TY  - JOUR
UR  - https://urbanmattersjournal.com/
TI  - Fuzzy Frontiers: Chennai's compound walls and intermedial encroachment
KW  - state power
KW  -  intermediality
KW  -  everyday urbanism
KW  -  informality
KW  -  Compound walls
KW  -  Walls
KW  -  social division
KW  -  Informal and formal sector
KW  -  South Asian urbanism
KW  -  Visual Media
KW  -  Spatial dividers
KW  -  Urban territories
KW  -  Public and Private Space
KW  -  Chennai
KW  -  Tamil Nadu
KW  -  Access to the city
KW  -  urban relations
KW  -  Urban infrastructure
KW  -  Visual actors
ID  - discovery10200222
N1  - This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher?s terms and conditions.
JF  - Urban Matters
AV  - public
N2  - Walls are symbols and structures of social and material division. Much of the literature highlights the operation of walls as infrastructure that configures or represents aspects of state power (see Till et al., 2013). However, there is little research on walls as architectonic forms of the everyday that are mediated by a host of social actors, blurring their status as strictly formal or informal entities. This is an especially relevant gap regarding South Asian urbanisms, where the quotidian form of the compound wall plays a pivotal role as both a spatial divider and a dynamic surface for a variety of visual media. This article addresses this research gap by delving into the usages of compound walls and by highlighting the urban relations and territories that they configure within the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This is undertaken by theorising the compound wall as an intermedial interstice that is not merely a spatial boundary, but a dynamic visual actor, mediating notions of the public and private, political discourses, and access to the city itself.
A1  - Müller, Richard
Y1  - 2024/06//
ER  -