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In Tunisia and Egypt, in times of unrest, walls become screens for transient political display of resistance. Ephemeral performances are often rapid responses to urgent concerns. This article examines the work of artists and spectators interpolated into a sense of urgency and temporality, which characterises graffiti performances. It looks at the significances of martyrdom made visible in graffiti representations of the body of the martyrs. By analysing the art of the martyrs in contemporary North Africa, this article argues that street art can be more fully understood through the graffiti performance in Tunisia and Egypt, and the way that the public reads such imagery with faithful and political eyes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the semiotic viewpoint, architectonic structures and the surrounding public spaces can be seen as texts to be read and interpreted within proper historical, social, and cultural contexts. In addition, they are almost always multimodal, that is polysemiotic texts whose content becomes complemented with pictorial elements (paintings, sculptures), with written or oral language and, on occasion, with music. I intend to focus specifically on the presence of verbal texts inside, on or around buildings (mostly within an urban space), which is a case of textual embedment. Functions of written inserts, inscriptions, signboards, tablets, posters, banners, graffiti, etc. are multifarious. They range from informational and explanatory, to devotional, to political–critical, to – in the end – poetic, experimental, creative, funny, and ironical. Aesthetically, they often enrich but sometimes violate architecture and public space. The following types of verbal texts will be considered briefly, according to their content: 1) up-to-date information (warnings, advertisements, etc.); 2) historical-institutional information; 3) religious-devotional (including critical) information; 4) political commentaries; 5) poetic and experimental creations, mostly artistic critical games played by conceptual and post-modern artists. Several of my examples qualify as instances of urban creativity, specifically street art and graffiti of resistance (cf. Awad & Wagoner, 2017; Stampoulidis, 2019). In the spirit of cognitive semiotics, defined by Zlatev, Sonesson, and Konderak (2016) as the transdisciplinary, conceptual-empirical study of meaning, mind and communication, this article (based on a corpus of twenty-six inscriptions gathered from many international locations) raises the issue of the interplay of informativity and emotional load contained in verbal texts immersed in public settings. Undoubtedly, the message conveyed by architectural carriers and urban space contributes synergically to the overall meaning of the verbal messages that accompany them.

With this work I intend to reflect on the ambivalence that contemporary cities experience in relation to the practices of graffiti and street art: if, on the one hand, we see more works being validated and even promoted by the regulatory agents of urban space, in a strategy of valuing creativity as an intangible asset, there is at the same time a set of strategies to eliminate or prevent the emergence of graffiti or unauthorized street art. This ambivalence stems from the ability these practices have to create new images of the city and new discourses about the public space. I will start from the urban communication studies framework, move towards the discussion that arises from laws and rules that regulate the production of graffiti and street art and then observe the legal framing around these practices in Lisbon and Bologna.

Copyright of ARTS: Artuklu Journal of Art & Humanities is the property of Mardin Artuklu University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of KULT online is the property of Justus Liebig University Giessen and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Iluminuras is the property of Revista Iluminuras and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Electrical distribution cabinets are a regular feature on the streets of Helsinki. The surfaces of these boxes are often decorated with stickers, graffiti, event posters and art works which compete for attention and offer clues to a plurality of discourses that signify much about the contemporary life of the city. This article discusses the significance of these cabinets in relation to a series of paintings made for the research project 'Urban Atlas Helsinki' during the author's Fellowship at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2022–23). The importance of painting as a research method is emphasized due to the visual nature of the subject matter. Through a close reading of a particular cabinet, insights are offered as to the nature of the discourses contained, and what they signify about Helsinki as a contemporary urban culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graffiti has long been seen as a non-mainstream form of cultural expression and urban culture. In recent decades, graffiti and street art as communicative practices have significantly changed in terms of their symbolic meaning, aesthetic value, purpose and perception. This research explores this de-marginalization of graffiti, using as a lens the perceptions and views of the different actors involved in the processes of graffiti legitimization. It contributes to our understanding of the internal dynamics taking place during these processes, identifying attitudes and tendencies that prevail. The research identifies thematic areas contributing to graffiti legitimization and discusses the agendas and attitudes of different categories of actors that have not yet received much attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the phenomenon of street art in the context of its impact on the creation of local or global communities of both creators and audiences. It takes into consideration various forms of expression such as graffiti, community murals, or interventions by individual artists. It examines to what extent the communities formed around artistic activities are lasting and cohesive. Graffiti, as a form of art typical of the hip-hop subculture, represents expressions by groups that are closed and anonymous for the majority of society. Despite strong connections, these groups are usually temporary and may disband after the completion of specific projects. Other forms of street art are typically created by individual artists seeking to develop a unique style. Open, global networks of enthusiasts, activists, and organizations form around them, with the internet and social media serving as platforms used to maintain the connection between artists and their audience. Some street artists (e.g. JR or Swoon) are particularly sensitive to social issues and contribute to forming and sustaining local communities through their creations, even if they do not necessarily belong to them. A specific form of street art are community murals commissioned by a community to enhance its identity and cohesion. Street art and graffiti, therefore, have the ability to create communities on various levels, even despite their informal and ephemeral nature.

