Text and the City

Yesterday we had 'Place as Text' and today I have examples which I think begin to show the difference between text being in places and places as text.
Although, I am wondering now about this. I need to define what I mean by place. I have such a broad definition in yesterday's thing that maybe all places would therefore be text. But that may be OK too. Today I am exploring how text resides in places, but which do not transform that place so that things have different relationships to each other than before ..

But anyway, this post has a great title doesn't it? When I have sorted out my ideas a bit ore, I think I could use it in an article or is it already used by someone else?

I have already shown examples of exciting texts from cities I have been to, such as the ads for Playstation 2 in Nice (not a promo I have seen in the UK yet - I wonder why?)
These ads were really interesting to me, I loved to read them and saw them in a few places round the city. They reoccurred, like repeat patterns, and for me became a theme of my stay in Nice. It was like a joke I kept coming back to, but it was something to look at and all ovr the city. It became a game to look out for the ads. They did not seem to constitute a place though.

This graffitti was in Toulouse, a photo taken last March.


Strangely I nearly passed by without noticing. It brightened up the wall and had some 3D effects. It decorated the place, just as this did in Toronto:


And this piece of irony,


serves as a political comment,but does not make a place. It is to read and then to pass on. It requires no immediate action in that place.

When I went to Rome, I visited a stately home, turned into an art gallery.The building had been built for some Roman dignitary whose emblem was left all over the building - sometimes gilded, sometimes in stone. Sometimes in huge ornate paintings evereywhere. It was this bee:

It was like a contemporary tag, reminding every visitor of the family presence. It was a way of bringing attention to oneself like graffitti artists today leave tags. Like this, a huge one, I took this photo today in Sheffield and there is a mark at the side which says something about a black crew ...:



It is intended to be noticed, but does not transform; it is there to be accounted for, to adorn. It does not constitute a place somehow.

This image of John Peel appeared all over the city of Sheffield the day after it was announced he died. But most are now painted out. I took this remaining one today:




The repetition around the city was quite insistent, but again not intending to transform the place from one thing to another.

This kind of thing I am not sure about, it is a Carravaggio paintting, much visited in Rome.

It was first painted to be loked at and considered I suppose, challenging previous iconographies of Christ. It is definitely text with a narrative; in a very important place. But I am not sure if the text IS a place. The examples on my post yesterday had an influence on behaviour. The texts I used yesterday influenced interactions, actions, and I said they constituted place... not sure about this one.

This one is also very interesting:


It is the notice placed at the intersection which WAS Check point Charlie before reunification in Deutschland. It is now left as a kind of museum piece, almost like architecture, photographed by tourists. Behind it is an advert selling home and office space. It screams capitalism and somehow works with the Check point Charlie warning. The two hoardings seem related in meaning because of their juxtaposition. Certainly the notice constituted a place before, it signified differet cultural and political behaviours were in operation according to where youn were in relation to the notice. But now as a historic artefact is it still a place, but a different place?


The writing here, we are really accustomed to understanding; ths sort of text helps to define such places as shops and definitely are on the borderline of place as text, and text being in a place. They help to make something be a particular place:


These two pieces of text, I am also not sure of.




Do they constitute place? They are exhibits in a gallery. in Nice.. actually I think they are text as place. They are not just a piece of writing. They transform; the room is always an art gallery though ...

Well anyway, I am interested in this sort of thing at the moment and am writing for Kate's new book about space and the Internet.
No wonder I am going mad.