Fjord Transit “Yes, he’s in his office, but he’s on an intergalactic cruise” —from Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Imagine a five day TV marathon covering a cruise around the Norwegian coast. This is Hurtigruten, a traditional midsummer cruise televised by NRK the Norwegian national broadcaster, producing a landscape porn masterpiece by transmitting every last minute of the journey from Bergen on the west coast to Kirkenes in the far northeast of the country, about 5 miles from the Russian border, and about 793 miles from the nearest Starbucks. As the ship passed through the lower fjords people came to wave. Hei Mamma! At the harbours people wave flags and jump about like fools on Children In Need night. Boaters swarm around, waving and talking into mobiles so they know when to wave. It seems like a national event, but acknowledging the rest of the country, studiously ignoring the capital.  “It’s like visiting some natives, only the natives are wearing Berghaus and hats” —Scott  Of the many remarkable things about this fjordwatch is the breadth of media they’re using, from a detailed and interactive (ie. Rewindable) map of the cruise to the chat room and radar tabs. Even more ridiculously brilliant is the periodically uploaded torrent files of the camera views.  NRK have set a competition for the best remix of the data, which will eventually include data from the ship’s systems, and offer a pretty good prize of about €1000 travel vouchers.  But beyond the cult following from us geeks, there’s something gently soothing about listening to the sea and watching a ship’s bow bob up and down in the midnight sun, punctuated by awful folk music and enthusiastic locals living in the far north being visited by national telly one sunny midnight. This is true reality TV. Hello, world! 

Fjord Transit

“Yes, he’s in his office, but he’s on an intergalactic cruise” —from Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Imagine a five day TV marathon covering a cruise around the Norwegian coast. This is Hurtigruten, a traditional midsummer cruise televised by NRK the Norwegian national broadcaster, producing a landscape porn masterpiece by transmitting every last minute of the journey from Bergen on the west coast to Kirkenes in the far northeast of the country, about 5 miles from the Russian border, and about 793 miles from the nearest Starbucks.

As the ship passed through the lower fjords people came to wave. Hei Mamma! At the harbours people wave flags and jump about like fools on Children In Need night. Boaters swarm around, waving and talking into mobiles so they know when to wave. It seems like a national event, but acknowledging the rest of the country, studiously ignoring the capital. 

“It’s like visiting some natives, only the natives are wearing Berghaus and hats” —Scott 

Of the many remarkable things about this fjordwatch is the breadth of media they’re using, from a detailed and interactive (ie. Rewindable) map of the cruise to the chat room and radar tabs. Even more ridiculously brilliant is the periodically uploaded torrent files of the camera views.  NRK have set a competition for the best remix of the data, which will eventually include data from the ship’s systems, and offer a pretty good prize of about €1000 travel vouchers. 

But beyond the cult following from us geeks, there’s something gently soothing about listening to the sea and watching a ship’s bow bob up and down in the midnight sun, punctuated by awful folk music and enthusiastic locals living in the far north being visited by national telly one sunny midnight. This is true reality TV. Hello, world!