Graffiti in India - what does it mean? The graffiti scenario in India is something that is measuring grounds. However, what exactly is happening with the diverse forms of graffiti in India? Graffiti in the West and Europe are recognised as cultural movement of their own. Does such impactful street and public art create cultural impact in India? Though research indicates the trajectory of graffiti artists is to have their art up-ended into museum and gallery spaces from streets and public spaces, the movement began in public spaces. In India there are studio spaces and galleries for Graffiti however, the public and street art of the same is rarely seen in its authenticity. The essentiality of graffiti is being transformed from a rebellious and daring self-expression within a public space to a more institutionalized, tailored and commodified essentiality of private spaces. Can this enclosed art space aid or create something of cultural impact? This paper aims to analyse tags in church street in Bangalore, Karnataka to be creating a spatial contestation, through its different types of graffiti present within its spread of 750 meters. By using Lefebvre's theory of The Production of Space, this article aims to understand the spatial relevance of Graffiti and tags in Church street, Bangalore, India. This spatial approach to understanding the graffiti and tags in church street helps in understanding the art practice better, as spatial analysis exposes their essentiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the phenomenon of street art and the relationship between street art, graffiti, cities and social actors, such as the audience of the artworks. The paper presents the state of the art related to phenomena of street art, graffiti, and the related subcultures. Then, the article considers original aspects and changes of the relationship between street art and graffiti. This analysis is possible thanks to reference to urban artworks of 1UP collective, Mr. Paradox Paradise, Cranio, Blu, and Mr. Woodland. These artists mark a turning point in the relationship between street art, graffiti, and social actors, and their works are considered as examples for the proposed arguments. In this sense, the global relevance of urban contexts such as Berlin, where some of these artists began their activities, emerges. The changing relationship between street art and graffiti is analyzed in the German capital from the perspective of visual sociology through photographic field research. Photographic research makes the artworks observable and analyzable ex-post. Street art emerges not as a homogeneous phenomenon, but shows different forms of expression, some closely related to traditional graffiti, others profoundly different. Emerging characters are analyzed through the concepts of audience, shock, collective innervation and aura, which refer to the sociological tradition of Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer, viewed as conceptual lenses for the study of contemporary street art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the history and evolution of street art including graffiti and murals in Ukraine from the Soviet era to the present day. It traces the transformation of street art from its use as a form of protest to the launch of the international street art festival Muralissimo. It analyzes the progression of historical and patriotic themes in murals and graffiti such as corruption and abuses of law enforcement, language and culture, and Russian invasion.

