participation in the figured worlds of graffiti writers

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Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier’s archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright Author's personal copy Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 128–135 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate Participation in the figured world of graffiti Imuris Valle a, Eduardo Weiss a, * a Departamento de Investigaciones Educativas, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del I.P.N., Calzada Tenorios 235, 14330 Mexico, Mexico a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 1 December 2008 Received in revised form 7 May 2009 Accepted 21 May 2009 This article is based on ethnographic work with two ‘‘crews’’ of young graffiti artists in southern Mexico City. The crews share certain characteristics with gangs or urban tribes, but more with ‘‘communities of practice’’: they live in the ‘‘figured world’’ of graffiti, a community of practice at the local and global level. Through participation, including observation and the study of fanzines, group members learn the language, technical and social skills, and values of this figured world. Their reasons to paint and the topics they express are varied, but authentic expression is fundamental. Graffiti allows these young people to establish an interesting interplay of identities in the world of graffiti versus their ordinary lives. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Art activities Communities of practice Learning Peer groups Identity Youth 1. Introduction In Mexico City, thousands of young people do graffiti, most often illegally, on all types of walls and surfaces; they use symbolized lettering that is recognizable only by initiates and tend to enrage the property owners whose walls are painted. On the other hand, legal mural painting that is produced in broad daylight is becoming increasingly more common. Some graffiti writers are linked to youth gangs, but most live in a highly competitive world of hip-hop graffiti in which prestige is skill-based. Many graffiti writers are becoming graffiti artists in an attempt to add color to the city. This article seeks to show their participation in communities of practicedpeer groups their members refer to as ‘‘crews’’. These crews carry out their activities in the ‘‘figured world’’ of graffiti, where they hide behind their tags, a source of identity and fame that graffiti artists attempt to broaden by creating ‘‘authentic’’ work. 1.1. Theoretical references In the current study, we seek to establish a dialogue with the voices of graffiti artists in southern Mexico City, as well as with the theoretical voices of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) regarding situated learning in ‘‘communities of practice’’ (also called ‘‘peripheral legitimate participation’’). An attempt will be made to articulate these voices with those of Dorothy Holland and * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ52 55 54 83 28 00; fax: þ52 55 56 03 39 57. E-mail addresses: imuris@hotmail.com (I. Valle), eweiss@cinvestav.mx (E. Weiss). 0742-051X/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2009.05.006 Deborah Skinner and their concept of identities in ‘‘figured worlds’’. In their joint work entitled History in Person, Holland and Lave (2001, 4) state that they ‘‘share a common perspective grounded in a theory of practice that emphasizes processes of social formation and cultural production’’, and that ‘‘social existence is constituted in the daily practices and lived activities of subjects who both participate in it and produce cultural forms that mediate it.’’ An ample bibliography is focused on graffiti although somewhat limited information is available on graffiti artists. Graffiti has been characterized in its recent expressions as spray-can art of the underground culture (Cooper & Chalfont, 1984), and as an element of hip-hop culture (Brewer, 1992, 188); graffiti writers are portrayed as nomads who have abandoned their territorial ghettos to appropriate the city with their tags (Reguillo, 2000, 120), and as active artists in public spaces (Dayrell, 2002). Valle (2004) characterized graffiti as fleeting, hermetic, and eclectic in her thesis (as an ethnologist) entitled ‘‘Graffiti: Clandestine Symbols on Walls’’, a history of graffiti in the world and in Mexico. The focus of the present article is not on graffiti as such, but on graffiti artists and their ‘‘learning as increasing participation in communities of practice’’, ‘‘which concerns the whole person acting in the world’’ (Lave & Wenger, 1991, 49). We emphasize this aspect of social participation and informal education in contrast with studies that position graffiti in the criminal worldda view that dominates in the United States (Brewer, 1992) and has been imported by the Mexican government. Most graffiti artists in Mexico City, including the artists covered by this study, are not gang members. As we shall see below, their motivation and rules of the game are not those of gangs. Author's personal copy I. Valle, E. Weiss / Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 128–135 Graffiti artists of a hip-hop style have been characterized as a youthful (sub)culture or urban ‘‘tribe’’. The concept of ‘‘tribe’’, as developed by French sociologist Michel Maffesoli (1990), takes note of the rising of the masses and of individualism, and the concurrent use of archaic elements in the form of social micro-groups or postmodern tribes. Modern ‘‘socialization’’ is replaced by postmodern ‘‘sociality’’: the enjoyment of interaction in a horizontal manner, without hierarchies, in which affection flows easily and joint action is guided more by emotion than by reason. Maffesoli also underlines an ‘‘aesthetic aura’’, or predominance of aesthetic/ sense-based experiences (corporal, tactile, visual, image, auditory, and entertaining activities). Reguillo (2000, 120), in Emergencia de culturas juveniles, characterizes Mexico’s graffiti artists as nomads ‘‘with their own name’’ since the tagger’s pseudonym can be found throughout the city. The tag expresses, in relation to other youth cultures, a certain ‘‘displacement of a collective subject by an individual subject’’. An important referent of the present study is Macdonald (2005), who analyzes the interplay of identities implied by the tag. Macdonald shows that graffiti permits young people to build an ‘‘alter ego’’, a kind of virtual identity independent from physical appearance or social class, in a ‘‘liminal’’ sphere versus ‘‘real’’ life (concepts that we shall question). The interplay consists of finding a good name and individual style and making that name famous through painting. 