City Artery: The Visual Interrogation of Melbourne’s Regime of Automobility

Abstract

Issues relating to travel, mobility and complexity continue to inform research into globalised social life. In recent years, scholarship engaging with the 'new mobilities' paradigm has sought to capture and explain the multiplicities and associations relating to one of the dominant forms of physical mobility, automobility. The predominant form of global physical mobility is the car. My article suggests that a creative practice-led approach - a visual communication artefact in the form of a poster - is appropriately placed to produce a vividly descriptive and engaging investigation into the influence of the car, in relation to Melbourne. My article attempts to interrogate the salient aspects of Melbourne's regime of automobility including, the everyday practice, subjectivities and materialities of driving, particularly within a quintessential suburban geography.