Проектная работа по английскому языку "Граффити-искусство или хулиганство".

Муниципальное Автономное Образовательное Учреждение   лицей №7 г.Томска

Проектная работа

по английскому языку

 «Граффити-искусство или хулиганство»

«Graffiti-art or vandalism»

Работу выполнили ученики 7А класса: Асаев Роман, Кузькин Роман, Сорокин Роман.

Куратор работы: учитель английского языка Лазарева С.В.

        Томск 2013

Contents

 Introduction…………………………………………………………………...............3

 History of Graffiti……………………………………………………………………..4

 Types and styles ………………………………………..……………………………..5

 Art or Vandalism……………………………………………………………………....7

 The survey  ...........................………………………………………………………….8

 Conclusion ....................……………………………………………………………….9

 Internet sources ..........………………………………………………………………...10

 Enclosure №1 Questions for survey “Graffiti-art or vandalism.” ……………………11

The aim of the project work: learn and sum up information about graffiti, exploring the pictures of graffiti  and  teenagers’ relation to them.

Цель проектной работы: изучение и обобщение знаний о граффити, а так же исследование рисунков граффити и отношение к ним учащихся нашей школы.

Project problems:

Learn the history and developing of graffiti;

Explore the different types of graffiti;

Find out the teens’ attitude to this kindof modern art;

Write and draw own pictures.

Задачи проекта:

Проследить историю возникновения  и развития граффити;

Изучить разные виды граффити ;

Исследовать отношение подростков к этому виду современного искусства;

Создать свои рисунки и надписи в стиле граффити.

Suppose: not all pictures and words on the fences and walls are the objects of art.

Гипотеза: Предположим, что не все рисунки на стенах и заборах являются объектом искусства.

   Graffiti- is writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place.    An usual artist uses paper and canvas for his work, but graffiti artists use for their works walls. We can see graffiti on the walls, in the yards, near the railway. It can be nice and really decorate the surrounding view. Some people admire the work of the so called artist, but the others think that it was vandalism and makes the world look bad. But it cannot be denied that graffiti is notable fact.

      Love or hate it graffiti is part of the everyday urban world. It's a fact that Banksy and other well-known street artists, who are now household names, have busted the whole urban art scene wide open, brought it forefront into the public's attention and it seems the room to sit on the fence with an opinion as to whether it is an art-form or vandalism just got a whole lot narrower.

     Graffiti however, still to this day remains an illegal art and the city authorities across the globe spend millions every year cleaning it up. Some would question, what exactly is the point of spending time and taking the risk to do an act which will be removed within a few days? Others will argue rules make a boring city, no character or self-expression. Nowadays some people consider that even the simplest thing such as photographing anomalous objects stacked on top of each other constitutes as being an acceptable art-form. While graffiti art in the appreciative eye, simply uses the urban environment as a creative canvas to showcase an innovative talent. So is graffiti, art or vandalism?

History of Graffiti

      Graffiti appeared long ago. The word “Graffiti” came from the Italian word «graffiato» ("scratched").

  The earliest forms of graffiti date back to 30,000 BC in the form of prehistoric cave paintings and pictographs using tools such as Animal bones and pigments. Historic forms of graffiti have helped gain understanding into the lifestyles and languages of past cultures. These illustrations were often placed in ceremonial and sacred locations inside of the caves. The images drawn on the walls showed scenes of animal wildlife and hunting expeditions in most circumstances. This form of graffiti is subject to disagreement considering it is likely that members of prehistoric society endorsed the creation of these illustrations.

      The only known source of the Safaitic language, a form of proto-Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

      The first known example of "modern style" graffiti survives in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus. The ancient Romans carved graffiti on walls and monuments, examples of which also survive in Egypt.

  It was not only the Greeks and Romans that produced graffiti: the Mayan site of Tikal in Guatemala also contains ancient examples.

 Viking graffiti survive in Rome and in Ireland. There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Signature Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

 The history of modern graffiti is also very interesting. Writing on walls all started when cavemen drew on walls and boulders, but graffiti had not begun appearing on the subway cars and buses in New York and Chicago until the 1970's. Most of the time graffiti was associated with inner city gang's mainly in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles in the 1970's.

  In New York City the trend of "tagging", or writing one's name, on subway cars is most often credited to Taki 183, a seventeen year old from 183rd Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, whose job as a messenger required him to travel on the trains everyday. Taki began writing his name all over the trains and stations of the transit system, and it wasn't too long before people started to notice. On July 21, 1971, the New York Times ran an article entitled "Taki 183 Spawns Pen Pals," and it made a folk hero out of young Taki.

      Of course, the New York Times wasn't the only one who noticed. All over New York, more and more kids became enamored of the idea of their name traveling across the city every day and being seen by thousands upon thousands of commuters.

