Graffiti an Art or Deviant Act?

Graffiti as art is one of those "in the eye of the beholder" type questions.


Graffiti art is an art form. The reasons, including aesthetic criteria, as to why it is an art form far outweigh the criticism of illegality, incoherence, and nonstandard presentation. However graffiti art overcomes these concerns and thereby can be considered as an art form.Graffiti art originated in the late 1960's, and it has been developing ever since. However, it is not readily accepted as being art like those works that are found in a gallery or a museum. Most of the opposition to graffiti art is due to its location and bold, unexpected, and unconventional presentation, but its presentation and often-illegal location does not necessarily disqualify it as art.In sociology Graffiti is still an argumentative topic, wither it is a form of Art or a deviant behavior. Societies throughout history and to the twenty-first century continue to hold mixed feelings toward graffiti. According to Grove’s Dictionary of Art, the term “graffiti” derives from the Greek word “graphein” meaning, “to write.” However the term has also been defined as any inscriptions (drawings or words) scratched or scrawled on public surfaces.The Canadian Oxford English Dictionary defines deviance as “the behaviour or characteristics of a deviant,” a person who “departs from the expected rules of conduct” and strays from normal, social standards.


Graffiti as a Form of Deviance
The hip-hop subculture holds a strong place in reality. In effect, the situation has grown to cause much concern to everyday citizens. Graffiti can be seen as a threat to the quality of life in a community because millions of taxpayers ’dollars are spent on its removal;in fact public funds can be entirely swept up by graffiti eradication.
The act has become an illegal offense because it implies the act of damaging property
without authorized permission. The public sees graffiti as an act of deviance because it decreases the value property, detracts from the beauty of neighbourhoods and hurts tourism. Unattended pieces of graffiti give off the visual impression of an “uncaring and indifferent society.

Graffiti as an Art Form


Since the start of modern graffiti in New York in the late 1960s, there has been much debate over its legitimacy as an art form. Many see graffiti as a gang related and merit-less, while others hail graffiti as a legitimate art form of the utmost importance. In this argument of graffiti as an art form, one must make the clear distinction between tags or scrawling and spray-paint murals.Aspects of the art world have even accepted graffiti as art, having had many gallery showings (Powers, 1996). In 2004, the Cultural Olympiad held a festival of graffiti art,Chromopolis, in Greece. Chromopolis invited sixteen graffiti artists from seven different countries to “paint” on public walls in ten Greek cities. In addition to the art galleries featuring graffiti, auctions have occurred specifically for the purposes of selling the works of graffiti artists.The fact that society views graffiti as subversive has to do, in large part, with its appeal and the identity of the graffiti subculture. Graffiti can be seen as an art form for the lower class to rise up and have a voice; it is about the reclamation of public space and the denouncing of ownership.








Sources:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:3sCNcl4XsqIJ:www.sustain.ubc.ca/pdfs/seeds_05/winter/graffitti/A%2520Sociological%2520Analysis%2520of%2520Graffiti.pdf+graffiti+as+deviant&hl=en&gl=qa&pid=bl srcid=ADGEEShOUcGIoK892qLDginHXg4htueEpFgl_JgJ1_Ip8GojYgZBTh9DeUH26CHCV40rJplz9EnxPYsP9r_lEtnHvpQWCmUMt15CQoCSLzm-_bmn-ZboT02179mJ20LN1bj911yMqeUH&sig=AHIEtbTHwvFAR6t7wzPZYxG-L_8dEdKmpA

http://www.graffiti.org/faq/stowers.html

Progress In Souq Waqif

Two types of progress are seen in souq waqif and sociology allows us to track these diverging behaviors in cultural behavior. One is cultural progress. Specifically, I am talking about the art exhibitions that are held in the galleries and some of the restaurants found there. The second kind of progress is that of westernization and globalization.

I have been to souq waqif many times and each time I go there, I am amazed at both of these types of progresses.

I remember the first time I ever went to souq waqif was with my school, and I remember telling one of my friends “Why is there a Baskin Robbins in the middle of souq waqif? Isn’t this supposed to be a cultural place?” What I had failed to realize then was that even though Baskin Robbins was not part of my culture, it is still part of culture- just not mine. Baskin Robbins’ motto is “Your Neighborhood Ice Cream Store” which shows how dominant it is in American society, or how dominant it wants to be. I can’t be the judge of that because I’ve never actually been to California- which is where Baskin Robbins first started out. The same goes to the restaurants in souq waqif, for example the Iranian, the Indian and the Italian restaurants.

Also, another form of cultural progress is the art exhibitions that can be seen in the galleries of souq waqif. One of the exhibitions that I went to focused on Qatari artists and I could actually see the artist painting his work onto the canvas. Not only was it interesting to see an artist at work, creating a cultural object, but it was interesting to see a Qatari one because it was the first time that I’ve seen this type of thing. I’ve also seen an exhibition where more than one person has worked on a piece of art, so it was a collective activity and there was a division of labor amongst the people. I also heard many people talking about their thoughts of the many artworks and each person had a different opinion, which proves that cultural objects are multivocal.

The other kind of progress is the westernization and globalization. The Baskin Robbins example could be put in this category as well. As I previously mentioned, Baskin Robbins started out in the United States of America, specifically the state of California. So the fact that it is located in Qatar means that Qatar is becoming westernized, even if it is through a simple thing like ice cream. Another example of westernization in souq waqif is the fact that many of the cafés have multiple television screens in them that usually play some sort of western sport, usually football. Once when I was walking around the souq, I heard a loud cheering noise coming from the cafés, I assumed a team had won and the people were cheering because of that and that they were experiencing collective effervescence. Another example is the parking lot surrounding the souq. This is part of westernization because the need for parking lots came from the west, which is where cars were invented. Traditionally parking lots were not needed because all people needed were posts to tie their camels to.

Photography: A Silent Communication

Realizing the fact that cultures and civilizations from all over the world have distinct ways of approaching and interpreting art to express their identities, there might be one thing that they have in common: telling stories through photos. For example, it might be difficult for a lot of people who have no familiarity with music from the far-east of the globe to differentiate between J-pop and K-pop, while it’s easy for almost all people to tell what story lies behind a picture.

Since media is considered a major factor in spreading all forms of art in this century, the art of photography is no exception. It is that form of art that’s everywhere and we don’t often notice in our daily lives. It may not be as professional or spectacular as it sounds like from the name itself, but we do encounter it a lot in a single day. The simplest example that I can think of at the top my head is about something that you can’t leave your house without such as your national ID card, your health card, your driver’s license, or even your passport. But have you ever thought of that picture of yourself printed on either national documents? I mean, who took those pictures of you? Of course it wasn't anengineer or a doctor because each individual has its own role in order for a society to function well. To answer the preceding question, that person is definitely a photographer.

Like other cultures of art, photography has its own subcultures as well. As some photographers work in professional studios where people are usually the ones that would come to them to be photographed, others travel from a country to another for the sake of having a close-up of what they want to take a picture of because of the nature of their jobs, such as photography journalists.

Apart from considering photography as a career, some people enjoy it as a hobby. Many people would usually buy professional cameras, take creative shots, (maybe) edit them with special softwares like Adobe Photoshop, and publish them to online photography galleries such as Flickr or istockphoto to share them with people from different regions of the world. Those able photographers would even make money out of their photos by selling them to people who might be interested in photography. In relation to the cultural theories, this sort of collaboration between photographers and people in a society clearly serves the interaction theory of a culture, in which two or more members in a society work to benefit from each other without being suppressed by outer powers.