SETH MICHAEL MEYER
Special to The Leader
Among the flyers for campus club events and student housing hanging on the walls of Fredonia’s academic buildings, some abstract flyers can be found that are tagged with an Instagram username. A photoshopped image of a chicken’s head on a dog’s body with tear-off slips that say ‘Call for a good time’ (with no phone number to call) is just one of the flyers from Fredonia’s ‘Campus Cryptic’.
Campus Cryptic has been an underground icon for Fredonia’s arts students, with many of them purchasing merchandise from Cryptic’s website — the link for which can be found on their Instagram page.
From Campus Cryptic’s social media, it appears that their artwork can be found in places as far as the streets of Buffalo. Cryptic’s flyers however, aren’t the only pieces of art they’ve been up to.
Earlier this semester, Cryptic, who asks to remain anonymous, was charged with vandalism after their alleged drawings were found on a wall in the Rockefeller Arts Center. Details of the event remain unclear from the lack of response from Fredonia administration (University Police, Enrollment & Student Services, etc.). Upon reaching out to Cryptic via email, responses to questions were obscure and comical.
When asked about the origins of the Campus Cryptic business, the response was written in Russian, translating to “This is not a business. It is just fun,” though Cryptic’s “teespring.com” page dons $18 graphic t-shirts, along with other apparel.
When asked what the university is accusing them of, Cryptic responded by writing “DRAWIN ON DA WALL. GOT A GOOD OL EMAIL. WISH IT WAS A LETTER THO. I WANNA BRING BACK PENPALLING.”
Further in the email interview, Cryptic responds, seemingly referencing a popular Spongebob meme with alternative capital and lowercase letters. When asked about possible consequences of being found guilty, Cryptic wrote: “tHey R cRimiNaL cHaRgEs iF iT dOesN’t gEt dRopPed tO reStiTutiOns.” They later emailed back editing their comment “so [they] don’t get in trouble.” Their new comment read: “i gotta pay a whole lotta dollar bills baby cash cash money.”
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The rest of the email responses included a word unscrambling puzzle and picture of what seemed to be small marsupials.
There was no further effort made to obtain clarity from Cryptic about their answers. Though it is reasonable to assume that Cryptic may privately acknowledge this situation as serious, it is hard to conclude from their statements that this matter is much more than comical.