1.2. The fieldwork The current article is based on ethnographical fieldwork the first author carried out with groups of graffiti artists in Tepepan, a small town that is now a southern suburb of Mexico City. Also utilized are that author’s analyses and written installments from her recently completed thesis on ‘‘Figured Worlds of Graffiti Writers in Tepepan and Learning in Their Community of Practice’’ (which presents many ideas from this article in more extensive form) (Valle, 2009). Valle had met graffiti artists while working on her previous thesis and was able to make contact with others who live in Tepepan, accompanying them to painting sessions and parties over a period of one and onehalf years (while she attended graduate school). The second author is the first author’s thesis director in an educational research department, and oriented the theoretical work and analysis behind the article while taking charge of its writing. The fieldwork was carried out in the most part with two groups of graffiti artists. One group is called KHE (‘‘Cultura, Historia y Expresión’’) (‘‘Culture, History, and Expression’’). Its members are Kolor, age 24, Buik, 22, Eliok, 24, Heak, 20, Kraisy, 20, and Nesio, 23. The second group is USK (‘‘Una Sola Kosa’’ or ‘‘Unidos Somos Kabrones’’) (‘‘A Single Thing’’ or ‘‘United We Are Bad Asses’’), with Alert, age 24, Crilon, 22, and Lessar, 25. Also appearing in the story are other characters found to be passing through the area at various moments in time, such as Left, one of the first graffiti writers in Tepepan. These young people were quite willing to converse about graffiti and their related activities, yet became taciturn when asked about school and workdtopics that we decided to ignore. We know that Buik is studying design, and Eliok, educational administration, while Kraisy is in high school, Kolor and Alert are not in school and work on occasional painting jobs, and Crilon just passed his high school equivalency examination. 1.3. Structure of the article The first topic in this article focuses on learning graffiti by participating on crews of graffiti artists, seen as communities of practice. The article analyzes how graffiti artists learn by observing, painting graffiti, and talking within and about practice. The second section deals with the broader world in which graffiti crews move, 129 with a focus on ‘‘figured worlds’’. An analysis is made of the actors, artifacts, hierarchies, and motivations. The epilogue addresses the relation between graffiti artists’ life in the figured world of graffiti and their ordinary life. The article’s conclusions emphasize the distance between hip-hop graffiti artists and youth gangs. Crews are communities of practice where graffiti artists interact face-to-face and are present as ‘‘whole persons’’, while in the figured world they are known by their pseudonyms (tag names). In such dynamics, an interesting interplay of identities is produced. Expanding the tag’s fame is primarydbut not soledmotivation. We propose that a common denominator of the diverse types of motivation is to express with authenticity (a revival of Romanticism). Through graffiti the young people carry on dialogues within their figured worldddialogues among themselves as well as with the broader social world. The final section of the article discusses the interplay of identities involving the pseudonym or tag and the ‘‘whole’’ person, as well as the relation with other identities of ‘‘ordinary’’ life. 2. Becoming a graffiti artist 2.1. Getting a start in graffiti Most of the graffiti artists interviewed started their relation with graffiti in secondary school (middle school and junior high) after noticing tags along their way to school. Neighbors, cousins, or schoolmates invited them to ‘‘tag’’ with them. Heak: But lots are there just to chill. Eliok: Chilling with dudes, you get interested little by little, although most guys who are there in middle school are there because it’s the style. Kolor: The ones who identify get interested and you go on to another stage. Many have done graffiti at some time or another, but few take it seriously. Some are shy in social relations, like Buik. He began painting only in his notebooks, testing different outlines of his ‘‘tag’’ to create a ‘‘personal style’’. Finally he felt confident enough to paint in the streets. Observing other graffiti is an important stimulus. Kolor, a graffiti artist who prefers to paint legally, explains: When I am painting, a lot of people watch, especially if I paint during the week when secondary school is letting out. Sometimes I am on the ladder when I realize it. If I turn around I almost always see quite a few young kids who stay and watch for a good while. Kreisy, a female graffiti artist, narrates that she learned first by observing: For a long time I would only go to expos. I would stay and look and learn. Then I started to share photos with my friend, sending them by cell phone. And I started to like it more. Expositions are organized with increasing frequency by the municipal authorities and other organizations, and are a good place to observe the way different types of graffiti are created. 2.2. What is learned? Kolor at one point mentioned the progression of the graffiti artist’s skill: If you would like to learn graffiti .you would begin by doing tags, then bombs, you would try 3-D’s and finally, you would do realistic pieces. Kolor indicates degrees of complexity in styles. A tag is fast and easy (becomes almost automatic with practice); a ‘‘bomb’’ requires a somewhat difficult outline with very basic coloring Author's personal copy 130 I. Valle, E. Weiss / Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 128–135 (letters are filled in to contrast with the outline). A ‘‘wild style’’, on the other hand, implies interweaving lines that permit better color combinations and a three-dimensional effect through shadows; realistic pieces require a maximum skill level in an attempt to represent an object, person, or animal, along with mastery in proportions, outlines, shadows, and details. Progressing skills are also expressed in the type of products the graffiti artist is able to use. The same concept was shown in 1990 by Lave, who stated that the hierarchy of tailors in Monrovia was established by a classification of the items each tailor was able to produce. One of the fundamental techniques graffiti artists must learn is ‘‘cap control’’ of the spray can. Left explains: I learned with audacity and astuteness. Every time I painted I paid attention to how to take advantage of the wind, to what happened when you moved the valves, if I brought