Graffiti Atmospheres and the Durability of Transient Places

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Rethinking Persistent Places: Relationships, Atmospheres, and Affects" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Although simple tags are liable to appear anywhere, contemporary graffiti thrives in places that are marginal to everyday traffic, such as alleyways, rooftops, overpasses and vacant or abandoned structures. Even in these places graffiti is usually impermanent; other writers will eventually go over it or the wall will be buffed by authorities to discourage its proliferation. Despite this characteristic marginality and transience, favoured locations may be used year after year, often precisely because they are abandoned, remote, concealed, protected from the elements, or otherwise suited to writing. Persistent graffiti sites emerge where the atmosphere is conducive, but mushrooming graffiti also helps to produce a suitable atmosphere, giving rise to discursively dense panels of overlapping text, color and graphical fragments that envelop crumbling concrete, brick and steel. Like most modern cities, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador has accumulated many such sites, ranging in scale from abandoned factories and military installations to narrow downtown alleys, and many of these are haunted by a post-industrial atmosphere of anarchy and decay that graffiti both seeks out and helps generate.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Rethinking Persistent Places: Relationships, Atmospheres, and Affects   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37803.0