Progress report : the Real Time Web Series (2016-2020)

Abstract

The Real Time Web Series (RTWS) traverses between a process video and oral history podcast. The RTWS is a project that launched in 2016 by Dr. Bobby ‘Berst’ Hung. As an artist, researcher, and teacher, his objective is to document graffiti in New Zealand and to capture the perspectives of past and present graffiti writers through oral history. As an ephemeral artform, graffiti is often found on walls, trains, and other public spaces but its lifespan is short lived. When painted illegally, the artworks risk being painted out by council within hours of creation, or the likelihood of other graffiti writers covering the artwork in a fight for visual space. All that seldom remains are the photographic images, video, and untold stories of the action. While the internet and social media has helped to share, document, and promote graffiti in New Zealand, the contextual factors influencing the stylistic developments of the scene, our whakapapa, ideological shifts, and histories, continue to remain untold and inaccessible for wider audiences. With five decades of graffiti history in New Zealand since the 1980s, there is no published record or documents that have consolidated an official graffiti story. As a result, there is very little knowledge to pass down to aspiring graffiti writers for the future.

[RTWS is an accessible online platform that shares local stories to international audiences]