them closer or moved them farther away, if I used paper for an effect. The key is paying attention. Another important aspect is colors and tones: First you learn black and white, and then shading. Graffiti artists experiment constantly to flame and blend colors. They also experiment with supplies: Once we experimented by putting acrylic in a spray can to save money and everything ended up exploding (Kolor). They invent new tools/supplies in a search for economy and ease: We were buying larger markers and cutting them to make plastic adapters for injecting ink (Left). They also appropriate or create new techniques. Kolor told about a famous German graffiti artist called Snooper who came to Mexico and took out paintbrushes, not an approved practice among Mexican graffiti artists; but Kolor realized that brushes and acrylic paint could be used for the background to save on spray paint. In addition to acquiring technical and artistic skills, graffiti artists have to learn personal behaviors that can prevent problems. For example, taggers in times past moved around the city with their spray cans ready to use, but now carry the caps separate from the cans to reduce the possibility of accusations during routine police revisions. At the same time, they try to avoid staining their hands or clothing, or dripping paint and clogging the cans’ valves. Rather than wearing garments of a hip-hop style, they dress ‘‘normal’’; one group even dresses like ‘‘snobs’’ when they go out to paint. Graffiti artists who paint legally have to develop skills to convince wall owners to grant them permission. A portfolio of photographs of previous projects can serve as an important argument. Advice on points of behavior is exchanged within crews, among crews, in magazines, and on Internet pages. 2.3. Learning through observation and learning by doing As mentioned previously, young people start participating in graffiti by observing graffiti and the process of painting graffiti. At the public expos, invited artists are surrounded by novice painters, as well as old-timers, who learn by observing activities ranging from the way to deal with proportion when transferring a sketch to a wall and the interplay of textures, up to the production of different types of lines, accents, and shading. Lave (1990, 313) describes the similar case of the tailors in Monrovia: ‘‘An apprentice watches masters and advanced apprentices until he thinks he understands how to sew (or cut out) a garment, then waits until the shop is closed and the masters have gone home before trying to make the garment.’’ Such learning through observationd‘‘keen’’ and ‘‘intent’’ observation in the context of family and communitybased learning, according to Paradise and Rogoff (submitted)dis also used by graffiti artists. They observe the ‘‘masters’’ and at night test their learning on their own graffiti.1 1 Such learning processes, which occur without explicit instruction and in concealed form, were difficult to observe during the fieldwork. The second source of learning is practice. The sayings of ‘‘learning by doing’’ and ‘‘practice makes perfect’’ are frequently mentioned by the interviewed graffiti artists. And since only painters of recognizable quality easily obtain walls for legal painting, many artists work in a clandestine form during the nighttime. The importance of practice is also emphasized in rap, which along with graffiti, dance, and music, is one of the four elements of the hip-hop culture. One day I ran into Ewor, a graffiti artist from the Aves crew. He does graffiti and sings rap. As we were going to my house on the suburban train, he was inventing a song with a rap rhythm, an improvisation of the moment. To prove that it was an improvisation, he asked me to take things out of my bag, and he started describing them with an adjective while combining them with the names of the train stations we were passing. He was also describing characteristics of the passengers around me to invent verses. I expressed my recognition of his great ability to improvise and he answered, What is life if not an improvisation? When we got to our station, I asked him if he hadn’t gotten tired of singing the whole way, and he answered no, because it’s like everything else. If you want to be good at something, you have to practice. To make it, you have to practice as much as you can. It is precisely this mixture of improvisation and preparation gained through constant practice that is used to produce graffiti. 2.4. The crew as a community of practice and learning In conversations, members of the two groups who participated in the fieldwork indistinctly call themselves a banda (‘‘gang’’) or familia (‘‘family’’, a term from the world of gangsters), but most often a ‘‘crew’’, using the word in English. The term, crew, refers to teamwork and cooperation aimed at a common goal. Left, an old-timer, talks about the requirements for joining his crew: One condition was that you had to paint and practice, cool, and not be idle. And the other was to contribute to the pool [of money] to buy aerosols, and to go to the parties. The crew is an important community of practice. Group projects are planned at crew meetings, the occasion for crew members also to mix colors and to use and create tools. Left explained: Sometimes we would get together to work together, buying pages of stickers and pens by pooling our money and then painting in the afternoon. During the week, we did a lot at night. After seeing a movie and eating pizza, we would agree to paint. If we painted the stickers on Thursday, we would agree to put them up that Saturday. The crew is also a community of learning. When asked how he learned to paint graffiti, Kolor answered ironically that if you would like to learn graffiti, you would need a course with the KHE; you would begin by doing tags, then bombs, you would try 3-D’s and finally, you would do realistic pieces. There are obviously no courses in his crew, but there are stages in practice and in learning: novices learn by participating in peripheral form (Lave, 1990). Because of the growing number of graffiti artists, finding places to paint is becoming increasingly more difficult; locating spotsdspaces on a wall with good visibility for passersbydis one of the first tasks assigned to novices who want to be accepted in a crew. When the crew paints, the experts can be seen doing the outlining, while the other crew members fill in the spaces; then the masters add certain touches and effects on the paint. As they paint, they take advantage to explain the type of lines different caps make; they may also indicate brands of paint according to price and quality, talk about the winners of past events, or announce an upcoming expo. In other words, they ‘‘talk within practice’’ to engage, focus, shift attention and bring about coordination; on the other hand, they ‘‘talk about practice’’ to support communal forms Author's personal copy I. Valle, E. Weiss / Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 128–135 of memory and reflection, as well as to signal membership (Lave & Wenger, 1991, 109). 