The monograph explores the way graffiti and street art cultures perceive copyright laws and how artists and writers look at the creative aspects of their own practice.
By City Press Office (City Press Office), Published
In his most recent book Copyright in the Street - An Oral History of Creative Processes in Street Art and Graffiti Subcultures (Cambridge University Press), The City Law School’s Dr Enrico Bonadio brings the opinions and feelings of street artists and writers on copyright to the surface.
Should and can their works be protected, especially where they are created illegally? Could and should they enforce their moral rights to assert authorship and try to preserve their pieces? Would invoking copyright in these creative subcultures contradict the street art and graffiti anti-establishment ethos?
These are just a few of the questions addressed in the monograph by Dr Bonadio, a Reader in Intellectual Property Law.
Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, including semi-structured interviews with ninety street artists and writers and countless hours of participant observation, Dr Bonadio's book offers a socio-legal analysis of creative processes in the world of street and graffiti art - and it does so by unearthing the "voice from the street" on a legal tool - copyright - which is progressively entering this arena.
This is precisely the ethnographic feature distinguishing Dr Bonadio's monograph from other kinds of research undertaken in recent times: his direct involvement and friendship with the protagonists of these artistic subcultures and his understanding of the creative processes within such communities, gives this study a unique hallmark.
For more about Dr Bonadio’s book, published by Cambridge University Press, please visit this weblink.