Hellers concept of mainstream vs. underground is an extremely relevant topic in current design. Memes have been a thing since the internets inception, and the book The Meme of Memes: information as Objects points out, memes have been a concept that has infiltrated media. The way that companies now are embracing the internet culture is equal parts cringy and impressive. Wendy’s, for example, has a huge presence on Twitter, delivering sassy jokes, roasting other users, and even insulting other fast food companies. Then of course many other companies have begun to follow suit, posting trending hashtags on their products and wording their advertising in a similar tone to that of Wendy’s. This infiltration of the “underground” internet culture into the mainstream is just one example of how, as Heller states, “commercial culture […] depends on the theft of intellectual property for its livelihood”. 

In terms of my chosen designers work, Banksy, this dichotomy sort of exists in a smaller form. Banksy started out as a graffiti writer and then moved on to create stenciled artwork. Graffiti is highly frowned upon by authorities and a majority of people, yet it slowly moved from a public nuisance to high selling art pieces. In The Death of Graffiti: Postmodernism and the New York City Subway by Claudia Bennet, the author compares the framing of graffiti to a teenager buying pre-torn jeans, stating that “the jeans are flaunted by cliques who recognize the simulation and prefer it over the original, in much the same way as the gallery prefers spray paint on canvas to graffiti on its front door”. The same graffiti that could land Banksy in prison has slowly been turned into a significant art piece that people are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money to possess. The art that Banksy once created that was a part of the underground scene has suddenly been taken out of where it belongs, “when it is relocated, it is destroyed’

Resources

López, Antonio. “Chapter Seven: The Meme of Memes: Information as Objects.” Counterpoints, vol. 343, Peter Lang AG, 2008, pp. 95–109, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42980181.

Cox, William. “The Underground Film in Art.” Art Education, vol. 26, no. 2, National Art Education Association, 1973, pp. 8–12, https://doi.org/10.2307/3191828.

Barnett, Claudia. “The Death of Graffiti: Postmodernism and the New York City Subway.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 16, no. 2, Popular Culture Association in the South, 1994, pp. 25–38, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23413729.