Czech Slow TV! Česká Slow TV!

One of the Live Slow TV streams on

slowtv.playtvak.cz

A delightful discovery and the first dedicated and branded online Slow TV channel is hosted at slowtv.playtvak.cz . The channel consists of webcams but is not diminished for it. Besides archive transmissions, there are live feeds from many types of subject. 

At the time of writing there are five feeds : an airport runway, complete with radio between pilots and air traffic control (sometimes in English); a winter view across the River Vltava Prague; a bird feeder (reminiscent of NRK’s ‘Piip Show’); a waste incinerating plant where monstrous grabbers lift refuse into chutes - watching pigeons peck over the rubbish, dodge machinery and bits of bag waft around a bit like the carrier bag in ‘American Beauty’. My favourite one has been the ‘lubricating tram’ live feed around Prague centre. 

I was at first bemused thinking it was a translation error from Google Chrome’s translate feature (yes, Slow TV’s exciting - but THAT exciting!) - but in fact it is a tram which is dedicated to oiling the tram tracks on Prague’s street tram network. Tuning in at night when it had been raining, the streets were dark but reflective. Watching the tram icon on the map mark where the vehicle was going and the interactions of lights, vehicles and people - it worked for me. Turning the volume down to just audible and then having my own music (Classic FM) playing worked wonderfully and gave a nice cosy feel before bed (check out the Danish word ‘hygge’ for the best sense).

Late Night Lubricating Tram Slow TV

slowtv.playtvak.cz

Keeping an eye on the Facebook page for slowtv.playtvak.cz it's clear some have been having fun interacting with the live broadcast from the tram, even getting on it a time or too with a swift stop and a berating from the driver. The hook line on the banner reads -"Napínavé příběhy se dějí právě v tomto okamžiku. Zpomalte a klidně se dívejte. Nebo rovnou sami zasáhněte do děje!" - which translates as "Exciting stories are happening at this very moment. Slow down and calmly look. Or directly intervene themselves into action!".

It may not be as high a production broadcast via TV signal as NRK but remains engaging and interesting - a wallpaper TV which may or may not do very much while you have it. But there’s the hook - something could happen. I’ll certainly be getting to know Prague a little better. If you’re wondering about translating, using Chrome, right click on a blank piece of page and click “translate to....” whichever language your default language is on.

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

Was the Drummond Puddle Watch a form of Slow TV?

The Drummond Puddle Watch
on Periscope - Drummond Central

A couple weeks ago a notable media phenomenon happened. Live footage of a puddle in an area of Newcastle Upon Tyne was broadcast by a marketing agency via internet streaming platform, Periscope. They just happened to have a window looking down onto the body of water obstructing a major pedestrian thoroughfare. What was notable about this was over half a million people tuned in to watch the continuous live feed streamed from a mobile phone app. It trended number one in the UK on twitter, number two worldwide. See Drummond Central's own write up for their story.

Comparisons with the TV format known as Slow TV, started in Norway by broadcaster NRK are obvious. Their recording of the train journey from Bergen to Oslo which was shown on the second state channel over seven hours fourteen minutes attracted the label ‘Slow TV’. (Some have said that Andy Warhol started Slow TV but just lightly critique that accepted ‘fact’ and you soon see it is not so. Another blog post sometime will deal with that!) .

On the success of this train transmission, the Norwegians did a number of other Slow TV projects, perhaps the most notable being the behemoth of the five and half day long live ‘Hurtigruten’ ferry journey. 11 cameras (some very pricey), serious technical challenges to overcome, an outside broadcast gallery worthy of olympic sports coverage. This was no static webcam but something which became a national TV event where people turned up to wave at the cameras, follow in their own boats, sit glued in front of their own screens as ports, fjords, mountains ambled by. People brought their own contributions to the broadcast with bands, dances, waterskiing in a gorilla suit and borat mankini. Even Queen Sonja of Norway participated uninvited with a regal wave from a fortuitous encounter with the Royal Yacht.

