We thought they were some kind of guerrilla advertising for the tobacco industry – all the ones we’d seen had cigarettes.

Turns out this one doesn’t. Thanks for noticing, @poisontofu.

I assumed it was street art. But the more I think about it, the more I think it could be a kind of guerrilla cigarette advertising. They all feature these hip looking inner city people smoking, and the cigarettes are really the focus.

I love that street artists have immediately colonised them anyway. And whoever customised the second picture makes the same inference, turning the cigarette into a gun: “Bang!”

It was so surprising I did a double take, and then watched everyone walking by do the same – including the man in this picture, who tapped on the arm rest and sat down.

But I spotted an unmolested version on Devonshire Street, on the other side of Surry Hills, today.

It’s a promo for Richard In Your Mind‘s new record, My Volcano. Look we’re not usually partial to this kind of guerilla advertising. But it is a brilliant record.

It seems such a metaphor for the stories inside that place. Clutching on for dear life, but reaching out for this glorious sunshine above. It gives me a lift just walking past.

Look closer though. It’s actually nothing of the sort.

Bizarrely enough, it’s a research project. Part of the Visualising Research class at UTS, Poster: More Than A Gaze aims to “examine the potential of the poster as a ‘public and communicative’ medium in a public space.” They’re blogging too.

It’s 12 A4 pages pasted up alongside the typical band and club posters – and, although I used to have a radar for those things, I wonder how many people are tuned in? I’d be interested to see what, if any, reaction it got.

It’s on Crown Street, at the foot of the “No Stopping” sign outside Urban Uprising, near the corner of Campbell Street.

A cement sculpture of a teddy bear and a mobile phone. They are fixed to the pavement.

Does the bear say “culture?”

Or perhaps “vulture” or “sculpture?”

Intriguing.

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.

On the other side of Jesmond Street, this sticker covers a Telstra box – a comment on Telstra’s practices, a general comment about telecommunications/electrical infrastructure, or just a random surface to paste something on?

This spaceman is near the corner of Mary Lane and Albion Way, Surry Hills.

Paste ups occupy pretty much the same spot in the hierarchy of street art as tags. Quick to get up on a wall, and often barely sketched out, they rarely rise above their function.

For a while the only creative, really original paste ups we saw were from Jumbo and Zap. They’ve been quiet, so it’s good to see new characters pop up.

The old BPM record shop (now Record Store/Machine Musik) wall’s a regular canvas for legal street art – check previous signatures from Anthony Lister and others on the curb.

The current piece is by Brad Eastman – Beastman. He’s part of the design/art scene in Sydney – and as well as founding the online publication We Are The Image Makers, and designing skateboards, he’s shown work at galleries like Oh Really, Stupid Krap and China Heights.

It went up six days ago, according to @recordstoresyd. Watch it go up in this slideshow.