Hollingsville: Episode 5, Dreams – While the City Sleeps

Episode 5: Dreams: While the City Sleeps

Welcome to the fifth episode of ‘Hollingville’. My studio guest is Julian House of Ghost Box. Be on the lookout for deep-water soundings, lurking sea monsters, phantom sonar activity, the ruins of Atlantis and spectral dream broadcasts from beyond. Specially commissioned musical interludes will be by David Knight with additional moods by Indigo Octagon and the ‘Hollingsville’ composer in residence, Graham Massey. Ins and outs, as usual, are by Indigo Octagon.

‘What precisely is a dream?’ asked William Burroughs. ‘It is a specific juxtaposition of word and image.’ This connection of word and image to create heightened states of perception which are neither precise nor specific in any way: technology can still offer only offer external proof of internal activities that evade rational understanding. We either find ourselves on dry land or all at sea. Starting with Salvador Dali’s ‘Dream of Venus’ pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, we will be journeying through a submerged paradise of glass, steel and Manhattan tap water on a voyage to the bottom of our minds.

After visiting Mars, where next? Welcome to Hollingsville: the new twelve-part series from writer Ken Hollings. A World’s Fair of the airwaves, the shows focuses each week on a different aspect of our historical relationship with technology. From machines to monsters, spaces to dreams, this Radio Expo offers an unscripted tour through the chosen theme, utilising voices and sounds from special guests and presented by Ken Hollings with his usual idiosyncratic flair.

Ken Hollings is the author of Welcome To Mars: Fantasies of Science in the American Century 1947-1959, available from Strange Attractor Press. For more information go to http://www.strangeattractor.co.uk or http://www.kenhollings.blogspot.com