Keeping up - busy with Slow TV in Trondheim

I'm not having much time to keep up with blog posts here (but there will be a couple more in the next 36 hours!) - for the moment, there are pictures from Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt here on a public facebook album or here on instagram.

Slow Television -The Slow TV Blog

A history of the term "Slow TV"

Questions which have not been asked are:  When did slow TV first become Slow TV? In terms of the phrase - when did that first get used? And in what ways has Slow TV / Slow Television been used? It has meant different things at different times. When did the term “Slow TV” first emerge?

Its usage is an interesting concept to explore, for while it has indeed had different ways of being understood, there are significant nuances which make it very similar to what is now more popularly taken as Slow TV. For the sake of less confusion - Slow TV (upper case S) will refer to the style developed in Norway; slow TV (lower case s) will refer to the other way of understanding its use.

The most recent non-Norwegian slow TV reference is from an article on the BBC News website in November 2011 which remarks about “evidence of a shift towards long and glacially paced, small-screen drama”; it then poses the question, “So why has slow TV taken off?” (Kelly, 2011).

The piece reflects on the Danish series, “The Killing” and its ‘slowness’, that  "it’s not ‘slow’ in the normally derogatory sense, but slow in the sense of crescendoing”. As in it takes its time to get to where it’s going - not needlessly wasting time, but taking the amount of time it takes without pushing it along at unnecessary pace, too.

Kelly’s piece later qualifies slow TV to “Slow-tempo TV” where dramas play out over a long time, such as the Forsyte Saga, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown and even Twin Peaks.

Surprise is articulated about the use of slower pace editing successfully engaging the audience, “...slow TV flies in the face of conventional wisdom about modern audiences demanding immediacy...”. Sounds like reactions to Norwegian Slow TV too (which had been being broadcast for two years at the time of Kelly’s article - including the behemoth of the five and a half day ferry trip aboard Hurtigruta).

Another similarity with the Norwegian documentary style is articulated by Dr Amy Holdsworth in the same article; she says, “...the pace of slow TV invites viewers to actively engage with the programme, rather than their normal treatment as passive... Part of the appeal is working things out for yourself... They allow the space for viewers to invest in them and make connections for themselves”. This is identical to the active mental participation the long sequences in Slow TV can evoke and which generate viewer curiosity to look out for changing small stories and not be spoon fed the big narrative.

Dr Holdsworth’s usage of ‘slow television’ goes back to 2008, with subsequent mentions in academia in 2009 and 2011 by other writers. It is a label which does not appear to have stuck in describing such programming and styles. In the 2008 paper, she quotes esteemed writer and director, Stephen Poliakoff, from a documentary about his fictional drama series “Shooting the Past” which concerns the unexpected closure of a vast photographic archive. Poliakoff choses to relay some images in the drama where they sometimes decelerate to a stillness which is representative of the still images the camera lingers over.

“‘Shooting the Past’ was written as a sort of experiment, really. I became very interested in how short scenes had become on television so I thought, right, I will slow television down to the point that it stops... I mean leave scenes so long that they seem ridiculous and try to compel people in that way”.  (Holdsworth, 2008, 129) Again, the likeness to Slow TV is clear. Interviewing one of the project leaders of Norwegian Slow TV, Thomas Hellum, he speaks of holding an image until your inner editor is almost screaming that you need to ‘cut’ - to contravene the received broadcast model that you need to move on to a different image every few seconds, and should you have a still image, that somehow it needs to be made more dynamic.

As Slow TV creates a very different visual and mental aesthetic which gives a different experience, “In Poliakoff’s desire to create a significant television experience, ‘slow television’ operates as an alternative way of absorbing the viewer.” (Holdsworth, 2008, 131) This is echoed by Christopher Hogg who cites Amy Holdsworth, that Poliakoff “...consciously works in opposition to the modern visual trend for fast-paced editing and rapid-fire narrative technique by slowing down his shots, creating spectacle not from rapid action but from the lingering impact of an image...” (Hogg, 2009, 438).

