Texturology
“This texture tells not of the form of things but of their substantive composition”
Melbourne posters
The gorgeous posters of Melbourne
Fragile, torn, characterful, mobile, multi-sited, artistic, resilient
Heritage plaques
Three plaques I came across recently in my Melbourne neighbourhood of Brunswick.
One for a person;
One for a building;
And the other one for a collective history. It says "this…
Green wall
Now: imagine the weeds are tags are weeds are tags. Infesting the urban, as Vittorio Parisi wrote about in the Tagging issue of the superb journal Lo Squaderno. The rotting urban interstice. More on this soon from Kurt Iveson.
Surface heritage
Surface markings and writings from the east coast of Kenya, in the UNESCO-listed village of Lamu. This is the oldest Swahili settlement in East Africa - which is the main importance of its built and cultural heritage. Yet all these commercial signs, posters and political campaign messages have an important heritage value of their own!!
Photos January 2023
Observation practice
Many of these surface worlds are an acquired taste of interest - in that the more details one learns to observe, the more threads unravel. And when they do... 😍
Instructions
Spatial instructions from public surfaces. Many of these messages are displayed to protect the integrity of their supporting building or structure.
Green light for swimming
Green light for swimming ☀️// urban semiotic infrastructure (the material support for communicating specific things in specific places)
Two worlds
A tale of two worlds and vastly different aspirations for a mirrored city surface.
Melbourne Sept 2023.
Corrugated iron
Corrugated iron from the laneways of Melbourne suburbs. It's such an environmentally reactive material, recording transformation more than most surfaces - and notice none of these have much human inscription on them. It's the weather doing all the painting.
Venice directional signage
A few directional signs in Venice that point to San Marco. Urban semiotics at its most inventive.