   The first notice about graffiti in Russia appeared  in 1985, when there were the first “Brake-dance” festivals. Their posters had pictures of graffiti, and soon this art became popular. Although graffiti historically was never completely welcome in Russia, as graffiti artists were often part of Russia's underground movement, modern trends have made the practice more mainstream and accepted. Moscow's Dream Energy graffiti festival "encourages Russia’s graffiti artists to come out and let their creativity go wild, painting the gray walls of Moscow’s ubiquitous power stations". "Grammatika", a graffiti show that took place in Russia from March 12 to March 18, 2012, featured work from twelve Russian graffiti writers. Founded by Berlin graffiti writer Akim, "Sign Your Style" is a graffiti festival, held in Moscow on May 7, and on May 13 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In the preview video, Petro, a judge for the competition part of the festival, shows in how he expects writers participating to "simply go off and get creative", by freestyling some futurist outlines, doing a blind folded one-liner piece, and a throwing up some handstyle alphabets. The purpose of this Russian festival is to expand the originality and unique subtleties in Russian graffiti style.

Types and styles

Types of graffiti

   1) Tagging. One can safely say that this kind is the beginning of the graffiti history. But nowadays it is regarded only as its addition. Tag is a writer’s signature, his nickname written in one colour. It is an integral part of graffiti, put to all works.  Some of the most common styles of graffiti have their own names. A "tag" is the most basic writing of an artist's name, it is simply a handstyle. A graffiti writer's tag is his or her personalized signature. Tagging is often the example given when opponents of graffiti refer to any acts of handstyle graffiti writing (it is by far the most common form of graffiti). Tags can contain subtle and sometimes cryptic messages, and might incorporate the artist's crew initials or other letters.

    2)Bombing.  Another form is the "throw-up", also known as a "bombing" which is normally painted very quickly with two or three colors, sacrificing aesthetics for speed. Throw-ups can also be outlined on a surface with one color. Usually it is painted on transport at a very rapid pace. Today bombers use for their purposes overland trains. Not quality but quantity of paintings, made in a very short time, is the aim of bombing.

   3)Writing — is graffiti inscriptions in its common sense, paintings of different styles made by writers on the walls of carriages.

   4)Scratching (scrabbing). Equally with tagging scratching is oneof the graffiti additions. It is made on the windows in transport with a grindstone.

Styles of graffiti

    1)Throw up. It is the simplest graffiti style used by bombers for whom speed of implementation is more important than quality. Very often it is used by beginners. The home of this style is New-York. The style is characterized by the curved lines of letters painted out from inside with a certain colour. First colour is for contour, the second is for painting. Only two colours are chiefly used: black and white, or black and silver. The most important condition is the contrast of colours.

   2)Blockbusters. This style is also regards as a simple one. The home city of blockbusters style is Los-Angeles. Big and wide letters can be written only in one colour. There is an opinion that this style was used by street bands for demarcation of the affected areas. As a rule, graffiti is made by a team, where each person does his own job. In the end each participant put his tag to his picture (writer’s tag).

   3)Dynamic styles. There are included all the trends that were popular in 80-s of the XXth century in New-York. They were used in painting of railway carriages. That is why there is the strongly marked dynamics of forms which should be watched only in movement. Wild Style — is a style of graffiti very difficult for reading. It is like the height of a writer’s craftsmanship. To make a wild style graffiti it is important not only to choose the contours in a right way but also to mix colours correctly.  A more complex style is "wildstyle", a form of graffiti usually involving interlocking letters and connecting points. These pieces are often harder to read by non-graffiti artists as the letters merge into one another in an often undecipherable manner. Some artists also use stickers as a quick way to catch ups. While certain critics from within graffiti culture consider this lazy, stickers can be quite detailed in their own right, and are often used in conjunction with other materials. Sticker tags are commonly done on blank postage stickers, as these can be easily acquired with no cost on the writers part.Military style. Different colours and letters (“loop”) are combined in a fantastic manner. It is a dynamic and emotional style.Gentle dynamic style. It is connected with the previous one. But lines in spite of dynamics of the image become more gentle.

   4)Electical style — is the next after the wild style according to the level of complication. It is some kind of reflection of the writer’s craftsmanship. Painting graffiti of this style, one can create new directions.

   5)FX (Daim style, 3D)  — graffiti — three-dimensional letter images. Not every writer can paint in this style. It was created by Daim, the member of one of the most famous graffiti team FX Cru.

   6)Character. Caricatures and commixes. Here appears a frame with the personage’s speech, typical of all commixes. Writers, possessing artistic skills, prefer this style of graffiti.

   7)Bubble graffiti. All letters look like soap-bubbles, ready to burst. Two or three colours are used in this style. It is very popular among the beginners.

          Many graffiti artists believe that doing complex pieces involves too great an investment of time to justify the practice. Doing a piece can take (depending on experience and size) 30 minutes to months on end, as was the case for Saber MSK while working on the world’s largest graffiti piece on the LA river.

