Showing papers on "Graffiti published in 2017"

In search of academic legitimacy: The current state of scholarship on graffiti and street art

Abstract: Much has changed since the 1960s when the first scholarship on contemporary graffiti appeared. The current paper is an attempt to outline and contextualize a number of recurrent challenges facing r...

The right to write the city: Lefebvre and graffiti

Abstract: Modern graffiti has become a universal urban phenomenon, an almost ubiquitous feature of towns and cities across the world. This paper will situate the practice and production of graffiti within various urban contexts (aesthetic, political, economic, social and semiotic) through the seminal works Henri Lefebvre as a means for analysing and understanding the complexity of the modern urban and to contextualize and explore graffiti’s role in challenging and contesting the socio-spatial norms of increasingly privatized and commodified public and social space. That is, to read graffiti as a means for reclaiming and remaking the city as a more humane and just, social space.

Nanofluids and chemical highly retentive hydrogels for controlled and selective removal of overpaintings and undesired graffiti from street art

Abstract: One of the main problems connected to the conservation of street art is the selective removal of overlying undesired graffiti, i.e., drawings and tags. Unfortunately, selective and controlled removal of graffiti and overpaintings from street art is almost unachievable using traditional methodologies. Recently, the use of nanofluids confined in highly retentive pHEMA/PVP semi-interpenetrated polymer networks was proposed. Here, we report on the selective removal of acrylic overpaintings from a layer of acrylic paint on mortar mockups in laboratory tests. The results of the cleaning tests were characterized by visual and photographic observation, optical microscopy, and FT-IR microreflectance investigation. It was shown that this methodology represents a major advancement with respect to the use of nonconfined neat solvents.

An exploration of graffiti on university’s walls: a corpus-based discourse analysis study

Abstract: Graffiti have received a great attention from scholars as they have been considered a vital cultural phenomenon for many years (Trahan, 2011; Divsalar & Nemati, 2012; Zakareviciute, 2014; Farnia, 2014; El-Nashar & Nayef; 2016) Although there are extensive contemporary researches on graffiti in many disciplines, such as linguistics, cultural studies, politics, art, and communication (Pietrosanti, 2010; Farnia, 2014; Oganda, 2015), there are few studies exploring graffiti on classrooms’ walls in higher education milieus (Farnia, 2014) To the best knowledge of the researchers, very few studies were done on the Jordanian context (eg Al-Haj Eid, 2008; Abu-Jaber, et al, 2012) and none was done on the Jordanian universities Therefore, this study aims at analysing the content and communicative features of writings found on universities’ classrooms’ walls, corridors, and washrooms and their relation to the socio-cultural values of the society in order to explore how universities help students voice their attitudes and thoughts The linguistic features that characterise these writings were also examined Graffiti-writings, which were collected from the University of Jordan and the Hashemite University, were coded and analysed using the thematic content analysis technique (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1995) The analysis of the data has shown that graffiti serve different communicative language functions related to personal, social, national, religious, political, and taboo matters The most salient linguistic features of these graffiti are simplicity and variation It can be concluded that graffiti are distinctive and silent ways of communication, particularly in students’ society The study will be of great importance to linguists, sociologists, educators, administrators, teachers and parents It is enrichment to the available literature on linguistic studies

Seamen on Land? A Preliminary Analysis of Medieval Ship Graffiti on Cyprus

Abstract: This article reports on the results of a research project entitled ‘KARAVOI. The Ship Graffiti on the Medieval Monuments of Cyprus: Mapping, Documentation and Digitisation’, during which 233 ship graffiti were recorded in 44 different monuments on the island, dating from the 15th to the 20th centuries. Innovative recording techniques have been used to mitigate the effects of the subjective or partial recording of graffiti lines on tracing paper. Apart from the study of ship graffiti as iconographic sources, particular emphasis has been given to their geographical and social context through a comprehensive analysis of the graffiti types and their spatial distribution in the monuments as well as the monuments location on the island.

Evaluation of Accelerated Ageing Tests for Metallic and Non-Metallic Graffiti Paints Applied to Stone

Abstract: Graffiti are increasingly observed on urban and peri-urban buildings and their removal requires a huge financial outlay by local governments and agencies. Graffiti are not usually removed immediately, but rather over the passage of time, viz. months or even years. In this study, which forms part of a wider research project on graffiti removal, different methods (gravimetric analysis, examination of digital images, colour and infrared measurements) were used to evaluate the performance of accelerated ageing tests (involving exposure to humidity, freeze-thawing cycles and NaCl and Na2SO4 salts) for graffiti painted on stone. Silver (metallic) and black (non-metallic) graffiti spray paints were applied to two types of igneous rock (granite and rhyolitic ignimbrite) and one sedimentary rock (fossiliferous limestone, i.e., biocalcarenite). The metallic and non-metallic graffiti spray paints acted differently on the stone surfaces, both chemically and physically. Older graffiti were found to be more vulnerable to weathering agents. The ageing test with NaCl and particularly Na2SO4, both applied to granite, proved the most severe on the paints, yielding more detrimental and faster artificial ageing of the type of material under study.

