CURIOSITY JOURNAL ENTRIES
Entry 1: 24/01
The pictures from the first day of the week, in the 5th page of my curiosity journal, are just random things I found close to where I live (near Bibliotheque Francois-Mitterand). I did not have any ideas in my mind to how I was going to link the pictures that I took. Three of the pictures that I took from that day had metal pipes. Two of the pictures represent a bunch of metal pipes that I found on the street. They looked abandoned or maybe someone has left it behind or is coming back to get it. The third one was just a picture of a large building that also had, what also looked like metal pipes put in different and probably random directions on the windows of the top floors. On my way, I did not really find anything that grabbed my attention except for a colorfull barrel outside of a restaurant. I thought that it could have something to do with architecture, metal, shapes, or color but this wasn’t really what I was interested in.
Entry 2: days 25/01 and 26/01
The first page of my curiosity journal represents 2 characters: the dog and the cherry. My choice to put the ‘nourf dog’ graffiti next to the cherry was just for the coordination of the colors. I found the cherry painting on a wall in a bakery shop. In the same bakery shop I also took pictures of the characters in the images in pages 4 and 7. I found the dog and the
bone in one graffiti, and I took a picture of it only because it said my name (Nour-F). Initially, it wasn’t my intention to add it to my curiosity journal. However, in my ‘peer interview’, I said that I wanted to make something with characters since I have always been attracted to fictional characters. So, I decided to turn my curiosity journal towards graffiti, since I also had a picture of a graffiti from the before. And when I went to Barcelona, I found a lot of different and interesting graffiti all over the city.
Although, I had also found other remarkable graffiti around Paris, I thought that it found be more interesting to document the variation of styles in graffiti through different cultures and countries.
Therefore, I kept the graffiti from Paris in order to compare between the two countries. On another note, the pictures that I took in Paris and in Barcelona are mostly pictures of characters in graffiti since I wanted to include ‘characters’ to project from the first studio class.
Entry 3: 26/01
The paintings of the characters that I found on a bakery shop were not exactly what would be called graffiti. The cherry in the 1stpage, the three characters in the 4thpage and the cupcake and the gingerbread man in the 7thpage of my curiosity journal. I thought that, even though it was a character painted on the wall like the other graffiti that I took pictures of, it was not graffiti because it was not illegal. Surely, there are many more elements that distinguish a mural painting from graffiti art. But it would be viewed very differently if these same characters were painted outdoors, on a public wall. Some people would not even consider it as Art and it would probably be wiped away in a couple of years. This had me thinking
about how different people perceive graffiti, and how it is compared it to a painting. I started taking pictures of other characters that I found in the street. Most graffiti that I found were in public spaces where a lot of people went to, and is used as a form of comminication. For instance, the two graffiti in the third page of my journal were in a very busy and touristic park in Barcelona that is called Park Guell. In this same park, I also found “Einstein’s eyes” (8thpage).
Entry 4: 27/01
The graffiti in the 5th page of my curiosity journal was one of the few who weren’t actually on the store shutters. The graffiti are usually on store shutters. This indicates that the graffiti artist makes them when the store closes, hence they most likely do it at night. I found this graffiti on a very large wall that almost all covered in graffiti. In fact, I saw a guy making
adding a graffiti to the wall. The time I saw the guy was at approximately 12pm. I thought that it was very risky because of the timing that he chose to make his graffiti. But you might think: wouldn’t it also be as risky as if he did it at night? Then I thought to myself that it probably is not risky or dangerous as if the graffiti artist was a female. Browsing about female graffiti artists, I found out that graffiti is actually produced predominantly by men. Women who create graffiti are struggling in terms of recognition of their graffiti world, since graffiti is somewhat considered to be a masculine form of art. Some women said that in order to be appreciated for their graffiti, and to avoid sexism they felt the need to make their graffiti look masculine. And other women cannot contribute because of the sexual harassment that they face to during the night. Therefore, I
discovered that graffiti has created a kind of gender discrimination in the streets.
Entry 5: 27/01 and 28/01
Both images from the second page are graffiti from store shutters. As I mentioned in the previous entry, this means that the graffiti is done at night. Even though, it is legal is some countries, most countries still consider it vandalism. Often, the government is the main source of constraint against graffiti artists. However, a lot of people say that graffiti makes them feel unsafe because it is a way for gangs to claim a space that isn’t theirs. Others think that it makes a place look dirty and abandoned or dangerous. And finally, some think that it is not art just because it is not displayed in museums or galleries, or simply because it does not have a price or value, or even because local governments spend a lot of time and money getting it off of the walls. While I was chatting with my friends about graffiti, I asked them what they think of it in general. One of friends said that he thinks it’s very “cool” that people go against the law to make art and that he appreciates all graffiti artists. While, my other friend said that she sees graffiti as ugly and useless.
Entry 6: 29/01
When I came back to Paris, I was having a walk on my street (same place where I took the pictures on the first day), I couldn’t help but notice the graffiti, even though I already had the required amount.
Of course, I stopped and took pictures of the graffiti, that you can see on page 8 of my journal. But I went on looking for something maybe more interesting because I did not want my curiosity journal to be all filled up with just graffiti, even though this is was I am interested in. Every time I tried to look for something different, my eyes somehow would always turn to graffiti. After I took a couple of pictures and went back home, I noticed that if it wasn’t graffiti, it was some weird metal shapes and forms (one of these pictures is also in the 8thpage of my curiosity journal).
Entry 7: 28/01
On the 30thof January, I saw the same “nourf dog” graffiti on a wall in Barcelona, that I took a picture of in Paris the first day. Even though, it was the same dog, the one is Barcelona could cause a little more controversy, since the dog had his middle fingers up and was represented with a human male’s private parts. And next to the graffiti was something written in Spanish that I did not understand, but I think it was some kind of insult to someone or something. Even though graffiti all around the world is very similar, it varies a lot and it also often expresses cultural, social, and political issues in different cultures. Maybe it is not the act of vandalism that makes graffiti illegal but the message that it sends to the public, that the government usually try to hide. When people feel they have no power or influence but want to express their anger, hatred or defiance towards political injustice, this is when graffiti happens.