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All memorials have the potential to harm
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 16 July 2009, 16:20 Permalink Comments (12)
A nice walk, spoiled (by utterly pointless signage). Image by Kate Gordon Roger, Morayshire
The Manifesto Club is an organisation that campaigns against the hyperregulation of everyday life and the increased threat to public freedoms. Their new book, Attention Please, is a collection of photographs that document the use of prescriptive safety signage that, far from alerting people to imminent danger, merely highlights the absurd policing of ordinary people doing ordinary things...
This printed version of the original Attention Please online gallery (that began in 2007) includes a selection of pictures of "pseudo-safety signage", as the Manifesto Club's Josie Appleton writes in her introduction.
The book, designed by St Pierre & Miquelon, features images of cones surrounding innocuous tree stumps, yellow 'privacy zones' outside cashpoints, and the countless site-specific warning signs that can really, really annoy (not to mention impinge upon a nice view).
Take the following picture of some presumably long-aged gravestones in a cemetery in Tooting, London, for example:
Not content with erecting a tasteful blue plastic fence around a (admittedly headless) statue, Lambeth council alert all passing visitors – not to mention mourners – that some of the traditionally static blocks of marble and sandstone may, in fact, cause harm:
Images by Timandra Harkness, Tooting, London
Check out exactly what's being cornered-off in these examples of some decidedly over-zealous fencing:
Image by Simon Elvins, Latitude Festival, Suffolk
A patch of bare earth. But it is on a slight incline. Careful now.
Image by Simon Elvins, Lisbon
Image by Dan Shadbolt, Highgate, London
Amusing as these images and most of the ones in the book are; the Manifesto Club's point is far from a joke.
They believe that the hundreds of instances where signage no longer signifies a significant risk are, in themselves, detrimental to public life, particulary to our enjoyment of public space.
Image by Ryan Ras, Hyde Park, London
Walk down any high street (and this is in no way unique to the UK) and the proliferation of ugly, unnecessary and patronising safety signs is overwhelming.
You don't have to look hard for example either – the stripey tape, the orange cones and lines of yellow paint can make an appearance in the most innocuous of places.
Can you spot the steps in this picture of the entrance to a Leeds University building? (Clue: they're just behind the trees).
Image by Mark Harrop, Leeds University
Safe banking, thanks to an ATM PRIVACY AREA. Image by Josie Appleton, Brighton
But, worryingly, as Appleton states in her introduction, what's happening more and more is that "caution [is being] integrated into design itself."
Next time you're on a new Virgin train, check the carriage doors from the inside. Each one has multiple day-glo stripes and built-in warning lights. Safety first, or just excessive?
In this case, far from being council busy bodies who need to rein in their use of signage, it's designers who have the opportunity to stop the spread of this virulent visual disease.
Image by Matthew Barnes, Southwark, London
This one, however, can stay.
Attention Please is published and distributed by Manifesto Club and is available to buy, here, for £12 (plus p&p). The book is edited and designed by Josie Appleton and the design group, St Pierre & Miquelon.
12 Comments
Reminds of a scene from Godard's 1967 film "2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle" (2 or 3 things I know about her) where the narrator observes how public and shop signage starts to make life look like a comic strip, by seemingly "subtitling" our every actions.
2009-07-16 17:48:19
The nanny state goes uber. Madness, truly.
2009-07-16 18:39:01
I've got to add one to the list -- 'Polite Notice'. How utterly British and perfectly redundant. Always makes me smile.
2009-07-17 12:12:30
This is total b***s***.
Two major reasons why we have, what some people see as, a proliferation of these signs;
1. Many hard years of lobbying and campaigning from disability support organisations. Try helping people with sight and movement problems get around outside and see how problematic even small bumps, gradients &c. can be.
2. No win no fee personal injury lawyers ready to help people sue their local council for stumbling on any cracks in the pavement &c. Everyone will be beefing if their council tax goes through the roof to pay for more legal cases or sky high insurance.
How about a campaign to halt the Daily-Mailification of the UK instead?
2009-07-17 13:18:30
I was once told in an airpot (Gatwick I beleive) to not pass under a pointless roped off area (roped off to create a line system, but it was empty) because I may cause harm to myself. the thing is the lady was genuinly angry at my complete disregard for my own saftey when it comes to passing under a piece of rope. It actually makes me sick how no one has any responsability for their own actions anymore.
2009-07-17 13:29:38
don't forget there's a lot of stupid people out there who need all the help they can get....
2009-07-17 13:34:10
i think it is a real shame that there are signs and restricted areas like this, especially as I come from the countryside where the beauty is often spoilt. However, it is a bigger shame that this is something that we have probably brought on ourselves by suing anyone we can. It's no coincidence that my council tax bill is huge when people are suing for uneven pave stones and monstrous cages are being built around 'dangerous' areas.
2009-07-17 14:03:58
I wholeheartedly agree, especially with keeping the last sign which I stumbled upon (not literally) while walking near Waterloo. I'd be interested to find out if all this overzealous use of signage might actually make us less aware or cautious about genuine dangers.
Perhaps when we return to judging risk ourselves, taking responsibility for our actions and more personal injury claims are laughed out of court on the grounds of idiocy the signs will all be removed?
2009-07-17 14:27:49
I have been ranting for ages about over zealous signage ... so this book looks freat!
You would think the bridge from one platform to the next at Oxford train station was the most dangerous place on the planet there are so many warning signs. Equally I would love to know how many blind people have found the 'flush' button in braile useful when its behind the toilet seat on trains!!!!
Then there's the 'this window can be used for ventilation' on tube trains and the 'don't climb on this wall you might fall off' outside national gallery obviously intended to stop the usually foreign students sitting on it! ... and the sign asking people not to be drunken and disorderly on trains - because if you were drunk that sign would of course change your mind from making a nusiance! Enough... I could go on forever!
2009-07-17 15:32:35
Far from an overzealous defence of the general public I would argue that the dazzle furniture and signs are employed to pre-empt and disqualify any prospect of being sued (justifiably or not). For when the the order of capitalism and the emergence of the 'no win no fee' firms is factored in it becomes quite clear why those who are held legally (and therefore financially) accountable for any accidents may become fanatic about the use of warnings and precautions. That is, spending a relatively small amount of money--on a dozen plastic cones, warning tape and a sign--does make sense, if it offsets the possibility of incurring a far greater financial penalty and/or incarceration. In that sense the emergence of these juridical sculptures is akin to the aesthetics of miniscule typography that defines the legal obligations of a contract--they are not just warnings about potential hazards, but a signifier that overtly indicates that all liability has been deferred onto the end-user.
2009-07-17 18:25:22
Let's not forget the audio equivalents, the 'please mind the closing doors', lifts that warn you that their doors will open, printers that beep incessantly...
2009-07-20 10:54:56
At least there is always something to smile about when going around places. :-)
2009-07-20 12:10:01
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