By Jorg Sicot
The concept of visual noise is an abstract one, but when seeing the elements that surround us, it becomes clear that Malta faces not only strong elements of air and noise pollution, but sadly also disturbing visual pollution. Visual noise.
Billboards line virtually every major road in Malta. Some of these were placed with a valid permit, others randomly erected without any form of consent by the Planning Authority. These billboards are placed at points which are meant to capture our attention while driving, walking or cycling, with little to no regard for their surroundings. Any surface lending itself to having a huge panel slapped on it gets precisely that, allowing every flat surface to display a product advertisers want us to buy. The call to buy overshadows all sense of design and proportion and has lead to the installation of billboards of the largest format in every possible environment, regardless of how these would disturb the surrounding land and streetscapes.
These billboards are then left to decay, and generally deteriorate their surrounding environment. Even the proportions of these massive boards do not respect their surrounding environment. Where once a beautiful row of trees pleased our eye, we are now forced to stare at an oversized advertisement or Transport Maltamega-sign which disrupts beautiful landscapes or characteristic streetscapes. With advanced technology, billboards can now be lit up, adding to the visual noise. Not to mention that Malta has disturbing levels of light pollution. Another shocking highlight in this development was the recent attempt to place such billboards as floating islands into our pristine seascapes.
A similar picture is presented in most villages and towns. Where once the architectural style of each street caught the eye, what now clutters our vision are poorly maintained and badly designed and constructed shopfront signs and streetsigns, even in the supposedly protected Valletta World Heritage Site and Mdina. No regard is given to the overall impression; each shop or enterprise simply puts up what they see fit. With a most unsightly result: pure visual noise. And let us consider this question carefully: do we actually read all these signs plastered everywhere? Hardly. We have simply become used to this visual noise and ignore them. Our villages have partly lost their identity to a strong drive of commercial frenzy.
The problem follows us everywhere: from our favourite television shows being interrupted constantly by advertising spots, to a point where we become tense, to radio broadcasts with clips lined up to promote a service or product, to our letter boxes which find themselves miraculously filled with print matter of every shape and format, begging us to buy something. Visual noise surrounds us. This should prompt us to become aware of what it is: junk. Junk that does not make for a better environment, but rather spoils it.
One immediate reaction could be to point fingers at authorities. They should certainly set up stronger guidelines, as we are flooded with this visual pollution. Press reports in the last weeks have actually shown that a clamp-down on all illegal billboards did take place. But in a rather bizzare manner: by sticking notices on the affected boards and their structures. Fight visual noise by adding more visual noise? We could rightly ask why such junk is not simply removed. But ultimately we also need to ask ourselves why we actually tolerate such disruptions in our environment. Does the quality of our environment mean so little that we just accept this aesthetic degradation? Our surrounding environment, be it village or landscape, if it is to be of good quality, should be free of visual noise.