Vanguard or Vandal?

Participants

• grafiteiros and pixadores between the ages of 18 and 55
• conducted interviews with 40 participants
• conducted participant observation at events (official and unofficial) and pixo "points" and parties

Untitled Slide

Events

• PixoAção and ArdePixo events
• Pixo "point" in Centro, every Thursday night
• Feira Cultural Vila Das Cores (Vila Mariana)
• Kebrada em Cores, Festival de graffiti (Sao Miguel)
• Os Mais Antigos festa (Interlagos)
• Arte e Cultura na Kebrada (Sao Miguel)

Main patterns and what I attempted to capture

• In the public imaginary, grafite has become a symbol of creativity, beauty, and cleanliness; pixo has become a symbol of disorder and filth. Among grafiteiros and pixadores, these two forms of expression are more alike than they are different

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• grafiteiros cite artistic talent that presented itself in childhood while simultaneously invoking the grassroots origins of graffiti; pixadores engage in a symbolic inversion that resignifies pixo as accomplishing spectacular feats in spite of contrary forces to gain recognition

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• Grafiteiros and pixadores both leverage the increased legitimacy of grafite and adopt affectations of hegemonic acceptance to avoid hostile encounters

Additional ideas and material

• Death, memory, and materiality in the city
• Circulation of grafite and pixo in the digital age
• Site specificity and the significance of certain marked spaces
• Gender dynamics in these communities
• Content that marks time

Positioning as a scholar

• Areas of focus: anthropology of art, legal anthropology, and urban anthropology
• Interests: symbolic distinctions and power, construction of legitimacy and criminality (illicit/licit worlds), and possibilities of resistance through practices of risk, play, and re-imagination
• Geographic region(s): Brazil, the Southern U.S. (Texas and Florida), & digital spaces

Future directions

• Any of the topics already discussed Graffiti tourism in Latin America
• Graffiti tourism in Latin America