Lachlan J MacDowall - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Books by Lachlan J MacDowall
Instafame is a pioneering study of the impact of social media and digital culture on graffiti and... more Instafame is a pioneering study of the impact of social media and digital culture on graffiti and street art. Using 23 million pieces of publicly available data from Instagram, it paints a picture of the global networks of attention and taste that underpin contemporary graffiti and street art.
In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as impor... more In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as important dimensions of contemporary governance and public policy. As in other policy areas, the production of accurate and relevant data has become central to cultural policy and how the cultural lives of citizens are understood. Conceptual and practical developments in measurement tools, such as new forms of cultural indicators, have the potential to enrich our understanding of culture’s role in wellbeing, vitality and citizenship. From UNESCO’s benchmarks for cultural freedom, through comparative measures of states’ cultural provision and creative cities indices, diverse approaches to quantifying cultural value and measuring societal progress now exist. But how useful are all these measures? Are they helping us to keep track of what matters? What opportunities exist to contest, refine or democratise these systems of cultural measurement?
This book brings together diverse perspectives from scholars, policy-makers and creative practitioners to explore the burgeoning field of cultural measurement and its political implications. The featured authors engage in a critical dialogue on various approaches to advocating for, planning, predicting, monitoring, evaluating, and simply understanding culture and cultural change. Chapters cover a range of theoretical and practical approaches to quantifying cultural values often considered intangible: cultural vitality, health and wellbeing, citizenship, sustainability and heritage.
This book is innovative for three main reasons. Firstly, it focuses on the factors driving the intensification of cultural measurement, including new public sector management techniques and the onset of the ‘post-cultural’ condition, in which cultural activities are seen as completely enmeshed in social, economic and environmental formations. Secondly, the book examines emerging categories and techniques of cultural measurement, such as the appearance of cultural sustainability measures or the use of participatory evaluation techniques. Thirdly, rather than presenting disconnected case studies which take the desirability and the mechanism of cultural measurement for granted, the book aims to show the usefulness of a critical focus on the politics of measurement, in which measures can be adapted and contested.
Abstract: In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognis... more Abstract:
In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as important dimensions of contemporary governance and public policy. As in other policy areas, the production of accurate and relevant data has become central to cultural policy and how the cultural lives of citizens are understood. Conceptual and practical developments in measurement tools, such as new forms of cultural indicators, have the potential to enrich our understanding of culture’s role in wellbeing, vitality and citizenship. From UNESCO’s benchmarks for cultural freedom, through comparative measures of states’ cultural provision and creative cities indices, diverse approaches to quantifying cultural value and measuring societal progress now exist. But how useful are all these measures? Are they helping us to keep track of what matters? What opportunities exist to contest, refine or democratise these systems of cultural measurement?
This book brings together diverse perspectives from scholars, policy-makers and creative practitioners to explore the burgeoning field of cultural measurement and its political implications. The featured authors engage in a critical dialogue on various approaches to advocating for, planning, predicting, monitoring, evaluating, and simply understanding culture and cultural change. Chapters cover a range of theoretical and practical approaches to quantifying cultural values often considered intangible: cultural vitality, health and wellbeing, citizenship, sustainability and heritage.
This book is innovative for three main reasons. Firstly, it focuses on the factors driving the intensification of cultural measurement, including new public sector management techniques and the onset of the ‘post-cultural’ condition, in which cultural activities are seen as completely enmeshed in social, economic and environmental formations. Secondly, the book examines emerging categories and techniques of cultural measurement, such as the appearance of cultural sustainability measures or the use of participatory evaluation techniques. Thirdly, rather than presenting disconnected case studies which take the desirability and the mechanism of cultural measurement for granted, the book aims to show the usefulness of a critical focus on the politics of measurement, in which measures can be adapted and contested.
A comprehensive account of the first decade of the graffiti-writing subculture in Melbourne, Aust... more A comprehensive account of the first decade of the graffiti-writing subculture in Melbourne, Australia, this compilation pays tribute to the individual writers and crews who established the city’s reputation as a global street-art presence. Beginning with the year 1983, this volume depicts the rapid changes in styles in these early years as Melbourne’s graffiti changed from simple scrawls to intricate murals of astonishing complexity. Part visual encyclopedia and part social history, this compelling record details the events, spaces, materials, and folklore of what made up the lives of the early graffiti artists.
