The Supercargo's Scrimshaws

Scrimshaws?

Scrimshaws are the things sailors made on long voyages to while away the time when they were not working. The classic scrimshaw is a ship in a bottle, but sailor's knots, marquetry boxes, carved or engraved bones or shells were also common.

On my voyage here, in between the hours I spend writing my magnum opus, I find myself with time on my hands for the odd other project, which doesn't easily fit into the catagories Text, Images, Speech. This is as good a place as any to share them.

Sveriges svenskaste jobb/Sweden's most Swedish job

Sveriges svenskaste jobb



Sweden's most Swedish job

I made these films on Saturday 16th May having read in the paper about the campaign by the Swedish Youth Hostel Association (STF) to recruit someone to work between 6th June (Sweden's national day) and 6th August as a kind of test-driver for all the things STF have to offer. The idea is that whoever gets the job will be connected to the Internet by way of a camera, video camera, laptop, iPhone and wireless internet and will document his/her adventures (with the help of a technically gifted side kick).

Well, it's a challenge. And the first challenge was working out how to take part. Apart from making and posting the video, I had to inform STF that I was in the running through Twitter. So had to learn how to Twitter.

Click on the pictures to see the films on YouTube. Top picture for the Swedish film, bottom for the English. (They each open in a new window.)

May Day

We had grand weather all through the celebrations of the first weekend of spring, but Friday 1st May was best. As indeed it should be for the International Workers’ Day! There were to be five processions and meetings for different shades of red here in Gothenburg, so I took my camera and digital recorder and set off to capture the day for posterity.

My latest scrimshaw is the result. Click on the picture to visit the appropriate YouTube page. (Opens in a new page.)

My report from the day is in my Commonplace Book here.

Prora, Rügen: Kraft durch Freude

A film I made in March 2009, using film snips and photos taken during a history teacher study visit to the German Baltic island of Rügen about a year earlier. Kraft durch Freude means Strength through Joy and was the name of the Nazi organisation that built Prora - the buildings that are the subject of the film. I looked for a long time to find a way to use the material and ended up going back to an idea I actually had quite early on. The sound track combines music by a German group called Endlos (their home page here) and the sound of the sea that I recorded myself during the visit.

Click on the picture to see the film embedded on a page with more detailed information.

Seagull stretching

This little snip of film is included in Prora, Rugen: Kraft durch Freude. I thought it was mildly amusing and perhaps one of those snips or clips that people on YouTube might like to use in their own videos.

I posted two versions on YouTube at about the same time as I posted the Prora film. One version - to the right here - is silent.

The other clip, which should appear to the right just here has the sound of creaking (actually a door in my home) overlayed on the sound of the sea.

Both snips are free for other people to use in any way they like, so long as they credit me as the original author and don't try to make money with them. (At least, not without sharing it with me!)

Christmas card - 2008

My filmed Christmas greetings from December 2008. It took about three days to make and in the end I used less than half of what I filmed. Some people have asked about the "51 things" business. I was trying to join in a wave of films on YouTube at the time. People tried to make videos on the theme 51 things around my home. The initator (who calls herself Hurricane Aubry) attracted over 1 million hits within about two months of posting the first 51 things. As a careful study of my effort will show I fairly quickly abandoned any strict attempt to keep to showing only 51 things!

Click on the picture to see the film on YouTube. (It opens in a new window).

Animations

A Sign of Spring?

This picture was on the front page for a week or so in April 2009. Walking in to town early one morning I saw these two hares enjoying the sun on the tarmack of the street-racing track laid out on the old car park of the now defunct Free Port.

The Supercargo sets sail!

This little animated picture was on my first front page. I had something like it - though rather more elaborate - in mind for an animated film which I was working on some months before. That project got put on ice when I realised how much I needed to learn in order to make the animation work as I wanted it to. But the idea remained, and when I felt I needed something moving for the front page I dashed this off fairly quickly. I don't like animations that keep on playing, either, so this is programmed to play once only when the page is loaded. If you want to see it again, you have to refresh the page. The basic photo is of a moulding on one of the lamposts in my street.

• Xmas 2008
• Seagull stretching
• Prora, Rügen
• May Day
• Sveriges svenskaste jobb

• Sets sail
• A Sign of Spring