- LINKS -

INSTITUTE FÜR GRAFFITI

Graffiti Books page 1 — Graffiti Books page 2 — Stickers & Stencils
Sociological Studies — DVDs & Video

Recommended titles
Links lead to Amazon.com for more details, price, and purchase info.

new: Photo gallery of nyc graffiti, and street art

- Sociological Studies -

Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City by Ivor Miller University Press of Mississippi, 2002. 218pp. "With its now-familiar presence in art galleries, advertising and pop culture around the world, it can be hard to remember that graffiti was once outlaw art. Art critic Ivor Miller takes us back to the New York City of the 1970s and '80s, where "writers," as graffiti artists called themselves, used the subways as canvases and mayors spent millions of dollars trying to erase their work. Based on interviews with the most prolific and talented aerosol artists of the era, the scholarly Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City looks at the evolution of graffiti art, its role in hip-hop culture and the various social forces that led to its creation from white flight to the mass marketing of spray paint." --Publishers Weekly Dalek Nickel-Plated Angels by Roger Gastman, James Marshall Gingko Press, 2003. 104 pp. Crimes of Style: Urban Graffiti and the Politics of Criminality by Jeff Ferrell Northeastern University Press, 1996. 236 pp. "An ethnographic and criminological study of the subculture out of which hip-hop graffiti has emerged, and the moralist campaign that has marshalled police, judges, and the media to preform the public reception of it. Analyzes the internal social structure of the writers, their attitudes toward life and society, and how they organize for production. Argues that the graffiti is an anarchist response to legal and social oppression, and that criminology needs a new approach to understand it." --Book News Getting Up: Subway Graffitti in New York by Craig Castleman The MIT Press, reprint edition, 1984. 212pp. "Getting Up explains subway graffiti in New York City mostly in the seventies. Unlike other books on the same subject, Getting Up does not come out only in graffiti's favour. By including quotes from transit police, MTA workers and even politicians, a wide range of perspective is provided. We get to learn about Mayor Koch's neverending battle against the writers, how the plague just would not die. Also worth mentioning is an interview with Lee of The Fabulous Five, going into details about the night he and his partners went out to paint a wholetrain." --M.Jacobsen

The Graffiti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity and Identity in London and New York
by Nancy Macdonald
Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 272pp.

"This book is the most extensive contribution to our understanding of the graffiti subculture to date. Using insights from ethnographic research conducted in London and New York, this book explores the varying ways young men use graffiti to construct masculinity, claim power, and establish independence from the institutions which define, and often limit, them as young people. Forging a link between subcultural practice and identity construction, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in new understandings of youth and their subcultures." --book description

Painting Without Permission: Hip-Hop Graffiti Subculture
by Janice Rahn
Bergin & Garvey, 2002. 200 pp.

"More than ever education students are required to study the social context of youth culture in order to understand and design meaningful, motivational curiculum. There is a need to bridge the gap between theory and practice and to address the critical issues which confront the education of youth today. In studying hip-hop graffiti, the author explores a crucial but neglected area in the contemporary training of youth workers and educators." --book description

Post-graffiti: Between Street, Art And Commerce
by Julia Reinecke
Gingko Press, 2006. 132pp.

"This first scholarly analysis of the phenomenon street art, provides unprecedented insight into the subculture and goes a long way towards solving the conundrum of exactly where street art, here also named as post graffiti, is positioned in relation to graffiti, fine art and commerce. Julia Reinecke's four year project took her out into the streets of Berlin, Hamburg, London, São Paulo, New York and other cities of the world, where she was able to research activists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Jeroen Jongeleen (aka Influenza), Space Invader, Gomes, Solo One, Os Gemeos and D*Face. In extended interviews, some of these artists share their motivations, role models and their views on where post graffiti lies in relation to the fields of fine art and design. Reinecke uses Pierre Bourdieu's field theory to assess the relevance to post graffiti of symbolic, cultural and social capital, and amongst other things, the role of the habitus in the post graffiti field. She looks at the state and characteristics of post graffiti as a subculture, and examines various phases of subculture theory and research over the past fifty years, in particular that undertaken by the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies and the Chicago School. This book also considers commonalities between post graffiti and land art, pop art, Dada and Situationism and how post graffiti is used today in guerrilla marketing and image advertising. Incisive, enlightening, and cleverly analytical this unique new book is an unmatched foray into the continually evolving world of street art." --publisher info

Taking the Train
by Joe Austin
Columbia University Press, 2001. 400pp.

"...Arguing that "writing" functions as a "prestige economy," making the writer famous outside of his neighborhood, Austin examines in depth both its artistic and social meanings. From the function of networking between neighborhoods to the social difference between the Great Tradition style and the later invention of Throw Ups, Austin fills his broad canvas with such diverse issues as the history of juvenile delinquency in Manhattan; Robert Moses's legacy of urban development; how and why the New York Times changed its editorial position on graffiti; and the eventual relation of "writing" to zine and video culture. Austin's precise, witty and genial style perfectly meshes with his rigorous research and analysis. He makes the differences between emerging "bombers" and "piecers," or the social hierarchy that relegates "toy taggers" to the bottom rungs, seem vital and rife with cultural import...." --Publishers Weekly

Goto Graffiti Arts page 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5

The Fish Bowl © Copyright 2002-2006 by rkc. All rights reserved. All trademarks mentioned here are the property of their respective owners. visit : rkchin home : photography : nyc chinatown : the fish bowl :