Book Chapters by Lachlan J MacDowall
'Warning: This is (Not) a Drill' - Refuge 2017: Heatwave, 2018
This short essay was commissioned by the City of Darebin as part of the Writing This Place proje... more This short essay was commissioned by the City of Darebin as part of the Writing This Place project curated by Elizabeth Welch, which paired ten writers with ten locations around Darebin, in Melbourne’s inner north. See: http://www.darebinarts.com.au/programs/writing-this-place/
The Uses of Art in Public Space, 2015
The chapter explores how graffiti and street art function in public space by considering their re... more The chapter explores how graffiti and street art function in public space by considering their relationship to the notion of stigmergy, a theory derived from insect behaviour that explains how the actions of individual agents within populations are coordinated without direct communication. The application of stigmergy highlights a number of neglected aspects of street art, namely its spatial clustering, its incitement of interactions, the active audiences it produces and its existence as a ‘cultural scene,’ based not on fixed art objects but on forms which elicit ongoing, collective contributions.
Making Culture Count: The Politics of Cultural Measurement, 2015
In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as impor... more In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as important dimensions of contemporary governance and public policy. As part of this process, the production of accurate and relevant data has become increasingly important to cultural policy and how the cultural lives of citizens are understood. There has been a range of conceptual and practical developments in measurement tools, such as new indicators monitoring the role of culture in relation to health and wellbeing, the vitality of towns and precincts, and sustainability and heritage programmes. From benchmarks for cultural freedom used by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), through to comparative measures of government cultural provision and creative cities indices, there are now many established approaches to quantifying cultural value and measuring progress.
Yale University Press, 2013
The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is the definitive survey of international street art, ... more The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is the definitive survey of international street art, focusing on the world’s most influential urban artists and artworks. Organized geographically by country and city, this chapter looks at the street art and graffiti of Sydney, Australia.
The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti, 2013
The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is the definitive survey of international street art, ... more The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is the definitive survey of international street art, focusing on the world’s most influential urban artists and artworks. Organized geographically by country and city, this chapter focuses on the street art and graffiti of Melbourne, Australia.
Inopinatum: Graffiti and Urban Creativity, 2013
Heroes of Film, Comics and American Culture , 2012
This chapter examines the persistent trope in Hollywood cinema of the home life of the assassin-f... more This chapter examines the persistent trope in Hollywood cinema of the home life of the assassin-for-hire, and a growing sub-genre of action comedies that stretches from Grosse Point Blank (1997) and The Jackal (1997) to Mr and Mrs Smith (2005).
Caterpillars & Computers: Keith Haring in Australia, 2012
"Keith Haring’s visit to Australia, from 18 February to 8 March 1984, is still regarded with surp... more "Keith Haring’s visit to Australia, from 18 February to 8 March 1984, is still regarded with surprise. That an international art superstar should make it to our shores during his meteoric rise to fame — let alone undertake a series of public works here — is amazing. Haring was already a celebrated artist of the 1980s’ New York art scene by the time John Buckley, inaugural director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), invited him to travel to Melbourne to undertake a series of public projects for ACCA and to speak with art media, including Ashley Crawford of Tension magazine and Paul Taylor of Art & Text magazine…" Juliana Engberg
With contributions from Juliana Engberg, Ted Gott, Lisa Sullivan, Jane Rankin-Reid, Lachlan MacDowall, Wendy Bignami, John Buckley, Hannah Mathews, Julia Gruen, Ashley Crawford, Robert Lindsay, Colin Brearley, Robert Buckingham, Chris McAuliffe, Mark Schaller, Polly Borland, Marcos Davidson, Robyn McKenzie, Mario Maccarone.
PLACE: Location and Belonging in New Media Contexts, 2008
This chapter argues that forms of new media adapt graffiti as both content and concept, as a sty... more This chapter argues that forms of new media adapt graffiti as both content and concept, as a stylistic device and a model of spatialised information network. It also considers how new technology impacted law enforcement and the graffiti cleaning industry, as well as graffiti writers.
Papers by Lachlan J MacDowall
Making Culture Count, 2015
Review(s) of: Communities of sense: Rethinking aesthetics and politics, by Beth Hinderliter, Will... more Review(s) of: Communities of sense: Rethinking aesthetics and politics, by Beth Hinderliter, William Kaizen, Vered Maison, Jaleh Mansoor and Seth McCormick (eds), Duke University Press, Durham and London, 2009, ISBN 9780822345138, RRP US$26.95 (pb).
