Blog Post #6 - Cultural Background

I picked the young subculture of graffiti to research the background of.  I learned a lot of interesting facts about this genre.  Graffiti is not only a part of the hip-hop culture, but is surprisingly also a form of mathematics.   The math portion of the art steps into play because of the geometric concepts graffiti artists use to create different designs.  The 4 elements of hip hop are rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti.  Along with the other 3 elements of hip hop, graffiti is a type of art that sends out cultural expression.  Graffiti challenges the normal views of what qualifies as art, public space, and property, while the other 3 elements of hip hop challenge what qualifies as dancing. 
Because graffiti is illegal, it is most often misunderstood.  Also, graffiti artists are prone to hiding their identity whereas a dancer would want to show off their talent.  Graffiti has become popular on souvenir  t-shirt and baseball cap designs that you can buy on the streets of places like Washington D.C.  This form of graffiti is a good way for graffiti designers to share the love for the art without committing any illegal actions.  The subculture surrounding graffiti has existed for years and still remains as a form of art to this day.  Graffiti artists prefer to be called writers.   They are passionate, skilled, community-oriented, and socially conscious people unlike their common stereotype of criminals and vandals.  Graffiti started in ancient Rome as the first form of graf art.  It is also considered a type of wall writing.  The images of spray-paint across cities that people associate with graffiti now is different from the graffiti that originated in Rome.  This form originated in New York City in the 1960s starting on subway trains.  Kids wanted to "tag" their names giving them fame on the trains.  The writing of names started with permanent markers, but soon led to the use of spray-paint.  Once spray-paint started to be used, people began to use multiple colors, designs, and larger spaces. In the 1970s graffiti artists got competitive with each other over who could have the best and most creative design.  This was called "style wars."  Overall, creativity has a huge influence on graffiti.