Poliakoff has a “... belief in foregrounding the intrinsic aesthetic and narrative worth of the televisual image, not as an ephemeral byte within a rapid-fire delivery of the plot to be instantly forgotten, but as something which deserves the viewer’s consideration and appreciation, and which has the potential to linger in the mind, while also contributing to a larger televisual experience”. (Hogg, 2009, 444). The viewing figures for the landscape based shows, with the ferry journey (Hurtigruta) becoming a national event show that some of these Slow TV productions do become an exceptional televisual experience, especially in the prominence of beautiful scenery as the principal visual element.

It is Helen Wheatley’s paper (2011) which considers landscape based documentaries and links them into a slow TV of sorts. She relates her reflections to such productions as Bird’s Eye View (BBC, 1969-71), A Picture of Britain (BBC, 2005), Coast (The Open University / BBC, 2005- ), Britain’s Favourite View (ITV, 2007) and the Wainwright Walks series (Skyworks for BBC4, 2007-09). (Wheatley, 2011, 233)

She proposes such shows  “...presume a contemplative mode of viewing more traditionally associated with the spectacular in fine art and photography, and at odds both with theories of the distracted viewer identified by early theories of television and with counter theories of ‘sit forward’ viewer engagement or enthralment...” (Wheatley, 2011, 237) and goes on to comment that this is ‘slow television’.

Another similarity with Slow TV is articulated here “In the contemporary landscape factual entertainment programme, then, narrative progression is frequently slowed or halted to enable contemplative viewing.” (Wheatley, 2011, 242) The absence of a driving enforced narrative allows a more mindful way for the viewer to come alive to the image, becoming more aware of the bigger picture and enquiring more on smaller stories in the details.

“...the camera lingers, it meanders and rambles over this space, inviting a contemplative gaze. This is ‘slow television’ for the contemplative viewer, to borrow Steven Poliakoff’s phrase.” (Wheatley, 2011, 244). So there we have it: 1999 was the first implementation of slowing broadcast images to deliver a different aesthetic- a ‘slow television’, articulated in an interview in 2004.

Before pondering more the more recent usage of ‘slow TV’, there is one further likeness to identify; Wheatley used the term ‘Screensaver TV’ (2011, 244) as one way of describing the landscape documentary; it is a very similar notion to the ‘wallpaper TV’ that British Airways use to describe the usage of the Norwegian train journey Slow TV, the Bergensbanen film which started this all off.

A step forward before a further step back in time. It was during and following the Bergensbanen transmission that social media participation appears to give the first uses of ‘Slow TV’ in this context. The producers did not set out with something in mind called ‘Slow TV’ – just a way of telling the story of the line from Bergen to Oslo.

A search through twitter posts and conversations shows that three separate users applied the term ‘slow TV’ to the progressing train journey on the tv. Two of the accounts are no longer visible; the third is visible and it is this one that appears to have first used the phrase. Having interacted with them on twitter to ask of why they described it as ‘slow TV’, the reply was linked ‘slow-food I guess’(I will not post the link as although the tweet remains in the public domain, the enquiry was not as warmly received as I had envisaged).

Did the other two twitter users take it from this first? There appears to be not conversation between the accounts owing to the time difference in the tweets (and in twitter a tweet usually becomes so last minute very quickly); while they may have monitored what was said about the Bergensbanen broadcast via hashtags, #SlowTV or #SakteTV (Norwegian word of the year in 2013) they had not yet come into existence (obviously). 

It is suggested that each of these accounts with an awareness of the ‘slow movement’ recognised the characteristic of slowness in this TV. In almost synchronicity the term emerged on twitter. Supposing these three accounts separately formed a label to describe what they saw from concepts already out there, it is a reasonable progression of thought that others observing the same media, aware of the ‘slow’ activities also recognised this as ‘Slow TV’. It was a term impregnated but unarticulated in peoples’ minds, and when the time was right, it could be born and become an outside reality.

Another question, then, concerns the use of the word ‘slow’ used to describe activities done in real time without purposefully accelerating the activity to make it quick. When did ‘slow’ first become a ‘thing’? It all dates back to a reaction against the opening of a fast food chain in Rome in 1986. I’ll leave the history of the Slow Food Movement there, but as a conscious reaction to an accelerated form of human activity, Slow Food started it all. There was no 'slow anything' as a deliberate reaction to sped up life before 1986.