Instafame: Graffiti and Street Art in the Instagram Era by Lachlan MacDowall examines the produc... more Instafame: Graffiti and Street Art in the Instagram Era by Lachlan MacDowall examines the production, display and promotion of the two art forms on the popular social media platform.
Journal of Arts & Communities, 2013
Making Culture Count, 2015
Instafame is a pioneering study of the impact of social media and digital culture on graffiti and... more Instafame is a pioneering study of the impact of social media and digital culture on graffiti and street art. Using 23 million pieces of publicly available data from Instagram, it paints a picture of the global networks of attention and taste that underpin contemporary graffiti and street art.
In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as impor... more In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as important dimensions of contemporary governance and public policy. As in other policy areas, the production of accurate and relevant data has become central to cultural policy and how the cultural lives of citizens are understood. Conceptual and practical developments in measurement tools, such as new forms of cultural indicators, have the potential to enrich our understanding of culture’s role in wellbeing, vitality and citizenship. From UNESCO’s benchmarks for cultural freedom, through comparative measures of states’ cultural provision and creative cities indices, diverse approaches to quantifying cultural value and measuring societal progress now exist. But how useful are all these measures? Are they helping us to keep track of what matters? What opportunities exist to contest, refine or democratise these systems of cultural measurement?
This book brings together diverse perspectives from scholars, policy-makers and creative practitioners to explore the burgeoning field of cultural measurement and its political implications. The featured authors engage in a critical dialogue on various approaches to advocating for, planning, predicting, monitoring, evaluating, and simply understanding culture and cultural change. Chapters cover a range of theoretical and practical approaches to quantifying cultural values often considered intangible: cultural vitality, health and wellbeing, citizenship, sustainability and heritage.
This book is innovative for three main reasons. Firstly, it focuses on the factors driving the intensification of cultural measurement, including new public sector management techniques and the onset of the ‘post-cultural’ condition, in which cultural activities are seen as completely enmeshed in social, economic and environmental formations. Secondly, the book examines emerging categories and techniques of cultural measurement, such as the appearance of cultural sustainability measures or the use of participatory evaluation techniques. Thirdly, rather than presenting disconnected case studies which take the desirability and the mechanism of cultural measurement for granted, the book aims to show the usefulness of a critical focus on the politics of measurement, in which measures can be adapted and contested.
Abstract: In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognis... more Abstract:
In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as important dimensions of contemporary governance and public policy. As in other policy areas, the production of accurate and relevant data has become central to cultural policy and how the cultural lives of citizens are understood. Conceptual and practical developments in measurement tools, such as new forms of cultural indicators, have the potential to enrich our understanding of culture’s role in wellbeing, vitality and citizenship. From UNESCO’s benchmarks for cultural freedom, through comparative measures of states’ cultural provision and creative cities indices, diverse approaches to quantifying cultural value and measuring societal progress now exist. But how useful are all these measures? Are they helping us to keep track of what matters? What opportunities exist to contest, refine or democratise these systems of cultural measurement?
This book brings together diverse perspectives from scholars, policy-makers and creative practitioners to explore the burgeoning field of cultural measurement and its political implications. The featured authors engage in a critical dialogue on various approaches to advocating for, planning, predicting, monitoring, evaluating, and simply understanding culture and cultural change. Chapters cover a range of theoretical and practical approaches to quantifying cultural values often considered intangible: cultural vitality, health and wellbeing, citizenship, sustainability and heritage.
This book is innovative for three main reasons. Firstly, it focuses on the factors driving the intensification of cultural measurement, including new public sector management techniques and the onset of the ‘post-cultural’ condition, in which cultural activities are seen as completely enmeshed in social, economic and environmental formations. Secondly, the book examines emerging categories and techniques of cultural measurement, such as the appearance of cultural sustainability measures or the use of participatory evaluation techniques. Thirdly, rather than presenting disconnected case studies which take the desirability and the mechanism of cultural measurement for granted, the book aims to show the usefulness of a critical focus on the politics of measurement, in which measures can be adapted and contested.
