Reading between the [plot] lines: framing graffiti as multimodal practice

This chapter outlines a reflexive and interpretative framework developed to navigate the complexity of material and temporal disclosure associated with the photographic re-framing of graffiti’s traces. It is embedded in broader research that seeks to interrogate how illicit graffiti shapes and transforms place in varied spatio - temporal contexts in Sydney and Melbourne. Graffiti’s transgressions are under - stood as a poetic process of revealing and concealing marks over time and space that leave indelible traces in the here and now, and can be read as texts, whether it be image, word, impression and/or gesture to form new or hidden narratives and places. The conceptual aim sets out to unravel the tensions and conversations embedded in graffiti’s discursive relations to expose plot lines inaccessible in approaches that emphasize the disparate classification of decontextualized modes of practice. The challenge here is to ascertain how such a diverse and divergent practice with its range of modes, relations and situations that have a varied capacity for meaning making can be negotiated. The notion of meaning making being relational is twofold. It refers to the relations between or within graffiti texts, as well as the relation between the viewer and the photographic frame. This approach asserts the place and value of the materiality of graffiti as discursive sites of knowledge about the process, formation and transference of social meanings. The multimodal and intertextual handling of graffiti advanced here affords a hybrid, flexible and less discriminatory place to negotiate the discursive, expressive and socio-semiotic dimensions of graffiti practice framed in situ, coupled with its performative and material aspects, and spatio-temporal compression. Readings from the researcher’s own empirical encounters in the landscape of graffiti production contextualize this discussion. These photographic framings embed a fertile mix of interactions, engagements and place-making that pries open graffiti’s parallel discursive arena, which counters normative modes of public expression to construct a relational socio-politics of place.