Showing papers on "Graffiti published in 2005"

‘Racist’ graffiti: text, context and social comment:

Abstract: The research project, upon which this article is based, conceptualizes the act of graffiti in Bakhtinian terms as a ‘heteroglot’ tangible ‘utterance’: one that is uniquely visual, lexical, and time, place and space specific. The project set out to locate and examine ‘racist’ graffiti; specifically graffiti motivated or prompted by the presence of refugees or ‘asylum seekers’. Despite media reports suggesting that such graffiti was widespread, it proved almost impossible to find. Drawing upon a case study carried out in Sighthill Glasgow, the project was re-focused in order to explain the paucity of such graffiti. In so doing, alternate and clandestine forms of ‘racist’ graffiti became apparent. Inextricably linked to a ‘local code’ known and understood by residents, ‘asylum seekers’ and the local authority — who have responsibility for (re)defining and removing ‘racist’ graffiti — the social, ideological and institutional implications raised are particularly disturbing.

Windows of the Soul: Physiognomy in European Culture 1470-1780

Abstract: Introduction 1. A Persistent Fisnomical Consciousness c.400BCE-c.400CE 2. The Bookish Face of Physiognomy in Early Modern Europe 3. The Troubling Emergence of the 'Egyptian' in Early Modern Europe 4. The Physiognomy Captured and Lost in a Book 5. Physiognomating by the Book 6. Living Graffiti Conclusion: Fisnomy-to-Fisnomy Bibliography Index

Towards efficient human machine speech communication: The speech graffiti project

Abstract: This research investigates the design and performance of the Speech Graffiti interface for spoken interaction with simple machines. Speech Graffiti is a standardized interface designed to address issues inherent in the current state-of-the-art in spoken dialog systems such as high word-error rates and the difficulty of developing natural language systems. This article describes the general characteristics of Speech Graffiti, provides examples of its use, and describes other aspects of the system such as the development toolkit. We also present results from a user study comparing Speech Graffiti with a natural language dialog system. These results show that users rated Speech Graffiti significantly better in several assessment categories. Participants completed approximately the same number of tasks with both systems, and although Speech Graffiti users often took more turns to complete tasks than natural language interface users, they completed tasks in slightly less time.

Behind Steel Doors: Images From the Walls of a County Jail

Abstract: The compulsion and capacity for self-expression in penal institutions can be witnessed through the endless production of such creations as wall murals, graffiti, effigies, adornments, decorative en...

A novel method for graffiti detection using change detection algorithm

Abstract: In recent decades vandal acts and graffiti drawing problem have increased and have required a lot of public funding. To face this problem the communal administrations have invested in automatic video surveillance systems. To deal with this problem through image processing techniques, this paper presents a method for graffiti detection based on change detection algorithm and motion vector. The aim of this system is to detect the graffiti painting act while people are going to draw, identify them and distinguish the drawer.

From Santander to Camilo and Ché: Graffiti and Resistance in Contemporary Colombia

