[Air-l] Online graffiti

[Ariel Foina]

A great point Jean,

The diference between writable and unwritable is important, but, as you
said, it is a minor redefiniton, since, I belive, that graffit is more about
Deviance from a social rule than simply put words in unworded walls...

Regards

Ariel Foina

On 4/23/06, M.B.Gaved <M.B.Gaved at open.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> I think you make some good points Jean
>
> I'd agree there feels to be a difference between a response to an existing
> text, and a declaration on a 'blank canvas' (reactive vs proactive?).
>
> The latter could describe scribbles on a designed graffitti space (sounds
> like we have examples of these existing online), or the appropriation of a
> currently empty space (including, I suppose, the creation of a new wiki
> article).
>
> The former might take the form of complete deletion of the original web
> text and replacement of ones own - like hacked websites of government bodies
> taken over to make a political message (maybe replacing a US military
> homepage with a text against the war in Iraq), or complete deletion of a
> wiki article and replacement with one's one text on the subject. However
> these leave no reference to the original text.
>
> Maybe to continue the metaphor of graffitti rather than complete
> appropriation, 'graffitti' requires that the original text or images are
> still visible and the additional contributions interact with the existing
> content? Perhaps the addition of further text in a different font and
> colour, or the editing of images in photoshop to provide an extra layer.
>
>
> Mark
>
> Mark Gaved
> Knowledge Media Institute
> The Open University
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Jean Burgess
> Sent: Sun 4/23/2006 12:56 AM
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Online graffiti
>
> I think the case for the abuse of wikipedia working like graffiti
> only works if the metaphor is refined a bit - it's more like someone
> coming along to a community street mural and deliberately painting
> something out of step with the aesthetic and political values that
> have been implicitly or explicitly agreed on by the 'community' that
> is working on the mural.
>
> A bit different from walking up to the blank rendered wall of, say,
> a McDonald's and writing "ronald sucks" on it.  In one case (the
> mural), the wall is constructed as open and 'writable' and in the
> second case (mcdonald's) it isn't, because of very clear binary
> distinctions between who owns the wall and therefore gets to paint
> it, and who doesn't.
>
> All of which makes wikipedia a far more interesting case, IMHO.
>
> cheers
> Jean
>
>
> Jean Burgess
> http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/~burgess
>
> Reviews editor, International Journal of Cultural Studies
> http://www.sagepub.com/journal.aspx?pid=196
> ISSN: 1367-8779
>
> Creative Industries Research Centre
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