Graffiti and Popular Culture Essay

The treatment of everyday civilisation is usually dichotomized by the contrast of its being hot because it is patronized by the greatest tot of a purchase orders population and by its being favorite because of its proliferation for the benefit of the upper class of the society which greatly utilizes it as a powerful mechanism of subjugation. Sociologists atomic number 18 divided between opposite views. Nevertheless, touristy polish does non al behaviors reside on the opposites. It usher out be to a fault comprehend as any(prenominal)thing that is between the asserted ownership of the mass and the powerful mechanism of few powerful persons.Accordingly, usual culture is a dialectical move brought about by the enforcement of it from above of the societal anatomical structure to the acquisition of it from underneath the societal structure. This claim is highly supported by lobby in pointing out that popular culture is actually a twofold advancement of restraint and opposition. While forces from above of the society argon using popular culture as an tool of suppression, it is to a fault an instrument of struggle for the lower forces of the society.In the task of discovering popular culture as a dialectical process, it is a convenient endeavor to first limit the popular and ethnical aspect of popular culture. The usual translation mustiness be first discussed. After will be the elaboration of Halls perception regarding the popular culture. Finally, an example on the practical occupation of Halls view regarding popular culture must be supplied. As Raymond Williams stated, the sound out popular is actually derived from the word popularis, a Latin word which means belonging to the people.In the early ingress of the word popular, it is lots used to attribute to the connotation of things regarding the most cognise and the most roughhewn. Also it refers to the most favored. At some point of the introductory use of the word, it has rested on referring to neutrality. even, the most common description of the word popular up to the present time is sleek over referring to the most familiar. This comment has leaded the way to the attribution of the word popular to greatest offspring of people in most societies, which fundamentally composes the lower stratum of societies.It is because people in the lowest stratum of the society atomic number 18 slackly the greatest constituent of societies. olibanum, the term popular is attributed to the largest section of the population of a society, which is mainly the masses. In characterizing the importation of the word culture, it is an needful task to delve into the schemes and symbols of societal structures which include traditions, customs, common convictions, and remnants that represents the fib of constituents of a society.The transfer of these schemes and symbols of societal structure from generation to generation is also an important feature of the inwardness of the word culture Anthropologists are exchangeable with the abovementioned definition of culture. This definition is actually considered as the most usual definition of culture So, what do we mean by culture? A passably typical view, both in common language and in the way anthropologists have approached their work, sees culture as a shared body of custom, reproduced through time that makes societies distinctive.It seems that there is a truety in the definition of culture. However, the definition of culture is not always perceived as something that is unchanging and immobile. Its definition is also viewed as something that is changing depending on the context and reference. Deducing from the everydayly hold definition of popular culture, the popular aspect and heathen aspect of the definition of popular culture coffin nail be throwd. Popular culture is hence quoted because it denotes the popularity of a culture which represents symbols, customs, traditions and beliefs in a soc iety.Consequently, popular culture also embodies the characteristics, qualities, and features of a particular or a general popular belief, custom, tradition, object, or idea. Popular culture is popular because it is owned by the populace. It is the most getatable and pervasive type of culture. This is so because it transcends barriers. At some times withal the economic aspect of life is crossed by popularity of popular culture. The popularity of popular culture goes beyond race, ethnicity, and generation, location of residence, country, sexuality and gender.Popular culture caters to the largest number of people that it can cater. As much as possible the availableness of a form of popular culture is extended to myriad arrays of heathenish categories. To achieve the extension of popular culture, produces of it is manufactured and created in such a way that it is ethnicly neutral. This simply means that intersections of popular culture are not inclined in any side of the spectr um of cultural categories. Anyone who consumes or support any form of popular culture is evaluate to fast relate the product of popular culture in his or her personality.This coition greatly concerns the cultural inclination of the person. Therefore, products of popular culture are expected to be owned by everyone irrespective of gender, sexuality, age, nationality, and ethnicity. Even though, popularity transcends the barrier of cultural preference and partiality, popularity also paves the way for the correspondence of a popular culture to a specific