What's up Doc: a Review and Analysis of English Language

SAUC - Journal V4 - N2 Changing times: Resilience What’s Up Doc: A Review and Analysis of English Language Documentaries On Contemporary Grafti And Street Art Jefrey Ian Ross - Ph.D. University of Baltimore email: [email protected] Ronald Kramer - University of Auckland email: [email protected] Abstract Over the past four decades, most large urban settings around the world have experienced an increase in grafti and street art. One of the consequences of this activity is an attempt to interpret this phenomenon. Not only have popular and scholarly articles and books catalogued, examined, and analyzed grafti and street art, and the people who engage in and respond to this activity, but so too have documentary movies. In order to better understand this latter method of capturing and explaining grafti and street art, this paper reviews and analyzes seventeen English language documentary flms (produced between 1980-2014) drawing generalizations about the dominant themes that have been expressed in this body of work. This analysis includes a review of the settings, individuals interviewed, and provides a critical commentary on this body of work. Keywords: Grafti, Street Art, Documentaries, Films, Movies 1. Introduction and it exists in most of the major cities in the world. It can be Social phenomena are explained and interpreted in many found on all kinds of surfaces, from walls, to signs, to means diferent ways. One of the communication vehicles for this of transportation. Grafti and street art difer from public art, has been through mass media. One of the most powerful which Waclawek (2011: 65) defnes as “a vast assortment media has been flms, movies, and cinematic productions. of art forms and practices, including murals, community Documentaries, in particular, can educate, entertain, and projects, memorials, civic statuary, architecture, sculpture, shape viewers’ opinions. The information presented can ephemeral art (dance, performance theatre), subversive also motivate the behavior of viewers. Despite their pretense interventions, and, for some grafti and street art.” of objectivity, documentaries selectively choose information The people who engage in this activity and the causal to present to an audience (e.g., Nichols, 2010).1 One dynamics surrounding their work are frequently discussed. relatively contemporary subject that has been the focus of For example, many articles and books have been published, documentary coverage has been grafti and street art, the and websites and blogs have been produced about this people who engage in this activity including community and subject (e.g., Gastman and Neelan 2010; Seno 2010).5 political response. Likewise, an emerging scholarly body of work has been Although grafti has existed for centuries, modern grafti published on grafti and street art (e.g., Austin 2001; Ferrell typically traces its origins to New York City (NYC) subway 1996; Philips 1999; Macdonald 2003; Snyder 2011, etc.). writers2 of the 1970s (Austin, 2001; Waclawek 2011, p. 12).3 One of the numerous efects of grafti and street art has also For a number of reasons, these writers started placing their been a steady fow of flms, both documentary and fctional work on various surfaces in the city and beyond. Shortly (also referred to as commercial, feature-length, Hollywood, after contemporary grafti appeared, a complementary and popular). Although analysis of fctional types of flms activity called street art developed (Castleman 1984; Young is emerging (Author), work regarding documentaries remains 2014).4 Before continuing, it is useful to understand that relatively dormant. most grafti and street art is considered by law enforcement This paper attempts to contextualize and understand and other criminal justice agencies as a form of vandalism this body of work. In short, the paper argues that while 99 SAUC - Journal V4 - N2 Changing times: Resilience documentaries on grafti and street art, particularly the some academics and experts understand the phenomena earlier ones, were important conduits to both preserve and as important and meriting serious scholarly study. Such disseminate information about grafti and street art to various accounts are typically sympathetic towards grafti writers/ audiences across the country and around the world, as new street artists and their work, often striving to develop ones were developed there was little in the way of conscious theoretical accounts of this subcultural practice. refection on the content that was previously produced and A third major source of discourses that vie over the meaning thus little value was gained with each new documentary. In of grafti and street art can be found in flms. Although several important respects, as documentaries continued to fctional movies with actors playing grafti artists, or grafti be produced, they tended to become formulaic and less serving as a backdrop to tell the story have been analyzed refexive. One of the consequences of this was that the elsewhere (Author), a relatively comprehensive review possibility of ofering an alternative discourse on grafti and of documentary flms on this subject has yet to be done. street art, one that would depart from those typically found Despite the improved access to documentaries via streaming in mass media, was lost. technology, we do not have a good understanding of the information and themes that these movies have presented 2. The importance of grafti and its representation and portrayed, and to what extent they are a refection of Numerous reasons attest to the importance of grafti and reality or have perpetuated myths. street art. These forms of creativity are now fairly pervasive Documentary movies are often understood as having a and can be found in most, if not all, major cities around the “realistic” nature. Insofar as this is the case, they provide world. Alongside its proliferation, grafti and street art has an additional medium to understand this phenomenon. Like spawned ongoing “cultural wars” over its meaning. This other forms of popular culture, documentaries can create battle over the meaning of grafti and street art is fought by and establish expectations for their audience and frame various sectors of society. issues. In this framing, they may reinforce and/or challenge Governments and private concerns (e.g., corporations), dominant stereotypes, which can infuence policy decisions alongside some individuals and community organizations, and responses (Aufderheide 2007; Rafter 2006; 2007; Rafter often spend a phenomenal amount of resources in and Brown 2011; Welsh Fleming and Dowler 2011; Yar responding to grafti and street art, especially its eradication 2010). On a related point, numerous grafti artists indicate and abatement. In addition to material practices, opposition that seeing one or more documentaries about this subject to grafti and street art also takes discursive forms, which matter served as a basis of inspiration for their work.6 In has led to what one might reasonably call a dominant short, there is a widespread belief that documentary flms discourse on grafti and street art. In this discourse, grafti are more honest or authentic in their portrayal of subject is often understood through the rhetorical conventions of matter (Nichols 2010, p. xiii). the “broken windows” thesis, and thus comes to be seen The following is a review and analysis of popular, readily- as a practice, associated with gangs or uncontrollable urban accessible, English-language documentaries that have been youth, that will devastate local economies if left unchecked. produced on grafti and street art. This research lies at the In constructing grafti as a threat, dominant discourses crossroads of a number of interrelated felds including cultural routinely deny that it has any political meaning. Moreover, criminology, visual criminology, and urban studies. The frst the dominant discourse on grafti often circumscribes public body of work sees the primacy of culture as a context in debate by drawing a binary distinction between “art” and which to understand crime, criminals, and responses to it. “vandalism,” and insisting that grafti can only be the latter In addition to a focus on ethnographic methods, cultural (Author). criminology examines how numerous cultural industries Against this, however, art galleries, museums, curators, and portray deviant subcultures (Ferrell, Hayward, and Young collectors increasingly recognize grafti and street art as a 2008). The second collection of scholarship deals more with major development in the history of art. To be sure, this may how images are constructed, used, and framed (Hayward well be the product of attempting to exploit the economic 2009; Hayward and Presdee 2010). In both cases, there is potential of grafti and street art, but it nevertheless ofers an interest in the role of movies, particularly in their power to an alternative framing of grafti. Somewhat comparable, shape and reinforce dominant stereotypes of marginalized 100 SAUC - Journal V4 - N2 Changing times: Resilience sectors of society, but at the same time, various media may An attempt was made to watch these movies in a also be carefully used to have liberating and educational chronological fashion. By seeing these flms in this manner, efects on sectors of society that are oppressed, repressed, the researcher hoped to witness the evolution of depictions and marginalized. The fnal body of relevant literature of grafti and street art and the relative changes, if any, in examines the complex

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