Six years after Norway brought us Slow TV, it is a format which has entered the minds of a lot of media consumers and one which other broadcasters are trying out, with mixed results. It could be suggested these mixed results could be down to insufficient understanding of the complexities of what can appear as a simple format. There are different types of Slow TV from basic pre-recorded through to internet only to multi camera TV broadcast. Russia and the UK have put Slow TV on their national channels. The USA is scheduled for a (postponed) Slow TV production. It’s not a format that is going away and needs much better conceptual framing if it is to be produced and enjoyed to its optimum.

Here are eight ways I think that the Drummond Puddle Watch offered us Slow TV. Each in itself does not make it Slow TV, but out of a combination of factors a type of Slow TV emerges.

It was live. In being live it becomes an event. It has a ‘nowness’ to it. Like watching a live sports event, you don’t want to leave it in case you miss something important for that broadcast.

The Drummond Puddle Watch on Periscope - Drummond Central

It was a microcosmic situation. There is something about it probably everyone can relate to at some time - like, we all have to get past puddles sometimes! Most of life isn’t about drama. It’s about the ordinary. Slow TV is powerfully ordinary, a celebration of the ordinary. An issue with usual TV is it usually presents contrived storylines and accelerated timelines as an antidote to the ordinariness of life. Slow TV - so called in comparison because it is real-time, gives the mundane an opportunity to be enjoyed. For most of us, daily life is the mundane and finding the meaning and fulfilment in that. Yes, this is where Slow TV can go off for an existential pondering.

In being live we wait to see how these small but important ordinary stories play out. The anticipation of what may or may not happen. When NRK communicates the essence of Slow TV for their marketing and conferences, a segment of a cow going for a ten minute walk on one of the broadcasts is shown. The mental and visual participation in the journey this ‘damned cow’ demonstrates the power of Slow TV to disrupt and confound usual broadcaster expectations and viewer habits. The behaviour of people navigating or circumnavigating a puddle is precisely this.

People begin populating the broadcast with their own uninvited content. Once people know there is a camera and therefore an audience, behaviour changes. Many of us feel the need to perform - as mentioned in the Norwegian example. In the case of The Puddle- bringing surfboards and lilos and eventually greater numbers as knowledge of the 'performance' platform spreads. 

The Puddle happened long enough to become an event. Long enough for word to spread, ideas to germinate. It was not forced into a small slot, not put on catch up or on demand. It had the sense of ‘extended now-ness’.

The Drummond Puddle Watch on Periscope - Drummond Central

There was a sense of participation. Watching the comments appear on the live feed, comments on facebook, tweet activity. A temporary transient community manifests online. Even if someone doesn’t add their thoughts, they enjoy sharing in comments about techniques and anticipations.

The Puddle was in real time. Real time gives an opportunity for nothing to happen. The times when nothing happens redefines the drama when something does happen. Real time doesn’t edit out the boring bits but validates something when it does happen, even if it is insignificant or boring. Of course being a well used path gave a sureness that the expected action will happen but it is the ‘uneditedness’ of Slow TV which gives definition to its eventfulness.

Slow TV is not mindfulness but will often facilitate it. Those moments when nothing else happens in your active mind but an awareness of what you’re doing - or in the case of this type of Slow TV - an awareness of what you're looking at, the seeking out of small details in case there is a change, even a tiny change in the story grabbing your attention. It’s a meaningful distraction from usually dominant mental preoccupations (family, career, health) and the repetition and mundane nature of being where you spend a lot of time, especially if that's indoors. Drummond Puddle Watch grabbed office workers' attention around the country. Mindfulness, entertainment and distraction in one. Now, that's good a Slow TV.

Slow TV plays out in different ways depending on its platform, its production level, its subject, the way media consumers watch it, the way people participate in front of the camera and in the transient fluidic online communities which nucleate around a given broadcast. The Drummond Puddle Watch most definitely caught and embodied some of the essential factors of Slow TV.

Some other different types of Slow TV:

Commercial pre-recorded non-linear Slow TV in Finland
State broadcast live interactive linear Slow TV in Russia
National public service broadcaster linear pre-recorded Slow TV in the UK
Single camera pre-recorded linear Slow TV in the UK for DVD

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

Could the BBC's Sleigh Ride Slow TV have been even better?