cultural leaning. Every cultural kinsperson such as gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, or nationality create and device a unique and preposterous fashion of giving substance to the pick up of popular culture.Each cultural category glace at different angles in considering and experiencing popular culture. In example, gender creates a distinguishing manner of the experience of popular culture. It concerns the interplay of the mascu linity, femininity and bisexuality of the experience of a certain product of popular culture. In the circumstance of encountering popular culture, the masculinity, femininity or bisexuality of a person can be demonstrated. This is evident in the myriad choices of products that are sold. The product ply to masculine male is different from a product catering to a feminine male or masculine female or a bisexual.The notion of popular culture in the view of Hall is generally concerned on the interpretation of the whole experience of a product or a medium of popular culture. The meaning of the experience does not reside solely on the intention of the manufacturer of a certain product or of the encoder of the meaning. It also does not depend on the inception of meaning of the consumer of the product or of the encoder of the meaning. The origin of Halls views can be traced back to his belief that the employment of language concerns context of power and institutions. In the utility of l anguage, persons become active agents as well as beneficiary of meaning.Therefore persons are perceived as generators and at the corresponding(p) time consumers of culture simultaneously. For Hall, it is erroneous to assume that persons as consumer and generator only absorb the experience of popular culture without criticizing it. Usual persons performing the twofold role of being a generator and consumer possess the power of generating meaning and experiencing meaning. Persons are active and at same time resistless. They are active, because they generate meaning of the popular culture experience from their constitution of meaning. They are passive because they are the murderer of the experience.Institutions and companies producing popular culture have no issue forth control of the reactions and responses of persons that receive the experience. It is sure that they can impose and really impose there expected reaction of persons to a certain experience of popular culture. Howeve r, they cannot totally rely on their expectation. This is evident on the modifications that are do by these institutions on the improvement of their products and go. They need to create modifications so that their products and services somehow cater to the general universal.And these modifications are based on the reactions and feedbacks of the consumers. In some essence, institutions and companies of popular culture mathematical product are also receiver of the meaning obligate by consumers on experiencing the product and service of companies and institutions. The speculation of reception and textual analysis of Hall explicated the role of the consumer as an audition of a text encoded by institutions and firms of popular culture production. The idea of textual analysis explains that the audience or the consumer is always on the assurement and dissonance with the intentions of the producers of popular culture.In example, the meaning of a text of an experience varies from th e point of view of the consumer and the producer. While the producer imposes the meaning by the limitation of the modes of grammatical construction of a text through packaging, the consumer does not always concur to the imposed meaning of the producer. The consumer creates a distinguished meaning about his or her experience. In creating this meaning, the element of cultural categories enters the picture. The meaning is created dependent on which cultural category does the consumer belongs.Sexuality, age, race, and economic power are the factors in the intro of meaning. Consequently, this creation of meaning results into either the dismissal or acceptance of the consumer regarding the imposed meaning of the producer of specific popular culture product or experience. Therefore the meaning of the experience rests at some point between the producer and the consumer. It is the interpretation that really matters and neither the interpreter which is in this case the consumer nor the inte rpreted which is the product or the service as a form of popular culture.Thus popular culture is constructed in twofold movement of concurrence and opposition. And this dual movement of concurrence and opposition is the dialectical process of the experience and creation of meaning. In applying the notions and ideas of Hall regarding popular culture, the material must obviously divulge the elements of opposition and concurrence. Also it is note worthy if the chosen material is an var.le one. In the enterprise of applying the analysis of Hall, it is an appealing move to consider the production of graffiti as a cultural practice.The word graffiti came from the Italian word graffito which denotes an antique writing on a out-of-doors of a rock. In the recent time graffiti refers to sketches or illustrations usually of words and phrases on groins of public scene of actions. The manner of sketching can be do through painting and spraying or scratching. graffito art has acquired it s distributor point in the United States during the years 1970s-1980s. Based from the general definition