     Another graffiti artist can go over a piece in a matter of minutes with a simple throw up. This was exemplified by the writer "CAP" in the documentary Style Wars, who, other writers complain, ruins pieces with his quick throw ups. This became known as "capping" and is often done when there is "beef", conflict between writers.

Art or Vandalism

    Graffiti art is a form of self-expression. It’s another way artists can show their talent and opinions to the public. Graffiti is street art, often done over a period of time, which characterizes an artist or group. Vandalism is the intentional destruction of property with the sole purpose of doing something illegal and taboo. Though the two are often lumped together in conversation and subject, there is a defining line between them.

    Today Graffiti is a kind of streets’ art, one of the most actual form of art self-expression all around the world. Creations of graffiti artists became the separate kind of modern art, a part of city’s life and culture. A lot of countries and cities have got their own famous writers, who make the real masterpieces of art. In many countries drawing on someone’s property without permission is considered to be an act of vandalism and can be punished.

    Sometimes graffiti can use to get abroad some political and social information. Tastes differ, and graffiti may be the real art for one people but vandalism for another. In all civilized countries graffiti is a kind of art. Some graffiti artists are against any form of vandalism on private property such as people’s houses, schools or churches. Most respectful artists are against defacing another person’s art by tagging on or over the piece. Most importantly, the majority strive to make their art viewable by everyone, which means no excessive cursing or tags on stores in which you must be 18 or older to enter.

Graffiti artists have their own rules:  

 1) Don’t paint the houses, had cultural value;

 2) Don’t force your ideas on people;

 3) Don’t write on the other artists’ works;

 4) Don’t write on the tombs: painting on memorial walls means death!

 But not everyone obey the rules. Some persons only constitute themselves graffiti artists, but they are vandals in deed! Don’t forget that writing words such as “Sasha+Masha” and” Vasya was here” are not the art!

   Our town is not clear of worldwide developing of street-art. We can see different graffiti on the walls, houses and fences. It’s glad that lots of them can be considered by cultural point of view. We had examined 1 hundred of student from our lyceum (Enclosure №1) and found out their relations to graffiti.

The results of our survey you can see in these diagrams.

 What’s your relation to Graffiti?

 63%of students are interested in Graffiti

 21% don’t like it and 16% don’t care about it.

 Is Graffiti a kind of art or vandalism?

 54% think it’s an art

 13% think it’s a vandalism

 33% think it’s a way of self-realization

 Do you try yourself as a graffiti artist?

 62% only watch the pictures

 17% can write “tag”

 21% are active graffiti artists

     As for my friends and I, we’ve been interested in graffiti for several years. Some of us have got their own works on paper and on the walls and buildings. We write them in different styles.

    We write our pictures because we want to show them to everyone and make our town better. We are   looking for people’s understanding and acceptance. I’d like to show you some of my works.

Conclusion:

   We found out the following:

 •The word “Graffiti” appeared long ago;

 •Graffiti started in USA at the beginning of 70th;

 •Modern graffiti is a subject image sometimes of poster type, with cartoon or naïve pictures;

 •This art is in progress, and it can have a stunning  future;

  •We can see the creation of this art in Tomsk too. Even among our students there are few graffiti artists.  

  We came to the conclusion that graffiti is a way of self-realization of teenagers.

 Graffiti is an artistic property that people have and should show to the whole world through exhibitions, museums, and art galleries dedicated to them. Artistic graffiti is important because it motivated and still motivates, young kids and adults, to be creative, allows them to view themselves as artists, and helps them to become better role models who love art and make it their own.

     Well... the famous saying "art is in the eye of the beholder" cannot be better suited in order to form your own opinion, regardless of what government laws attempt to impose upon you. It is your personal right and privilege to decide yourself, however as such in every art-form there will also be an opposite critic to contradict whatever your view is. The controversy surrounding this debate keeps the scene extremely vibrant and exciting! You are your one and only beholder. It's your choice.

Internet sources:

 1.       Википедия.- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti

 2.       Граффити становится искусством и поднимает свои стандарты - http://www.corsar-   art.nm.ru/site/write/graffiti.htm

 3.       Art Crimes - The Writing on the Wall - graffiti art worldwide- http://www.graffiti.org/

 4.       Граффити в Томске.-   http://graffiti.tomsk.ru/

Enclosure №1

Questions for survey “Graffiti-art or vandalism.”

 1. What’s your relation to Graffiti?

 а) I’m interested in Graffiti.                  b) I don’t like it.                         с) I don’t care about it.

 2.Is Graffiti a kind of art or vandalism?

 А) Yes, it’s an art.                                    b) No, it’s a vandalism.              с) It’s a way of self-realization.

3.Do you try yourself as a graffiti artist?

 а) No, I only watch the pictures.           b) Sometimes I write «tag».     с) I’m an active graffiti artist.