[Commlist] Call for Papers: Visual Inquiry. Special Issue: 'Exploring the Co-optation and Commodification of Graffiti and Street Art'

Call for Papers from /Visual Inquiry/

Visual Inquiry:
ISSN: 2045-5879, Online ISSN: 20455887. First published 2012. 3 issues 
per volume.

Special Issue: 'Exploring the Co-optation and Commodification of 
Graffiti and Street Art'

Guest Editors: Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D., Ronald Kramer, Ph.D. and John 
Lennon, Ph.D.

Both graffiti and street art are noticeable fixtures in our contemporary 
urban environments. The individuals and collectivities that are 
responsible for this activity are as diverse as the content of their 
work. Although often seen as an anarchic aesthetic movement(s) working 
outside the machinations of capital and government, recent scholarship 
on graffiti and street art has begun to focus on how these creative 
practices are being co-opted and commodified by larger interests (e.g., 
municipal councils, business improvement districts and corporations) in 
order to control their placement, and/or to sell goods and services 
which are deemed desirable. In some areas of the world, this co-option 
and commodification work within a single block or a neighbourhood; other 
times, whole cities are aesthetically transformed.

Just as the dividing line between graffiti and street art is ambiguous, 
so are the forms and impact of this co-option and commodification. 
Graffiti may be used in the fields of fashion, film, real estate and 
tourism to sell items or experiences; it may also be used to resist 
capitalism and offer an angry voice of the marginalized. Street art may 
be an aesthetic balm covering the wounds of a gentrifying city; it may 
also be a way for neighbours to rally around art in order to resist 
being dispossessed of their homes. Questions of co-optation and 
commodification fit squarely into the debate over the sustainability of 
street oppositional practices and resistance to powerful interests.

This special issue will assemble approximately six papers that speak to 
the core of this debate, authored by existing and emerging scholars in 
this field. We seek articles that explore graffiti and street art from a 
wide variety of environments (both inside and outside the United States) 
and time periods, challenging simplistic divides between graffiti/street 
art and instead argue how these visual practices fit within the larger 
society.

All papers will be peer reviewed through a double-blinded procedure.

Potential authors are encouraged to contact the editors about possible 
submission ideas in advance of the submission deadline.

*Deadline: 1 January 2020*

Articles should be approximately 6500 words in length Please note: The 
journal can only print 3-4 pages in colour. The rest of the images will 
be printed in black and white, and can appear in colour in the online 
version of your article.

For more information about the call for papers and the journal, click 
here >> https://www.intellectbooks.com/visual-inquiry

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