Wider social and cultural implications of Graffiti

     The streets of Vancouver, Canada, are decorated one might say, with the art and perspective of graffiti artists. Graffiti itself as an art form, is one of society’s oldest. Found inscribed in stone or painted in caves, anthropologists have observed ancient graffiti to gain a greater understanding about human experience and the culture of that period. So if we examine modern graffiti, what does it say about our society? Interestingly by comparison with ancient times, today graffiti is criminalized and associated with lower social classes.      

     On the City of Vancouver website, it states that graffiti must be removed from private property by owners within ten days of being given written notice by the City. This is in accordance with the graffiti by-law, passed in 2003 to combat graffiti in Vancouver. This by-law also threatens and delivers a five-hundred dollar fine to anyone caught doing graffiti. These enforcements are due to the perception on part of the city that “graffiti is often associated with other crimes”. I wonder how, what many presently accept as an art form, is somehow still vehemently affixed to other acts of vandalism. There is little connection between breaking windows and spray-painting besides their criminalization and perception under the law.

     Graffiti itself as an art genre has various kinds from tagging to murals, which range in both artistic merit and style. Of course the venue for such art is not the most ideal for business owners however, the lack of established or legal location, combined with the passion for artistic expression in spite of which, is what lands this art form on the streets of Vancouver. The City of Vancouver website advertises a list of establishments who specialize in graffiti removal which, it seems in some cases, to be a terrible waste of artistic masterpiece. The removal of incredible mural style spray-paintings actively ignores and denies the artistic merit which it possesses. This seems to be due to a socialized perception of art in reflection of social classes. The association of graffiti with crime and its location, often on the streets, has built up a social and cultural paradigm both for those who remove it and those who create it. There is a subculture which is part of the appeal of graffiti.

A study conducted by Nancy Macdonald in her book The Graffiti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity, and Identity in London and New York, transcends out-of-date perceptions of class and focuses on the “realm of personal rewards-graffiti as a way of building masculinity, communicating independence, being a ‘nobody’ and becoming a ‘somebody’” (MacDonald, 6). She also emphasizes the passion which graffiti artists possess for their craft. The subculture has its own personal rewards but none greater

than self-expression which lies at the heart of this…crime. Macdonald discusses the lack of understanding in the relationship between graffiti and society at large. Although MacDonald conducted her studies on London and New York, I believe that many of her findings cross national boundaries and can be found here in Vancouver. Just as in London and New York, some Vancouverites couple graffiti with criminality and perceive it as a criminal activity of the low class while there is this lack of mutual respect and understanding between the artist and the municipality.

     Perhaps if the multiple styles of graffiti were not grouped and treated under one by-law then there could be better appreciation for certain types of graffiti such as mural, to the exclusion of others such as bathroom stall etchings. This might allow for better integration of graffiti with society whereby the municipality could better control and coordinate with graffiti artists where they may be allowed by the city to paint. This would provide a venue for those who would prefer to do it legally and for those who choose to remain on the other side of the law, they need not change a thing. Better integration would however, facilitate a greater understanding of the art and alleviate some of the  out-of-date social class stereotypes which still coexist with graffiti.

     .

   Sources:

MacDonald, Nancy
2001 The Graffiti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity, and Identity in London and New York.

Palgrave Macmillan: 2-45.

Jai Ho, Jai Who?, Jai YouTube

     It was interesting to watch the evolution of the Slumdog Millionaire story from film to music video, to westernized music video and then the subsequent home videos which people produced thereafter. Each evolution of the original was such a departure from the last, and yet still retained some semblance from the original in a few dance moves along the Indian Bollywood continuum. In, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin discusses the value which art takes on once it has been reproduced. Benjamin claims that the original piece of art loses its value as it gets reproduced, in this case, repeatedly. The Slumdog Millionaire film is condensed and fitted with a dance sequence in its first reproduction in the soundtrack music video. The video depicts scenes from the film and illustrates some scenes which are to represent social and cultural aspects of India as well as the film’s plot. In the reproduction of Slumdog Millionaire, I find that the story line of the original is lost in the proceeding reproduction by the Pussycat Dolls. The Pussycat Doll version is notably vacant in terms of plot or substance. The production is reduced to costumes and erotic women gyrating their hips to an Indian backbeat. This Westernized version isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does appeal to a more western audience for marketing purposes. It is however, vastly different from the original music video with only a few congruencies in dance moves carried forward and the appearance of singer A. R. Rahman.

