Educated Community

*Educated Community*
Format	Magazine
Year founded	1999
Country	US
Language	English

Educated Community was a street art Magazine. Issue one featured an interview with Futura 2000 and photos of a silver Unkle 77 Toy.

In 2013 the magazine went on hiatus and a book was being planned to collect their archives.^[1]

Their official bio stated in 2005:

"Educated Community is a free, English/Japanese bilingual magazine focusing on what's happening in the street scenes of New York City and Tokyo. Launched in 1999, EC devotes its pages to covering creative and forward-thinking personalities, places, and things that impact and inspire the unique urban cultures in these two cities and beyond. With its growing list of subscribers and international distribution outlets, EC strives to provide inquisitive New Yorkers with useful information, particularly on the Japanese tip, while also encouraging Japanese people in NYC to better explore and participate in the city's culture.

EC schools the reader on events, stores, restaurants, nightlife, fashion, music, websites, various local personalities, and contemporary Japanese culture.

Ultimately, our goal is to create an environment dedicated to a truly Educated Community."^[2]

Futura Interview

Interview by Yuka Iwakoshi & Atsuko Tanaka / Photo by Atsuko Tanaka

(This was interviewed in the summer of 1999.)

Futura 2000 is one of the most diverse artists ever to come out of New York. He has been a part of the New York art scene from the early ‘70s with his graffiti and in the ‘80s he was an active NY street artist. In the ‘90s Futura took his street art and applied it to clothing, creating graphic street wear. He is well-known around the world ad his fame has spread as far as Europe and Japan.

In fact, the word “artist” doesn’t do justice to Futura 2000, a.k.a. Lenny Blanco. The self-educated Futura has joined the upper echelon of NY street fashion designers with his partners Stash and the late Bleu, with their clothing lines BSF, Recon and Project Dragon.

>space odyssey Futura2000 Interview

Educated Community: Could you give me a short profile of yourself?

Futura2000: I’ve lived in Brooklyn for about 20 years, but I was born in Manhattan. I was involved in the graffiti movement of the early ‘70s, and the NY art-gallery / street-art movement of the ‘80s. In the 90’s, I’ve been working more with graphics and clothing.

EC: What’s the etymology of your name?

F2: [The name] Futura 2000 was something I have dreamt about as a teenager. I would be like, “Wow, what’s it gonna be like in the year 2000?” My main inspiration comes from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 － A Space Odyssey. I mean this movie, which came out in 1968, was very powerful [to me]. I really thought a lot about the evolution of man and space and all that kind of stuff.

EC: When’s your birthday?

F2: November 17th, Scorpio. I’m gonna be 44 next year.

EC: What’s your take on the past versus the future?

F2: When I was young, I was more of a dreamy person. I was 14 years old when man first landed on the moon; I remember it very well. I come from a generation that had this futuristic vision of the world but it was purely fantasy. It’s very strange now. It’s 1999, and we’re not flying around in spacesuits like The Jetsons. The world today is very normal. I mean, this could be 1982-- the way we look, we’re all retro. Time is really irrelevant. It’s more of what’s going on in society and the changes that have occurred.

EC: And those changes interest you?

F2: I’m interested in humanity really. Initially, I was interested in communicating. I had to express myself some way; I chose to write graffiti. I think when I was younger I was just following the direction (the lead?) of other people.

EC: What are some of the things that got you into graffiti?

F2: Well when I was 15, I found out I was adopted. Suddenly I was a lost soul, not knowing the blood of my parents. Graffiti helped me look for an identity. I just tried to grow and mature, and worked through my emotional crisis.

EC: Did you go to school to study art?

F2: No, I never did. After high school I was in the military, that was like my college from 18 to 22. So right after I started to like graffiti, I actually left NY and was in the Navy for four years. Which was the first time I was in your country (Japan). But it was not too long after WWII that I had guilt as an American militant in Japan during1975. I was afraid to go off the base; I didn’t want to interact with Japanese people because I felt so ashamed of what we did in WWII.

EC: Did your experience in the military affect your art?

F2: It didn’t really, I think it affected my life experience more, [in terms of ] learning personal discipline.

EC: What influences your artwork?

F2: I get my influences from everyday life － I need to react to my own life. I work very spontaneously.

EC: How would you categorize yourself as an artist?

F2: It’s hard, I don’t really want to be defined by anything. I certainly don’t want the word “graffiti” connected to me any longer. Not as my title, because that’s not what I am. Just “artist” is ok, because it’s very vague. I don’t want to be labeled － to me, being labeled a graffiti (?) artist is terrible, and very old school.

EC: You never work in NY or in the streets anymore?

F2: I love doing projects, but the sad truth is that New York and the American audience don’t care. They haven’t ever really cared about someone like me…. In a way it's sad because a lot of my interest and support comes from Europe, Asia, and other connections I have in the world. PD is something that we’re doing on our own. We don’t have alliances with other companies.

EC: I checked out your website, it says “26 years ago I was a dreamer, today I’m a visionary.” Can you elaborate on that?

F2: When I came up with the name “Futura 2000,” I was just dreaming. Now that we’re here in 1999, I can see that I was a visionary, that I had something clear to see and to realize. In that way I’m really not proud because I still wanna do more work but I’m satisfied with what I have done. I am a kid from NY, being from a bad family without that much money, I made something from nothing. I am self－educated. You know I taught myself everything I can do, whether it’s writing web pages or whatever.

EC: Tell us about your website.

F2: On the website, I do my own special things; it's a fantasyland in a way. It’s an extension of what I did with writing my name on the wall: Me, doing self-promotions for me. That’s what graffiti is, self-promotion. The message in graffiti is “Check me out, this is who I am.” But on the website I can actually write some stories and show some pictures that I’ve taken. I can share some experiences on that level. The website is also the most direct way to communicate with me. Most people don’t know it but if you write to me and if your email is even halfway interesting, I’ll write you back. And I hope that interaction means something to the user. I mean the thing about the website is, when somebody looks at my site, they’re in their office or their room. They bring me into an intimate space and then they have this little experience. So you’ve brought me into a very personal space.

EC: What’s the traffic like?

F2: I have 100,000 people a week visiting my website, globally. That’s more people than I could have ever imagined. While I’m sleeping, people in Japan are on my website because [of the time difference]. It doesn’t sleep; it’s a very strange thing.

EC: Can you tell us about any future project?

F2: I want to do some toys, and I want to do a short movie. Also I have a book coming out through Mo-Wax, possibly called: The Futura Dilemma, a book about my paintings. That’s my biggest project for next year.

EC: What are some abstract goals you have for the future?

F2: I just want to have fun and be honest. I wanna do something for the kids in my own country. What I’ve always wanted to do is teach. I’m never afraid to walk into something and try something. I might learn something. Maybe I’ll learn how to not make a mistake, and therefore I’ve solved a problem in the process. It’s one of my things. You’d have to come to my class wanting to learn something or you might not really get it. But I feel like I could help some people with their idea of what they want to do or where they want to go.

EC: What moment do you enjoy most in life?

F2: I’m pretty lucky. I’m always having fun. I basically do things that come really naturally to me. You have to be happy about the things in your life that are special. We recently lost Bleu, one of our members. When you have that kind of loss in your life, the loss of a friend, it makes you very conscious of the good things you have in your life. I have my own way, my way is unique, my approach is different. I surround myself with good people.

EC: My last question is since the year 2000 is coming up, are you going to change your name?

F2: The “2000” isn’t really necessary, I’m gonna have to let it go.

www.futura2000.com

www.futuralaboratories.com