Abstract: Introduction IN AN ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL CRIMINOLOGY, JEFF FERRELL (1993) HAS SHOWN HOW graffiti and wall painting have emerged as an accepted and structural media system. Ferrell explores the export of graffiti from the U.S. around the world and its use as part of the imaginaries of resistance. He also shows that graffiti can constitute a way of resistance to imperialism by appealing to icons that are recognized unambiguously as revolutionaries. In Nicaragua, for instance, the image of Sandino was used to express rejection to Somoza's dictatorship and to protest against U.S. imperialism in Nicaragua. Through wall painting, Nicaraguans engaged in a revolution of the walls, that is, the mere act of wall painting was conceived as part of the strategies of resistance to an oppressive regime (Ferrell and Sanders, 1995). Yet graffiti can also show the ambiguities of globalization. Ferrell's analysis of wall painting in the former Soviet Union shows how American-like graffiti could be part of an imaginary in which the youth used U.S. cultural icons to reject oppression within the Soviet Union. In this way, what in other contexts could be perceived as cultural imperialism became in Russia an important part of a subculture of resistance, with youth as its most important agent. As Ferrell and Sanders (1995: 287) put it, "cultural symbols can have different meanings; symbols of cultural imperialism can be used to repudiate and undermine domination domestically." Graffiti and wall painting link crime and culture. Ferrell shows how subcultural activities are labeled as crimes and that crime can be part of a culture. In the structure of graffiti, there is a close connection between the cultural and the legal, because graffiti can only be such as part of different strategies of illegalities. In this intersection between culture and crime, youth appears as one of the most important actors. They construct a different world of meanings and contest the established one. This is seen in style and fashions, in the way they dress, the way they talk, and the way the act toward the rest of society. In defining the identity of youth and their social activities, there is a question of style, a struggle for style, but also a negotiation of meanings (Ferrell, 1993). Graffiti is a way to reject traditional culture. Against the written word, the young imagine the world differently and use the walls to express their discontent and style. Ferrell's research shows how hip-hop culture is expressed on the walls of New York and Denver, how a new style is fought for on the streets. As he puts it, the fight is not so much about property as it is about style. By using a different style and means of language, the young can contest the state as well as traditional forms of contesting the state. In traditional resistance struggles against state power, the young in places such as Colombia employed normal channels, e.g., guerrilla warfare, riots, etc., making them part of a revolutionary subject that raised its voice in the name of the oppressed. However, successful revolutionaries--those that stayed alive during the war--ultimately failed in their revolution. As subjects of social change, they were unable to bring about change: as revolutionaries, they often demonstrated some darker sides of the revolution. In Colombia, traditional forms of resistance used walls as part of revolutionary strategies. Commonly found painted on the walls of Bogota, Cali, Medellin, etc., were expressions such as "Por la guerra revolucionaria, FARC-EP" (for the revolutionary war), or "Celebrar estruendosamente el cumpleanos del presidente Mao, Guardias Rojos" (loudly celebrate the birthday of President Mao, Red Guards), in which authorship and command were clear in the message. Young people used what was available to them to resist the government, with walls becoming another way to express their rejection of the state of affairs in Colombia. However, in an increasingly bloody war in which no rules applied, the young found no path to follow. …

Street Art: The Spray Files

Abstract: Stunning and vibrant artwork can be found on buildings, sidewalks, street signs, and other surfaces in cities from New York to London to Barcelona. "Street Art" presents a comprehensive overview of this movement that began in the late 1960s with anonymous spray-can art in New York and Philadelphia and that has since grown into a major cross-cultural phenomenon. "Street Art" begins with an explanation of the difference between street art and graffiti, along with new trends and styles. Each medium is then explored in a different chapter - stickers, posters, stencils, textured surfaces, traffic signs, buildings, and furniture. Also included are chapters on street art characters and panoramic murals. Woven throughout are biographies of the artists - all internationally known - and an interview with each one. "Street Art" is an exciting look at an art movement that has been around for decades but that is just now beginning to emerge in the mainstream.

Ritual Marks and Graffiti: Curiosities or Meaningful Symbols?

Abstract: This short paper was prompted by recent recording of ritual marks and graffiti in the west midlands. One set of marks is so complex as to suggest a palimpsest, resulting from incisions made at different dates, implying continuity of this traditional activity. The inscriptions found on plaster prompted the notions that many inscribed marks might yet remain hidden behind wallpaper and other later finishes, that they were more common and more widely distributed than previously thought, and that they might come in a wide range of types, sometimes partly determined by the medium on which they were inscribed. While explanations of ritual marks vary, the primary purpose of this short paper is not to seek to explain particular symbols or graffiti, but to consider what practical use they might be to anyone seeking to analyse vernacular buildings. Are they no more than interesting curiosities, or might there be some extrinsic purpose in recording them?

Graffiti, the ultimate realia : Meeting the standards through an unconventional culture lesson

Abstract: From the high school restroom to the university water tower, graffiti surrounds the daily life of students, and as a kind of unconventional billboard frequently created by their own peer group, attracts their attention. Accordingly, a "little c" cultural lesson that utilizes this source of authentic language to implement the National Standards taps natural appeal. As language teachers travel in the target culture and snap photographs of well-known sites and typical scenes that portray daily life, they may actually position their lenses to avoid unsightly spray paint scrawls rather than envisioning them as teaching tools. This article demonstrates that the use of graffiti can be a truly academic exercise that reaches the goals set forth in the National Standards. A procedure for the lesson is suggested, samples of actual graffiti are given, and possible extensions of the topic are provided.