While Slow TV was not born as a deliberate reaction to the accelerated media we have today it has become reinforced as an identity because it is slow and stands out in the media environment. It embraces a growing awareness, an emergent zeitgeist, perhaps, that while speed has its place, we do need to have times when we choose to slow down. Food, life, and even television.

As for the idea of making a documentary into a real time broadcast marathon, reality tv on extended transmission, that is another question altogether.

So to recap, Slow Television has been used to describe a decelerated pace in image editing and narrative unfolding in drama; the undergirding awareness of slow movements informed the perception of the Bergensbanen programme and made possible the emergence of Slow TV as something distinct with a clear identity and a gradually manifested form. In some ways its discovery was accidental but seems to be scratching an itch we didn’t know was there. Like much of Slow TV, that is an area for further research.

Sources cited:

Hogg, C. (2009). Re-evaluating the Archive in Stephen Poliakoff's Shooting the Past. Journal of British Cinema and Television. 6 (3), 437-451.

Holdsworth, A. . (2008). ‘Slow Television’ and Stephen Poliakoff's Shooting the Past. Journal of British Cinema and Television. 3 (1), 128-133.

Kelly, R. (2011) Is slow TV taking over the airwaves? BBC News, 17th November 2011 [Online]. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15757413. Accessed on 11th October 2014, 9:10am.

Wheatley, H. (2011). Beautiful images in spectacular clarity: spectacular television, landscape programming and the question of (tele)visual pleasure. Screen. 52 (2), 233-248.

Grateful acknowledgement to Thomas Hellum and Rune Møklebust for research into the Bergensbanen tweets.

This blog entry is an original piece of work copyright Tim Prevett, November 2014.

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Slow TV as Ambient TV

Ambient is the Word

One of the ways for understanding Slow TV can be as ambient TV- especially the landscape oriented broadcasts. Much like ambient music, one can have it on in the background to whatever mood or activity, come back to them - or consciously choose to immerse in to the picture. Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt may well be different in its effect as it's driven by human behaviour and human subject matter - 899 hymns, hundreds of choirs and thousands of people. Will people find it relaxing as other broadcasts? It will be interesting to see how it does affect the audience. I leave you with what I find a very immersive ambient view - the wonderful deep blue of the sky from a plane - which I enjoy with ambient music; on this occasion it was Jean Michel Jarre's long play 47 minute track of Waiting for Cousteau.

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The stage awaits...

A couple images during preparations from the outside stage at Our Lady's Church in Trondheim - choirs from around Norway will sing inside and outside of the church from noon Friday to midnight Sunday for the Slow TV event - as well as locations around Norway and one from the USA. The stage awaits.

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Interview for NRK at Slow TV event

Interview with Liv from NRK outside Var Frue Kirke

It's a funny thing when you become interesting because you're interested in something which someone else is interested in. In my case (obviously) it's Slow TV and coming to Trondheim to interview and film for Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt which lead to an interview for the NRK website - why I'm interested in Slow TV, what I am doing in Trondheim and this here documentary thing ... Spent a while with Liv before doing some filming this morning whose work will be distilled into an article which also features a South Korean documentary team from SBS here - also interested in Slow TV. Pictured is, yes, a selfie moment.

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All systems go in Trondheim for the next Slow TV event

Approaching Oslo at Sunset

Yesterday's leaving beloved family and familiarity of home seem long gone, even if just 30 hours or so. It's nearly the end of my my first day in Trondheim; NRK are setting up, I have been out and about familiarising myself with the city.  I'll post pictures and text here when I can, which will be a few times. My focus of being in the city is to interview people and get insights and footage at the hymn book event  - Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt.

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Press Release - UK Student making documentary about Slow TV

If you are in Norway you might have heard about the 60 hour continuous hymn book sing through coming on NRK2 at the end of November. If you are outside of Norway it may come as something of a surprise.