2.5. Talk about practice At crew get-togethers, the members talk about their experiences: ‘‘they talk about practice.’’ Kolor: We often get together to talk, especially about graffiti. We talk if there is something we have seen that has impressed us lately. Or if we are going to paint, we see the colors we’re going to use [.] we do talk about the details of things that happen when we paintdif the wall was in good condition, if something funny happened. They also talk as they move through the city, or as they are flipping through fanzines at gatherings. There they evaluate work as ‘‘weak’’ or ‘‘sweet’’. During their conversations, the criteria of evaluation are created: writing/painting in places of difficult access has greater value, as does graffiti that has been visible for a longer time without being stepped on or erased, or paintings that create effects through color, in contrast with ‘‘flat’’ drawing. The interplay of textures and the production of different types of lines, accents, and shading are appreciated. Value is attached to authenticity and original style, while copies are held in low esteem. By seeing the work of others and evaluating such work, graffiti artists obtain orientation for their own work. Kolor comments: Sometimes I sit down with the crew to look at magazines but sometimes magazines are too much influence. That’s why I don’t like to see too many. If an artist sees too many photographs in magazines, he runs the risk of adopting the style of others instead of expressing his own ideas. At parties, graffiti artists tell stories over and again: they continually relive their experiences and comical or dangerous situations in anecdotal form. In particular, artists who became involved in graffiti several years ago tend to explain that finding supplies was more difficult then, and that the younger generations have more tools available for their creations. Thus the community gains strength through ‘‘shared stories’’ (Wenger, 2001), while creating its history and identity through narratives. 2.6. Crews and individuals Among the requirements for belonging to a crew, Left mentions painting and contributing to the purchase of aerosols, as well as ‘‘attending parties’’. Graffiti artists organize large parties with DJs, B-boys, and rap singers. Watching movies, drinking beer, and having parties, however, are only a secondary aspect. The central enjoyment of being together is sharing an interest in graffiti and creating graffiti together, according to Kolor: Getting together with your graffiti artist friends is like when other people say, Let’s go have a beer! With our friends from graffiti we say, Let’s go paint! Because one of the good things about graffiti is meeting people. Sometimes you are walking along and you see someone painting and you ask, Do you do graffiti? You start talking and you make friends. He’ll invite you to paint and you’ll return the invitation. Maffesoli (1990) has underlined the importance of interaction and emotionality in ‘‘tribes’’ of young people. These elements are not present solely for passive consumption but also for processes of creation. Crews tend to be in flux. Old members leave and new members join, and thus crews become important sites of learning. A characteristic that distinguishes crews of graffiti artists from 131 gangs is that a graffiti artist does not owe absolute loyalty to his group; nor does he carry out all of his activities within the group. Each group produces individual as well as collective paintings. A graffiti artist may belong to various crews at the same time, according to his interests and ability to negotiate with different crews. In our case, Kraisy belongs to the KHE crew and also has her own group of female graffiti artists. The crews show a dynamic form of reproduction through cell division: more advanced members leave the group to form their own crews. Such was the case of KHE and USK. Kolor and Alert were originally members of the same crew, but differences caused them to separate and form their own crews, each with its own style: KHE is focused more on art, while USK is more involved in the Mexican identity. Graffiti artists may also take part in a sort of itinerant learning with various teams. Left explains that he changed crews and learned to mix colors in the new crew: After a while I got tired of the problems in the group I was telling you about [.] In the new crew I learned to mix colors because there was an infrastructure. This change in crew is similar to old apprenticeship systems that required learners to spend time with several teachers and their teams before becoming a craftsman. (This system is still used in modern times in the artistic professions of painters, actors, and dancers). 3. The ‘‘figured world’’ of graffiti Both crews and individuals live in the ‘‘figured world’’ of graffiti. Alfred Schütz (1964, 1973) suggests the existence of various ‘‘worlds’’ or ‘‘realms of meaning’’ within the life-world. In their book entitled Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds, Holland, Lachicotte,Skinner, and Cain (2001) propose the concept of ‘‘figured worlds’’ as an analytical tool to observe the practices, discourses, codes, actors and central motives in the realms of academia, fabrication, romance, crime, environmental activism, feminism, and other areas. Each ‘‘figured world’’ is organized into its own categories that attach a name to skill levels, knowledge, hierarchies, and positions in life. 3.1. Actors and their artifacts ‘‘Figured worlds rely upon artifacts’’ or a ‘‘shared repertoire’’ (Wenger, 2001) of ways of doing, saying and acting, as well as the specific use of devices and the material and nonmaterial goods the community needs on a daily basis. The figured world of graffiti has its own language, which Vygostky describes as the main human artifact. The Art Crimes web page includes a graffiti glossary of 108 words that refer to Graffiti (http://www.graffiti.org/faq/graffiti. glossary). The main physical tool of graffiti artists is the spray can, although increasing use is being made of paint and stencils. The scenario/workshop of graffiti artists is the city’s streets, where graffiti artists produce symbols and wall paintings on all types of surfaces. Their main symbolic artifact is their tag name. In