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VICE: Can you elaborate a bit on the full capabilities of ARTA?
Goldie: You can create tags from scratch or you can import photos and place them on the trains. So really it's as far as users want it to go: They can just start off importing pictures and placing them on trains (with movement, rotate, scale, etc.), and then maybe spray a bit on top, and then add some text, and then buff some layers out.
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In the archive, you can check out classic tags, hero cars, video interviews with the OG [graffiti artists] from NYC, and my own personal photographic archive of graffiti images. We're also planning ARTA radio within the app that will include shows by DJ legends from across the globe, as well as a communication platform. It's fully, fully immersive, man—three years in the making.Pulling it back, why did you originally want to make a graffiti app? What inspired the idea?The technology became available and my whole thing has been joyriding technology—hijacking it for our own means, if you will. From doing it with the music I make, to now doing the same via ARTA. The eureka moment came because there was nothing like this, at all, and it really needed to be made for people who love graffiti.What exactly will the crowdfunded donations go toward?
We are in the final stages of tweaking ARTA, but the funding is for a banger summer launch event to celebrate the app, featuring various graffiti crews and performances by artists like me. It will be the meeting of two worlds, digital meets tangible.
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They already trust it and that's because it's created by graffiti writers for graffiti writers. This isn't some brand trying to get kudos or ride on the coattails of an organic culture. This is the absolute real. We showed it to a lot of heads before launching and the feedback was amazing. It gave us the confidence to carry on with it. I could've taken this to a brand, but why would I want to? I've always fought to be independent.You've been active in the graffiti community for decades. Why do you think this very physical act should become digitized?
It will enable writers to showcase without the limitations of physical region. It's all about interaction. It's simply another way of playing out and expressing something that you're very passionate about. Playing FIFA on your iPhone isn't going to change football and turn it into an arm chair sport, you know? We're challenging technology. Why wait until someone else does [something like ARTA], and watch as they do it badly?Prior to the internet, how did you stay up on taggers in other cities? How would you find out about who was big, where the legendary spots were in each city, etc.?
When I first visited New York, TATs Cru welcomed me. We shared skills and schools of thought, so there was immediately a knowledge built around our friendship. Then music blew up for me in a major way and I was able to travel everywhere in the world and absorb local knowledge, which helped me to seek out spots, writers, and crews. Even this summer just gone, I was getting up in Bogota, man. Art and music are universal languages.
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Of course. It's a form of communication for the digital age. Just as gettin' up on trains back in the day showcased writers' skills across the city, this will do the same but without borders. ARTA is a fully interactive platform where you will be able to see who has done what and comment and rate their stuff. The higher you get up the chain, the more you can unlock in the app, from fills and fonts to rare archival footage. Plus, it gives you access to communicate with writers around the world in real-time.
Well, it's kind of accepted now. In the beginning it was a social menace, man. Now it's known more for another term: street art. But we'll always be here, subliminally making these cityscapes that bit more beautiful.What else are you working on these days?
I'm working on a collection [of canvas paintings] now called "Shaman Women." I'm using lots of different materials and disciplines and basically putting into practice what I learned through graffiti. I'll always be TATs and I'll always be Metalheadz.