Programs in Anthropology are proud to announce that Dr. Amina Tawasil's chapter "The Graffiti Spray Can" is featured in the newly published collection Writing Artifacts (2026). Through the lens of material culture studies, the contributors and editors make a case that the study of writing is the study of artifacts.
Dr. Tawasil's chapter "The Graffiti Spray Can" examines how the aerosol spray can, an industrial tool invented for household use, became the central instrument and identity marker of New York City graffiti culture. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with over 200 writers across NYC, New Jersey, and Philadelphia since 2021, the chapter traces the spray can’s technological history and its transformation into a writing artifact through three processes: bombing, competition, and mentorship. Illegality and physical risk associated with bombing lend the tool and its users authenticity and credibility. Technical mastery of spray control, developed through years of practice, becomes a competitive marker of skill within the writing community. Intergenerational relationships between established and younger writers sustain aesthetic evolution and pass down both technique and status. The chapter argues that the spray can is not merely a paint delivery device but a cultural object whose use encodes resistance, skill, and belonging, and through which marginalized communities assert identity and claim recognition in urban public space.
Writing Artifacts is now available .