crews as communities of practice, graffiti artists are whole persons. In contrast, in the figured world of graffiti, the main actors are tags, the pseudonyms of graffiti artists, and crews. As Macdonald indicates, the first important step is to have a good name. In Mexico, the name should be short and have an interesting sound. Possibilities include a word in English with modified spelling (like Left, Kreisy or Buik) or the transmission of a message about the person who is being represented. Such is the case of Nesio (in Spanish the correct spelling would be Necio, meaning stubborn) or Kolor (spelled correctly in Spanish as Color) who wants to color the entire city. Other artists, like Alert, have various namesdAlert, Hayku, and Botandwhich he claims to use Author's personal copy 132 I. Valle, E. Weiss / Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 128–135 according to his mood. The names of crews are also meaningful: KHE (‘‘Cultura, Historia y Expresión’’) (‘‘Culture, History, and Expression’’); and USK (‘‘Una Sola Kosa’’ or ‘‘Unidos Somos Kabrones’’) (‘‘A Single Thing’’ or ‘‘United We Are Bad Asses’’). Macdonald (2005, 313) points out that graffiti permits constructing a virtual identityd‘‘your graffiti speaks for you’’dthat can make artists famous through a pseudonym (tag name) while providing them with physical cover. The ‘‘magic’’ of graffiti lies in trying to imagine who its author isda mystery not always solved. As Buik states: Sometimes you imagine that someone very tall did a top-to-bottom and it turns out to have been someone short. It’s the magic of graffiti. When you meet graffiti artists, many times they don’t look the way you thought they would, and sometimes they do. A young man who is timid at home can be bold while painting and make his ‘‘virtual identity’’ famous while remaining in the mystery of anonymity. It is also possible to have various virtual identities and use them according to mood, as we saw. 3.2. Hierarchies, prestige and Rivalries As pointed out by Holland et al. (1998, 125), ‘‘another facet of lived worlds’’ is ‘‘that of power, status, relative privilege, and their negotiation’’. An initial hierarchy is expressed in the type of products that each graffiti artist is capable of producing. A tag is simpler than a wild style. Kolor explained hierarchy in terms of the person who has the right to ‘‘step on’’ others. Given the scarcity of walls available for painting, graffiti artists can paint on top of other graffiti if they are more skillful: There’s no problem if a wild style steps on a 3D, a 3D steps on a bomb, and a bomb steps on a tag. That’s normal. But if the Toys step on a production with a tag or a stripe, that is cowardice. I have to respect others and others have to respect me. The world of graffiti is highly competitive, as seen in the event two people use the same nickname or tag. Heak explains: There are many repeated tags but when they meet and paint together, the one who deserves the name will become known. The solution is to hold a contestda face-off at a walldto determine which painter does the better work in a certain amount of time. The winner will keep the name, and the loser must find a new one. The two crews of graffiti artists interviewed for this study had originally been part of a single group. For a certain time after their separation, fights occurred. In Kolor’s words: There was a time the crews attacked each other [KHE and USK, which were formed by internal division]. If I saw one of their paintings, I stepped on it [marked it out or covered it up with another painting] and they would do the same thing. We were stepping all over each other. The streets changed by the hour. As Kolor explains, covering up or ‘‘stepping on’’ a painting is a serious matter: The graffiti means ‘‘I was here’’ . and the gang that thinks it is the most bad-ass steps on everything and does not respect it. But the war is mainly symbolic. The interviewer asked: What would happen if you met on the street? What would you do? Eliok answered: Well we would tell each other things. Fighting with symbols and words instead of fists or knives connotes a group attitude that is different from gangs. Attaining prestige or fame in the community of graffiti artists and in the figured world of graffiti is powerful motivation for many. Prestige is based on criteria such as boldness in the act of painting, difficulties in reaching the place the graffiti is painted, the mastery of techniques, aesthetic quality, ‘‘authenticity’’, and the ability to create something new. Failure in these aspects led a friend of one of the observed graffiti artists to commit suicide. He was suffering from economic and family problems, as well as from the stagnation of his work: his friends had recently discovered that the graffiti he painted was a copy, and not original. 3.3. Motivations Figured worlds have their motivations. According to Macdonald (2005, 313), ‘‘fame is the name of the game.’’ For some graffiti artists, such as Crilon, the illegal aspect is a primary motivator: A1: Hey, Crilon, I saw the Huichol deer you painted along the commuter train! It’s incredible! How did you stay so long on the track? C: Well, I did it when no one was there. Besides from there you can see when a car is coming and you can hide. Like I said, the rush of painting graffiti is incomparable; it’s like an extreme sport. And seeing it there and knowing that thousands of people see it every day and all that. Although you don’t believe it, it reaches their subconscious. The breach of legality seems attractive because of the risks involved. Illegal graffiti is like a kind of ‘‘extreme sport’’ that gives you an adrenaline ‘‘rush’’. A second motive is transmitting a message to thousands of people, in this case through a symbol taken from one of Mexico’s ancestral indigenous cultures. And Crilon adds still another motive: Yes, it’s a rush and every time you want more. That’s why some paint on billboards, others on banks and federal locations where they express their anger about the system .. I have a voice and I won’t be silent because that’s what the system wants. This third motive refers to protesting against the system. Such protest is not necessarily made manifest in political messages. Rather, it is expressed through transgression and the places where the painting is done, such as banks, government offices, and billboards. Kolor, who prefers legal graffiti, says that ‘‘the meaning of my name tries to oppose the black and white city’’ of asphalt and buildings of lifeless gray. For Buik, the challenge is to democratize art, not to depend on galleries and museums, and to use the streets as an open-air gallery. Buik is responsible