Digital media,subcultural activity and youth participation: the cases of protest rap and graffiti in Portugal

Over the last decade, we have witnessed the emergence of an academic debate surrounding the relationship between youth and the ‘new media’, with a particular emphasis on the social uses of different digital technologies within the sphere of youth activity. A specific area of research has been dedicated to studying the use of digital media in the context of the so-called youth subcultures. With this article we expect to contribute to this ongoing debate, by examining the problem through an analysis of two interconnected case studies: protest rap and illegal graffiti. Both cases may be defined as subcultures, insofar as they are characterized as alternative, subterranean, and to a certain extent, subversive movements. The empirical ground for this discussion is based on several investigations, with a qualitative basis, carried out by the authors in the course of over a decade in Portugal. This extended time frame allowed ample access to a diversified and matured analytical material and enabled a better perspective of the developments and the mutations involving the appropriation of the digital media. Our researches have shown that digital media and technologies have been gradually integrated in these urban youth subcultures, accomplishing several strategic roles.     

Underneath we’re angry: feminism and media politics in Britain in the late 1970s and early 1980s

In the late 1970s, a billboard advertisement for Gigi underwear was installed at street level in various British cities. It depicted a woman in a trench coat walking on the street at night and looking defiantly at the camera. A second image portrays her unbuttoning her coat and revealing her underwear. A caption reads “Underneath they’re all Lovable.” This billboard evoked a wave of feminist opposition exemplified by Rosalind Coward’s essay “Underneath we’re angry” attacking the Gigi advertisement for being an invitation to rape women as well as photographic works by The Polysnappers condemning the ad. This article contextualizes the passionate resistance to the Gigi advert within the time’s feminist debates, which characterized media images as oppressive towards women, the discourse around the ideological functioning of advertisements, debates on “the sexual politics of representation,” the political role of photography, social historical events, and the political significance of the street.     

“网络杜甫”:当代文化的一种美学思考

":网络杜甫"事件为我们观察当代文化提供了一个有益窗口。涂鸦的作者不同,反映出来的动机和利益也不同。商家和媒体利用此次事件实现了自身利益,但公众在其中除去"娱乐"自身之外,一无所获。此次事件并没有从根本上改变杜甫本人,而仅仅是一次当代的文化消费。公众娱乐和商家利益构成了整个事件的核心,因此在这种文化消费中,我们根本无法建立起精神、道德等要素。     

涂鸦：X景观与边缘话语界面研究刍议

涂鸦现象是存在于城市公共空间的“亚文化”景观,是具有“反语言”特质的社会符号,其背后隐匿的社会文化含义日益引起学界关注。基于先行研究厘清了涂鸦概念的属性和特征,并提出涂鸦界面研究的初步设想。分析结果显示,涂鸦现象兼具X景观（非典型语言景观）和边缘话语的双重属性,具有临时性、越界性、寄生性、多模态性等区别性特征。研究人员可选取社会认同、批评话语分析、城市政治学、场所符号学、对话性等跨学科界面研究路径来描述、解读和阐释涂鸦景观,旨在揭示社会语言现实所负载的内隐意义。研究结论对拓宽涂鸦现象的研究视域和路径具有一定的借鉴意义。     

＂Du Fu＇ s Busy＂ ： Aesthetic Reflections of Contemporary Culture

＂：网络杜甫＂事件为我们观察当代文化提供了一个有益窗口。涂鸦的作者不同,反映出来的动机和利益也不同。商家和媒体利用此次事件实现了自身利益,但公众在其中除去＂娱乐＂自身之外,一无所获。此次事件并没有从根本上改变杜甫本人,而仅仅是一次当代的文化消费。公众娱乐和商家利益构成了整个事件的核心,因此在这种文化消费中,我们根本无法建立起精神、道德等要素。     

Gang Graffiti as a Discourse Genre

This paper seeks to present a new understanding of the nature of gang graffiti. Through the analysis of 1522 utterances found on 107 surfaces in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, we argue against the commonly held notion that the major function of gang graffiti is to mark territory. A careful consideration of the variety of utterance types, their interactive nature and their location reveals a more complex discourse system reflecting the social structure of the gang subculture. Gang graffiti serves to advertise individual members and gangs, indicate social networks within and between gangs, represent members' views of gang life and honor the dead. While gang graffiti is an antilanguage, often antagonistic in its nature, it functions as cooperative discourse following explicit norms and conventions.     

美国流俗文化研究

流俗是相对于经典所产生的一种世俗文化。其着力于感官享受、以通俗的艺术风格、快捷的流通渠道、另样的审美标准为支点，与传统文化、经典文化和世人习以为常的文化形态截然有别，它是在社会经典夹缝中寻求生存空间，诱发社会媚俗审美意识，在大众媒体传播渠道衍生出的一种文化形态。流俗文化其精神实质和文化内涵与社会倡导的高洁、纯净、伟大的文化品相相对，并一度触及社会达成共知的那些道德底线，它不仅颠覆了经典文化传统，还给社会文明建设带来极大的在害。     

涂鸦与城市环境色彩

涂鸦,这种天生叛逆和有尖锐个性的艺术形式,在与城市环境色彩对话过程中对其产生影响。通过研究涂鸦对原有城市环境色彩的冲击、对城市环境的重塑和与城市环境色彩的融合等方面来探讨涂鸦和环境色彩之间既矛盾又和谐的关系。     

涂鸦者的“缺失”刍议

涂鸦对公共环境和公众生活造成了消极的影响,涂鸦者的行为,轻者有悖道德良知,重者触犯法律。教育缺失、自律缺失、审美缺失、监管缺失是涂鸦屡禁不止、甚或有蔓延之势的重要原因。接力教育可弥补涂鸦者众多缺失,严格监管可对涂鸦现象进行根治,二者统一于和谐社会建设和环保建设之中。     

Tagging the spectral mobility of the stateless body: Deleuze,stasis, and graffiti

Following recent work by Eleanor Kaufman, this essay reads Deleuze as a thinker of stasis and immobilization in order to think through the fantasy of the refugee as an exemplary figure of mobility. Working through Difference and Repetition, I argue that Deleuze’s understanding of space emerges from a concern with both immobility and the singular concept of temporality articulated in his concept of the “third synthesis of time.” The essay then turns to two contemporary instances of stateless people immobilized by very different forms of nation state sovereignty in Tunisia and the West Bank. I examine graffiti in both locations and develop a concept of tagging, which considers both the graffiti tag and the digital tag as intersecting technologies of distributed social networks that serve to freeze and make visible the stasis of the stateless person.