Graffiti, and All Forms of Media, Will Always Change

Work by Famed Graffiti Artist Bansky

            As an artist who believes in “low art” I was most interested in the Graffiti blog assignment. I have chosen to analyze the blog entries concerning Graffiti by Eli Chamberlin, found at http://medianth.blogspot.com/2011/02/do-you-love-it.html and by Eric Fontaine, found at http://ericfontainemediameditation.blogspot.com/. These blogs each bring new insights to the power of graffiti as media. Furthermore, both blogs discuss the power of anonymity of graffiti in contrasting ways.

            Eli discusses an interesting graffiti phenomenon. This phenomenon is the ‘I Love You’ anonymous tags occurring in cities all over the world. He discusses how because the tag is non-specific and the message is easily applied to many people, the tag is anonymous. Anyone can tag ‘I Love You’ and then be a part of the ‘I Love You’ graffiti phenomenon. The anonymity of the tag allows for universal access. Eli states that the tag has created its own narrative, which gives incite to the power of the flow of ideas through media. Through the ‘I Love You’ graffiti, the globalized world is further connected.

            What is interesting to analyze about Eli’s look at graffiti is that it takes all traditional aspects of graffiti and turns them upside-down. The graffiti tag normally is deeply personal. No two people are to have the same tag, and in this respect it is akin to a signature. Furthermore with ‘I Love You’ graffiti, the viewer is almost encouraged to reproduce the work, whereas in traditional graffiti, the work is sacred and made to be one of a kind. Additionally, graffiti is usually thought of as a means of resistance, portraying punch and political statements. Conversely, the graffiti highlighted by Eli is in reality a message of universal love. It is important to consider the transformation of media. Graffiti is considered a liminal form of mediation and even still it is constantly reworked.

            Anonymity is a founding aspect of graffiti. Graffiti is created by the anonymous, which allows it to inhabit such a liminal space. Eric’s blog on graffiti also considers the anonymous nature of this art. Eric looks at more negative graffiti, which is scrawled over desks at UBC. The graffiti analyzed by Eric is almost mean-spirited, and he considers the anonymity of it as the power behind the pessimistic voice. He also notes that these brief notes scrawled over desks are deeply rooted in the political and the cultural. Eric sees that at an academic institute the students redefine themselves and use this graffiti as expression. The anonymous nature of graffiti allows for an expression of political incorrect thoughts, so it is possible to consider these mean-spirited comments as just outlets, and thus, possibly not so negative.

            Here, Eric highlights a form of graffiti, which is actually a meditation between the self and society. This self-reflective practice is healthy, and thus it is positive that graffiti provides this outlet. Much like the current wave of bloggers, this public/private graffiti captured by Eric allows for expression in a contemporary world.

            What must be understood from these differing views of graffiti is that media is constantly reworked to fit a particular paradigm. While it is helpful to discuss thematic aspects between media, we must remember that each form of media can be unique within a group. Media is difficult to define and compartmentalize. But this is how it should be, as media is a tool for looking at the complex beings that make up humanity.

Formation of Identity in Y Tu Mama Tambien

          Films are rooted in cultural tropes. A film that is successful in Canada may not be success in Germany. Films are made for the audience, and the audience is a culture group. When films differ so greatly, how can they be analyzed and understood in a uniformed manner? The best way to analyze film is through the Marx-Influence concept of interpellation, which is the method in which society creates personal identity. This theory is most beneficial in a culturally divided film world because society and culture are considered upfront.

            Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001), a coming of age story of two boys, is decidedly Mexican. The music, cultural tropes, and scenic views are all rooted in Mexican Culture. Even the general tone of the movie, is absolutely Mexican. My Mexican friend told me that all Mexican movies are playful, but deeply sad. Y Tu Mama Tambien is definitely playful, and in the end, the events are absolutely devastating. Because this move is acutely coded with Mexican culture tropes, it is easy to extrapolate the process of creating individual identity through society.

            Marx-Influences critiques turn to the economic first when looking towards identity creation. The economic situation in this film is deeply present. The two main characters come from vastly different classes. One occupies the elite class and the other lives within the working class, in the classic Marxist sense. The economic divide between the rich and poor is clear in Y Tu Mama Tambien and how relationships are formed and identity is created is made apparent with the dynamic relationship between the two stratified boys.

