Our Story

Follow your phone into a new audio adventure: Hackney Hear uses your mobile to play interviews, features, poetry, music and new writing depending on your location.

Your movements will trigger audio clips as you walk, creating your own soundscape. A whopping 400 stories will be tagged over one of London's coolest areas swathing the Olympic borough in glorious sound wherever you go through a new smartphone GPS app.

Why us? Well, we're the team behind the award-winning Hackney Podcast - a sort of London version of Radiolab - and this is a kind of interactive radio programme, where famous and ordinary residents share their stories as music scores your journey, with the Olympic stadium on the skyline.

We'll be preserving conversations with musicians, writers, engineers, mothers, truants, hairdressers... anyone with an interesting story to tell.

The Impact

Hackney Hear will be available from Jan 2012 - just as London gears up for the Olympics. There'll be an extra 500,000 vistors to the area over the summer and we aim to be THE voice of Hackney to the outside world.

No matter where you stand in the borough, there will be a glorious noise of music, stories, poetry and archive from our rich past - all channeled direct to your ears.

What We Need & What You Get

It doesn't take much to make a difference: every donation will add another voice to the mix. The more stories we have, the better the experience for listeners. Making 400 mini-documentaries is no small feat!

Even a tiny donation can provide travel expenses to a volunteer - and they might come back with an interview that makes grown men weep/laugh/gape. THAT's the kind of reaction we're after. And you can make it happen.

Why is this funding page in $$$ and not ?

Well, this being an American site we've adopted their currency for this fundraising scheme and we think the project should appeal globally - you might well be over for a vacation and lured over to London's trendy East End for the day... maybe or visiting for the Olympics, or you might just want to support a really innovative project.

And the dollars shouldn't matter - IndieGoGo/PayPal will convert the currency for you. So if you were to donate $10, that would take about 7 out of your account.

Other Ways You Can Help

Over the next few months we'll be requesting help on elements from voicework to poetry - so add yourself to our mailing list and we'll keep you in the loop: head to hackneyhear.com for details.

If you're a business or individual that would like to get involved in a more substantial way (cheques are always welcome!) then contact francesca@hackneyhear.com