Graffiti and Street Art

Photo by Natalia Samutina

Staff:

Graffiti and street art are our common grand passions. We usually start with an interesting case and then treat it as a theoretical challenge. Understanding graffiti and street art as complex and controversial phenomena, we bring together methodological perspectives and research tactics of Visual and Film Studies, Cultural and Urban Studies. Our research projects in this field are united by the analytical perspective we call “new urban anthropology”. They usually focus on the variety of actors whose competences and skills, bodily practices, ways of communication and co-action are shaped by these vivid cultural practices. We think that graffiti and street art change the ways the city is perceived and lived. We are also interested in how these forms of urban imagery are interwoven not only in city textures but also in broader cultural discourses, how they are represented in films and on the internet. We are inspired by the international spirit of graffiti and street art and conduct our field projects in different Russian and European cities.

Themes and research areas include:

· Graffiti and street art in the context of contemporary urban culture

· Alternative urban anthropology connected to graffiti and street art

· Place making and (re)structuring the city via graffiti and street art

· Graffiti and street art as visual phenomena: urban (in)visibility

· Temporality of urban imagery, preservation and new archives

· Careers of graffiti writers and street artists

· Cinematic (re)presentations of Graffiti and Street Art

· Comparative studies in European and Post-soviet cities

Projects:

Graffiti and street art in cultural cityscape (2012 – 2013)

Graffiti, street art and alternative urban anthropology

Publications:

Samutina, Natalia (2014). Pruzhinki Hamburga: graffiti-raiter OZ I nevidimoe soobschestvo vidjaschih [Little Springs of Hamburg: Graffiti Writer OZ and the Invisible Community of Those Who See] in Mikrourbanism. Gorod v detaljah [Micro-urbanism. City in details]. Eds. Brednikova, Olga; Zaporozhets, Oksana. M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer Publishing House].

Zaporozhets, Oksana; Riise, Ekaterina; Kolesnik, Aleksandra (2014). The Permanence of Ephemeral: Tsoi Wall 23 years after. Coactivity: Philosophy, Communication. Vol. 22. #1.

Samutina, Natalia; Zaporozhets, Oksana; Kobyscha, Varvara (2012). Ne tolko Banksy: street art v kontexte sovremennoj gorodskoj kultury [Not Only Banksy: Street Art in the Context of Contemporary City Culture]. Neprikosnovenny Zapas [Reserve Stock]. #86(6).