Crafting a ‘senseplace’: the touch, sound and smell of graffiti

ABSTRACT

This article explores the senses of touch, sound and smell through the craft work of subcultural graffiti to develop a new understanding of place. It draws from ethnographic data collected from 18 months of research edgework involving active participation in the field. Firstly, it positions graffiti as craft work involving practice, skilled use of tools, insightful judgments and use of the body. Secondly, because graffiti can provoke strong practitioner feelings it explores sensory engagements. In forming this somatic link between the senses and craft work this article reveals how a particular personal consciousness regarding place is produced by an individual practitioner. It then discusses how sensory engagements through graffiti craft practice produce a conceptual reconfiguration of space and this is posited as a senseplace.

KEYWORDS:

• Graffiti
• craft
• senses
• touch
• sound
• smell
• craft work
• edgework

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. A person who paints/writes subcultural graffiti.

2. Signature style letters.

3. Outlined and filled letters.

4. Letters of several colors, can have embellishments, highlights and a background.

5. Large photo-realistic or multi-colored pictures or scenes, often commissioned by a client.

6. Printed or drawn posters, paper or card glued over existing wall advertising, billboards or posters to subvert the intended message.

7. Using a key or metal point, a tag is scratched into glass or Perspex or plastic.

8. A spray painted image, icon or picture made using a cardboard stencil.

9. Spray cans have an interchangeable “cap.” Different caps produce different outcomes. A “fat” cap emits more paint so a larger area is covered and can be used to produce a thick line. A skinny cap emits less paint, less is covered and can produce a thinner line. Caps may be known by their name, e.g. Pink dot, Astro, NY Fat cap or Lego.

10. If graffiti is overpainted with a flat color it is said to have been “buffed.”

11. The time that graffiti remains visible is referred to as its “run”.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Cook

Richard Cook’s research interests are ethnography, material culture and the senses. His PhD thesis was an ethnography of Amazon’s Echo Dot and Alexa and the role voice technology played in the classroom and the impact upon students question asking and epistemic curiosity. Richard co-founded the experimental ethnography group ‘Eth.lab’.