session201 waxman
TRANSCRIPT
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.
WHERE IS IT DOCUMENTED?
websites blogs
professional and amateur photographers
booksandfilm
online forums
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