The event is bringing hundreds of choirs and thousands of people from all over Norway and indeed some folk from abroad. One of those will be Tim Prevett, a Masters Degree student from The University of Salford near Manchester studying documentary production. Tim is researching and filming for a documentary about Norwegian Slow TV.

“Last year I was thinking that there had to be a different way of doing a TV documentary, some other way to give a different experience for the viewer. Then I heard of what NRK had been doing since 2009 with what we now call Slow TV, or Sakte TV as the Norwegian word of the year for 2013 would have it.”

“The hymn book project is the latest incarnation of a documentary style which has come to be called Slow TV. It started out with a 7 hour train journey from Bergen to Oslo in 2009 with a number of other projects which have included live knitting, a fire and a five and half day continuous televised boat trip along Norway's coast. This 'Sakte TV' allows televised events to unfold at the pace in which they happen. No speeding up, cutting out or slowing down.”

“As I’ve learnt more about it the more I have felt this is a format of TV which can add something very different, something very positive into the mix of what we receive from our broadcasters. Having filmed in Oslo and Bergen in August my attention now turns to Trondheim.”

Tim will be filming behind the scenes at “Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt”; he adds, “I’ll be recording content for my film and interviewing participants and public in English. This is a one off opportunity and I am so grateful to share in this as part of my studies. Not only have I learnt so much about this area of media but about Norway. I will be back!”

Tim’s film will be completed early next year, and in the meantime he is blogging about Slow TV at www.slowtelevision.blogspot.co.uk

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Knitted Slow TV Figures

It's just over a year since the 'back-to-back' Knitting Night on NRK2, which saw Guri the sheep have the wool off its back shorn and made into a jumper for a human back. 

Nasjonal Strikkeveld was part of a world record attempt; sadly that failed - but the knitters knitted on to set a Norwegian record - and engaged several hundred thousand viewers as part of this Norwegian Slow TV (which has become known as Sakte TV in Norway).

The photo here (courtesy of NRK / DRG) and used with permission, shows the knitted statistics for the show. Figures in hundreds of thousands are on the vertical axis, with pertinent points in the transmission along the horizontal axis.

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Preparation for Salmeboka Sakte TV - a Liverpudlian Norwegian Church Service

I had never expected one trip to Norway for my research on Slow TV, yet alone two. Some things don't turn out as you expect them to - which can be pleasing and good. This is the case here.

Being in Trondheim for the hymn book Slow TV event, meeting probably hundreds of people, talking about hymns, hymn numbers, asking questions - well, I need a bit of preparation and putting my head in places where hearing Norwegian in the right environment gives some kind of acclimatisation.

I'd researched to see if there were any Norwegian communities who were likely to use the Norsk Salmebok; there's the Norwegian Church in London - not far, I think, from where much of the Norwegian government and Royal Family lived in the UK for most of World War II having escaped the Nazi occupation of Oslo by hours.

On the two production trips to London there had not been any suitable events on at the church, even with helpful and pleasant in tone responses from the minister there.

I did track down a Nordic Church and Cultural Centre in Liverpool; thankfully their Norwegian church service fell a couple weeks before the trip to Trondheim. Slightly closer to home than London, off I went by train to Liverpool - sending my greetings to the football club for a few Norwegians I've been in touch with - at least three known to me are supporters of Liverpool FC!

Having picked my way through the centre from Lime Street station, the church came up quicker than I expected. I grabbed a few photos before entering and receiving a warm welcome from Stan; not exactly sure of his 'job title' but Stan seemed pretty much to be a cornerstone of the life of the church and centre.

I grabbed myself a brew and ended up on a table with a Welsh woman, English woman (doing a PhD on Norwegian music during the Nazi occupation - interesting) and a Danish man. Not the exact recipe for hearing more Norwegian in the coffee morning that I had intended, but nevertheless good and forming a meaningful contact.

Having spotted an excellent picture of a troll pondering his age (TROLL!) by T H Kittelsen, the signal was given for those attending the service to head upstairs to the chapel; the din of several languages being spoken over various hot drinks and merriment of the raffle draw was left behind.