The reciprocal city : Performing solidarity—Mediating space through street art and graffiti

Abstract: In this article, based on two case studies conducted in Stockholm and London, we discuss how graffiti and street art provide forms of expressive cosmopolitanism in reclaiming voice and reciprocity ...

Digital media, subcultural activity and youth participation: the cases of protest rap and graffiti in Portugal

Abstract: Over the last decade, we have witnessed the emergence of an academic debate surrounding the relationship between youth and the ‘new media’, with a particular emphasis on the social uses of different digital technologies within the sphere of youth activity. A specific area of research has been dedicated to studying the use of digital media in the context of the so-called youth subcultures. With this article we expect to contribute to this ongoing debate, by examining the problem through an analysis of two interconnected case studies: protest rap and illegal graffiti. Both cases may be defined as subcultures, insofar as they are characterized as alternative, subterranean, and to a certain extent, subversive movements. The empirical ground for this discussion is based on several investigations, with a qualitative basis, carried out by the authors in the course of over a decade in Portugal. This extended time frame allowed ample access to a diversified and matured analytical material and enabled a bet...

Picturing peace: murals and memory in Colombia:

Abstract: The painting of murals and graffiti is a widespread and well-established practice in Colombia. Most of the artwork is not directly political. However, a significant number of murals speak directly ...

Engaged Ephemeral Art: Street Art and the Egyptian Arab Spring

Abstract: The wave of uprisings known as the Arab Spring that swept over the Middle East and North Africa from December 2010 to early 2013 left its imprint on political and social life in the countries concerned. This ephemeral moment also marked a change in various forms of artistic expression. Street art, graffiti, and calligraffiti are among the most striking art forms of this short period. Artists recorded and commented on events and developments in the political situation. They drew upon their people’s cultural memory to impart their messages and expressed dissension, civil disobedience, and resistance by combining images and scripts. This article is about the materiality of visual art and the translation of political contestation into street art, graffiti, and calligraffiti in Egypt. It probes the ways slogans were visualised, drawn, and inscribed on the walls of the urban space in Cairo and then disseminated on the internet and social media. Translation relates here to transcultural contacts and the interplay between texts, images, and contexts from the vantage point of intermediality.

Linguistic landscape of Gezi Park protests in Turkey

Abstract: Gezi Park protests that rocked Turkey in 2013 left a significant mark in the country’s collective memory and contributed to the construction of a new language of political resistance. To challenge an increasingly authoritarian government, the protesters used novel repertoires of contention, particularly political graffiti. To better understand different types of linguistic and symbolic communication tools used in the public space during Gezi Park protests and their impact on different set of audiences, this article explores the following research questions: (i) What indexical properties are used in the languages used in graffiti, and what do they mean for understanding the various audiences that the protesters engaged? (ii) What counter-narratives are created in the graffiti produced during Gezi Park protests?

Governing youth as an aesthetic and spatial practice

Abstract: The Graffiti Transformation Project was a City of Toronto, Canada sponsored programme funding ‘marginalised youth’ to paint over graffitied walls with public murals. I argue the imperatives driving...

Copyright Protection of Street Art and Graffiti under UK Law

Abstract: This article aims at analyzing to what extent UK copyright law is capable of regulating various forms of art placed in the streets. "Graffiti" and "street art" are the main terms used to define these artistic movements. Particular attention is paid to whether the law is able to accommodate the needs of street and graffiti artists, and give them the right tool to protect their interests (for example, against corporations trying to commercially exploit their artworks). The focus is on selected copyright-related aspects which are relevant to street and graffiti art, namely: (a) requirements for protection; (b) authorship and ownership; (c) tangible embodiment of the work; (d) moral rights (with emphasis on whether the integrity right could be invoked by street and graffiti artists to oppose the destruction and removal of their pieces); (e) freedom of panorama exception; (f) illegal works. The article eventually includes some reflections on whether copyright regimes might be considered unsuitable to govern street and graffiti art because of their sharing-based nature.

