KISMIF An Approach to Underground Music Scenes Vol.4

1 2 3 4 Keep it Simple, Make it Fast! An approach to underground music scenes (vol. 4) Paula Guerra and Thiago Pereira Alberto (eds.) First Published July 2019 by Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Letras [University of Porto. Faculty of Arts and Humanities] Via Panorâmica, s/n, 4150-564, Porto, PORTUGAL www.letras.up.pt Design: Wasted Rita and Marcelo Baptista Credits illustrations of book’s parts: Esgar Acelerado ISBN 978-989-54179-1-9 All the content presented in texts are solely the responsibility of the authors. The ideas presented do not necessarily represent the opinion of the editors. Attribution CC BY 4.0. International This book is Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. International License (CC BY 4.0). It is allowed to share, redistribute, adapt, remix, transform and build upon the content of this book. The appropriate credit must be given to the authors and editors. More informations: https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0 5 www.kismifconference.com [email protected] facebook.com/kismif.international.conference 6 7 KISMIF CONVENORS Andy Bennett Paula Guerra KISMIF ADVISORY COMMITTEE Alastair Gordon Pauwke Berkers Amélia Polónia Pedro Costa Andy Bennett Pedro Quintela Augusto Santos Silva Raphaël A. Nowak Carles Feixa Ricardo Salazar Dick Hebdige Robin Kuchar George McKay Samantha Bennett Gina Arnold, Guilherme Blanc Sérgio Costa Araújo Heitor Alvelos Susana Januário João Queirós Tânia Moreira José Machado Pais Júlio Dolbeth KISMIF DISSEMINATION COMMITTEE Manuel Loff Airi-Alina Allaste Mark Percival André Rottgeri M a tt h e w Wo r l e y Asya Draganova Mike Dines Charity Slobod Nick Crossley Christina Ballico Paul Hodkinson Cihan Ertan Paula Abreu Dulce Mazer Paula Guerra Evi Sampanikou Pedro Costa Fe r n á n d e l Va l Ross Haenfler Gabriela Gelain Samantha Bennett Gina Arnold Will Straw Hector Fouce Hernando Cepeda Sánchez KISMIF ORGANISING COMMITTEE J. Mark Percival Ana Oliveira Jonathan Crossley Ana Rocha Katie Rochow Catherine Strong Loïc Riom Celeste Reis Luiza Bittencourt Claire Hodgson Mara Persello Emília Simão Margarita Kuleva Esgar Acelerado Martin Husák Gabriela Gelain Patrick Williams Giacomo Botta Pe te r We b b Gil Fesch Piotr Zańko João Queirós Rodrigo N. Almeida Lisa Nikulinsky Rylan Kafara Lucy Robinson Simone Luci Pereira Mary Fogarty S i m o n e To s o n i M a tt Wo r l e y Sonja Žakula Paula Abreu Victor de Almeida Pires Paula Guerra Vo i c a P u s c a s i u Paulo Pintassilgo Zósimo López 8 All the proposals were evaluated under an anonymous process of peer-review. The reviewers of KISMIF Conference 2018 were: Andy Bennett, Catherine Strong, Giacomo Botta, L i s a N i k u l i n s ky, M a r y Fo g a r t y, M a tt Wo r l e y, Pa u l a G u e r r a , Pauwke Berkers, Raphaël Samantha Bennett. A. Nowak, Robin Kuchar and 9 10 Contents Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 10 GENDER, DIFFERENCES, IDENTITIES AND DIY CULTURES: INTRODUCTION• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 17 Gender, differences, identities and DIY cultures: Introduction 18 Paula Guerra and Thiago Pereira Alberto • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The KISMIF 2018 World of Art by Esgar Acelerado: a special look about gender, differences, identities and DIY cultures 25 Esgar Acelerado • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • THEME TUNE 1 ‘I CAN CHANGE THE WORLD’: PUNK, HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY READINGS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 39 1.1 Gathering around punk: Interethnic relations in Prato’s Chinatown Giulia Sarno • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 40 1.2 Punk and museum: notes about the exposition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ Paula Guerra and Thiago Pereira Alberto • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 48 1.3 Gendered participation in 1970’s punk in Finland: Lack of female musicians and fanzine makers 60 Juho Hänninen • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1.4 Heino… Über Alles!? The controversial receptions of a German singer in North American and German punk rock scenes 73 André Rottgeri • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1.5 The Subculture Archive Manifesto. The role of scholars in the preservation of subcultural heritage Mara Persello • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 79 11 THEME TUNE 2 (R)EVOLUTION IN STYLE NOW!: GENDER, SCENES AND DIY CULTURES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •88 2.1. Klitclique - Vienna’s F€M1N1$T Answer to Sad Boys Magdalena Fuernkranz • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 89 2.2. Is this not a world for women? Paolo S. H. Favero and Ligia Lavielle Pullés • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 98 2.3 Dead in Absentia: the lack of a female Hollywood character Vanessa Sousa • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 108 2.4 Lesboqueer Culture in electronic dance music scene in Spain 114 Teresa López Castilla • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 2.5. Understanding the dynamics of the solidarity economy: A study on some cases in Turkey Cihan Ertan • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 121 THEME TUNE 3 ASK THE ANGELS’: DIY CULTURES, UNDERGROUND MUSIC SCENES AND ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 135 3.1 Digital platforms and the professionalization of DIY in the popular music field. The experiences of long-time independent musicians Francesco D’Amato • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 136 3.2 DIY and Independence as means of cultural resistance and artistic production Maria Auriemma • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 150 3.3. Creating a magic world: Punk, DIY culture, and feminist ethics in contemporary Turkey Fulden Ibrahimhakkioglu • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 157 3.4. The use of fanzines as pedagogical tools in the University: fostering DIY cultures and academic research Minerva Campion • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 170 3.5. Music and fashion in Spain in the 80’s Angels Bronsoms • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 179 12 THEME TUNE 4 TRIBULATIONS AND MOVEMENTS: HYBRIDITY AND DIFFERENCES IN POSTCOLONIAL ARTISTIC AND MUSICAL SCENES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 187 4.1. Even if you cannot sing, even if you cannot play…Do-It-Yourself! The 1980s Brazilian music scene and the emergence of BRock Juliana Müller & Cláudia Pereira • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 188 4.2. Animals in film and social media. Symptomatologies of the capitalocene and Portuguese law 193 Ilda Teresa de Castro • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 4.3. A (de)(post)colonialist proposal of musical scene 204 Tobias Queiroz • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 4.4. Notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in Porto Alegre Belisa Zoehler Giorgis • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 216 4.5. The post-party: post-modernity and utopia after the end of the party Leonardo Felipe • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 227 THEME TUNE 5 ‘HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE’. ETHNICITY, CITIES, MIGRATIONS AND POLITICAL MOBILIZATION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 238 5.1. The Struggle for a differenciated education: The ‘I Am Bilingual’ project in Lábrea/AM Claudina Azevedo Maximiniano • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 239 5.2. A humble introduction on music videos of Turkish immigrants: Case study #1: Ismail YK Görkem Özdemir e Aslı Bâla Aşkan • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 249 5.3. The Laudero Del Desierto and his place in bajo sexto´s construction field Ramiro Godina Valerio • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 256 5.4. ‘Patriotisms’ of Polish popular music Mirosław Pęczak and Piotr Zańko • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 268 5.5. In the flow, in the city: music and skateboarding Cláudia Pereira and Marcella Azevedo • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 274 13 THEME TUNE 6 ‘IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS HEART’: LIMINALITY AND UBIQUITY OF CONTEMPORARY ARTISTIC CREATIONS • • • • 281 6.1. ‘Rest in Peach’. The relevance of emojis in the gender maneuvering of language 282 Chiara Modugno • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 6.2. Distributed cognition in dance: Artistic skills in social interaction Dafne Muntanyola-Saura • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 290 6.3. The self-sustainable world of Shahzia Sikander Conceição Cordeiro • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 305 6.4. Contemporary artistic manifestations: Agenda, mapping and territoriality Susana Januário and Paula Guerra • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 312 6.5 Challenging canonical orthodoxy: Do-it-yourself cultures break into religion Guilherme Borges • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 325 THEME TUNE 7 ‘MAN NEXT DOOR’. QUEER STUDIES AND IDENTITIES RECONSTRUCTIONS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 330 7.1 ‘Strike a pose’: Madonna and gender subversions 331 Roney Gusmão • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 7.2 Queer zines in Madrid in 1990’s 342 Laura López Casado • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 7.3. Female artists, social media and alternative economy: the case of Amanda Palmer Beatriz Medeiros and Beatriz Polivanov • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 353 7.4. #VaiMalandra Anitta’s music video in digital networks: political clashes and prejudices in Brazil Gabriela Gelain and Christian Gonzatti • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 366 7.5 Aliens against Alienation. How queer developers subvert gameplay (doing it themselves) Roberto Cappai • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 377 7.6. The potential intersections of queer methodologies and punk productions: The Case of Baise Moi Temmuz Süreyya Gürbüz • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 388 14 THEME TUNE 8 MIRRORS AND GLASSES: FASHION, GENDER AND ARTISTIC UNDERGROUND CULTURES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 396 8.1 Grayson Perry as Claire: a fashion iconic at the art world 397 Cláudia de Oliveira • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 8.2 Women’s haute couture and the modernization of fashion. Art, marketing and visual culture in the early twentieth century 403 Maria Lucia Bueno • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 8.3 The portraits of the couturier: Dener Pamplona Abreu and the uses of photography 416 Maria Claudia Bonadio • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 8.4 From defining what elegance is to a youthful appearance: transformations in women’s culture and fashion in the 70’s Elisabeth Murilho da Silva • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 425 8.5. The Soho Scene and the aesthetic transformation in British fashion in early 90s Henrique Grimaldi Figueredo • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 435 THEME TUNE 9 ‘YOURS IS MINE’. MALE DOMINATIONS: REPRODUCTIONS AND LEGITIMATIONS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 448 9.1 Hypermasculinity in Los Angeles gangsta rap: An intersectional approach Samuel Lamontagne • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 449 9.2 Punk, gender and politics in Croatia Vanja Dergić • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 456 9.3. Being a mother, a wife and a female MC: strategies of production and gender constraints Guilherme Libardi and Luiz Henrique Castro • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 466 9.4 Rock in high heels: A look through the women’s role in Portuguese rock music Ana Martins and Paula Guerra • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 477 15 THEME TUNE 10 ‘CONTAMINATIONAL DEMO(N)CRATS’. FOR A NEW PRACTICE OF (DIVERSE) TASTE • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 488 10.1 German punk feminist festivals’ gender politics and social space: between identity and anti-identity politics Louise Barrière • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 489 10.2 The expression of diversity through art 501 Emanuele Stochino • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 10.3 Contemporary patriarchy: Discussing gender in a creative process Andrea Copeliovitch and Thaiana Rodrigues da Silva • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 511 10.4. Punk’s not Dead, towards forensics of iconography: Transgression and resistance in intersecting counter-cultures’ identities Lynn Osman • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 518 10.5. The ethics of aesthetics Marta Nogueira • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 530 THEME TUNE 11 ‘LIVING FOR A CHANGE’. CITIES, SPACES, PLACES OF ARTISTIC RENEGOTIATION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 540 11.1 Nomadic singularities, experimentalism and musical post-genre Nilton F. de Carvalho • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 541 11.2. Why the doors are not open for us? Finnish Romani Music, Gender (Masculinity) & Difference Kai Viljami Åberg • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 552 11.3. Making ‘Musical Asylum’ and opening paths of imagination of migration in transit 565 Emilie Da Lage • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 11.4. Lido Pimienta, the post-muse of contemporary Canada Nadja Vladi Gumes • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 574 11.5. Laura Costa, biographical fragmentary 1910-1993 - contributions to a visual Portuguese feeric imagery for children during the Estado Novo and Beyond Sérgio Costa Araújo • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 581 16 17 Contents GENDER, DIFFERENCES, IDENTITIES AND DIY CULTURES: INTRODUCTION © Esgar Aclerado 18 Gender, differences, identities and DIY cultures: Introduction Paula Guerra 1 and Thiago Pereira Alberto 2 A feeling of being followed A feeling of being watched Isn’t easy to define So I won’t trouble you She put her life on the line She kept trying Trying to find A place to hide Somewhere inside Somewhere where the air was hot And her blood could rush But she could not The Raincoats (1979). Life on the Line. The fourth KISMIF International Conference “Keep It Simple, Make It Fast! (KISMIF) Gender, differences, identities and DIY cultures was held at Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto, Portugal, between 2-7 July, 2018. The scientific programme of KISMIF was once again be accompanied by a diverse social and cultural programme, characterised by a series of artistic events, with special focus on underground music and other artistic expressions. The highpoint was clearly the participation of Ana da Silva e Gina Birch, members of the world-renowned band The Raincoats, as key speakers of the Conference. The conference was also preceded by a summer school entitled “What difference do DIY cultures make?” on 3 July 2018 in Faculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto. The KISMIF Conference offered a unique forum where participants could discuss and share information about underground cultures and DIY practices. Aligned with this is an anti-hegemonic ideology focused around aesthetic and lifestyle politics. KISMIF is the first and so far, only conference to examine the theory and practice of underground DIY cultures as an increasingly significant form of cultural practice in a global context. The was once again goal to discuss not only music but also other artistic fields such as film and video, graffiti and street art, theatre and the performing arts, literature and poetry, radio, programming and editing, graphic design, illustration, cartoon and comic fiction. Thus, seeking to respond to the desire reiterated by researchers, artists and activists present at previous KISMIF conferences, the 4th edition of KISMIF was focused on “Gender, differences, identities and DIY cultures”, directing its attention on gender issues relating to underground scenes and DIY cultures, and their manifestation at local, translocal and virtual levels. Expressions of gender in local, translocal and virtual spaces constitute important variables to understand contemporary cultures, their sounds, their practices (artistic, cultural, economic and social), their actors and their contexts. From a University of Porto – Faculty of 1 Arts and Humanities. Institute of Sociology – University of Porto. CEGOT and CITCEM - Transdisciplinary Research Centre «Culture, Space and Memory». Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. KISMIF Convenor. E-mail: [email protected]. 2 Federal Fluminense University – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and University of Porto – Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Institute of Sociology. E-mail: [email protected]. 