for the images of bears that appear throughout much of the southern part of Mexico City: For me, spontaneity is a game, childlike, what I have inside. I like to feel like a child and the topic I want to work with is childhood, ingenuity . I think I have been able to do something tender and nice, not always such a violation. But at the deep level it has a discourse . innocent, my bear is like that. I use a bear to give my message of ingenuity but at the same time with another message. For example, I did a version of my bear with a soldier’s helmet, giving the idea of crazy people. By giving the bear, an icon of childhood, a war helmet, Buik attempted to depict social criticism in a tender way. He believes that the image does not have to be a violator in itself: it must be somewhat ‘‘undecipherable’’ and encourage ‘‘viewers to think’’. Buik understands his work as ‘‘absurd advertising’’ and a way of ‘‘democratizing art’’. Kraisy, the female graffiti artist, also paints children’s topics. She portrays dolls, which may be holding kites: It’s a way to remember that a child, who is more observant, is surprised by everything. Kraisy paints only girls, I don’t know, something like an alter ego. I dress my dolls in the clothes I’d like to have. She also likes to emphasize her feminine side, using bright colors, light green, and pastel blue. Alert has created a world of imaginary or fantastic creatures, creatures that live inside me, like spirits: they belong to him, but also form part of the collective imagination of Mexico’s ancestors. In Author's personal copy I. Valle, E. Weiss / Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 128–135 Alert’s case, the Mexican identity is a constant. One of the most important projects he has done is a reproduction of the mural at the Bonampak ruins. Alert’s search to identify his roots is crisscrossed by his experiences with hikuri, a hallucinogenic cactus used in the Huichol culture: a mixture of Mexican spiritual roots and the global esoteric idea of the ‘‘Tribal Trance’’. The themes and motives are varied. We think that a common denominator and a primary motivator for all graffiti artists is selfexpression. According to Buik, I’m here! Look at me! For Alert, painting is a need, like writing songs. You can say the word love in hundreds of different tones, and graffiti is like that. You can express a feeling in many ways. As Eliok indicates, the observed crew was named KHE (Culture, History and Expression) to show ourselves that we can make history and express ourselves by doing what we like. 4. Epilogue: the world of graffiti and ordinary life ‘‘In a village of La Mancha . there lived not long since one of those gentlemen [.] named Alonso Quijano. .the abovenamed gentleman whenever he was at leisure (which was mostly all the year round) gave himself up to reading books of chivalry with such ardor and avidity that he almost entirely neglected even the management of his property; . his wits being quite gone, he hit upon the strangest notion that ever madman in this world hit upon, and that was that he fancied it was right and requisite, as well for the support of his own honor as for the service of his country, that he should make a knighterrant of himself, roaming the world over in full armor and on horseback in quest of adventures, and putting in practice himself all that he had read of as being the usual practices of knights-errant; righting every kind of wrong, and exposing himself to peril and danger from which, in the issue, he was to reap eternal renown and fame..Having got a name for his horse so much to his taste, he was anxious to get one for himself, and he was eight days more pondering over this point, till at last he made up his mind to call himself ‘‘Don Quijote’’. Miguel de Cervantes The graffiti artists in this study have a strong resemblance to Cervantes’ Don Quijano, who acquires a new identity by adopting a new name: Don Quijote. In the same manner, graffiti artists create their tag name and attempt to give it prestige. Their priority is to produce graffiti. As Kolor states: I’m not chasing money . It’s just that I would be happy to have the resources to paint and paint everywhere. That would be the only interest in my sick and twisted little mind. Painting is a wild obsession, as Kolor ironically indicates. Graffiti artists experience their adventures not in the figured world of the knight-errant, but in the figured world of graffiti. Their world contrasts with the world of others like Sancho Panza who are anchored in common sense and see the world of graffiti as ‘‘the strangest notion’’. Novices and ordinary people do not understand ‘‘those marks’’ that for graffiti artists have coherence, meaning, and a context. Not all graffiti artists become involved in graffiti with the same intensity. Some work in temporary form, while others experience graffiti as a ‘‘lifestyle’’; some prefer to find their romantic relations within the ‘‘world of graffiti’’, and others do not. Even quasi professional graffiti artists do not support themselves exclusively within the world of graffiti. All of the interviewees still live with their families and have low-paying jobs; several are in school. It can be said that they have a daily life beyond the ‘‘figured world’’ of graffiti and that they participate in various worlds or communities: graffiti, family, work and school. 133 A type of personal trajectory progresses from being a novice graffiti writer to a recognized graffiti artist at the neighborhood level, city level, national level, and finally, at the international level. At a certain age, young people have to decide if they are going to abandon the world of graffiti or if they are going to become street artists and graffiti professionals. Reak explains: It’s like paying for college. You invest so much of your money in cans, your time, and if you are illegal, in your personal safety. Kolor mentions individuals who make their living from graffiti: they realized graffiti was a business and opened a store where they sell tools and supplies for graffiti, as well as magazines. We see that graffiti artists, especially older artists, as well as the two interviewed crews, are becoming more inclined to participate in legal painting. Questioned about their reasons for painting legally, they answer that we all started by doing tags. They tell stories of having been chased by the police and shot at by private security officers, of mistreatment at the hands of the law, and of their families’ distress in paying fines and getting them out of jail. They are interested in painting work of good quality over longer periods of time, and having the opportunity to work with care over a matter of days, during the daytime hours. A former graffiti artist explains that he gained maximum recognition, his goal: My dream came true. One day I painted with the DNC (Designing New Cultures). You know, the old school, the best. York, Humo, Aser and Sketch. After that, I threw down the cans. ‘‘Throwing down the cans’’ can be compared to a boxer’s hanging up his gloves. In recent years, it has become increasingly common for graffiti artists to take photographs of their creations, either with a camera or a cell phone. They exchange these photos with other artists. They also exchange drawings from their ‘‘black book’’, a special notebook. Such exchanges allow graffiti artists to comment on their work with others while leaving proof of their legacy. Fanzines and magazines featuring photographs (without discourse) taken by graffiti artists have proliferated. In this manner, fugacitydone of the characteristics of graffiti, in combination with secrecydis being overcome. 