Graffiti: from Vandalism to Art

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Oct 31 2008

Graffiti: from Vandalism to Art

Posted at 12:20 am under Uncategorized

Exegesis:
The history of graffiti can be traced back to early 1970s when teens started to write graffiti on walls in the New York subway. What they write are usually ‘name-based painting began as simple “tags” or signatures done with magic marker and quickly evolved into complex aerosol murals, which writers called masterpieces’ (Snyder, 2006, p.93). As seen in the video Graffiti: from Vandalism to Art, graffiti usually takes place in the form of writers’ tag, stencils and pictures on surfaces of properties using aerosol or paint. As the graffiti stay on the walls permanently, this kind of participation is not welcomed by residents and owners of the properties. In countries like Australia, graffiti drawing is regarded as an unlawful activity because writing and drawing on both public and private (unless the participant has permission from the owner or s/he owns the property) properties are seen as vandalism, not art.

Participation in graffiti in recent years is divided into two parts. The first part is the participation of graffiti writing on-site. The three forms of graffiti introduced in the video, traditional, light-emitting-diode (LED) and laser graffiti, have to be participated on-site in order to create the art. The second part is the online participation on photograph and video sharing in forums and sharing sites, such as Flickr and YouTube. People take pictures or record the process of graffiti drawing and share with others through internet.

According to Jenkins’ (2002) three definitions of participatory culture, one of them is ‘a range of subcultures promote Do-It-Yourself (DIY) media production, a discourse that shapes how consumers have deployed those technologies’, which is best suited to graffiti. Regardless of the different forms that are being examined in the video, they are DIY productions trying to communication with people on-spot and through the internet by photographing and recording. The differences between sharing on-spot and through the internet will be talked about in the later paragraphs.

LED and laser graffiti are derivations of traditional graffiti. They are new ways invented by the Graffiti Research Lab (GRL) for graffiti writers to express themselves in public areas and not being seen as vandalism. As shown in the video, both LED and laser graffiti can be removed from the drawn surface in a short period of time. In regards to the ‘throwies’ (LED bulbs combined with a magnet to create LED graffiti), they stick onto ferromagnetic material and are easily removed from the surface. Laser graffiti is written by using a laser pen, a computer and a projector. Therefore, the writer can erase the tag by pointing the laser pen to a particular point. They solve the problem of drawing and writing permanently on walls, as both of them are temporary and reusable. Therefore, LED and laser graffiti can be seen as a technological transformation of the traditional drawn-on-walls graffiti.

Also, according to SCREAM’s video All City; Insights on Graffiti, graffiti writers usually have to find a place which s/he can escape in a short period of time, and write graffiti when the place is completely vacant. Graffiti writing is to be done alone, or with a few fellows, but not by a large group of people together. The community cannot write on the same wall at the same time as, again, it is illegal. Therefore, LED and laser graffiti provide a platform for them to gather and write together legally. The Graffiti Research Lab then becomes a ‘culture jammer’ (Jenkins, 2002), which the graffiti subculture have been jammed with digital technology to create a brand new phenomenon.

However, both LED and laser graffiti suffer from the same limitations as traditional graffiti, the limitation of locality. In order to enjoy graffiti writing, writers have to be on the spot to do so. They need an actual space, for example, a wall, a ferromagnetic structure, or a huge building. The same case applies for sharing their writings with other people. They have to be there physically in order to share the moment, unless the graffiti is recorded and put onto the internet (this will be talked later). Out of the three, only laser graffiti can be seen from a further place as it is projected hugely on buildings. The laser graffiti is visible to whoever can see the building.

Besides, due to the nature of graffiti which is a subculture and an unlawful act, is certainly not copyrighted. However, it is hard to relate graffiti written back to the writer him/herself. Therefore, it is hard to define inspiration and copying in graffiti. They have become open sources to other graffiti writers. When a piece of writing is copied, it is even harder to trace out who has done it (when all of them are done in secret to ensure not to be caught).

It is related to the effectiveness of communicating by graffiti writing. Although LED and laser graffiti have solved the problem of vandalizing both public and private properties, they are only effective during night time as both of them rely on emitting light to draw or write. Moreover, as mentioned above, they are temporary and reusable, which means that after the graffiti has been written, they have to be removed and cannot be kept on-spot.

Therefore, this is why graffiti writers or lovers would take pictures or shoot video of the graffiti, in order to store them in their computers and share with other people through the internet. As Snyder suggests, ‘[p]hotographs made ephemeral graffiti pieces permanent, allowing writers to view the work of others without attachment to a specific place or time’ (2006, p.93). It overcomes the problem of locality. Photos of graffiti were first published in magazines, in which writers can appreciate and review graffiti written from all over the world (ibid.).

With regards to digital communication, participants of graffiti take part in related forums, and video and photograph sharing sites. These sharing tools have become essential to their participation. Similar to fan communities and various databases, its extension to the internet has amplified the communications between graffiti communities. According to Jenkins (2003), the internet has ‘opened up new space for public discussions of media content and the web became an important showcase for grassroots cultural production’. Graffiti writers and lovers take photographs and videos of graffiti to show their ‘grassroots cultural production’ with the rest of the community.