BBC4 - The Sleigh Ride

The long awaited Sleigh Ride on BBC4 has been and gone. With the precedent of All Aboard! The Canal Trip earlier this year I was hopeful for more of the same. Since becoming aware of it several months ago I'd eagerly awaited this next exploration of the BBC into Slow TV. It's an important format, able to be many things at the same time to many people and I'm eager to see it be taken up in its optimum form by broadcasters outside of Norway.

If I appear to be having a moan, it’s not just for the sake of it. I did enjoy the The Sleigh Ride but I know Slow TV can be a lot more as a production and do a lot more for the audience. Hopefully I'm being constructive!

I feel The Sleigh Ride gripped the potential of what Slow TV could be for the BBC even less than The Canal Trip. It seems from following comments on social media that many who had no issues with The Sleigh Ride are relatively new to watching Slow TV. My concern is that unfamiliarity with what Slow TV can be, for many, will make easier acceptance of lower production values, not so good a framing of the concept of slowness in Slow TV, and the consequent relation of the subject being shown to the viewer. Although it was good, it was neither enough of an ambient TV experience nor a TV event.

Five ways in which The Sleigh Ride could work better as Slow TV

EXPERIENCE NOT INFORMATION

BBC4 - The Sleigh Ride

Slow TV is orientated around the experience of viewing, not a flow of (re)articulated information. Slow TV is not about digesting a stream of information, facts and figures. I felt The Sleigh Ride was on the verge of conforming to a traditional documentary mode with so many wayside facts and figures. Yes, some information which sets the context of the subject, establishes parameters of the activity, but not so much that it distracts from the journey related by the camera. When the embedded text appeared, our attention was diverted to it (especially when appearing in the distance) and the imperative rush to ingest the fact before it disappears. Let the experience be the primary source of information, especially in a Slow TV production where it is the image that is the medium of the experience, not the words said or written.

TV NEEDS TO ACCOMMODATE THE WHOLE THING

The subject of a Slow TV broadcast gains a sense of wholeness when the entire expanse of time which that subject requires is accommodated. Not an arbitrary section which neatly fills limited TV schedules. The implicit message of Slow TV, is that it is something extraordinarily ordinary, and that message hits home when the TV schedules are forced to accommodate it. 

Think what happens to the schedules when a major sports, national event or news event is happening. It barges into the schedule. "Oi! I'm important and you're going to watch me!". Slow TV needs its subject not be trimmed and not edited into so it conforms to a time conscious medium.

THE ACTIVITY OR JOURNEY NEEDS TO BE THE COMPLETE THING

Why was the journey picked up at the point we began? Why did it end where it left off? It felt like an arbitrary section of the journey which would fill the schedule. Instead of showing us the passage of A through to Z, it gave us E through to H. I watched The Sleigh Ride with three others, all of us left wondering where the sledge was actually going and why we were left where we were. A map was shown at the hour point illustrating the entire route but not the section of the journey concerned. As my father in law commented, “We watched that for nearly two hours and didn’t know where they were going or why they were going there”.

IT NEEDS TO LET THE VIEWER HAVE TIME TO ASK THEIR OWN QUESTIONS OF THE PICTURE

BBC4 - The Sleigh Ride

Slow TV needs to make the viewer ask questions of what might happen and not leave the big questions unanswered. It needs to facilitate a mental questioning, such as what the animals might do next? what could be appearing around the next corner? Small things which engage our curiosity, akin to ‘people-watching’ at train stations and airports which make us ponder the minutiae of the narratives we see. When I visit a coffee shop, I usually prefer a window seat so I can glance up and ponder the many small stories happening outside. This kind of wondering is quite absorbing, and for The Sleigh Ride it was when the reindeer was digging for food around 1 hour 15 minutes in the broadcast and the aurora borealis for a couple minutes at the end. Both moments allowed undirected and unmanufactured events to enable the viewer to ponder the tiny nuances of the stories being shown. More moments like these will further immerse a viewer in the film and give, in some senses, a self-populating content in this documentary format.

IT SHOULD BE ‘REALITY REVEALED’ NOT REALITY RECONSTRUCTED

So, in terms of The Sleigh Ride, we never knew the purpose of the Sami women's journey at the time of filming. Yes, it was an old postal route but were they delivering or collecting parcels and post on their journey? We're not told. They had logs on their sleighs, but what else?

