A multiplicidade das pinturas e escrituras murais na cidade de São Paulo desde os anos 1970 até os dias de hoje não evidencia uma ordem ou hierarquias que permitam separar uma assinatura rabiscada com um giz de cera em um muro de uma pintura de várias cores com tinta spray, pichação enquanto mero vandalismo do graffiti enquanto pintura mural elaborada. O que o presente trabalho busca mostrar é que cada um dos grandes grupos que compõe as diversas vertentes de pintura e escritura mural praticadas na cidade de São Paulo tem suas próprias matrizes, exemplos e muitas vezes regras estritas de procedimento e valoração interna. A busca por uma separação entre grandes grupos se dá na primeira parte da dissertação, ao sugerir uma história em ordem cronológica dos maiores grupos que se estabeleceram durante o final da década de 1970 e toda a década de 1980, traçando referências e pontos de contato desses grupos com outras práticas análogas no resto do mundo. A segunda parte do trabalho busca estabelecer alguns conceitos que podem ajudar a entender o desenvolvimento de alguns desses grupos e indivíduos. Em seguida o trabalho de alguns praticantes será analisado a fim de propor uma quebra com a linhagem formadora inicial desses mesmos. / The multiplicity of mural paintings and writings practiced in the city of São Paulo, starting in the 1970s until today, could elude a certain order or hierarchies that could allow the distinction between a scribble made with crayon on a wall or a painting made with various spray paint colors, between tagging (often called pichação in Brazil) and graffiti (usually the name given to more elaborate mural paintings). What this work tries to achieve is to show that every major group that forms the different strands of mural painting and writing practiced in the city of São Paulo has its own roots, visual examples, and oftentimes strict rules of proceeding and internal valuation. The search for the separation of these groups will be presented in the first part of the dissertation, which suggests a chronological story of the main groups that were established during the end of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s in São Paulo, tracing the main references and points of contact between these groups and its analogue practices around the world. The second part is concerned with presenting certain concepts that try to help and understand the development of some of those groups and individuals. Following, the work of certain particular individuals will be analysed in order to propose a certain break from the formative lineage of these practitioners.

Uppsatsens ämne berör transformation av bilder i påverkan av olika mekanismer och kontext. Fokus ligger på verket Girl and Balloon (2004), ett gatukonstverk av Banksy. Uppsatsen undersöker verkets omvandling från gatumålning till en perfomanceakt och dess rest Love is in the Bin (2018). Det empiriska materialet består av fotografier samt filmupptagningar, till största del från konstnären själv. Syftet är att försöka tolka underliggande betydelser i de tre verken samt eventuella betydelseförskutningar i transformationen. Det teoretiska perspektivet bygger på Anna Dahlgrens teori om bilders rörelser och presenteras som en social bildbiografi uppbyggd med stöd av en ikonografisk analys enligt Erwin Panofskys metod. Dispositionen består av bakgrundsbeskrivning av konstnären samt analyser av de tre verken. Resultatet visar på att de estetiska förändringar som föregår Love is in the Bin (2018) är process från urban väggmålning, till målning på inramad canvas, till målning och ram som  självförstörande installation samt en genom film och fotografi dokumenterad performanceakt. Mekanismer som påverkar transformationen är den institutionella konstvärlden och den kommersiella konstmarknaden och verken tolkas som en reaktion mot detta. Trots estetiska förändringar kvarstår den urbana väggmålningen Girl and Balloons (2004) övergripande betydelse, det vill säga kritik mot institution och bolagskontroll över konst och kultur, samt ställningstagande mot kommersialism och kapitalism.  I de olika verken bär inte motivet den kritiserande betydelsen utan ram, plats och hantering av material är meningsbärare.

