Haight-Ashbury

This weeks outing was to the Haight-Ashbury district, widely known as being the home of the counterculture movement. It was a beautifully sunny and warm day, and this made for a great walking tour of the neighborhood. 

A Step Back in Time

Do you remember your first time visiting the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco? I do. I was 16, and although I had known a bit of the history of the neighborhood, I had no idea why the area was still such a popular tourist destination. Coming from Los Angeles, The Haight just seemed like another Melrose to me; another destination to shop and take in the cool atmosphere cultivated by those who live and work in the area. It wasn’t until I really began to explore and learn about the history that I realized how important of a location Haight-Ashbury is to modern culture today. Visiting Haight-Ashbury is like taking a step back into a very revolutionary time, a time where free expression and mind expansion reigned above all else. This sense of counterculture, wherein the culture itself rejects modern culture, is still very alive today, and by visiting Haight-Ashbury you can either re-live or experience for the first time what it is like to be in such a revolutionary period.  

What exactly is counterculture, and why does it still bring so many people to the Haight-Ashbury district? Although counterculture ideas have sprung up numerous times since the 18^th century, the most recent and widely noted occurrence of counterculture took place during the 1960’s.  Many civil rights and anti-war movements began what is known as the Hippie Counterculture Movement, wherein many young citizens began to reject the ideas of previous generations, and began to express themselves in a free spirited manner. It was this phenomenon that changed American culture forever. Haight-Ashbury is seen as the hearth for this counterculture movement, and although much time has passed since this cultural boom, the district is as full of revolutionary life as ever.

So why do people still flock to this district if it’s been half a century since this explosion of ideas and culture? Going to the Haight-Ashbury district gives you a chance to open a time capsule filled with 1960’s memorabilia, and this in itself is a major reason many tourists and even locals spend their time in The Haight.  Going to this district gives people a chance to re-live parts of their life, or in many cases, live this experience for the first time. In a way its beautiful to have a place where this can happen; where just by setting foot onto the streets of this particular area, you can join a revolutionary time still revered as being a life changing time period for us all.

On my most recent journey to Haight-Ashbury, I began to take note of all of the signage around the area. I began to realize how the signs of this district are tailored to fit a genre of style and are quite unique in this sense. The signs I observed were very psychedelic, reminiscent of the 1960’s counterculture movement. I noticed many signs that represented other time periods, but in a way they were very tied into the whole 1960’s counterculture era. Each sign portrayed vivid spectrums of colors, and very artistic flowing fonts. This, combined with the dayglo colored posters, made for a very “summer of love” type atmosphere.

Each sign gave a sense of what happened as time carried on through The Haight. From the digital signs of modern day apparel stores, to the neon glow of the 1980’s style burger stand, each sign represents a different period in time; each sign gives a piece of information as to what The Haight has been through over the past 50 years. Each sign adds to the sense of place and gives The Haight its world-renowned style.

I feel so much more enriched and understanding of why Haight-Ashbury is such a tourist destination. It is now, now that ive analyzed what it is that makes The Haight what it is today, that I realize how much this one district has been through. It is now that I realize how cultured this one neighborhood of San Francisco is, and it is now that I realize how much of a community this neighborhood really is. It really is amazing how much you learn by just stopping to observe your surroundings. While I have experienced the Haight-Ashbury district before, it is now that I feel as if I really know the district. 

Inner Richmond

The following images are pictures I took on my exploration of the Inner Richmond district of San Francisco. The mission was the document the signs around my school, University of San Francisco, and analyze their meanings as well as learn how they added to the community. I have added a paper I have written on the first picture, which gives insight onto my journey as well as what  I took from the exploration. 

            A Fresh Breath of Life

            What is it that makes a sign appealing to the reader? Do the color, the size, and the style of writing combine to create something that catches a person’s eye? The more you look into what is behind the sign in front of you, the more that you realize how subjective every sign is. There are exceptions, a stop sign will always be a stop sign, and a bus stop sign will always be a bus stop sign, but how does graffiti fit into this? What must be considered before analyzing graffiti are the following questions:  what came before the graffiti? Who is the audience? How does the graffiti add to the sense of community? Graffiti is the most expressive form of signage, for every expression of the same concept a new perception is given. Graffiti turns a regular sign into a medium of artful expression.

            The sign pictured above was found on Anza Street between Parker Ave and Masonic Ave. The sign is graffiti, made by a street artist here in San Francisco. This sign caught my eye almost immediately for the intense colors and size. I stopped before snapping my picture to think about how it was created, how long it took the artist to create it, and what the meaning of it is. This was my reason for choosing this sign above all to share my thoughts about, as it invoked the most thought out of any sign I observed on my nice stroll through the neighborhood.

            First I had to think about what came before the graffiti. Obviously this sign hadn’t been there forever, or even that long at all, though graffiti itself has been around for centuries. I did not see anyone around to ask questions about if graffiti were big in the area, so I cannot get a firm decision as to what exactly came before it. As far as I know this could be the first time graffiti had been in the neighborhood, however I highly doubt that.

            Second I had to think about the audience the sign is speaking to. Besides its beauty, why was it so interesting? Why did it speak to me? I assume this makes me a member of the audience it is appealing to. I noticed and appreciated it because in a way it was speaking to me directly. This sign, this artwork, gave off emotion that I felt looking at it. In a way I felt happy to see the artwork on the nice streets around campus, it gave the area a sense of life. The audience of the sign is those who are appreciative of the artwork, and who can feel the emotion given off from the sign itself.

            But how does this sign, this piece of art, add to the community and sense of place? Above all this sign tells a story, and with each spray of paint a new piece of the story is given. This sign is a way to add creativity to a formal community. When reading the landscape, you must take into consideration all of the bits and pieces that add together to make up the environment itself. This graffiti is non-traditional text, and by paying attention and analyzing this non-traditional text, you are in essence reading the landscape. The practice of semiotics, or interpreting signs and their meanings, cannot be done in one easy step, you must take into consideration the parts around the sign that add to the overall community. This is what it means to read the landscape, and as you can see it is not as simple as one might think.

            Graffiti is the most creative expression of art, and the most creative expression of signage. What one might not see as items that add to the overall community, I see as an essential item to the community as a whole. This sign gives life, gives flavor, and gives a sense of community within the environment. Although I’ve spent my life in cities seeing graffiti, I’ve never taken the time to actually analyze it before and what it means to the community. After writing this paper on what I believe graffiti adds to the community, I will never look at graffiti the same way again. This sign will always stand out to me, and I will always be looking for more signs to get a deeper meaning of what it is to be in the community I am in.

             

 The following is an insight into the mind of those around me as I wrote. I decided to write down what I was hearing around me, as it was pure comedic gold. It is entitled, Marginalia.

Marginalia:

“time is timeless”

“this movie is called life, you should watch it sometime”

“whenever I talk it’s a reality check”

“I wanna buy a tapestry”

“I love the verbage were using”

“that’s so minimal”

“each thought is smarter than the one before it”

“I could write a book right now but nothing even matters”