The topic of Public Domain is therefore inherently linked to publishing. Is publishing public domain? How do we publish within the public domain? How do we make public spaces ours? How do we use publishing as a way of imposing our ideas/making the world safer and better for those around us? Publishing is so tightly (and kind of incorrectly) linked now to marketing and advertising and capitalist/materialist ideas (how many books do I have to sell to make a profit? Can I publish this advert in your newsletter? That is a very old-fashioned example – we are all internet publishing things every day and internet is all entirely public domain but that is for another bit) so how can we then return to the original means of publishing and use it as a way of spreading knowledge and information to people who’s lives it will improve? 

There is a beautiful example of small-scale vernacular publishing (in public) near to my old house in Levenshulme, Manchester. Somebody (I think I saw him once) who lives on a very thin and pedestrian-heavy road named Elbow Street, after what was probably many years of despairing at cars speeding down past his house took it upon himself to hand paint signs that call for the slowing of traffic (amongst other requests) such as “SLOW DOWN OR ELSE!”, “PEOPLE WALKING SLOW DOWN MANIACS”, “WHERE IS OUR TRAFFIC-CALMING!!” , “USE THE TIP YOU NUT” and a personal favourite “WELCOME TO SUNNY LEVENSHULME”. This is a true and clear example of vernacular design in a public setting, furthermore, creating good results for the wider community and hopefully less accidents. I always appreciated the true agency possessed by this anonymous man, and it fascinates me that this very specific form of community engaging public sign writing is something that happens independently all over the world. Other examples that spring to mind are the Christian signs of Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden in Georgia, USA and the work of Fanozi 'Chickenman' Mkhize in South Africa, whose most famous signs include “GONEF ISHING” and “DANGERO USJUNC TION”……