations at which the project will take shape. The images used in the layout are also a direct reference to the locations this project would be posted and the individual pages which make up this layout are the exact pieces which were used to reclaim the advertising spaces. Had one read the text, the viewer would have been able to watch me install the images he was looking at in the magazine at specific times and locations called out in the article. www.flymag.com

Cool'eh Magazine Issue No.1-Vol No.1

This four page spread was produced to further define the specifics of the Shanked(ByDesign) project posting which took place in 01-06-2004 at 11 locations in the Herald Square are of NYC. Again the type is nearly impossible to read but I am thankful to Mitchel and Alex over at Cool'eh for allowing me to completely dive off the deep end and trust that upon surfacing the layout would not only answer questions about the Shanked(ByDesign) project but also be a piece unto itself. www.coolehmag.com

Cool'eh Magazine Issue 1

This Article resulted from an interview done with Gideon Lewis-Kraus, an incredibly adept journalist and reporter on politics art and culture. In the interview we discussed both the specifics of the PublicAdCampaign project as well as the broader motivations which resulted in a much more complex analysis of the project than i had expected. Cool'eh was kind enough to give me the gutter of the magazine which allowed this image to stay intact and read as true 2 pg spread. www.coolehmag.com

Beautiful Decay Anthology No.7

This layout appeared in Beautiful Decay Anthology No.7 which is an online extension of the Beautiful Decay print magazine. In this layout I both document the Panty Raid.1 project as well as announce the Panty Raid.2 project. It has been a personal mission of mine to make sure that there are regular announcements of upcoming projects which describe exact dates, times and locations for the postings. By doing this I hope to question the legality of what I'm doing by removing public advertising and assert my aesthetic beliefs over the governmental body which prevents me from doing so. www.beautifuldecay.com

New York Times-City Section

This article appeared in the New York Times, City Section in early 2001. It was written by Kelly Crow about an artist named Stephanie Diamond. The collaboration about which the article speaks was completely unintentional and a result of true public communication. This is to me one of the most beautiful examples of why I do this work and is ultimately my hopes for every project.