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My values when I began this project were loyal to graffiti. I perceived it to be a cry for help in an inherently unjust public sphere, a plea to notice sub-cultures overlooked by wider society. In my original proposal I sought to discover: "the paradoxical sense that such undertones of political, cultural, social and economical oppression and evident antagonism between individual and societal position, had the capacity to create something beautiful". From Chile, I remembered Marcello's accomplishments and was frustrated that his talent would remain unrecognised due to the disorder it represented. It is easy though to romanticise graffiti lifestyles, or any subculture, as exciting and dangerous and the members as true heroes of place, persevering in the surrounding adversity of the city. My values, on meeting writers and discovering counter arguments to graffiti, were challenged. I found that graffiti regulates on self-exclusion, egotism, pride and obsession which stood in stark juxtaposition to the class based struggle I initially assumed. Furthermore, those who disagreed with graffiti did not do so due to any class based exclusionary implications, but because they simply preferred the appearance of their environment without it.
Chapter Four discusses graffiti as a medium through which to communicate inclusion as it represents sub-cultural accessibility and understanding. Drawn out are graffiti's "stylistic innovations" (Hebdidge 1982; 93) which hinge still on a Marxist ideology of dissolving hierarchies and making the socially invisible symbolically present. Notions of revolutionary class successes against the moral order are to some extent rendered inadequate in discovering that this graffiti stereotype is to some extent fictitious. Graffiti as "perceived-accepted-suffered cultural objects" (Althusser 1969; 233) operate on a legacy of half truths which misinform public opinions. Public responses continue to equate graffiti with gang pursuits and violence, created in our environment by "people from a deprived urban area" and "anarchists". It compelled me to think of what aspects of graffiti, given the opportunity, I would inform people about to create a sounder judgement.
The 'war over place' between authorities and writers is not as dangerous and anarchic as people expect with mere 'crossing out' considered the most brutal of reactions between graffiti writers and groups. In correlating graffiti with violence and tension, the public are perhaps intimidated unnecessarily. Graffiti relies on its illegality to survive. It is not a plight of the underdog to be empathised with, but a powerful movement which is broadly defined to encompass a diversity of people; from corporate graffiti writers such as Banksy and middle class 'criminal fantasists' (Adley 2006), to opportunistic toys such as [name removed] from the Links Project. To reiterate what [name removed] said of graffiti: "Graffiti writers are the most diverse bunch of people… in the whole history of youth culture… you have all ages from twelve up to, like, forty hanging out together, from all backgrounds, races, cultures" ([name removed] 14 January 2007).
The marking of 'difference' is said to be "the basis of symbolic order which we call culture" (Hall 1997; 236); a 'difference' that we may be forced to reconceptualise concerning graffiti writers, if we were to find that some writers were not so 'different' at all. The reason graffiti represents both cultural artefact and criminal injustice, is that it accommodates for both spheres through its broad definition as "ranging from scratching one's name on a park bench to sophisticated murals" (Bandaranaike 2001; 3). It embodies both culture and crime and an interdependency of graffiti and its illegal status ensures that this binary will be maintained. As with any cultural study, it should not be taken for granted that "things (graffiti) in themselves rarely if ever have one, single, fixed and unchanging meaning" (Hall 1997; 3), but furthermore, that those who produce graffiti do not have 'one, single, fixed and unchanging' identity to be categorised by.
In accounting for the changing dynamics of graffiti as both an accepted cultural artefact and suffered criminal endeavour, there is a need to reconceptualise graffiti beyond its historical attachments and preconceptions. I suggest that this contemporary approach, which accomodates for the diversity within graffiti culture, may be referred to as 'Neo-Graffiti'. The role of the internet in globalising Neo-Graffiti networks is essential. Writers can now showcase, promote and sell their work online which surpasses all of the controlling boundaries that confine graffiti to certain places. It is arguable that websites, some of which explicitly teach how to bomb (for example www.bombingscience.com), will ensure that toys are not bequeathed sub-cultural values via their senior writers, but by consumption of an embellished adaptation of graffiti life. This digital recruitment of writers will increasingly transcend boundaries of class, race and gender indicating further diversity, and perhaps subsequent acceptance, of Neo-Graffiti culture. It will be interesting to observe how the graffiti 'war' adapts to online graffiti and how graffiti continues to develop without bounds. Has graffiti won the war of place in pervading the globe on the internet?
While concluding this study, an article appeared in a daily newspaper revealing how popular brand 'Adidas' has incorporated graffiti images onto their trainers and are due to release them into shops in March 2007 (Stallwood 2007). The article made no reference to the implications of corporate graffiti influencing crime, nor did it give cultural value to the materialising of a sub-culture. It was seen as a simple stylish venture, indifferent to the implications such powerful graffiti images communicate. In the future, how Neo-Graffiti is "perceived-accepted-suffered" (Althusser 1969; 233) will be thrust further into our public realm, as traditional 'authority versus perpetrator' graffiti wars expand to include influence from commercial enterprises. Trainers covered in graffiti walking freely throughout the city, for now, are symbolic of the ultimate emancipation of graffiti from place.
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