Artist’s cognitive level and the style and form trails in graffiti: an analysis of graffiti from selected Bikita-Matsai secondary schools

Abstract

This work is an exploration of the influence of cognitive levels in graffiti writing with special reference to content, style and form. Basing the narrative on the analysis of graffiti by learners from selected Bikita-Matsai secondary schools and guided by historical-philological semantics, this study investigates the idea that different situations and cognitive levels influence the topics, choice of words and presentation of graffiti. Triangulation was used to analyse the data. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in data-gathering. The findings point to the fact that graffiti analysis needs to be done taking into consideration two vital aspects: the graffiti producer’s situation and their cognitive level.