TAG: Name writing in public space – Hamburg 2023

A conference about tagging, in history and today

The TAG Conference is the world’s biggest scientific gathering for namewriting related research. Two years ago it was co-organized by the Hamburg University and the Centre for the Studies of Manuscript Cultures and held at the Museum of Hamburg History, the largest venue to host the event yet. Finally the accompanying reader is available compiling the conference’s presentations on 128 pages.

On the 29th and 30st June 2023 more than 20 speakers from 14 different countries gave insight into their research and studies as part of the brilliant EINE STADT WIRD BUNT. exhibition. The topics vary from presentations on the works of local heroes like OZ and SKENA as well as writing in underground infrastructures in Australia or pro Russian war propaganda messages in the streets of Berlin.

The complete table of contents includes:

• Introduction – Javier Abarca
• Archiving the ephemeral: the Tag Collector Project – The Tag Collector
• Information barrage through public name-writing – Gauri Paprikar & Mayukh Gosavi
• Das Ist Unser Krieg: The case of an anti-solidarity graffiti campaign in Berlin – Polina Stohnushko
• OZ said – Kathleen Göttsche
• New approach to the documentation of the tagging subculture in Tokyo – Mohamed N. El-Barbary, Mariko Ikeda and Ondřej Škrabal
• Collectivity in individual name-writing – Orestis Pangalos
• Naš kraj – Our hood: Names and tags in South Slavic varieties in the public space of Vienna – Katharina Tyran
• Von der ersten Skizze an? Über die Sichtbarkeit und Abwesenheit des Tags im Blackbook – Sanja Ewald
• Carved tags: Contemporary graffiti on rocks by Russian street artists – Anna Nistratova
• Object Infinity: Obsession, mania, and living forever in the underground – Rory Maley
• Erasing heritage through love markings: Identifying a form of graffiti in New Delhi – Rashi Karkoon
• Building history: How to collect, archive and catalogue memories – Tobias Barenthin Lindblad

The reader closes with a small chapter of impressions from the Conference and biographies on the participants. We are proud to be able to offer you this publication right to its release. If you missed the Conference this reader is a must for everyone interested in the scientific field of namewriting.

128 pages, 21 x 29,7 cm, softcover
Language: English or German (Most authors wrote in English, only one essay is in German)
Release date: August 2025
ISBN: 978-3-9824951-3-2
Editor: Javier Abarca
Publisher: Double-H Publishing