Engaging Gangland Visual Culture

The visual culture is a subject that studies art education. It not only focuses on the cultural meaning of art but also focuses on the philosophy and critical theory of the same. The meaning of the memorial in this context is that it is the remembrance of a primary site for the victims of violence also known as the Beltzhoover’s victims. The memory in this case, focuses on the ambiguity, mystery and the anonymity of the victim’s memorial collection.

Autoethnography Research Method

Autoenthnography is a form of social research that helps to explore and tries to connect political, cultural, social meanings, social understandings and personal experience of the researcher or the person involved. This method involves reflexive investigation and self observation of writing and the field of work. An ambiguous area encompasses a number of practices that vary in research processes of self and culture.

How does Sharif Bey use this Research in his Article?

Sharif Bey uses this research in the article in a very unique manner.  His research method includes his personal experience. He witnesses the senseless deaths and the beltzhoover’s decline, which lead to the drug related violence. The research method also includes: the social meanings and social understanding of the author. He attributes that the context of the research was carried out in various social settings which reflected on the mythologies, accounts and experiences. The stories and attributes also touched on the history of the place at the time of the events. He ponders on what used to be before the event occurred. The other method used is connected to cultural and political meanings. In the article, the author insists that the research was carried out with his friends, family and thus, he faces the risk of ending up with a research that is linked to the test and his personal life.

Gang Graffiti’s

The author describes the gang graffiti’s as gang tattoos which were spontaneously created by young people. These graffiti’s have become a culture by which people record history and the past happenings or events. These graffiti’s according to the author do not only represent the individual gang life but also represent the neighborhood news and honors the members who are deceased. He calls it  “calls and response’’. According to the author, this technique was initiated by an individual. It is important because it invites disapproval or affirmation of audiences or community at large. However, the graffiti does not meet the community requirements and thus is quickly revised or eradicated.

Positive Outcomes on the Public Memorials

The author believes that public memory has collectively denoted remembrance in the community. He believes that public memory discourse has authority over the memory and has distinctive features over the history and memory. The author also believes that the public memorial creates public memory with which history is represented, sustained and reconstructed. The other positive outcome that the author believes is created by public memorials is evidence provided by the public memorials. These memories are insurance against forgetting. The author believes that without the memories there can never be a relationship between, the past and present.

There are many ideas in this article that are new and confusing but the most outstanding idea is the idea of placing public memorials. This is a very unique idea which allows the public to view the events from the historic times.

Conclusion

This paper has examined the visual culture plus the meaning of memorial. It has also addressed different questions and attributes that are related to autoethnography research methodology.