The chapel was peaceful, blue pews; I picked up the Norsk Salmebok (1984 edition) and order of service and gained a rough idea of what was coming. Only two hymns in the service, but the woman to my rear left sang with great clarity and diction - it helped my following the words in the hymn book and insights into pronunciation. I still pronounce too much Norwegian like German in my head - but it's getting better. I've got a handle on those extra vowels now!

A short peaceful service with a clear sense that those who attended it did so for personal and meaningful reasons, with some furthering of my feel for hearing and reading Norwegian, all left me with a sense of gratitude for having been there and a little more prepared for 60 hours of 899 (largely) Norwegian hymns.

If you end up in Liverpool and you have Scandinavian origins and heritage, or have a reason to engage with Scandinavian culture (like researching Sakte TV) - do look up and support the Liverpool International Nordic Community at the Nordic Church and Cultural Centre. Their website is here.

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A 60 Hour live Norwegian Slow TV Songs of Praise

Imagine a live broadcast of Songs of Praise lasting 60 hours with Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New being sung from cover to cover. This would feature around 200 choirs on a rota, occasional transmissions from choirs in other major cities and one from abroad.

Norwegian broadcaster NRK is doing just that from noon local time on Friday 28th November to just before midnight on Sunday 30th November. Based at Our Lady's Church in Trondheim, this will be a marathon live singing through of all 899 hymns in the 2013 revision of the Norwegian Hymnbook (Norsk Salmebok). No advert breaks either.

Called "Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt" (The Hymn Book - Minute by Minute), it is the latest incarnation of a documentary style which has come to be called Slow TV. It started out with a 7 hour train journey from Bergen to Oslo in 2009 with a number of other projects which have included live knitting, a fire and a five and half day continuous televised boat trip along Norway's coast. This 'Sakte TV' allows televised events to unfold at the pace in which they happen. No speeding up, cutting out or slowing down.

The hymn book event will cover songs in the two main Norwegian languages with several regional dialects included. There are also a handful of hymns in English, Spanish, Swedish, and a verse or two in Latin and Zulu spread through the two and a half day show. The ambition is to create a festival, whether people show up in a church and outdoor stages around the country, or sit in the living room TV and share their thoughts via social media.

The broadcast will go out via NRK2 within Norway, and on the internet via the NRK website for the rest of the world. The hashtags for social media are: #NRKSalme or #NRKSalmer (either will work). The official Facebook hub will be at NRKLivet and the broadcast page: Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt.

Since this blog has behind the scenes access for filming a documentary and researching Slow TV, there will be updates and photos here. There are no press releases in English (yet), but following the internal tag 'salmeboka' on this blog will help pick up leads and links to many primary sources in Norwegian.Slow Television -The Slow TV Blog

Rindal based choir in Salmeboka Slow TV

A choir with two stints in the mammoth sing through of the Norsk Salmebok (Norwegian Hymnbook) 2013 edition is mentioned in the Rindal based newspaper Trollheimsporten, "a friendly community with nearly 2100 residents who have faith in tomorrow."

It reports on the preparations of a local choir performing on Saturday morning and the Sunday evening of the 60 hour 200 choir minute by minute continuous live broadcast on Norwegian channel, NRK2. Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt is next in a line of what has become known as 'Sakte TV' or Slow TV.

They will be singing hymn numbers 299 - 304 on Saturday and 792 to 794 on Sunday. More in Norwegian here.

Watch: www.nrk.no
Hashtag: #NRKSalme #NRKSalmer
Facebook: NRKLivet 

Broadcast Page: Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt

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Slow TV - Fire as Therapy

This little cartoon speaks volumes of the peacefulness of looking at a fire for ages. I'm all for having a real wood fire, sat around with friends and family, enjoying its light and warmth, the slowly observable diminishing of a piece of wood into ash.

NRK broadcast a live transmission of a real fire burning over several hours in February 2013 - the Nasjonal Vedkveld, like an American channel broadcasts a loop of a burning fire for several hours each Christmas. Watching TV obviously is not the same as enjoying a real fire, but indeed, some of the aesthetic is communicated.

This time for making space, indeed, going slow, is good for the mind. Time takes on a different quality. It may sound a bit pyromaniac, but enjoying a fire is good medicine.

