Statistical Analysis of U of Chicago Graffiti 157
quaith writes "Quinn Dombrowski, a member of the University of Chicago's central IT staff, has been recording the graffiti left in the Joseph Regenstein Library Since September 2007. To date she has photographed and transcribed over 620 pieces of graffiti; over 410 of them are datable to within a week of their creation. She has now published in Inkling Magazine a statistical analysis of the entire graffiti collection covering such subjects as love, hate, despair, sex, anatomy, and temporal fluctuations of each of these. After November, both love and despair graffiti drop off significantly until spring, while sex graffiti reaches its one and only peak in December before declining for the rest of the school year. The story includes links to all of the original graffiti photos, which the researcher has made freely available to use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license."
Re:License? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:License? (Score:5, Funny)
Nonono, it is modern art.
You appear to not understand that you've walked into my "Live Art" exhibit which can only be appreciated by those within it. "Dicks and your mom", a minor part of the exhibit, encompasses the oedipal desire inherent in males. The "Call me at 555-5555 for a good time" portion speaks of the hidden desire for pleasure which exists in the male psyche.
My exhibit, "Masculinity" encompasses all those themes and more, speaking largely of the sexual frustrations, desire for intimacy, and lack of release that all men feel. The bathroom is used because it's a place where men can feel comfortable and able to release their frustrations, if only for a moment.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get to work on "Femininity". No, no, I won't enjoy it. After all this is *art* good sir.
Blah... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Blah... (Score:5, Funny)
When the library at the local community college had a wooden tables in the study area, there was a rich history of graffiti from 20 years of students studying for exams. When they build a new library with modern non-wood tables, the graffiti no longer existed. The florescent pen graffiti on the condom machines in the restrooms was a poor substitute.
Did any of it say "insert baby for refund"?
Re:Some more UChicago graffiti (Score:1, Funny)
This is also all over the bathrooms of Reed College, along with some variations:
"Grout White Whale"
"Trade Groutes"
"Wireless Grouter"
"404 Tile Not Found" (written on the tile, rather than between)
It also migrated to the men's bathroom at Powell's Books (a local independent book store), prompting a response of "I hate Reedies."
(For those of you not familiar with either school, there exists somewhat of a psuedo-rivalry between the two, as the intersection of their two applicant pools is pretty large).
Re:License? (Score:3, Funny)
I bet they don't refuse teh dolRRs, though.
Re:License? (Score:4, Funny)
Copyright violation? (Score:4, Funny)
Just wanted to throw out that technically she's violating the copyright of the graffiti owner, and cannot be distributing that work. I think all the graffiti authors should step forward and claim their share of her enormous royalties. If you are a graffiti writer, please click [this is a joke] to claim your giant prize.
Re:Some more UChicago graffiti (Score:3, Funny)
That's funny - I thought 'grout puns' were somewhat unique to my local pub men's room. Except our graffiti is all literary references:
And no, it's not like we're near the university or anything. It's a pretty low-brow suburban pub in a strip mall, so I was surprised to see graffiti veer in a literary direction.