This _Article explores the intersection of urban beautification and caste in contemporary Indian cities, with specific focus on commissioned works of street art which are part of urban cleanliness campaigns. Over the past three decades, statesponsored urban improvement schemes have aimed at eradicating perceived 'dirt' from cities, often employing street artists to promote urban beautification and cleanliness. Within the apparently inherent connection between beauty, sanitation and citizenship in Indian cities, an attempt at establishing an urban aesthetics of clean(s)ing is discernible, specifically in New Delhi. This _Article argues that the utilization of urban aesthetic practices like street art, particularly as a means to combat 'dirt,' emerges from caste-based and revanchist visions of the Indian public sphere. Through case studies, it shows how murals are employed to promote ideals of cleanliness that reflect upper-caste values that serve to transform urban spaces while policing oppressed-caste and working-class residents. Building on analyses of spatial transgression, such as Mary Douglas' idea of dirt as "matter out of place," Tim Cresswell's notion of graffiti as "words out of place," and D. Asher Ghertner's concept of "aesthetic governmentality," it explores the discursive procedures through which certain types of bodies and symbols are declared as illegal/illegible or dirty/disgusting in the Indian city. The _Article will show how street and other forms of art may embody and/or critique these prevalent notions of socio-spatial order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This visual essay is largely based on the images and writings the author sampled in the streets of Porto (Portugal) during a walk from Marquês subway station to Rua do Monte Cativo, and later translated from Portuguese into English. The work is part of a larger creative research project PORTOSCRIPT, focussing on the development of experimental ideas based on the linguistic landscape studies of the area. The essay aims to blend the voices of many narrators into a single, unified, subjectively objective experience, where small details add up to a larger picture, constituting an entry point to an enhanced, semi-fictional and hypertextual reality where meanings mix, meld together and change. The form of an essay was chosen to further experiment with blending newly written text, translated text taken from images, photographic images, painted images within photographic images and the hybrid types of perceptual experience and associations the final image-text may create. Based on the author's interest in Street Art and Graffiti as a manifest form of collective consciousness, and an imprint of a certain era and mindset on the surrounding architectural structures, as well, this work aims to capture the depth of a fleeting moment in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the world of street art, the antithesis to graffiti writing is buffing. This painted equivalent of censorship signals not just municipalor federal authority / jurisdiction, but also constitutes its own form of abstract art. Over time, buffing becomes a game of tag, a tussle between people and authorities. And with it, the fine line of vandalism and censorship is easily blurred and conveniently crossed. In this photo essay, I have collected and captioned several photographs which make the walls on streets analogous to the facebook wall - open to writing, layered with posts and a form of contemporary decoupage. With the increased overlap of street art and advertising as a result of the spread of digital fonts and printing, we must consider contemporary formats of spam, and scam, as well as situated them within the broader context of capitalism. When the digital becomes offline and vice versa in the global south, what defines pollution? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Social Sciences (IJSS) / Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of International Journal of Social Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is broad consensus regarding the fact that street art is a form of social, political and cultural protest and critique. However, rather than one single form, street art consists of a wide range of complex and contradictory styles featuring a diversity of interests, derivations and conflicts with underlying factors of both a structural and contextual nature. Taking as examples the cases of Pinacoteca aCel Obert and Pinta Malasaña, in Barcelona and Madrid respectively, this article explores the production of urban art and notes how, as part of plans to revitalize neighborhoods, it assumes different versions in harmony with the characteristics and circumstances of the surrounding areas. Using a qualitative methodology, it explores the conception, development and results of both projects, revealing the heterogeneity of explanatory factors, the complexity of their implementation, and the role, which is not exempt from conflict and rivalry, of street artists in the urban space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the unique interplay between graffiti practices, 'gentle privatism', and urban space in Block 45, a large housing estate in New Belgrade. Focusing on the informal code of conduct adhered to by local graffiti artists, the study examines how these unwritten rules shape social hierarchies and community dynamics. Through an analysis of graffiti's territoriality and its role in place-making, the paper reveals how artists navigate the tension between public and private domains, challenging conventional neoliberal urban paradigms. By appropriating public spaces, graffiti writers transform common walls into valuable canvases that reflect the collective identity and mutual respect within the ambience of Block 45. The paper argues that this form of gentle privatism not only asserts the presence of the artists but also enriches the urban landscape and strengthens community bonds. Ultimately, the study highlights the sociocultural significance of graffiti as a medium for cultural expression and social commentary within the context of privatism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article situates San Francisco street artist Barry McGee's 1994 mural for the Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP) within Democratic Mayor Frank Jordan's controversial Matrix Programme, which expanded the role of the police in the city's anti-homelessness policy. A central figure in the graffiti scene in the mid-1980s–90s, McGee was recognized for his everyman who represented the everyday people he saw while tagging the city, namely the unhoused community and graffiti writers. This figure was central to his CAMP mural, marking it as an important transitional piece in McGee's career as well as a liminal work of 'street art', rather than 'graffiti'. I suggest a reading of McGee's mural implicating him as Hal Foster's (by way of Walter Benjamin's) 'ideological patron' who struggles in the name of the cultural other to legitimize his art as graffiti and contemporary art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript investigates the cultural and educational dimensions of murals and graffiti in the ruins of the Aliko Hotel on Naxos Island. Moving beyond their aesthetic value, these artworks are examined as conduits for complex sociocultural and educational discourses. Employing semiotic analysis, particularly informed by Roland Barthes' conceptual framework, the study offers a multi-layered interpretation of the significance of street art. A systematic approach guided the empirical data collection, entailing the careful selection and categorisation of 76 photographs, eventually honed down to 21 key images for detailed analysis. This set, comprising 6 murals and 15 graffiti pieces, was subjected to meticulous examination to discern both dominant themes and motifs ('studium') and the elements evoking personal connections ('punktum'), thereby facilitating emotional and intellectual engagement. The methodology of the study is tailored to uncover the collective narratives encapsulated within these visual forms, as well as the individual responses they provoke. It probes how personal interpretations are influenced by the viewers' beliefs and backgrounds, thereby expanding the semiotic analysis to encompass both shared and individual meanings. This balanced analytical approach deepens the understanding of visual expressions as dynamic interactions between the artwork and its audience. It underscores the transformative role of street art in urban environments and its contribution to public art discourse. The impending demolition of the Hotel Aliko ruins underscores the ephemeral nature of street art. The murals and graffiti, as transient custodians of cultural and social narratives, accentuate the fragile nature of this cultural heritage. This critical moment underscores the importance of documenting and preserving such art forms and the stories they encapsulate, highlighting their significant role in shaping community identity and cultural education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the example of graffiti created by famous artists on the walls of buildings and structures damaged during hostilities in Kyiv and its suburbs, the article analyzes and summarizes the factors influencing the lifespan of street artworks. Special conditions for dismantling graffiti and changing the exposure are considered. Examples of measures taken to preserve art objects are given. The study provides recommendations for additional protection of building structures, which are the basis of murals, taking into account their condition and degree of destruction. The authors provide photographic materials and results from some of the most common objects. Also provided are constructive schemes for strengthening the building elements or their fragments and options for technological solutions for protection, preservation and further dismantling. The article also includes materials from already implemented projects: applications of street art, which were saved using these other methods and techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The impact of street art on the state of space of the modern city is investigated. The object of the research is the modern urban environment considered in the context of the changing perception of street art by the urban population. The aspects of forming a favourable urban environment from the point of view of urban dweller’s stay in it are considered.Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the research is an analytical review of materials reflecting the interaction between art and the viewer in general, and street subculture and the urban dweller in particular. The focus of this paper is the concept of the functionality of the time-changing urban environment and its human perception. The research methodology is based on the analysis of the urban space of Ryazan through the prism of its perception by the urban population. The empirical base contains materials, including a statistical study of the opinion of the target audience of teachers, staff and students of the Ryazan Institute (branch) of the Moscow Polytechnic University regarding the existence of the social phenomenon of street art, its dynamics and impact on public opinion, an interview reflecting the view of the artist Alexander Sinitsyn on the state of the Street art movement in Ryazan and the authors’ own participation as artists in the social project “The City in Colours”, which took place in the summer of 2022. The concrete fence of the railway tracks in Moskovskaya street was the object of creativity.Results. The main factors influencing the perception of street art by the population are revealed, the data of statistical research of the state of public consciousness is carried out, reflecting aesthetic views, social activity, involvement in the processes of transformation of the urban environment, the dynamics of perception of the visual range contained in street art objects. The authors of the paper determined the average level of awareness of residents about the activities of street artists and various works of street art.Conclusions. Street art is a new direction that is undergoing transformation processes, adapting to new trends in the modern structure of society and people’s consciousness. Modern subculture of street art will be in demand on the territory of urban space, thanks to its informational, propaganda and aesthetic component.

