Graffiti
Welcome back, let’s catch you up on last week. I made some bomb beer battered ribs, took me 8 hours to cook them in the crock pot, but everyone at my place and our neighbors agreed. Just amazing! I live on a fairly good block, can’t complain about any of my neighbors or my place. The only thing that annoys me about my block is the graffiti on the mailbox that I walk by every day when going to class. it’s totally out of place and gaudy, it confuses me completely. The block has recently been renovated with all new buildings, and this mailbox is a reminder of the past. It seems that as Drucker puts it “(street markings) are necessary for executing particular urban activities, even though we may not know what the activities are.” (97). I believe that this was the case with the graffiti, it either pertained to apartment tenants who used to live there, or to gangs that used to claim the block, but now that it has been renovated it serves no purpose. I’m mostly confused by this graffiti because none of it is particularly legible, it could be just work of drunk college kids, or it could be amateur work from previous years for a particular media studies class. I’m going to do some investigative work on this, let’cha know what turns up.After reading Drucker’s article “Language in the Landscape” I believe I’m going to be viewing signs differently, but am still left with some questions.
If we’re going to consider all commercial signage as graffiti than are the display cases that buildings create graffiti too?
If language tries to tell us what we see what would one believe poorly written or not legible writing is conveying?
Ball’s in your court Drucker.
sabbak 
To answer your first question; I do not believe that all commercial signage is graffiti. While it disrupts the environment it surrounds, like graffiti traditionally does, I believe that it doesn’t have the same meaning behind it. When I think of graffiti, I think of someone acting out. They could be acting out against their friends, the authorities (perhaps like your example of graffiti is doing), or some sort of social norm that perhaps shouldn’t be the norm. Also, I believe that a big part of what makes graffiti, graffiti, is the fact that it is illegal. When companies post these advertisements I believe for the most part they get permits, creating a legal disruption in the environment with almost no acts of anarchic rebellion behind it. I believe what Drucker was trying to say in her piece is that the commercial “signage” is more of a form of language, just as the other examples are!
Also, totally ugly mailboxes, I can see why it annoys you.