A graffiti artist has turned local cleaning crews into his unwitting co-stars.
British street artist Mobstr has become world renowned for his minimalist text-based approach to graffiti. His art often features stenciled words or phrases strategically painted on public walls, signage, bridges or other infrastructure.
A hallmark of Mobstr’s work is his playful, ongoing dialogue with city authorities in what he calls “progressions.” Each progression is a series of interactions where Mobstr repeatedly alters the same surface, playing off cleaning crews’ attempts to cover, or “buff,” his work.
One of Mobstr’s most popular progressions is called “The Question Mark.” Beginning in October 2012, Mobstr began painting words like “BUFF,” “THIS” and “HERE” in seemingly random brick walls in London. Each time Mobstr added a word, cleaning crews diligently buffed over them with brown paint. By the following summer, the overlapping brown patches formed the unmistakable shape of a giant question mark.
Despite playing the role of an anonymous antagonist, Mobstr had built a significant fanbase by documenting the stages of his progressions on his website and social media.
On the Cutting Room Floor
The curtain is coming down on humorous, pun-filled freeway messages on electronic freeway signs.
In an update to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD) — a title so long that even the abbreviation quit early — the Federal Highway Administration recommended phasing out quirky messages like “Get the cell off your phone and drive” by the end of 2025 in favor of statements that are simple and unambiguous.
Over the last several years, states have been using clever messages to make safety advice more engaging. Arizona posted, “Only sparklers should be lit” around July Fourth, while Ohio used “Visiting in-laws? Slow down, get there late” around the holidays. Other messages have raised eyebrows, like Utah’s “Get your head out of your apps.”
The revised MUTCD doesn’t ban these offbeat messages, but it does recommend avoiding humor and pop-culture references that could confuse or distract drivers.
While the credits may begin to roll on some of these funny safety messages, there is research supporting their effectiveness. In fact, the FHWA’s own study from 2016 on the effectiveness of electronic highway signs found that 54% of drivers adjusted their behavior after seeing specific safety messages, leaving the door open for a potential sequel.
Going Off-Script
Modern vehicles are designed to keep us safer, but not all drivers appreciate the constant warnings and aggressive interventions, especially Hollywood stunt drivers.
Dennis McCarthy, the Picture Car Coordinator for “Black Panther,” “Captain Marvel” and the “Fast & Furious” films, pulled back the curtain on the challenges of working with modern cars in movies at the Hollywood Dream Machines exhibit at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles.
When Lexus paid for its LC500 to be highlighted in “Black Panther,” McCarthy said that its high-tech safety features made performing stunts like power slides a major challenge. “These cars are made to do everything that’s not a car stunt,” he said.
McCarthy revealed that he now asks car manufacturers to send a computer programmer along with their vehicle to deal with its litany of safety systems. “With modern cars, you pull a headlight bulb out, the car won’t run,” McCarthy said, jokingly.
Josh Hancock, an entertainment automotive consultant, recounted how the production of “Baby Driver” had to fly in a German technician to reprogram a Mercedes S-Class just to enable it to slide around and crash through a fence without shutting itself off.
Similarly, during “The Fate of the Furious,” McCarthy’s team struggled to make a Lamborghini Murciélago drive “on ice with two inches of water.” They resorted to using manual transmission cars to bypass traction control and the anti-lock braking system, but this led to frequent clutch failures.
“I had to fly a guy in from London with about five clutches who was a Lamborghini tech to change the first one and teach my guys how to do it,” McCarthy said.
He acknowledged that burning through clutches wasn’t really the car’s fault. Many movie vehicles are either hastily assembled, custom-built or partially dismantled, and when components like seats or airbags have been removed from a vehicle, modern safety systems won’t let the vehicle function properly, let alone wildly.
To work around these challenges, McCarthy found a practical solution. “If I get frustrated, we just throw an LS Chevy motor in, and it solves the problem... I get a lot of hate mail for that.” RB