This article analyzes the functional potential of multilingual texts within urban spaces from a linguistic-semiotic perspective. The study uses a sample of 1590 multilingual texts, consisting of photographs of graffiti objects found in four cities in Southern Russia: Nalchik, the Novorossiysk agglomeration (Novorossiysk and Myskhako), Pyatigorsk, and Rostov-on-Don. The methods used include continuous sampling of multilingual texts, content analysis of their verbal elements, semiotic analysis of their graphic elements, comparative and contrastive methods, and quantitative data processing techniques. The phenomenon of graffiti is analyzed from linguistic and linguo-semiotic perspectives, with a distinction made between graffiti and street art. The authors describe the ontology of graffiti in the urban environment through a series of important dichotomies: visibility / invisibility, performance / risk / art, and sanction/unsanction. The functions of graffiti are also examined in detail, including their integrative-identifying function, self-presentation function, protest function, subversive function, and advertising / propaganda function. The study concludes that multilingual texts, represented in the form of graffiti within urban spaces, have significant functional potential.

This article explores aspects of the archival value of graffiti and street art. It applies an intersectional feminist lens and draws upon Althusserian subject interpellation to elaborate some potential techniques for appraising graffiti. Understanding graffiti as ideological calls can help us understand how graffiti acts on us and functions for us: as a record of oppression, institutional and social relations, and individual negotiations with power. The article offers examples of graffiti acting as a form of speech for the unheard and marginalized and illustrates these examples with photographs of graffiti captured by the author and images of graffiti and street art located in various collections. It compares the appraisal and collection methods of the Urban Art Mapping Project, a North American participatory graffiti archive, with the Street-ARToronto (StART) street-art map maintained by the City of Toronto. Through these comparisons, the article argues for the evidential value of locally driven archives of the type of political graffiti excluded from the StART map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Graphic Arts & Painting Research is the property of Dr. Fakhri Sadat Hosseini, the Vice President for Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Russian interference and invasion in Ukraine have transformed that nation's historical practice of mural painting. A traditional art form with deep religious and political resonance in Ukraine, murals have become an instrument for patriotic mass mobilisation against the Russian military threat. From the mid-2000s, spraypaint graffiti underwent a gradual process of professionalisation and reconciliation with mainstream culture as Ukrainian municipalities pursued urban beautification initiatives and city-branding strategies to mitigate the socioeconomic challenges of postsocialism. It was this legacy of apolitical, privately funded street art that provided the foundations for patriotic muralism following the Maidan "Revolution of Dignity" and the Russian annexation of Crimea. Amidst the post-Maidan search for a postcolonial understanding of Ukrainian culture disentangled from Soviet and Russian influences, professionally produced murals in central urban districts proposed new visions of national identity. The war's intensification since 2022 has resulted in a decentralisation of mural production. No longer reliant on international festivals in urban centres, conflict murals are now made by Ukrainian artists in large cities and small towns across the country. The newest murals represent a blending of the physical and digital—with a subject matter often inspired by viral conflict memes; artworks are, in turn, shared with worldwide audiences via social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential suburbs are not deserts of signage. Alongside the signs imposed by local governments to aid citizens navigate their neighborhoods, there are signs assigned by property owners. These include house numbers and names as well as various forms of semiotic control. Often multi-modal in format, they are designed to deter strangers from violating properties, depositing unwanted advertising and so on. Yet much of this signage in the residential parts of suburbia has escaped scholarly examination. This paper, which employs a geosemiotic approach to analyze the linguistic landscape of south Marrickville and Tempe, redresses this oversight. It explores both the linguistic landscape’s content and its material expression. While much of its constituent signage “gate keeps” traffic and pedestrians, some blandish same with radical politics, front of house as it were. Of particular interest are the environs of the local railway station, which for a time were a magnet for an insurrectionist geosemiotic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graffiti has flourished in the post-apartheid period in Johannesburg, South Africa, in a context where investment in the inner city carries large risks and the city struggles to support arts and culture. In the Maboneng precinct, graffiti and street art have become prolific alongside the recent redevelopment of the neighbourhood. Embracing the global creative city discourse, property developers in Maboneng have co-opted public art, street art and graffiti to brand space and make place, echoing instances of artwashing in other cities around the world. However, Maboneng's first street art festival was initiated by artists among several other artist-led creative activities. Using mapping and photography, we combine visual and spatial analyses to show the variety and concentration of creative visual inscriptions in Maboneng. Our analysis demonstrates how artists have responded to the opportunities for increased visibility generated through the process of redevelopment. Mapping graffiti and street art reveals a hybrid space that combines both sanctioned and unsanctioned