Arthur C Clarke
Take a tour around the office of science fiction’s greatest author – Arthur C Carke. Audio slideshow and flip camera presentation, recorded Oct. 2009, a year after Clarke’s death.
With thanks to Rohan de Sila and Yoosuf Mustapha .
Title: “Arthur C Clarke’s Office”
Vimeo / Youtube Clip
Equipment:
Marantz PMD660 Recorder
Beyer Dynamic M58 Microphone
Adobe Audition 3.0 Digital editor
Canon EOS 400d Digital Camera
Canon 18-55mm f4.0 – 5.6 lens
Music by; Rhian Sheehan – album: “Tiny Blue Biosphere”
Contact: info@rhiansheehan.com
Cat #: LP021
Date: 18/11/2004
Format: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Label: Loop
Audio Slideshow from BCU recruitment visit to Sri Lanka, 2009;
“Arthur C Clarke is considered the greatest science fiction writer of all time and is an international treasure in many other ways, including the fact that an article by him in 1945 led to the invention of satellite technology. Books by Mr. Clarke both fiction and nonfiction have more than one hundred million copies in print worldwide. He lives in Sri Lanka.”
From “Childhoods End” , Ballantyne Books, New York, first printed 1953.
One Friday afternoon at work I received a phone call from BCU’s International Dept. inviting me to travel to Sri Lanka in a week’s time. It was a last minute request to take part in a series of recruitment visits to various Colleges in Colombo and Kandy. I signed up on the spot, mostly because I’ve always been a fan of the science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke (author of 2001 A Space Odyssey”) who lived in the Sri Lankan capitol of Colombo from 1956 until his death in 2008.
After several visits to various Colombo colleges, I managed to find the time to catch a taxi to “Leslie’s House”, Clarke’s home for many years, and was happy just to take a few pictures outside. However, after a few minutes of discussion with the helpful staff who ran the diving school on the premises, and thanks to some exceptional blagging from my BCU colleague Yoosuf Mustapha, I was able to see inside and visit the office where he used to work. I was a little shocked to have gained such intimate access with such little effort. I hadn’t even phoned in advance – but thankfully I had my trusty BCU issue canon camera, flip recorder and marantz on hand. This audio slideshow’s a bit “seat of the pants” – but thanks to a soundtrack kindly approved by one of my favourite NZ musicians – Rhian Sheehan – I think it came together pretty well. Arthur’s voice is taken from a Youtube posting of his reflections on reaching his 90th Birthday.
From what I could see, the office suffers from the intense Sri Lankan humidity – and dozens of Arthur’s personal home movies on VHS video tapes along with photographs, many documenting his passion for scuba diving, are currently exposed to the risk of moisture damage. I contacted the Arthur C Clarke Foundation (who’ve seen and thankfully approved this slideshow) and they’ve expressed an interest in exploring the possibility of Birmingham City University providing some form of digital archiving for the Clarke estate. It would be remarkable opportunity – so here’s hoping…
Arthur C. Carke had the rare ability to combine advanced scientific theories with good old fashioned story telling. He managed to take his readers on previously unimaginable journeys out into the universe – while at the same time revealing both humanitys faults as well as its remarkable potential. I have no doubt that generations to come will revere his name as a future prophet whose technological and cultural predictions predated actuality. Much like a 20th century Leonardo Di Vinci.
Arthur C. Clarke’s work, much like his life, transcended borders and stereotypes. He will be remembered for hundreds – posssibly thousands – of years to come.
