Posted by DJ Craig I see your point, but respectfully disagree. If the cops catch you trespassing with spray paint, you're gonna get charged with vandalism, not preservation. Preservation (as an active verb) is an action done by the legal owner of the property. You can justify it all you want, but vandalism has a victim. Preservation benefits everyone.

Yeah, I mean, this is what I am thinking about with how our values affect our answer to this question. Vandalism may impact the owner of a building, as they would have to pay for/spend time cleaning or fixing stuff. But preservation can also create victims, as it can lead to gentrification and pushing people out of their communities.

Painting an abandoned room for an art project, eh? All vandalism or not aside, just what is the concept for this art project of yours, Laura?
With that in mind, check this out and ask yourself if what you have in mind fits in with one or the other:

https://www.youtub...utube_gdata_player

When I explore i personally try to leave everything the way I found it, thats just what I do. Now with what you want to do, while I wouldn't do it myself, I don't really see much wrong with what you are doing. Yes, legally it would be considered vandalism and if you are caught you may have some explaining to do. However, it seems like more of a subtle change to the room as opposed to somebody kicking through the drywall to get to the other side.

While you are painting on the walls, it is many steps above the 'hilarious' teenager feeling the need to spray paint a penis on the walls. Seriously, most annoying thing ever. Nothing worse then when I try setting up for an amazing picture and their is a drawing of a dick on the wall.

For me personally, it all depends on just about everything. If something has never been screwed with, then I'd personally never mess with it, I like preservation, and as a member of the NSSP I love it when things are left the way they were. However, if something has already been tampered with, then I don't see a problem as long as it is not crude, and doesn't cause any harm to the building/wall/etc's structure stability. One example comes to mind. In the abandoned bunkers in the Marin headlands, there is extensive graffiti and street art, so I can't see much harm in a new layer of paint. Yet, if we were in an iconic or already preserved beautiful location such as Bodie or any surrounding ghost towns like Masonic or Aurora, I'd personally say that that would be a bad idea. It really depends on the situation for me.

One of the things I like about exploring is finding out what other unauthorized visitors may have used the space for. To me, that includes the graffiti and so forth. Sometimes my favorite part of an abandonment is an interesting mural or ironic graffiti message.

For example, there is a site somewhere in the US that I have seen pics from on here more than once (I have never been there in person). There is a section of large industrial metal pieces in the location that has been painted over in order to show Pac-Man chasing after a group of colored ghosts (I believe they are named Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde). Anyway, since it was most likely added since the place closed, it's technically got to be classified as vandalism, but to me it looks like probably the coolest thing about the entire abandonment. That graffiti is the reason I'd like to visit the location someday in person.

Then there's the timeline mural in the Hall of Wonders drain:
http://www.uer.ca/...=1&threadid=116899

Again it's technically vandalism, but I think it is really cool. If I were a cop who found people making it, I like to think that I would turn the other way and act oblivious until the artists had time to get away.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think it's wrong to needlessly destroy a place, but that I view artistic use of spaces to be all right, as long as things are well done.