THE TAG CONFERENCE: TOPICS
THE TAG CON-
FERENCE: TOPICS
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Name-Writing in Public Space
Informal name-writing in public spaces is a time-honoured practice, likely as old as writing itself. From children and anonymous labourers to renowned historical figures, people of all kinds have felt the urge to symbolize their existence in a particular place and time by leaving a personal trace for others to see.
This practice has taken on particularly visible roles at different points in history, such as in Ancient Rome and the Romantic era. It has served as a cartographic tool, a way to track movement through unknown landscapes, and a symbolic weapon in times of war. In the last century, it gained unprecedented intensity and became the central feature of several fully fledged folk cultures worldwide.
The most sophisticated of these is the graffiti tradition that emerged in the subways of New York City in the 1970s, and later spread to cities across the globe. By influence of this movement, informal name-writing is now widely known by the slang term “tagging.”
The Tag Conference seeks to foster dialogue on tagging across all eras. We also welcome talks on other aspects of graffiti and the phenomena that intersect with or surround it—see the detailed list of topics below.
Our Scope
The Tag Conference is interested in talks that engage directly with graffiti itself. Our main focus is on presentations grounded in description, research, and fieldwork—approaches closer to journalism than to purely theoretical reflections.
While we remain open to fresh ideas that can move the conversation forward, we feel that theoretical debates about graffiti have already had plenty of space elsewhere. Here, we want to focus on studying graffiti directly and uncovering its unique and overlooked aspects.
The Tag Conference explicitly opens the conversation to voices outside of academia. Where applicable, we can provide formal acceptance letters and any necessary documentation to support institutional funding.
Join the conversation
If you’d like to propose a talk topic for a future Tag Conference, please email us.
List of topics
We are open to the following tagging-related topics and look forward to discovering new ones.
CULTURES & HISTORIES
Modern tagging cultures
Enquiries into traditions such as New York graffiti and its global interpretations; North America’s “monikers” and their global interpretations; Brazil’s “pixação” and “xarpi”; Madrid’s “flecheros”; Mexico’s “ganchos” and “trepes”; the punk and hooligan tagging of The Netherlands; the “placasos” of LA and Central American gangs.
Tagging through history
Especially in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Romantic era.
Collective tagging
Systematic writing of political party and union names, slogans, band names (e.g. 1970s–80s Argentina and Uruguay); writing by football ultras, especially where it intersects with graffiti culture.
Slogan-based tagging
As seen in 1970s Brazil with taglines like “Celacanto Provoca Maremoto” or “Gônha Mó Brêu”.
Name-writing figures
Studies of individuals from established tagging cultures; studies of outsider name-writing figures like Joseph Kyselak, Restif de la Bretonne, Arthur Stace, Tsang Tsou Choi, Peter-Ernst Eiffe, Profeta Gentileza, Pray, Al Jolson, Toniolo, Melina Riccio, Oz, @rtist, and Alain Rault.
FROM AESTHETICS TO GEOGRAPHY
Tagging as a calligraphic act
Tools, materials, surfaces, methodologies, styles, graphic references; custom or DIY instruments adapted to surface, reach, or permanence.
Tagging as a spatial and time-based act
The series of tags as a network across space and time; Ferrell’s “spot theory”; tagging as related to architecture and the built environment; territorial control in gang cultures.
SYMBOLISM & FUNCTION
Tagging as cartographic tool
Marking movement across large territories (e.g. Daniel Boone, El Morro, Signature Rock); inscriptions by shepherds, early hobos, hitchhikers, and other nomads.
“I was here”: fleeting relation to place
Mountaintops, caves and catacombs, routes and paths, tourist sites, and other symbolically charged places; bus stops, public toilets, waiting rooms, and other mundane places.
Tagging as symbolic weapon in wars
From “Kilroy was here” to inscriptions at Tutankhamun’s tomb and the Reichstag.
Tagging as rite of passage
Ephebe graffiti in Classical Greece, Spanish “quintos” and university “vítores”.
Sustained relation to place
Inscriptions in military bases, prisons, workplaces, schools, gyms.
REPRESENTATION & MEANING
Tagging and other forms of public graphic identity
Tags as reflections of advertising and official writing in public space; Baudrillard’s “semiological warfare”; related imagery-based forms like stencils, stickers, paste-ups, and graffiti-vigilante paint patches.
Representations of tagging
In film, album covers, comics, literature, and popular culture (especially pre-1970s).
Tagging and technology
Use of computing, databases, and robotics in tagging research. ●