     The next two reproductions which we viewed on YouTube, people create their own interpretation of dance for the song which illustrates the influence of the media on them and their influence on the media as they direct the movement coordinated to the song. The first video which has an English speaking man and a woman from a western country dancing to Jai Ho with a hybrid of Indian dance movements from the original Jai Ho soundtrack video, mixed with what appears to be a bit of HipHop dance styling. The context of the film may be lost but the cultural Indian Bollywood style dance is here, being learned by Western people on the other side of the globe and mixed with the African-American originated dance style.

In the other youtube video, we view some young teenagers performing a dance on stage to Jai Ho while incorporating partner style, formal dance movement popularized in Western countries but originating from Latin America. They infuse this partner style dancing with Indian Bollywood style dancing, again from the film.

     In both YouTube cases, the precise original piece of art may have been lost or reduced along the way however, the spread of culture through media connects people and gives way to cultural fusion. Therefore the reproduction of art has a social and cultural on the audiences who view them. The positive aspect of globalization lies in that cultural fusion facilitates greater common ground between different cultural groups. This translates into less xenophobia and increased tolerance and understanding for other walks of life. So the reproduction of art facilitates the creativity of its reproducer and its additional perspective lends to a broader audience who, having viewed a derivative of the original, have been influenced by the original in its, albeit diluted, form. As Arjun Appadurai dictates in his book, Modernity at Large, these influences are important social and cultural phenomena which now need to be integrated into the field of anthropology so that we might better understand our ever-evolving contemporary culture. Appadurai writes that our “lives are inextricably linked with representations and thus we need to incorporate the complexities of expressive representation (film, novels, travel accounts) into our ethnographies” (64). The evolution of these representations in media influence us which then in turn influences the evolution of global cultures at large and this is worth being examined. In perspective, the ever-gyrating Pussycat Dolls may have not lent much authenticity to Indian culture or the original film itself however, their exploitation of these gave exposure to a much greater audience.

sources:

Appadurai, Arjun
1996 Modernity at Large. Public Worlds 1(2): 48-65.

Benjamin, Walter

1936 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television.

YouTube.com

Official YouTube version of Jai Ho from the end of the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRC4QrUwo9o

Pussycat Dolls Jai Ho,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piWMN_VNg3Y&feature=related

Slumdog Millionaire Dance Jai Ho

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

Karan Khokar and Divya Ikara- Jai Ho Dance - Tamil Sneham - Tampa, Florida,

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

The BBC does Haitian Cholera

   

     The media coverage surrounding the cholera epidemic in Haiti details the suffering and challenges which the Haitian population faces in this national crisis. In my evaluation of the BBC reports of the disease outbreak, the BBC’s coverage has not largely contributed to either the creation of the conditions in Haiti, nor much of its assistance in its aftermath. Rather, the BBC’s media coverage is generally politically neutral as is its role to serve as a medium for information exchange and ideally, not as a venue for judgement and slanted political dialogue.

     Philip Gourevich discussed how foreign intervention can escalate crises in his article, “Alms Dealers”. Gourevich illustrates the challenges and ethical dilemmas which occur as a result of humanitarian aid. Gourevich lists several humanitarian missions such as in Biafra and in Sierra Leone, both in which humanitarian aid contributed to an increase in violence. He states that in consideration of these results, one must question whether the good deeds outweigh the negative side-effects which occur despite humanitarian good intention. Unlike the crises Gourevich examines, in the case of Haiti, the crisis is not of violent conflict nature, it is disease ridden. Therefore, the role of the media does not directly affect the outcome of the outbreak. Unlike terrorists who increase their violent crimes to attract media attention, the disease is not cognitive and not influenced by media in the same way. The BBC should not be evaluated in terms of affecting change in the news they report but by how holistically and accurately they report on their topics.

The BBC does describe the symptomatic effects that the cholera outbreak has had on the population however, they also include much more political and social information as well as academic studies to substantiate their reports. One of the reports made by the BBC discusses the failure of humanitarian aid to make good on their promises for billions of dollars which remain at large. Their discussion also includes findings from a study which is much like Gourevich’s article on humanitarian aid organizations, claiming that some:

• undermine the capacity of the state
• have no accountability to people they serve
• do not always work in under-served areas when asked to by government
• lack coordination
• are top-down and top-heavy

 The BBC’s inclusion of this study opens up the discussion on Haiti to a broader debate and academic evaluation of humanitarian aid at large. This reaches beyond the typical two-dimensional news reporting which depicts diseased and helpless looking people and footage of crying babies.      

