Assignment #2: Looking at Style Wars

(Please note: I highly recommend watching "Style Wars" a few more times. The film is available online from Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5065949310221269915&q=style+wars&hl=en)

Please answer the following questions in complete sentences and THOROUGHLY. I have categorized the questions appropriately; keep in mind that we are looking at hip hop/graffiti art specifically, but also in relation to other subcultures. So, you will have to answer these questions again regarding other subcultures.

Graffiti as Subculture
1. what are some of the "signs" of this subculture? (Think of your own "my culture" assignment that you did. NOTHING is exempt from analysis...dress, speech, mannerisms, etc., but more importantly the characteristics and specific language around graffiti (check the glossery on the "art crimes" website: www.graffiti.org).

2. How do the aesthetics of graffiti specifically coincide with other elements of hip hop?

3. Is graffiti subversive? How? What might one say who does not think graffiti is subversive? What would be their argument?

Graffiti as Illegal
1. Does the American right to private property supercede all justifications for graffiti on trains?

2. If doing graffiti is limited only to murals and "legal" spaces, what is lost to "graffiti" as a subculture?

Graffiti as Art
1. What is controversial/problematic about graffiti art being displayed in art galleries? What are the benefits?

2. What are the aesthetic values of graffiti?

The Case of Cap
1. What is the threat that Cap poses to the graffiti subculture? How is this threat different from that of the "authorities"?

2. If Cap went all city with his throw ups, would he be king? Explain.

Graffiti as Writing
1. What are the similarities between graffiti and, say, poetry? (It may be useful to look up "concrete poetry," or "visual poetry" on Wikipedia, or even "dada poets" to satisfactorily answer this question.)

2. Does graffiti deserve to be treated as yet another aspect of creative expression through writing, or should it be "marginalized" by the "canon of Western culture"?