criminals, art, and archives

JENNIFER WAXMANSESSION 201SOCIETY OF AMERICAN ARCHIVISTSAUGUST 20, 2015

GRAFFITI

WHAT IS IT?

identity

social commentary

style

status

territory

ego

ephemeral

political

art

language

subculture

vandalism

businessglobal

DEFINITION

graffiti

illicit marks in which there has been an attempt to establish some sort of coherent composition…made by an individual or individuals (not generally professional artists [but sometimes they are or become one]) upon a wall or other surface that is usually visually accessible to the public.

derives from the Greek graphein ("to write”)

graffito, meaning a drawing or scribbling on a flat surface, originally referred to those marks found on ancient Roman architecture

Art Crimes http://www.graffiti.org/faq/graf.def.html, accessed 15 July 2015

WHY DO WE CARE?

Writing graffiti is a surreptitious adventure, but that does not make these people’s lives and need for self-expression illegitimate. Whether in a sanctioned location or not, what do you have? Art. Thought. Language. Culture.

Though it is considered deviant and criminal, the presence of graffiti can also indicate a group of people acting to legitimize their existence in a world where opportunities are little, where voices are suppressed.

NATURE OF GRAFFITI

ephemeral

palimpsest

pseudonymous

legal and illegal

tag

writer

piecethrow-up

GRAFFITI BASICS

GRAFFITI BASICSflickblackbook

paste-up

bomb

bench

TYPES OF GRAFFITI

trespassing

vandalism

TYPES OF GRAFFITImurals, community art projects, public art shows

memorials

TYPES OF GRAFFITI

TYPES OF GRAFFITI

stencils stickers

WHERE IS IT DOCUMENTED?

websites blogs

professional and amateur photographers

booksandfilm

online forums

SELF DOCUMENTATION

SELF DOCUMENTATION

NON-TRADITIONAL TOOLS

Google Street View

BEFORE

AFTERMy pic

IT AIN’T ALWAYS FREE

Despite the public accessibility of graffiti and street art, and it’s seeming lack of ownership, it has a

legitimate place in the economy. We cannot

ignore issues of copyright and trademark infringement.

HOW SHOULD WE DOCUMENT IT?

Documentation strategy

• Downtown Collection at Fales Library at NYU• NOLA Hip Hop and Bounce Digital Collection at Tulane

University• Cornell University Hip Hop Collection

Target (with permission, as needed)• websites (front and back end)• social media accounts, hashtags• other media sharing sites, like Flickr• photographers, artists, gallery owners,

enthusiasts

No one is going to drop this stuff off.

ARCHIVES FUNDAMENTALSCREATOR—won’t know

DATES—probably won’t know

PROVENANCE—nope, mostly likely it will be an artificial collection

FORMAT—very diverse

DESCRIPTION—crowd-sourced and possibly incomplete• alias• associations (ie, crew name)• location of piece• type of piece (tag, sticker, throw-up, stencil, blackbook)• format and media used• date of documentation• name of person documenting• brief description of piece

PRESERVATION

Maintaining a collection like this is no different than any other. It’s a hybrid collection, but digital curation will play a greater role:

• Paper-based or bound items: zines, sketchbooks, notebooks, photographs

• Born-digital: images, video, databases, websites, blogs and other dynamically created web-based content

THANK YOU

@jwax55

All photos © me unless

otherwise identified