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Hacking the Highways
cindy writes "LA artist Richard Ankrom got fed up with the terrible signage on the Harbor Freeway. Rather than wait for CalTrans to do something about it, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He carefully made additional signage and added it to an existing freeway sign. The results were so good that no one, including CalTrans, noticed for months! The LA Times has an article including some of the video shot by the artist to document his "crime.""
Congratulations for reading the article.
He made a perfect replica of a highway sign, which probably isn't all that easy to do on your own. He did it in broad daylight. He got away with it for months. Besides, art imitates life (or in this case, makes life a little easier for everyone else.)
He made a compelling statement. Something really obvious needed fixing and the responsible authorities were too clueless to fix it, so he fixed it for them.
If everyone had a constructive attitude like that, think what a society we'd have. People would automatically pick up trash, report suspicious behavior, finger dishonest colleagues or employers, and generally apply millions of little improvements to the status quo. Too bad most people are too selfish/alienated/cynical to care. It's inspiring to see someone who does care, and passionately, too.
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
"It needed to be done," he said from his downtown loft. "It's not like it was something that was intentionally wrong."
While I think what this guy did was very neat, his statement above is exactly the reason WHY there are laws against things like this.
As much as the average 'Joe' would like to think they can make decisions for the rest of the world, sometimes there are some things that experts know more about. And yes, sometimes bureacracy gets in the way - but just imagine if we allowed your average person on the street to dictate how a tcp/ip stack should be implemented, or what have you.
"Not intentionally wrong" is all fine and dandy, but there are still thousands of laws on the books (some rightfully so) that will still get you (negligence laws come to mind). You don't have to MEAN to do harm for harm to be done.
Regardless, pretty cool stunt, and it's good that this sort of thing likely won't be repeated a million times over - I can't count the number of times I've heard "why do they put a stop sign here? there's really no need to stop at all!".
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
No, engineering (supposedly) makes life easier for everyone. Art says something transcendant about the human condition. I don't think "Interchange coming up" quite rises to this level.
Just because it's difficult and takes care, doesn't mean it's "art". Just because it was subtle doesn't mean it's "art". Just because he ret-conned it as sticking it to the faceless bureaucracy, doesn't mean it's "art".
It might qualify as a hack, which is orthogonal to its being art, but I have my doubts even there. This guy had his sign seem invisible because it made sense. A good hack plays with what's there, in a way not consistent with the original scene, so that later, you ask, "Why the heck didn't I see that?"
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Chris Beckenbach