Well, I live in the suburbs there… and I know that the city of Oldenburg has approved the entire route. Except for the Eversten intersection. But art is art and if I go by the criteria where electricity boxes are made blue and white and that is then support for VFB Oldenburg (local football club) then something like that doesn’t fit.
Yes! Exactly! But also, criteria isn’t strictly “all art is acceptable,” it must consider temporary and sometimes illegal nuisance vandalism that might pop up and quickly be removed or painted over by others. You can provide as much information as you can to show permanence of this particular art and/or proof that it’s a sanctioned wall for amateur graffiti artists. I’m not sure either will convince Niantic, but what everyone here is trying to do is encourage you to provide the most information and best chances at a favorable result for everyone.
Please be careful with “whatabout” criteria. If you see POI you believe is ineligible, you can report it. Not everything “ineligible” meets explicit removal criteria.
4 Likes
If you feel like making conversation on this particular candidate, please create a new thread and the community can discuss. There may be value in it for understanding the art clarification shared above and the intent behind the restrictions.
The discussion first came up here. I just want the portal restored. It was here for years and the art is still there. So it should also come back
You know what? Let’s talk about the “art” of this.
This is not one art piece. I’ve added arrows that show some obvious and some possible layers to this wall that prove it is more in line with graffiti than with a commissioned/sanctioned art piece.
- Black arrows show a red flame like background. This appears to be the first discernable layer.
- Green arrows point to blue lettering with black outlines and lighter blue highlights. The leftmost part of this piece appears to be the monster someone submitted.
- Yellow arrows point to the eyeballs for the “monster.” Based on the other parts of the blue lettering, it is not possible to tell if those eyeballs were part of the original piece or if they were added later by another artist as a whimsical detail.
- Purple arrows point to the letters RTS that have been written on top of the big blue letters. This appears to be a clumsy tag by someone who has no artistic ability.
- Red arrows point to the letters HMC. The C is scrawled across the eyeballs. Again, this appears to be a clumsy tag by someone else who has no artistic ability.
Separate from this section, there are other unrelated paintings - a banana being the only recognizable image.
In my experience, sanctioned art walls are maintained. When others come along and paint tags over them, the art is removed and a new image is painted. They also typically have some recognizable connection to the city or community in which they are located.
2 Likes
Yes, a 50 metre long wall that is released naturally has several artists. And maybe there were people who damaged the artwork.
The only question I have is why does it bother someone now and have the portal removed?
Does it have something to do with Ingress… ? Probably. Because if I hang 250 squares on it, people have to get out of their car and walk 150 metres. To avoid that, it must have been reported. That’s my guess
The reason why does not matter. If something meets removal criteria who reported it is irrelevant and doesnt need to be discussed in this forum.
2 Likes
I won’t deny that game advantage reports can happen. But it also could be someone seeing it on the nearby while doing reviews and reporting, or Niantic doing an area check, or probably other scenarios I am not thinking of right now. I know it hurts to lose this and understand the frustration.
2 Likes
Bin gespannt… was nun passiert.
Why is this art critique considered the solution? It should not be up to reviewers whether something is art or not, or whether the composition of art meets a certain standard. I have seen some crazy pieces by singular artists that match the compositional nightmare of this image, so I would not consider my opinion of composition or quality in my review of such a waypoint submission.
In my opinion, if this were a sanctioned wall for graffiti by the local authorities (a claim that OP has made but not substantiated) then that would absolutely meet criteria to be accepted. A point that has changing art based on the whims of the local street art community seems like a place where one could actually want to visit/explore, or it could also help new artists find a sanctioned canvass to explore their craft.
If OP can back up the claim that this is a sanctioned canvass, then I think it should be restored.
2 Likes
I don’t think @seaprincesshnb was critiquing the quality of the art, though the local community certainly should decide if something like this, if legal, is worthy of exploring, which IMO not all murals are.
I believe they were saying that it is not one cohesive work. Their evidence was how it was painted over other images and other images had been painted over it, so it is a amalgamation of different graffiti acts, which leans toward unsanctioned and not permanent.
My point is that whether or not it is one cohesive work should have no impact on this restoration decision. Is it sanctioned? Restore. Is it not sanctioned? Not restore (if sanctioning is required).
Composition, cohesion, quality, number of contributing artists, number of discernable bananas, or other evaluations on the art or artist(s) should have no impact on the decision.
1 Like
Also, what you see may be a completed mural not worthy of exploration, but someone else might look at this and see an empty canvass, which can certainly be something to explore.
Exactly, I agree fully, which is why I said, for murals in general, the LOCAL community needs to decide if its worthy of exploration. I wasn’t suggesting they hadn’t, only clarifying my position.
If its not a sanctioned piece of work then it is likely not permanent. What’s to stop someone from coming and painting over it with their graffiti?
If the wall is a place sanctioned by the local government for street artists to paint their graffiti, then it may be better to actually nominate the whole wall rather than any individual graffiti work, since those may change with time.
1 Like
Nothing. That’s the point of the wall.
We are in agreement here, though in my opinion one of the current graffiti pieces would be suitable to be the anchor point and waypoint photo if this were a new submission. As it is an existing waypoint and this is an appeal for if it should be restored, while I would disagree with the choice of title/description of the waypoint, I do not think it would be grounds for removal based on that alone. If OP can submit some verification of the claim that this is a sanctioned wall, I would support it’s restoration.
That’s been the request since the beginning of the thread. OP has not yet provided that proof.
The marked “solution” does not say that there is a request pending from the OP. In my opinion it just attempts to gatekeep what should be considered approvable art.
Dont get hung up on the “solution.” I have no idea who marked it as the solution.