Guerrillas in our midst: Underground Gardening and Knitting in the city

This thesis examines the impact of Guerrilla Gardening and Guerrilla Knitting (also known as Yarn Bombing) in and on the city. Examining definitions and distortions of the notions of ‘the vandal’, ‘the activist/craftivist’ and ‘guerillaisms’ that are made via these movements illustrates an expanding notion of the ‘urban dweller’. Tackled in terms of approaches, public and situationist theory, the site-specificity of these new types of activities will be proposed as ways in which the human scale can be realised amidst an environment increasingly understood on a ‘mega’ scale, dominated by capitalist simulacra. Technological developments of the ‘information age’ will be shown to be facilitators of activism, these two movements forming a bridge between increased virtual communication and human interaction, which result in city-wide and social movements that reach far beyond their physical limits in an increasingly ‘glocal’ society. Positioned against the changing backdrop of the Street Art world is an increasing beautiful vandalism or diminutive/secretive trend in street art works; the ways in which these socially altruistic yet unendorsed urban expressions can renew the dead spaces of the metropolis are explored. This interdisciplinary study reaches beyond its roots in visual culture, touching on issues of activism, urban planning and communal creativity. Positioning both movements as vital counter discourses, from their oxymoronic definitions to their reclamation of public space, this discussion reveals a rebellion which is fuelled by that which it seeks to challenge