Photo by Squint/Opera
Wild Hackney is a docu-drama taking you through an imaginary landscape of the Lee Valley after the seawater has risen.
Made in response to the canal and the surrounding ancient flood plains, the piece takes as inspiration the Victorian Gothic novel After London by Richard Jefferies. Written in 1885, the book imagines London reverting to nature after a flood, with only a few survivors roaming the marshland.
Using field recordings of the area, the feature moves through scenes of a future Hackney combinging elements of documentary and fiction to reflect on the allure of urban ruin.
Wild Hackney was commissioned by Folly For A Flyover as part of CREATE 2011 festival. It was installed in the canoe boats to be listened to on the journey from the Middlesex Filterbeds along to Fish Island and the Olympic site. But it should work in its own right as a documentary so listen at home or download it and take it for a walk down the canal or in to the marshes.
Producers: Francesca Panetta and Russell Finch
Narrator: Frank Burnett
Contributors: The Marshman, Leo Mellor, and the River Gypsies
Music: Andrew Pekler, Kev Hopper and Chapters
Additional help: Xavier Zapata and Alex Hocking
5 Comments
Nice review in the Guardian about this piece today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/jul/26/radio-review-hackney-podcast
Now you can find out more about the wild ravers featuring in the Podcast. A few weeks later I returned to the spot that Francesca and I explored for the documentary.... and discovered hobbling, wide-eyed creatures stumbling from the scrub. http://www.marshmanchronicles.com/marshman/2011/07/deviant-behaviour-in-the-liminal-zone-aftermath-of-a-rave/
Greetings from Walthamstow. A great listen.
Thanks for the atmosphere!
Listening from Perth, Western Australia. Wonderful show. Thanks.
nandi
6 Trackbacks
[...] in Hackney Francesca my daughter and producer has given me the chance to narrate another piece Wild Hackney that looks at Hackney from a new angle, This time taking its inspiration from the Victorian [...]
[...] My piece, entitled ‘Adam as machine‘ (you can read more about it here), fell into the ‘Structures’ category and followed Leo Hornak’s ’All You Can Hear is Breathing’ – which explores the insane Empire State Building ‘Run-Up‘ race. Favorites of the night included a piece by Sarah Cuddon called ‘The Books’ and the latest Hackney Podcast entitled ‘Wild Hackney’, produced by Francesca Panetta and Russel Finch (listen to it here). [...]
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[...] This was certainly full-on and full length audio drama (46 minutes) for the web. I thought ‘Wild Hackney’ by Francesca Panetta’s innovative and highly creative community podcast site was more [...]
[...] – I’ve just listened to the Wild Hackney podcast – excellent. I’d recommend it: ‘The chicken and chip shops lay [...]