Graffiti Art

Workbook

__________

Name

Read about the history of Graffiti and answer the questions below.

1. Graffiti challenges mainstream notions about what counts as ___________, what

counts as ____________ , and what counts as ____________________.

2. What is the definition of Graffiti?

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3. Graffiti goes back to ancient __________________________.

4. The style of urban graffiti that uses spray cans began when and where?

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5. Who was the first urban graffiti artist? _____________________________________

6. What does the term “get up” mean?

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7. Besides getting their name in as many places as they could, graffiti artists also wanted

to accomplish what?

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8. What were the style wars in the 1970’s?

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9. A common myth is that graffiti is gang related. How can you tell the difference

between gang and non-gang graffiti?

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10. Besides battling each other to be “King of all Lines”, what else did graf writers need

to be concerned about?

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11. What did graf writers prove to the public and society about themselves?

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12. By the 1980’s graffiti art on trains and subways all but disappeared. Why?

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13. Where do you now find graffiti in 2004?

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14. How has graffiti art entered into mainstream society?

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15. Graffiti is considered one of the four elements of hip hop. What are the other three?

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16. Where did these four major forms of expression come from?

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17. Graffiti represented the __________________, emceeing and DJ produced the

______________ and B Boying was the _____________________.

18. Hip hop in 2004 is mostly centered around _______________________.

19. There is great controversy over the topic of graffiti. What is your opinion? Do you believe graffiti (tagging) is defacing property?

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20. If you owned a home and you had a redwood fence, how would you feel if a graffiti artist tagged your fence or property?

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21. Do you think mainstream society is against the art of graffiti or against where the artist places his graffiti?

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22. Do you think graffiti artists should have a place to express their art even if it is against the law?

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23. Do you think if Picasso or Rembrandt had painted on buildings or bridges that they would be punished for disobeying the law? Why or why not?

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IMPORTANT

A note from your teacher

It is never a good idea to disobey the law. Even if you do not agree with a society’s law, you should not break the law. Instead you find constructive ways to change the law. You go to council meetings and plead your argument. You write letters and visit state representatives. That is what Logan students did when they wanted to change the law about cell phones on campus. And the legislators changed the law!

But it is never a good idea to break the law. Graffiti is an art and a valuable art. We need to have government provide locations to display the art so that graffiti artists do not have to resort to unlawful ways to display their work.

In order for me to get school permission to give you the experience to create graffiti art on the computer, and to have a graffiti art competition/exhibit, I had to impressive upon administration that I was not contributing to tagging of the community or the school. If tagging or graffiti art begins to show up more on the school grounds or in the community, administration will NOT allow me to give you this unit on graffiti art.

So it is up to you as individuals to police yourself. During this program, you must agree to do all your creative tagging on the computers in my classroom or the art canvas for the exhibit competition. The prizes for the best graffiti artist are being donated by Dr. Ron Eglash, professor of science and technological studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Insititute.

I, ________________________________, agree that I will not tag outside of this classroom and that my tagging will be limited to the computer program and the art piece that I submit for competition in the graffiti art contest. I understand that if I violate these rules, I will be removed from the graffiti generator unit in this class.

__________________________________ ____________________________

Signature Date

Math concepts in Graffiti Art

Shadow effect: Graffiti artist is using different angles to give it that look

Proportion: Keeping objects in the correct size so that people can identify what they are looking at

Location: Graffiti artists must plan ahead and do problem solving to think about the location of where objects will go. To do this, they use coordinates, quadrants and the coordinate plane.

Artists use lines to create boarders of letters and arcs to create curves in their designs.

Explain how graffiti artists use a grid similar to the Cartesian coordinate plane system to create their artwork.

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The Tutorial – LEARNING HOW TO USE THE GRAFFITI GENERATOR

Now use the graffiti grapher to enter points on your plane. After you are comfortable with plotting the points and moving them around, go on to the next page.

The first type of shape you will see in graffiti art is the line. Using the graffiti grapher make lines and practice boarders of letters. These are the most important lines in graffiti.

You have now learned how to show location based on a pair of values using the coordinate plane system. Another way to express location on a grid is using polar coordinates (something other students will be learning in Algebra 2!!!)

Polar coordinates use an angle and distance from a center point (known as the origin) for location. Now practice trying to form green lines using angle and radius. See if you can get the end of your green line into all four of the red circles on the graffiti grapher.

Now let’s get into arcs and polar coordinates! Practice

With arcs and see how they relate to polar coordinates. Using arcs and spirals will give the skills to create beautiful curves on your graffiti.

You are ready to enter into the graffiti generator and start creating some of your own graffiti art.

Graffiti Art Contest

Now that you have practiced on the graffiti generator to create some great graffiti art, you will be given the opportunity to pick your best work and re-create it on canvas. Check out www.grafiiti.org for some great designs!

You can buy art canvas at any art store. If you can not afford canvas, buy a heavy white cardboard. Buy some spray paint and with your parent’s permission ask if you can use the backyard to spray paint your work. Make sure you put newspaper down and avoid painting mom’s patio furniture J

When you have finished your piece of art work, bring it in to class. You will give a five minute presentation explain your art and the mathematics you used to create the art. All pieces will be displayed and administrators will judge the art and prizes will be awarded.

Remember to respect yourself, respect others, and respect your school.

Have fun!