Anthropocene slow TV: Temporalities of extinction in Svalbard

Abstract

In Norway, slow television, an internationally popular format that approaches Nordic noir in export value, has been primarily concerned with entertaining viewers by showing Norwegians (and interested outsiders) their own country. The January 2020 NRK release of its slow TV programme Svalbard minutt for minutt (Svalbard Minute by Minute) focuses on this Arctic region, juxtaposing striking images of its native fauna with the remarkably well-preserved ecological crime scenes of its Anthropocene pasts. Svalbard Minute by Minute constitutes a daring mash-up of nation-branding nature programme and extractivist history documentary, via both non-fiction modes of place and process views, in which the two strains reinforce one another to pose difficult questions about the future for viewing audiences.