As this is being rewritten after class, I think everything I say is more a reflection of the class discussion and not my original interpretation of the reading. With that being said, I really appreciated this week’s reading because it forced me to think about graffiti out of the context of cement blocks and spray paint. All of the readings outlined the importance of graffiti outside of the physical appearance of the scratches, carvings and paint. We must look at where the graffiti is located, the placements in relation to one another and even general attitudes towards the object. Graffiti can be seen as a performance, a ritual act, and a platform for conversation.
Reflecting on Blaird and Taylor, we can think of the creation of a graffito as a bodily experience. The physical form and the surface it occupies is crucial in the interpretation of a graffito. As graffiti is often images and text, they have contextual specificity and thus allow us to reconstruct the way a person might have interacted with each graffito. Another point that stuck with me from the Blaird reading, was the description of graffiti as both an act and an object. It is important then to consider how to creates a dialogue. When one object is placed, there can become a conversation, grouping different graffitos together to create this full dialogue. Hierarchies are then created by placing graffitos in hard to reach places.