19 Gender, differences, identities and DIY cultures: Introduction postcolonial and glocalized perspective, it is important to consider the changes in artistic and musical practices with an underground nature to draw symbolic boundaries between their operating modalities and those of advanced capitalism. Since the onset, punk claimed for himself some social causes: equality, especially gender equality, was on the top of the hierarchy. But, if that is true, where are all the woman’s that participated in the scene since the first moment? Why the invisibility? Why the placing in inferior roles such as girlfriend or sexual object as we can see in several songs (Guerra, 2010, 2013; Guerra; Bittencourt & Gelain, 2018; Silva & Guerra, 2015; Garrigós, Guerra & Triana, 2019)? And although there have been women since the beginning of the punk movement, attracted by the alleged acceptance of a gender equality, what happened was that these women were usually denied leadership roles in the subculture and when they did get them, they were victims of physical and psychological violence (Guerra, 2013; Guerra & Oliveira, 2019; Guerra, Gelain & Moreira, 2017). Thus, in subcultural movements such as punk, in spite of the existing myth of gender equality in this movement, women remained in inferior positions. Especially when the visible internal contradictions between discourse and practice are exposed (Guerra, Bittencourt & Gelain, 2018; Bittencourt & Guerra, 2018; Bennett & Guerra, 2019). One explanation for this can be found in the composition of Birmingham’s CCCS, which was comprised mostly of men. Many times, their studies turn into a sort of heroic celebration of these groups. The media themselves played a role in women’s depreciation (Guerra & Quintela, 2016). Analysing punk subculture, Reddington (2003), notes that several journalists referred to young punk women involved in bands as “punkette”, that is, giving the impression of someone who is entering a territory just for men, and therefore diminishing women’s involvement, characterizing it as something different, and subordinate, to what was done by boys and men. Returning to the issues pointed out by McRobbie (2000), another refers to economics. That is, there was an increase in incomes available to individuals post-war, but the truth is that this increase was unevenly distributed, especially regarding gender, with women benefiting less by these increases. In fact, consumption patterns themselves are structurally different: girls focus much more than boys on things related to home and marriage. Thus, the issue is not so much the presence of girls in subcultures dominated by boys, but rather the way the girls interacted with each other in their own subcultures. An example is the teenybopper subculture, very focused on magazines, radio and television, and revolving around pop stars. Even in a completely manufactured culture like teenybopper you can find negotiation and resistance processes (Guerra & Straw, 2017). There are also some explanatory factors for the adoption of the teenybopper subculture by these young women: the existence of a double standard, in which the freedom given to boys was much greater than that given to girls. Participation in this culture did not require one to spend free time away from home; also, it did not require much money or entail many personal risks. This subcultural invisibility is only part of a true invisibility at a musical level. Women are actually forgotten by the musical world. For some authors, one reason is that women are not involved in the preservation process (Kleinberg, 1988) and, another is their inability to control the language and symbols used to reproduce power structures. However, in the example analysed by Strong, grunge, this disappearance did not take place in the past, after the death of 20 the women, but while they were alive, which makes the case more complex. That is, each new female band that is successful is always seen as the first, which a perpetual novelty at the level of female bands (Guerra, 2017). Reflecting the Programme of the Conference, this book is organized in eleven parts, or as we call it “Theme Tunes”. Theme Tune 1 is named ‘I can change the world’: punk, history and contemporary readings. The first paper deals with the interaction between punk and social minorities, namely the Chinese diaspora in Italy; t the second talks about punk’s museumification and the tensions that could provoke; the third paper deals with the lack of female musicians and fanzine makers in 1970’s Finish punk; the next paper talks about the musical career of the German singer Heino and how he managed to became the conservative opposition to the British Invasion during the 1960s in Germany. The last paper aims also at the process of museumification and heritage, with a translocal focus. The second Theme Tune is called (R)evolution in style now!: gender, scenes and DIY cultures. We start with a paper dealing with a Viennese feminist hip hop duo that uses trap rap and a certain DIY ethic to reconstruct the sounds of feminism; the second paper deals with the place for women’s in male-world of the reggaeton scene, based on the reproduction of the social symbolic violence; the third paper talks about the lack of a perfect female Hollywood character; the fourth one deals with the women’s collective DJs emerging in Barcelona, and working on the idea to make visible women in electronic dance music scene; the last paper discuss the concept of solidarity economy is being adopted in the article in order to indicate these alternative economic practices, namely in Turkey. The third Theme Tune is named ‘Ask the angels’: DIY cultures, underground music scenes and alternative lifestyles. The first paper shows how over the past ten years grassroots music production has been incentivized by an increasing number of web-platforms that allow to autonomously manage music promotion and distribution. The second one, investigate the concepts of DiY and independence as means of aesthetic and cultural production inscribed in historical libertarian conception of art and artists in society. The third paper offers an analysis of Istanbul based feminist punk acts, and how they not only seek to negate the prevalent misogyny sedimented in hardcore/punk culture and beyond, but they also seek to create new spaces where new values would take root. The fourth paper analysis fanzines as pedagogical devices that help developing horizontal relations between the professor and the students in a Colombian university. The last paper explores the influence of music in the fashion choices of the women that witnessed the changing (gender) roles in the Spanish society of the late 1970’s. The fourth Theme Tune is called Tribulations and movements: hybridity and differences in postcolonial artistic and musical scenes. The first pape reveal the ways by which the punk attitude and its D.I.Y. philosophy have influenced the 1980s Brazilian music scene by inspiring the emergence of a national rock style known as Brock. The second one, analysis the Media Animal and Movies in the Anthropocene through focusing ethics and values, modes and manners, in a study case of two videos about two animals of the same species, both published on a social network on same day. The third paper seeks to critically analyse the notion of musical scene using decolonialist theory. The fourth paper has the objective of producing initial notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. The fifth paper seeks to 21 Gender, differences, identities and DIY cultures: Introduction speculate how elements of economic and political order have the power to affect our modes of social interaction, aesthetic fruition and leisure. The fifth Theme Tune is named ‘Highly inflammable’. Ethnicity, cities, migrations and political mobilization. The first paper deals with the “I am Bilingual” Program and the “Paumari Language Championship”, carried out by the Paumari People in Amazon region, Brazil, and how these experiences influence their political mobilization strategies. The second paper focuses on how German-Turks combined traditional musical elements with extreme postmodernist features in music videos, specially the most popular Germany born Turkish artist: İsmail YK. The third paper analyzes bajo sexto construction “field” and its main characteristics to understand and examine how newcomers and dominants take their position within the field. The fourth paper analyse how patriotism has been defined and how its significance has changed over the course of years through the examination of popular songs (including rock and rap music). The last paper aims to shed light on the relation between music and skating, particularly on how certain genres of music relate to skateboarders’ urban daily practices. The sixth Theme Tune is named ‘In the beginning there was heart’. Liminality and ubiquity of contemporary artistic creations. The first paper investigates the use of emojis in texting as a Barthesian “second-order semiological system”, in order to disclose their potential as a gender manoeuvring tool. The second paper looks for the social roots of artistic skills in the communication and attention patterns of dancers in the studio. The third paper analysis the artistic work of Shahzia Sikander, and how her work questions the issues of gender, religion, hierarchy, Western and Eastern culture, from a perspective of dialogue and numerous solutions. The fourth paper focuses on the changes that have taken place in the artistic world in Portugal, namely the new do-ityourself logics and work practices, in which artists/creators take over the role of producers/managers. The last paper is to show how the religious sphere is being increasingly colonized by do-it-yourself cultures, that is, free from following traditional precepts, individuals find themselves in a position to distant from institutional belongingness and belief. The seventh Theme Tune is named ‘Man next door’. Queer studies and identities reconstructions. The first paper aims at analyzing how Madonna’s career presents dialectical articulations with the postmodern period, emphasizing the strong relationship established between her performances and cultural identities of ghetto groups. The second paper proposes to study the queer zines produced in Madrid in the 1990’s, namely two pioneer groups in queer activism in Spain: La Radical Gai and LSD. The third paper investigates the strategies that the independent artist Amanda Palmer uses in order to gain visibility and financial capital to promote her music. The fourth paper analysis, through the Sense Construction Analysis in Digital Networks methodology, the political confrontations and prejudices of Anitta’s videoclip Vai Malandra. In the fifth paper, the author refers some of the strategies deployed by videogame artists in order to undermine game conventions, to provide unexpected game experiences and to put the player in someone else’s shoes. The eight Theme Tune is named Mirrors and glasses: fashion, gender and artistic underground cultures. The first paper presents an examination about the relationship between the English artist Grayson Perry and his alter-ego Claire, positioning them in the field of artistic creations that take the themes of the body and sexuality as expression and political practice. The next paper studies how, 22 drawing on a tactic of rapprochement with art, French couture, presenting itself as a new type of avant-garde, promoted a transformation of women’s fashion in the early twentieth century, which affected the dressing of users in different parts of the world. The third paper analyzes the uses of photography in the image construction from and by Dener Pamplona Abreu as a “couturier” through his portraits published in the Brazilian press between 1957 and 1968. The fourth paper analyzes the opinions given by specialists on elegance and good taste who featured in the social gossip columns of the daily newspapers in Brazil during the 1960s. The last paper shows how, in the 90’s England, the children of the working class saw in the arts a possible exit from their fixed social coordinates and how they will start a new countercultural aesthetic revolution. The ninth Theme Tune is called ‘Yours is mine’. male dominations: reproductions and legitimations. The first paper addresses gangsta rap’s problematic expression of machismo in relation to the negotiation of masculine identities and the challenge to authority. The next one will introduce key findings of the ethnographic case study ´Anti-fascist punk activism´ conducted as part of the MYPLACE project. Through 21 in-depth interviews, the most common topics that arose were related to gender issues and perceptions of politics. The third paper how gender influences Brazilian funk music production strategies based on interviews with two female MCs and a funk music producer. The fourth paper discusses the gender issues in Portuguese rock music and look at women’s role in this scene. The tenth Theme Tune is called ‘Contaminational demo(n)crats’. for a new practice of (diverse) taste. The first paper aims to demonstrate that, while it is true that there are specific connections between punk-feminism, queerfeminism and anti-identity politics, it doesn’t necessarily mean that material feminist analyzes and identity politics have completely been forgotten by the new feminist movements of the 2000s. The second paper examines Marcia Tucker’s first three exhibitions which were held at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York during the 80’s. The third paper work addresses conditions for women through a scenic creative process called “Ithaca revisited”. The fourth paper examines the role of iconography, visual, performance and sound, as means or resistance and transgression. The fifth paper aims to show that artistic cinema should not be blamed for the sins of entertainment cinema and should not be assessed according to ethics. The eleventh Theme Tune is named ‘Living for a change’. Cities, spaces, places of artistic renegotiation. The first paper tries to demonstrate how experimentalism in art, since the vanguards, overcomes semantic regimes, through the analysis of artists such as DJ Tudo, Mashrou’ Leila, Tetine and Aíla. The second paper questions some of the “taken-for-granted” conceptions and consider an alternative to the existence and practices of Romani music (Finnish, Russian, migrants from Southeastern Europe, like Romania and Bulgaria) in Finland. The third paper is an account of an action research conducted during 2016 and 2017 in the Grande-Synthe camp for migrants near Dunkerque (France), in which the author and several Kurdish women tried to produce cultural and fragile “asylums” (De Nora, 2013), through listening activities. The fourth paper reflects on globalization and its aspects of internationalization, cosmopolitanism, hegemony, contributing to a debate in diverse contexts of cultural studies, from an analysis of the positions occupied by the Colombian singer living in Canada, Lido Pimienta. The last paper studies the vast work of Laura Costa (1910-1993), which represents today for Portugal an unparalleled historical document to reconstruct the visual system during the Estado Novo. 23 Gender, differences, identities and DIY cultures: Introduction It makes no difference Night or day No one teaches you how to live Cups of tea are a clock A clock, a clock, a clock The times I forgot but never forgot I don’t know the books that you read But you don’t say that Love never externalizes You’re rereading a book To feel reassured By the life of your favorite hero But don’t worry, honey don’t worry This is just a fairytale Happening in the supermarket The Raincoats (1979). Fairytale In The Supermarket. References Bennett, A. & Guerra, P. (Eds.) (2019). DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes. Abingdon/Oxford: Routledge. Bittencourt, L. & Guerra, P (2018). Grrrlzines: Resistência e Pertencimento nos fanzines Riot Girls na cena punk portuguesa. Revista Vozes e Diálogo, 17(1), pp. 60-73. Garrigós, C.; Triana, N. & Guerra, P. (2019). God Save the Queens. Pioneras del Punk. Barcelona: 66 RPM EDICIONS. Guerra, P. & Bittencourt, L. & Gelain, G. (2018). “Punk Fairytale”: Popular Music, Media, and the (Re)Production of Gender. In M. Texler Segal & V. Demos (Eds.), Gender and the Media: Women’s Places. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. Guerra, P. & Oliveira, A. (2019). Heart of glass: Gender and domination in the early days of punk in Portugal. In D. Vilotijević & M. I. Medić (Eds.), Contemporary Popular Music Studies (pp. 127-136). Wiesbaden: Spinger. Guerra, P. & Quintela, P. (2016). Culturas urbanas e sociabilidades juvenis contemporâneas: um (breve) roteiro teórico. Revista de Ciências Sociais, 47(1), 193-217. Guerra, P. & Straw, W. (2017). I wanna be your punk: o universo de possíveis do punk, do D.I.Y. e das culturas underground. Cadernos de Arte e Antropologia, 6(1), pp. 5-16. Guerra, P. (2010). A instável leveza do rock: génese, dinâmica e consolidação do rock alternativo em Portugal (Doctoral dissertation). Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Porto. Guerra, P. (2013). A instável leveza do rock. Génese, dinâmica e consolidação do rock alternativo em Portugal (1980-2010). Porto: Edições Afrontamento. Guerra, P. (2017). ‘Just Can’t Go to Sleep’. DIY cultures and alternative economies facing social theory. Portuguese Journal of Social Sciences, 16(3), pp. 283-303. Guerra, P.; Gelain, G. & Moreira, T. (2017). Collants, correntes e batons: género e diferença na cultura punk em Portugal e no Brasil. Lectora: revista de dones i textualitat, (23), pp. 13-34. McRobbie, A. (2000). Feminism and youth culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Reddington, H. (2003). ‘Lady’ punks in bands: A subculturette? In D. Muggleton & R. Weinzierl (Eds.), The post-subcultures reader (pp. 239–251). Oxford: Berg. Silva, A. S. & Guerra, P. (2015). As palavras do punk. Lisboa: Alêtheia. The Raincoats (1979). The Raincoats. London: Rough Trade Records. www.kismifconference.com www.punk.pt 24 25 TheKISMIF2018WorldofArtbyEsgarAcelerado:aspeciallookaboutgender,differences,identitiesandDIYcultures The KISMIF 2018 World of Art by Esgar Acelerado: a special look about gender, differences, identities and DIY cultures Esgar Acelerado 3 About Mr. Esgar4 People with a sweet tooth On the magnificent work of Esgar Acelerado valter hugo mãe I always have the idea that the characters of Esgar Acelerado bring with them a look of gluttony for things, gluttony for life with their frequently bulging appearance, with a hard and intense expression. They are a very tender collection of figures that are a miscellany of the cartoon universe with that of illustration, from the more pragmatic of the former genre to the most lyrical of the latter. I always have a sense of fun to which is added ferment sensitivity which many times lead to a tone that is also dramatic, even melancholic and hence romantic. I think that Esgar creates as if making images bloom, because of the profusion of colour that turns everything into a garden, making of what we see radiant bouquets. Creating as if making images bloom is only possible for those who know how to value delicacy, for those who have found a sensitive point from which it is reasonable to put into practice the dearly desired freedom of having fun, confessing, being awestruck and reaching perfection through pulsating expression. There is a quickening of emotions, a sense of good gluttony, a friendly energy that irradiates from the images as if there were the garden that, after all, waters and fertilizers us, the seduced spectators. 3 http://www.mr-esgar.com/. E-mail: [email protected]. 