Intervention: Displacement Aesthetics

Emergency diagrams, instructions for evacuation, safety cards, and pictographic displays inform how and where mobile bodies should move in exceptional circumstances. During times of danger, insecurity, panic, and disruption, these informational diagrams guide the movements and behaviours of the general public. Yet in daily life, these diagrams go largely unnoticed, sitting in the background of transit spaces, vehicles, vessels, or aircrafts. In this intervention Barry and Adey reflect on the aesthetics of the emergency and transit diagram while examining creative approaches that appropriate those aesthetics in order to critically explore forms of migration governance.