CCDP20001 Street art Assignment 2

CCDP20001 Street Art Student Name: Muyan Li Student Number: 1068026 How do graffiti culture and municipal attempts to administrate it, fit within the critique of strategies/tactics offered by Michel de Certeau?

Michel de Certeau indicates that daily life has not been totally controlled by the power of authority although it is under the suppression of authority. In the practice of daily life, there are always resistances from individuals. There is both a dominant force and a counter-control to his dominant force in daily life. To a certain extent, it is a continuous and changing practical operation centred on the contrast of power. This theory applies to the war between graffiti culture and authority. The authority governments use “strategy” to manage the public urban environments so that regulate the graffiti culture, while individuals conquer the authority by using “tactics”. The government's management of graffiti culture is a conflict between the rights of government agencies and the rights of individuals, which also leads to a controversial problem, how to define the rights of public space. The “strategy and tactics” theory of Michel de Certeau points out the significance of the conflict between graffiti culture and the management of public space, which is the strategy used by municipal is to control the use of public space but tactics promote the freedom of public space.

Michel de Certeau regards daily life as a field of struggle for domination and resistance under comprehensive monitoring. De Certeau believes that people’s daily life have not tended to be similar under the political discipline network of technocrats, and people do not lose their resistance. He focused his analysis on the resistance of individuals and used two words to describe the concept of the practice of daily life, “strategy” and “tactics” (Certeau 1985, 36-37). As an explanation, “Strategy” is the calculation of power relations. In other words, “strategy” is the force of top level dominate the life, which have power of controlling space and society. “Tactics” are the resistances due to the absence of proper venues, which is the art of the weak (Certeau 1985, 37). People living under stress have the instinct to survive, and correspondingly “resistance” to this absolute power. The conflicts happen in life, which brings possibilities and creativities. The practice of daily life is the “user’s operating method” that is the subject of practice in response to the specific environment and specific discipline rules, especially the person or the weak (Certeau 1985, 36-37). This theory is fully embodied in the graffiti culture and regulation of municipal. Graffiti is one of the arts of the weak, which is the tactics that have been used. From the perspective of De Certeau’s daily living aesthetics, public space is a strategic place. Laws and regulations represent the power of discipline and coercion. Individuals should obey the law and regulations to survive in society.

Anonymous graffiti in public space is like the “La Perruque” (Certeau 1985, 25). There are no blatant violent demonstrations and other violations of the law, but it also circumvents the legal constraints to a certain extent, which also avoids and alleviates the restriction of absolute political rights on individuals. Graffitis has the potential to offer strong catalysts for changing and transforming politics and provide new resources for urban city design and

spatial thinking (Olsen 1995). Resistance gives people the right to create and build their own aesthetic living space. Also, it can be seen that “tactics” mostly exist in the gap of “strategy”.

With limited self-existence space, for the difficult daily life, how to survive, to improve daily life is the main focus (Ward 2000, 105). Therefore, “tactics” have a deeper aesthetic significance for the individuals living on the margins of society.

“Strategy” and “tactics'' are developed around spatial practice. For De Certeau, daily life is not only a battlefield to survive, but also an urban space that means many possibilities. He believes that urban space has a special connection with individuals. They are eager to find a space of their own and seek a free aesthetic existence. De Certeau’s theory about urban space is not only means the space for daily activities, but also includes new spaces created by the individuals through “tactics'' in daily life practice. In De Certeau’s view, strategies and tactics represent the strong authority and the weak in terms of power. Authorities use strategies to standardize the space employing classification, division and separation (Certeau 1985, 116-118). On the contrary, tactics are various types of guerrilla warfare used in daily life. In this war, the possibilities and freedom of space is the opportunity for the weak. The new urban space created by graffiti is opposite to the traditional urban space. The conflict between these two forms an urban city, and graffiti gives extra meaning to the urban space (Certeau 1985, 117). In De Certeau’s view, a city is not a static, purely material aggregate (Certeau 1985, 118). It is a concrete space for people to live and experience. More specifically, the new space created by graffiti is highly permeable and flexible, which is a dynamic and practical city that completely contradicts the traditional sense of standardized operation. He defines a traditional urban city as a “place”, which is connected but different from practical “space”.

Graffiti culture is one of the possibilities of urban space. It is not only the resistance of the weak to the authorities but also the establishment of a new space in the city, making urban space meaningful. Graffiti is a way of self-expression, which contains power against authority (Ferrell 1995, 185) The reason why it is created is to express dissatisfaction with the authorities, society and the system. It is closely related to the phenomenon of immorality and unfairness. The government questioned the legality of graffiti culture, even some criminologists think graffiti is a clear signal of chaos or crime (Vanderveen and Eijk 2015, 108). They believe that graffiti infringes the property rights of merchants, and destroys the urban environment. Therefore, the government decided to prevent graffiti and start to remove it (Snyder 2006, 96). They claimed that they had the right to use and manage public places and used laws and regulations to limit people’s use of graffiti. However, absolute control is likely to have a counterproductive effect. The unfair and unethical behaviours of society as the source of conflicts have been ignored by the government. The fundamental reason for the resistance of the weak has not been resolved. In this situation, the resistance of the weak only becomes stronger with the restriction of rights. More new urban spaces might be created in different forms. At that time, the expansion of new spaces lead to the shrinkage of traditional urban space, the governments are likely to be challenged. Therefore, according to De Certeau’s theory, the coexistence of traditional urban space and new urban space forms the urban space as a whole (Certeau 1984, 117). The importance of graffiti culture cannot be ignored. It is a way for the weak to express resistance and exists in a more moderate form,

which increases the freedom of public space. It also creates a new inclusive form of urban space, highlighting the significance of the existence of new urban space.

To sum up, “strategy” and “tactics” theory explained the contradiction between graffiti culture and the actions of the authority. The graffiti is the power of the weak, which is to challenge the authority and create more open urban space. Prohibiting graffiti may result in stronger resistance from the weak and influence the stability of society. The traditional space under the control of governments and new spaces created by the weak forms the real urban space.

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Reference Certeau, Michel de. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.

Ferrell, Jeff. 1995. “Urban Graffiti: Crime, Control, and Resistance.” Youth & Society 27. no:1, 73-92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X95027001005 Olsen, Cecilie Sachs. 2013. “Spatial Thinking and Artistic Pratice-re-visiting Michel de Certeau”. Konjunktur und Krise? 5th May, 2013. http://commonthejournal.com/journal/konjunktur-und-krise-no-2/spatial-thinking-and-artistic -practice-re-visiting-michel-de-certeau/ Snyder, Gregory. 2006. “Graffiti Media and the Perpetuation of an Illegal Subculture.”

Crime, Media, Culture 2. no:1, 93-101. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659006061716 Vanderveen, Gabry and Gwen van Eijk. 2015. “Criminal but Beautiful: A Study on Graffiti and the Role of Value Judgments and Context in Perceiving Disorder.” European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 22. 107-125. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-015-9288-4 Ward, Graham. 2000. The Certeau Reader. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.