(sic)
Is anyone else excited about the new breed of grammerphile graffiti artists making their mark on Seattle? Evidence of the hot new trend in tagging was observed this morning on the column of the Starbucks Coffee at Olive and Summit.
Whether it’s a comment on the coffee conglomerate or related to the nonsensical fraction written above it remains undetermined. Your opinions and analyses are always appreciated.
First - disclaimer: I’m at that weird point of tired where I really want to sleep but can’t. So I probably shouldn’t be online, but I can’t focus on reading and I’ve seen what’s on TLC and Animal Planet, so what’s a girl to do?
So, addendum aside, this new crop of graffiti in the area (I noticed it on Pine and Belmont on my way to school Tuesday morning) makes me wonder what, in the neighborhood, is attracting a more prominent graffiti style. Now, granted, the Broken Windows theory of urban development and decay has popped up in several books I’m reading right now so it’s more than mildly on my mind, but I do have to wonder - what is attracting this new graffiti (when in general there isn’t too much in this area).
The Broken Windows theory of graffiti says that if there are obvious signs of neglect in an area - a lot of litter, graffit, broken or cardboarded windows, then it will invite other elements (a broken window invites graffit, etc); what element do we have in this corridor of the Hill that’s attracting the new emphasis in graffiti? Is it the homelessness? Drinking? Something else, that’s largely invisible? Dunno…
Could also be that this graffiti is just large enough and loud enough for me to notice. ;)
And just so this reply isn’t completely without content, speaking of stencil art, take a looksee at this: http://www.stencilfestival.com/about.htm
-Kelly
1. Steven D. Levitt empirically proved that the “broken windows” theory of policing was not the cause of lowering crime in NYC. Even though this contradicts the writing of Malcolm Gladwell, the latter still writes rave reviews of Levitt’s recent book, Freakonomics.
2. The fraction “m/m” will always equal 1 for all real numbers except 0. So perhaps the “sic” below it was placed to indicate that the artist intentionally painted such a tautology.
What is clear is something has to be done in CapHill. Grafitti and homelessness is getting worse. The city and the police seem to take no action at all in one of their most vibrant neighborhoods.
Kelly: interesting theory; I would have called the Olive to Pine stretch an “improving” neighborhood rather than a “decaying” one. It seems like the storefronts are relatively filled and that there’s new development in progress.
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Joe: Do you think that the relative sizing of the fraction and the “(sic)” are meaningful? I’m not a graphologist, but I wasn’t sure if they were written by the same artist.
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Chris: what? I thought that all of Capitol Hill’s problems would be magically solved by the changes in the building height restrictions on Broadway!
Joe: Altho I’ve heard Levitt’s refutation of Broken Windows, I’ve seen too many studies talking about it in other areas to completey discount the idea. (As for Gladwell, meh - I found he didn’t understand a lot of the ideas he presented, which was a pity. Then again, it was a sort of elementary pop science book so… I digress!)
Chris: That’s precisely the point. I’d consider this neighborhood slowly improving, too, which makes me wonder what could be tipping the balance to invite graffiti. There’s been a lot of contruction around here, tho, and I wonder if that has much to do with it.
Woops - that should have been addressed to Josh, not Chris. Me go find coffee now.
I think the “sic” artist fancies himself an intellectual, is probably highly educated and is “upwardly mobile”. More graffiti of this kind would support the idea that the neighborhood is improving and the Broken Window theory would not apply.
Maybe the artist is commenting on the fact that Starbucks, being named after Starbuck, the first mate in Moby-Dick, should properly be called either “Starbuck” or “Starbuck’s”. Any divergence from this standard must be attributed to the owner of the establishment/brand: thus, (sic).
annie:
Finally! I thought I was the only one who thought that it might be an apostrophe issue. That was my first guess, but I couldn’t decide if the [sic]er actually had a point or not.
facts and background,from 300 years of graffiti-research,on 12 000 pages,300 chapters
their name is Sic One.
The artists intentions are to advertise his empowerment over an oppressive society. The M/M means two things, ONE, and MIND OVER MATTER. Take it as you will. I highly value all of your critiques and thoughts.
Intellectual Graff has it’s members, but for the most part the Seattle scene is in line with the ‘broken window’ theory.