4 Retrived by http:// www.mr-esgar.com. 26 27 TheKISMIF2018WorldofArtbyEsgarAcelerado:aspeciallookaboutgender,differences,identitiesandDIYcultures 28 29 TheKISMIF2018WorldofArtbyEsgarAcelerado:aspeciallookaboutgender,differences,identitiesandDIYcultures 30 31 TheKISMIF2018WorldofArtbyEsgarAcelerado:aspeciallookaboutgender,differences,identitiesandDIYcultures 32 33 TheKISMIF2018WorldofArtbyEsgarAcelerado:aspeciallookaboutgender,differences,identitiesandDIYcultures 34 35 TheKISMIF2018WorldofArtbyEsgarAcelerado:aspeciallookaboutgender,differences,identitiesandDIYcultures 36 37 TheKISMIF2018WorldofArtbyEsgarAcelerado:aspeciallookaboutgender,differences,identitiesandDIYcultures 38 39 TheKISMIF2018WorldofArtbyEsgarAcelerado:aspeciallookaboutgender,differences,identitiesandDIYcultures THEME TUNE 1 ‘I CAN CHANGE THE WORLD’: PUNK, HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY READINGS © Esgar Acelerado 40 1.1 Gathering around punk: Interethnic relations in Prato’s Chinatown Giulia Sarno 5 A b s t r a c t On 12 April 2016, a small historic event happened in Prato, home to Italy’s second largest Chinese community: thanks to local DIY collective/record label Santa Valvola, punk band Demerit was the first Chinese group to ever play Prato. The designated venue was in the Macrolotto Zero urban area, former industrial heart of the city, where the Chinese migrant community has settled in the 1990s, transforming the social structure of the neighbourhood. On that night, a punk concert was the occasion for putting together Prato’s alternative local scene and the Chinese audience, which rarely takes part in the city’s underground movements. It was a huge, unexpected success. This research aims to analyze the event against its social implications. The work is based upon my own observation of the concert, several interviews I carried with the concert’s promoters and sociohistorical literature. Keywords: Prato, Chinatown, transculturality, Chinese punk. 5 Università degli Studi di Firenze – Italy. E-mail: [email protected] 41 1.1 Gathering around punk: Interethnic relations in Prato’s Chinatown 1. Introduction A little more than two years ago, I had the chance to witness a sort of historic event for the city of Prato, Tuscany. This small town of less than 200.000 soul hosts Italy’s second largest Chinese community, accounting for more than 10% of the total residents.6 On Tuesday, 12 April 2016, for the first time ever a Chinese rock band performed in town, and precisely in the Macrolotto Zero area, where that community mostly resides and works. The peculiarity of the event struck me at once when I entered Circolo Curiel: as almost a regular of the local underground scene, I had never seen that kind of crowd. Several reports of the concerts with photos can be found on the web. A clear vision of the audience composition can be found in David Marsili’s photos for hobothemag (Fedi & Nincheri, 2016), and in Mirko Lisella’s and Filippo Gualandi’s for Pratosfera (Banci, 2016; Lisella, 2016). It wasn’t just a question of numbers, although the exceptional attendance at the event even earned it a satirical piece on the web.7 It was the first time I saw such a mixed audience at a concert in Prato: the presence of Chinese participants was striking, both in terms of numbers and composition – citizens of all ages were there, from old ladies to little children in their parents’ arms. Also, proxemics relations in the audience were quite peculiar: especially at the beginning, Chinese participants were mostly still, some observing along the walls of the room, some standing close to the stage, while the pogo exploded in the middle: it was clear that most of them were not familiar with experiencing a punk rock live act and weren’t there because they were Demerit’s fans. The exceptionality of the event pushed me to investigate its implications with regards to the life of the two communities coexisting in Prato. 6 2. Prato’s Chinatown: a sociohistorical background8 Chinese immigration in Tuscany started in the 1950s, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that their presence on the territory became significant. Immigrants mainly came from the Zhejiang region, especially from the prefecture-level city of Wenzhou, which after Deng Xiaoping’s reforms had undergone a major economic development that, however, didn’t touch peri-urban and rural areas: as a consequence, a widespread sense of relative deprivation induced a mass migration from the region. In Tuscany, Chinese immigrants found employment in the local garment industry, settling in the areas around Campi Bisenzio and San Donnino (Florence). They were soon able to start family businesses that would function as subcontractors for Italian firms. Fluxes got so intense so quickly that San Donnino was nicknamed “San Pechino” (Saint Beijing). Soon warehouses and housing facilities were running short, so Chinese workers and entrepreneurs in the early 1990s partly moved to the urban territory of Prato, where they were joined by new immigrants. Italian garment companies would resort to Chinese subcontractors in Prato for the lowpriced and fast production they ensured. But since the beginning of the twentyfirst century Chinese businesses have started expanding to take control over the entire cycle of the ready-to-wear garment industry, which has developed enormously: this process has marked Prato’s experience as unique in Italy.9 Still today, the vast majority of the Chinese population is employed in that sector. Chinese immigrants mostly settled in the former home of city’s textile district, which had moved its facilities to more peripheral areas. When the area now known as Macrolotto Zero hosted the expansion of the Chinese garment The Chinese community in Milan, bigger in numbers, only accounts for 2% of the total residents. As a matter of fact, proportionally to population size, Prato is home to one of the largest communities of Chinese residents in the whole of Europe. Official data can be retrieved on http://statistica. comune.prato.it/?act=f&fid=6370. The article’s title was: Prato, solo 7 6000 paganti allo show dei Demerit, delusi gli organizzatori (“Prato, only 6000 paying attendees at Demerit’s show, to the promoters’ disappointment”) (hardcorelladuemila, 2016). 8 In addition to edited works (Francovich, 1999; Ceccagno, 2003; Marsden, 2014; Krause & Bressan, 2017), this account draws information from personal communication with local researchers Sara Iacopini and Roberto Pecorale. 9 The local Chinese community shows features that are quite distinct to those of the other communities in Italy, where the tertiary sector (restaurants, shops, import-export businesses) normally prevails. 42 industry, it gradually morphed into a very peculiar Chinatown, with restaurants and shops opening every day alongside the warehouses and workshops of the ready-to-wear industry. Long before the Chinese immigration took place, Macrolotto Zero was already characterized by a blend of workshops and housing facilities, which resulted from “the postwar phase of development that launched the Italian industrial districts” (Krause & Bressan, 2017, p. 39-42). Upon this, in the 1990s architect Bernardo Secchi developed an urban plan (known as the Secchi Plan) that was meant “to carve out an exemplary physical space of urban development that revalued the factory city in all its diversity” (Krause & Bressan, 2017, p. 42). The idea of the città fabbrica was based on a strong vision of mixité, a concept that Secchi himself had coined (Secchi, 1996a, 1996b).10 However, as Krause and Bressan stress, 11 Examples include Taro Garden, a bubble tea bar, and Utopia Cafè, For some local residents, Secchi’s vision of mixité was difficult to embrace. […] Older residents associated the area with Chinese newcomers, economic activities that push the limits of legality, militarized security blitzes that intensified under Cenni’s mayorship, compromised hygienic conditions of roads and trash receptacles, and overcrowding of private homes (Krause and Bressan, 2017, p. 33). The economic and urban expansion of the Chinese community in the Macrolotto Zero has been mostly received with hostility, as an “invasion” that has caused the crisis of local pre-existent economies. A well spread conception is that of a “parallel district”, where illegality and slave-like working conditions are endemic and addressed as a “Chinese feature”. Descriptions of a “helllike” situation abound in media coverage. Although finer analysts struggle to project a more complex and realistic interpretation of these processes, calling into cause broader transformations in the global work market, stereotypical descriptions still prevail and foster a sense of separateness and opposition between the Chinese community and the citizens of Italian origin: the signs of an “us VS them” dynamics are tangible in common discourse. Although the high concentration of Chinese residents makes Prato an extreme case, this also applies to other communities in the country: as Marsden (2014, p. 1242) puts it, “despite the high level of economic integration of Chinese in Italy, leading to the emergence of Chinese entrepreneurship in the national economy, the social inclusion of new citizens remains limited and Italians have always looked on Chinese with suspicion”. Against the idea of a monolithic, work-obsessed community, still well spread among citizens of Italian origin and connected with deep racism issues, recent investigations in Prato stress its “increasing heterogeneity and social stratification” (Marsden, 2014, p. 1243). The growth of the tertiary sector and the emergence of a “middle class” between the two largest groups active in the garment industry (that of zagong, unskilled workers, e laoban, entrepreneurs) is probably the most significant factor of change that is shaping the profile of Prato’s Chinatown today. The expansion of a social group having free time from work has a crucial impact on the development of sociability models and cultural consumption occasions. Nevertheless, as new places of sociability managed by Chinese and Italian youth are starting to pop up in the area,11 Chinese citizens’ social life is still limited by a widely shared feeling of personal vulnerability:12 both recently opened and run by young Pratesi with Chinese origin. Lottozero, instead, is a textile laboratory created in 2016 by two sisters, Tessa, an economist, and Arianna Moroder, a textile designer and artist, whose goals are “to encourage the development of emerging talent through creative residencies and collaborations with established realities, and to revitalize one of the leading textile districts in Europe, Prato” (Retrieved from: http://www.lottozero.org/our-story/). 12 Krause and Bressan’s ethnographic research, conducted between 2012 and 2015 with more than 41 immigrant parents, showed that “a recurring refrain among Chinese residents in audio-recorded interviews […] was the expression of alienation not only from the tempos of work but specifically from living in Prato. Although participants said they felt comfort in having many other Chinese people around them, living in neighborhoods such as Macrolotto Zero, they also deeply felt the anger and racism directed at them. Many recounted experiences of being burglarized and mugged. They expressed fear and vulnerability” (Krause & Bressan, 2017, p. 45-46). 10 Yet, as Secchi stated in a 2014 interview to local news blog Pratosfera, when the plan was implemented it was changed so much that he wouldn’t define it as his (Pattume, 2014). 43 1.1 Gathering around punk: Interethnic relations in Prato’s Chinatown Prato is perceived as a very dangerous place for Chinese residents as they are often victims of mugging due to their stereotypical image of “walking ATMs”, carrying large amounts of cash around. As a consequence, parents give kids very strict rules and curfews, and most teenagers’ social life is confined in safe spaces like malls or private karaoke rooms. This can be addressed as one of the factors, both practical and psychological, limiting the involvement of Chinese residents in the city’s mainstream or underground cultural life, proving the reductivity of a reading that only refers to an alleged cultural separateness. This detachment has been addressed as a problem from different perspectives: “integration”, or its more recent, softer counterpart “inclusion”, have been the administration’s watchwords in the past thirty years. If during the time of anti-Chinese mayor Roberto Cenni (2009-2014) the idea of a closed community permeated with illegality was exploited in a belligerent political agenda addressing immigration as the cause of all problems, new policies of dialogue seem to be spreading recently: several associations13 and individuals work on the territory to explore original forms of contact stemming from a deeper involvement in and understanding of the Chinese community. Demerit’s concert falls within this perspective. 3. Demerit’s concert: a kind of magic That event was not the product of a coldly pondered strategy, though: it was an experiment, whose results went far beyond any expectations. When the organizers talk about it, they always stress it was “a kind of magic”, and an unrepeatable one. But choices were of course made, and they proved extremely successful. The presence of that large crowd of Chinese residents was indeed striking: what caused this anomaly that night? Is there, at the core of that event, a path to be walked for the development of shared spaces and experiences between the different communities shaping Prato’s peculiar identity today? Is it there maybe that one can find a way to go beyond topdown models of “integration” and “inclusion”? It might be worth trying to deconstruct that ‘kind of magic’ to its basic elements and extract the recipe of its success. 3.1. The people The driving force for the concert’s organization was Santa Valvola (“Saint Valve”), a loose collective of music promoters / record label, at whose core are three musicians of the city’s hard-core scene: Robert Bardi, Daniele D’Andrea, and Emanuele Ravalli. They have been struggling since 2010 to keep the city’s music scene alive supporting local bands, releasing albums and organizing concert series, festivals, parties. In a perfect DIY style, the motto on their Facebook page is: FACCIAMO MUSICA PERCHÉ CI PIACE, ECCIAO! (We make music because we like it, that’s it!). In a personal communication, they told me they had been thinking about booking a Chinese band for a while, especially as some people started gravitating around Santa Valvola who shared a special interest in Chinese culture and independent music and worked in close contact with the Chinese community in Prato. Among them is Elisa Melani, an employee of the Italian branch of a Chinese garment company: having contacts in the punk international information net, one day she heard that Demerit had a show 13 For example, cultural association [chì-na] was founded in the Macrolotto Zero by a group of architects and designers. They promote events such as Grande cinema Chinatown, a series of free screenings in Chinese and Italian in a public square of the neighborhood, with movies aiming to represent an encounter between the two cultures. 44 coming in Tuscany, so they contacted the band’s European management (Julia Perraca of Fortuny Music / Maybe Mars record label) to see whether the band had a day off: as a matter of fact, they did. The organizing group also included Roberto Pecorale, a Chinese language teacher at Cicognini high school in Prato and a collaborator of Confucius Institute Florence, Chinese underground music connoisseur and keyboardist of “post-blues ‘n’ noise psycho stone-gaze” band Neko At Stella; Sara Iacopini, former musician and currently a PhD candidate in Migration Studies at Middlesex University London researching issues regarding Chinese immigration in Prato (moreover, in 2016 Iacopini was working on a research-action project on diversity management in the area of Macrolotto Zero14); and Jacopo Rossi, a researcher in Chinese literature who got his bachelor degree at University of Florence, where his language teacher happened to be Valentina Pedone, current director of Confucius Institute Florence: in the late 1990s Pedone was active as a singer in the Beijing punk scene, where she was known as Tina Rockstar (O’Dell, 2014). This group of people have a special characteristic: they are familiar with both the underground music scene and the Chinese community. It is not just a matter of practical contacts: they manage a double cultural code. 3.2. Communication This was crucial in promoting the concert. Communication of the event was thorough (social networks, newspapers, blogs, radios, flyers). But more importantly, it was conducted on different registers: some were to attract the crowd of independent music concerts, others were directed to the Chinese community. Just two examples: • Radio Italia Cina, a Prato-based radio devoted to creating a bridge between Italian and Chinese culture and economy, was involved in spreading the news. If we look at the article that was published on their website (Marshall, 2016), we notice that the Italian part focuses on the uniqueness of the event in social terms, addressing the transculturality of punk as a music genre with no borders, its rebellious character and the specificity of Chinese punk as an anti-govern force, mentioning Demerit’s problems with censorship and so on; the Chinese part only says that a punk band from Beijing will perform at Circolo Curiel. • Lorenzo Coppini / Odio Design, an independent graphic designer and screenprinter from Prato, and a friend of Santa Valvola’s, provided a special design for the event (Figure 1.1.1). Iacopini and Pecorale realized that this could work very well to attract young Italian audience but would prove less effective for the Chinese community. They insisted on producing a different, less “avantgarde” and more straightforward informative flyer (Figure 1.1.2) to be distributed in every local shop in Chinatown. In fact, on the day of the concert, even the band’s photographer helped with this, explaining locals what was going to happen that night. This direct, faceto-face strategy felt more appropriate for attracting a community which was not at all familiar with the aesthetic codes the original design used. 14 “Trame di quartiere”, a project by IRIS Research Institute for territorial and social development, was part of “Progetto Prato”, a development project enhanced by Regione Toscana. 45 1.1 Gathering around punk: Interethnic relations in Prato’s Chinatown Figure 1.1.1 – The flyer designed by Lorenzo Coppini / Odio Design Source: courtesy of Lorenzo Coppini / Odio Design. 