5. Discussion and conclusions The symbolic nature of the struggles among graffiti artists shows that their crews are not street gangs, i.e., ‘‘groups of young people, mainly young adults, who band together to form a semistructured organization the primary purpose of which is to engage in planned and profitable criminal behavior or organized violence against rival street gangs’’ (Gordon, 2000, 50). We agree with Adams and Winter (1997, 340) that ‘‘tagging crew members form a loosely knit group of individuals . whose main purpose for coming together is to tag’’ (Adams & Winter, 1997, 340). Maffesoli (1990, 239) observes the mysterious attractive force of the community where people seek out the company of others who resemble themdthe emotional community where the pleasure of being together revitalizes interaction, the sharing of emotions experienced in common, vibrating together at Dionysian festivities, and ‘‘the cohesive ecstasy that we find in numerous social experiences.’’ As we mentioned above, emotion is not limited to parties and passive consumption, but is developed especially in the process of creating graffiti. Graffiti artists share the emotion of painting, of vibrating together in their adventures and in their memories. In this sense, graffiti artists could be fully described as a ‘‘tribe’’ in postmodern culture. Predominant in this tribe is the ‘‘aesthetic aura’’ along with aesthetic/sense-based experiences and entertaining activities. Yet being and vibrating together is not limited to emotions; it also implies work and skill. Author's personal copy 134 I. Valle, E. Weiss / Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 128–135 From another perspective, even the festive activities of graffiti artists are part of their community life: ‘‘Becoming a full participant certainly includes engaging with the technologies of everyday practice, as well as participating in the social relations, production processes, and other activities of communities of practice’’ (Lave & Wenger, 1991, 101). On crews, graffiti artists prepare paintings in a joint manner, pool money for the necessary paint, comment collectively on their experiences after painting, and interact in broad emotional sociality at parties. Graffiti painters form part of a community of practice as defined by Wenger (2008): ‘‘They share a passion’’ (for painting graffiti); ‘‘they have an identity’’ (as graffiti painters); ‘‘they are defined by this shared domain of interest’’; ‘‘they engage in joint activities’’ (painting graffiti) ‘‘and discussions’’ (on how to paint and on whether or not they should paint legally); ‘‘they share information’’ (on available spots for painting, on new tools and materials, or new techniques). ‘‘They build relationships’’das crews, or on blogsd‘‘that enable them to learn from each other’’ and they develop a shared repertoire of resources: ‘‘experiences and stories’’ (how I once painted alongside a king), ‘‘tools’’ (spray cans, special adapted markers, paints), ‘‘ways of addressing recurring problems’’ (like getting caught by the police)din short, ‘‘a shared practice’’. Participation means painting, painting more, and continuing to paint: ‘‘practice makes perfect’’. By painting, graffiti artists learn to produce graffiti of varying degrees of difficulty: the simple tag, bombs, the wild style, and lastly, figurative paintings. They learn through keen and intent observation in a crew or at expos. On crews, learning occurs by participating in a peripheral manner: novices serve as lookouts while the others paint; masters draw the lines, and the others paint the background. Graffiti artists learn by practicing and by reproducing what they saw the masters or more advanced artists do. Yet practice is not pure repetition: constant practice is what allows improvisation. An important ingredient is talking during and about practice. Criteria of evaluation are established during group conversations about other graffiti. And both newcomers and old-timers learn by flipping through fanzines or visiting blogs and Internet pages.2 One possibility is to focus on graffiti as a ‘‘community of practice’’, even at the international or virtual level. Although such a setting would be the broad community of graffiti, we prefer to focus on the ‘‘figured world of graffiti’’. This ‘‘figured world’’ is characterized by Holland et al. (2001, 52) as ‘‘a socially and culturally constructed realm of interpretation in which particular characters and actors are recognized’’ (pseudonyms and tags, newcomers versus old-timers; toys or masters or kings), who are ‘‘moved by a specific set of forces’’ (fame; adventure; ‘‘Here I am!’’, etc.) in which ‘‘significance is assigned to certain acts’’ (painting on all kinds of public surfaces) ‘‘and particular outcomes are valued over others’’ (more skill; a dangerous spot; authentic lines, techniques and messages). ‘‘Communities of practice’’ and ‘‘figured worlds’’ are similar concepts. ‘‘Communities of practice’’ emphasize practice, learning, and solidarity, while ‘‘figured worlds’’ center on the social construction of that world and its hierarchies. On crews, as communities of practice, graffiti artists meet face-to-face and are present as ‘‘whole persons’’. In contrast, in the figured world of graffiti, actors are known by their tag and their products, which are at times depicted on walls in the same neighborhood or city, in fanzines or on the Internet. Part of the magic of this figured world consists of the anonymity of the individual’s physical appearance. On the other hand, the community and the figured world intersect 2 The relation with the Internet was explored little during the fieldwork, although references do exist. in practical terms (kings known