A comprehensive account of the first decade of the graffiti-writing subculture in Melbourne, Aust... more A comprehensive account of the first decade of the graffiti-writing subculture in Melbourne, Australia, this compilation pays tribute to the individual writers and crews who established the city’s reputation as a global street-art presence. Beginning with the year 1983, this volume depicts the rapid changes in styles in these early years as Melbourne’s graffiti changed from simple scrawls to intricate murals of astonishing complexity. Part visual encyclopedia and part social history, this compelling record details the events, spaces, materials, and folklore of what made up the lives of the early graffiti artists.
'Warning: This is (Not) a Drill' - Refuge 2017: Heatwave, 2018
This short essay was commissioned by the City of Darebin as part of the Writing This Place proje... more This short essay was commissioned by the City of Darebin as part of the Writing This Place project curated by Elizabeth Welch, which paired ten writers with ten locations around Darebin, in Melbourne’s inner north. See: http://www.darebinarts.com.au/programs/writing-this-place/
The Uses of Art in Public Space, 2015
The chapter explores how graffiti and street art function in public space by considering their re... more The chapter explores how graffiti and street art function in public space by considering their relationship to the notion of stigmergy, a theory derived from insect behaviour that explains how the actions of individual agents within populations are coordinated without direct communication. The application of stigmergy highlights a number of neglected aspects of street art, namely its spatial clustering, its incitement of interactions, the active audiences it produces and its existence as a ‘cultural scene,’ based not on fixed art objects but on forms which elicit ongoing, collective contributions.
Making Culture Count: The Politics of Cultural Measurement, 2015
In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as impor... more In recent years, culture and cultural development have become internationally recognised as important dimensions of contemporary governance and public policy. As part of this process, the production of accurate and relevant data has become increasingly important to cultural policy and how the cultural lives of citizens are understood. There has been a range of conceptual and practical developments in measurement tools, such as new indicators monitoring the role of culture in relation to health and wellbeing, the vitality of towns and precincts, and sustainability and heritage programmes. From benchmarks for cultural freedom used by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), through to comparative measures of government cultural provision and creative cities indices, there are now many established approaches to quantifying cultural value and measuring progress.
Yale University Press, 2013
The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is the definitive survey of international street art, ... more The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is the definitive survey of international street art, focusing on the world’s most influential urban artists and artworks. Organized geographically by country and city, this chapter looks at the street art and graffiti of Sydney, Australia.
The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti, 2013
The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is the definitive survey of international street art, ... more The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is the definitive survey of international street art, focusing on the world’s most influential urban artists and artworks. Organized geographically by country and city, this chapter focuses on the street art and graffiti of Melbourne, Australia.
Inopinatum: Graffiti and Urban Creativity, 2013
Heroes of Film, Comics and American Culture , 2012
This chapter examines the persistent trope in Hollywood cinema of the home life of the assassin-f... more This chapter examines the persistent trope in Hollywood cinema of the home life of the assassin-for-hire, and a growing sub-genre of action comedies that stretches from Grosse Point Blank (1997) and The Jackal (1997) to Mr and Mrs Smith (2005).
Caterpillars & Computers: Keith Haring in Australia, 2012
"Keith Haring’s visit to Australia, from 18 February to 8 March 1984, is still regarded with surp... more "Keith Haring’s visit to Australia, from 18 February to 8 March 1984, is still regarded with surprise. That an international art superstar should make it to our shores during his meteoric rise to fame — let alone undertake a series of public works here — is amazing. Haring was already a celebrated artist of the 1980s’ New York art scene by the time John Buckley, inaugural director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), invited him to travel to Melbourne to undertake a series of public projects for ACCA and to speak with art media, including Ashley Crawford of Tension magazine and Paul Taylor of Art & Text magazine…" Juliana Engberg
With contributions from Juliana Engberg, Ted Gott, Lisa Sullivan, Jane Rankin-Reid, Lachlan MacDowall, Wendy Bignami, John Buckley, Hannah Mathews, Julia Gruen, Ashley Crawford, Robert Lindsay, Colin Brearley, Robert Buckingham, Chris McAuliffe, Mark Schaller, Polly Borland, Marcos Davidson, Robyn McKenzie, Mario Maccarone.
PLACE: Location and Belonging in New Media Contexts, 2008
This chapter argues that forms of new media adapt graffiti as both content and concept, as a sty... more This chapter argues that forms of new media adapt graffiti as both content and concept, as a stylistic device and a model of spatialised information network. It also considers how new technology impacted law enforcement and the graffiti cleaning industry, as well as graffiti writers.
