Eleven Dreams for Red Hook is a cinematic experience for real life, eleven soundtracks for real places, part of the wonderful Conflux Festival.

You download eleven soundtracks, a map, and photographs, then follow along, listening to an mp3 player. As you explore the neighborhood, suspended between cinematic fantasy and hyper-awareness, I hope that you will find your own mysterious, surprising and funny revelations.

Maps will be available at Conflux HQ, as well as in the download. We will meet at the corner of Beard & Otsego Streets (across from IKEA) at 5pm to spread out to do the walks. If you do not have your own mp3 player, please let me know and I will provide one for you. The dreams may be listened to in any order -- the idea is for you to explore the neighborhood both sonically and visually.

Click here to download the audio, pictures and map.

You can do the walk at any time, but a bunch of us will be doing it at 5pm on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009 as part of Conflux. We'll be meeting at the corner of Beard & Otsego Streets (across from IKEA) at 5pm to spread out to do the walks.

By all means, if you can't come then, do the walk on your own! That's the idea anyway, to get you to explore.

Please note that the wonderful Waterfront Museum (#6, "i dreamed i was stuck inside a wind-up toy") is currently on tour and so you should listen to that soundtrack on the dock. After September 25, the Waterfront Museum will be open Thursdays 4-8pm and Saturdays 1-5pm, so if you do the walk outside of Conflux, aim for those hours. It's worth it.

Please feel free to send us email or call (609) 933-3738 if you have any questions.

See you there!

Betsey Biggs is a composer and interdisciplinary artist whose work in   music, sound, video and installation aims to expose the beautiful in   the mundane, to actively engage the audience, and to transform the   city into a creative interface through psychogeographic practice. The New Yorker writes that her work is "psychologically complex, exposing   how we orient ourselves with our ears." Eleven Dreams for Red Hook continues a series of site-specific audio works meant to reconnect urban dwellers with the people and places around them.

Thank you especially to the Conflux Festival, the Brooklyn Art Council, Amanda Barrett for working tirelessly to help make this happen, Kate Dunn for schooling me on Red Hook, David Sharps and his wonderful Waterfront Museum, and of course, to my family and friends. Most of all, thank you, Red Hook.

Cobblestone and green weeds. Red red bricks. The decay of time. The industrial ghost. Broccoli and beans and sunflowers grown. The statue of liberty. The Houses and the Back. The B61. Futbol, futbol, pupusas, huaraches. Basketball, baseball, the light streaming in. Water, water, everywhere (but not a drop to drink).

If it's a nice day, I HIGHLY recommend taking the IKEA water taxi from Manhattan's Pier 11. It's a stunningly beautiful ride, and free on weekends. Not only that, but on Sunday, Sept. 20, as part of Conflux, these fabulous artists will be creating a stir on the boats all day long. If you do this, I recommend trying to take a 4pm ferry, as they can get crowded and you may have to wait in line.

Other options (detailed here on IKEA's website) are:

1. If you live nearby, walk. Or bike.
2. F/G to Smith-9th Streets and catch the B77 bus or walk.
3. A/C/F train to Jay St.-Boro Hall and catch the B61 bus.
4. F/D/M/R trains to 4th Ave-9th St and jump on an IKEA shuttle.
5. 2/3/4/5/M/R to Court St.-Borough Hall and jump on an IKEA shuttle.
6. Take a cab or car service to IKEA.

We'll be across the street, next to Red Hook Farm.