A partir da fundamentação da documentação e dos recursos de história oral esta pesquisa apresenta uma proposta de método documentário para artes performáticas de rua. Cinco artistas atuantes na cidade de São Paulo foram selecionados para documentarem suas memórias sobre o tema de artes de rua, e tiveram sua execução artística gravada no formato audiovisual. O método consiste em três etapas qualitativas de captação e tratamento documentário utilizando-se das tecnologias digitais, a saber, a pré-entrevista gravada em áudio, o registro da atuação in loco dos artistas na rua e finalmente uma entrevista roteirizada pelas etapas anteriores gravada em vídeo em um estúdio. O referencial teórico baseia-se nos estudos de memória de Ecléa Bosi e no conceito de Hibridização Cultural de Nestor Garcia Canclini. Concluímos a importância da memória dos artistas para a história das cidades, como também constatamos os desafios conceituais e práticos enfrentados ao se pensar a documentação de artistas de rua na contemporaneidade. / From the basis of documentation and oral history resources this research proposes a documentary method for performing arts street. Five artists working in the city of São Paulo were selected to document their memories about street art theme, and had their artistic performance recorded in audiovisual format. The method consists of three qualitative steps capture and documentary treatment using digital technology, namely the recorded pre-audio interview, the record of action in place of artists in the street and finally an interview scripted by the previous steps recorded in video in a studio. The theoretical framework is based on Ecléa Bosi memory studies and the concept of Cultural Hybridization Néstor García Canclini. We conclude the importance of memory of artists to the history of cities, but also found the conceptual challenges and faced practical when considering the documentation of street performers in contemporary times.

This thesis examines the projects outlined by the Situationist philosophers and their impact on revolutionizing consciousness. Alongside of this examination this thesis demonstrates how the appropriate rhetorical means in conjunction with street art—specifically the work of Banksy—may lead to the successful implementation and execution of the Situationist's projects. This thesis examines the concept of the spectacle as developed by the Situationists as its object of critique and the concepts of culture, unitary urbanism, psychogeography, détournement and dérive as the framework in which the spectacle can be successfully critiqued in order to foster a more critical consciousness. In addition to this framework my claim is that the aforementioned elements are accomplished by the work of Banksy and his ability to alter the material conditions of our reality through his rhetorical construction of material enactments by creating appropriate and kairotic works which provide life to the Situationist's projects and affords the potentiality of revolutionizing consciousness. In Figure 1. Banksy critiques the idea of spectacularization. There is a fear that technology will distract individuals’ from living and experiencing their lives to the fullest, that their desire to record moments will get in the way with actually living through experiences. In fact the concept of recording events, for many people, is bringing more life to those events than the event itself. We’re currently living in a society where the record of the thing itself is greater than the thing itself. Of course, whenever something is recorded it can be spectacularized--elevated to a greater degree of importance--and shared with many. At the same time, urban architectural achievements have become idols unto themselves. People visit the Eiffel Tower for the purposes of visiting the Eiffel Tower. Even in the act of being a tourist or a spectator we are being placed in positions of passivity. The goal is to absorb whatever man made phenomena has been constructed for the purposes of enjoying it intrinsically without understanding why. In their article "Rhetoric and Materiality in the Museum Park at the North Carolina Museum of Art" Kenneth Zagacki and Victoria Gallagher rhetorically analyze the complex and interwoven spaces of the North Carolina Museum of Art. Their research claims that "the move from symbolicity to materiality involves a shift from examining representations (what does a text mean/what are the persuader's goals) to examining enactments (what does a text or artifact do/what are the consequences beyond that of the persuader's goals) and, as Carole Blair suggests, to considering the significance a particular artifact or text's material existence: What does it do with or against other artifacts? And how does it act on persons?" (Zagacki and Gallagher 172). This move from the purely symbolic importance of a text or artifact to its materiality is exceptionally important when discussing how potential Situationist projects can be materialized into and implemented effectively in the real world. The Situationists were essentially radical realists—their critiques need to exist in the most material form possible in order to generate the conscious liberation that they desired. That being said Margaret LaWare and Victoria Gallagher "...suggest that material rhetorics contribute to discourses of public identity by inviting visitors to see and experience landscape (or physical context) around them in new, and very much embodied ways" (as cited in Zagacki and Gallagher 172). The recursive nature of material rhetorics allows us to analyze exactly how environment's are affecting individual's subjectivities and how they too can go about affecting their world in new ways. I turn to this article specifically for the methodology that Zagacki and Gallagher construct in order to discuss in a more concrete fashion the rhetorical complexity of these spaces and their potential affect on visitors: we argue, through two material enactments of the human/nature interface that we characterize as ‘‘inside/outside’’ and ‘‘regenerative/transformative.’’ By ‘‘inside/outside,’’ we refer to the experience of moving (1) between constructed spaces, such as a museum space or an urban landscape, to less constructed, more organic spaces such as the outdoor park or the rural landscape; and (2) between what we refer to as natural history and human history. By ‘‘regenerative/transformative,’’ we mean moving (1) from natural states to human-constructed states and back again to nature, and (2) from one state of understanding to another. The capacity to create spaces of attention that call forth particular experiences reveals the potential rhetorical impact and reach of the Museum Park’s material forms. (173) The framework established here is specifically most affective when discussing these specific spaces—not every material space will have an inside/outside which would lend itself to phenomenological observation. However, for the purposes of this project, I find it important to reflect on how the "static/dynamic" enactments produced by the space harboring Banksy's work functions as a method to produce the "concrete/utopia" enactment by détourning expectations of space via messages whose kairotic nature—its location in time and place—and content create a specific psychogeography which can revolutionize our expectations and engagement with the world.