Automatic gang graffiti recognition and interpretation

Abstract: One of the roles of emergency first responders (e.g., police and fire departments) is to prevent and protect against events that can jeopardize the safety and well-being of a community. In the case of criminal gang activity, tools are needed for finding, documenting, and taking the necessary actions to mitigate the problem or issue. We describe an integrated mobile-based system capable of using location-based services, combined with image analysis, to track and analyze gang activity through the acquisition, indexing, and recognition of gang graffiti images. This approach uses image analysis methods for color recognition, image segmentation, and image retrieval and classification. A database of gang graffiti images is described that includes not only the images but also metadata related to the images, such as date and time, geoposition, gang, gang member, colors, and symbols. The user can then query the data in a useful manner. We have implemented these features both as applications for Android and iOS hand-held devices and as a web-based interface.

‘No complaints’: counter-narratives of immigration and detention in graffiti at North Head Immigration Detention Centre, Australia 1973–76

Abstract: Immigration has played a particularly significant role in shaping settler-colonial societies, including Australia. Successive governments have taken instrumental roles in constructing narratives of Australia’s immigration history. Contrary to the images we see today – of capsizing boats and desperate people seeking refuge – the picture of post-Second World War immigration was all sunshine and smiles, hope and opportunity. Throughout the post-war decades the vaunted Australian sense of fairness was tested by those who entered the country without valid entry permits, for example stowaways and ship’s deserters or visitors, including students who had overstayed their visas. In this paper, we consider an archaeological assemblage of 327 graffiti made by immigration detainees while they were awaiting deportation from the North Head Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, New South Wales. These graffiti provide a counter-narrative to the rosy image and official record of late-twentieth-century immigratio...

Of Ships and Deer: early Western Mediterranean ship graffiti reappraised

Abstract: Re-analysis of the Hal Tarxien prehistoric ship graffiti, the incised figure on a pottery sherd, from the Neolithic site of Grapceva cave on a Croatian island, known as the ‘Hvar boat’, and the Villanovian-Etruscan bronze razor from Bologna allow the last two to be reinterpreted as animals rather than ships, and the first to be dated to the Bronze Age Cemetery phase of the site. These findings require the earliest ship graffiti in the western Mediterranean to be reconsidered.

Famously Anonymous Artistic Outlaws: The Negotiation of Dual Identities Among Former Graffiti Writers

Abstract: Graffiti artists must establish a second, anonymous identity that is managed alongside each writer’s “real” self. This study explores the negotiation of these dual identities—one actual, the other virtual—by investigating the management of these identities through retirement. Results reveal that identity making is a collective practice, even for anonymous artists. Participants described a hierarchical graffiti world where invisible social relations are used to establish understanding of the self as a writer. Stealth graffiti artists breach one set of rules but strictly adhere to another set. Even anonymous identities are socially embedded and reflect a politics of belonging. Writer identities can be retired by either integrating them into a public self or transcended through complete role exit.

Commercial graffiti: self-expression, the allure of danger, or graffiti made “pretty”?

Abstract: The visual stylistic elements of graffiti are increasingly being used in the commercial world of advertising and marketing, as backdrops for music videos, and in merchandise and packaging. This market-oriented graffiti constitutes the mainstreaming of a subculture, that is, selling the stylistic subcultural elements as a new fad. Subsequently, commercial graffiti has been criticised for undermining the essence of real graffiti as the very aspect it seeks to oppose is now served, and in the process graffiti is robbed of its resistance identity. This article engages critically with this view by enquiring how Johannesburg commercial graffiti writers make sense of their commercial graffiti work. In a qualitative study, 11 commercial graffiti writers, who are engaged in small commercial contracts or who are freelancing for well-established consumer brands, and full-time graphic designers, were interviewed. Reoccurring themes that arose included self-expression and simplifying graffiti styles to be more...

Autonomous UAV forced graffiti detection and removal system based on machine learning

Abstract: This paper proposes a smart graffiti clean-up system based on an autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platform. This smart clean system is based on edge detection and machine learning algorithms to realize the detection and tracking of graffiti image in real time. In Graffiti detection, we aim to build a model to detect graffiti on walls which can help navigate the UAV to the correct coordinate and estimate the area of the graffiti. The data set which contain graffiti images are trained using machine learning techniques which will be used for the detections of the graffiti patterns. This will automate the process of detecting the location of the graffiti based on the edge detection technique and the model will be able to estimate the area of the graffiti. To achieve obstacle detection, and collision, a smart navigation approach is also proposed with the help of LiDAR and external camera. The overall graffiti cleanup system contains hardware and software that allow the user to use spray enamel with the reach and scale of an autonomous UAV.

The Resistance Passed Through Here: Arabic Graffiti of Resistance, Before and After the Arab Uprisings

Abstract: While no hegemony on a particular aesthetic can be claimed when addressing the Arab worlds, it is worth examining the different movements, localities, and the politico-religious imaginings of the past few decades to make sense of resistance and aesthetic value today. This chapter aims to explore graffiti and street art in Arab worlds in terms of spatiality, namely spaces and counter-spaces of resistance, and how they create counter-narratives, representational systems, and networks of solidarity. Construction of new collective memories in public, before and/or after the Arab uprisings, exhibits the fleeting nature of resistance and its prevailing impact in challenging systems of power and notions of social space.

