the white wall

when i grew up in the 80s there were limited ways to get your opinion known to the world. of course, i could run around in my neighborhood with posters and stick them on lamp-posts. i could make flyers and pass them around. i could get up on a chair in a public place and tell bypassers what i really meant or i could arrange a march and paint banners with huge red letters. this was also in the early times of graffiti in norway, so i could sneak out in the middle of the night, find a blank wall, and make a "piece" on things on a kids mind. the thing is – i never did.

i did not dear to put posters on lamp-posts and i had no access to a copier for my flyers. i was to shy to speak in public places or march the streets with banners. but the graffiti piece i set out to make. i had found the perfect place for it. a huge, white and blank wall, easily seen by passing traffic for maximum exposure. i got up in the middle of the night, grabbed my spray-cans and hurried down to the wall. ten minutes later i stood in front of that, to me, gigantic wall. i shook my cans and as i was about to press the nozzle i paused. i did not know what to draw, or even write. there i stood, in the middle of the night, with the biggest blank, white wall in the entire world and i had nothing to say. i went home.

two days later someone had been there. my father and i drove past in on the way to school. "look", my father said. actually, i saw it before he did. with a thick black line somebody had drawn a big penis. with huge, red letters under the image it was written, four capitol letters only; cock.



today, peoples needs to speak their mind is growing as a result of the wast flow of information we can access through different media. the means for broadcasting yourself are limitless because of the internet. the only thing you need is a computer connected to the web. you can sit in the comfort of your home, or drop in at an internet-café anywhere in the world, and publish what ever is on your mind, an opinion or a thought, at that moment, in seconds. you can comment on anything and copy everything, download and upload, email, post and send. in addition to the "old" ways of getting your voice heard, the internet has given us a tool to reach anybody and everybody, anywhere at any time, without even lifting your ass.

according to tecknocrati , one weblog is created each second. in other words, one huge, blank and white wall each second. this means that there has been created 4.875.000 since my first humble posting in the blogosphere. tecknocrati currently tracks over 35 million blogs, and it doubles every six months.

the challenge is still the same as it was for me in the 80s - finding something smart to say, clever to write or nice to draw on my white surface. im still trying to find it. i hope you do the same.