Street Graffiti - Collective Consciousness

By Chen Chi-Hsiang

Do not underestimate any event, large or small, that occurs in society; this is a simultaneous performance of the current collective consciousness, because everyone’s existence co-constructs the being of the universe. The insignificance of the individual—whether you care or not, consciously or unconsciously—is still the result of the whole system’s operation. Whether you acknowledge it or not is irrelevant; the whole precedes the individual, and the individual is merely a part of the whole. No one can deny this fact. It is only when an event affects you that your awareness is awakened, as the collective operates between consciousness and non-consciousness.

Street graffiti acts within individual consciousness, manifesting as a collective signifier. Whether seen or unseen, it participates in the operation of society. Although located in the marginal corners of the metropolis—in zones where no one cares about whom—the fact of its discovery is irrelevant. Its existence is undeniable. The relationship between the existence of graffiti and you operates between consciousness and non-consciousness; whether it has influenced you or not, it has already participated in the contemporary collective consciousness.