of graffiti, it is inevitable to perceive this form of art as a deviant kind of activity.This is because graffiti is seen as a negative reaction to the forms and conventions of the usual authoritative cannons of arts As The graffiti subculture is a culture of opposition because it is perceived as deviant, and because the dominant culture limits and denies access to the kinds of specialized space capable to the expression of graffiti subculture. The manner of making graffiti involves the painting of wall of a usually abandoned building or public area. Because of this, graffiti art is perceived as something that resists the prevailing standards of the society.It is viewed as a transgressing subculture. However for the graffiti artificers, the activity is a different experience. Artists view their piece as something that is really note worthy and deserves public attention. Myria d of writers narrate their experience in coherence with each other. Graffiti writers said that they feel a poignant compensation every time that they are alone in the middle of the night and finding a specific public area to write or sketch their art . Many graffiti writers deal of their experiences of writing graffiti in similar terms.References to cities that have quieted in the night, and walls that the artist owns for a short period of time are comparable to the soulful atonement that Walt Whitman often described when referring to being alone in nature. The same with their reputation, their art are viewed as something that is deviant and null and void of esthetic values. They are ostracized in the whole realm of art. Worst is even their closing off is oblivious to the eyes of the society conforming to the standard of an artistic cultural activity. With this obliviousness, graffiti is still recognized.However, this recognition is accompanied by disgust and awfulness. It is doub tful that they are usually charged with cases of vandalism and destruction of private and public property because of utilizing walls of establishments they dont own. This is because those walls they use are usually of buildings complete and have long been vacated and abandoned by the owners. Therefore, graffiti writers are often viewed as lawbreakers. Usually, graffiti artists do not really give fury on showing their art to the general public because their concern is control in just the expression of themselves.Nevertheless, they also somehow want the range of their masterpiece. This is the reason why graffiti art are often piece on walls of buildings frequented by the public. Physical characteristics of graffiti yards include a degree of visibility that enables a piece to be seen from a passing railway car on a nearby street or freeway. Although pieces are not aimed directly at the general public, the artists do corresponding their work to be seen and recognized. Even though graffiti art are disgusting to the general public, manufacturers of apparels and accessories have used the concept of graffiti to make their products sell like hot cakes.In this situation, the recognition of graffiti as a cultural activity took its place. As what Hall asserted, popular culture is dialectical process of resistance and agreement. In the case of the graffiti art, it is worth noting that the producers of the culture are denoted as deviant elements of the society. However it is ironic that the consumers of the graffiti art are the big institutions and companies that sell mass produced commodities. The graffiti art as a cultural activity is a clear example of a popular culture being received yet decided to be spurned or accepted.In the multinational companies attempt to use graffiti as a potential source of great profit, the disgusting art has been alter into an acceptable enterprise. However the consumption of the products promoting graffiti art still depends on the c ultural background and the power of person to dissent or agree on the attractiveness of it. References 1. William, R. 1976, Keywords A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Fontana, London. 2. Dressler, W. 2002, A working Definition of Culture, Europhamil, Online Available at http//www. europhamili. org/protect/media/96. pdf. 3. Esposito, R.2005, The Artistic aspect of a Counter Culture Graffiti Online Available at http//www. graffiti. org/faq/esposito. hypertext mark-up language. 4. Bolivar, S. 1997, onslaught L. A. Graffiti Culture and the Contest for Visual Space, McNair Online Available at http//www-mcnair. berkeley. edu/97journal/Bolivar. hypertext mark-up language 5. Wittenberg, D. 2004,Introduction Extreme Mainstream Iowa Online Available at http//www. uiowa. edu/englgrad/ijcs/mainstream/mainintro. htm 6. Beazley, H. 2006, The Temple of pelvic girdle Hop Graffiti as form of Peaceful Conflict closedown among urban Youth in Brisbane University of Queensland Online Availabl e at http//www.uq. edu. au/acpacs/index. html? page=49559&pid=49559&ntemplate=645 7. Noble, C. 2004, A Semiotic and Visual Exploration of Graffiti and Public Space in Vancouver Graffiti Online Available at http//www. graffiti. org/faq/noble_semiotic_warfare2004. html 8. Christen, R. 2001, Hi Hop Learning Graffiti as an Educator of Urban Teenagers Sunsite Online Available at http//sunsite. icm. edu. pl/graffiti//faq/graffiti_edu_christen. html 9. Hall, S. 1981,Notes on Deconstructing the Popular in Peoples History and Socialist Theory Routledge, London. 10. Hall, S. 1973, Encoding and decipherment in the Television Discourse.