3.3. DIY approach The whole production of the event was handled with a DIY, bottom-up approach, and not as an institutional “inclusion” initiative. This meant there were no public funds to be used, but also that it was free from the distancing rhetoric and constraints that often come with institutional affiliation. Pecorale organized a crowdfunding event, giving a special lecture about Chinese independent music at Spazio AUT, the coworking space/bar of a local leftwing political and cultural association: the money gathered was used to cover expenses, like accommodation, food and a small fee for the band (their request was very reasonable, being a day off). All tech gear and backline were either provided by Santa Valvola members or borrowed from friends, including the stage. 3.4. The location This was necessary as Circolo Curiel is not a music venue: it is a plain room with a bar usually hosting after-school activities held by cooperatives for Chinese kids in the afternoon, and tombola (bingo) games for citizens of Italian origin at night. Although setting it up for the concert was extremely hard, its location right in the middle of Chinatown and its multiple cultural profile made for an ideal space for this experiment. It is no coincidence that Bernardo Secchi’s last debate about the Macrolotto Zero was held there in 2014. Indeed, the audience success of the concert seems tightly linked to this choice. 3.5. The music Although stylistically quite foreign for part of the audience, picking a punk rock band for this event was probably the fifth essential ingredient to make the recipe perfect. Demerit’s music, with its energy and immediacy, provided a basis for “social intimacy”, which Thomas Turino (2008, p. 2-3) identifies as the key feature for music as a social practice: “Through moving and sounding together in synchrony, people can experience a feeling of oneness with others”. Punk rock places itself at the crossroads of what Turino calls “presentational performance” Figure 1.1.2 – The flyer designed by Sara Iacopini and Roberto Pecorale Source: courtesy of Sara Iacopini. 46 – referring to “situations where a group of people, the artists, prepare and provide music for another group, the audience, who do not participate in making the music or dancing” – and “participatory performance” – a practice where “there are no artist-audience distinctions, only participants and potential participants performing different roles, and the primary goal is to involve the maximum number of people in some performance role” (Turino, 2008, p. 26). Of course, Demerit performed on stage, with amplification, presenting their artistic work to the audience: but the physical involvement of the participants, in terms of dance, pogo or other kinds of synchronous movement, was crucial to the performance, and an integral part of it. As the concert went on and reached its peak, the initial awkwardness disappeared, proxemics relations got looser: the “sonic bonding” (Turino, 2008, p. 3n) among the audience, and between audience and performers, seemed to grow tighter and tighter. 4. Conclusions On top of that, Demerit is not just a punk rock band: it is a Chinese punk rock band.15 On Circolo Curiel’s stage, they stood like embodiments of transculturality itself, a peculiar incarnation of the multiplicity of cultural codes that shape Prato’s identity today. In fact, I think it was a perfect mixture of familiarity and difference that drew those crowds to Circolo Curiel that night. The Italians, familiar with the codes of a punk show and thus attracted by the concert per se, were further drawn by the difference represented by a Chinese band and a Chinese neighbourhood (adjacent restaurant Ravioli Liu was unusually packed with Italians that night), in a blend of exoticism and socio-political interest; while the Chinese audience, who felt at home in Macrolotto Zero, were attracted by the unique blend of familiarity and difference represented by seeing a group of “compatriots” involved in a quite unfamiliar act. Despite they didn’t master the cultural codes of a punk concert, they didn’t leave: did they feel they belonged there? In any case, their openness to unfamiliarity was indeed rewarded when Li Yang, the singer of a band that in 2008 released an album called Bastards of the Nation, sang the Chinese national anthem for them. He then went on singing “Bandiera Rossa” and “Bella Ciao”, famous Italian communist songs, further nourishing the long series of cultural short circuits that made that night unique, proving that identification and otherness are fluid concepts that can fruitfully overlap. The recipe of the success of Demerit’s concert was indeed perfect: it also took a very big effort from the organizers. They all agree it could not be repeated. Other concerts Santa Valvola later organized involving Chinese rock bands failed to attract that kind of crowd, both in terms of numbers and mixed composition. Prato’s contradictions are far from being positively resolved. But I believe this experiment traced a path for music to be an important tool for social bonding for the communities living the city. Acknowledgements: I am very grateful to Emanuele Ravalli, Robert Bardi, Daniele D’Andrea, Sara Iacopini, Roberto Pecorale and Jacopo Rossi for their helpfulness and willingness to answer my questions. 15 For the history and features of punk rock in China see Jeffords (2010), O’Dell (2014), Xiao (2018) and Zuccheri (2004). See also O’Connor (2002) for an analysis of “travelling punk”. 47 1.1 Gathering around punk: Interethnic relations in Prato’s Chinatown References Baldassar, L. et al. (2015). Chinese migration to the new Europe: The case of Prato. In L. Baldassar et al. (Eds.), Chinese migration to Europe (pp. 1-25). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Banci, F. (2016, April 14). Demerit + Quiet Pig al Circolo Curiel – Il report [live report]. Retrieved from: https://www.pratosfera.com/2016/04/14/demerit-circolo-curiel-pratoreport/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork. Bracci, F. (2016). Oltre il distretto: Prato e l’immigrazione cinese. Roma: Aracne. Ceccagno, A. (2003). New Chinese migrants in Italy. International Migration, 41(3), pp. 187-213. Comune di Prato, Ufficio di statistica (2017). Popolazione straniera al 31.12.2017 [data set]. Retrieved from: http://statistica.comune.prato.it/?act=f&fid=6370. Fedi, A., Nincheri, D. (2016, April 19). Riso punkato con germogli di noia. Incontro tra la Punk band Cinese dei Demerit e la più grande Chinatown d’Italia [live report]. Retrieved from: https://hobothemag.com/2016/04/19/riso-punkato-con-germogli-di-noiaincontro-tra-la-punk-band-cinese-dei-demerit-e-la-piu-grande-chinatown-ditalia/. Francovich, L. (1999). Le immigrazioni in toscana: L’origine della popolazione locale dall’anno mille ad oggi attraverso una rassegna bibliografica. Firenze: Edizioni Regione Toscana. Hardcorelladuemila (2016, April 19). Prato, solo 6000 paganti allo show dei Demerit, delusi gli organizzatori [post]. Retrieved from: https://hardcorelladuemila.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/ prato-solo-6000-paganti-allo-show-dei-demerit-delusione-degli-organizzatori/. Jefford, S. (Producer and director). (2010). Beijing Punk [Documentary]. USA, China, Australia, UK: Newground Films. Krause, E. L., Bressan, M. (2017). Via Gramsci: Hegemony and wars of position in the streets of Prato. International Gramsci Journal, 2(3), article 6. Lisella, M. (2016, April 13). Prato: i Demerit e la notte punk del circolo Curiel. Retrieved from: https://www.pratosfera.com/2016/04/13/demerit-prato-circolo-curiel-foto/. Marsden, A. (2014). Chinese descendants in Italy: Emergence, role and uncertain identity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(7), pp. 1239-1252. doi:10.1080/01419870.2014.883082. Marshall (2016, April 8). Demerit (CHINA) + Quiet Pig LIVE! [press release]. Retrieved from: http://www.radioitaliacina.com/news/item/55-demerit-china-quietpig. O’Connor, A. (2002). Local scenes and dangerous crossroads: Punk and theories of cultural hybridity. Popular Music, 21(2), pp. 225-236. O’Dell, D. (2014). Inseparable: The memoirs of an American and the story of Chinese punk rock. lulu.com. Pattume, A. (2014, February 12). Secchi: “Nel Macrolotto bisogna ripartire da Zero” [interview]. Retrieved from: https://www.pratosfera. com/2014/02/19/bernardo-secchi-prato-macrolotto-ripartire-da-zero/. Secchi, B. (1996a). Laboratorio Prato PRG. Firenze: Alinea. Secchi, B. (1996b). Un progetto per Prato: Il nuovo piano regolatore. Firenze: Alinea. Turino, T. (2008). Music as social Life: The politics of participation. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. Xiao, J. (2018). Punk culture in contemporary China. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. Zuccheri, S. (2004). Punk in Cina: Nuovi fuochi di rivolta dopo Tiananmen. Roma: Castelvecchi. 48 1.2 Punk and museum: notes about the exposition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ Paula Guerra 16 and Thiago Pereira Alberto 17 A b s t r a c t In this article, we considered how the exhibition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses’, held in Brazil in 2017, helps to think about the possible tensions of the relationship between punk and museum. Given the transformations the museum has suffered over the last centuries, it was perceived critically as a mausoleum or a mortuary chamber of history (Adorno, 1998). Now, in its contemporary performance, it serves as an archive for the ‘relics’ of pop (affected by the logics of entertainment and establishment). Punk’s supposedly inadequate adjustment to museum conditions, helps to reassert our investigative motto, thinking what are the potential implications, extended and upgraded, for punk when a band like Nirvana is set up in this system. Keywords: Punk, archives, memory, museums. 16 University of Porto – Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Institute of Sociology – University of Porto. CEGOT and CITCEM - Transdisciplinary Research Centre «Culture, Space and Memory». Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. KISMIF Convenor. E-mail: [email protected]. 17 Federal Fluminense University – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and University of Porto – Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Institute of Sociology. E-mail: [email protected]. 49 1.2 Punk and museum: notes about the exposition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ 1. Overview Released in 1977, the single ‘God Save The Queen’ by the British group Sex Pistols can be seen as one of the strong landmarks for punk rock, both as a musical genre and as a social, political and economic narrative of a historical period. Published in the year of the Jubilee of the Queen of England (the commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Elizabeth’s accession to throne), the song swipes the title of the British countries’ official anthem, bringing it - and resignifying it - lyrically and sonorously to the context of that time. Therefore, the song takes on as its central goal the whole monarchical institution; a presence that, in this specific juncture, was unquestionably perceived as unwanted and unnecessary for the punk uprising. A period of substantial social changes, the 1970s was the setting for the fertile germination of British punk, for the presence of a monarchical system served as a clear catalyst for its anti-establishment discourse. (Laing, 2015, 1997). Several parts of ‘God Save The Queen’ can be highlighted in order to understand the message intended by the band. Here we point out some that suggest specific criticisms to the attachment to the past, heritage and patrimonialism, central themes for this article. For the Pistols, maintaining a monarchical system (and its corollary, such as the occasional festivities of 1977) seemed directly connected not only to the social cleavage (“They made you a moron”) or to a salable and illusive image of Britain citizen and foreigners fascinated by British culture (“God save our mad parade”, “God save the queen, cause tourists are money”). It mostly denounced the desire to glorify the tradition (“Oh God, save history”) as a kind of chance, or, perversely, an option to remain eternally in the past (“There’s no future in England’s dreaming”). The final argumentative balance seemed to point out that monarchism, in its twentieth-century version, in fact resembled another reprehensible “ism” (“The fascist regime”), denouncing the desire for a pure and unchangeable caste, which was built and praised through the preservation of old values and the crystallization of traditions, to which punks were utterly opposed. In this way, the early punk stands as clearly anti-patrimonialist, steadily despising heritages, refraining from being part of the hegemonic narratives carried out by kings, queens and their subjects, and getting ready to be the flowers in the bin (“We’re the flowers in the dustbin”). It inspires us, therefore, to think about the modernist quarrel that made the museum a symbol of cultural ossification, a catalyst for articulations between nation, estate and canon, and thus to be considered negatively, as the main way to legitimate tradition and as an opponent of progress. No wonder punk joins both modern artistic practices - such as Dadaism and the Duchampian ready-made - and the Marxist political vanguards. These are points of view which, in the twentieth century, through various disputes in defense of utopias that could be reached in the future, saw in the museum an opponent to be fought (Hebdige, 1979; Marcus, 1989). It is, thus, ironic (and deeply inspiring) to think that today, a Madame Tussauds museum’s visitor in Blackpool, England, finds among hundreds of famous wax statues that are displayed, the figure of Johnny Rotten emulating exactly (through pose, clothes and objects) his image in the ‘God Save The Queen’ video clip. Assured by a series of instances of legitimation, at the heart of contemporary art’s logic of hybridization, symbols of do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos - such as pins stuck on the face or torn tissues- are together, even if having different intensities or presences, with the royalty’s crown in an archival equipment of the British cultural patrimony. 50 Several issues emerge from this panorama. Issues centered on transforming critiques of the past’s unchanging anchorage into legacies to be exhibited and consumed. Is this change merely a kind of commodification of rock and punk, in which what used to be offensives to such logics inevitably became products to be consumed or landscapes to be visited? On that account, we take as an object of analysis the exhibition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses’ that toured in Brazil in 2017, for we believe that this event amplifies and updates even more these instigating equations (and inadequacies).It aims to be a memorial occupation around the historical and material heritage of a group that considered punk as a compass for their creations and performances, at least a decade after the climax of this scene. The band’s trajectory, as protagonist of a major musical scene that has exposed as few did the changing (but not necessarily malleable) membranes between mainstream and underground, and which adds to its history the dimension of an early and tragic death, adds larger possibilities to our analysis (Guerra & Bennett, 2015). 2. Museum and its historical perspectives in contemporary times The fascination about the museum can be presented as a determining feature in contemporary culture, especially highlighted by the rise of the discourses on memory that emerged in the West after the 1960s, in the light of the decolonizations and the movements of history review. This debate resulted in a deep crisis of the main institutions invested in study, validation and preservation of historical and patrimonial values, forcing a major rethinking of this cultural axis. Especially in the United States and in Europe, one can observe the historicizing restoration of urban centers, cities, of whole landscapes; highlighting the importance of patrimonial enterprises and national legacies especially museums - as well as the retro fashion boom (Huyssen, 1996). As consequence, there has been a clear conceptual expansion of the idea of heritage. The affirmation of new agendas that show concerns with the safeguarding, protection and disclosure of new inheritances related to less monumental and more immaterial spaces, landscapes, communities and forms of cultural expression. Huyssen (1996) evaluates this scenario as an indication of the search for total recall, a desire to bring several past times into the present, which spreads through various aspects of contemporary life. Thus, the concept of musealization is used by the author as a philosophical and cultural consideration on the transformation of the status of memory and temporal perception in today’s culture, which motivates us to think about the growing attachment to the past and the contemporary subject’s need to find forms to record as much information as possible (Bennett & Guerra, 2019). Such postulates are strongly contrasted with the futuristic vision that characterized the first decades of the twentieth century, making a sensible change in the social fabric through the display of a remarkable nostalgic pathos. Historically, the battle against museums was a persistent subject of modernist culture, as historical vanguards movements (among them Futurism, Dada, Surrealism and Constructivism) took on a radical and relentless struggle against the museum and its symbolisms. Huyssen (1996, p. 222) views this conflict as a sign of a central proposition, the “dictatorship of the future,” whose discourse was based on a complete rejection of tradition and cultivated the apocalyptic celebration of a totally different upcoming, where 51 1.2 Punk and museum: notes about the exposition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ the museum was a “plausible scapegoat [...] embodying all the hegemonic monumentalization and pompous aspirations of the bourgeois age, which saw its end in the fallout of the Great War. The modernist crisis in the second half of the twentieth century saw the emergence of another way of thinking, intimately connected to the rise of consumer logic, the technological acceleration and the media’s central role in social life, as vectors of late capitalism. In this context, the anxious search for progress generated nostalgia for what had disappeared. Among the possible reactions to this finding was “to obliterate history and transform it into private or collective mythology, revisit time as place, refuse to surrender to the irreversibility of the time that afflicts the human condition”. (Boym, 2001, p.14). If changes were inexorable, the past - that which is not repeatable or reversible - should be possessed, and memory becomes stronger while directing the constructions of spirit (as in academic teaching of history and literature) and material architectures such as museums. Nostalgia has become a central theme in the wars that divide us into “ethnic, religious, cultural, and political (...) while people across the world have sought identity through artifacts collected from the past, where ‘museum mania’ seems to be a direct reaction to the acceleration of life” (Cross, 2015, p.8). The museum, as cultural equipment, stands as one of the possible venues for this kind of social sensitivity, and no longer stands as “temple of the Muses, but rather as a resurrection-oriented place, as a hybrid space between the public fair and the department store” (Huyssen, 1996, p.15). Once a bulwark for high culture, today it participates directly in the laws of the media and the economic systems; becomes transnational, competes in gigantism, innovative architecture, image and impact. Thus, the era of world culture is that of spectacle-museums, elevated to a category of tourist destination for a hyper-consumerist public “seeking more immediate experiences than spiritual initiation and elevation” (Lipovetsky & Serroy, 2011, p. 90). In these processes, the values of ‘tradition’, ‘authenticity’ and ‘identity’ are understood and reinterpreted in their historical and cultural dimension, but also as market values, transforming themselves into brands, objects and experiences of various orders. 