The Transformation Of New York City Graffiti In The 20th Century

Urban graffiti,usually referring to the impromptu painting activities with markers and spray cans that originated in the United States in the 1960s(Halsey,M.&Young,A.,2002),is an expressive communication activity based on urban space entities.Nowadays,graffiti is often regarded as an art and cultural form,but when it emerged in New York City in the 1960s,it was still an illegal scrawling on the outer walls of buildings by underclass youths.When more and more subjects participate and more and more graffiti with rich connotations appear on the walls,the graffiti originally painted at will becomes a communication practice with specific symbol forms,and the outer walls of buildings bearing graffiti are also forged into a spatial medium,and even become one of the urban landscapes together with the physical space.Although in the field of modern art and youth subculture,there have been a lot of collation and research on New York graffiti,but these studies pay more attention to graffiti techniques,artistic value and the function of protest expression,which is obviously insufficient.From the perspective of "space media",this paper attempts to analyze the location,property property,function,and expression form of the spatial entity that New York City graffiti practice relies on in different periods,so as to have a deeper discussion on the change and development of New York graffiti in the 20th century.Medium of "space" is refers to the physical space differentiation by the spread of the formation and social activities,also refers to the space of all sorts of buildings or entity is"medium",focusing on the discussion of this study was the original entity which has the function of living space,was due to the attached information or how to carry the communication activities as a medium of "space",and by whom determines the space entity which can transform as the medium,the function of the social communication.Based on this,this paper will take the spatial media supported by graffiti practice as a clue to re-explain the historical development process of New York graffiti in the 1960s,and try to answer the following questions:Which "spatial media"are mainly used in the transformation process of New York City graffiti?What forces are involved in the creation of these "space media"?What role do different forces play in the creation of this"space medium"?What are the characteristics of graffiti practices attached to different "spatial media"?How does the change in "space media" affect the change in graffiti practice?Through the historical analysis of government documents and paper literature,visual text analysis of graffiti,and discourse analysis of media reports,this research finds that:1.The large-scale emergence of graffiti in New York City originated from the intersection of racial and class spatial differentiation formed in the process of new city reconstruction.Most of these sites are abandoned or have no economic value in space,and are ignored by government and commercial forces.It can be seen that only where political and commercial power cannot reach,can the underlying power grow and temporarily have the right to use the urban space.2.However,the scramble for space begins when the lower classes spread to the political and economic centers,encroachment on the interests of the middle or wealthy classes.The party whose interests are infringed will define the right to use space as the property owner,the city administrator and the citizen.This is the stage at which graffiti in New York began to be evicted or outlawed after it had spread to "rich neighborhoods".3.As a public transportation tool,the public attribute of the subway initially provides legal support for graffiti artists to turn the subway into a graffiti medium However,when subway graffiti harms the interests of subway systems,the subway operators,city administrators,the media and the public all become the "anti-graffiti" forces,and finally the graffiti is removed from the subway space.4.However,the use of the subway as a graffiti medium changed the way in which youth gangs "brushed signatures".The mobile urban "canvas" attracts young people with painting foundation to join in,making graffiti quickly transform to visual art.It can be said that the subway"media" played an important role in promoting the transformation of graffiti art in New York,and it was the transformation of graffiti art that provided the opportunity for graffiti to return to urban space.5.The artistic value of graffiti is supported by the art community.The curators give graffiti the opportunity to enter the art gallery and enter the "post-graffiti art" era.6.Commercial forces were the first to recognize the value of graffiti art and provide commercial graffiti space to graffiti artists in a cooperative manner.Graffiti also brings artistic and symbolic value to commercial space.However,commercial forces are unstable and capital is the"invisible hand".When there is a more commercially valuable real estate development project,graffiti space is likely to be capital withdraw or modification.7.Individual license and government license are multiple ways to generate "spatial media".Individual property owners also have the right to decide the use of space as a medium.They provide space,but to a certain extent,they will influence the content of graffiti.The improvisation and expressive characteristics of graffiti are hard to be reflected in this way.The government's permission comes from the resistance of graffiti artists and the support of the art world.The diversity of art and culture is allowed and valued in the social culture of New York,which becomes the logic for the later government to allow the generation of graffiti media in the public space.