Thanks to Last Lemon - reproduced with permission.

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Hitter Klang choir preparing for their part in Slow TV

Have you ever been self conscious about the way you look, the way you behave in front of a camera? How about how you may look in front of a TV camera for a live broadcast to millions in your own country and others watching via the internet around the world?

That's the issue being pondered by a choir called Hitter Klang, who have been rehearsing for the four hymns they are singing during the marathon Norwegian hymn book sing through.

The Sandstad based newspaper Hitra Frøya reports on the preparations of a local choir performing on the Sunday morning of the 60 hour 200 choir minute by minute continuous live broadcast on Norwegian channel, NRK2. Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt is next in a line of what has become known as 'Sakte TV' or Slow TV.

In singing 899 hymns it is a certainty that some will have to sing hymns which are lesser known, maybe even unknown or forgotten by the masses; "the hymns were completely unknown to me, says Marion Fence - but all four are very fine...". Norsk Salmebok numbers 718, 719, 720 and 723 will be sung by Hitter Klang.

More in Norwegian at Hitra-Froya.no .Watch: www.nrk.no
Hashtag: #NRKSalme #NRKSalmer
Facebook: NRKLivet 

Broadcast Page: Salmeboka Minutt for Minutt

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Rune Møklebust 'selfie video' about Slow TV for Lokalrundfunktage 2014

NRK producer Rune Møklebust gives a couple minutes selfie / vlog style account in English of Norwegian Slow TV, ahead of an appearance at Lokalrundfunktage 2014 in Nürnberg. Hosted on the YouTube Channel Lokalrundfunktage.

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What is Slow TV?

What is Slow TV?

Slow TV can be understood in a number of ways. Trying to define it could be perceived as semantics, as playing with words, but it helps to give clarity as to why it is different to other forms of TV.

First and foremost it is a long recording or broadcast of a subject done in real time. No jump cuts, no editing out the bits that may be less interesting. Whatever happens, happens in the time it would take to happen – very literally real time. So that could be an animal, journey or event. This tends to make longer sequences and in turn a longer program. It could be ten minutes or five and half days.

That is not to say there is no selection of image for the viewer to watch or construing the parameters of the recording. Anything put on TV and any producer / editor will have criteria to filter a production accordingly. This will ensure that the viewer will have something which matches the goals, values and criteria of a Slow TV program.

The subject of a Slow TV program has got to be something which would not ordinarily be broadcast in real time. Cricket, football - many sports events would be Slow TV otherwise. While sports do hold that attribute of Slow TV, they are not.

Similarly, marathon broadcasts such as BBC Children in Need, State weddings, funerals, election coverage, waiting for vote counts and other national events could be Slow TV, but they are not. Slow TV can become a national event on occasion though.

Real time is it. The most basic, fundamental ingredient. Past this understanding Slow TV diversifies in its production values depending on broadcaster, on its medium, whether live or prerecorded, whether pre internet and social media if indeed Slow TV as we now have it existed before the internet became popularly accessible. Even the live events can be very different in their character.

The Slow TV which emerged from NRK (the Norwegian state broadcaster) since 2009 – is described as "Minutt for Minutt" - literally minute by minute. The time the recording or transmission takes is what the viewer sees. This is the undergirding principle of Slow TV, at least as far as the Norwegian incarnation of it is concerned - and Norway has been the only country to really plumb the depths and possibilities of Slow TV so far.

Being live gives an edge which prerecorded shows may lack (though any show can only be live just once). A broadcast on television so that people can watch it on their TV sets (not just laptops and handheld devices) during primetime sends the message that ‘this is important’ and invests a sense to the audience that the ordinary subject coming in to their television is being treated in an extra-ordinary way. Therein lies some important chemistry.

TV2, Norway’s main commercial channel produced a high quality web based Slow TV broadcast in May 2014. The continuous leg of a prerecorded journey was broadcast without commercial break via the broadcaster’s website with edited highlights of that leg being transmitted via the TV signal later that night. A blend of different media platform used to fit the mold of commercial TV. In contrast to TV2,  NRK do broadcast their Slow TV online, but it is live and a supplement to the TV signal; the internet broadcast is not the principal broadcast.

