This article examines the intersections between the visual, spatial and material and considers how these interactions capture the border politics of everyday ‘banal’ objects. We do this by looking at some of the objects and things that constitute the ‘Balkan Route’ through Europe: posters, signs, directions, notices, flyers and maps produced by state authorities and volunteer-led aid networks. We use objects to reflect more broadly on how seemingly banal and everyday things become incorporated into the political work of states and become constitutive of fluid borders. We argue that everyday objects become visualisations of states and authorities, and help to make and regulate physical spaces. We show how each visual object encountered along the route gives us a broader insight into the macropolitics of European border regimes, specifically the effects of ‘closed borders’ and the criminalisation of aid networks. The article pushes forward the ‘aesthetic turn’ debate in international relations by bringing in insights from political geography and materialism, and suggests that a walking methodology can be a productive way of encountering the visual and understanding how its physical location creates political effects.

中文翻译：

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边境上的每一天：检查“巴尔干路线”沿线国际政治的视觉，物质和空间交汇点

本文研究了视觉，空间和材料之间的交集，并考虑了这些相互作用如何捕捉日常“平庸”物体的边界政治。为此，我们着眼于构成穿过欧洲的“巴尔干路线”的一些物体和事物：国家当局和志愿者领导的援助网络制作的海报，标志，指示，告示，传单和地图。我们使用对象来更广泛地思考看似平淡无奇的日常事物如何融入国家的政治工作并成为流动边界的构成。我们认为，日常物品成为国家和当局的可视化，并有助于建立和调节物理空间。我们展示了沿途遇到的每个视觉对象如何使我们对欧洲边界政权的宏观政治有更广泛的了解，特别是“封闭边界”的影响和援助网络的定罪。这篇文章通过引入政治地理和唯物主义的见解，推动了国际关系中的“审美转向”辩论，并提出了步行方法可以成为一种见识视觉和理解其实际位置如何产生政治影响的有效方式。