Abstract
This chapter explores bottom-up development and maintenance of vernacular networked learning practices in the context of signature graffiti subculture. Situated within the conceptual framework of critical theory, it explores the role of technology in connecting and mediating various learning and communicational practices. In the spirit of early definitions of networked learning, it investigates the ways in which new network capacities, fueled by the contemporary information and communication technologies, are used to promote connections between one writer and other writers, between apprentices and mentors, and between the graffiti community and its learning resources. Networked learning is analyzed on three interrelated domains: graffitists’ interpersonal interactions, the graffiti media, and the city. In each domain, the transition from the physical to the digital is interrogated so as to reveal the educational and subcultural implications that this shift may entail. The aim of this chapter is to examine how the widening of graffiti milieu, whether enabled or facilitated by the pervasive presence of the Internet, introduces networked learning into the graffiti community; what extra transferable skills its members are equipped with for success in mainstream careers; and how networked learning transforms the way they think of and engage with their educational situations, immediate material environment, and wider social reality.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahearn, C. (1983). Wild style. New York: MGM Films.
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Austin, J. (1996). Rewriting New York City. In G. E. Marcus (Ed.), Connected: Engagements with media (pp. 271–312). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Austin, J. (2001). Taking the train: How graffiti art became an urban crisis in New York City. New York: Columbia University Press.
Avramidis, K., & Drakopoulou, K. (2012). Graffiti crews’ potential pedagogical role. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 10(1), 327–340.
Belafonte, H., & Picker, D. (1984). Beat street. New York: Orion Pictures.
Bennett, A. (2004). Virtual subculture? Youth, identity and the internet. In A. Bennett & K. Kahn-Harris (Eds.), After subculture: Critical studies in contemporary youth culture (pp. 162–172). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Besore (2011). Jnb interview. Graffiti in Xanthi. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.graffitiinxanthi.gr/2012/05/jnb-interview.html [in Greek].
Borden, I. (2001). Skateboarding, space and the city: Architecture and the body. Oxford, England: Berg.
Bowen, T. (2010). Reading gestures and reading codes: The visual literacy of graffiti as both physical/performative act and digital information text. In M. Raesch (Ed.), Mapping minds (pp. 85–93). Oxford, England: Inter-Disciplinary Press.
Chalfant, H., & Prigoff, J. (1987). Spraycan art. New York: Thames and Hudson.
Chmielewska, E. (2007). Framing [con]text: Graffiti and place. Space and Culture, 10(2), 145–169.
Chmielewska, E. (2009). Framing temporality: Montréal graffiti in photography. In A. Gérin & J. S. McLean (Eds.), Public art in Canada: Critical perspectives (pp. 271–292). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Christen, R. (2003). Hip hop learning: Graffiti as an educator of urban teenagers. Educational Foundations, 17(4), 57–82.
Cooper, M., & Chalfant, H. (1984). Subway art. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Dee 71 (2011). Dee 71 interview. Graffiti in Xanthi. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.graffitiinxanthi.gr/2012/07/dee71-interview.html [in Greek].
Elwes, C. (2005). Video art: A guided tour. London: I.B. Tauris.
Ferrell, J. (1996). Crimes of style: Urban graffiti and the politics of criminality. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Ferrell, J. (2013). The underbelly project: Hiding in the light, painting in the dark. Rhizomes, 25. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.rhizomes.net/issue25/ferrell/index.html.
Ferrell, J., & Weide, R. (2010). Spot theory. City, 14(1), 48–62.
Fox, S. (2001). Studying networked learning: Some implications from socially situated learning theory and actor network theory. In C. Steeples & C. Jones (Eds.), Networked learning in higher education (pp. 77–91). New York: Springer.
Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. Bergman Ramos, Trans. 30th Anniversary ed.). London: Continuum. (Original work published 1970)
Gibson, J. J. (1986). The ecological approach to visual perception. New York: Psychology Press (Original work published 1979).
Goodyear, P. (2005). Educational design and networked learning: Patterns, pattern languages and design practice. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 21(1), 82–101.
Goodyear, P., Banks, S., Hodgson, V., & McConnell, D. (2004). Research on networked learning: An overview. In P. Goodyear, S. Banks, V. Hodgson, & D. McConnell (Eds.), Advances in research on networked learning (pp. 1–10). Boston: Kluwer.
Illich, I. (1999). Deschooling society. New York: Marion Boyars (Original work published 1971).
Illich, I. (2001). Tools for conviviality. New York: Marion Boyars (Original work published 1973).
Ints (2012). Ints interview. Greek graffiti news. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://greek-graffiti-news.blogspot.com/2012/06/intsinterview.html [in Greek].
Iveson, K. (2007). Publics and the city. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
Jason (2012). Jasone interview. Phattcaps. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://phattcaps.com/en/graffiti-street-artists/jasone-sgb-till-death-kool-kids#interview.
Jones, C., & Steeples, C. (2002). Perspectives and issues in networked learning. In C. Steeples & C. Jones (Eds.), Networked learning in higher education (pp. 1–14). New York: Springer.
Kidder, J. L. (2012). Parkour, the affective appropriation of urban space, and the real/virtual dialectic. City & Community, 11(3), 229–253.
Kress, G. R., & van Leeuwen, T. M. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.
Lachmann, R. (1988). Graffiti as career and ideology. The American Journal of Sociology, 94(2), 229–250.
MacDonald, N. (2001). The graffiti subculture: Youth, masculinity and identity in London and New York. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
MacDowall, L. (2008). The graffiti archive and the digital city. In D. Butt, J. Bywater, & N. Paul (Eds.), Place: Local knowledge and new media (pp. 134–147). Newcastle Upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Press.
McConnell, D., Hodgson, V., & Dirckinck-Holmfeld, L. (2012). Networked learning: A brief history and new trends. In L. Dirckinck-Holmfeld, V. Hodgson, & D. McConnell (Eds.), Exploring the theory, pedagogy and practice of networked learning (pp. 3–24). New York: Springer.
Pennycook, A. (2010). Spatial narrations: Graffscapes and city souls. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 137–150). London: Continuum.
Rahn, J. (2002). Painting without permission: Hip-hop graffiti subculture. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.
Saville, S. J. (2008). Playing with fear: Parkour and the mobility of emotion. Social & Cultural Geography, 9(8), 891–914.
Silver, T., & Chalfant, H. (1983). Style Wars. New York: Plexfilm.
Snyder, G. J. (2006). Graffiti media and the perpetuation of an illegal subculture. Crime, Media, Culture, 2(1), 93–101.
Snyder, G. J. (2009). Graffiti lives: Beyond the tag in New York’s urban underground. New York: New York University Press.
Snyder, G. J. (2012). The city and the subculture career: Professional street skateboarding in LA. Ethnography, 13(3), 306–329.
Stewart, S. (1987). Ceci tuera cela: Graffiti as crime and art. In J. Fekete (Ed.), Life after postmodernism: Essays on value and culture (pp. 161–180). New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Valle, I., & Weiss, E. (2010). Participation in the figured world of graffiti. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(1), 128–135.
Acknowledgement
We are grateful to Dr. Ella Chmielewska and Dr. Petar Jandrić for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Avramidis, K., Drakopoulou, K. (2015). Moving from Urban to Virtual Spaces and Back: Learning In/From Signature Graffiti Subculture. In: Jandrić, P., Boras, D. (eds) Critical Learning in Digital Networks. Research in Networked Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13752-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13752-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-13751-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-13752-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)