The Visual Reader, Graffiti Art and Digital Culture in the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Issue 6
TEXTING AND GRAFFITTI: Understanding the Reader in Contemporary Art" by Karla Diaz
This article, from the latest issue of Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, looks at how digital culture has influenced the most recent generation of graffiti writers, who grew up fully enmeshed in the abbreviated language of text messaging and online communication. Arguing that this gives rise to a "visual reader" who balances and decodes meaning from a digital, street, and contemporary art context, this new generation contributes a sharper sensibility while also pulling in methods and strategies from older graffiti practices. Diaz discusses how younger graffiti artists make work with the intent to document and transmit images of it online, which not only extends viewership to a larger, non-localized audience, but also shapes the contours, in terms of the type of shorthand used, of their output itself.
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