SWAGMAN IN SEARCH OF A CONCEPT

In the Seventies we called them 'concept' videos. Rock bands took their latest song to someone with a camera who had been recently anointed as the next cool thing. They also had to be really good at "concepts" which, after a couple of joints, was the only thing anyone could be good at.

When presented with the song the video maker was seen to go into a trance-like state that was either the result of circulation being cut due to the inconceivably tight stretch jeans or to the birth pains associated with the new concept being, well, conceived. The song's lyrics were maneuvered like an ocean liner into some amazing visual space. Everyone awaited the vessel that would steer them to stardom. Then came the much anticipated:

I've got it!

Wow that was quick. Amazing! He really is the next new thing and he is working on our video. The concept was usually so ridiculous that it was easily confused for brilliance. 

unknown concept video victim

Anyway, as much as it pains me to say it, I am need of a concept. Not for a song but for a journey. 

On February 1, Tommie and I will head out from Sydney on 300 day circumnavigation of Australia, arriving back on November 23, 2014. We won't slavishly hug the coastline but rather make sorties inland where and when a story or a photo demands it. We will move in an anti- clockwise direction. Certain guidelines will be set. Broome will be approached from Darwin. While we won't avoid the heat we will minimise it.

The progression will be slow, painstakingly so at times. You know when you accidentally kicked over a flat rock as a kid and there was a teaming universe of bugs and wriggly things, usually white, squirming in the harsh light. That's what we will be doing. Not squirming in the harsh light but looking at what is accidentally unearthed, stopping in places where no one stops, or at least not for longer that it takes to say "pin or sign". 

We will camp in places that have no name, off lonely roads, maybe for a week or so, and record the world that exists unbidden and unknown. We will search for stories and make weekly videos. 

Tommie in front of Big Foot 

Our mode of transport is THE SWAGMOBILE, my old Toyota Coaster bus transformed into a portable studio. A 'tardis', where daily photos and written stories will be created such that by the end of the circumnavigation a photographic journal will be published.

BUT WHAT TO CALL IT?

I am usually no stranger to the glib one liner. Indeed they can often fill my entire conversation but for the moment I am stuck. I need something to simply express the idea of a slow exploration of this incredible continent, inch by inch, day by day, character by character and image by image. 

The title needs to become a compelling title for the book. The best I have come up with to this point is:

AUSTRALIA - INCH BY INCH

THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT 

AUSTRALIA BY 356

Over to you. Get the stretch jeans out, smoke a big spliff and come up with a 'concept'.  There will be a wonderful photographic book at journey's end for the adopted concept. 

cheers 

Raymond

PS - THIS BLOG RESULTED IN IAN CAMPBELL'S SUGGESTION BEING ACCEPTED - THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN CRAWL IS BORN

PSS. You would be mad not to join the journey at http://www.electronicswagman.com.au/newsletter/