“Starting the gentrification process” : negotiating the place of street art between sub-, popular and high culture

Abstract

The dissertation analyses a wide array of methods with the aim of discussing the gentrifying role of Street Art in derelict spaces. This has been inspired by a recent rise in academic and commercial interest in the gentrifying role of Street Art, Graffiti and other forms of Urban Art. By looking at an inter-disciplinary critical theoretical body of work, this research approaches the thesis by assessing the transformative aspect of Street Art; internal and external elements as represented by artists and other influential critics of the artform; the surge in diffusion of this artistic movement through the use of the internet; as well as through case-studies in two starkly different urban contexts found in Malta and in the United Kingdom. In the merits of this dissertation one could also include the vast range of research methodologies which have been applied: photo-documentation, qualitative assessment, formal analysis as well as discourse analysis within different forms of representation.