The green line starts here.
Christine, over at My Typography, suggested microblogging for August. She inspired me last January to try everyday art - turning one of my least favorite months of the year into a time of joy and satisfaction for me, so I thought I'd take her up on microblogging too.
I decided I'd try it with a twist though, picking a theme every few days to follow. As you can tell, I'm on a graffiti kick this week. We live with a lot of graffiti here in Prague, and it is one of the first things people remark on when they arrive in town. I notice it too when I first get back from a trip or when I pull out my camera, and over the years I've found all sorts of samples that are a bit more interesting than the incessant tags and bubble letters that cover walls here.
These pictures are from 2006, the last time the Vltava threatened to flood Prague. When the water rises, the city builds barricades along its waterfront. Firmly anchored by posts buried in the embankment and further buffered by sandbags, the barricades work well. They kept most of the river out of downtown Prague in 2002 and again in 2006. They are tempting graffiti targets though - someone apparently decided that the post would make a fine connection to the green trail and slapped on a sticker to help show the way.
You can see just how high the barricades can go in the broader view below.
I decided I'd try it with a twist though, picking a theme every few days to follow. As you can tell, I'm on a graffiti kick this week. We live with a lot of graffiti here in Prague, and it is one of the first things people remark on when they arrive in town. I notice it too when I first get back from a trip or when I pull out my camera, and over the years I've found all sorts of samples that are a bit more interesting than the incessant tags and bubble letters that cover walls here.
These pictures are from 2006, the last time the Vltava threatened to flood Prague. When the water rises, the city builds barricades along its waterfront. Firmly anchored by posts buried in the embankment and further buffered by sandbags, the barricades work well. They kept most of the river out of downtown Prague in 2002 and again in 2006. They are tempting graffiti targets though - someone apparently decided that the post would make a fine connection to the green trail and slapped on a sticker to help show the way.
You can see just how high the barricades can go in the broader view below.
2 comments:
Ah, the Vltava. I would expect the sounds of minor-key cellos and a solitary oboe as I walked its banks. In flood protection measures you have snitched one of my potential subjects, but never mind, there are plenty to go round. And there's plenty of water to go round. We pay a price for having the Wye (Object of Great Natural Beauty from end to end) traverse our counties. Just up the road the Worcestershire county cricket ground is regularly flooded, adding to what many see as the pointlessness of cricket. Just realised: if people graffiti your barriers and the authorities remove them at times of low-water, their re-installation - out of order! - may well create conceptual art.
That's the tune you hear when you get off the plane at the airport, but they haven't piped it into the sidewalk quite yet ;-).
How do you try to keep the Wye away? I've seen the Thames around my friends' doorsteps, but have never met the Wye.
Post a Comment