BBC4 - The Sleigh Ride

The subject is best served by being an activity or journey which would happen anyway, whether or not the cameras were there. Not a specially crafted reconstruction. The producers of Norwegian Slow TV in the NRK Hordaland region have referred to the format as being 'reality revealed' - the closest thing to a fly on the wall documentary. It's not reality reconstructed. It's what is actually going on which the camera is there to capture. When it’s a Slow TV about nature or a journey it should be one which happens anyway; film that, let us know the reason why it happens, and let the camera reveal what would happen if the camera were not there, insofar as possible.

SLOW TV: NOVELTY STOCKING FILLER OR MAIN PRESENT?

So, while it was a welcome Christmas broadcast, it felt like it could have been more. It felt more like a novelty stocking filler. Very good and engaging in its own right, but not hugely memorable and not noticed by as many as it could be. The ratings for The Sleigh Ride didn't match that of The Canal Trip and didn't break out of BBC4's usual market share. Slow TV can be a novelty stocking filler but for the short time given for this Slow TV it was trying to be more than a stocking filler.

BBC4 - The Sleigh Ride

When you know Slow TV can also be the amazing main present hidden behind the sofa for maximum surprise and which will be seen and talked about by many many more and remembered for a long time, The Sleigh Ride felt like a falling short of the potential of the format. It was too busy with information to thoroughly sink into the ambient aspect of it - or the broadcast should have been considerably longer with the information shown on the screen for a few more seconds.

Slow TV can be many things from the personal ambient TV trip to a national event celebrating a journey or activity. If you’re not familiar with Slow TV, don’t think it’s just a two camera stocking filler - it can be much more than that. It can be the big present which will thrill and delight most of those who experience it. 

So, yes please, BBC, let’s have more Slow TV - longer, less information, more opportunity to experience what you’re showing us.

If you want to experience All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride, it's on the BBC iPlayer until 25th January 2016, right here. Subsequent repeats will likely put it back on iPlayer in the future. Geoblocking of content may well apply outside of the UK.

Coming in 2017 (hopefully!) - A week of live Slow TV reindeer migration on prime time main channel TV in Norway

What was so right with Russia's War and Peace Slow TV - война и мир?

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

What was so right with Russia's War and Peace Slow TV - война и мир?

russia.tv

Oh those Russians. Two things Russia has produced in the past year have really impressed me. Assuming readers are familiar with a certain notable annual song competition, in May 2015 you may recall a first half of the vote announcements of the Eurovision Song Contest as a slog-it-out between Russia and Sweden. 

The second half of the votes saw Sweden surge ahead and take the top spot from Polina Gagarina. I think it was more the cute Swedish guy and endearing animation which helped the song win. Polina’s belting out of a power ballad got my vote last year, and would you not agree that this year’s competition would have had a lot of additional interesting dynamics if Moscow had been hosting Eurovision 2016?

So, Russia’s 2015 Eurovision entry, A Million Voices, came second - but later in the year about 1,300 voices participated in a monumental Russian Slow TV transmission. In December, Russia 1, Russia Kultur and Radio Mayak broadcast a live, real time reading of Tolstoy's War and Peace. It represented the very best of what a Slow TV broadcast can achieve. 

While its subject wasn't the progressive linear journey through a pretty landscape or watching a craft activity pass in front of the camera, it was like NRK's 60 hour continuous sing-through of the 899 Hymns of the Norwegian Hymn Book in 2014. It was the celebration of literature with national resonance which framed a Slow TV broadcast with such punch.

Here are nine things I think are so RIGHT with Russia’s War and Peace Slow TV.

A SENSE OF COMPLETENESS

voinamir.com - Война и мир - Читаем роман

It was a complete work, all the way through, no edits. No cutting out less interesting bits. The parts less racey, less dramatic helped give definition and greater meaning to the dramatic parts. The whole thing, a self defined work independent of anyone’s thinking ‘this is too long, we must shorten it’.

SOMETHING WHICH EXISTS INDEPENDENTLY OF TV PRODUCTION

It was a work which existed independently of the production, not devised for it. Whether or not the production had happened, the work is there. This means that there's an audience, there's an interest in what is related by the TV cameras before the TV cameras get involved. Yes, it was assembled into a TV broadcast but was not contrived into being as a 'new' idea for TV. Unlike other reality formats which contrive and fix a subject or activity for a broadcast, the book exists aside and before a production company brings it to the screen.

