Ultra Graphic: Australian Advertising Infrastructure from Morris Columns to Media Facades

Abstract

This paper examines the development of infrastructures for outdoor advertising and debates over visual ‘oversaturation’ in the built environment. It begins with the boom in posters that came in the 19th century with a plethora of new manufactured goods and the attempts by civic officials to create structures that would extend cities’ available surface area for the placement of ads. It then charts the rise of building-top ‘sky signs,’ articulated billboards, kiosks, and digital media facades while detailing the policy initiatives meant to regulate these ad surfaces. This work builds on ongoing research into the development of signage technologies in Sydney and Melbourne, the measurement and regulation of ‘visual pollution’, and the promotion of entertainment and nightlife in precincts defined by neon and historic signage. This project responds to the increasing ambiguity between traditional advertising substrates and building exteriors. It charts the development of display technologies in relation to changing architectural practices and urban landscapes. Signage innovation in Australia has been driven by increasingly sophisticated construction practices and by the changing nature of cities; shifting markedly with increased automobility, migration and cultural change, and mobile phone use. The means by which urban reformers and architectural critics have sought to define, measure, and control new ad technologies—sometimes deemed ‘visual pollution’— offers a prehistory to contemporary debates over ‘smart city’ street furniture, and a synecdoche to narratives of degradation and ugliness in the post-war built environment. These four thematically linked episodes show how Australian civic officials and built environment activists have responded to visual clutter, and the fuzzy line between advertisers, architects, and builders erecting increasingly dynamic infrastructures for ad delivery. This progression shows the fluctuating place of advertisement in the built environment, ending with the emergence of today’s programmable façades and urban screens.