The case of graffiti forums is similar to what Levy (cited by Jenkins, 2002) has pointed out about fan sites. The graffiti community is originally a closed community due to the nature of their activity. With the aid of internet, the graffiti community can extend themselves hugely with other graffiti communities. Also, the internet opens the gateway for other people to have a glimpse or even join the community. It seems that the community has become an opened one. However, since the original graffiti community has had a set of jargons and special language, people who are not familiar with the activity would not be able to actively engage in the discussions. An outsider can be easily spotted and they may feel unaccepted by the group. Therefore, the community is still not as open as it seems. In this case, a vicious circle is created. The graffiti communities are regarded as outlaws and the unwelcomed. They are not understood by the society. However, they are as well not being able to be understood as the society cannot get what they mean by reading the forums. Therefore, their status as revolting and angry young people remains.

The last bit of the video is about how the GRL has created an opportunity for people who do not belong to the graffiti community to have a spectacular experience on graffiti. The experience of letting ‘outsiders’ draw graffiti on a bus has opened its mysterious door. These ‘outsiders’ can try to understand what graffiti drawing is like, even children are involved in such an event. In this case, the graffiti community can become an open one. As mentioned in the video, GRL aims to let people who do not used to or even hate graffiti, to try to participate in such an act.

During the research process of the video, a number of video and photograph sharing sites were encountered. These sites can be considered as different collective intelligence. According to McGonigal (2007), collective intelligence uses ‘digital networks to connect massively-multi human users in a persistent process of social data-gathering, analysis and application’. For example, the photograph sharing site, Flickr, which is greatly used during the research, is an online platform which internet users can put up their photographs and share with fellow users. These people who upload their pictures onto the platform are the ‘massively-multi human users’ that McGonigal was talking about. They put together their photographs, tag their friends, add explanatory notes to it, and also group them with similar photographs taken by other users by tagging related subjects.

Applying Pierre Levy’s observation on collective intelligence ‘no one knows everything, everyone knows something’ (cited by McGonigal, 2007) to the graffiti related forums and photographs and video sharing sites, every member of the community would contribute the photographs and videos that are created by themselves. Thus, these online platforms will soon become a collective intelligence which contributors deliberately tag the photographs and videos and the computer will sort them out systematically to create a database. It becomes a combination of .both the intelligence of human beings and the computer.

In conclusion, the video Graffiti: from Vandalism to Art attempts to examine how traditional graffiti is transformed in terms of technology and social acceptance. Traditional graffiti is seen as vandalism of properties as they are written on properties that are not owned by the writers. LED and laser graffiti developed by Graffiti Research Lab are milestones for the development of graffiti. Although there are limitations for these communication methods, the problem of vandalizing properties has been solved. In order to effectively participate in graffiti and share different kinds of writings to other people, graffiti forum and sharing sites are essential. Internet amplifies the effect of communication between people in which the community can appreciate and review graffiti writings from all over the world. Forums and sharing sites become several collective intelligence due to the participation of community members.

Bibliography:

Books and journals:

Jenkins, Henry (2002) ‘Interactive Audiences?: The “Collective Intelligence” of Media Fans’ http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/collective%20intelligence.html (15 October 2008)

Jenkins, Henry (2003) ‘Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergene, and Participatory Culture’ http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/starwars.html (15 October 2008)

McGonigal, Jane (2007) ‘Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming’ http://avantgame.com/McGonigal_WhyILoveBees_Feb2007.pdf (15 October 2008)

Snyder, Gregory (2006) ‘Graffiti Media and the Perpetuation of an Illegal Subculture.’ Crime Media Culture. 2006 (2), pp.93-101.

Image, audio and video:

Adrian F (2005) ‘Monkey!’ [image file] (14 October 2005) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianfurby/52267776 (15 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘Completed LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104047113/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘Completed LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104045253/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘Completed LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104047012/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104038643/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104038724/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104038808/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104038892/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104039010/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

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Alan Joyce (2006) ‘LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104039199/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104039374/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104039472/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

Alan Joyce (2006) ‘LED Throwies with On/Off Tabs’ [image file] (24 February 2006) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/everythingdigital/104039589/in/set-72057594069888500/ (16 October 2008).

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Espi Twelve (2003) ‘Maybe Afterfuture’ [audio file] Krach und Klang. http://www.archive.org/download/sp12_2003/espi12_afterfuture.mp3 (17 October 2008).

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Urban_data (2007) ‘IMG_1023’ [image file] (20 April 2007) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/urban_data/470740587/ (20 April 2007).

Urban_data (2007) ‘IMG_1244’ [image file] (9 July 2007) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/urban_data/766571531/ (16 October 2008).

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Urban_data (2007) ‘IMG_1341’ [image file] (10 July 2007) Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/urban_data/766600231/ (16 October 2008).

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Tags: graffiti