Juveniles urban signs: routes of ilegal graffiti in cyberspace

Abstract

This text is part of a research about youth experiences and the connection between online and offline spheres. This study follows the routes of graffiti signs between the city and the cyberspace. Our observation locus was social networks such as the Orkut and the Facebook from well-known graffiti practitioners in Fortaleza. Besides the cyberspace ethnography, some online interviews and meetings took place. The practitioners leave marks in the cyberspace. The acronym marks of belonging, the graffiti practitioners’ names, establish territories in the cyberspace not necessarily attached to the city spaces. The “xarpi” might be erased from the city spaces, and, even so, remains in the cyberspace. The study shows that the cyberspace makes the sharing of name and the display of acronyms of belonging possible within larger groups of other acronyms, so it brings other sign systems about.