Dream FM | 2021 → 71mins
In August 2021, artists Danielle Swindells and Brit Seaton asked the people of Greater Manchester what they dream of. Directed to the automated voicemail system of fictional radio station Dream FM, members of the public picked up the phone and left their answers.
The sound work *What do you dream of?* brings together selected hotline musings of the vast metropolitan borough. Strange encounters during sleep, visions of change for a better world and personal tales of love and loss are among a constellation of intimate responses to the question, capturing an audio portrait of dreams spanning from simple and symbolic, to poetic and surreal.
What do you dream of? features an original score by Joshua Inyang and Joshua Tarelle, Space Afrika,
which takes sonic cues from pre-digital airwaves, the DIY spirit of pirate radio and musical auras of Greater Manchester’s past and present.
What do you dream of? was broadcast online at www.dream-fm.com every night at 9:00PM (GMT) from 18 November to 16 December 2021. Inspired by the fading format of night-time radio talk shows, Dream FM draws on the experience of listening together while apart, the unifying liveness of radio, and the comfort it can bring in the lonely hours when the public, as orator and audience, speaks to itself. A special premiere event (BSL Interpreted) also took place at Manchester Central Library on Thursday 18 November.
The project was made possible with support from Manchester Independents.
