Urban Anthropology Blog

This assignment turned out to be more difficult than I had planned. With sticker in hand I tromped around Boston determined to find the perfect meaningful location but the more I searched the more overwhelmed I became. No where seemed right or special or for lack of a better word, "home." Poor self-cannibalistic-watermelon-head-ghost-man, where are you to belong in a place with seemingly infinite space? So I headed to the edges of Chinatown the very first place I saw when I came to Boston. Since my arrival I always take the same path from the South Station Bus Terminal through the Chinatown gates to the Orange line that carries me to campus. It felt so safe and so natural to be walking here and then it donned on me. Isn't the point of street art to shake the very foundations of comfort and routine people cling to in a city? Wouldn't it be doubly meaningful then to place the sticker on the path I found so comforting to shake up my routine and alter the landscape of the path itself? Then I saw the cement pole. It's only purpose was to hold a decorative banner and because of its duty the pole itself has was fixed so that a light shone directly on one side holding the banner. Additionally, light which was emitted 24/7 from a furniture shop display window to the left of pole drew more attention to the sticker. Lit from two sides I placed the jolly figure a little higher than my head. It seemed so far away but none the less he shone. He stood like a guard you had to pass, or maybe an omen you had to notice before you were allowed to leave the city by bus. Or perhaps he's best suited to be an ambassador between the area of Dewey Square/South Station and Chinatown. The little man had the whole pole to himself and without distraction in a dull alley he stole all the attention. A blindingly white sticker made brighter by a convenient dual lighting system! Perhaps not the politically commentary the artist had intended to make with the piece of art but as the concept was in truth a mystery to me I decided I could at least give the piece the platform it deserved. In my mind this created the perfect cross-section between art and vandalism. An illegal item showcased just as well as any piece you'd find in the MFA. (To boot the place I chose is poorly lit except for that spot and this draws all the more attention to the sticker.) I hung out on the other side of the street for awhile and saw not one but THREE separate people stop to look at the sticker while walking towards the bus terminal. They paused for but a moment but the satisfaction I felt lasted for the rest of the night.

- Alexis 

I choose to hide my sticker inside a book at the Boston Athenaeum. The Boston Athenaeum is a private library near park street station that was first opened in 1807. The members and staff of this library have worked hard to keep it essentially the same since 1807. It carries only antique books, and specializes in extremely rare books. It even has George Washington's private collection. I think its an amazing place and i love spending time there but it is definitely an extremely stuffy and elitist place. There is a suggested dress code for the library, you have to pay to be a member to get in, they do not allow you to take outside bags into the library, cellphones and cameras are strictly not allowed. Talking is not allowed. Sometimes it seems like 21st century is not allowed.
It amused me to hide the sticker on the dedication page of one of the antique books in the Athenaeum. The library staff work so hard to keep everything modern or unwanted out of the library that for a piece of graffiti to be hidden inside one of the books, especially one titled The Great Conspiracy seemed like a joke to me. Im sure the librarians would not find it so funny, but i think they need to lighten up.