3. ‘Memories can´t wait’: rock and punk in the museum Thus, as a pop culture typical phenomenon, born in the context of the 1950s’ baby boomer consumerism, rock n’ roll (and its adjacent subcultures) will also be framed as an object of patrimonial desire, which is evident in its propagation of its qualification to occupy museums. Embedded firmly in the memory of several generations since then, this music gender becomes an important key in contemporary collective cultural consciousness and one of the main contributors to the generation of its identity (Bennett, 2009). Institutions of cultural consecration (Bourdieu, 1996) are created, operating firmly in the cultural sphere, establishing an institutional environment that is highly significant in turning rock n’ roll into patrimony, what Bennett (2009) calls rock heritage. Based on the publicity of the archives as inheritances of rock18, we watch rising a conjuncture that acts as a body of organs specialized in prestige concessions, capable of reinforcing the value of rock within our social fabric, which creates its textures through media instances (magazines, 18 The arising of compact disc (CD) in the 1980s is an example. It plays a fundamental role in this process, with reissues of albums previously available only in vinyl, giving instruments an older audience to effectively get in touch with their musical past, besides, of course, to redeem or reinforce the “seminal”, “anthological” feature, and any other adjective that emanates an aura of originality to what was done in past times. The term “classic” goes perfectly with certain artists and products in this context. 52 radio, re-releases, biographies, documentaries), for example. Museums - institutions that collect, archive and preserve cultural heritages -position themselves as an important axis in this dynamic. In this regard, several representatives or holders of rock heritage took advantage of their power and curatorial status to get involved in this process19. As Reynolds (2011, p.15) points out, this new configuration proves that rock is “old enough and reasonably established as an artistic form that can justify its own museum industry”. He also claims that this fact currently exceeds the limits of a satisfactory historical review to a specific audience, such as the aged and nostalgic baby boomer generation, satiated by staying in contact with their ‘memories of battles’. The exhibition of these collections, irradiated by the “original spirit of an epoch” under the notion of musealization, reaches several audiences that somehow establish a common ideology among themselves: the search for artifacts charged with “posterity and historicity”(Reynolds, 2011, p. 15). These concepts relate to how such materials are carefully preserved, presented in an orderly fashion and carry the “aura of an era”, reminiscences projected around the belief that such elements profile traditions and possess a kind of truth that was lost in time. The musealization of rock presents itself as an ideal condition to configure what Reynolds (2011) calls retromania20, the feverish attachment of contemporary pop culture to its own past, through the constant use of references to itself and the return of several elements of previous decades in the current musical practice. Therefrom, the canonical articulation of rock in artistic discourses, represented and preserved as cultural patrimony, inspires the scenery to become more complex, from the moment the past gets too close to the present and such scenery is questioned by some of its own players -for instance, punk rockers and their aesthetic and ethical heirs, such as Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. It is, therefore, a place of litigation, tensions, crossings, contradictions21. We return here to the Sex Pistols. The British band was uncompromising when induced to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2006, sending a bitter response to the ceremony invitation22 and somehow recovering traces of the iconoclasm propagated when they arise. In the following year, they held a reunion tour - another typical feature of retromania - which allowed them to “monetize the legend through ‘Nevermind the Bollocks’ album as an itinerant museum”, as Reynolds observes (2011, p.11). The author also notes that these punks also profit from nostalgia - they just prefer to assert autonomy and repulsion to some established systems of turning rock into a patrimony. In this context, we add the fact that one of the greater merits accredited to punk’s uprising was protesting against the musical context of late 1970s, with an absolutely retrospective musical perspective, attuned with past virtues in rock’s chronology itself. Bands like Pistols became famous for recovering and bringing back the “trash of history” (Alberto, 2017), in a musical a(na)rcheology gesture, elements of simple, fast, energetic rock of the 1950s and 1960s, which until then seemed absolutely discarded by the hegemonic sonic narratives. Therefore, a certain practice of rock heritage is at the heart of punk. Thus, the quarrel between the old wave (represented, for example, by progressive rock groups, destined to great arenas) and the new wave (punk and its later affluences) contain, from the outset, a rich series of contradictions and crossings, exposed even in its terminologies, which refer to the opposition between progress and return in the scope of the rock. Faced with these 19 Notable examples are the foundation of Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1983 by Ahmet Ertegün, a major recording executive at Atlantic Records; and Jann Wenner, editor of Rolling Stone magazine, in Cleveland, United States; and the Experience Music Project (renamed later as Museum of Pop Culture), funded in Seattle in 2000 by Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft. Through special or permanent exhibitions and supported by a spectacular mise-en-scène, these spaces contain all kinds of artifacts related to the music genre and its manifestations, a historical and material archway that houses instruments, clothes, tickets, drafts of lyrics and even original pieces of studios or concert halls, as well as interactive reproduction of recordings, display of disc covers and the above mentioned wax replicas. 20 If retromania is not a new phenomenon, given that culture seasonally goes through distortions and creative revivals, Reynolds (2011) highlights that the aspect instantanious recolection, made possible by the information revolution (symbolized strongly by the internet) differentiates the current phenomenon from the past. 21 There has been a real boom of punk museums across the globe in recent years Examples are the Ramones Museum in Berlin, which opened in 2005; the Los Angeles Punk Rock Museum, opened in 2012; and the Icelandic Museum PUNK, which was founded in 2016; in addition to an extensive list of exhibitions dedicated to it in Germany, United States and England. 22 “Next to the Sex Pistols, that Hall of Fame is a piss stain. Your museum. Urine in wine. We’re not coming. We’re not your monkeys. If you voted for us, hope you noted your reasons. You’re anonymous as judges but you’re still music industry people. We’re not coming. You’re not paying attention. Outside this shit stem is a real Sex Pistol.” 53 1.2 Punk and museum: notes about the exposition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ issues, Reynolds (2011) seems to strike a fundamental nerve for our analysis, emphasizing the oppositional character in which rock - and especially punk built its foundations. Rock (and rock writing) was always energized and focused by being against. But animosity, the sort of polarised vision (…) that fuelled strident rhetoric, has gone now, everywhere. Rock museums like the British Music Experience represent the triumph of the Tapestry23, with even the most troubling threads, like The Sex Pistols, nearly woven into its fabric. The Old Wave/New Wave war is distant history, and that’s the point of the rock museum: it presents music with the battle lines erased, everything wrapped up in a warm blanket of acceptance and appreciation. (Reynolds, 2011, p.7) The author explains the tension we have here: among punk’s topics is the returning to the character of rebellion and confrontation that is seminal in rock; a fundamental transgressing teenager spirit in its articulations as an emerging youth subculture of the 1950s. Consequently, its musealization, according to the current parameters that shape these processes, becomes a possibility to eliminate the threatening and contentious gesture that characterized the genre. Therefore, rock and anger, one of its essential fuels (as Lydon sang in his post-Pistols band Public Radio Limit: “anger in an energy”) would be caged, available for visitation, as a valuable relic of past, but also as a testimony of his own absence. In the early 1990s, Nirvana was the group that somehow opposed this condition, even though sometimes contradictorily. 23 Allegory used by the author to refer to the most important and noble lineage of the genre. 24 This 20year landmark is informally called the nostalgic cycle of pop. The 1970s sought to reprise the 1950s. Similarly, the 1980s tried to copy the 1960s ...The unusual factor here is the patrimonial consecration through museums that traditionally occurs in another time scale. 25 Strong (2011) emphasizes the idea that Nirvana, within the grunge 4. ‘Here we are now, entertain us’: punk goes to the museum, the museum goes to punk The exhibition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’, which came to Brazil in June 2017, seems particularly pertinent to update and amplify the questions mentioned so far in our analysis. It focus on a band that was still ‘young’ being in a museum, a group which had its peak in the first half of the 1990s and remained the subject of intense public and media interest until the beginning of the subsequent decade, that is, just over twenty years24. This confirms a typical internal equation of current retromaniac process in pop culture: the sooner the musical sceneries succeed, the more quickly others are restored for a review, triggered by the ‘nostalgic impulse’ highlighted above. Moreover, it expands, as shown by the very name of the exhibition, by endorsing Nirvana as a genuine heir to punk25, while emphasizing the status of massive visibility and popularity unprecedented that the group conquered (inferred from market data and media presence26). This seems to leave the tensions and contradictions that surround punk more noticeable, given the greatness achieved. Regarding these points, some issues emerge as touchstones when emphasizing the process of museification of the band, through this exhibition. First, the fact that Nirvana symbolizes, as well as other groups (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees), the architecture of a musical scene scene, would be one of the articulations of the punk movement from previous decade. Through music and lyrical discourse, it alludes to the signs of freedom, violence, discontent and disenchantment with the established social order. A song like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, often seen as a generational hymn, reconciles the self-recognition of alienation tuned with the outlining of a new community of “outcasts” or social outcasts (called ‘slackers’), sustained by the feeling of non-belonging and inadequacy that are dear to punk. 26 According to media sources, the band sold almost 80 million albums worldwide (https:// www.statisticbrain.com/nirvana-album-sales-statistics). As a reflection of its importance to the critics, we could mention “Nevermind” being appointed as best album of the 1990s by publications such as the American magazines Rolling Stone and Spin. 54 – grunge - that is located in a very specific place, the city of Seattle, in northern United States. In spite of its changing and fluid characteristics27, marked by the “construction and differentiation of musical alliances” (Straw, 1991, p. 373), grunge has become synonymous with the “Seattle sound”, so important was its role in that period. Thus, it becomes similar to Memphis, Chicago, London or Manchester, as part of a geographic heritage of rock, reaching the status of a tourist city for rock n’ roll lovers and having Nirvana as a major responsible for this recast. Decades after the grunge boom, the city established permanent nostalgic expression marks, materialized in referential points of visitation (bars, concert halls, recording studios, record stores, SubPop label, addresses where its artists have lived) that fit comfortably to the idea of musealization. Another aspect that we find remarkable for Nirvana’s configuration as a museum object is Kurt Cobain’s early death. He was the vocalist, guitarist and leader of the group. His suicide, in April 1994, promoted his image as a kind of myth, typical path for pop celebrities. Driven by several vertices (media, public, artists), Cobain is taken as a cultural object of reference to the rock community and establishes a series of narratives that describe him in several ways – ‘nonconformist’, ‘martyr’, ‘tragic hero’,’spokesman of a generation’. These descriptions amplify his artistic importance and help ensure his presence for other generations, as well as positioning him alongside an extensive gallery of permanent paintings that rock already possessed at the time of his death: early, not infrequently tragic and unexpected losses of fundamental artists to the music genre commonly enshrined in the war cry ‘live fast, die young’. The fact that Cobain killed himself at age 27, the same age as other rock n’ roll icons were when they died (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones), served as an argument to fit him in a kind of tradition. So, an exhibition like ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ rectifies an obvious but important fact for some issues we point out: its permanent absence. Cobain, precociously deceased, increases his coefficient of museification, making even clearer the feature of something that does not return. This perception is expressed in the nostalgia that drives the capitalization of the past and helps to configure him and the band as an inheritance, an authentic patrimony of rock. Considered a rock heritage, Nirvana now positions itself, through the exhibition, in the contemporary scope of changing paths taken by the museum - and by the rock n’ roll that inhabit the museum -, becoming one of its spectacular traces, typical of entertainment and establishment. Therefore, the corporate character of ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ is one of the main arguments brough by this discussion. Originally created as a permanent exhibit in Seattle curated by Jacob McCurray (produced and hosted by the aforementioned Museum of Pop Culture), the exhibit remained for over six years in the United States and arrived in Brazil - its first international tour sponsored by a giant electronics company, Samsung. Within a museum transnationalization program, the exhibition is part of this multinational’s project that aims to offer “unique experiences in music”28, and this idea of experience serves the purposes of a trip to the past. This is typical of the current museum context: a dynamic, interactive visit, oriented to “aestheticize public expectations and practices” as opposed to the idea of “annihilating” them (Lipovetsky & Serroy, 2011, p. 91), museum for ‘the masses’. Announced as the compilation of more than 200 original pieces instruments, photos, videos, testimonies, albums, personal objects of the members, posters -, ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses’, which we visited 27 Thus, the grunge seal also reached groups outside of Seattle and the surrounding areas. For instance, the Smashing Pumpkins, from Chicago, and the Stone Temple Pilots, from San Diego 28 As the project’s official website explains at https:// www.rockexhibition.com.br 55 1.2 Punk and museum: notes about the exposition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ in August 2017 at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, ‘delivers what it promises’. The viewer can leave with the sensation of accessing an organized and detailed memorial and material narrative of the group: albums they listened to years before forming the band, artifacts that symbolize its pinnacle (‘relics’ of the band’s most notorious videos, set lists of major shows), and a recreation of the recording scene of Cobain’s last live album, ‘Unplugged MTV in New York’. Just before the exit, as a final reminder, it was one of the event’s highlights, a booth where the viewer had the chance to mimic in a screen the iconic ‘Nevermind’s’ cover, a album released in 1991. Where originally there was a baby submerged in a pool, catching a dollar bill, now is the viewer, who can be there just before leaving the museum: punk for the masses. The