SEMANTIC LOAD OF VISUAL FORMS OF VANDAL DAMAGE: REGIONAL ASPECT

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of typical semantic loads of visual forms of vandal damage in various regions of the Russian Federation. The research material includes photos of graphic vandalism in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Samara and Vladivostok. The material was collected during the period from June to October 2020. An analysis of the visual city space of each region was carried out. The study reports specific features of vandalism in each of them, such as, for example, unique character of the spread of certain tags, place of visual images (on the house walls, roofs, under them, on houses under construction), attitude of the local organs of power (in some regions, graffiti quickly vanishes from the city space surfaces and in others it stays for a long time and becomes an element of the city image), prevalence of certain semantic groups. The article defines the common features of the spread of graphic vandalism, which include recurrence of semantic groups and certain signs and symbols providing graphic vandalism a discursive nature and registers a tendency to pass on to a different form of graphic vandalism - sticker art (placing authored stickers on any city space surfaces available) facilitating virtualization of vandalism: often stickers contain the writer’s signature (in various variants) with a built - in QR code which opens to the viewer the whole range of graphic vandalism performed by the author in the real city environment. Thus, even if the public utilities should quickly remove the graphic signs made by the writer, they will stay for a long time in the social networks.