visual inscriptions and shows how urban redevelopment can enable a platform and audience for creative endeavours. Our research shows we need a more nuanced understanding of the potential impacts of implementing the creative city discourse in cities such as Johannesburg in the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on gender aspects in graffiti and street art as contextand communication-based cultural phenomena. The key issues tackled here are how gender aspects and gender-based communication are expressed in graffiti and the nature of the gendered aesthetics of street art. The analysis aims to identify gender clichés in graffiti, illustrating stereotypical views from a broader sociocultural perspective. The study also highlights the role of graffiti and street art in challenging gender stereotypes and bringing novel concepts to the fore. The paper combines studies on graffiti and street art with the gender studies approach and employs as a research method the contextualisation of graffiti and street art as ephemeral cultural phenomena from a viewer's perspective. Graffiti works collected mainly in 2010-2020 and held in the online graffiti database of the Estonian Literary Museum constitute the sources of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The art historical term pentimento is used to indicate areas in painting that have been modified or overpainted by the artist during the creative process. The process of tagging, covering and erasing existing graffiti and street art murals transforms the original visual work. When not restored, these ‘agonist ornaments’ generate an in-between graphic status to the mural, highlighting an ongoing conversation at the scale of the city. This dialogic aspect invites us to consider the shape of urban landscape as collective responsibility. Each overpainting transformation can thereby be considered to have the possibility of revealing affect and effect related to hidden power dynamics. Considering the walls of the city as a palimpsest, the author analyses a series of murals through the lens of overpainting dynamics and offers an updated and site-specific understanding of the concept, combined with urban core topics such as social control tendencies, game as urban approach, and expression of emotions in public space. The author concludes that the upcoming processual beauty of contemporary muralism can be attributed to a chain of interactions where various actors depends one each other, the ‘pentimento’ of the collective author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I present a series of reflections on the concept of graffiti. What begins as a critique of the ideological relation between “street art” and “graffiti” on the one hand and “center” and “periphery” on the other, unfolds as a schematic exploration of the relation between graffiti and social crisis. These theses argue that graffiti can and should be interpreted, and that this interpretation depends upon analyzing graffiti’s character as both text and image. In doing so they explore graffiti in crisis across the American hemisphere, moving from “center” to “periphery” and back again. In the ruin of New York, the commune of Oaxaca, the explosion of Santiago, we catch a vivid glimpse of the social form and latent content of graffiti. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text explores graffiti, street art, and murals in the context of the neoliberal city, highlighting the transformation of these forms in the context of growing commodification, touristification and gentrification of urban space. Through an ethnographic research in Ljubljana (Slovenia), the study illuminates the wall-written dissensus against the current production of abstract space. Special attention is given to the visual transformation in autonomous zones, especially how squatter communities, and in particular an anarcha queer feminist group, use graffiti and street art as media for voicing radical activism, while relying on collective muralism to build a political community. The paper argues for a nuanced understanding of the role of graffiti, street art and murals in the context of the neoliberal city and within social movements, emphasizing the multi-layered nature of political graffiti and street art as a form of radical political activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores graffiti, street art, and murals in the context of the neoliberal city, highlighting the transformation of these forms in the context of growing urban commodification, touristification and gentrification. The paper shows how contemporary neoliberal urbanism has driven the concept of the creative city that, in the framework of late-capitalist interurban rivalry, recuperated graffiti, street art and murals. Drawing on the growing body of literature in the field of graffiti and street art studies, and combining it with urban anthropology, the analysis of ethnographic material collected in Ljubljana (Slovenia) illuminates the role of graffiti and contemporary street art in the context of the neoliberal city – both as antigentrification politics and pro-gentrification policies. The paper argues for a nuanced understanding of the role of graffiti, street art and murals under the neoliberal regime of urban development, emphasizing the multi-layered nature of graffiti and street art: as a form of political activism, as an object of commodification, and as an instrument for de-ideologization, or what the author calls the muralization of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mizzart, a collective of students from different artistic fields, created large-scale paintings in the urban landscape in Ljubljana in the 1980s and 1990s. Their independent artistic practices in public space in the 1980s and 1990s could be described as ‘proto-street art’ – a new avenue of contemporary research in graffiti and street art studies. Based on a brief historical introduction of genealogical connections between street art and graffiti, upgraded with Rafael Schacter's classification of 'street art' as a defined artistic period, the article identifies the main characteristics of ‘proto-street art’, which are: the time of occurrence, agents, spontaneity/sovereignty, iconography, site