"Sociologists will be interested in analyzing the social conditions under which street mathematics appears and what relationship it bears to variables commonly used to describe a society. Nunes, Schliemann, and Carraher convincingly summarize the relevance of street math as follows: This is what has been termed "street mathematics" (Nunes, 1993). Mathematical forms of thought have been both appropriated and adapted from formal math, and, even more pervasive and significant, have been invented to serve the functions of this community. The brief preceding background presents a basic summary of the driving purposes of this form of expression, from which the technical elements valued in the art take shape. My intention in this paper is to discuss the forms of mathematics that have been developed in the design, painting, deciphering, and evaluation of wildstyle. While these theories about graffiti's roots and meaning are generally written by academically inclined graffiti artists and outsiders, any non-academic writer will tell about the synonymous "funk" in wildstyle lettering, meaning movement, vibrance, spirit. The letters themselves, it is hypothesized, are a reworking of Arabic lettering incorporating African and Latin rhythms, signifying motion and flow (Miller, 1993). Other messages are also communicated, sometimes the name of a loved one, or a concise personal philosophy. Usually, perhaps eighty percent of the time, what is written is the artist's name a way of gaining fame and recognition within the community of graffiti writers and aficionados. You can make it your own" (Miller, 1993, p. Just because somebody said this is the way it's supposed to be, it doesn't mean it has to be you can individualise the alphabet. My main thing is taking letters and distorting them, changing them, mutating them. Vulcan proposes, "The whole meaning of the art is that it's a communication language. Another excitement of wildstyle is its subversive implications it is a way of writing messages in huge letters on walls that is translatable only by a very small population of cohorts. Copious amounts of time are spent by writers in sketching, piecing, tagging, and bombing 2, examining pictures in graffiti magazines, trading flix (photographs) of graffiti art, and meeting to pass around sketch books filled with one's own and others' art to fill with more sketches. The passion for patterns is one of the binding forces of the community. Part of the thrill of the creation of wild letters is the mental and artistic challenge presented both for the writer and the reader. Dondi, from New York, has said that when he writes for other writers he uses wildstyle, and when he writes for the public he uses straight letters (Chalfant, 1984, p.70). Wildstyle is intentionally hard to decipher. Most writers fall somewhere on a continuum blending these desires and more. Some motivations cited are resistance and rebellion, fame (literally making a name for oneself), and the desire to create beauty and share art with their community. The reasons why people write are diverse and ever-evolving. It is created both for, and in defiance of, the audience, which is made up of other writers 1 and both supportive and unsupportive members of the public. Like all forms of graffiti art, it is spray painted on walls, trains, and other public surfaces, frequently illegally, and is intended to impose on public visual space, and to challenge viewers' ideas of who has the right to represent themselves publicly, and what art is. "Wildstyle" is a form of graffiti composed of complicated interlocking letters, arrows, and embellishment. Street Math In Wildstyle Graffiti Art Street Math In Wildstyle Graffiti Art © 1997 Josephine Noah
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