Okay, so maybe it is kind of cool
So I did a little more looking into this mobile clubbing thing, and have decided that it may have some merit as a form of performance art. The in-your-face-ness of it still kind of bugs me – like they're saying to everyone else, "We were invited to a party and you weren't, NYAH!" – but the reality is, it is by definition a public party and if you're in the space, you can participate. You wouldn't even necessarily need an iPod – you could just dance!I like the idea of people inviting each other to re-imagine the world, and see each other in new ways. Public space is a great place for this to happen.
A young man begins the nod along to his personal stereo and a couple of moments later his toe tapping has crossed the invisible line into dancing. People look bemused, embarrassed and then unnerved as they realise he isn't the only one. The space is suddenly teeming with dancers, moving and grooving to their own silent soundtrack, seemingly oblivious to the unspoken codes of behaviour we all abide by each day ...
Watching dance in the context of a train station feels strange. A surreal, dreamlike atmosphere settles across the space and it is unclear who is the performer and who is the audience. Dance is usually contained within venues like theatres or clubs, with all the conventions and structures of 'performance' and we rarely come face to face with it in any other contexts. There is a deep seated fear of dancing in public, as if is says something dangerous about us: either, 'I am drunk' or 'I am insane'. [read more]
I think part of what bugged me initially about the mobile clubbing thing was the fact that I couldn't imagine anything like that ever happening where I live. In a way, big cities provide a lot more freedom and privacy than small towns – you can afford to be thought insane in public, because you'll probably never see any of those people again, anyway. That's not the case where I live, which ups the ante quite a bit. If you run through the streets naked in a town like this, half the people you work with are likely to see you in person and the other half will know about it before you even get to your office the next morning. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
Anyway. I've been peripherally involved lately in trying to get approval for a public art project, and it's been kind of depressing to see how hard it is to get approval to do anything – let alone anything really provocative or even just marginally interesting. Art graffiti, stickering, stenciling, flyering, guerilla gardening, the violin player on the corner, and other kinds of DIY un-approved public art always wake me up more than the statue with the plaque surrounded by petunias (summer) and pansies (winter). As soon as I'm free of my obligation to this group – just eighteen more days! – I want to start putting my energy into more unofficial kinds of action.
3 Comments:
I personally haven't seen the moble clubbing thing. Occasionally Kimm and I will join up with our friends and go to similar events hosted by groups like Laughing Squid or the SF Cacophony Society. Every year in Dec. we participate in Santacon. Hundreds of us dressed as santa's/elves/reindeer converge on downtown/union square in SF as a giant group and go bar to bar. We make a big rucus and generally the suprised public responds well. We pick up more than a few followers who then join us in costume the next year. There's a lot of stuff going on every month with these groups. If you sign up for the newsletters then you can join in on what you like. It's really a lot of fun.
I love that kind of thing, too, Tina, and am always strongly drawn to it. I havent' seen the mobile clubbing thing here, but it reminded me of last month when we went to the opening of the clown theatre festival at Union Square, where clowns were just hanging out and cavorting. Edgy clowns--aren't clowns always edgy?--were passing out red noses to passersby, and eventually we, non clowns all ended up following the clowns, who were like the Pied Pipers of Hamlin, down to the subway where the clown band kept playing on the platform and dancing and then more dancing and live music on the subway car. We could not tear ourselves away and followed them all the way to Brooklyn, and then followed them along the clown parade route.
Oh, this post made me sort of sad...when I realized reading it that Davis is exactly the sort of 'uptight, but let's pretend we aren't' kind of town that prohibits most anything that doesn't fit into their neat little university vibe. And sadly, it seems--and feels--like it's a pretty narrow vibe.
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