specificity, unprofitability and interaction with public. Mizzart’s ephemeral cultural heritage is analysed by the proposed seven key formal elements of ‘proto-street art’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Progress. Journal of Young Researchers is the property of University of Gdansk / Uniwersytet Gdanskim and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Nauki o Wychowaniu. Studia Interdyscyplinarne is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this article is to analyse the processes and some effects of the production and the valorisation of street art within urban regeneration, in the basis on a development operation in the Parisian metropolis (Zone d'Amenagement Concertée Paris Rive Gauche). A first part highlights the signals of the recognition of street art as a tool to create a positive territorial image, by urban and artistic actors. It shows then how the artistic practice is inspired by the characteristics and the experience of the urban regeneration. A second part focuses on some effects of the success of street art. On the one hand, it examines its temporal evolutions, turning from ephemeral to perennial forms, and questions the impacts of these evolutions. On the other hand, it studies the increase of graffitis, which could enrich the urban image by street art according to the criteria of acceptability of the public authorities.

This article analyses the ways in which urban authorities and elites embrace informality when formal laws and regulations get in the way of making the city they want. In the case of Sydney, we show that the governance of graffiti and street art is not exclusively a matter of enacting and enforcing formal anti-graffiti laws and regulations. Rather, graffiti governance takes the form of a "rule by aesthetics" in which authorities and elites draw on both informal and formal repertoires of action to pursue their values and goals – the enhancement of neighborhood character and enlivenment of public space, through a selective embrace of some forms of street art alongside the eradication of others. Our account of "informality from above" adds to understanding of the enactment and contestation of power in graffiti governance, and draws attention to the role of aesthetic orders in the contested governance of urban landscapes more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Street art became a popular element of urban landscape all over the world. Kraków's walls also work as an open space art gallery. Although graffiti and street art can be considered common and known since a long time, so far it wasn't researched that often by geographers. That's why the goal of this paper is to establish spatial distribution features of street art in Kraków. Separately different types of street art have been examined with an attempt to explain what causes concentration of some of them in downtown districts and what makes other ones existing in large housing estates. Analysis of spatial distribution were conducted based on data collected as a part of the permanent monitoring that is carried on since the year 2016. Its base constitutes of full field mappings within the city limits (in 2016, and 2021) and is regularly updated in the case of newly identified and documented works -- by geotagged mobile photography. In Kraków the area of street art concentration surrounds the Old Town. Kazimierz, Stare Podgórze, and Zabłocie districts create an area with the greatest number and diversity of documented works. At the same time large housing estates located outside of central part of the city, and even some peripheral neighbourhoods are decorated with murals. Importance of street art in Kraków is defined by its official policy towards murals being implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decade, street art has received increased attention within heritage studies. However, current heritage research has not sufficiently explored street art's crucial relationships with everyday life and change, as well as its performative, sensuous and atmospheric components. In this paper, I apply the notion of affective atmosphere within more-than-representational theory, heritage and urban studies, to conceptualise street art as a sensuous, ephemeral, political and embodied heritage experience of everyday life. My investigation of street art and affective atmospheres is further based on my improvised everyday practices of sensing, feeling, observing, walking and photographing in the streets of Oslo. Engaging with theory and praxis, I explore the compositional and multi-sensual aspects of street art and affective urban atmospheres, including sound, colour, movement, social hybridity and power. My analysis highlights that the experience of street art heritage involves more than simply embodied encounters with artworks, as it also integrates urban atmospheres and smooth and striated worlds. The research thus contributes practical and theoretical knowledge of street art, heritage and affective atmospheres within street art and urban and heritage studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article reflects on how street art helps to “queer” the city of Philadelphia. America’s sixth largest city has come to be known as the “City of Murals” following the initiative started by Mural Arts Philadelphia’s (MAP) Executive Director Jane Golden in 1987. It has also in recent years been re-branded as a queer city. Firstly, I consider how street art represents queer communities, drawing on human geographer Felix Driver’s paradigm of image-centred or “imaginative geography.” Based on a non-representational model of geography, I also reflect on how street art allows the queer community to constitute spaces for LGBTQIA+ people of colour. Philadelphia’s street art enables individual self-determination, as well as congregation, contestation, and conversation among queer people of colour, and between the queer and wider communities, in Philadelphia today. Following recent work on digital geographies of sexuality, a number of examples considered in this article focus on the power of digital media to re-purpose MAP’s murals and Philadelphia’s street art for queer purposes.

