Binge Watching Ordinary Events Playing Out in Real Time
I've shared strategies for using movies to strengthen attention. Just as in ordinary life, what makes tending to the sensory components of a film so challenging is the pull of the narrative.
But what would it be like to focus on the changing sights and sounds without having to resist the gravitational pull of story elements?
Starting today, you can find out.
Netflix just added several episodes of Slow TV, a Norwegian program that has fueled millions of hours of binge watching without the usual distraction of characters or plots.
Episodes include:
- Slow TV: Northern Railway (52 minutes)
- Slow TV: National Firewood Night (6 hours, 1 minute)
- Slow TV: Train Ride Bergen to Oslo (7 hours, 14 minutes)
- Slow TV: National Firewood Evening (3 hours, 54 minutes)
- Slow TV: National Knitting Evening (3 hours, 55 minutes)
- Slow TV: Northern Passage (59 minutes)
- Slow TV: National Firewood Morning (2 hours, 5 minutes)
The episodes aren't short, by the way. The train ride through Norway takes seven and a half hours.
Bergensbanen: minutt for minutt. The Bergen Line to Oslo minute-by-minute
Source: http://nrkbeta.no/bergensbanen, https://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/
Not yet added to Netflix: a 135-hour Norwegian cruise and a 24-hour live broadcast of salmon fishing, and 14 hours of watching birds in a cafe.
See also:
- Heller, N. (2014, September 30). Slow TV is here. New Yorker. [link]
- Catch Yourself Absorbed
- Intimately Meshed
- Touch the Sound