Cultural/ Social Geography Flashcards
What is culture often thought of as?
Culture is often thought of as: “the artistic and intellectual product of an elite.”
What are four examples of what is thought of as “culture”?
- High Art (paintings, sculpture, drama, classical music, poetry)
- The stuff of museums, art galleries, concert halls and theatres
- Etiquette/manners, design, literature, sport (equestrian, fencing, sailing)
- Philosophy, ballet, public debate/speaking (politics), fine arts, travel etc.)
We use the word culture in two senses: (1) to mean a _______.
(2) to mean the ______
- Whole way of life–the common meanings (culture is a shared set of meanings that are lived through the material and symbolic practices of everyday life)
- Arts and learning–the special processes of discovery and creative effort.
“While anthropologists are concerned with the ways in which culture is created and maintained by human groups, geographers are interested not only in ___________ but also the reverse—_________.”
How place and space shape culture
How culture shapes place and space
Were the 1970s a good time for NYC? Give three reasons why or why not.
- The 1970s were a disastrous time for the city of New York. The city experienced its greatest loss of population (around 800,000 people –equal to the population of San Francisco)
- The city was $12 Billion dollars in debt - Basically it was bankrupt
- The city’s economic output fell by 20% and average incomes dropped by 35%
During the 1970s, NYC ________. A million people _________. A milllion people _______.
- Hemorraged jobs by the hundreds of thousands
- Left for the suburbs
- Stayed put and went on welfare
With people on welfare on the streets of NYC and the city decaying what happened?
- Heroin flooded the streets
- Muggings
- Burglaries and armed robbery
- The murder rate quadrupled
- Diseases like measles and tuberculosis “staged a spectacular comeback in the city’s slums”
- HIV-Aids settled in and drug users and prostitutes help spread the concern
New York was at the mercy of “Big MAC”. What is that? What happened?
- MAC (Municipal Assistance Program)
2. A blame game
What is the etymology of graffiti?
- Graffiare/”scraffiare” (Italian): to scratch
- -graphein (Greek): to write, to inscribe
What is a tag?
The most basic form of graffiti, a writer’s signature with marker or spray paint. It is the writer’s logo, their stylized personal signature. If a tag is long it is sometimes abbreviated to the first two letters or the first and last letter of the tag.
What is a throwup?
- Over time, this term has been applied to many different types of graffiti. Subway art says it is “a name painted quickly with one layer of spray paint and an outline”, although some consider a throwup to be bubble letters of any sort, not necessarily filled.
- Throwups can be from one or two letters to a whole word or a whole roll call of names. Often times throwups incorporate an exclamation mark after the word or letter.
- Throwups are generally only one or two colors, no more. Throwups are either quickly done bubble letters or very simple pieces using only two colors.
What is a scrub?
A certain type of throwup (usually two colors) that is filled very quickly with back-and-forth lines, rather than filled in solid.
What is a piece/ fill in?
A graffiti painting, short for masterpiece. It’s generally agreed that a painting must have at least three colors to be considered a piece.
What is a mural/ blockbuster?
A large-scale type of piecing, done top to bottom on a wall; usually a large production involving one or two pieces and usually some form of characters.
Who was Tracy 168?
“the Shamrock mad scientist who invented the most intricate and arguably most important piecing technique of all time: the Wildstyle …”
one of the graffiti movement’s founding fathers . A prolific piecer/painter/bomber
Instilled a savage energy into the game, teaching whole generations how to prowl the lay-ups and the yards,
Pieces: 4,000
Tags: 15,000
Status: King
Who was Cay 161?
invented the now-ubiquitous crown icon
Was the first king to reign over the IRT subway lines, famed for his wanton destruction of IRT walls from 125th to 135th, not to mention Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain.
Frequently credited with the first masterpiece, or “piece,” in all of creation, at the 116th street station.
Pieces: 8
Tags: 5,000Status: Legendary King
Who was VFR?
