Fly posting as a method of communication and the traces left behind.
Georges Perec, in his book ‘Species of Spaces and Other Pieces’ (1974), calls to exhaust the subject, observing until the scene becomes improbable. In my case, Kings-cross St Pancras, Crossroad was the subject. To start with, I recorded every aspect of the place, both the peculiar and mundane, using various methods. As a transport hub, countless pedestrians move in and around the place, some daily commuters while others, tourists and as a result it is populated with both commercial and residential establishments. Hence, I was left with numerous variables to filter through. And among these, hiding in plain sight, were stickers and graffitis spread across the area.
Interested to know more, I set out to find a pattern between these stickers and graffitis. I grouped them under the following categories of Advertisements, Social Media, Art, or Statement/Message. Some stickers were torn, some intact and others just traces of the sticker. Upon further investigation, I was able to connect the traces of the stickers and graffiti with the entity that might have removed them (referring to the entity, as either a pedestrian or the official authority or the weather). If a pedestrian does not care for the message that the sticker is trying to communicate, they will scratch the word or the message out, thus practising censorship. Whereas, if the authority removes the vandalism, there are usually no traces left, and they might only do it from a utility standpoint, without any bias towards the content. And if it still is able to hide from these two, the weather with normal wear and tear are the culprit.
All these stickers and graffitis, had rich and unique typefaces and the wear and tear added to the character. So, for the next phase, I was inspired by Agnes Verde’s Film, The Gleaners, and I (2000) and as the gleaners would collect the leftover, similarly I too took part in gleaning. Collecting what was left behind, after someone had either pasted, or painted, or scratched, a sticker or graffiti over the poles and the walls. Combining all these unique letters from the left behind stickers I was able to form a visual language. I imitated Paul Elliman’s process as he did in his project, ‘Bits’. A thing to note about this typeface is that it is bound to a physical space, the letters that now exists in the digital form can also be traced back to Kings-cross.
For the Visual output, a poster, and a sticker were created. This was done to call out the authority and ask if this should be considered as vandalism or could it be categorised as art and the public spaces as a canvas for the artist, as mentioned by Kate Eichhorn in his book (2016, p. 82). The poster also carries a visual resemblance to an official wanted poster, hence also attracting the attention of the vandals. The third and final output, a website, that combines the typeface with the photos of Stickers and Graffitis to create a catalogue, of instances of vandalism around Kings-Cross. This was done to recreate the effects of fly posting and the traces of its removal, and to observe when these traces will hinder the audience’s original intention towards the website.
References
- Perec, G. (1974) Species of Spaces and Other Pieces. London: Penguin.
- The Gleaners and I (2000) [Film] Directed by Agnès Varda. France: Ciné-Tamaris.
- Kate Eichhorn (2016), Xerography, Publics and Counterpublics’, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 81–111
- Paul Elliman (Ongoing Project) Bits