Paper short abstract:

The application of stickers and tags on public surfaces as a ‘no rules’ practice is discussed in respect of their power relations. Slapping stickers goes beyond an emancipatory resistance against a hegemonic system. It also represents a constant “flow” of spatial power within this subculture.

Paper long abstract:

From an activist perspective the ubiquitous ‘no rules’ practice of illegal application of stickers and tags on mostly urban public and private surfaces is not just a contribution to urban aesthetics but also a legitimate and emancipatory answer to the territorial dominance of capitalism (e.g. Drognitz 2019).

However, investigating concrete micro-practices of sticker slapping (as I will do on one example) shows a much more complicated landscape of power. These practices comprise a variety of entangled motives reaching from claiming territory up to commercial interests and thus go beyond an anarchistic and emancipatory resistance against a hegemonic system.

Even more, “wild” sticker tagging shows a second level of overt power structures: As sticker sites at attractive places are constantly pasted, tagged, written or painted over these surfaces themselves are a territory of contested power relations and a constant “flow” of power within this subculture.

Thus, sticker tagging sites are representations of subcultural power hierarchies and ideas of spatial justice or better: legitimacy.