Abstract
The modern urban space is inevitably the site of different striking messages from advertisement to graffiti. The last are usedas an alternative mediumof subculture, even if majority of the public fails to notice it or else interprets it, contrary to culture’s ordered world of meanings, as chaotic “dirt” more closelyrelated to nature than culture.The discourse of messagesfound in the public space -on the façades of surfaces forming urban space, can be interpreted in a countercultural code and is forthe subculture of graffiti it self, a battletaking place for the aesthetization of the public space. This is the answer provided by the rebellious sons to the “fathers of the city”, who possess money and power with which to design urban public space using architectural means. The generation of sons, who are excluded from this real estate discourse due to a lack of means, put into play the only thing they own, i.e. their body, which they subject to the danger of imprisonment, because graffiti is an illegal activity, which in legal terms is interpreted as vandalism, a view that also prevails within the mass media.In this paper we analyzethe meaning ofvisual messages of Riga stencil graffiti using social semiotics' methodology (Kress &Leewen, 1996; Jewitt &Oyama, 2004). We find that the utilizationof the street as an alternative and independent medium in the form of civil disobedience manifested through the translation of radical political ideas, thus to a certain extent performing the work of propaganda, is an example of creative idealism
Translated title of the contribution | Visual Street Art: Messages of Riga Stencil Graffiti |
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Original language | Latvian |
Title of host publication | Sabiedrība. Integrācija. Izglītība = Society. Integration. Education |
Subtitle of host publication | starptautiskās zinātniskās konferences materiāli = proceedings of the international scientific conference |
Editors | Velta Lubkina, Karīne Laganovska, Antra Kļavinska |
Place of Publication | Rēzekne |
Publisher | Rēzeknes Tehnoloģiju akadēmija |
Pages | 694-705 |
Volume | 5 : Mūžizglītība. Inovācijas valodu izglītībā. Māksla un dizains |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 20 May 2020 |
Event | International Scientific Conference “Society. Integration. Education: Sabiedrība. Integrācija. Izglītība”, 2020 - Rēzekne, Latvia Duration: 22 May 2020 → 23 May 2020 http://journals.rta.lv/index.php/SIE/issue/viewIssue/141/534 |
Publication series
Name | Society. Integration. Education=Sabiedrība. Integrācija. Izglītība |
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Publisher | Rezekne Academy of Technologies |
ISSN (Print) | 1691-5887 |
ISSN (Electronic) | 2256-0629 |
Conference
Conference | International Scientific Conference “Society. Integration. Education: Sabiedrība. Integrācija. Izglītība”, 2020 |
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Country/Territory | Latvia |
City | Rēzekne |
Period | 22/05/20 → 23/05/20 |
Internet address |
Keywords*
- graffiti, ideology
- social semiotics
- visual messages
- ideology
- subculture
Field of Science*
- 5.3 Educational sciences
- 6.4 Arts (arts, history of arts, performing arts, music)
Publication Type*
- 3.1. Articles or chapters in proceedings/scientific books indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database