only by their tag and paintings can be met at expos) as well as in theoretical terms, since communities of practice can also be virtual. Graffiti artists show interesting tension between individuals and the collective, between individual competitiveness and solidarity. Tags are individual. However, if the tagger belongs to a crew, he also puts the sign of the crew (usually three letters). A graffiti artist can belong to several crews at the same time. The crew is a type of community of support for graffiti artists: a team and a peer group for having fun. Graffiti artists have more prestige if they share, interact, and teach others in a crew or simply share a wall in a friendly manner. On the other hand, the search for recognition originates strong competition between crews and tags. We could state that the crew, as the community of practice, is based more on solidarity, while the figured world is based more on competition among individuals. The second author, who was unfamiliar with the world of graffiti, was surprised by the competitiveness of this figured world: competitiveness based on skills and creativity. Creativity, skills, competitiveness, a search for fame, authentic expressiveness, individualism, and solidarity, rivalry and shared learning through participation are characteristics that can be found in artistic communities (as painters or actors). We believe that it would be interesting to explore these aspects in future research projects. According to MacDonald (2001, 313) fame is the name of the game. We also find that attaining prestige is a powerful motivating force. Yet a wide diversity of motivation must be mentioned: adventure, the adrenaline rush, and protesting against the system through illegal graffiti; the attempt to color a gray city and use its walls as a public gallery for legal graffiti; as well as the numerous topicsdchildish dolls, bears, ancestral spirits, or deer from the Huichol culture. We believe that a common denominator is young people’s desire to express themselves. This need for ‘‘authentic’’ self-expression revives the Romanticism of the early 19th century as popular culture. According to Taylor (1994), the notion of authenticity turns to the inner voice that resides in our depth (p. 62). In a perverted and narcissistic form, it makes self-improvement the main value of life (p. 89). Not trivialized, self-discovery passes through creation, through the realization of something new and original, like the development of an artistic language (p. 95). At the same time, authenticity in itself is an idea of freedom; it implies that I find the purpose of my life, faced by the demands of outer conformity (p. 100). It is not about autistic self-expression. On walls, graffiti artists meet other taggers, most often without knowing each other. They establish a type of dialogue, however, through their painting. Painting alongside another person could be interpreted as the construction of a friendly dialogue. Even the practice of ‘‘stepping on’’ unknown graffiti could be considered as a kind of dialogue within that world: Here I am, I am more expert, and I have the right to occupy this place and show something new. In this way, graffiti artists author themselves in the figured world of graffiti. Yet they also participate in a dialogue with the broader social and cultural world beyond the figured world of graffiti. Even the violation of painting in unplanned places, in a hermetic manner, is a way to make a statement to the world of adults: Here we are, young people in our world. It is of interest to confirm that the political protest in much graffiti from earlier decades (cf. Valle, 2004; Falconi, 2006) is present among the interviewed graffiti writers in the form of painting in places that represent the dominant system or in the form of ironic criticism. At the same time, graffiti writers are increasingly becoming graffiti painters, and seek to contribute to coloring the city with more understandable paintings and to convert the city into a gallery of artistic creations. Author's personal copy I. Valle, E. Weiss / Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 128–135 The topic of identities runs implicitly through this article and culminates in the epilogue on the figured world of graffiti and ‘‘ordinary’’ life. We use the term ‘‘ordinary life’’ because we are not convinced about referring to ‘‘real’’ life versus ‘‘liminal subculture’’ as Macdonald (2005) does. The figured world of graffiti can be considered a liminal subculture from the dominant culture. But from the perspective of graffiti artists, their life as taggers is not liminal; it absorbs their time and energy, and is real and everyday. At the same time, graffiti artists do not live solely in the world of graffiti, although their passion is centered there. Since they are also sons and daughters, students, and workers, we could state that they have multiple identities in different figured worlds or that they live in different communities of practice. In the figured world of graffiti, an interesting interplay of identities can be established, as indicated by MacDonald. Graffiti artists are identified by their production; their physical appearance, personality, neighborhood, social class, family, and school are unimportant. In our opinion, this ‘‘space of freedom’’dthe ‘‘space of the author’’dis not attained, in the case of graffiti writers, through ‘‘the interplay of different identities’’ (or normative settings) as Holland proposes (1991, 238). Rather, it is attained through a ‘‘leap’’ from one world to anotherd as indicated by Schutz (cf. Machado, 2007, 42) dfrom the life of son, daughter or student to the life of the tag. In this aspect, graffiti artists resemble the Don Quijano who left an ordinary life to live the adventures of the world as a knight-errant, Don Quijiote. But what can be hidden in the figured world is present in communities of practice. Ordinary life is always present, as well as daily needs. Young people must cover the expense of buying aerosols, and run the risk of going to jail if caught. At the end of the day, taggers must decide if they are going to become semi-professionals in graffiti or abandon their adventure in the figured world of graffitidand live from their memories. Acknowledgements Translation from Spanish into English: Trena Brown. Imuris Valle received a CONACYT scholarship to write the thesis for her master’s degree. Appendix. Supplementary data Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the on-line version at doi:10.1016/j.tate.2009.05.006. 135 References Adams, K., & Winter, A. (1997). Gang graffiti as a discourse genre. 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