Urban Surfaces, Graffiti, and the Right to the City

Sabina Andron is Postdoctoral Fellow in Cities and Urbanism at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

“Sabina Andron invites us to surface – to come up for air or for light – in the ways that we think about cities. Andron’s beautifully nuanced account shows us that every surface is an archive bearing the history of its making, use, re-use, subversion or adaptation. In flipping our attention away from isolated signs, texts and images, Andron shows how spatial justice in the public city is a matter of surfaces.”Alison Young, The University of Melbourne, Australia“Andron not only provides a unique and revealing account of graffiti and street art, but instigates a whole new way of thinking about architecture and cities. By ‘interviewing’ walls as paint, signs and scripts, she reveals hidden depths of politics, justice, legislation, contestation and transgression. Anyone interested in the experience of the contemporary city should read this provocative and original book.”Iain Borden, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, UK“In this innovative study, Sabina Andron makes a persuasive case for the fundamental importance of what walls display to senses of publicness in cities. She beautifully evokes the visual richness and diversity of what vertical surfaces carry, as well as offering a distinctive semiotic methodology for interpreting the entangled images and texts visible on urban walls.”Gillian Rose, University of Oxford, UK“This is the book that most comprehensively engages our urban surfaces, their materials and inscriptions, drawing us as a public in motion nearer to a pluriversal we cannot do without, enabling us to experience cities in entirely new ways, beyond property and category. Surfacing a vital way for urban scholars from all disciplines to think together.”AbdouMaliq Simone, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, UK

• Introduction: the city of surfaces 11 Surface semiotics: a manual for knowing surfaces 91. The places of discourse are fundamental to the production of meaning 102. Signification takes place in localised aggregates 143. Surfaces are thick and alive 204. Dirt is a crime 245. Order is white 296. Visibility generates value 337. Text makes space, and the city makes us literate 388. Surface betrayals and restitutions 429. Conclusion, or six proposals for the significance of signs and surfaces 4510. Wall interview 482 Beyond art and crime: a critical history of graffiti and street art 581. Wall writing is a time portal 592. Graffiti is only a name 633. Every tag is collectively authored 654. The writing is not on the wall 695. Fear is a self-fulfilling prophecy 726. Gallery walls redeem urban walls 787. Street art is a different name 828. The image is not on the wall 859. Authoritarianism comes in beautiful colours 9010. Urban creativity is a well-oiled machine 9611. Street art sold my city 101Conclusion, or six proposals against institutional appropriations 1053 Law and graffiti: property, crime, and the surface commons 1161. Law is everywhere; everywhere is law 1172. Surfaces complicate property regimes 1223. The right to the city is the right to the surface 1264. Writing on walls has a long history of regulation 1305. Graffiti offends against property and order 1336. Offence is an ambiguous affair 1387. The majority decides what is proper 1418. The argument against art 147Conclusion, or five proposals for a surface commons 1494 Leake Street London: legal walls and deep surfaces 1591. Ownership is tedious 1612. Street art is just the beginning 1633. Not all legal walls are created equal 1664. Graffiti knows no boundaries 1685. 100 Days of Leake Street is not enough 1726. Tagging is pro-social 1747. Eat drink shop graffiti 180Conclusion, or five proposals for learning from Leake Street 186Conclusion: cultural heritage and the right to the surface city 190The right to the city is the right to the surface: a manifesto 197Acknowledgements 199Index 201