IT WAS GIVEN AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO DO IT

It was given as long as it was needed on a TV broadcast (as well as the internet and radio). It was not truncated, abridged, edited to make it shorter so it would fit a scheduled regular slot on TV. By disrupting the usual broadcasting schedule it communicates that it is not usual broadcasting.

IT WAS GIVEN A PRIME TIME MAIN CHANNEL FOCUS

voinamir.com - Война и мир - Читаем роман

The broadcaster accommodated it prime time on principal channels as well as a specialised channel and online. With its main focus being verbal content - the reading of the book - radio accommodated it too. Yes, online viewing is significant in today’s broadcast landscape but consuming media on a main TV channel on primetime is still the thing which make a large number of people think ‘this is important’.

IT WAS SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO A LOT OF THE AUDIENCE

It was something culturally and historically significant for the country which broadcast it. Tolstoy’s War and Peace is cherished and embraced as something which captures the essence of national pride and identity. People care about it and are deeply interested in the broadcast. It wasn't in itself a novelty but something which matters, presented in a novel manner.

IT WAS PARTICIPATORY

voinamir.com - Война и мир - Читаем роман

It was participatory. Russians famous and not famous, Russians around the world and across the country, able bodied, disabled, blind, uniformed, un-uniformed, military, civilian, religious and spiritual, in palaces, on the street, in the space station, in the arctic. In all about 1,300 representing every aspect of Russian diversity and perceived nationhood participated.

IT ALLOWED ENOUGH TIME FOR VIEWERS TO SEARCH THE PICTURE THEMSELVES

It may not have been ‘ambient’ wallpaper like natural scenery, but allowed three minutes or so of each reader, their context, location, sometimes more when several readers were in the location. You become aware of the immediate story of that person while reading their page, and over many readers, a much bigger story. 

voinamir.com - Война и мир - Читаем роман

There were opportunities to view what was going on around or behind the reader - the natural landscape, the city landmarks, the human activity, the museum exhibits, the historic environment. So much to take in, even if you don't know what the reader is saying.

IT WAS A TV EVENT

It created a sense of an event, an attention grabbing but significant novelty. Too much and too frequent, the novelty becomes annoying or ignored. A balance of the above factors, it is a meaningful distraction from the typical TV schedule - and like important national events or major sporting events - it is accommodated entirely and even disrupting scheduled broadcasts after it.

IT WAS A CELEBRATION OF MORE THAN A TV PROGRAMME

voinamir.com - Война и мир - Читаем роман

It was a celebration - of reading, of a book, of a country, of history, of identity, of places, of diversity.

I hardly understood a word of it. I knew "Mir" before (thanks, space travel). I understood "Niet, Natasha" (which seemed to be said a lot). Without knowing much about Russia, except what a diet of Western Media and an occasional foray on to Russia Today when your own domestic broadcaster becomes overly repetitive, I got a wider idea of Russia. Its diversity.

I saw palaces, museums, landscapes, cities (other than Moscow), even learnt a few characters of the Cyrillic alphabet. I got an interest in learning more about Tolstoy's tremendous tome (how convenient that a BBC drama of War and Peace of it registered on the TV schedule horizon shortly afterwards).

voinamir.com - Война и мир - Читаем роман

Most of all, I felt this was a broadcast that nails the benchmark of a masterful Slow TV broadcast as well the best of the Norwegian NRK Slow TV broadcasts to date - something audiences and broadcasters can learn from as more countries begin dabbling with Slow TV. It's not something to dabble with. It's something to take a big, calculated, well produced run, jump and plunge. Slow TV represents a genus of TV format which can be odd and quirky, a nice visual trip. It can be an attention grabbing benevolent broadcasting behemoth. It can be that novelty wallpaper TV but it can be a national celebration which many feel compelled to watch.

LINKS FOR WAR AND PEACE

"War and Peace - We Read the Novel" was broadcast live online HERE with archived segments available, with some segments falling on Russia 1 (Россия 1) and Russia K (Россия К - dedicated culture channel also featuring material about War and Peace) and Radio Mayak (Радиомаяк). Look for the hashtag "#войнаимир" on social media.

