Sometimes, graffiti is cool to look at
More often than not, when we are walking around a city, we see stuff that we find repulsive or ugly or just we have a negative view of it just by looking at it. I think that looking closer and searching for the good about it is something that all people should do while walking, obviously staying safe and not looking closer if that thing was to harm us. The main thing that I see people absolutely hate on without even giving it a chance is graffiti and tags and stuff like that. People assume that seeing graffiti means they are in danger. More often than not it’s quite the opposite. Upon closer inspection graffiti can often have a deeper meaning or show who the writer of the tag is. You can often find the history of the neighborhood or messages hidden in each piece. I think walking looking for the tags or pieces and looking closely. Sometimes, you will sadly come across a gang tag which is heavily looked down upon, especially by actual writers. But when you do find pieces, especially big ones they often have a story behind them. Whether it be tags or pieces, they can lead you around the city and often leave you learning something new, about the city or about the art. Either way you come out more experienced.
We create maps to have a direct lay out of what people have around them. People are often scared by the unknown and maps give people a sense of everything around them being known. They are created to make people more comfortable with their surroundings. The people who create maps are often privileged. Often leaving out the underdeveloped areas from maps or simply mapping them poorly. People will use maps to categorize certain neighborhoods. When people look at a map and look at the south side of Chicago, they will often look at it and categorize it as the hood. People will often use maps to separate parts of communities up. Labeling places and putting them into categories. People who make maps often decide where borders fall without actual reference to the people that live there. Often not even caring for the people of the country that they decide the borders for. Maps today have all these states set up but back when the maps of the US were first starting. They were designating land to themselves that natives still lived on. The readings of this week can relate back to every other reading we have because we can see the privilege within the world of maps just like we have seen the privilege certain people have to walk around freely. (221)