Making Their Territory: A Feminist Exploration of Graffiti

Abstract: Research on graffiti has traditionally focused on the aesthetic attributes of the crime. Whilst criminological and sociological research has indeed implicated young boys as the primary perpetrators, very little work has explored how graffiti can be understood as being complicit in both the construction and the demonstration of masculinity. Building upon ideas alluded to in Nancy McDonald’s The Graffiti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity and Identity (2001), this paper will argue that graffiti is a crime reflective of the need for masculinity to be acted out, not only physically, but visually. It will argue that graffiti provides boys an opportunity to demonstrate the traditionally troublesome aspects of masculinity such as aggression, destruction, risk-taking, crime and territorialism, and that the physical and visual illustrations of these masculine attributes can make public space a fearful place to be, particularly for women. This paper will conclude by arguing that public policy practitioners need to think about graffiti as a contributing factor to women’s social exclusion, rather than simply thinking of it as a blight on the urban landscape. Introduction This paper will argue that the practice of graffiti, and the graffiti itself, is reflective and illustrative of the more troublesome aspects of societal masculinity. I will argue that graffiti is a crime reflective of the need for masculinity to be acted out, not only physically, but visually, and will argue that it is indicative of male involvement in activities that render public space somewhere to be feared – particularly by women. It will conclude by arguing that women’s fears of public space can prove to be socially exclusionary for them. Research has analysed graffiti from a wide range of frameworks. Jane Gadsby in her comprehensive 1995 review of the literature in this field identified nine theoretical approaches taken, including cultural, gendered, linguistic, folkloric, quantitative, aesthetic, motivational, preventative and popularisation (Gadsby 1995). While Gadsby’s review does indeed mention ‘gender’, the research she documents examines gender-based differences in graffiti content as opposed to the gendered reasons that may explain why the crime was committed, or that explain the gendered nature of potential consequences. While research focusing on gender-based differences in graffiti content (notably content of toilet wall graffiti) indeed constitute the majority of gender-related research in this area (Bates and Martin 1980; Ahmed 1981; Bruner & Kelso 1981; 2 Crime Revisited – papers from the conference Loewenstine, Ponticos & Paludi 1982; Hentschel 1987; Cole 1991; Otta et al 1993; Green 2003; Bartholome & Snyder 2004), there does exist one example of research drawing together the different kinds of gendered analyses of graffiti, offering some insights into this very male activity. Drawing on 29 interviews undertaken with graffiti writers in New York and London, Nancy McDonald’s The Graffiti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity and Identity (2001) provides a useful foundation for analysing graffiti as an example of a gendered performance (Butler 1990; Beall 1993; Bornstein, 1994). McDonald’s book gives voice to the mainly male writers, allowing them to speak for themselves and give their own interpretations of their activity, and thus her narrative and analysis is somewhat limited. My research will expand on McDonald’s work, building upon the ideas she touches upon and ultimately explaining how the practice of graffiti, and the consequences that ensue, are gendered. Background and Study Limitations My personal research background has largely focused on sexist portrayals of women in public space. The use of public space to advance the needs and wants of men at the expense of women is illustrated well with advertising, particularly when highly sexualised portrayals of women are regular features of billboards. This research has led to me to think about the manner in which certain groups in society – advertisers, street harassers, and now graffiti writers use public space, and in the process, socially exclude women (Rosewarne 2004). Because of these research interests, this paper will focus exclusively on graffiti done in public space. King and Setter in their article on young people and graffiti argue that ‘[t]he types and styles of graffiti are extremely diverse, spanning political protest, skilled artistic endeavour, and territorial or identity “tagging”’ (King & Setter 2003, 2). As the title of this paper would suggest, this paper is going to focus on territorial or identity tagging rather then the political or ‘artistic’ kind. It should be noted that while stencil art and post-up art are other forms of graffiti that are attracting increasing attention (Dorrian and Recchia 2002; Manco 2002; Macphee 2004; Manco 2004), neither of these practices will be focused on in this discussion. Graffiti has been understood as a ‘problem’ for over thirty years. Joe Austin claims that the mass media identified the graffiti problem in 1972 when a New York Times reporter noted that transport maintenance teams were finding it increasingly difficult to keep trains and stations clean (Austin 2001). While graffiti most certainly existed prior to 1972 (the political graffiti of the 1960s being a clear example) certainly the 1970s onward saw public space being vandalised on a scale and in a manner that society had not seen. ‘@149st’ is a comprehensive web-based resource that provides a detailed history of graffiti writing. This website documents graffiti-activity taking place in the late 1960s and early 1970s with characters including ‘Cornbread’ writing their names all over Philadelphia and thus giving rise to the activity we describe as graffiti today (@149st 2003). To argue that graffiti is a public policy problem, the extent to which we could dub it ‘widespread’ needs to be assessed. There are numerous impediments in attempting to quantify graffiti, particularly given that it is widely dispersed and clean-up efforts are not centrally administered. Clean-up costs do however, help illustrate the extent of 3 Crime Revisited – papers from the conference this problem. In 2003, a local councils survey in the United Kingdom (U.K.) tallied 7,855 incidents of graffiti and vandalism with this behaviour costing local councils an estimated £600m worth of damage annually. According to certain councils in the U.K., costs are continuing to spiral upwards. Wandsworth council, for example, spent £625,000 on cleaning graffiti in 2002, claiming that this figure was more than three times the mid-1990s bill (The Economist 2003). According to the National Graffiti Information Network in the United States (U.S.), graffiti eradication costs the public $4 billion per year (Grant 1996). In Australia, the costs are estimated at $200 million per year (Smith & Lee 2003). Such clean-up tallies indicate that graffiti is prevalent and help to illustrate the salience of this, and other studies, attempting to analyse the practice.

