Contemporary Graffiti

URBAN ART: CREATING THE URBAN WITH ART
14-16 July 2016 – Humboldt University Berlin
Keynote: Prof. Dr. Frank Eckardt (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)

The conference deals with Urban Art, a new form of art and activism, that occurs in urban areas worldwide. First known under the label of "Street Art", the term has expanded to include diverse artistic and visual interventions in the exterior space. In contrast to the traditional term ‘public art’ Urban Art is very inclusive. Thus, it is both part of and reflective of current processes of global urbanization.
The extremely heterogeneous manifestations of Urban Art range from large-scale wall paintings to tiny stickers, performative interventions to alternative forms of urban planning; they accompany multiple forms of urban and global criticism and try to encourage participation through low artistic techniques.They are seen in passing, often by chance, on the street or by the discovery of images and locations online and in social media. Finally, the ambivalent areas of upvaluation and reinterpretation of urban spaces (gentrification), advertising and city marketing (commoditization) and attacks on private property (vandalism) are topics of Urban Art.

Works of Urban Art tend not to emerge from the art establishment, but come from anonymous players who make use of simple techniques and materials. Therefore, Urban Art is a phenomenon of the 'Low', which indeed evolved from a subculture, but clearly has features of mass culture: it is easily accessible to a wide audience on the street and online, works of Urban Art are often produced in series and at a low price.Urban Art messages are striking, comparable to advertising, and serve as entertainment or express site-specific criticism of urban surroundings. At the same time, the implicit notion of the urban provides the opportunity to reflect on the present development of the city and its medialization or aestheticism. This includes processes of virtualization, which participants test in a playful artistic environment or also concerning the monitoring in public space.

Topics of interest for submission may include, but are not limited to:

• Urban or Public Art?
• New Media (Internet and social media in the production and reception of urbanity)
• Performativity (Action and reception by moving in the urban space)
• Politics (Processes of participation and gentrification)
• Tourism and Vandalism (Strategies of production and denial of urbanity)
• Global-Local (Site-specific significance - global expansion)
• Architecture and City Planning (Medialization of architecture and alternative forms of urban design/city planning)
• Urban Art Research (Terminology, history of the core concepts)
• Historicizing and Conservation of Urban Art
• The Urban Pedestrian
• Discussion of the concept of work (Werkbegriff) at Urban Art (What is the work of art in Urban Art?)
• Urban Planning and Philosophy
• Applied Ethics and the City
• Race in Urban Affairs
• Aesthetics and Urbanity
• Humans, Animals, and Environment and the City
• Feminism and the City
• The City in the History of Philosophy
• Urbanity and Justice
• Urban Technology: Architecture, Engineering and Smart Cities

Abstracts of no more than 1500 characters (including spaces) are invited for papers, panels and workshop presentations and should be suitable for presentations of approximately 30 minutes.

Conference language is English.

Proposals should include name, contact information (address, phone number, e-mail), title of the paper, short CV in English (max. 200 words). In the case of an unconventional presentation, please inquire.

Please send submissions and questions to Ilaria Hoppe, [email protected] and Ulrich Blanché, [email protected].
All submissions should be prepared for anonymous review. Notice of application results will be given by 1st May, 2016.

Deadline: April 1, 2016.

Partial reimbursement for travel expenses may be available for participants.

Contact
Prof. Dr. Ilaria Hoppe
Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Georgenstr. 47
10117 Berlin, Germany
Tel.: +4930-2093-66235

Dr. Ulrich Blanché
ZEGK - Institut für Europäische Kunstgeschichte
Universität Heidelberg
Seminarstraße 4
69117 Heidelberg
Tel.: +496221-54-3544

Graffiti is a short-lived form of heritage balancing between tangible and intangible, offensive and pleasant. Graffiti makes people laugh, wonder, angry, think. These conflicting traits are all present along Vienna's Donaukanal (Eng. Danube Canal), a recreational hotspot – located in the city's heart – famous for its endless display of graffiti. The graffiti-focused heritage science project INDIGO aims to build the basis to systematically document, monitor, and analyse circa 13 km of Donaukanal graffiti in the next decade. The first part of this paper details INDIGO's goals and overarching methodological framework, simultaneously placing it into the broader landscape of graffiti research. The second part of the text concentrates on INDIGO's graffiti documentation activities. Given the project's aim to create a spatially, spectrally, and temporally accurate record of all possible mark-makings attached in (il)legal ways to the public urban surfaces of the Donaukanal, it seems appropriate to provide insights on the photographic plus image-based modelling activities that form the foundation of INDIGO's graffiti recording strategy. The text ends with some envisioned strategies to streamline image acquisition and process the anticipated hundreds of thousands of images.

For most people the mention of graffiti conjures up notions of subversion, defacement, and underground culture. The term was coined by classical archaeologists excavating Pompeii in the 19th century and has been embraced by modern street culture. Graffiti have been left on natural sites and public monuments for tens of thousands of years. They mark a position in time, a relation to space, and a territorial claim. They are also material displays of individual identity and social interaction. As an effective, socially accepted medium of self-definition, ancient graffiti may be compared to the modern use of social networks.

This book shows that graffiti, a very ancient practice long hidden behind modern disapproval and street culture, have been integral to literacy and self-expression throughout history. Graffiti bear witness to social events and religious practices that are difficult to track in normative and official discourses. This book addresses graffiti practices, in cultures ranging from ancient China and Egypt through early modern Europe to modern Turkey, in illustrated short essays by specialists. It proposes a holistic approach to graffiti as a cultural practice that plays a key role in crucial aspects of human experience and how they can be understood.