The present article examines the material and cultural foundations of art made with recycled materials in Mozambique, assessing the continuities (and discontinuities) it exhibits with urban art elsewhere. It connects the longstanding practice of recycling street waste into artwork to economic hardship, colonial history, the environmental crisis, and the increasing influence of hip hop and global urban cultural trends. While the scholarly discourse surrounding urban art has tended to focus on the street as an exhibition space and the use of materials such as spray paints that remain unaffordable for many in Africa, this study argues that despite their prevailing recourse to indoor exhibition, many of Mozambique's street 'recyclists' harbour similar aims, practices, and concerns to urban artists elsewhere. Considering artwork by a wide range of artists and of varying technologies, media, and overall complexity, the article thus seeks to connect existing scholarship on the use of recyclia in African arts to the much-theorised practices of street art, graffiti and style writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along the Annexation Wall in Bethlehem, an entangled web of tags, slogans, graphic stencils, and gestures cover the surface of the concrete barrier wall and asphalt road. In Napoli, Italy, similar messages, and symbols appear on the dressed stone facade of government buildings, churches, and apartments. Messages exclaim: Not only Floyd, Iyad Hallaq Too, IAW, Palestino, and No Balls? #Build Walls. Varying in opacity, the words and symbols fight for legibility and presence, acting as a conversational message board between local and international activists. Such visual elements are, according to Ella Chmielewska, "connected with the specific history of protest, contestation, and subversion framed by the locality" (Chmielewska, 2007). Thus, graffiti may be read as an actual and symbolic act of resistance, framed by locality. Considering the saturation of solidarity-based graffiti in places like Bethlehem and Napoli, this paper examines how urban space both facilitates and complicates the durability of activist-based interventions. Through a pictorial study, I focus on the effects of graffiti-based activism and examine how these marks continue to draw attention to solidarity-based causes. Kevin D. Murphy and Sally O'Driscoll refer to these types of marks as "ephemeral interventions," a reference to the temporary nature of graffiti and the potential long-term impact of certain politically motivated works that produce iconic symbols/signs (Murphy and O'Driscoll, 2015). Whether along the Annexation Wall in Bethlehem or the streets of Napoli, graffitied messages are specific to local political and social causes, yet also connect to greater, global solidarity movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the social mobilizations (2020-2022) during and after the COVID-19 lockdown in Colombia, the graffiti- projections produced, projected, and published by La nueva banda de la terraza played an essential role in visualizing, nurturing, and accompanying the social protests and the demands. As part of an unparalleled visual activism in Colombia, the graffiti-projections, which began in Medellín and soon expanded to other cities and beyond the country's borders, created an expanded para-cinema of protests, played an essential role in a complex web of actions and practices that made it possible, for the first time in the republican history of Colombia, to create a comprehensive, multivocal, and diverse social movement. The present analysis discusses how the graffiti- projections catalyzed engagement and dialogue and strengthened the democratization of the public sphere by developing an expanded para-cinema that involved textuality and social media, reenergized graffiti, street art, and communal Do-It-With-Others, and developed emancipatory strategies and networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]