The removal of graffiti or over-painting requires special attention in order to not induce the surface destruction but to also address all of the important eco-compatibility concerns. Because of the ...necessity to avoid the use of volatile and toxic petroleum-based solvents that are common in cleaning formulations, much attention has recently been paid to the design of a variety of sustainable formulations that are based on biodegradable raw materials. In the present contribution we propose a new approach to graffiti cleaning formulations that are composed of newly synthesized green solvents such as esterified plant oils, i.e., rapeseed oil (RO), sunflower oil (SO), or used cooking oil (UCO), ethyl lactate (EL), and alkylpolyglucosides (APGs) as surfactants. Oil PEG-8 ester solvents were synthesized through the direct esterification/transesterification of these oils using monobutyltin(IV) tris(2-ethylhexanoate) and titanium(IV) butoxide catalysts under mild process conditions. The most efficient formulations, determined by optimization through the response surface methodology (RSM) was more effective in comparison to the reference solvents such as the so-called Nitro solvent (denoting a mixture of toluene and acetone) and petroleum ether. Additionally, the optimal product was found to be effective in removing graffiti from glass, metal, or sandstone surfaces under open-field conditions in the city of Wrocław. The performed studies could be an invaluable tool for developing future green formulations for graffiti removal.
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Anti-fouling coatings are of great interest because of their unique wettability and self-cleaning property, but their widespread applications are seriously hindered by low stability, ...heavy usage of fluorinated compounds and low transparency, etc. Here, we report a new kind of smooth anti-fouling coatings based on methyltrimethoxysilane. The coatings were fabricated by preparing a stock solution via hydrolytic condensation of methyltrimethoxysilane in isopropanol, followed by wiping the glass slide with the non-woven fabric that sucked the stock solution. The transparent anti-fouling coatings have excellent anti-fouling properties against various fluids such as water, n-hexadecane, diiodomethane, daily encountered liquids (e.g., milk, coffee, red wine, soy sauce and cooking oil), mark seals, artificial fingerprint liquids and paints (both water-based and oil-based), etc. The fluids can easily roll off from the 4-30° titled coatings. Furthermore, the coatings have good mechanical (200 cycles of friction, scratching and bending), chemical (saline, acidic and basic solutions) and thermal stability (boiling and 300 °C heating) regarding the easy sliding behavior of the probing liquids. In addition, the anti-fouling coatings are applicable onto various substrates via the same procedure. The smooth anti-fouling coatings have huge potential applications, owing to the excellent anti-fouling properties, high stability as well as the non-fluorinated and simple preparation method.
Color data are often required for cultural heritage documentation. These data are typically acquired via standard digital cameras since they facilitate a quick and cost-effective way to extract RGB ...values from photos. However, cameras' absolute sensor responses are device-dependent and thus not colorimetric. One way to still achieve relatively accurate color data is via camera characterization, a procedure which computes a bespoke RGB-to-XYZ matrix to transform camera-dependent RGB values into the device-independent CIE XYZ color space. This article applies and assesses camera characterization techniques in heritage documentation, particularly graffiti photographed in the academic project INDIGO. To this end, this paper presents COOLPI (COlor Operations Library for Processing Images), a novel Python-based toolbox for colorimetric and spectral work, including white-point-preserving camera characterization from photos captured under diverse, real-world lighting conditions. The results highlight the colorimetric accuracy achievable through COOLPI's color-processing pipelines, affirming their suitability for heritage documentation.
This article explores aspects of the archival value of graffiti and street art. It applies an intersectional feminist lens and draws upon Althusserian subject interpellation to elaborate some ...potential techniques for appraising graffiti. Understanding graffiti as ideological calls can help us understand how graffiti acts on us and functions for us: as a record of oppression, institutional and social relations, and individual negotiations with power. The article offers examples of graffiti acting as a form of speech for the unheard and marginalized and illustrates these examples with photographs of graffiti captured by the author and images of graffiti and street art located in various collections. It compares the appraisal and collection methods of the Urban Art Mapping Project, a North American participatory graffiti archive, with the Street- ARToronto (StART) street-art map maintained by the City of Toronto. Through these comparisons, the article argues for the evidential value of locally driven archives of the type of political graffiti excluded from the StART map.
Since prehistoric times, graffiti has been a way for humans to express themselves and interact with the landscape in a visual way. Graffiti is a visual record of the relationship between society, ...culture, and the environment over time, representing an additional layer of sociocultural value to the underground built heritage (UBH). Thanks to the application of digital technologies and a specific workflow, this paper will suggest how graffiti can be regarded as an additional and relevant element of creating connections and strengthening the site’s values, bridging the past and present communities. Through the critical discussion of two case studies—the monastery of Ayia Napa (Cyprus) and the Saint Helena chapel in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem—the authors want to achieve two main goals: first, they want to highlight the sociocultural value and raise awareness about the presence and significance of historic graffiti. In the second instance, they wish to illustrate how graffiti can be an additional agent for the sustainable development, valorization, and promotion of the UBH.
Ornament and Order Schacter, Rafael
2014, 20160513, 2016-05-13, 2016-05-15, 2014-09-28
eBook
Over the last forty years, graffiti and street-art have become a global phenomenon within the visual arts. Whilst they have increasingly been taken seriously by the art establishment (or perhaps the ...art market), their academic and popular examination still remains within old debates which argue over whether these acts are vandalism or art, and which examine the role of graffiti in gang culture and in terms of visual pollution. Based on an in-depth ethnographic study working with some of the world's most influential Independent Public Artists, this book takes a completely new approach. Placing these illicit aesthetic practices within a broader historical, political, and aesthetic context, it argues that they are in fact both intrinsically ornamental (working within a classic architectonic framework), as well as innately ordered (within a highly ritualized, performative structure). Rather than disharmonic, destructive forms, rather than ones solely working within the dynamics of the market, these insurgent images are seen to reface rather than deface the city, operating within a modality of contemporary civic ritual. The book is divided into two main sections, Ornament and Order. Ornament focuses upon the physical artifacts themselves, the various meanings these public artists ascribe to their images as well as the tensions and communicative schemata emerging out of their material form. Using two very different understandings of political action, it places these illicit icons within the wider theoretical debate over the public sphere that they materially re-present. Order is focused more closely on the ephemeral trace of these spatial acts, the explicitly performative, practice-based elements of their aesthetic production. Exploring thematics such as carnival and play, risk and creativity, it tracks how the very residue of this cultural production structures and shapes the socio-ethico guidelines of these artists' lifeworlds.
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