(reasons,
questions, and motives)
Stroll
through downtown Los Angeles, up New York's Broadway, or along the
avenues of Philadelphia's Center City, and look in the forgotten, in
the grimy, and in the underused places. With a keen glance and a bit
of luck, you will witness the riotous beauty known as street art. Oh,
what a profusion of style and color, of shape and size, of message
and image, all blending into a whole that, if viewed from afar,
resembles little more than visual clutter; but get in good and close,
and follow the guidance of your peripheral vision, and your most
tender of sphincters will drink invariably of the intoxicating power
of street art.
But
why do we look? Why are we powerless against the urge to sweep our
gazes into worn and sticky places and up onto soot-covered utility
poles? Eyes, my friends, we look at graffiti because it is full of
eyes (and not just any type of eyes, but human eyes). Perhaps they
stumbled upon the technique accidentally, perhaps they copied it from
advertisers, or maybe they just plain Knew to tap into one of
mankind's most primal and deep-seated fears, but, however it
occurred, street artists employ one of the most basic methods for
getting people to look at something – to give it eyes.
Since
our time as forest-creeping, prairie-running, skull-bashing
troglodytes, the species homo sapiens has developed the uncanny
ability to recognize the shape of the eye even if it should be
obscured by layers of seemingly random patterns. While experts may
argue whether this ability is restricted merely to recognizing the
human eye, or if it applies to the eyes of all of our former
predators (think bear, cougar, coyote), few persons dispute the fact
that our brains are really good at figuring out if someone, or
something, is looking at us. Advertisers exploit this evolutionary
adaptation to our status as Top Predator Of One Another by blanketing
the phaltscape with pictures of pretty people who nearly all happened
to have been staring directly at the camera's shutter when it opened.
(Now, however, instead of our powers giving us the upper hand in a
fight-or-flight situation, they allow us to be convinced that we need
that new and re-formulated cucumber body scrub; woe be unto mankind.)
All
quasi-scientific, pseudo-evolutionary nonsense aside (I am not a
scientist, nor am I particularly intelligent or well-versed) – why
do graffiti-writers use so many eyes in their designs? Why in the
name of Beelzebub do they wish for people to look at their works of
art, and to what purpose do they make use of our aforementioned
ability to pick eyes out of the ether? As the SDUBS (self directed
urban beautification specialist) is wily and suspicious by nature,
and since she maintains a level of honor, decorum, and discipline so
profound as to make inquiry into her personal matters a
life-threatening endeavor, these questions shall likely go unanswered
for many generations to come. For now, however, please enjoy the
street-side galleries of free-to-the-consumer art wherever you may
be, and rest easily in the knowledge that, by looking back at eyes
that look at you, you are merely executing a deeply-ingrained
survival reflex that is as natural to humans as is laughter. Never
forget, however, to keep an eye out for your fellow man, he who has
been hunting you for longer than you shall likely ever know.
場黑麥
mentiri factorem fecit
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