This week I published an article with my UTS colleagues Bettina Frankham (Media Arts and Production) and Jesse Adams Stein, (School of Design) in The Conversation Australia + NZ. In the piece we look at the socio-political context of hi-vis clothing in Australia, and the history of how it became ubiquitous. You can read the full article on their website, but here are the opening paragraphs…
Recent weeks have seen mobilisations of construction workers protesting the imposition of an administrator on their union by the government. Protesters were decked out in black and hi-vis workwear, with fluorescent orange and yellow as far as the eye could see.
On the same day as the biggest rallies, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held a press conference on the construction site of the new Western Sydney airport wearing a dress shirt, hard hat and hi-vis.
While visiting an operational worksite generally requires wearing hi-vis for safety, there’s deeper politics at play, with politicians often choosing such sites – and, consequently, clothes – to signal something else.
Hi-vis can be worn by so many types of people: from protesters with diverse political views, to leaders in high office. So how did hi-vis become so deeply embedded in our culture, from protests to political press conferences, appearing in music videos, comedy and worn by GWS Giants supporters?