My dissertation analyzes the work of the artist group 3Nós3 (the name is a pun in Portuguese meaning "three knots/ we three"), who performed artistic actions in public space that they referred to as "urban interventions" on the streets of São Paulo from 1979 to 1982. These ranged from placing garbage bags over the heads of monumental sculptures to taping Xs across the doorways of art galleries along with signs reading "What is inside remains the same; what is outside expands." Within the context of the military regime that had ruled Brazil since 1964, the urban interventions targeted symbols of authority ranging from public sculpture to the art world establishment. My research focuses on one of the most noteworthy traits of the group's activities: their almost complete absence from the history of Brazilian art. In spite of the recent popularity on the international artistic circuit of contemporary Brazilian art with a performative edge (the artists Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark being the best examples of this type of work) the work of 3Nós3 has remained obscure, even within Brazil. The explanations for this lack of attention to 3Nós3 include the transitional political nature of the abertura period during which the interventions took place, the artists' own denial of traditional artistic circuits and involvement in youth subcultures, the ephemeral nature of the interventions themselves, and a lack of understanding of the reasons why the artists chose to work in public space, particularly in regard to the interventions' relationship with their audience. The goal of my dissertation is to argue for the inclusion of the interventions into the history of art without relying on arguments related to their quality, i.e. whether or not they constitute "good art." Rather, it is only through a detailed consideration of the specific cultural and political contexts in which the works occurred that they start to make sense. I conclude by examining the present-day conditions that could make the inclusion of 3Nós3 into larger international artistic movements such as street art and "the interventionists" (including Eduardo Srur and the Grupo Contra Filé, among others) possible. / text

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1973. / Title from title page screen, viewed Oct. 13, 2004. Dissertation Committee: Hugh W. Stumbo (chair), Jack Hobbs, Wilbert M. Leonard II, Max Rennels, Thomas McCain, Mildred Pratt. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-94) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 273-284).

