The metallic doors come in various forms. The older ones have a moulded relief forming rounded corners, giving them an almost nautical, certainly technical, aspect. The newer ones tend to be smooth and flat. They are frequently covered in posters for concerts or plays in local venues, or advertising political meetings. Many carry an extra sign advising how to help someone who has been electrocuted: NE PERDEZ PAS UNE SECONDE (don’t lose a second), PROTEGER (protect), SECOURIR (rescue), ALERTER (alert), accompanied by a series of drawings showing how to resuscitate someone and perform cardiac massage. Most of the doors are tagged. Some are entirely painted over, the name still decipherable
But this naming process has been going on for several decades, a long time before algorithms took over our lives; a rudimentary comparison of historic aerial photographs 3 shows that the small standalone substations started appearing in the mid-1960s.
3 On the amazing “Remonter le temps” website run by the French Geographical Institute one can download every aerial photo ever taken of the French territory. https://remonterletemps.ign.fr/. I could probably while away the rest of my life there if I wasn’t careful.
all images Ruth Oldham
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HISTORIEN
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on site review 41 :: infrastructure
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