Apparatus and method for automatic creating photograph

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic photograph creating apparatus by which a user can perform graffiti on an arbitrary photographed image disposed within an output photograph, and can know the content of the photograph during performing graffiti. SOLUTION: In the graffito processing of this apparatus, a graffito screen containing a layout composite image in which a plurality of photographed images are disposed as necessary is displayed to set a graffito time (S51), operations of selecting a copy mode and non-selection by the user are accepted (S52), it is determined whether a user selects graffiti with a stamp (S53), a stamp image is depicted at a designated position if the user selects it (S54), it is determined whether the user selects graffiti with a graffito pen (S53), the graffito pen is depicted at a designated position if the user selects it (S54), it is determined whether or not the graffito processing is completed (S57), and the processing from S52 to S57 are repeatedly performed until it is completed if it is not completed. As described above, since the user can perform graffiti on a layout composite image, the user can perform different graffiti on each photographed image. COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Graffiti and Urban Space

Abstract: Graffiti, by its very practice, stands out as a disharmonious counterpoint to an urban discourse that has held the city as a “universal subject, as a concept of clean space with an urge to ongoing purification practices” (Best & Struver 2005:4). In such a way, graffiti has the power to disrupt the ‘indifferent’ networks of cultural sense elaborated upon by Mckensie Wark, by bringing sites and spaces encountered in everyday life into contention. One such example is the prominent mural (above) located between the suburbs of Fortitude Valley and New Farm that I pass on the morning commute to university. Standing in stark contrast to a streetscape otherwise dominated by advertising, it presents a striking visual image while leaving the viewer with a number of unresolved questions about the nature of its content. Who, for instance, is Pope Alice? What were the motivations of the writers who painted the mural? 1 In Wark’s estimation “modern, urban culture is as much about indifference as it is about difference” because the space in which people interact belongs to neither party in particular. “The space itself is indifferent, and that indifference makes possible the intermingling networks of cultural sense” (Wark, 1997:18).

