Urban Response And The Transformation Of Graffiti's Status As Vandalism-versus-Art

Graffiti involves multiple disciplines and numerous complex issues and lacks authoritative theoretical exposition,consequently it is not the attractive topic in academic circles.The primary purpose of this research is to explore the rationales behind the transformation of graffiti's status from illegal urban iconography to legal canvassed art,as well as the relationship between this transformation and urban response.Since the first appearance in Philadelphia in the late 1960s,graffiti has been kept forward pace and evolved stylistically and structurally into a complex art form that is composed of intricate elements,stepping from subculture to mainstream culture and gradually gaining recognition from political subjects and the general public.In parallel,urban response strategies have varied from prohibition to acceptation,from denial to approval and from removal to sensible guidance.Whereas,the dual status of graffiti as art and vandalism remains controversial,thus through reviewing the evolution of graffiti,major academic debates and urban response strategies,I formulates research hypothesis-positive urban response largely contributes to the transformation of graffiti's status from urban vandalism to legal art.Based on the research hypothesis,three logic and systematic research questions are proposed and answered by analyzing the relationship between urban response and the transformation of graff-iti's status in detail.Adopting the study of graffiti art as point of penetration,this dissertation employs a historical method to analyze graffiti for form analysis and conducts the longitudinal study of graffiti,especially the review of its history from ancient times to the present day and the evolution of forms and styles.Additionally,I conduct the context analysis and expound on social context of graffiti,including the interpretation from the point of subculture's view that declares the opinions with William James's self-theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory to redefine the social and cultural connotation of graffiti,and the explanation of ideological goals that analyzed from the personal and social level to corroborate the rationality of the existence of graffiti in cities.In the main part of the discussion,I firstly analyze the complex urban context and urban trajectory to elaborate the reasons for the contradictory complexity and confusion of the definition of graffiti status.Secondly,I analyze the interrelation of the transformation of graffiti and urban response through reviewing of the evolution of graffiti from street to gallery,illegal to legal,and subculture to mainstream culture,and the change of urban response strategies from prohibition to acceptance.Thirdly,the field research of Bristol is conducted to provide considerable empirical evidence to support argument,which aims to study the changes of the authorities' response strategies and public attitudes to elucidate the process of the transformation of graffiti in Bristol.Structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview are carried out to collect primary data,and findings from survey are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively by utilizing mixed-methods strategy for theme analysis.The results show that graffiti has exerted positive influence in Bristol thereby the public hold positive attitude towards it and local city council also attempt to promote its development.Lastly,from the perspectives of graffiti governance,some recommendations are proposed,suggesting that to differentiate legal graffiti from illegal tagging and to exercise positive influence of graffiti in urban space.