Infrastructure tag
Infrastructure tag with graffiti background. S.E.C. E.H.T. CABLES
Materials have built-in longevity and some urban surface writing will outlive other, mostly on account of the matter it's made of (and not, for example, its authorisation or lack thereof)
DIY condom billboard
Possibly my favourite wall inscription of all time.
Surely one of my favourite public spaces of all time.
Palermo 2018
Linguistic landscapes
Linguistic landscapes = studying urban cultures through the texts they produce and display. Note here the many languages on the "No rubbish dumping" sign, quite unusual for municipal signage in Melbourne. Note also the wooden street postering frames, and the "ghost sign" above.
Glistening glue
Paste-up glue turning into a textured-glass-like surface, glistening and slippery to the touch.
Entry for the materials catalogue of the city.
Competing agendas
Everyone with their own agendas, unwittingly writing public culture on the shared surfaces of cities
Pavement signs
Three pavement signs:
♔ A mysterious temporary challenge
☣️ A regulatory hazard warning
🅿️ And an exhumation of a parking sign that belonged somewhere on a pole
Text in the city
Imagine if sociologists, architects, planners, anthropologists started affording genuine attention to studying THIS as a type of space, communication, cultural and creative expression, public discourse, legal discourse - the list goes on.
A good place to start is just by READING EVERYTHING.
Sexy paper surface
The orange frame at the right marks the boundary of a designated site for street posters. There are many of these in Melbourne on the sides of buildings - more on them to come.
But then inside - the top part of this photo is part of a graffiti piece, so you see…
Outdoor posters languages
Cycle wear, army recruitment, garlic bread festival: three things advertised on street posters through very different techniques.
Sex work debates
These two photos were taken 7 weeks apart on Sydney Road in Melbourne. They depict four cis and trans women of different skin colours, with the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal flags, and the message “Decolonise sex work”.
In the second photo, the trans flag was added, together with the following text
Public writing
Writing on city surfaces makes publics through sharing language, information, and the spaces of writing themselves. I can't read this text but I am familiar with the urban experience of encountering it, and can intuit its function.