Couch surfing in Vancouver: An aggregate study of the Vancouver graffiti suspect network

Abstract: In the 1970s, a new form of graffiti emerged. By the mid 1980s it had surfaced in other urban centers. This new phenomenon, referred to as Hip Hop graffiti, has been documented in a variety of forms, but aggregate studies remain sparse. While there are valid arguments that justify the artistic merit of graffiti, there are also negative implications experienced by this subculture's lesser known participants. Visual assumptions of graffiti can misconstrue an act of intentional vandalism as an artistic attempt. This dataset uses information on 536 individuals who engage in graffiti in Vancouver. This information was obtained through the Vancouver Police Department for the period between January 2001 and December 2004. Analysis shows that repeat graffiti offenders commit more violent offences, have more criminal charges and have stronger associations to the subculture. Policy implications are discussed and solutions for this problem

Automatic print sticker creating vending machine

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic print sticker creating vending machine free to write graffiti and giving new enjoyment of a print sticker SOLUTION: The screen of a touch panel display apparatus (33) is divided into a plurality of display areas, a composed image for combining a photographing image by a camera with a separately selected background image is displayed on the respective display areas, the machine is configured such that a desired graffiti image can be described on the composed images by using a graffiti touch pen (34) independently of borders of the display areas, the graffiti image is overlapped on the composed images and the results are recorded as graffiti superimposed images, further the display areas of the graffiti superimposed images are configured to be freely exchangeable and revisable by a command signal from a control input apparatus (331), and the machine is characterized in including a means for outputting a plurality of frames of graffiti superimposed image data finally obtained to a printer (35) to allow the printer to print out the image data COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Review of 'Graffiti and the writing arts of early modern England' by Juliet Fleming

Abstract: This article is available for purchase or by subscription from the Maney Publishing website. Please note that a print copy is held in the Special Collections at Flinders University. The link to Maney Publishing includes other book reviews.

Graffitimedia: How graffiti functions as a model for new media futures

Abstract: This paper begins from the observation that forms of new media have regularly appropriated graffiti as a model for their operation, either as an aesthetic device for the design and marketing of commercial new media hardware and software or as a conceptual tool for understanding, producing and interfacing with users and the urban environment. I use the term ‘appropriation’ here not to suggest that this use of graffiti is inappropriate or inauthentic but to draw attention to the fact that it is a particular version of graffiti that appears in the world of new media. That is, specific aspects of the diverse practices of contemporary graffiti appear useful to new media practice.

Women from the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa in France: Fighting for Health and Basic Human Rights

Abstract: It is the summer of 1997. My lover and I are leisurely walking down Rue du Faubourg St. Martin in Paris. I am in France to do research. She has just joined me for a few days of vacation and to complete a writing assignment about a French graphic design firm. At a street corner we encounter some graffiti. Black letters on a dirty-white wall, the slogan hits us both in the conciseness and violence of the message: Islam = Sida (Islam equals AIDS).

A sociolinguistic study of graffiti in Jordan

Abstract: A sociolinguistic study of graffiti in Jordan، للحصول على النص الكامل يرجى زيارة مكتبة الحسين بن طلال في جامعة اليرموك او زيارة موقعها الالكتروني

Graffiti on the Wall—A Critique of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Israeli Security Wall

Abstract: (2005). Graffiti on the Wall—A Critique of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Israeli Security Wall. King's Law Journal: Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 157-165.

Writing and drawing on the walls of Pompeii: how the study of graffiti relates to the HSC ancient history core syllabus for 2006

Abstract: When the teacher of Ancient History in New South Wales first scans the listing of examinable content relating to the Core Unit on the Cities of Vesuvius newly introduced for the 2006 Higher School Certificate, the usefulness of incorporating graffiti2 into a program of study as one of the range of available sources may not be readily apparent. This article aims to survey the nature of graffiti at the site of ancient Pompeii as a category of material culture incorporating written and archaeological features and as a useful primary and supplementary source for evidence about the economy, social structure, politics, religion and daily life in Roman Campania of the Republican and early Imperial historical period. This discussion will touch incidentally on issues regarding the limitations, reliability and evaluation of graffiti as a source and as evidence.