Talking heads

“Council’s decision to remove posters from the city’s walls and hoardings is an affront to freedom of expression” 

ANDREW WOODHOUSE
Does anyone really believe in freedom of expression’ Surely it’s only urban anarchists and money-motivated graphic designers. Our society is governed by rules that protect us and keep our society from imploding. There are no absolute freedoms. You can’t do what you like, drive or walk wherever you like, or even say what you like. Our defamation laws are among the toughest in the world.
Laws are decided by an elected parliament. Don’t like the rules’ Change your parliamentarians. Just don’t preach to me about your right to break laws because you disagree with them or because you feel over-governed.
There is no more a “right” to express what you want than there is a right to overdevelop. No absolute rights exist in any constitution, state law, planning rule or regulation because with any right comes a responsibility ‘ to others.
This seems unfashionable to some. But they have what I like to call new narcissism, believing ‘ insisting even ‘ that their rights override those of others.
 “Uncle Andrew”, ask my 10 year-old niece as we stroll along Darlinghurst Road. “What’s deep fuck, down and dirty mean'” referring to the row of neon-coloured A1 posters sticky-taped to lightpoles.
I reserve the right to walk fetter-free on streets I pay for, and don’t want anyone’s “freedom of expression” contravening my rights. Sex education is not something I do on the way to a Danish ice-cream shop. Tell someone who cares about your new sex nightclub.
Of course, Sydney City council is deliberately leaving all posters relating to lost cats and dogs and garage sales up.  And it’s providing Parisian-style poster pillars, creating a controlled poster etiquette: at least we’ll reduce environmental abuse and removal costs, well over $6 million since 2004.
This is what responsible government means.
Finally, a memo to all graphics designers: find work elsewhere please.
Andrew Woodhouse is an urban environmentalist living in Potts Point

MICHAEL GORMLY
There is a Mr Bean lookalike in my area who carries a razor knife and methodically slashes pole posters.
This obsessive-compulsive individual is in lockstep with our local leaders, sharing their horror that city residents might actually want to communicate with one another.
Tidy Town thinking is fine, but not to the point where it sabotages community dynamics. Your garage sale, your need for a flatmate or to find your lost dog is far more important than a gentrified obsession with visual order.
Pole posters led me to Ernest Ranglin’s show at The Basement, to the Surry Hills Festival, to the Wayside Chapel’s “Loveoverhate” website. A new band playing at the Hopetoun rarely has the cash to advertise, so printing off some A4 posters is the only way to reach a local audience. Council’s poster pogrom will poison this grassroots culture. “Mr Bean” must be delighted but music lovers will simply move somewhere more lively.
And why are today’s posters deemed “ugly” while their 1970s precursors sell for top dollar in glossy art books’ Why is a wire-meshed construction hoarding “good” but the gorgeous posters on it “bad”‘ Why are posters “pollution” while the MX tabloid is deemed legitimate news’
Council removed 340,000 bill poste” last year. Now that’s a lot of demand for public communication ‘ 438 tennis court’s worth to be precise. The city’s response was to erect eight skinny steel bollards to cover the whole city.
Of course these are totally dysfunctional, requiring metres of polluting sticky tape, plonked next to kerbs out in the rain and denuded every Wednesday after the posters for last weekend’s gigs have been out-of-date for four days.
Council was told all this in submissions which, as usual, were ignored.
Michael Gormly is a writer, photographer and publisher of kingscrosstimes.blogspot.com