     The BBC also released another report which fleshes out the epidemic in terms of the disease’s origin and the political context in which the disease was introduced. In this report, the BBC reveals that the cholera outbreak was thought to have been originated from the UN Peacekeeping troops from Nepal. The report claims that a French disease expert has traced back the cholera strain to the Nepalese troops who have been stationed in Haiti since 2004 to alleviate socio-political distress. This report provides some context and depth with which to understand the complexity of the outbreak in Haiti. Although the BBC report does not specifically discuss the effects which UN troops have in foreign countries, this report does leave the reader with information which lends the reader to question whether foreign aid is creating more harm than good in the countries they occupy. The BBC’s account of the cholera outbreak in Haiti is very informative and provides for fruitful discussion while remaining neutral. The coverage examines the fundamental causes including Haiti’s infrastructure, for the cholera outbreak and its spread across the country. It is not the role of the media to solve political problems but to thoroughly and objectively report information to the masses and the BBC has done a credible job on this subject.

Sources:

Anonymous
   22, Oct. 2010 Scores die in Haiti cholera outbreak

BBC news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11608551, accessed Feb.10, 2011.

  23, Oct. 2010 Haiti: Cholera slows but fears of spread remain

BBC news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11622523, accessed Feb.11, 2011.

   10, Nov. 2010 Haiti: Cholera confirmed in Port-au-Prince

BBC news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11721995, accessed Feb.11, 2011.

   16, Nov. 2010. Haiti cholera reaches Dominican Republic

BBC news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11771109, accessed Feb.12, 2011.

   8, Dec. 2010 Haiti cholera: UN Peacekeepers to blame, report says

BBC news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11943902, accessed Feb.12, 2011.

Doyle, Mark

  2011 Haiti cholera challenge failed by agencies

BBC news, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12458930, accessed Feb.11, 2011.

Walker, David

2010 Haiti races to stem cholera epidemic

BBC news, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11729665, accessed Feb.11, 2011.

Globalization and cultural relativism-Is this really that new?

William Mazzarella discusses media’s effect on globalization and ethnographic research in his article, “Culture, Globalization, Mediation”. The author defines mediation as “a name that we might give to the processes by which a given social dispensation produces and reproduces itself in and through a particular set of media” (346).

Mazzarella focuses on media and the different anthropological schools of thought surrounding its effect on global cultures. The two schools of thought are that of the conservative, wary anthropologists who are concerned about the change and potential dilution of culture as a result of globalization. The other school of thought being that globalization provides an added dimension to discovering and perceiving culture as we react in response to viewing the reflection of ourselves as portrayed in the media. Mazzarella seems to be of the more liberal school of thought and argues that globalization “holds the potential to revitalize” anthropology, as opposed to disseminating it (348). It seems interesting to me that anthropologists would attempt to shield culture as though to encapsulate it in time despite the fundamental anthropological knowledge that culture is dynamic and forever evolving. It is to be expected that anthropologists would attempt to preserve culture however, this knowledge undermines the very concept of purity and thus the cause for sheltering a culture that is merely an evolution of something that was never perfectly isolated to begin with.

It is interesting how media’s portrayal of our culture can influence how we perceive ourselves and one another. However, word-of-mouth has held the same power since the inception of language. Media is at its basic level, a more complex form of communication and its ability to convey ideas universally has increased the amount of information which is circulated immensely however, it still produces the same effect: information exchange. In this light, it appears as though we are concerned about something which already exists. We are concerned when we view a picture of Japan with a MacDonald’s restaurant in the background and wonder if Japanese culture is somehow dissolving under American corporations. Yet, interestingly, we do not regard our own culture and society with such romanticism. I recently read an anonymous quote which is circulating on Facebook at the moment which read:

“Your car is German, your vodka is Russian, your pizza is Italian, your kebab is Turkish, your democracy is Greek, your coffee is Brazilian, your movies are American, your tea is Tamil, your shirt is Indian, your oil is Saudi, your electronics are Chinese, your numbers are Arabic , your letters are Latin, and you complain that your neighbour is…an immigrant?”.

This quote highlights the extent to which foreign goods are so well integrated into our culture that we forget their place of origin and don’t realise how ridiculous it is to attempt to preserve a cultural homogenization that does not exist. It seems the same is true overseas. The concern for globalization is one which seems redundant because globalization has already occurred in North America and one could expect that American products, including media as a product of consumption, will be integrated into other societies in a reciprocal fashion as goods and services have in the past. So is globalization really that new? Yes and no, media does add complexity in terms of cultural reflection and the influence of multi-national information and culture exchange however, societies have influenced one another since time immemorial; this is just a period where the process is being expedited.
Sources:
Mazzarella, William
2004 Culture, Globalization, Mediation. Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 345-367.