I'm one of those people that buys and reads the guidebook before going on holiday. In fact, I've been known to buy 2 or 3, and condense it down into a Google Map, maybe with several recommendations from local blogs. No matter what preparation you make, however, you never get the feel of the place that immediately becomes apparent when you're there: the size of the pavement, the tallness of the buildings, the way people walk, the way people dress, hills vs. roads (especially in San Francisco), pedestrian crossing etiquette, the language of signs, the prevalence of advertising, the colours and the rhythms.
Given all the technology and photography now available, such as StreetView, Google Earth and all TV and video in the world, surely there must be ways to transmit some of this feel? The closest I've encountered were the 80s BBC TV series based on Rough Guides – as well as covering some tourist destinations they covered local people and local colour.
Two interesting experiments have appeared in the last week, both perfect for putting on your 2nd or 3rd screen, be that an iPad, a laptop or your TV.
photo by NRKbetaThe first is a 5 day live broadcast by NRK of the voyage north by a Hurtigruten ship travelling the coastline of Norway. Last year they tried an experiment of broadcasting an 8 hour train journey in real time – and viewing figures went through the roof. Norway is blessed by spectacular scenery and, at this time of year, 24 hour daylight above the Arctic Circle (which the boat crossed on Sunday). I've wanted to go on the Hurtigruten for years, and this is the closest I've got. Sometimes it's just sailing, with cameras all around the ship and onboard the bridge, othertimes they're talking to passengers and showing life on board, and when they dock, there's often a welcoming party of locals, clutching mobile phones so they know when to wave. There's also great archive footage from the last 100 years showing how the Hurtigruten ships both act as a lifeline to these communities, and how the service and Norway has changed.
photo by NRKbetaIt's also worth noting the attitude of NRK to its media – their NRKbeta doctrine states "the only way to control your content is to be the best provider of it". Towards this, as well as the broadcast being available with no geographic restrictions, they're producing and releasing torrent files of the broadcast and there's a Flickr account, all with good redistribution and remix Creative Commons licences. They're going to release all the ship telemetry and data after the broadcast and there's a competition to remix it.
The second great ambient tourism service is James Bridle's RobotFlaneur. The idea is simple: pick a city, and every 30 seconds it will take you to a random place and show you the Google StreetView image.
Each view is not important. What's interesting is if you leave it running and occasionally glance at it. You might recognise some views in some cities, otherwise there's a lot of mundanity: suburbs, motorways, traffic signs. These are the grain of the city and vary wildly between London, Tokyo and Mexico City. I can think of no better way of preparing for a holiday that ambient watching it the destination for a few days beforehand. You'll feel like a local but you'll still be surprised by serendipity.
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[...] a coastal hat tip to James Bridle’s Robot Flâneur and inspired by Chris Heatcote’s Ambient Tourism. It is meant to be a nice thing to put on an unused screen, and is an experiment in secondary [...]