Pete's 1701 Blog For The Ages

Although there are many social issues that deal with design or design deals with, there is one that seems to be dealt with the most by design and in fact has a basis that lies in whether it can be considered design. Graffiti has been a controversial issue throughout the world for many years but has risen into the foreground in Minneapolis in the last five years.

The main issue comes in how graffiti is defined. Many people see the gang tags and writing on residential garages and sides of houses and place this in the same category as those individuals who have worked to create a piece of work that represents them.

In the city of Minneapolis where you can not go more than half a mile without seeing some kind of art, there are two very distinct sides to this argument.

Those who are against any type of graffiti site the fact that in many cases it is done on surfaces that are not owned by the artist and that gangs use it to claim territory. The problem with this argument is that there is a difference between these two types of graffiti. Gang graffiti is for the most part just writing that claims some type of set or clique. Graffiti art is planned and thought out. Many times it is done on paper first, with thought out designs and colors, orientation and size. Though the fact that much of the graffiti art done is done illegally cannot be refuted. But, this fact does not take away from the fact that it is art. Graffiti that is considered art by those who create it fits into every definition that we as people have in the English dictionary. Merriam-Webster defines art as "the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects". Graffiti art takes just as much, if not more, imagination and skill than much of the art that people spend hours looking at in museums, but why then does most of the population not spend hours standing outside looking at art that is on our city's walls, legal or illegal? Because the negative connotation that has been placed on to graffiti art by those who only see the writing of gangs.

People need to look beyond their previous knowledge and stereotypes and actually look at what is around in the streets of our country and in the city of Minneapolis because they might see something that they were not expecting.