Street Altercation: Stop #4

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The last two phases of this walking tour take place on Instagram. The group is asked to meet in an alleyway that is less crowded and dimly lit in order to set the scene for the digital street art. It is important to note how powerful street art is, the immense walls it covers, however, is sometimes geographically limiting.

These last two destinations serve to recognize that street art is now open to many more individuals through platforms such as instagram. The message can be spread all over the world, even enticing some to travel in order to find this transformative piece. Destinations throughout the world are now finding more foot traffic as they are avalible to millions of users. Through instagram, street artists are able to gauge the feelings and sentiments of their followers and react with vivid street art. A movement titled #Stoptellingwomentosmile located in Chicago, Illinois, USA is home to some of the most moving and responsive street art (Chakraborty).

One click further into this hashtag reveals an numerous portraits of women with captions inspired by their altercations with “Catcalling” on the streets. These portraits are reposted as prints and placed in public spaces so that offenders of these sexual harrasment crimes are able to look into the victims eyes and see that they are standing up against this behavior. These portraits also serve as indicators that these women are not alone in the battle against gender discrimination. Men have also joined this campagin, achknoledging that this battle is one of equality for all sexes. Street artists are able to take the voices of the victims and create a much larger and more powerful movement through their vision.