Thursday 4 June 2020

'ABM@6' – Skywriting over Sydney CBD

At the end of last month I had to go into town, to the central business district, to see someone. Due to rona I hadn’t been into town for at least two months by that time, and I only went on 28 May because it was an appointment that needed my physical presence.

The virus has kept people away but there were quite a lot of people on the streets among the skyscrapers and on the bridge leading to them, where, at about 11.15am, the following photographs were taken. As I was watching the space above my head I could see the tiny speck of the aircraft crawling through it, a white dot that had an obvious – though minuscule – front and back, and it flew in circles that were tightly choreographed so that the pilot could control where the trail of particles were left in the ether. Evidently the pilot was very skilful. Time was of the essence as nature destroys traces of human ingenuity, which fade like the memory of an unrecorded conversation.

Tall buildings can mask skywriting, but it will usually engage you if there’s clear air above. For my part I couldn’t work out what “ABM@6” was supposed to mean. Perhaps a TV show …





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