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.