Accidental Mysteries, 02.13.11

Uncanny! I had taken a photo of the exact same Toynbee tile (http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2008/05/06/top-5-groundbreaking-graffiti-artwork/#toynbee) in 2008, evidently prior to when this one was taken, judging by the decay of the artwork. So interesting to see this urban mystery evolve over time.

A bit of background here: http://www.good.is/post/the-greatest-guerrilla-art-mystery-youve-never-heard-of-but-may-have-walked-over

I really love those archives. It is inspiring and rich and diversified. The only problem lies in the source attribution system: images rarely link to their "original source". Instead, they link to their "via" source: the source by which John Foster discovered them. From the "via" source, one can try to track down the original source (to find out about the creator, the context of creation, the date, etc.), but often it's a dead end.

Take the third image from the bottom. The guy with a "THUG' in his face. It links to a Tumblr account which links to another one and then another one etc. If you check the allegedly "original" source within the Tumblr community, you'll see that it is someone who reblog the picture without making any kind of reference to where it comes from.

I find it a major design problem for an archive (it is by no mean a problem specific to Accidental Mysteries: it's widespread all over the Internet).

Thanks for sharing,

Philippe

fantastic! amazing!