Writing the City from Below: Graffiti in Johannesburg

Abstract: Cited as an elusive metropolis, the city of Johannesburg largely resists the imagination. Following on from Lucy Gasser’s (2014) reading of Ivan Vladislavic’s Portrait with Keys this article considers how graffiti and street art offer ways of “mapping” the city. Focusing on Nuttall and Mbembe’s distinction between surface and depth I argue, through a particular focus on the Westdene Graffiti Project, how street art captures some of the tensions in current South Africa and provides new ways of understanding Johannesburg by meeting a map’s six key functions: getting to know, re-forming boundaries, making exist, reproducing reality, inscribing meaning and establishing patterns of control. The result is a city written from below.

“Walls of Freedom”: Street Art and Structural Violence in the Global City

Abstract: This article argues that contemporary street art (or graffiti) uses a unique set of resistant techniques to foreground the contours and shapes of different kinds of structural violence inscribed into, and perpetuated by, the infrastructural layouts of the twenty-first century’s increasingly global cities. Graffiti can resist structural violence as it is shaped and exacerbated by—even embedded within—the physical walls of city spaces, ricocheting off into alternative and on occasion more democratic modes of urban habitation. Through a discussion of examples from urban spaces as diverse as revolutionary Cairo, divided East Jerusalem and the West Bank in Palestine, and South African townships and gentrifying East London, the article shows that street art can transform the violent infrastructural strategies of oppressive state governance into a canvas that articulates calls for democratic and political freedom.

North Arabian and Aramaic texts from Ma‘ayan Baraukh in upper Galillee

Abstract: During the 1980s, a large basalt stone was discovered in the foothills of Mount Hermon adjacent to Kibbutz Ma῾ayan Barukh in Upper Galilee. It is inscribed with several North Arabian graffiti, and another fragmentary text that is probably Aramaic, but has seriously been damaged. The North Arabian texts are nondescript graffiti, but gain notoriety by their provenance outside of Arabia. They may be regarded as either a product of local residents or the vestiges of Arabian travellers passing through the region. In regard to the former, it is widely assumed there was an Ituraean Arab presence in Upper Galilee during the late Hellenistic and early Roman era, but the evidence for their presence remains controversial. The fact that the Roman Road between Damascus to Tyre passed by or through Ma‘ayan Barukh in Upper Galilee makes it the more attractive hypothesis.

Fengshui your graffiti: embodied spatial practices in the ‘city of gambling’

Abstract: To date, the academic discussion of graffiti culture in Greater China borrows a set of theoretical assumptions or preoccupations based on Euro-American graffiti subculture practices, focusing on th...

Embodied Walls and Extended Skins: Exploring Mental Health Through Tataus and Graffiti

Abstract: Tattoo comes from “tatau,” a Samoan/Tahitian word for mark. Graffiti recorded on walls are also an inscription in a skin, a narrative in the flesh of the city (an extension of our-selves), and someone has extended a cut from their own flesh to this urban skin, a sort of dermatological testimony. Our organic skin creates an illusory belief that, that is where we end and the rest of the environment begins. Hence, removing graffiti from walls may be positioned as a palimpsest of dermabrasion, political censorship, and bodily restriction. In this chapter, New Materialisms, Contemporary Animism, and the New Science of the Mind/Situated Aesthetics help me to conceive mental health and well-being differently while investigating tataus and graffiti in the city of Liverpool.

Beauty and the Behest: Distinguishing Legal Judgment and Aesthetic Judgment in the Context of 21st Century Street Art and Graffiti

Abstract: Street art and graffiti are on the rise and their problematic relationship with the law is becoming an increasingly pressing issue. This paper considers a series of high profile street art controversies involving famous street artists Banksy and Alice Pasquini as cases studies for illuminating such a relationship. First, by discussing the “Banksy’s Law” – a “law” protecting street artworks in the style of Banksy while condemning graffiti – and its perceived arbitrariness, I investigate what I call the structural differences between aesthetic and legal judgments. While not denying some continuity in reasoning about the law and the arts, I argue that legal judgments possess a degree of formality that cannot be found in their aesthetic counterpart. Second, in expanding my discussion, I also maintain that aesthetic considerations should not function as overriding reasons in legal determinations. By being illegal, many street artworks and graffiti acquire subversive power. If deprived of the possibility of challenging the law because of their aesthetic value, these art forms would lose much of their political value. And, more generally, a world where artworks cannot challenge the law is a world where the arts are rather superficial forms of entertainment.