Started writing graffiti in 1985, beginning small in the Lower Eastside, then slowly developing his repertoire, increasingly focusing his attention on bigger and better things; first it was streets, then trains during the last golden age of subway painting, and finally back on to the streets
His two-decade long siege of New York has earned him the nom de plume “the Black Guevara,”
Throw ups: 20,000-30,000
Tags: 20,000-30,000
Status: All City 17 times
What is a subculture?
Folk heroes Traditions Holy places Devil figures Rituals Language/lingo Style Different types of tagging (surface, motion tagging) Links to hip hop culture
What was the “dominant” culture’s reaction to graffiti?
“Ugly scrawling by moronic children”
“A symbolic assault”
“cowardly vandalism”
“defacing morons”
A source of confusion and anxiety (spraying over subway maps, station exit signs etc.)
A climate of lawlessness
A stepping stone to increased violence, criminal behaviour
A visible sign that the city is losing control
A spreading disease – from subways to monuments, to landmark buildings, to parks
Why would the city itself view graffiti as harmful?
If costs money to remove and control and it destroys the image of the city (makes it seem as if it is in disorder)
What was the “graffiti cultural war” about?
This culture war was not simply about MATERIAL CULTURE but it was about SYMBOLIC CULTURE – about notions of control, order and harmony.
What were some attempts to control graffiti?
Plainclothes squad/officers
Canine units
Home video cameras
Remote control infrared cameras
Secure freeway signs and bridges with razor (barbed) wire
Anti graffiti resistant coatings/acid washes (dubbed the Orange Crush after Agent Orange)
Anti-graffiti day – citizens cleaned up subway trains. Wipe out or clean up campaigns
Banning of spray paints to minors
Toll free telephone hotlines to report offenders
People were banned from possessing spray paint in public places
Provision of youth activities
Legal art programs
Education programs
Imprisonment (escalation of offense, fines, etc.)
Why do people do graffiti?
Assert identity
Defiance of social norms
A Reactionary Response (senseof isolation, being let down)
Seeking adventure, thrill seekers, an adrenalin rush
Risk taking (the very illegality makes it fashionable)
Everybody else does it (imitation, fad, fashionable)
What is a more nuanced understanding on why people choose to do graffiti?
-Political learning and messages
-Day to day chroniclers of urban life (and death)
-Alternative economic arrangements (underground economics – clothing lines, videos, spray paint, tips, museum contributions)
-Direct action of a different sort – challenging notions of representation, identity, meaning.
-It is a collective activity
It produces a collective conversation
-Symbolic interaction - Some of these kids are shut out of official channels of achievement … bombing or tagging allows them the opportunity to gain prestige, status, personal identity.
-Graffiti grants access - to parties, to relationships, social bonds, to a different sense of power
-It builds bridges/breakdowns ethnic barriers - diversity, multiethnic crews, a street level alternative to gang membership, participation in art sessions, the creation of piecebooks, talent pooling, trust
-It subverts authority
-It asserts the power of the individual
-It challenges the dominant dichotomy between public and private space – everywhere is free game for the tagger.
-Graffitists appropriate space – they make it their own, they claim it, they take it, reclaim it.
-It may contribute to blight and decay, it may alter perception, it may upset the assumed, but we could also view graffiti as a fine example of symbolic creativity, participation (democracy), a representation of vibrant, colourful, healthy, exuberant, lively New York City
Tags, like names, carry little or no semantic meaning. They are not messages. But Taki the messenger did have a message for the city, whether he knew it or not. He showed New York that the city was a ___________.
Blank canvas, an empty page. The medium was his message.
What is reverse graffiti?
Street artists tag walls (surfaces) by scrubbing them clean
What is culture?
- The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group of people’s distinct tradition
- A shared set of meanings that are lived through the material and symbolic practices of everyday life (a whole way of life)
What is cultural hearths?
The geographic origins or sources of innovation, ideas, or ideologies
What is a cultural trait?
A single aspect of the complex routine practices that constitute a particular cultural group
What is a cultural complex?
Combination of traits characteristic of a particular group
What is a cultural system?
a collection of interacting elements that taken together shape a group’s collective identity
What is a cultural region?
The areas within which a particular cultural system prevails
What is a cultural landscape?
a characteristic and tangible outcome of the complex interactions between a human group and a natural environment
