Week 1 - What's Up, Beautiful Losers?

Hi everyone! It’s Laasya, back again with an update on my senior project :).

This week’s goal was to find sources such as documentaries and books that focus on graffiti and start studying them. Another goal for this week was to start drafting a rough outline for the final documentary structure. 

On Monday, I spent around 1.5 hours at the library searching for books on graffiti and picked a couple that delved into the history of graffiti as well as specific artists. I also looked at websites and documentaries to study for the week.

The books I picked out were:

• Global Street Art: The Street Artists and Trends Taking Over the World by Lee Bofkin
• Graffiti 365 by Jay Edlin
• Graffiti and Street Art by Anna Wacławek
• Subway Art by Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper

The documentaries I picked out were:

• Beautiful Losers (2008)
• Bomb It (2007)
• Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010)

One of my favorite websites was EndlessCanvas.com. It has a little less content than other websites I found, but what made it stand out was that it focused on Bay Area graffiti and it had a section for interviews with graffiti artists.

Throughout the week, I worked on reading the first book, Global Street Art: The Street Artists and Trends Taking Over the World by Lee Bofkin, and exploring the history of graffiti. I also worked on the rough outline for my documentary, including the placement of interviews, images of graffiti history, etc.

The documentary Beautiful Losers was a work of art. It fit perfectly into my project because it explored the intricate connections between punk and hip hop music, skateboarding, and graffiti. I recommend y’all watch it to better understand my project. It’s free on YouTube. Here’s the link: Beautiful Losers  (2008) (Graffiti Movie)

Thank you so much for following my research journey and I’ll see you next week!