"Einstein was right – time really is relative. Weeks feel like years and also like minutes at the same time"

Dispatches from the Frontline brings you podcasts from the diary of World War 1 nurse. At the same time, they also are a recording of how three artists re-directed their creative energies at home, on rehearsing on zoom and recording and editing on audacity during Melbourne’s lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Great War lasted four years (1914-1918). Everyone thought it was going “to be over by Christmas”. At the beginning of 2020, the world was asking the same question. How long will our “war on the pandemic” last? As we recorded the Sister Nan Reay’s descriptions of tending to the wounded soldiers from the trenches, we noticed how the language of war had become the current parlance of 2020. We were facing “the war on Covid”, the “frontline”, the “battle against the coronavirus” and daily reminders of how to survive our “war on Covid”. It seems that our language has not changed in over 104 years. In fact, the survival practices of keeping people alive – good hygiene, quality care, respect, tolerance and humour are enduring human qualities to help us survive.

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

Dispatches from the Frontline is brought to you by:

Geraldine Cook-Dafner – Narrator

Naomi Edwards - Director

Alex Dafner – Voice recording and editing

Zoltan Fecso – Music composition, sound design and editing

Tristan Meecham – Creative Producer, All the Queen’s Men

Image – Sarah Corridon

Dispatches from the Frontline is supported by funding from the Public Record Office Victoria, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria

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