(Re)location of discourses in institutional space

Abstract

The present chapter focuses on the relationship between discourse and place as well as on the practice of graffiti-writing and its cultural meanings in Argentina. The theoretical perspective that this study builds on is a sociolinguistics of praxis which focuses on social activity and privileges data from the everyday lives of ordinary people. As a result, it becomes possible and suitable to study discourse in socio-cultural practices. The case to be examined is associated with certain ways of having fun in a public urban setting characterised by official signs and mainstream discourses. The site of a state institution is regularly transformed by the practices of roller-skating, skate-boarding and acrobatic cycling as well as by abundant graffiti discourses of play and mischief. The semiotic assemblages comprise design, colour, non-standard spelling and grammar, distorted letters, stylised calligraphy and, most significantly, English words or phrases. This transgressive (though not penalised nor socially condemned) use of walls by groups of youngsters who move through the campus is connected to a globalised aesthetics and the consumption of cultural products such as video games. Studying relocalised discourses in the semiotic landscape and their association with the young can enhance our understanding of local or global cultural trends.