            The control of group control in terms of identity is made clear at the end of this film. Throughout the film, the boys interact and, while their differences are apparent, they are able to be friends. However when the boys enter manhood, they drift apart, both returning to their predetermined class. While they were best friends since they were young, as men, one rich and one poor, they cannot now be in the say social circles. The divide driven between the best friends illustrates how, while individual identity is formed, escaping a social class can be impossible in a condition of hegemonic control.

            With the help of Marx-Influenced theoretical analysis, it becomes apparent that Y Tu Mama Tambien is an obvious cultural critique of the class situation in Mexico. Here it is important not only to see Y Tu Mama Tambien as a political film, but also as a Mexican political film. It is unmistakable that film, like culture, must not be treated as ahistoric. Instead, a film’s location, time, and politics should all be considered.

References Cited:

Gray, Gordon

2010 Film Theory. In Cinema: A Visual Anthropology, Pp.35-73. Oxford, New York: Berg

The Power of the Radio

          The Radio is an interesting space. It is both very real and completely imagined. While the recoding studio occupies a given space, the show can be broadcasted in any location that gets a particular wavelength. Radio shows are transmitted through a invisible means, but the transition is guaranteed. If you have a Radio, you can have access to any show on the air. Access cannot be denied based on who you are, because who you are is not seen. However, by listening to one radio show, you are connected with the others listening. A community is created through the air.

The Radio makes use of only one of our senses, that of the auditory. But somehow, these simple wavelengths penetrate our ears and create community. A radio show can unify a certain group of people who inhabit many different lives and locations. Radio can actually be a means of cultural production and can unify marginalized groups.

            In Australia, as investigated by Daniel Fisher in “Mediation Kinship: Country, Family, and Radio in Northern Australia” radio is used to connect the marginal Aboriginal groups who have been splintered in contemporary society. These radio shows do not only provide entertainment for the Aboriginal people, but also helps maintain kinship ties, a main concern of the contemporary Aboriginal community. A kin from one location can be connected to a kin in another location through a radio. The radio in Australia is very successful and listened to greatly. The amount of programs has expanded, allowing for a larger community to be created. Networks have been developed. Without a doubt, the Aboriginal radio in Australia is a type of ‘culture tape’ that holds people together and strengthens community.

            Another example of community-based radio is a station, CBQM broadcasted from Fort McPherson in Canada.  This radio station is without a doubt community driven. CBQM caters towards the Aboriginal community in the small town. The show often takes requests, utilizes call-ins, and airs private messages. The radio station is almost used as a bulletin board for the society. Furthermore, CBQM utilizes bilingual DJs in order to keep their languages alive. The people use the radio station to re-affirm and re-assert cultural ties. The community is actually strengthened by CBQM, and the stations usefulness as a cultural tool is undeniable.

            Radio is without a doubt more complex and important than mere entertainment. It is a mode of culture production. Radio can form culture, recreate culture, and strengthen culture. Radio is a place perfect to unify the marginalized, because it is widely accessible. We must see Radio as important, and as anthropologists, we must view Radio as a space of study, because it is clearly a space of culture.

References Cited:     

Allen, Dennis

            2010 CBQM. National Film Board of Canada

Fisher, Daniel

2009 Mediating Kinship: Country, Family, and Radio in Northern Australia.

Cultural Anthropology 24(2): 280-3

When Does Reuse Become Inappropriate?

          It is often said that there are no new ideas in the world anymore. This concept is indeed strengthened by the fact that narratives, ideas, images and the like are constantly recycled in today’s media. But the reuse of these concepts is complicated. Sometimes the reuse of ideas is embraced, while occasionally the reuse of notions is considered inappropriate.  The most common reuse practice in today’s society is using the narrative of a literary novel to form a movie or show. When the use of the narrative is direct, than ample credit is given and thus it becomes appropriate. But when the inclusion of a narrative is more implicit, then the credence of the reuse is more difficult to ascertain. What determines the appropriateness of a re-appropriation of a particulary narrative is the understanding of the original narrative, a correspondence between purpose of both works and a respect of the original work of art.

            An example of a suitable reuse of a literary narrative is the show Sex and the City. This show, while firmly based on the novel by the same name, is also greatly informed by the Victorian novel The House of Mirth by, Edith Warton. The writers of Sex and the City utilize the conceptual framework and social critique of this novel in order to enrich the story of young single women inhabiting a world where marriage is the only answer to a complete life. The basic story is the same in The House of Mirth and the inclusion of social critique firstly shows a true understanding of Warton’s novel, and as the stories line up, each work is attempting to concur the same objective. Finally the writers take great pains to include Warton’s social critique on women’s constant subversive role in society as a foundational aspect of the show indicates great respect for Warton’s work.

