Editorial introduction

Geert J. Verhoeven; Jona Schlegel; Benjamin Wild; Stefan Wogrin

doi:10.48619/indigo.v0i0.971

Geert J. Verhoeven Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft - LBI ArchPro, 1190 Vienna, Austria
Jona Schlegel Independent researcher, Vienna, Austria
Benjamin Wild TU Wien - Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, 1040 Vienna, Austria
Stefan Wogrin Spraycity, Austria

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48619/indigo.v0i0.971

Abstract

In the year of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary and the 40th birthday of Wild Style, goINDIGO 2023 managed to bring various disciplines together to discuss the various ways of dissipating and understanding bits of graffiti bytes. The proceedings of this symposium pick up and reiterate where the previous proceedings left off: with the contemporary ways of disseminating old or new graffiti. Afterwards, several papers discuss practical and theoretical ways to unravel graffiti-scapes and develop new insights. In summation, tackling graffiti as sociocultural artefacts demands multidisciplinary frameworks. The editors hope the interconnected graffiti themes covered here and in the goINDIGO 2022 proceedings provide inspiration and an up-to-date overview of various framework components to deal with ancient and contemporary graffiti-scapes.

Author Biographies

Geert J. Verhoeven, Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft - LBI ArchPro, 1190 Vienna, Austria

Geert J. Verhoeven (°1978) is a senior scientist in archaeology at the University of Vienna (Austria). He received his Master’s and PhD degrees from Ghent University (Belgium) in 2002 and 2009, respectively. Geert is passionately curious about photography, image-based 3D surface modelling, metadata and semantic technologies, spatio-temporal reasoning, colour science, image processing, data visualisation and statistics. His endeavours in these fields aim to improve and standardise data acquisition, data management and information extraction procedures to benefit archaeology and the broader cultural heritage field. From September 2021 to August 2023, Geert took a deep dive into the colourful graffiti world by coordinating project INDIGO. His research output can be found at https://beyondconventionalboundaries.com.

Jona Schlegel, Independent researcher, Vienna, Austria

Jona Schlegel (°1988) is a PhD student at the University of Vienna, focusing on archaeological stratigraphy and spatio-temporal reasoning in the context of graffiti. She completed her MSc in Landscape Archaeology in 2018 at the University of Applied Science and the Free University, Berlin. At the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (2018–2023) Jona worked on geophysical prospection and 3D documentation. During project INDIGO, Jona has contributed to developing the INDIGO graffiti thesaurus, organised symposia, and played a pivotal role in web development and spatio-temporal data structuring. Her work and research can be explored at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jona-Schlegel.

Benjamin Wild, TU Wien - Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, 1040 Vienna, Austria

Benjamin Wild (°1996) is a PhD student and university assistant at the Photogrammetry unit at the Department for Geodesy and Geoinformation at Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien). He received his Master’s degree from TU Wien in Geodesy and Geoinformation in 2021. Since then, he has been part of the graffiti-centred academic project INDIGO. Before investigating photogrammetric solutions in the context of graffiti research, Benjamin worked in the same department but in the field of environmental microwave remote sensing. What connects both experiences is the interest in understanding our environment better, be it the Amazon rainforest or the graffiti along Donaukanal. Benjamin’s research output can be found at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Benjamin-Wild-5.

Stefan Wogrin, Spraycity, Austria

Stefan Wogrin (°1989) is an art historian and graffiti documenter. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Art History and European Ethnology from the University of Vienna in 2017. Stefan has been an active graffiti writer since 2001, when he also founded the Vienna-based Spraycity graffiti writing archive (https://spraycity.at), an online platform where 100,000 graffiti photos are accessible. Stefan takes photos of graffiti from all different public surfaces in Vienna and has been researching Vienna’s graffiti history. He also curated several exhibitions about graffiti and is the editor of the Offline Graffiti Magazine. His graffiti research can be found at https://spraycity.at/research.

Editorial introduction

Dissipating and Unravelling Bits of Graffiti Bytes

Abstract

Author Biographies