classes/fall03/introviscom    |    Intro to Visual Communication    |    Cuyahoga Community College Western Campus    |    Al Wasco

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Graffiti on restaurant door

 

The back door of a restaurant on Lorain Avenue, tagged by a local graffiti writer.

Is it visual communication? Definitely.
Is it vandalism? Probably.
Is it art? Possibly.

Context is very important to our understanding of any communication, visual or verbal.

If we saw this painted on rice paper in an Oriental gallery, we'd admire it as calligraphy.
If it were painted on canvas and hanging on a gallery wall, we'd accept it as abstract art.
Painted on a door near a parking lot, we get mixed messages.

What do you think?