Geologists throw wobbler over graffiti on Cliffs of Moher.

[Bella Fortuna]

I see what you're saying, but is there any property - items or natural resources - that is not owned by someone? Even if that someone is a company or the state? Why would destruction (by which I mean altering/damaging something that is either irreparable or would require significant resources to eradicate) of that be more acceptable than an individual's property?

Perhaps these are just rhetorical questions - I'm curious about where people draw lines, though. I'm sure my feelings aren't entirely consistent, so I'm not looking to do a 'gotcha'.

[Pappa]

I hope someone paints a giant trollface on the cliffs of Dover. That would be epic.

[klr]

[Pappa]

Bloody 17th century desecrators!

[hadespussercats]

Saatchi is going to have to buy the Cliffs of Moher now...

Just don't let that mad Bulgarian at it. You know, the guy who covered entire buildings and other structures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo_and_Jeanne-Claude

There were two of them (see link.) And I think a lot of their work was beautiful, too.

I get the feeling that you like any old crap.

Nope.

[hadespussercats]

It could have been a lot worse. Some hateful bastard painted a swastika on Plymouth Rock. And he didn't even get it right-- painted the mirror image of one.

...

Both directions are valid as far as the swastika goes, if one ignores the specific Nazi usage. But that's probably what this guy meant to portray, so still a fail.

Actually, a "backwards" swastika is an ancient Navajo symbol.

I know. http://www.rationalia.com/forum/viewtop ... 5#p1383853

[hadespussercats]

Saatchi is going to have to buy the Cliffs of Moher now...

Just don't let that mad Bulgarian at it. You know, the guy who covered entire buildings and other structures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo_and_Jeanne-Claude

There were two of them (see link.) And I think a lot of their work was beautiful, too.

But at least Christo's work is reversible

Christo's work killed people. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/01/arts/ ... oject.html

That's reversible?

[Svartalf]

I didn't know about that accident, and only commented on the fact that what has been wrapped eventually gets unwrapped and given back to its normal state.

[JimC]

I here there was a gang of hobbits who graffitied the cliffs of Mordor...

The surviving orcs were terribly offended...

[mistermack]

I think that the difference between this "artwork" and the stone-age paintings is obvious.
The stone-age stuff is rare, and it's a window into the minds of our ancestors. It's not the quality that's important.
Having said that, it does seem to have a certain quality about it. Some of it does, anyway.

This stuff on Moher isn't rare. It's all over the place, and it's a window on the minds of people who are pretty mindLESS.
You see that kind of shit on walls everywhere, and much the same shit on packets of sweets, and soap, and EVERYTHING.
We are swamped with that shit, so it's certainly not the same as the stone-age stuff.





I may not know much about art, but I know where shit belongs.

[klr]

I think that the difference between this "artwork" and the stone-age paintings is obvious.
The stone-age stuff is rare, and it's a window into the minds of our ancestors. It's not the quality that's important.
Having said that, it does seem to have a certain quality about it. Some of it does, anyway.

This stuff on Moher isn't rare. It's all over the place, and it's a window on the minds of people who are pretty mindLESS.
You see that kind of shit on walls everywhere, and much the same shit on packets of sweets, and soap, and EVERYTHING.
We are swamped with that shit, so it's certainly not the same as the stone-age stuff.

That was my (and some others) point as well.

If you allow this, then you're opening the door for just about any yahoo to deface any natural feature, no matter how rare or important.

[hadespussercats]

Well, anything that was made by humans 16,000 years ago would like be rare today. So I don't see how that supports your argument.

The rest is just a question of taste.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Vandalism isn't art, IMNSHO.

[Clinton Huxley]

Tell you what - we can preserve any railway arch or wall in the western world in a time capsule - they've pretty much all got something equivalent to this trash on them. We can scrub the cliffs clean. Art historians 16,000 years from now can open the time capsule. Everyone happy.

[hadespussercats]

Tell you what - we can preserve any railway arch or wall in the western world in a time capsule - they've pretty much all got something equivalent to this trash on them. We can scrub the cliffs clean. Art historians 16,000 years from now can open the time capsule. Everyone happy.

?

Who said anything about needing to preserve any of this?

Plus, I thought part of the horror of the desecration of a few meters of cliff was that it can't be cleaned. At least, not without stripping away some important layer of rock and now-dead biological material.