L’enjeu et la motivation de cette recherche est de rendre une dignité théorique à toutes ces pratiques qui revendiquent une appropriation, ne serait-ce que exclusivement sémiotique, de l’espace urbain. En consonance avec la démarche de Michel De Certeau, même le concept d’art a été analysé en tant que forme d’expression quotidienne. La street art a été interrogée en tant que pratique de traversée de l’espace et en tant que style de spatialisation : le produit c’est toujours un certain effet-espace qui sous-tend un certain effet de présence. L’exigence de ce travail c’était de faire un portrait de la ville à partir de micros narrations créatives qui la racontent comme par exemple l’intervention de Banksy sur la West Bank Barrier en Palestine, les inscriptions des pixadores brésiliens, les traversées des traceurs du Parkour, et les portraits affichés par JR. La street art c’est une narration possible de la ville, qui, comme un tatou sur la peau, en racontent les moments difficiles, en célèbrent les éléments d’identification, en souvient l’histoire (même celle des villes lointaines) dans une dialectique continue entre soi et Autre. D’un point de vue méthodologique, nous sommes partis de l’analyse des cas pour interroger certaines problématiques sémiotiques à l’aide de la réflexion sur les interactions et les styles de vie d’Éric Landowski, celle sur les pratiques et les formes de vie de Jacques Fontanille et celle sur l’ethno-sémiotique de Francesco Marsciani. L’analyse du phénomène a été nourri par la contribution des autres sciences sociales ayant déjà réfléchi sur l’espace et sa représentation artistique, et tout particulièrement l’anthropologie. / The issue and the motivation of this research is to give a theoretical dignity to all these practices that claim an appropriation of the urban space, even out of its semiotic meaning. In consonance with Michel De Certeau approach, even the concept of art has been analyzed as an everyday form of expression. The street art has been examined either as a space-crossing practice either as a style of spatialization: the altogether product is a space-effect which underlies a certain effect of presence. The goal of this work is to obtain a portrait of the city from a series of creative micro-narrations that illustrate it, as, for example, Banksy’s intervention on the West Bank Barrier in Palestine, the inscriptions of the Brazilian pixadores, Parkour tracers’ city crossings, the portraits posted up in the city by JR. The street art is a possible way of narration of the city, as a tattoo on the skin, it tells the hard moments, celebrates the identification elements, recollects the history (even for the far cities) with a continuous dialogue between itself and the Other. From a methodological point of view, we started from case analyses to question certain semiotic issues with the help of Eric Landowski’s thoughts about interactions and lifestyles, Jacques Fontanille’s ones about life practices and forms, Francesco Marsciani’s reflections on ethno-semiotics. The analysis of the phenomenon has been enriched by the contribution of other social sciences which had already pondered on the concept of space and its artistic representation, anthropology among the others.

This diploma thesis deals with a wide field of performing arts in the public space, the so-called busking, in relation to two main lines of thought - partly to the barriers for implementation of activities, across cities; second, to the cultural development policies within the region. Collected theoretical knowledge and practical experience (eg from historical development of urban communities, studies of numerous legislative documents, cultural development policies, the author's own research, numerous observations and interviews with the artists themselves and with representatives of institutions across the world which are setting up standards, analysis of obstacles to the implementation of activities in public space and more) which the author converts first in comparison of two cities - Prague in the first place, and London with a model approach to artistic activities in public space in the second, and than in a series of specific recommendations for the creation of a standard, strategy and related legislation leading to the implementation of measures related to the topic of this diploma thesis within the capital city of Prague. The author works on the assumption that performing arts do belong to the public space, as they have the potential to improve the quality of life, to educate the people and substantially increase their creativity, to develop the potential of sites, to reduce crime, to generate economic multiplication and more.

This thesis looks at illegal public art produced on state built barrier walls. The focus is on the artist Ron English, and his artworks produced on the Berlin Wall, Israeli Barrier Wall, and Mexican Border Fence. I examine English’s works in their respective contexts of Cold War divisions, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and tensions at the border between United States and Mexico. I also situate English’s works in relation to other artworks produced on these barriers. I argue that English is doing something different from other barrier wall artists in his work in Palestine and Mexico, offering a framework for understanding the primary motivations and tactics behind barrier wall art and highlighting English’s unique contributions.