Street art originated in New York City in the 1970s as artists displayed work in subway stations and on city streets. It grew alongside hip hop culture and became more widely accepted. Street art is defined as unsanctioned artwork created in public spaces rather than galleries. It has influenced and expanded the traditional art world while also having cultural and social impacts through provocative works addressing current issues. Technology has also allowed new forms of street art like stencils and stickers to proliferate globally and cross cultural boundaries.

1. Street Art
Liam Heeley

2. The History Of Street Art And Why It
Started
• ‘Street Art’ is considered art outside of the traditional
art venues, the expression blew up in the 1980’s when
graffiti became a lot more accepted and used in
society. New York city is the main location for street art
as it expanded with the expansion of the hip-hop
movement. Street art has been around since the
1970’s, it mainly started from small pieces of street art
being noticed in the subways and streets of New York
City. Street art started with stencils and simple spray
painting on empty space, but now it has evolved to
artists physically making something and street
installations.

3. Defining Street Art
• The definition of street art is the act of creating some sort of art in a public
area, not in a gallery. If a designer designs something for a gallery they
have made it specifically for that gallery in a way they have been
instructed to do so, but street art is the way a designer designs something
completely random and unique, which also follows the theme of the artist.
For example this artist called Space Invader, who makes the space invader
character more significant in the art world by dotting his unique work
around the world, using the same design. If I compare this designer to Van
Gogh, you will be able to see how they are very different, Van Gogh’s
pieces are also very well known in the art world and also sell for a lot of
money, but Space Invader isn't about the money, it is about making his
work more widely known around the world and for people to know it is his
work when they see it. He has even put some of his work on the side of
The Great Wall Of China, which isn't something many other artists would
do. A lot of street art is actually illegal, with Banksy being one of the
biggest street art artists, his work isn't actually legal and this is what
makes his work so significant.

4. What Has It Been Influenced By?
• Street art has many different artists involved in in industry,
so therefore this means each different artist is influenced
by different people, which is good because it allows the
industry to expand worldwide. The industry is already being
noticed worldwide as Space Invader has some of his work
in china, situated on The Great Wall Of China. Artists could
be influenced by many things, one of the main factors
being other artists work, this is a big factor as in The
Northern Quarter in Manchester, work is dotted about all
over free space of the buildings. Another Influence is past
experiences, artists are influenced by past experiences
because they can tell a story in their art work about their
life, this is like the music industry.

5. What Relationships Does It Have To
Other Art Forms?
• Street art uses graffiti, stencils and other physical
materials. This therefore means to create street art,
other factors of art must be used, like drawing and
graphically designing on the computer for example,
this will be used when designing stickers, like Shepard
Fairey for example. Street art also uses real life objects
to create the art, for example Banksy organized an art
exhibition for his art work and he painted a real
elephant and brought it into the exhibition! So this
shows how street art isn't just about graffiti, its all
about using public space to show off artists unique
work.

6. What Impact Has Street Art Had On
Society And Art?
• Although many people are against graffiti, there
are also people who admire the work of others.
Art has massively expanded since the street art
industry blew up in the 80’s,many other people
have been influenced and started to create their
own unique art, which therefore means there are
many more artists in the industry from 30 years
ago. Most street art artists create art work for
their own satisfaction, but then down the line,
they blow up and people start admiring their
work, which therefore makes a lot of small artists
successful in the art world.

7. How Has Technology Had An Impact eg
The Design And Printing Process?
• Technology has had a massive impact on the street art
industry in many ways. One artist that has been using
technology to create his work is Shepard Fairey, he
uses designs and puts them onto stickers, which
therefore allows him to show off his work all over
cities, from putting them on lampposts, to placing
them onto the sides on if buildings. Without
technology, Fairey wouldn’t have been able to get the
work he designed on the computer, onto a sticker, so
therefore technology opened a massive door for him to
do something completely different with his work and
that allowed potential fans to notice his work.

8. What Art / Design Movement Is It Part
Of?
• Street Art is its own category for art, with lots of sub-
categories like graffiti, stencils or stickers for example. It has
had a massive impact in society and on the art industry, so
therefore has been able to expand to have more sub
categories. In terms of design, street art has been able to
do much more than it was able to do 30 years ago, with lots
of new technology being created. There are also many
other categories of art like fine art and sculptures, which
could also come under street art, but overall street art is its
own category. In the 21’st century, street art blew up
because of the modern day styles that artists produced, the
pieces of art where also displayed in galleries and were
auctioned at Christies.

9. What Is The Wider Cultural Context?
• Shepard Fairey has created some significant pieces of
art, one of the most known pieces are the ones where
he sued Obama’s face and wrote a simple word ‘HOPE’
or ‘PEACE”, he also used many other words to put
across a strong message. Fairey designs a lot of work
that links to modern day society and situations, he has
done work on the Syrian War to make people aware
and make them realize the consequences. Certain
artists have had many experiences, which influences
them to design the work they do, this allows the work
to have strong meaning and for it to be very significant
in the art industry.

10. How Is It Used; Created Around The
World And In Other Cultures?
• Street art is used worldwide, artists travel around the
world just to display their work so their audience
expands. Different cultures use street art by designing
work that represents their own culture and religion, for
example different cultures have different symbols that
mean a lot to them, so therefore one culture might
design graffiti using their symbol and another culture
will use a different symbol. Street art is a piece of art
that is used worldwide by many different types of
artists, who have all different styles of work. Street art
originated in the 70’s from New York City, as lots of
artists displayed their work in the subways of the city.