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

A Norwegian Slow TV Maelstrom in May

A Norwegian Slow TV project for 2016 is a 12 hour live broadcast of a dramatic tidal phenomenon at Saltstraumen, between Knaplundsøya and Straumøya in Bodø in Nordland.

Home to the world’s strongest tidal maelstrom, the effect is generated by the differing water level between the sea and a fjord during the ebbing and flowing of the tide at Saltstraumen. Over six hours 372 million cubic metres of sea water rush through a 150 metres wide and 31 metres deep passage.This will be another Norwegian spectacle to marvel at, another reliably high quality production with cameras on land, drones and from submersibles, it will give another unique TV experience. The view is framed by natural beauty of mountains and the Saltstraum bridge, where will likely be a good viewing point.

The name Saltstraumen refers to a ‘strong stream’ - not a salt stream as one might think, or even ‘Salt Dreams’ (thinking of German words ‘Saltz’ and ‘Traumen’). I’ve witnessed similar churning of the water beneath the Menai Bridge in North Wales as the tide changed on the Menai Strait - or the most famous UK example of a tidal phenomenon would be the River Severn Bore. 

Combined with the likely live Slow TV climb of the Troll Wall around midsummer and the preproduction research for a week of Slow TV reindeer migration in 2017, NRK continues to reinforce that major broadcast Slow TV needs to be made to the highest production values, meeting technical challenges head on, and that there really are almost no limits as to what Slow TV can cover. Saltstraumen will air on May 7th or 8th. Exact details will be posted when known.

Slow TV weaves a spell for The Magic of Lapland

The Magic of Lapland - Lapin Lumo courtesy of Hidasta elämää

In 2012, Finnish broadcaster YLE did a themed evening which incorporated some Slow TV into its transmission. JuhannusJuna, The Midsummer Train was the journey from Helsinki to Rovaniemi during the time of the midnight sun, where (subject to cloud cover) everything is bathed in the golden glow of the never setting but very low sun.

In 2014, a further themed evening came on YLE with moments of Slow TV: Sauna Night. Anyone who's been to the Baltic area for a while will likely have spent time in an impossibly hot wooden cube, leaving after just a few minutes wondering how on earth the locals manage to stay in so long. Nevertheless, it's meant to be a very healthy experience.

Now, along with the BBC's All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride, which was two hours of Sami led reindeer and the planned live week long NRK Norwegian broadcast of reindeer migration, this Finnish Slow TV vibe combines with a lifestyle and well-being angle. Over the course of eight episodes it celebrates the Lapland landscape, and serves as a calming advert for the area's tourism, outdoor products, services and hotels. Indeed, one could suggest it was commercial Slow TV without the screaming penetration of adverts in the flow of media you're watching.

The Magic of Lapland - Lapin Lumo courtesy of Hidasta elämää

If one said, "Lapin Lumo", you might think of a glowing rabbit (leaning towards a French interpretation) or alternatively, a spell from Harry Potter. Lumos! Neither of these is correct, but stay with the idea of magic to get the notion of a place which could make you feel compelled to visit and yearn to return.

The page for Lapin Lumo reads,

"Lapin lumo (“the magic of Lapland”) is Finland’s first step towards the internationally successful Slow TV format. The series comprises of 8 episodes, taking us to different parts of Finnish Lapland, for instance to Kilpisjärvi and Saariselkä. The episodes take place in three seasons: summer, the autumn colours season known in Finnish as ruska, and winter. You are invited along to experience the breathtaking beauty of Lapland and the transitioning of nature from one season and shade to another." (More here).

Falling into the ambient TV aspect of Slow TV, similar to the Landscape TV channel, Lapin Lumo consists of quality landscape shots. High definition sweeping views with drones and helicopter views, fixed angles, tracking shots of people walking in the wilderness. If you've ever tried walking and filming before, getting a level of stability in the image can be very difficult; one assumes this must be some very good steadicam work.

The Magic of Lapland - Lapin Lumo courtesy of Hidasta elämää

In terms of its temporal dynamic, it is not the real time of usual Slow TV, but does have some longer segments before cutting. In this respect, it's reminiscent of the BBC's Slow TV broadcast, "The Dawn Chorus", which is not linear in its timeline but nevertheless has fantastic moments of calming, stilling real time visuals, and indeed the lesser known NRK series, Severin, springs to mind. 

