Anonymous Expression: A Structural View of Graffiti

THE THEMATIC CONTENT OF GRAFFITI has been the focus of considerable social scientific interest and has yielded several explanations. As is characteristic of the work done on the value contents of other media of communication, students of graffiti have looked for a direct reflection of the "collective conscience." For such theorists, a correspondence between cultural values and media pronouncements is implicitly assumed to exist. Within this model, discrepant findings can only mean puzzlement or a drastic revision in the researcher's assessment of the value-system of the culture in question. There seems to be little attention paid to the refracting power that the peculiar characteristics of any medium exercises on the value-system for which it serves as outlet. Thus, there is no recognition that, as we look at culture through the window afforded us by any expressive outlet, what we see has been modified by the peculiar nature of the medium. Hence, at present, explanations of value content tend not to take account of the distorting nature of the medium, and seek instead to establish content as a true reflection of culture.'