stickers
student, peace, and anti-nuclear power campaigns started selling stickers as a way of raising funds and for supporters to express their support
Hannah Awcock, Stickin’ it to the man: The geographies of protest stickers (2021)
Self-adhesive stickers were created in the 1920s & first used for political purposes 50 years later.
Protest stickers are ubiquitous in activist toolboxes across movements, as they are inexpensive & relatively easy to produce & disseminate. While stickers do not particularly afford space for complexity; they are subject to inattention & removal; & they need to sustain a variety of weather conditions - these drawbacks are largely explained by the materials used in the sticker’s design. Interestingly, the role of material objects in activist communication has started garnering attention.
I designed both the MASK UP & chronic killjoy stickers before even thinking about the projects they sparked; the role of stickers does not have to be limited to serving as end products - they can also be part of creative & conceptualization processes. I’ve also been wondering - what is the role of the sticker in remote activist communication?