A better way of understanding Slow TV is to take a peep at the history of programs and projects which could be and have been described as Slow TV. See here for more.

Typically it is rich in visual aesthetics, often a relaxing scene, but not exclusively so. Subjects have included the beauty of the Norwegian landscape, but with lectures, knitting and singing making content, nature is not the only dynamic. Even in shows where nature is the centrepiece of the broadcast (such as the ferry trip, Hurtigruten), there may be a few hours of the cameras focussed on the dockside.

This camera ‘idle time’ introduced another dynamic during the ferry broadcast; it provided a platform for members of the public which was neither invited nor populated in content by the broadcaster but was the catalyst for spontaneous dockside events of music, dancing and plenty of hand and flag waving.

Viewers at home also interact via social media, online chat; and it seems that Slow TV may generate different ways of interaction in the viewer-medium relationship which other TV formats do not. That will be pondered and unpacked as this blog unfolds. "Slow TV reaches the parts other formats do not", one could say.

First published 7th October 2014, first revision published 13th November 2015.

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Slow TV - Defining the boundaries

It may seem existentially odd to define something by what it is not, however, it is a necessary exercise sometimes to make things much clearer. Especially when it is as new a format as Slow TV linked by similar characteristics to material which is not completely the same. I appreciate it may come down to being pedantic, perhaps, though it helps to give definition. I would like to offer the below observations.

Slow TV:

• is not looped material played repeatedly. The material in the loop may have qualities of Slow TV. It can be similar content played out over a long time but there will be obvious or subtle changes to that content which does not make different moments identical.
• does not consist of timelapses, hyperlapses and changes in frame rates such as slow motions or. Slow TV does reveal something to the viewer which 'regular' TV does not, but does not use methods speed ups. These techniques do have their obvious aesthetics which reveal something usually unperceived and often beautiful, but they relate a different time frame than which was used in filming. 
• does not use jump cuts; productions with a large budget, several cameras and reasonable crew will select the image which best suits the moment, but there will be no jump in the time of the event being portrayed.
• is not sports events, long themed broadcasts, charity fund raising marathon broadcasts, royal or state events (weddings, funerals, anniversaries etc), rolling news channels. All of these happen, but do not use long held sequences from the same perspective. There will be near continuous commentary on such broadcasts.
• usually does not rely on the need for continuous commentary when there is 'nothing' happening. In Slow TV, the view, the sound and the music (if selected) are enough; they are the subject which takes the viewer on the journey without being ‘presenter driven’. There may be times when there is a commentary but when it is said, it is said - no awkwardness of silence as you can get when a rolling news channel realises it has nothing to say mid-flow.
• is not Slow Cinema. Slow TV is for, well, television - or in these days, other small screen devices. If you want to know more about Slow Cinema do visit this excellent blog, The Art(s) of Slow Cinema.
• is not art for art's sake. Maybe. It may draw on artistic ambience but is not arty or abstract for the sake of it. Maybe. The Tokyo Reverse could be an exception. Andy Wahol’s films “Sleep” and “Empire” while having an aesthetic of Slow TV were neither for TV nor shown in real time. More here (content coming soon). 

Previously I had not included the Australian SlowTV (notice the brand contraction of of SlowTV into one word) channel as being Slow TV. I now include this – reasons being 

• Slow TV is about content being shown in real time, no jumps. SlowTV’s content is real time without jumps. It allows the content to unfold. 
• NRK produced the 24 hour lecture on significant aspects of Norway’s history in 1814, as well as 200 years in 200 minutes lecture. Both these match the SlowTV channel in their ethos. The Australian SlowTV channel posts "interviews, debates, conversations and public lectures about Australia's key political, social and cultural issues" - in full length - not reduced to 8 second soundbites as news media tends to. Hence the 'Slow' label.

Thanks to interaction with Alice Scheerer of www.slowlifelab.de for stimulating a think again on this last point.

This is a revision of what Slow TV is not; I was not entirely happy with the first version, which I have left in place here.

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