Making Culture Count, 2015
Review(s) of: Communities of sense: Rethinking aesthetics and politics, by Beth Hinderliter, Will... more Review(s) of: Communities of sense: Rethinking aesthetics and politics, by Beth Hinderliter, William Kaizen, Vered Maison, Jaleh Mansoor and Seth McCormick (eds), Duke University Press, Durham and London, 2009, ISBN 9780822345138, RRP US$26.95 (pb).
Instafame: Graffiti and Street Art in the Instagram Era by Lachlan MacDowall examines the produc... more Instafame: Graffiti and Street Art in the Instagram Era by Lachlan MacDowall examines the production, display and promotion of the two art forms on the popular social media platform.
Journal of Arts & Communities, 2013
Making Culture Count, 2015
Heroes of film, comics and American culture: …, 2009
CHAPTER 9 Professional Killers at Home: Domesticity and the Deregulated Subject Lachlan Macdowall... more CHAPTER 9 Professional Killers at Home: Domesticity and the Deregulated Subject Lachlan Macdowall Introduction THE HOME LIFE OF THE ASSASSIN-for ... to a global stage, with an apparent assassination attempt on the US vice president funded by a Russian crime boss. ...
This briefing paper offers an overview of the impact of the digital media platform Instagram on c... more This briefing paper offers an overview of the impact of the digital media platform Instagram on cultural institutions such as galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM). It considers how major cultural institutions are using their Instagram accounts, the impact of Instagram on shaping cultural audiences and a range of case studies showing how analysis of Instagram data can offer insights on audience engagement and behaviour that are useful for curators and program education staff.
Once dubbed "the Bonnie and Clyde of graffiti", the globe-trotting, train-painting duo of Utah an... more Once dubbed "the Bonnie and Clyde of graffiti", the globe-trotting, train-painting duo of Utah and Ether occupy a central place in contemporary graffiti folklore. Having both served time in the US for graffiti offences, the couple skipped parole and embarked on a long term "probation vacation", painting subway networks across Europe and Asia. Their exploits were carefully documented through photographs and web videos, including a collaboration with The Grifters, a ground-breaking-video series. In 2016, Ether was again arrested and jailed while placing stickers on a Melbourne street. This paper considers the implications of Utah and Ether's graffiti practice. Using ficto-critical techniques, it attempts to fill in the gaps of Utah and Ether's fantasy life on the run and think through its implications for cultural heritage and graffiti research in a late capitalist world.
In the era of Instagram, graffiti and street art are increasingly produced as digital objects, sh... more In the era of Instagram, graffiti and street art are increasingly produced as digital objects, shaped by the architecture of digital platforms and the aggregated responses of audiences, transmuted into data. This paper focuses on one aspect of this context: the complex temporal existence of graffiti and street art - their duration, speed and acceleration – across multiple time zones. It asks: how is the consumption of graffiti and street art as digital images affecting its production? Has digital culture accelerated the production of graffiti and street art, driving shorter, faster cycles of repainting, with a greater ephemerality matched by parallel and potentially infinite lives on digital servers and devices? Using data generated over a period of 500 days at a single suburban painting site dubbed ‘the Boneyard’, this paper attempts to track the accelerating rhythms of graffiti in digital culture. It uses a number of methods to map the duration of pieces on walls and their digital echoes, including photographic recording, data visualisation and social network analysis. Ultimately, this research seeks to extend existing methods of longitudinal analysis and to make a broader argument about the effects of social media on graffiti’s aesthetic features
On August 12, Netflix will screen the latest project by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann. Th... more On August 12, Netflix will screen the latest project by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann. The Get Down is a twelve-part television series set in the Bronx in the 1970s that chronicles the birth of disco, punk and particularly hip-hop, through the lives of four teenagers. In one sense, the broad story of hip-hop is well-known: how the creativity of mostly black and Hispanic youth in New York’s boroughs gave birth to music, dance and art that eventually became a global enterprise and a multi-billion dollar industry. Yet, the origins of hip-hop also remain complex, contested, neglected and often shrouded in myth. If The Get Down takes its cue from the lavish party scenes of Luhrmann’s earlier films, his re-staging of the iconic moments in hip-hop – the first street parties, the beginnings of turntable music and subway graffiti – will no doubt be fabulous. But what is at stake in this kind of re-telling?