Lapin Lumo's sound design is slightly different - there is a lot of the ambient background sounds of what is being shown but also moments of ambient, minimalist music. As someone who likes to listen to instrumental or ambient music in remote places or at bronze age and neolithic megalithic sites, I completely get this and reckon many others will, too. The music, scenery and vibe weave together to form an enveloping tapestry of sensory enjoyment.

The episodes are shared on a holistic lifestyle website, Hidasta elämää, which is putting Slow TV in the context of wider slowness, a more relaxed, organic way of life.

Hidasta elämää is a Finnish website and an online channel for comprehensive wellbeing, slow lifestyle, and spiritual growth. The name Hidasta elämää is an equivoque; it can be translated either as “Slow life” or as an imperative to “Slow down (your) life”.

So, Slow TV has been framed in an aspect of The Slow Movement. While Slow TV did not emerge from a conscious articulation of Slowness, it has found expression in that, with its name coming from a reference to Slow Food. So, whether you're wanting to watch slow paced themed montages of beautiful landscapes and outside activity with relaxation in front of crackling wood fires, or to sample the delights of The Magic of Lapland for prospective holidays (I've been doing both for some time - one day I'll get there!) - take in the films of Lapin Lumo.

The Magic of Lapland - Lapin Lumo courtesy of Hidasta elämää

Clips, photos and material related to the Lapin Lumo films are here on Facebook and can also be followed on Instagram. If you would like to see more of Hidasta elämää in English, follow this link. A dedicated Facebook page here in Finnish for lifestyle related discussions.  (Right click, translate in Google Chrome with give a loose sense of the meaning in most cases)

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

Slow TV returns to Germany - more Mora!

Good news! Later this January, Germany once more brings us some new Slow TV. Last Easter, the educational channel ARD Alpha screened three one hour prerecorded activity based Slow TV episodes - Dry Stone Walling, Cello Making and Match Making. 

From the end of January, five brand new activities will be shown, at weekly intervals. No commentary, no music, no in your face usual documentary interpretation.

See further down for Mora - watchmaking Slow TV

Assuming consistency with the former episodes, Mora will have two or more cameras focused on the single activity, each angle embedded in one screen so each view maintains an uninterrupted visual flow. This allows the viewer to search each camera view for small details of the ongoing story of the activity, it's their choice as to which selected angle they watch at any one point.

Called 'Mora' from the Latin noun meaning 'delay', it's named in contrast to the usual narratively edited and therefore sped up TV formats. 'Echtzeit' - 'real time' is the German portmanteau to describe the temporal quality of the offerings in the same way that Slow TV doesn't actually literally mean slow in itself, but slow by virtue of being real time.

There are five new episodes, Sundays, from 20:15 local time, 31st January onwards. The subjects are tentative and will be confirmed as I get clearer details.

31st January Pencil Drawing on a Train Ride (Der Zeichner)

7th February Ice Sculpting in front of Mountains (Der Eisbildhauer)

14th February Watch Making (Der Uhrmacher)

21st February Synchronised Swimming (Die Synchronschwimmerinnen)

28th February Jewelry Making (Der Schmuckdesigner)

6th March Mosaic Making (Die Mosaiklegerin)

13th March Drystone Walling (Der Trockenmauerer)

20th March Cello Making (Die Cellobauerin)

Previously, Mora covered -

Die Cellobauerin (Cello Making)

Der Trockenmauerer (Dry Stone Walling)

Der Uhrmacher (Watch Making)

(watch as a playlist from Slow TV News and Reviews)

Where can I watch Mora? Wo kann mann Mora sehen?

These will be available on ARD Alpha's TV broadcast and online; at the time of transmission it will be available here - but only in Germany due to geoblocking. The new episodes will eventually be available online, I suspected on YouTube, like the the first three.

Get a taste for Mora - here's my personal favourite of the German Slow TV so far... the swinging pendulum and multiple ticking and chiming add a very oxymoronic but ambient quality for a format where time is less important, but states the literal passing of time very emphatically.

Stay tuned to the Slow TV Blog, lots happening!

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