ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the histories of graffiti and street art, their representations in media and public consciousness, and the administrative measures that have transformed these practices throughout the years. It covers a literature review of sociologies, art histories and publications on graffiti and street art, and presents a critical narrative of management and governance, from the war on graffiti in 1970s New York to the branded creativity of contemporary London murals.
The chapter critiques the management of surface inscriptions as either “art” or “crime”, through an innovative interpretation of the governance and art market agendas that have sought to instrumentalise wall-writing practices and turn them into complex matters of urban order and control. It also offers an original reading of creative cities literature and place-branding through art, specifically in relation to the London street art scene. Using concepts such as streetartness, artification and muralisation, the chapter traces the formation of a consensus about the value of street art and its institutional endorsement.
