Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

Make use of existing features in the environment, whether stop signs (see Stickering, pg. 520) or billboards {see Billboard Improvement, pg. 114) or absurd corporate logos. If you want your additions to stop signs to last longer, paint them on in the same red as the background; your message will appear in car headlights at night, as your paint is not reflective, but will not otherwise attract attention. Some targets suggest themselves: corporate franchises, memorials to genocidal conquerors, nondescript buildings that secrefly host animal testing, condominiums being built to gentrify neighborhoods. Be ambitious: you could decorate the field of the football stadium before a televised game, or wow everybody by putting up animal liberation slogans inside cages at the zoo. At the same time, keep in mind that little graffiti messages throughout an area could create a more impressive and lasting effect than one huge masterpiece.

Graffiti 259

Graffiti 260

As for hitting really impressive, death-defying sites like the tops of bridges or the sides of overpasses, don't assume that because a place is harder to reach your work wiE be sure to stay up longer. On the other hand, it might, and taking it down it will cost more trouble and money?and besides, freely offering installations that attest to true stories of courage and defiance is a pubHc service, if anything is. Climbing gear?and a great deal of practice with it?will help a lot for such endeavors; bring an equally experienced partner

Scout the area of your target or targets in advance. Learn the layout of streets, alleys, fields, fences, and cover such as bushes and woods. Plan approach and escape routes (see Evasion, pg. 234). Note the visibility of and firom your chosen sites, the presence of cameras or other surveillance measures, the frequency of foot traffic, automobiles, po-Hce, and other possible witnesses, and the proximity of police stations or other locations from which a response will be launched if you are sighted. Keep an eye out for emergency hiding places: dumpsters, ditches, construction sites, friends' houses, crowded bars or subway stations.

You can work alone, but it's often easier and safer to work with a few trusted companions (see Affinity Croups, pg. 28). Pick roles according to your tastes and skills: one or two people can stand lookout, perhaps another could be a getaway driver, and, if you're hoping to put up a particularly large piece, you could divide action roles between two or more individuals. It's also a good idea for there to be someone at a phone number that people can call if they get arrested or lost (see Legai Support, pg. 329).

Work out your slogans or illustrations ahead of time, so you don't risk drawing a blank at the last minute. Familiarize yourself with spray paint at home, so using it will come naturally in a high-stiess situation. There are different tips available as nozzles for spray paint cans, providing different degrees of paint flow; as you become more experienced, you can explore these and choose your favorite effects. Some recommend clip-on

triggers, to make the spray paint easier to apply. Consider wearing a mask to protect yourself from the hazardous fiimes of the aerosol can, as well as from identification by your enemies. Test your paint cans before going out with them, and don't risk running out of paint in the middle of an important thought."

You'll want to keep quiet in the field; this is one advantage of paint markers. If you are using spray paint, make sure to shake the cans in advance, and try to keep them warm if it's particularly cold out. If you need to shake your paint can in the middle of the action, roll the agitator ball gently in a circle at the bottom of the can. Work out a way to communicate quietly and subtly with your partners; if you can't use words, consider coded gestures or animal calls.

Don't take anything unnecessary with you that identifies you as a radical or vandal; if you are detained and searched, you should appear to be a law-abiding citizen. Make sure you keep paint off your hands, and your fingerprints off anything you might have to drop. If you feel you are in danger, get rid of everything incriminating; at the very least, toss away the tip from your spray paint can?if you do not have a way to apply the paint when you are arrested, that is one less piece of evidence to be used against you.