Interact | Arts and Culture try’s total population) tuned in at the time
firstly proposed by some communica- time!) to complete, and in between it has
to watch the show, according to NRK. ‘I’m
tion scholars who felt anxious about the
no passengers, no traffic, only road sign,
not being ironic’, mentioned one viewer,
negative consequences of mass media.
and you have to keep steering the bus to
‘For some reason, this broadcast was very
They argue that in modern society where
keep it from driving off road, or you’ll
calming and very exciting at the same
people are bombarded by excessive social
have to restart the entire process again.
time.’ One American user commented
network notifications, news alerts, incom- Even if you finish the journey, the only re-
that ‘if only the life in the USA could be
ing e-mails and other forms of distractions,
ward you could get is a single score, mak-
so simple...a programme of a fireplace
the always-connected, speed-obsessed
ing it the most difficult point to achieve in
instead of guns and crimes’.
way of life would inevitably lead to super- video game history. The following quote ficiality and decreasing quality in media
can be seen in the beginning of the game:
messages. Sabbath Manifesto, a website
‘game is stupefyingly like reality’.
that embraces slow media movement, is pledging for a ‘The National Day of Unplugging’ with its ‘10 principles’, and the first one is ‘Avoid Technology’. Despite how plausible the idea of slow media sounds, few people would actually However it was not the only experimental
like to disconnect from the virtual world
projects created by NRK, they are proved
to find a sense of relief. In fact, we find that
to be quite experienced at broadcasting
the aspiration of living a simple, undis- nority’s masochists, the game was still
mundane events like this: in the past they
turbed life amid our gadgets is yet another
called by The New Yorker as ‘the very
have broadcasted a five-day live from a
form of escapist wishful thinking: it will
worst video game ever created’. Quirky
cruise ship, and their latest programme
always be substituted by our pressing need
as these inventions might be, they more
showed a nine-hour live knitting. If the
to socialise and catch up with what’s going
or less reflect modern people’s cynical
fireplace show still has more or less to
on, by our insatiable appetite for more
resistance to a world of constant change.
do with the Norwegian firewood culture,
sensory excitement and our reluctancy
There is too much stimuli and not enough
the recent nine-hour live knitting almost
to surrender all the conveniences that
time, in a sense this sentiment defines us
entirely emphasises the ‘slowness’ of the
technology has already afforded us. Most
as a generation. Perhaps slow media is a
show itself, which consists of two parts,
importantly, nowadays ‘disconnected’ at
possible way out, though at this stage it
the first half was a four-hour documentary
some point means being excluded from
appears to be more eccentric than real-
Although it may have satisfied some mi-
on sheep shearing, and the second con- the online community thus being left be- istic. Or, why don’t we just sit back and sisted of five hours of non-stop knitting
hind. Also this idea is certainly not going
enjoy the warmth and relaxing crackling
by a group of people aiming to break a
to be welcomed by the ads suppliers. In
sound of a real fireplace, if we do fancy a
previous world knitting record.
this sense, the National Firewood Night
moment of sobriety?
series is just a parody of the idealistic slow Impressed by NRK’s peculiar approach, it
media movement.
is realised that the term ‘slow TV’ that has been adopted by some reports is some- A more unorthodox examples of such what related to the ‘slow media movement’
mundane programmes, the predecessor of
mentioned a few times in the past. As the
both live firewood and slow media, is the
name suggests, the movement urges us
once notorious video game called ‘Dessert
to ‘slow down’ the pace when engaging
Bus’. The whole purpose of the game is to
with forms of media goes on to call for a
drive a passenger bus (but without a single
less-mediated forms of life. Inspired by
passenger) from Arizona to Las Vegas.
the slow food movement, the idea was
The single journey takes 8 hours (in real
First image from The New York Times National Firewood Night Second image from the New Yorker - Desert bus interface Previous page image by Christopher/Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 63