            A negative example of re-appropriation is the novel and musical Wicked. These works use the characters from L. Frank Baum’s seminal children’s series The Oz books. Baum’s original works amount to a total of fourteen books, which bring the reader to a new universe with complex themes and literary devises. However, Wicked does not seem to take into account any of the intricacies of Baum’s work and instead just recreates the characters. The themes of innocence and loss are understood, but the purpose of Baum’s works is ignored. Furthermore, the respect is not present in either the novel or musical Wicked, because Baum is not used for his literary genius, but for his characters, which are reused with little regard for their original purpose.

            Without a doubt, in today’s ideas are constantly being recycled, the understanding, respect, and purpose of the original concept must be fully recognized. This must be on the forefront of people’s minds in a time of Google and YouTube, where images, ideas, narratives and the likes can easily be copied and spread.  If the politics behind reuse is ignored, than society could trap itself into a place where not only does there appear to be no original ideas, but where these original ideas are misunderstood and disrespected. 

Graffiti: A Subverted Power in Vancouver

         Graffiti is a phenomenon present in all modern day urban spaces. It can be considered both an art form and a political statement. Graffiti can also be seen as the expression of the individual in a marginal society. Julie Peteet sees Graffiti as a form of “cultural production”. Additionally, Amardo Rodriquez and Robin Patric Clair analyze the content of graffiti, finding that marginalizing factors of sex and racial identity are most often at play.  Simply put, graffiti is a force for the liminal society, which occupies liminal spaces in the urban landscape. However, can this understanding of graffiti be applied to Vancouver? In a city know for clean streets and flashy glass buildings, where does graffiti occur and what does it mean?

             In Vancouver, the graffiti usually is located in East Vancouver, known as the run down neighborhood in the city. It is also known for its diversity and rich community. Considering graffiti as a translation of identity, then this location makes sense. But the graffiti in this area is usually playful, portraying young children and singing groups, not concerning issues of race and sex. Furthermore, as cultural production, graffiti should inhabit more than one neighborhood of a city. Can graffiti be found anywhere else in the city?

            Graffiti elsewhere in Vancouver is quite scarce. One of the more fascinating locations of graffiti in Vancouver is the piece located on the back of store security door in the heart of the city, Granville Skytrain Station. An Image is shown at the beginning of this post. 

This graffiti mainly consists of tags that can be understood as graffiti signature. These tags are all about identity, but they are about identity of the individual. And because culture deals with a group of people, this individualistic graffiti cannot be considered culture production. Furthermore, tags are not readable by others, so the meaning behind a tag is lost on a society. Thus this graffiti is not unifying.

The location graffiti is interesting because it is both completely liminal and incorporated within consumerism society. The work is only visible at night, when the store closes the security door. However, it is located at the upper-class store The Bay, and it looks as if this door was originally positioned as an ad for the Hbc Rewards. The ad is visible underneath the graffiti with “Earn Hbc Rewards points with every purchase” scrolled over the top and images of credit cards on the bottom. This dual nature of location can be seen as an analogy for the state of graffiti in Vancouver, which is allowed to occupy the liminal, but must inhabit mainstream and non-political statements, either politically correct statements, or tags about the individual.

So is the graffiti in Vancouver unique? Or is it impossible to lump all graffiti together? The contradictory nature of graffiti in Vancouver reminds us that while there may be universal aspects to a concept, one unified understanding cannot be determined.

References Cited:

Julie Peteet

           2009 The Writing on the Walls: The Graffiti of the Intifada. Cultural Antropology 11(2):139-159.

Rodriguez, Amardo and Robin Patric Clair

           1999 Graffiti as Communication: Exploring the Discursive Tensions of Anonymous Texts. Southern Communication Journal (65)1:1-15.

Details of the Graffiti Mentioned:

Imagination and Aura in the Time of YouTube

            Walter Benjamin believes that when an artwork is reproduced it loses its aura and thus its potential as a dynamic and influential piece. Benjamin sees the movement towards reproductive art is a negative transition that will diminish the meaning and power of art. Benjamin gave this critique in his paper, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” over eight decades ago. What would he say today in the world of the Jpeg and YouTube, a world almost controlled by “low-art”? What would he say of the state of the aura of a song like “Jai Ho” from the movie Slumdog Millionaire that is not a reproduction of an original, but the reproduction of a cultural concept? “Jai Ho” was created only for the movie, but is altered to appear as a traditional Indian Bollywood song. “Jai Ho” attempts to inhabit the aura of a “victorious” Indian culture, and whether the song achieves this, but undeniably the song is popular. Through the success of the song and the mechanism of YouTube an imagined reality becomes passed on worldwide. While aura as seen by Benjamin is not present, an aura of unification and imagined culture is clearly present and is actually strengthened when the song and dance is reproduced.

