h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At the local trains/city tunnel station in Malmö, there is an art installation. It consists of rows of projectors, along the whole platform, and these show films, shot from a train or boat travelling at slow speed. The camera is turned to the side, so you will see the streets and landscapes along the route. So far, I've never seen the same clip twice.

The scenery is also rolled over to the next projector, so if you walk along the platform one direction, you would see the same image in each screen, and in the other direction you travel with the vehicle, so to speak.

I love to watch these clips. Sometimes you see a lot of people, sometimes it's mostly industrial backyards, sometimes cities, sometimes countryside. I like to play guessing games, where in the world it's shot - it's really taken me all over the world, just waiting for the next train. Usually, any people in the films pretty much ignore the camera.

Last week, I was entering the platform at one end, and just as I entered, a new clip started. It was an African savannah landscape, along a river bank. But this time, there was a flock of kids, boys and girls, perhaps 10 to 12 years old. And they started waving and smiling at the camera. I was travelling "with" the camera, and the kids started running along, still smiling and waving. I knew it was just a film, but it was very touching, and I kept smiling as I walked along the platform, to where my train would hold. These kids, far away, kept me company, cheered me on and made me smile, in a very different time and place.

I would love to see them again.

Nice

That would be a pleasant start to a morning commute!

It still brings me a smile, thinking of those smiling kids, walking and running with me

Finally found the website! http://www.elsewhere.name/

That is so I wish I had had that idea