combination of both axes (punk and museum for the masses) alludes to the problems of Nirvana’s incorporation process into the chronology of rock, and consequently, into the contemporary museum system. As Robins (2008) contextualizes, the band emerges in a time when rock was seen as a genre in creative lag and commercial crisis, already heavily encoded or emptied in its subgenres, as can be seen in the weary recipe of Californian hard / glam rock (the last great media representative, until then) and in its absence on hit parades. Such inertia helps to parameterize and reinforce the impact caused by ‘Nevermind’, released in 1991. This power of this worknot only represented a triumphant return from rock to mainstream (the album was on the Billboard chart for almost a year), but also reopened familiar discussions in some dynamics related to the phonographic market, with the rise of terms like ‘alternative rock’, ‘grunge’ and the re-evaluation of others, such as ‘punk’ and ‘underground’. In an extraordinary dimension for pop culture, Nirvana achieved a global success, which positioned the band as a fundamental and profitable name in music industry, even insisting on being based on the punk ethos. This transition from a promising band in an independent record label (SubPop) to a big commodity in a major one (Geffen Records) became a fundamental point in the group’s history, in which anethical entrenchment was the subject of songs, interviews and performances. This constant relationship of approaching and distancing from the market logic was a typical dilemma of the incorporation and excorporation game, reproduced in the pop environment through the possible dilutions of marked boundaries between youth culture and dominant culture (Grossberg, 2010). This condition was indicated (curiously, with prophetic tone) by Nirvana itself in the cover of ‘Nevermind’. It had an image of ‘youth corruption’, which became a symbolic mote, one associated with discussions that revived the battles between underground and mainstream. The mere existence of this exhibition seems to reprise such quarrel, now putting the stamp of museification onto the group and highlighting the tensions underlying this process. Offering the public the chance to ‘integrate’ into that past - like replacing the baby from ‘Nevermind’s’ cover and ‘updating’ the image in the successive sharing in social media - says a lot about the connection of heritage exhibitions to the logic of spectacle and advertising tactics of major brands sponsoring these events. As Lipovetsky and Serroy (2011) point out, if in the heroic era of avant-garde modernity what constituted great art was its opposition to institutional norms, customs and established values, when structured by the logic of spectacle - curiously, by what is new - the museum, once governed by the rule of contemplation, now yields space to recreation, hedonistic and light consumption, selfies and the rapid 56 registers of its patrons. Thus, rock (in its ‘heritage’ version) and the museum clearly align with contemporary consumer practices and show, through the interpenetration ‘of aesthetic logics and the logics of tourism development’ (Lipovetsky & Serroy, 2011, p.91), the fading of clear, historically constructed contours of museum as a space of retraction and of some oppositions that punk projected in its trajectory. Nirvana, even in this context, somehow maintained its aura or originality - often its historical ballast is accompanied by expressions such as ‘the last great band’ or the ‘final sigh of rock’ - for having recovered, as well as the 1970s punk, much of the countercultural traits of rock, through a kind of youthful anguish that echoes and triggers allegories of anti-establishment rebellion. It is noteworthy that such a statement had been molded into an evident antipast character, and thus with no nostalgic nor patrimonial implications. When Kurt Cobain sang and teased “Here we are now, entertain us”, in the name of a whole generation, it was implicit and required the idea of here and now. In 2018, such a phrase, a motto of 1991, suggests what Reynolds (2011) points as an imperative condition of the pop music consumer in last decade: the search for archived memories of the past, where the pulse of ‘now’ is increasingly weakened each passing year and nostalgia is an effective prophylaxis in a retromaniac present. Therefore, at the same time that musealization affirms its patrimonial importance for the genre - given the conditions in which happens, that is, under the mainstream rules - its presence in the museum also shows the taming of what was previously fed by a warlike spirit. As Reynolds (2011) highlights, framing a group like Nirvana in the face of a structure that often suppresses the confrontation lines of history - or even commodifies such lines - may also signal the fading of an aura previously illuminated by its dissenting force. When replaying and rethinking some of the repercussions of ‘Nevermind’ this point of view assumes that the most efficient way to contain the threat possibilities represented by rock is the market itself - and ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses’ is also a strategic corporate piece –, where industry promotes anti-establishment rebellion as cool, and in the process, tries to turn countercultural heroes into conventional commodities. In this context, Robinson (2017) aptly defines punk as an “itchy sort of heritage”, an obviously thorny and tension-generating heritage. In other words, what is the best place for punk, in alliance with its political and behavioral coherences? A flagrant DIY culture will not force the existence of DIY organizations to preserve it? Trying to respond to these problems, small fan niches, which Bennett & Janssen (2016) called ‘DIY preservationists’, opted for a DIY route: if musealization is an appropriation of the punk spirit by the mainstream, then the answer would be the constitution of autonomous institutions aimed at setting aside all the precepts of institutional museums, a work that involves retrieving and documenting the genre’s roots for fan community. 5. Conclusion Given the countercultural genesis of rock, some of its retrospective reinsertions into the social fabric establish a range of contradictions and cleavages that justify specific analysis. As an example, the alignment of punk and its anti-patrimonialist ethos, at least in its political dimension. We 57 1.2 Punk and museum: notes about the exposition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ consider that Nirvana has always positioned itself as punk, either through the DIY as a goal in life or as a compositional guide, by triggering certain sonic (as simplicity, weight and velocity) and lyrical frameworks (where they yelled anti system discourses, often in the form of acidic self-criticism to the youth culture of that time). In a broader context, the band, along with the Seattle scene, incorporates values that push them away from rock bands from the late 1980s, (re)creating an attempt to separate ‘we’, the underground culture, from ‘they’, who integrated the consumer masses of the mainstream music industry (Cardoso Filho, 2010). But the release and resounding success of ‘Nevermind’ has shuffled the attempt to create such boundaries, enabling infiltrations that expanded the historical dilemma of approaching and distancing rock and dominant culture - symbolically culminating in Kurt Cobain’s suicide, adhering to his persona an undeniably seductive mythical load in times of constant review of pop. His physical absence somehow accelerates the process of consolidating Nirvana as a classic, unquestionable inheritance of rock. ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses’, by framing the group under the tuning of contemporary museum conditions, brings back some of these discussions by aesthetizing ‘rebellious’ ethics in the spectacle’s sphere, testifying to the effectiveness of patrimonialization in undermining the critical possibilities of punk and rock and, in an increasingly accelerated way, in the rhythm of a retromaniac pop culture. Based on a critical appraisal of this conjuncture, we point out, as a conclusion, another possibility of reading it. To establish punk and rock in museums may also represent the maintenance of a necessary phantasmagoria, a way of designating them as a threatening and permanent ghost. We recognize that it is a matter of seeing the context from a more optimistic angle, but perhaps a necessary one, and above all, a possible one. As we have pointed out, the renewal cycles of rock - and punk are exemplary in this sense - also depend on their archaeological gestures, where the image of the museum arises not only as a kind of deposit of dead things, but also as a place of possible resurrections, mediated and contaminated by the gaze of new spectators, which makes it possible also to maintain a kind of authority and originality. The recognition of power and importance of works such as Nirvana’s, even through museification, is attesting that memorialist practice also touches subcultural aging and its practices of resistance, even as an important way of access for the new generations, giving shape to its inspirational character. Hence, the museum, and its patrimonialization properties of rock heritage, appears as a possible space where nostalgic pathos and retromania can also be present as a challenge to contemporary informational space and an expression of the human need to live in long lasting structures, a “reactive formation of bodies that want to maintain their temporality against the media’s world that spreads seeds of a timeless claustrophobia”. (Huyssen, 1996, p.123). Thus, an ideal setting may require the blessings that the cultural consecration provides and it is clear that the process of museification would also imply a revival of rock and punk, in a reevaluation of its social importance, where it would be necessary that this heritage discourse take into account the punk’s social functions and its importance for millions of individuals. 58 Acknowledgements: This work is the result of a Portuguese-Brazilian project ‘Under Connected. On and offline luso-Brazilian music scenes’ coordinated by Paula Guerra from the University of Porto (Portugal) and Jeder Janotti Júnior from Pernambuco Federal University (Brazil). The central focus of this project is the developing a comparative approach to the underground music scenes in Portugal and Brazil, while articulating the paradigms of sociology and communication. The project includes two goals: deepening the knowledge of underground music scenes and their potential in terms of creativity, employability and DIY; and grasping the importance of social networks - online and offline - to the artistic and musical processes. In this paper, we present the results of the luso-Brazilian scientific agenda and the results of the study. More broadly, emphasis will be put on reconsidering the dominant paradigms of the Anglo-Saxon kind commonly deployed in addressing music scenes, thus promoting the constitution of theoretical-analytical models better suited to the sociocultural realities of Brazil and Portugal. Funding: Foundation for Science and Technology – Portugal and Federal Fluminense University – Brazil / CAPES. References Adorno, T (1998). Museu Valery Proust. In: Prismas: crítica cultural e sociedade. São Paulo: Ática Alberto, T.P (2017) - Cuspir o lixo em cima de vocês: uma leitura benjaminiana sobre o punk rock. IS Working Papers. 3ª Série. N.º 59, 2017. Available in: http:// isociologia.up.pt/sites/default/files/working-papers/WP%2059.pdf Baker, S; Doyle, P; Homan (2015) Shane Historical Records, National Constructions: The Contemporary Popular Music Archive. Popular Music and Society. Vol.31.N.º1, pp. 8-27. Bennett A. (2009) ‘Heritage rock’: Rock music, representation and heritage discourse. Brisbane: Centre for Public Culture and Ideas, Griffith University. Bennett, A. & Guerra, P. (Eds.) (2019). DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes. Abingdon/Oxford: Routledge. Boudieu, P (1996). As regras da arte. Lisboa: Presença. Boym, S (2001). The future of nostalgia. New York: Basic. Cardoso Filho, J. (2010) Práticas de escuta do Rock: experiência estética, mediações e materialidades da comunicação. Belo Horizonte: UFMG/FAFICH. Cohen, S; Knifton, R; Leornard & Les Roberts, M (Orgs.) (2014). Sites of popular music heritage: memories, histories, places. Nova Iorque/Abingdon: Routhledge. Cross, G. (2015). Consumed nostalgia: Memory in the age of fast capitalism. New York: Columbia University Press. De Nora, T. (2000) Music in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Frith, S. (1996). Performing rites: on the value of popular music. Cambridge, Massachussets: Harvard Univ Press. Grossberg, L. (2010). Cultural studies in the future tense. Durham/London: Duke University Press. Guerra, P (2013) A instável leveza do rock. Génese, dinâmica e consolidação do rock alternativo em Portugal (1980-2010). Porto: Edições Afrontamento. Guerra, P (2014). Punk, ação e contradição em Portugal. Uma aproximação às culturas juvenis contemporâneas. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais. N.º 102-103, pp. 111-134. Guerra, P; Bennett, A (2015)– Never Mind the Pistols? The Legacy and Authenticity of the Sex Pistols in Portugal. Popular Music and Society. Vol. 38, n.º 4, pp. 500-521. 59 1.2 Punk and museum: notes about the exposition ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses’ Guerra, P; Silva, A (2015). Music and more than music: The approach to difference and identity in the Portuguese punk. European Journal of Cultural Studies. Vol. 18, n.º 2, pp. 207-223. Silva, A; Guerra, P (2015). As palavras do punk. Lisboa: Alêtheia Guerra, P; Straw, W (2017) – I wanna be your punk: o universo de possíveis do punk, do D.I.Y. e das culturas underground. Cadernos de Arte e Antropologia. Vol. 6, n.º 1, pp. 5-16. Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture: the meaning of style, London: Routledge. Huyssen, A (1996). Memórias do modernismo. Rio de Janeiro: Editora da UFRJ. Laing, D (1997). Listening to punk. In Gelder, K & Thornton, S (orgs.). The Subculture Reader (pp. 448-460). London: Routledge. Laing, D (2015) - One Chord Wonders: Power and meaning in punk rock. Oakland, CA: PM Press. Lipovetsky, G & Serroy, J (2011). A cultura-mundo, respostas a uma sociedade desorientada. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras Manoff, M (2004). Theories of the Archive from Across the Disciplines, em Project Muse Volume 4, Number 1, January 2004. Available in: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/51302 Marcus, G. (2011). Lipstick Traces: A secret history of the twentieth century, Cambridge,MA: Harvard University Press. Natali, M (2009). A política da nostalgia: Um estudo das formas do passado. São Paulo: Nankin. Reynolds, S. Retromania: Pop culture and addiction to its own past. Nova York: Logic. Robins, W. (2008) A brief history of rock, off the record. New York: Routledge. Robinson, L. (2017). Exhibition Review Punk’s 40th Anniversary—An Itchy Sort of Heritage in Twentieth Century British History, 2017. Avaliable in: https://academic. oup.com/tcbh/advance-article- abstract/doi/10.1093/tcbh/hwx047/4107226. Shucker, R (1999). Vocabulário de música pop. São Paulo: Hedra. Straw, W. (1991). Systems of articulation, logics of change: Communities and scenes in popular music. Cultural Studies, v. 5, n. 3, pp. 368-388. Strong, C. (2015). Shaping the past of popular music: Memory, forgetting and documenting (pp.418-434). In The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music. London:Sage. 60 1.3 Gendered participation in 1970’s punk in Finland: Lack of female musicians and fanzine makers Juho Hänninen 29 A b s t r a c t The first wave of punk in Finland included only five Finnish female punk musicians. Girls were more active in the fanzine scene but even there a minority. This paper tries to pinpoint the gender distribution of active scenesters between 1977 and 1981 and why so few girls became active in the scene. Furthermore, the paper asks whether the 1970s punk was emancipatory for girls and how did the girls experience the scene in relation to gender. The paper aims to achieve its goal by analyzing female-made punk-artifacts, questionnaires conducted by 46 fanzine makers and correspondence between nine female participants in the scene. The finding is a (self-) conscious female punk who emancipated on an individual level. Furthermore, the paper discusses why the girl participants experienced the scene as equal when gender roles drastically directed the scene participants’ actions. Keywords: Punk, 1970s, Finland, females, (in) equality. 29 University of Helsinki - Finland. E-mail: [email protected]. 