What are they, I wondered? Public art? Improvised cardboard robots?

Actually, no.

Looks like the days of walking unimpeded across the corner of Bourke and Campbell Streets are gone.

And there’s the culprit, a new set of traffic lights.

Approaching Taylor Square, I heard screams – which is fairly typical – but louder than normal, amplified, and as I rounded the corner, I realised it was a couple of actors. They’re in out of focus picture above, sitting on those round seat like objects.

It’s Milk Crate Theatre – based in Darlinghurst since opening in 1999, and working with homeless people.

It has one of the most striking sets in the inner city. With the background of bustling Oxford Street, and, in the distance, the sandstone courts, it’s set design taken to the limits. Something funny happens when you put actors in front of the scene, it does actually become a set.

My pictures don’t do the scene justice, it was hard to tear your eyes away from the actors.

This photo was taken while waiting for the lights to go green – looking from behind the actors to the audience.

I walked in half way through, and I couldn’t stay, so I can’t say too much about the plot. I would love to be able to next time.

It was the tail end of a sustainable lighting trial by the council – they swapped 200 street lights to LEDs in Circular Quay, Martin Place, Alexandria Park, and on Darlinghurst Road between Bayswater Road and Macleay Street, plus another 50 street lights at Bourke Street, Surry Hills, with Energy Australia.

Energy savings of 30-40 per cent have been touted, which is a big deal considering the council reports spending a third of its electricity on street/public lighting. No results yet, but the council plans to install the energy efficient lights in all 8500 of its street and public domain lights over the next three years.

Feathers, glow-sticks, flags, head-pieces, goon-bags, discarded shoes, more feathers.

They were all spotted on surrounding streets – Bourke, Crown, Palmer, Burton.

Oxford Street was looking remarkably polished.

More so than those kicking on.

The cycleway, developed by GMW Urban, runs between Cowper Wharf Road and Corfu Street in Woolloomooloo.

Sydneymedia says 75 per cent of submissions received (631 of 842) supported the cycleway – 182 raised issues such as safety, parking loss and the potential impact of the cycleway on trees.

It’s easy to see where those 182 residents are coming from. Parking’s short at the best of times. But as the Nature Conservation Council of NSW said in their submission, “Zero emissions transport infrastructure, such as safe cycleways, must take priority over residents’ parking spaces.”

The next stage is from Woolloomooloo to Green Square. It’s the first step in a planned network of 200km of bike paths around the city. And it’s fantastic to see the council not just talking about lovely ideas for 2030, but actually taking steps to make them happen.

These two pairs of heels, one a sort of fawn boot, and the other a bit more sensible, appeared on Bourke Street, Woolloomooloo, down near Harmer Street.

Just as I was beginning to really wonder what was going on, I hit the motherlode.

The silly season seemed quieter this year. The fireworks weren’t quite so explosive, not quite as much rubbish on Darlinghurst Road the next morning, and so on. But maybe that was just here. Maybe the kick-off-the-shoes urge was greater elsewhere.

But it’s not just Bourke Street, and it’s not just those two.

Whoever is Premier of New South Wales next week might well front up to a press conference on Macquarie Street and talk about getting tough on graffiti. But on the streets this year, Sydney has witnessed a huge resurgence in public art — for its own sake. We’re enchanted by the stuff because it’s ephemeral, because it adds an unexpected magic to our streets, and mostly because it’s absolutely obviously clear that the artist made it for us.

That’s the beginning of a piece I wrote, covering a lot of great stuff that’s had first airing here, you can find the rest at New Matilda.

Two cherubs, with birds flying from a cavity in each babe’s stomach. Or are they stealth fighters?

They’ve been on the wall of Object gallery’s office, in the St Margaret’s redevelopment, since the artist Jason Wing‘s show (with Vernon Ah Kee).

It’s a series of craggy mountain tops, set in pink – each mountain seems to have a letter, but I can’t make sense of it – it’s out the back of Gineico Marine‘s Devonshire Street warehouse, on Esther Street and Esther Lane.

There are quite a few other bits of street art on the block – see local blog Acid Midget for more. Little stencil galleries like this are tucked away across Darlinghurst and Surry Hills, I wonder whether the work tends to cluster because of a lack of monitoring, support from residents and local businesses, or just that once one person’s done a stencil at a spot, others want to join them.

The old fold-back doors are boarded up – they were always perfect for the kind of summer afternoons we’re shaping up for. You can just imagine the kind of forlorn looks locals give the place every day.

Well enough is enough. One of our favourite street artists in this town, Zap, kicked off a one-man cultural reclamation this week, on one of those boarded up doors at the corner of Bourke and Fitzroy Streets.

It’s a fairly abstracted, Madvillain-esque character, and it’s one of the coolest Zap paste-ups I’ve seen.