In 2016, a series of murals painted by street artist Lush of celebrities generated worldwide medi... more In 2016, a series of murals painted by street artist Lush of celebrities generated worldwide media attention, while boosting his considerable following. On walls around Melbourne, Lush has painted large portraits of Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, as well as naked selfies sent in by female fans. Images of the murals were posted on Lush’s Instagram account, leading to its temporary suspension. The blending of street art with memes and the new relationship between street art and digital platforms raised some key questions: what happens when a privately-owned digital platform becomes valuable public infrastructure? When “street art” becomes “meme art”? In the new Instagram economy, fame, attention and reputation are fiercely guarded by legal and other means. And streets and screens are blending as sites for art. This is the game that Lush, Taylor Swift and Instagram itself are playing.
This paper provides an accessible methodology for mapping audienceconstructed genres using the o... more This paper provides an accessible methodology for mapping audienceconstructed genres using the online imagesharing platform Instagram. We apply the method to classify artists who utilize public space in relation to the categories 'street art' and 'graffiti bombing' based on correlations between an artist's Instagram follower audience and general 'street art' and 'graffiti bombing' accounts. By measuring the artist's audience at different times, we can map not only their specific audience composition but also project their demographic trajectory. Finally we provide a methodology to estimate the total online audience for a specific genre: how many total Instagram accounts might follow street art content? This methodology can function as a powerful analytical tool, but is also easy to use, even for a researcher with limited mathematical or programming experience.
Media, Culture & Society, 2017
Recent scholarship into the uses of social media has opened up productive ways of thinking about... more Recent scholarship into the uses of social media has opened up productive ways of thinking about the dynamic relationship between user-generated content and new forms of sociality and social practice. However, compared with Twitter and Facebook, the photo- and video-sharing platform Instagram has received relatively little scholarly attention. Instagram is only the latest in a complex media history that has shaped a range of social practices, including graffiti and street art. This paper considers the relationship between street art, graffiti and mobile digital technologies, in particular the ways in which the production and consumption of forms of street art and graffiti are increasingly shaped by the architectures, protocols and uses of Instagram. Beyond thinking conceptually about how Instagram is reshaping these practices, it also considers some analytic strategies for Instagram research that can illuminate this emerging and dynamic relationship. We also suggest that thinking of Instagram simply as another tool obscures both the complex issues of using Instagram metadata for research (privacy, the definition of publication, intellectual property, archiving and conservation) and they ways in which the platform itself is in no way distinct from the cultural formations to which it promises access.
A spectre of evaluation is haunting the arts. The relationships between artists and their audienc... more A spectre of evaluation is haunting the arts. The relationships between artists and their audiences are being mediated by an ever-more complex system that determines the value of art. It’s a system driven by a conglomeration of experts: gallery directors, critics, historians and academics. The challenge for the arts is how to negotiate the new pressures to evaluate itself while also inventing new ways that artists, artworks, a non-exclusive audience, experts and the processes of evaluation and judgement might connect with each other.
For those of us who practice or follow graffiti and street art, the Pokémon Go craze doesn’t seem... more For those of us who practice or follow graffiti and street art, the Pokémon Go craze doesn’t seem that new – and not just because street art and graffiti feature so prominently in the game play. Rather, graffiti and street art provide a prior model for the Pokémon Go brand of mobile, collective urban gaming. We have seen the frenzied, phone-wielding crowds of urban hunters before, for instance when Banksy staged an informal residency in New York in 2013.
Cultural Studies Review, 2013
Artlink, Mar 2014
Artist, cultural researcher and Head of the Centre for Cultural Partnerships at the University of... more Artist, cultural researcher and Head of the Centre for Cultural Partnerships at the University of Melbourne Dr Lachlan MacDowall writes about the origins of contemporary graffiti, its development in Australia and how we define it - as intervention in public space, as an art practice or a problem.
Journal of Arts and Communities , 2013
This Critical Introduction to our Special Edition on ‘The Turn to Community in the Arts’ surveys ... more This Critical Introduction to our Special Edition on ‘The Turn to Community in the Arts’ surveys the diverse ways in which ‘the turn’ is manifesting across art forms. Multiple forces are contributing to the shift in art-making. These include artists’ attempts to bridge relationships between aesthetic and activist practices; a dissolution in the boundaries between cultural, social, political and economic domains; and the increasing instrumentalization of the arts by government. Crucially, the authors map out the various mobilizations of community within distinct disciplines and traditions of arts practice, and consider how the ‘turn’ is understood within discourses of art criticism, contemporary art theory and community art. The disjunctures between and within these domains precipitate the critical questions and problems driving the subsequent articles of the Special Edition.
