This evening I dropped by the ArtShould Postsecret at UChicago Exhibition, to see how closely the content aligned with the graffiti I’ve collected at UChicago. The similarity between some of the graffiti and the well-known Postsecret project has struck me since I started collecting graffiti. On Flickr, I tagged many of the early images with [...]
Friday, December 24, 2010
This is the third in a five-part series of posts describing the results of my analysis of my graffiti corpora. I strongly recommend you read “Prelude to a graffiti analysis” first to understand the methodology, data, and sampling. You might also be interested in part 1, Arizona State University; part 2, University of Colorado – [...]
Friday, December 17, 2010
This is the third in a five-part series of posts describing the results of my analysis of my graffiti corpora. I strongly recommend you read “Prelude to a graffiti analysis” first to understand the methodology, data, and sampling. You might also be interested in part 1, Arizona State University and part 2, University of Colorado [...]
Friday, December 10, 2010
This is the second in a five-part series of posts describing the results of my analysis of my graffiti corpora. I strongly recommend you read “Prelude to a graffiti analysis” first to understand the methodology, data, and sampling. You might also be interested in part 1, Arizona State University. An endearing hippie-town in the mountains [...]
Saturday, December 4, 2010
This is the first in a five-part series of posts describing the results of my analysis of my graffiti corpora. I strongly recommend you read “Prelude to a graffiti analysis” first to understand the methodology, data, and sampling. Located in a college town that seems to have neither a coffee house nor a bookstore (and [...]
Recent works of fiction, including Neal Stephenson’s Anathem and Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, depict a future where traditional literacy has become a niche skill, and the general populace relies on simple symbols for written communication. An examination of the graffiti of Hayden Library at Arizona State University leaves one with the impression that such a scenario [...]
Brown University’s Rockefeller Library is reminiscent of UChicago’s Regenstein. They’re both rather ugly from the outside, they both have two basements, they both have nicknames (the “Rock” and “Reg”, respectively), and they’re both filled with graffiti mostly written in literate1 English. In just three hours combing through the study areas in the Rock stacks, I [...]
People who aren’t familiar with the Regenstein Library have asked me whether writing graffiti there is some sort of student ritual. I’ve assured them it isn’t– it’s just a manifestation of student stress and boredom, and/or perhaps a small creative outlet, that takes place in the building where a lot of students study. But these [...]
When listing off UofC dorms, Breckinridge Hall (closed, re-opened, located next to International House) is easy to overlook. From a graffiti perspective, however, it’s a stand-out. As far as I know, no other dorm has spawned a cryptic graffiti meme (Who is Davin Reed was all the rage in the Reg around 2007; here’s the [...]
I was excited to visit Mt. Holyoke College on a recent trip, anticipating that an all-female student body might produce a different kind of library graffiti than I’ve seen at the University of Chicago or Berkeley. Indeed, I was not disappointed. Their library is seven floors, though most of them are confined to a fairly [...]
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