61 1.3 Gendered participation in 1970’s punk in Finland: Lack of female musicians and fanzine makers 1. Introduction In her study on alternative music scenes, Holly Kruse (2003, p.138) points out that a belief of gender equality lives on in the narratives of alternative rock. In other words, a belief that alternative rock scenes foster chances for anyone regardless of gender to pick up an instrument and perform. According to Sara Cohen (1991, p.203), the 1970s punk rock demystificated music making and “did inspire many women to make music” (emphasis original). Cohen also notes that the women of punk “challenged traditional romantic conventions and styles, including that of the passive female singer and entertainer”. Cohen’s observations are easily confirmed by the blissful music made by Patti Smith, The Slits and The Raincoats (for example). During the first wave of punk in Finland a corresponding phenomenon did not happen. The early Anglo-American punk bands made their impact on thousands of Finnish youngsters starting already in 1976 when the most eager music loving teens woke up to the phenomenon (Saaristo, 2002). In the wake of punk, at least over a hundred bands sprung up. Still the band lineups consisted solely of male musicians – only five Finnish female performers appear on the over two hundred punk records released between 1977 and 1982. In addition to music and its performers, this paper is interested in the hundreds of fanzine makers between the period According to Dave Laing (1985, p. 14–15) the 1970s punk scenes were the first music scenes to produce their own widespread counter-media – the fanzines. In addition to information sharing, the fanzines defined the punk scenes and their boundaries. The first wave sprung up over two hundred individual fanzine titles. According to a master thesis, women were mainly contributors to the male-lead fanzines but some of the titles were made by female groups (Paaso, 2015, p.49). This paper pinpoints the gender distribution among the 1970s punk scene’s agents – the musicians and the fanzine makers. Furthermore, the paper asks why girls are absent among the active participants in the scene and what the relatively rare records and fanzines by girls reveal about their authors. In the latter part of the paper, the attention is shifted towards the girl participants, and their experience of the scene and its gender relations. The gender of the band line-ups is pursued by looking at a music database about Finnish punk records. The gender of the fanzines makers is scrutinized through a fanzine bibliography. The role of girls in the fanzine scene is opened up by analyzing 44 questionnaires for fanzinisters of the era. The role of punk girls is expanded by analyzing e-mail correspondence with nine female participants in the scene. The periodization of the paper is a bit arbitrary. The timeline of “77-punk” does end not abruptly. In fact, in the Finnish punk scene “the first wave of punk” is sometimes seen to stretch until the early 1990s (Kemppinen, 1997, p.95). In this paper, the periodization derives from the first punk record released in Finland – in the fall of 1977, to the fragmentation of punk rock into various sub-genres (hardcore punk, post-punk), which happened at the latest in 1982 (Söderhol,1987, p.53–5930). The paper will continue with socio-historical context for the period, a theoretical introduction to the Finnish scene and the concept of a cultural “subculture” introduced by Patrick Williams (2011, p. 35– 38). After this, the versatile data utilized is brought on display. A look on the methodological commitments of the paper follows before the analysis. The analysis is divided into five subchapters. The first chapter takes a look at the gender of band members and a song with lyrics that expresses and criticizes the role of women in the contemporary society. The second chapters theme 30 Therefore the 1978–1981 periodization of Saaristo (2002) has been extended to start from 1977. The 1982 limit means that all 77-punk records and fanzines are included as well as the first hardcore releases. 62 is fanzines, their makers and the fanzines’ gender related content. The third and fourth chapters introduce the experiences of the the fanzinisters and the girl participants. The last chapter of the analysis interprets the results of the preceding analysis. The chapter offers one explanation for the inconsistency between occurred inequality (in relation to becoming active in the scene) and experienced equality among the scene members. The conclusion section summarizes the results. 2. Socio-historical context In this section, the paper will introduce the socio-historical conditions where punk sprung up in Finland in the late 1970s. In relation to modernization, Finland is a late bloomer. When the modernization process finally began after the Second World War, the process was relatively sudden and intensive. According to Antti Karisto et al. (1988, p. 41–44), Finland’s economic structure developed from agriculture towards a large service sector (without the usual industrial-period in between) in just 30 years. Urbanization followed the change of economic structure with the same intensity. During the 1960s and 1970s, tens of thousand inhabitants moved yearly from the countryside to cities. In the early 1970s, the milestone for urbanization was reached – half of Finland’s population lived in cities. With modernization, the Finnish society began to open. According to a summary of studies about the 1970s Finland by Minna Sarantola-Weiss (2008, p. 186–189) in the beginning of the process, only circa half of women had independent working positions. In addition, in the early 1970s, it was considered improper for a woman to go to a bar alone. Juridically women’s position became equivalent to men during the 1960s. During the 1970s the women’s position in the society continued improve. Feminism bettered women’s sense of self and social position. Attitudes towards sexuality continued to relax. Especially the female sexuality was changed forever by the pill and a more liberal abortion law in 1971. By 1980, 79% of women were working (Sarantola-Weiss, p.2008, 53–57). In other words, when punk struck in the country in late 1970s, women were in the process of gaining independence and a more equal social position. Nevertheless, the contemporary society upheld differing expectations for girls and boys that were more restrictive for girls. The 1950s and 1960s educational children books targeted to girls, girls were directed into “correct” womanhood in relation to sexuality and romanticism (Voipio 2014, 200, 2013). During the 1960s the gender role taught in school books changed from clearly differing two genders to girls and boys who share social responsibility and rights. In addition, both genders are described in rascal activities – and self-reflecting when caught (Koski 2000, p.39–44). Mentalities change slowly. The fact that the change happened during the 1960s means that the parents of punk girls were still being taught that there are two genders that set apart the children as human beings. 3. Theory The discussion between the concepts of subculture, post-subculture and scenes seems to be never ending. This paper draws from Williams (2011, p.35– 38) suggestion of a coexistence between the concepts where subculture is a cultural concept owing to symbolic interactionism and the scene a social 63 1.3 Gendered participation in 1970’s punk in Finland: Lack of female musicians and fanzine makers concept referring to the network where music is created and facilitated. A cornerstone of the music scene perspective is an essay written by Will Straw (1991). Straw describes how musical genres are born and develop in relationship networks that have both local and global dimensions. According to a summarizing article by Andy Bennett (2004), the scene perspective has evolved to include three forms of scenes: local, trans-local and virtual. The last refers to scenes that take place online and are thus outside of the time frame of this paper. The concept of a trans-local scene was first used by Holly Kruse (2003) in her study on alternative rock scenes. According to Bennett, the concept of a trans-local scene acknowledges that while young people act out their musical and stylistic preferences in local scenes, they share and foster a connection to other members of other scenes in other regions, countries and continents. The media representations of subcultural groups foster the connections of ranslocal scenes (Bennett 2004, p.226–230). In her study on Riot Grrrl, Kristin Schilt (2004, p. 117–119) discusses how the fanzines were essential for linking likeminded women and the trans-local scene to develop in 1990s Washington DC. The 1970s Finland was a sparsely populated country. According to a book about Finnish rock history written by journalists who eye-witnessed the 1970s punk scene, the musical events of the first wave took place both in the countryside and urban areas (Bruun et al. 1998, p.262–305). According to Juuso Paaso (2015), the punk fanzines, and the associated letter-exchange, created a scattered network of punks all over the country. The first wave of punk in Finland was a national scene that was constructed in a trans-local fashion with various local punk clusters and even local scenes in larger cities. The clusters were interconnected via fanzines, media representations, and musical events that were not limited to cities. The symbolic interactionism perspective on subcultures perceives subcultures to be cultural and abstract entities with symbolic borders. Williams cites in length Gary Alan Fine and Sherryl Kleinman (1979) who introduced the perspective in 1979. Fine and Kleinman discuss communication interlocks where “information and behavior options are diffused, resulting in the construction of a common universe of discourse throughout the social network in which they spread. The writers add that the social network serves as a reference point for the subculture members (Fine & Kleinman, 1978, p.8). The common discourse universe is able to carry messages to be picked up and interpreted by the receptive receiver. One of the messages was equal social rights among the genders. 4. Data The record and line-up information has been obtained from Finnmusic. net and supplemented by a few records not listed on the page. The line between punk and new wave music is thin. In addition, some of the bands who started their career during the 1970s had transformed into rock and postpunk acts by 1982. In this paper, as punk records have been categorized all recordings released between 1977–1982 by bands who started their careers playing punk rock. In other words, the records were born in the wake of punk and its do it yourself -message, which encouraged to both play yourself and release music by the artists own terms (Frith, 1987, p.138–160). From the record data, all promotional records and compilation album releases were excluded 64 because no information on the musicians was obtainable. All in all, the data includes 209 records released between 1977–1982. The fanzine information is from the Finnish fanzine bibliography 1977–1982 finalized by Paaso in 2016. The bibliography includes information about punk fanzines, comic books and other small press magazines but the emphasis is on punk fanzines. The bibliography lists the essential makers of the fanzine but not all contributors and is thus partly defective. The fanzine questionnaire data comes also from Paaso. The data includes 46 responses from 45 different informants. E-mail correspondence with nine girl participants in the 1970s scene was carried out in the spring of 2018. The correspondence is circa 15 pages in default typeset. In addition, the data includes freeform reminiscence about the punk era. 5. Method According to Allessandro Portelli (1979, p.67), oral history accounts tell about past events but also the meanings ascribed to them at the moment of reminisce. The subjective nature of oral history is both a hindrance and an advantage as memories – or the recollection of them at a give moment – allows the research of the subjective experience. The data has been analyzed by categorical qualitative content analysis. The data was first read and coded. The coding process evolved into established categories such as “Few girls,”, “The role of girls as bystanders”, “No girls” and “Equality”. Unless noted otherwise, all of the categories referred in the analysis include several uniform categories in the data. For more detailed takes on the method see for example Margit Schreier (2012). 6. Analysis 6.1 Punk records The data includes 209 records released between 1977 and 1982. Six punk records include female musicians: Päät, Bust Outs and Mik Monto had female vocalists and Kollaa Kestää invited Lora Logic (from X-Ray Spex fame) to play saxophone on their album Jäähyväiset aseille (1979). Päät had also a female keyboardist from 1980 onwards and the bass player of Se. was female. With a broader definition of punk that includes also new wave acts, the list would lengthen with a few female vocalists and instrumentalists. To summarize, among the hundreds of male musicians of the scene the few girls were a tiny minority. The second single by Päät [“Heads”] and the song Rotat [“Rats”] (1979) – addressee’s issues related to gender and womanhood. The bands singer Pivo wrote the lyrics. The song starts with the chorus, which translates as: All men are rats And their heads are potties I don’t need them Rat, don’t beget children The following verse addresses the role of women in the society by mocking ironically the girls’ role as pleasers of men and subjects of sexual desire. The 65 1.3 Gendered participation in 1970’s punk in Finland: Lack of female musicians and fanzine makers theme continues in the next verse. In the last verse the song brings forth its most critical edge: The more you sleep with women, the more handsome boy you are, but us, you call whores! Here the lyrics address the double standards of male and female sexuality and social contempt women are subjected to. Rotat song is a prime example of how a person is able to express social critique that stems from their experience of society. Although the song is the only that addressees’ themes related to gender, the song brings forth that the punks were conscious about the gender roles and related inequalities in the society. This is supported by an interview of the lyricist where she notes that the audience responds to the song “all right” and guys in the band “smartly” (Suomen paras Musiikkilehti 1979:1, p 10). 6.2 Punk fanzines The bibliography of Finnish fanzines that started publishing between 1977– 1982 includes 929 issues from 246 fanzines. The fanzines include dozens of female contributors. Precise information on the contributors is not possible to attain from the bibliography that includes only the central persons making the fanzines. Using pseudonyms (or “punk-names”) was common for the era and thus the exact number of female contributors is difficult to impossible to pinpoint. It is possible to say that girls were present as contributors in many of the (boy-led) fanzines but only as a minority, or a tiny minority. Fourteen of the fanzines were made by female primus motors. Female-lead fanzines include more girl contributors, but some have a mixed group of editors. A majority of the fanzines made by girls do not differ in any notable sense from their male-lead counterparts. Almost all of the fanzines made by girls include articles, interview questions and pondering about female artists, appearances, relationships and sexuality – just as the fanzines by boys. However, four fanzines stand out with distinctively stronger gender-presence. The fanzines include a lot of content related to womanhood and some “girly” aesthetics. The fanzines are Fani [“A fan”], Madame Punk, Ihana raato [“Lovely corpse”] and Osattomien oikaisu [“The Straightening of the Deprived”]. Fani describes itself as “feminist-stalinist” and Madame Punk makes explicit statements about being made by girls to girls – or “punkettes”. The fanzines include social critique – that resembles the message of Rotat – delivered in a multitude of forms including essays, novels, interview questions, parenthesis in record and concert reviews, artwork and recontextualized newspaper clippings. Four categories emerge in the analysis: Sexual objectification, sexual harassment, the subordination of women and the challenging of the gender role of women. The following quote is part of a train of thought novel and addresses sexual objectification and harassment. On the city streets the wind swirls snow and trash. I walk and lean against a wall. I stare at people like photographs and the wondering gazes turn away. A man takes my hand and asks, ‘how much?’ What ‘how much’? ‘Are you poor?’ My brain flashes. What should 66 I say? I’d rather die than do anything for money. (Osattomien oikaisu 1983, p.3-5.). The subsequent excerpt is part of a story about a hitch-hiking trip to a music festival where the girl experienced sexual harassment. As the day matures the cars and the persons change. Many pig-faces tell perverted stories, make gestures about intimate intercourse and play cassette after cassette humppa [a traditional Finnish dance music genre considered lame]. (Ihana Raato 1982, p.1-3.). In the next quote the theme of criticizing widespread social norms continues. The writer challenges the legitimacy of the narrow and restrictive gender role of women by simply describing – or making explicit – the social norms of the society in a caricatural fashion. Here you can truly see what the woman is. The woman takes care of the things the man decides on. The man decides with another man how things are done. The men go out again and take care of the big stuff. The woman runs behind and taps the machine and runs after numbers and the men, asking when you will come again. The man asks like a boy from his mother where he is and how. (Osattomien oikaisu, 1983, p.3-4). The theme continues in the following excerpt where the writer acknowledges and challenges the unequal role of women in a society that had just bypassed the verge of modernization. The writer pinpoints the blame on the conservative attitudes in the society. The writer’s social analysis resembles the results of Leena Koski (2000, p.30–32). The parents of the punk girls were taught in school books that the girl is a small, weak and feeble, and needs nourishing in the private sphere. The boy was taught to be the strong (social) fighter in the public who brings sanctuary. This is of course just a part of subordination of women where women are bound to the kitchen and children. We are demanded orgasms, femininity, attractiveness and who knows what shit. We can’t talk about any kind of equality as long as women are paid less for the same job, as long as a woman can be fired because of pregnancy. The reason for inequality is the old attitudes that WOMEN teach their children and accept. Girls should be nice and weak, boys are allowed larger wildness and freedom. (Ihana Raato 1982:1, p. 15.). The fanzines with stronger female viewpoints include also discussion and stands on feminism, solidarity between women and the women’s movement. The different fanzines don’t have a unified stance on the subject but when tackling it, the fanzines tend to emphasis a strong independent woman and mock, criticize or be skeptical about collective efforts. 