Text Journal (Special Issue 14: Beyond Practice-led Research), Oct 2012
This article examines some limitations to existing models of practice-led research through a disc... more This article examines some limitations to existing models of practice-led research through a discussion of the development of a research methods subject in a postgraduate course in community-based arts practice. It argues that, despite being strongly shaped by institutional conditions and a tendency to frame practice in relation to a singular artist, the space opened up by debates over practice-led research can be occupied by forms of practice that are critically engaged with the politics of knowledge and the possibilities of community-based art making and creativity.
Cultural Studies Review, 2011
A review of Bether Hinderliter, William Kaizen, Vered Maison, Jaleh Mansoor and Seth McCormick (e... more A review of Bether Hinderliter, William Kaizen, Vered Maison, Jaleh Mansoor and Seth McCormick (eds), Communities of Self: Rethinking Aesthetics and Politics (Duke, 2009)
Informal urban practices in Asian cities are often neglected in global accounts of street art, wh... more Informal urban practices in Asian cities are often neglected in global accounts of street art, which has tended to focus on North American and European settings. This paper notes some preliminary ways to approach the mapping of street art across Asia.
Si tratta di un saggio commissionato segnando il quarantesimo anniversario della pubblicazione di... more Si tratta di un saggio commissionato segnando il quarantesimo anniversario della pubblicazione di un articolo del New York Times sul writer pionieristico Taki 183. È stato scritto per il Forum creatività urbana convocato dal Centro Studi inopinatum su Urban Creatività, Sapienza e verso l'interno Osservatorio, tenutosi a Roma nel luglio 2011. Il saggio è disponibile in lingua inglese anche.
This is a commissioned essay marking the fortieth anniversary of the publication of a New York Ti... more This is a commissioned essay marking the fortieth anniversary of the publication of a New York Times article on the pioneering graffiti writer Taki 183. It was written for the Urban Creativity Forum convened by the Inopinatum Study Centre on Urban Creativity, Sapienza University and INWARD Observatory, held in Rome in July 2011. The essay is also available in Italian translation, courtesy of the conference organisers.
In previous decades the heritage value of street art was rarely acknowledged (MacDowall 2006), to... more In previous decades the heritage value of street art was rarely acknowledged (MacDowall 2006), today its recognition is nearly as commonplace as its acceptance as a legitimate and popular form of art. The consequences of street art’s transition into the worlds of art and heritage are complex, but include its effects on the authenticity of subcultural graffiti traditions (Merrill 2014) and its rapid spread through digital platforms to create a ‘wild’ archive (MacDowall 2005). These trends have implications for the role that heritage practitioners (including archaeologists) and public arts organisations should play in safeguarding and curating such subcultural expressions and particularly those that use anti-establishment tactics and engage directly with audiences in everyday spaces.
In Berlin in December 2014, Italian street artist Blu took the unprecedented decision to permit the buffing of his own iconic mural as a symbolic gesture against the eviction of nearby squats and the general gentrification of the city. The sequential photographs of the mural’s obliteration quickly went viral and spread through various social media platforms. Meanwhile, other street artists, including those in Melbourne, have started to erase their creations as soon as they digitally distribute them through similar social media platforms, like Instagram, in order to cater for audiences who want to see walls refreshed without buffering delays. This paper considers street art’s accelerating temporalities and archaeologies and by implication the type of graffiti archaeology and the kinds of graffiti archaeologists that may be needed in the near future.
Notes from a lecture presented at the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, Univer... more Notes from a lecture presented at the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, University of Melbourne in 2012 (and in subsequent years) to students in the Masters of Cultural Materials Conservation program. The lecture outlines the context and features of graffiti and street art in Melbourne, its sites and material objects, relationship to formal and informal archives and some key case studies, such as the destruction of artworks by Banksy. It discusses the forms of value that might be attached to graffiti and street art (social, historical and aesthetic) and ends by outlining some of the implications for understanding heritage, including anti-heritage approaches and possible conservation strategies.