Call for Papers: ‘Urban visual justice: public images and the making of public spaces’

Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, London UK, 27-30 August 2024

Session organisers: Sabina Andron (University of Melbourne) and Lutfun Lata (University of Melbourne)

Session type: split session, papers and world café (in-person only)

Session description: 

Images play a significant role in how many of us encounter, navigate, experience and process urban spaces; and a role in how urban spaces are developed and managed. 

Street posters and traffic signage, community murals, protest signs, municipal branding, graffiti tags, heritage plaques, shop signs and shopfronts, public art, and public notices – they are just some of the elements of the visual landscape of the city. This diverse mix of formal and informal visual communication is often competing in nature and creates urban character and identity that can contribute to developing visual justice in the city. 

This split session (paper session + world café) invites contributions from researchers, artists, architects, and policy makers, to survey, understand, debate, and create an agenda for urban visual justice in global cities. 

We aim to identify which areas of urban governance make direct use of images in public space, to improve research and policy around public images and urban visual culture. How can we deal with images in cities in more responsible and creative ways, in line with values of inclusivity, intersectionality, sustainability, and creativity? 

The importance of written and visual communication in the formation of urban publics has been highlighted by cultural historians (Henkin 1998, Ward 2001), geographers (Degen and Rose 2022, Shohami et al 2010), and a growing body of literature coming from street art and graffiti studies (Young 2016, Avramidis 2017, Andron 2023). However, there has been little research on urban semiotics and visual cultures in the context of visual and spatial justice – and that is the gap our session will address.

Possible themes for interventions (presentation + discussion) include:
•       Theoretical and methodological responses to the framework of urban visual justice
•       Taxonomies and classifications of public signage and images
•       Political uses of public images, in policy, governance, and resistance
•       Intersections between urban semiotics and spatial justice

As well as more specific examples and their intersections:
•       Graffiti management, mural and street art programmes
•       Urban design, neighbourhood character and visual amenity
•       Heritage of public images: signage, typography, plaques and memorials
•       City activation and advertising: brands, banners, commercial signage and shop fronts

Who is allowed to be visible and under what conditions? Which principles guide the management of urban images (order, freedom of expression, diversity, artistic skill, cleanliness, political voice)? And which civic values are supported in the process? 

Please email a title, 300-word abstract, and keywords, along with details of all authors, to Sabina Andron sabina.andron@unimelb.edu.au and Lutfun Lata l.lata@unimelb.edu.au by Friday 16 February 2024. Selected abstracts will be notified within a week.