            The song has been recreated numerous times on YouTube. These recreations are, while at one time just clips, but can also be considered as imagined reality as discussed by Arjun Appadurai article “Global Ethnoscape”. Appadurai states that because of globalization and new technologies there is an increased imagined life. This imagined life is without a doubt is presented in the following four clips recreating the song “Jai Ho”. The “Official Jai Ho Music Video” presented on YouTube is actually not the original footage from the movie, but a recreation that emphasizes “slumdog” culture and Bollywood dance. An imagined unified Indian culture is imagined.

            The next clip to consider is the “Karan Khokar and Divya Ikara- Jai Ho Dance- Tamil Sneham – Tampa, Florida”. Here, again, an imagined Indian culture is created, but also the audience, in Tampa, Florida originally, and now worldwide imagines an exotic location to which the now have access. This access is a central issue concerning Appadurai, and he states that through globalization foreign locations and foreign lifestyles become closer and more attainable. The Internet and imaged ethnoscapes allow for access to an imagined culture.

            A further example of imagined community is present in the clip “Slumdog Millionaire Dance Jai Ho”, where a white couple re-enacts the entire song and dance of “Jai Ho” in their Western looking living room. Here, the “actors”, not the audience, imagine inhabiting a different culture. However, by posting their clip onto YouTube, making it viewable to many people all over the world, these creators are able to elicit imagined culture in their viewers and possible spur the viewers own recreation of “Jai Ho”.

            Finally, “Jai Ho” becomes further Westernized with the Pussycat Dolls recreation of the song.  The very American girl group, Pussycat Dolls, not only take the song of “Jai Ho”, but also dress in Indian style. Here the culture of India becomes a commodity that the Pussycat Dolls want their viewers to consume, like they themselves have consumed. This final clip does show that the Benjamin art has become an object for consumerism and politics. However it can be viewed that a new aura can be considered, an aura of imagined ethnoscapes.

References Cited:

Appadurai, Arjun

1996 Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology. In Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Pp. 48-65. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

Benjamin, Walter 

1936 The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility. In Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 3: 1935-1938. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press.

Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRC4QrUwo9o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqWkFMoLocM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7AuQKFlhXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc5OyXmHD0w

William Mazzarella on Globalizes Mediation

          In “Culture, Globalization, Mediation”, William Mazzarella analyzes how mediation has become a groundwork for contemporary social culture. Mazzarella argues that after the emergence of globalization there is a need for a re-evaluation of mediation in Anthropology. He believes that the globalized society is tied to mediation. Mazzarella sees mediation as a central phenomenon in today’s world and society. William Mazzarella argues that with globalization, identity of the local was complicated, and thus mediation and media became a way of understanding cultural identity.

            Mazzarella sees the globalization and media as interacting in a contradictory fashion. On one hand mediation in a globalized world creates culture, but on the other hand, diminishes it. This tension increases in a more contemporary world. As anthropologists, Mazzarella believes we should look to what creates cultural value, and he suggests ritual media as a key aspect as media can be seen as a structure that controls social life. In the contemporary world, mediation is the means through which the social world is created. Thus, Mazzarella calls for Anthropologists to acknowledge the significance of mediation.

            Mazzarella recognizes that in contemporary society, new technologies can create complications with the positive aspects of mediation. Media can be used in a negative manner, as seen in Neo-imperialism. Anthropologists are wary of how others are portrayed in contemporary media. Also studies show that people can take a general message and recreate it as a message for themselves. Clearly media and mediation is a powerful tool in the new world.

The strength of mediation is furthered by Mazzarella’s argument that globalization actually relates to the manufacturing of position and the portrayal of culture. Through the process of globalization, people become more aware of representations of self and others. Furthermore, with globalization, people deal with reflexivity as it relates to media. Mazzarella sees media as a strict tool but also sees media as deeply intimate, as it is a process of self-recognition. Mediation is again positioned as a two-fold concept, that both distances and draws closer the self to ones own reality.

Reference Cited:

Mazarella, William

2004 Culture, Globalization, Mediation. Annual Review of Anthropology 33:345-367.