OUR PLACE? UNPACKING AESTHETIC REGULATION OF BELONGING IN VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Abstract

This article argues that graffiti is neither waste nor crime, as it has come to be known in Victoria, British Columbia. Rather, it comes to be understood this way through cultural reverence for and specific use of property and a resulting visual order. By tracing how disgust functions as a regulatory emotion—one that protects borders and maintains hierarchies—this analysis posits that reactions to graffiti are less spontaneous responses than cultivated ways of seeing, grounded in Victoria’s colonial history and its ongoing attachment to property. This understanding should unsettle societal and individual reactions of disgust and encourage Victorians to reconsider who or what is deemed to belong in the city.

To make this case, this article troubles the notion of “public space,” showing how it is exclusionary by design and that its limits are enforced through aesthetics rather than law alone. Drawing on the work of Sara Ahmed, Alison Young, and Martha Nussbaum the framework developed here explains how disgust “sticks” to certain objects and makes associations to these objects appear as objective truths. A comparison between Victoria and Friedrichshain, a neighbourhood in East Berlin, Germany, illustrates how different histories of property use generate diverging visual orders. Since its inception, part of the colonial mission in what is now known as Victoria has been to establish legitimacy through aesthetic regimes. This tradition influences how disgust is experienced by Victorians, who in turn read graffiti as waste or crime. In contrast, Friedrichshain’s relationship to private property has long been in flux and produces an experience of graffiti as a signal of belonging and shared use of space. Finally, the article examines how current discourse in Victoria—including city messaging, downtown business interests, and community attitudes—casts graffiti as waste and crime, and how this framing creates a hierarchy between acceptable pieces and unacceptable tags.