The subject matter of tagging is very narcissistic, but it’s the context that makes it interesting. Installation art, if you will. The cultural aspect is also interesting, although hard to fully comprehend for someone raised in middle-class suburbs.

But I’m sure it’s also that I worship cities and needed to find ways of reducing the cognitive dissonance from graffiti.

Hipsters would love to live and/or work in a building that a pro graf artist re-painted, say, once a month. It’s not urban decay: it’s an authentic amenity!

There’s not really a rigorous argument to be made in favor graffiti. Cleaning it is 100% tax deductible, I’m sure.

But I suppose the lack of argument for it is part of the point. If you buy the Apollonian (logical/orderly/civic) versus Dionysian (emotional/chaotic/orgiastic) conceptual division then graffiti is squarely Dionysian.

But that divide is no match for consumerism. The main reason to become a graffiti artist now is to develop a brand.

Oh, and like Jared points out: the easiest way to avoid graffiti is to avoid covering buildings in canvas. Look at the floral-print-wall-paper electrical boxes in downtown Victoria. The old ladies are happy and the kids won’t waste their ink on something so low-contrast.

Yes, I can (and sometimes do) appreciate the artistry of the graffiti itself, just not the fact that it is violation of property rights.

Nietzsche held that the highest forms of art combine Apollonian and Dionysian aesthetics, so that would suggest that “defaced” modernist things are win.

Isn’t the impermanence part of the art? I dunno, I was using mailboxes as an example because I knew I could find photos of them. Forsyth had all sorts of example photos in her talk but especially dumpsters (although that might have been a nod to the conference theme).

Graffiti on modernist spaces could just be a premodern reaction to an artistic form that doesn’t fit in the artists’ world view. I don’t think there’s an intention there (not that you were implying that), except maybe with someone like Banksy.

Nietzsche says the rejection of the Apollonian in favour of the Dionysian is the way, the truth, and the light (paraphrased). Graffiti could be seen as a case of that. It all runs into that idea that philosophy describes the interests of academics and all of the normal people just don’t care.

And the problem with hitting up Canada Post boxes is that them buff them nice an’ regular. Unless, I suppose, they just get rusty… or aren’t in Oak Bay.