When you sorted those four marks last rung, you weren't deciding at random — you were running five quiet questions in your head, all at once. Once you name them, you can use them on purpose, and you can defend a judgement instead of just feeling it.
The Five Factors
First, intention: was this made to say something, to claim a name, to brighten a wall, or just to wreck? A piece with a clear idea behind it reads more like art than a thoughtless scribble. Second, skill: the craft on show — control of line and colour, composition, the sheer difficulty of pulling it off. Skill isn't everything, but it's hard to ignore. Third, permission: was the maker allowed to be there? This is the big one, because it's where art and the law collide, and we'll spend the whole next rung on it. Fourth, context — where it is: a sanctioned laneway, a derelict wall, a working train, someone's front fence. The exact same image means different things in different places. Fifth, audience: who's it for, and how do they receive it? A community that adopts a mural as its own is making a kind of judgement too.
Why a Needle, Not a Switch
The temptation is to treat this like a light switch: art or vandalism, on or off. But that's exactly the trap. In the toy, drag the factors around and watch what the needle does — it doesn't snap between two positions, it slides along a scale. Crank up skill and intention but leave it uninvited on a private wall, and the needle hovers maddeningly in the middle. That middle isn't a bug; it's the truth. Most real graffiti lives there, which is why people argue about it so much.
Notice too how much weight permission and site carry compared with skill and intention. That's deliberate, and it's a clue about what's coming: the law doesn't care how beautiful your piece is. We'll meet that head-on next rung.
Using It as a Tool
Here's the move: next time you want to call something art or vandalism, don't just blurt the label — run the five factors and say which ones pulled hardest. "It's skilled and it means something, but it's on a stranger's wall without asking, so I land in the middle, leaning vandalism." That's a judgement you can stand behind, and it's worlds away from "I just don't like it." You'll use exactly this kind of reasoning when you propose your own street artwork later in the unit.