Between the lines

Streets are not only sites to display public lettering. They are also a milieu particularly favorable to their incredible development. Inscriptions of any kind are displayed, they swarm in certain places, some cover each other, others sometimes lose their greatness, or instead become more significant, the more persistent eventually grew old and even completely erase… Urban letterings are made of living materials dedicated to countless compositions, numerous arrangements, and unsuspected assemblages. Facing with a finite writing object, it is often difficult to be aware of it: it tends to be displayed as a coherent whole. When it is time for its very production (or its dismantling), different layers suddenly appear. Then the most furtive traces become visible and simultaneously give room to a large universe: we understand how much the painting of withe stripes is not sufficient. Others traces are essential to produce a real pedestrian walkway. The small marks serve as points of reference to meet the same length and the same spacing. These landmarks are also defined in other documents: in legal clauses of roadsigns and markings, in the conception chart, on the map of road works… The composition of paint is also well-defined in a precise formula, devoted to manufacturers, in order to guarantee the same visibility, the same roadholding, and the same useful life to each pedestrian walkway. Here is a part of the series of inscriptions (not to mention numerous figures, calculations and coefficients that go with them) usually enclosed in a few white stripes.