It seems like a lifetime ago but in 1998 I became interested in web design so I started a graffiti site dedicated to me and my friend. It was an attempt to not be forgotten. The world had changed, graffiti had changed immensely and was international in a way bigger than the early 90s. We put our work out there and it became popular. It was all about quick illegal work and some quick legal pieces too. The site ran for years peaking in 2006 where it became inhabited by a thousand photos or more. It was always updated and by 2010 it was shut down. So it ran in various guises for twelve years and I had grown tired of web which was more centred around content management systems which is standard today. I still have a web presence and it is so easy to manage these days. I do know how to customise and run content management systems but why bother when all you need is some structure and content to fill the site.

I had some professional help back in the day too when I was doing my site which is why it grew so well and I had access to specialised services. The site lived well beyond what anyone expected. It was more about learning how to do web design and grew until the interest faded. Eventually years after the site disappeared I did learn quite a lot about CMS and those types of technologies which are quite technical and in the end I threw it in because I was in front of a screen all of the time. Now at least I am free to be creative and don’t need to worry about technical technology.

There was a nostalgic point to all of this though. The days before complex algorithms controlled content you could stumble on sites through word of mouth or a core site that promoted other sites like ‘art crimes’ for example. The web was less managed by big corporate entities. As they grew the crowds were funnelled into the super highways of the web. Those days are well and truly gone. The popularity of my old site has faded and what I have now is so small in comparison. Things change and there are no guarantees. It is good though still having a presence on the web.