67 1.3 Gendered participation in 1970’s punk in Finland: Lack of female musicians and fanzine makers To be born as a woman is a privilege on our brief time on Earth. Feminists complain how they are mistreated but real women keep men under their heels. (Madame Punk 1979:1, p. 27.). One can say that feminism sells good. So, what? I’ve been asked to evaluate persons I highly appreciate from a feminist perspective. And that I won’t do. The amusing thing is that everyone wants to see things from the perspective of women, and then you need to leave out THOSE WOMEN, whose perspective is DIFFERRENT. Of course, you wonder why this magazine is still promoted as feminist-stalinist and will continue to do so. Well, the fact is that otherwise this magazine wouldn’t sell. Who would buy a magazine made by WOMEN – no one – at least not before we began to call this a feminist publication. (Fani 1981:30, p. 5). The fanzines shed also light on female musicianship. The fanzines include mentions of female rockers who never recorded or made only cassette recordings that have gone missing – maybe forever. It is also unclear what kind of music they made and whether it was punk, new wave, rock or something completely else. In addition, the fanzines made by girls include several fictional all-female bands in the form of novels, reviews and even interviews. On the pages of Madame Punk one can follow the antics of Hieromasauvat (“The Dildos”), which is the most widespread of the fictional bands as it pops up several times in the three issues of Madame Punk. In a largely autobiographical but over-exaggerated story set in Helsinki, the maker of Madame Punk tags “Hieromasauvat” on the seat of a bus, which is a clue that the band lived in the group’s social life outside of the fanzine. All in all, the several fictional all female bands indicate that the idea of a band was in the minds of the female fanzinisters. 6.3 Fanzine questionnaires The 45 fanzine makers’ questionnaires include both female and male respondents. In the analysis four main categories emerged: The scarcity of girls, the absolute lack of girl participants, the absolute equality of girls in the community and girl contributors in the fanzine. The last category refers to girls who write and draw in the fanzines but were not linchpins for the zines. In the category mentioned first, the respondents acknowledged the rarity of girls as fanzine makers. The nine mentions of absolutely no girls tell the same story – the lack of girls in the fanzine scene. The differing experiences of female presence in the scene may derive from the fact that the Finnish scenes were scattered around the country in smaller scenes – and groups – that could evade encountering each other. According to Stacy Thompson (2004, p.78), the post1970s punk scenes on a global scale have been constructed in a homosocial fashion. In other words, the scenes have been dominated by the same gender (males, the exception being riot grrrl). In other words, the absolute lack of female participants in some of the local Finnish punk scenes – or groups – is plausible. The large number of fanzines made only by boys reinforces this interpretation. 68 The other as absolute answer was the one-word statements saying the fanzine community was equal in relation to gender. One could argue that these answers might also be explained by the heterogeneousity of the punk scenes. In other words, in some scenes the gender relations were equal and in others not. However, as the following discussion about the number of girls who were part of the scene as the audience and facilitators of activities demonstrates, the number of active girls does not correspond to the portion of girls involved in the punk scene and thus it is implausible to suggest that that the role of girls was equal to the boys. In other words, the respondent’s experience of equality in the fanzine scene does not correspond with what happened in the scene. The paper will get back on the subject later. 6.4. E-mail correspondence According to seven of the nine girl participants of the scene interviewed by e-mail, there were more boys than girls involved in the punk scene. Two answerers described the gender distribution as half and half. The correspondents described the role of girls as bystanders. The punk girls I knew took part mostly in organizing shows for example via live music organizations. Maybe selling of badges and records was left to girls as the girlfriends. (F1966_Q8:2). In the small municipality I lived in, girls’ role was to be the audience or fanzine subscribers. (F1964_Q5:2.). Still, when asked directly, the respondents did not experience gender as a hindrance to become active in the punk scene. Furthermore, answerers perceived punk as an emancipatory force in relation to gender and gender roles. Yes – when punk resigned itself from old stereotypes, for example religious. (F1952_Q1:8.). Punk was very liberating. The female artists (Patti Smith, Nina Hagen, Graze Jones) didn’t follow the traditional female image. In addition, they made their own songs / played instruments in bands. (F1963_Q4:3.). 6.5 Interpretation: Equality, experienced equality and individual emancipation There seems to be an inconsistency between the girl’s experience of emancipatory qualities ascribed to punk and their default bystander status in the scene. As mentioned above, the girl participants did not perceive their gender as an obstruction to become active in the scene. Nevertheless, most of the girls in the punk scene did not pick-up an instrument or start a fanzine – unlike hundreds of boys. In addition, as previously stated, the fanzinisters who 69 1.3 Gendered participation in 1970’s punk in Finland: Lack of female musicians and fanzine makers took a stand on the gender-relations in the scene perceived the role of girls as absolutely equal. In this chapter, some clues on the subject are discussed to understand the equality experience of the girls. First of all, the bystander role of girls was described as natural occurrence. In other words, the position was taken for granted as “the way it is and has always been”. It was the boys’ world, but we were still in. (F1962_ Q3:5.). I have tinkered some badges and tried to sell zines, but girls didn’t fit in the creator group. Miniskirt was an everyday outfit and we had to annoy by-passers a little on our way to the gigs by guys. (F1965_ Q7:1.). A respondent summarizes the equality experience of the girls: “It was equality of that time.” (F1965_Q6:9.) In this response lies the key to understand the experience of the punk girls. Angela McRobbie and Jenny Garber (2002, p.216–219) describe how the mods and the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s reproduced the mainstream values of society. While punk in Great Britain introduced new roles for women in popular music, punk as music inherited the masculine contemporary world of rock music (Chambers, 1985, p.179). The same happened in the late 1970s Finland, the equality of the punk scene was not broader than the general norms and values of the mainstream society. Three respondents described the thought of a female musician as impossible for the times mentalities. For a girl to ask money for an electric guitar was close to the same as ask parents for a shotgun because they want to start shooting as a hobby. (F1963_Q4:6.). I didn’t even imagine myself playing in a band. (F1965_Q7:3.). They didn’t put us down so much as girls. But they never offered the guitar to us. I had played seven years of violin and could play an acoustic guitar as well. I never even got to touch an electric guitar. Oh yeah, the bass I got to try: D (F1965_Q7:3.). In addition, being punk was considered as more stigmatizing for females than males. According to Dick Hebdige (1979), the punk style of the 1970s was created intentionally to shock and differentiate its carrier from the mainstream society. The style challenged the normative rules of the contemporary western world. According to the doctoral dissertation of Janne Poikolainen (2015, p.212–213), the youth of 1960s–1970s used popular music and its phenomenons such as style to differentiate themselves from the previous generations. In other words, popular music was part of the intergenerational conflict. According to Poikolainen, a 70 Finnish female rock fan during the 1970s faced stronger disapproval than males. Two respondents described how girls restricted themselves from punk and active roles in the scene out of a fear for social sanctioning. Thus if a girl took the punk route, she got very far from the mainstream. [--] I know a case where a musically talented girl studying to become a teacher was asked to become a vocalist in the late 1970s but she didn’t dare because she was afraid for her future working positions and the relative’s response – exclusion. (F1952_Q1:3.). I think that the girls’ small amount of participation was because they still lived at home. After all, Finland so backwards that it took a while before things started to happen. The idea must have been in many girls head for a while. Later in the 1980s they moved to study/work to larger places, which opened doors to all directions. I myself got to play in a band when I “got” [as in the chance or the permission] to move to Helsinki. I also started to assist another punk fanzine and draw comics. But this was in the 80s. (F1963_Q4:4.). Therefore, it was the general society and its gender-bound expectations that drove girls both out of participating in the punk scene and the active roles the scene offered. In other words, the punk scene(s) reproduced the gender roles and thus inequalities of the wider society. Since the informants had not experienced the punk scene to be more unequal than the general society, when confronted with the question of the girls’ role in the punk scene, their experience of the scene was one of equality. Nevertheless, the punk subculture carried with it a message of emancipation to girls, but it was an individual one that did not manifest itself in the punk scene(s) as new or different roles for girls. However, the 1970s fanzines criticized norms in the wider society and include the idea of an independent, strong and emancipated woman but opposed to collective efforts, conformism and organized interest groups. Therefore, the punk girl emancipated via an individual and inner process with long-lasting effects. [Growing up] in a small industrial town I was ‘bound to be’ a working-class wife: a hubby from the factory, a few toddlers and a flower-patterned dress. The freedom to look like I want has given me strength to face gazes and I continue shaking up expectations related to my gender. Maybe from this derives the fact that I want to be myself and not part of a uniform mass in every instance. A woman can be a woman without a hundred lipsticks in her pursue. A small feminist sits on my shoulder and pogoes devilishly :) (F1966_Q8_8.). 71 1.3 Gendered participation in 1970’s punk in Finland: Lack of female musicians and fanzine makers 7. Conclusion The information about the makers of the punk records and fanzines tell a clear story. Only a tiny minority of girls participated as active scene members in the ‘first wave of punk’ in Finland. Only five Finnish girls were present as musicians on punk records between 1977 and 1982. Among the over 200 fanzines that started between 1977 and 1982, 14 fanzines were started by girls, and a maximum of few dozen girls assisted the over two hundred fanzines started by boys. The fanzines made by girls hint about non-publishing female artists who might have played punk. The girl participant’s responses indicate that the dream was unfulfilled because of deeply embedded social norms of the society that ruled out rock musicianship from girls by restrictive social norms that were enforced both by their peers and the older generation. The girl participant’s responses suggest that girls were more active in the punk fanzines than bands because the acts of writing and drawing suited better the gender role ascribed to girls. In the fanzines, punk girls addressed the subordinated position of women and criticized the gender roles and relations in the contemporary society. The girl participant’s responses second this interpretation by acknowledging the punk subcultures emancipatory message. One can summarize the fanzine writings and responses of punk girls by stating that punk’s emancipatory potency was individual (as opposed to a collective movement) and lead to selfconsciousness and psychologically “rising above” the inequalities apparent in the society. Nevertheless, the Finnish 1970s punk scene(s) reproduced the norms of the wider society and thus drove girls both out of participating in the punk scene and the its focal roles. Of course, it is therefore possible to suggest that girls were not unequal in the scene but partook differently than boys. However, the fictional female bands that appear in the female-lead fanzines indicate that some girls did desire to play in a band. Ultimately the unbalanced gender roles were experienced so natural and deeply embedded parts of the society that when confronted with the question of the girls’ role in the fanzine scene, the respondents offered their experience of the events, which was one of equality. The informants did not experience the punk scene to be more unequal than the general society, or to differ (in relation to gender) from the general society. References Data Kuivanen, J. (2003–2018) Finnmusic.net. A search with the parameters for genre (“punk/new wave”) and time period (1977–1981). Online database. Retrieved from: http://finnmusic.net/ Hänninen, J. & Paaso, K. (2014–2016) Fanzines. Oranssin pienlehtiarkisto 1977–1982. Online archive. Retrieve from: http://oranssi.net/pienlehdet/lehdet.html Paaso, J. & Hänninen, J. (2014–2016) Fanzine questionnaires 2014–2016. Online archive. Retrieved from: http://oranssi.net/pienlehdet/bibliografiat.zip Hänninen, J. (2018) Correspondence with girl participants of the punk scene. Conducted by Juho Hänninen in spring 2018. In the possession of the author. 72 Sources Bennet, A. (2004) Consolidating the music scenes perspective. Poetics 32(3–4), pp. 223–234. Bruun, S., Lindfors, J., Luoto, S. & Salo, M. (1998) Jee jee jee: Suomalaisen rockin historia. WSOY, Porvoo. Chambers, I. (1985) Urban rhytms: Pop music and popular culture. London: MacMillan, UK. Cohen, S. (1991) Rock culture in Liverpool: Popular Music in the Making. Oxford: Oxford University Press, UK. Fine, G. A. & Kleinman, S. (1979) Rethinking subculture: An interactionist analysis. American Journal of Sociology 85(1), pp. 1–20. Frith, S. (1987) Sound effects: Youth, leisure and the politics of rock ‘n’ roll. New York:Pantheon Books. Frith, S. & McRobbie, A. (1990) Rock and sexuality. In Frith, S. and Goodwin A. (eds.): On record – Rock, pop and the written word. London and New York: Routledge. Karisto, A et al. Takala, P. & Haapola, I. (1988) Elintaso, elämäntapa ja sosiaalipolitiikka: Suomalaisen yhteiskunnan muutos. WSOY, Helsinki. Kemppinen, P. (1998) Nuoruuden taikaa: Kurkistuksia nuorisokulttuureihin. Kannustusvalmennus Oy, Vantaa. Kruse, H. (2003) Site and sound: Understanding independent music scenes. 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(eds.): Music Scenes: Local, Translocal and Virtual (pp. 115-130). Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. Straw, W. (1991) Systems of articulation, logics of change: Communities and scenes in popular music. Cultural Studies 5(3), pp. 368–388. Söderholm, S. (1987) Rockmusiikki ja nuorisokulttuurien tyyli: Modit, Skinheadit ja punkkarit. In Söderholm, S. & Knuuttila, S. (eds.): Näkökulmia rockkulttuuriin. Helsinki: Visio/Otava. Thompson, S. (2004) Punk Productions: Unfinished Business. State University of New York Press. Williams, P. J. (2011) Subcultural Theory: Traditions and Concepts. Polity Press, UK & USA. Voipio, M. (2014) Pikkutyttöjä, välimuotoja ja vastuunkantajia: Sukupuolen ja kasvamisen kuvaukset 1950–1960-lukujen kotimaisessa tyttökirjallisuudessa. In Mustola, M. (ed.). Lastenkirja. Helsinki: Nyt. SKS. 73 1.4 Heino… Über Alles!? The controversial receptions of a German singer in North American and German punk rock scenes André Rottgeri 31 A b s t r a c t This paper is based on the various controversies that surround the German singer Heino and the different receptions of his music in German and American punk rock scenes. During his early career, Heino gained success as an interpreter of traditional German Folksongs. Therefore, his persona constituted the conservative opposition to the “British Invasion” (Beat) during the 1960s in Germany. Being much loved and hated at the same time by different kind of people, the controversies around him were later handed over to the punk rock generation. In contrast, Heino also has a small following within the American punk rock scene, where he is considered to be special, too. Yet, in a different way. As a consequence, this paper will compare the deviant receptions of Heino in parts of German and American punk rock scenes and explain how both are connected by their interpretations of the German expression Über Alles (Above all). Keywords: Heino, Germany, North America, punk rock scenes. 31 Universität Passau - Germany. Email: [email protected]. 74 1. Heino In December 2018 the German singer Heino celebrated his 80’s birthday. The event had a huge media response, as Heino has been considered to be one of the most famous Germans inside of Germany (98 % in the 1970s).32 This might be due to his German lyrics, which – on the other hand – also exclude him from bigger international audiences. In 1938 “Heino” was born as Hans Georg Kramm in Düsseldorf (NRW, Germany). His father was a dentist, who unfortunately died in 1941 during WW2.33 Heino claims that he grew up in a leftwing working-class environment (Düsseldorf Oberbilk)34 and started his professional career by learning the profession of a baker / confectioner.35 Yet, his passion always had been music and he received his first instrument – a red accordion – as a Christmas present from his mother.36 Later, Heino started to sing in different bands and also performed as a fashion model, which accumulated more income than playing music.37 Finally, he was discovered by the German musician and producer Ralf Bendix, who recognized his talent and was fascinated by his deep baritone voice that sounded similar to the voice of Freddy Quinn – another German singer and star at the time. As Bendix saw a chance for revenge in an ongoing conflict with Freddy Quinn, he immediately started to promote the career of the – much younger, but similar sounding – singer Heino.38 His blond hair and a pair of dark sunglasses – that he did not wear during the early stages of his career (until 1971) – became the visual trademark of the newborn artist Heino. The sunglasses became necessary, because Heino suffered from a temporary eye disease. Eventually, his eyes were cured, but the dark sunglasses stayed as a trademark.39 Musically, Heino started out as an interpreter of traditional German “Volksmusik“. After that, he became famous as a singer of German “Schlager”. Furthermore, he also performed in various other genres (e.g. rap music during the 90s) and only recently started to interpret rock music, which was highlighted by a joint performance with the German band Rammstein – performing the Rammstein song Hier kommt die Sonne – at the biggest Heavy Metal festival in the world (Wacken, 2013).40 Yet, despite all his trips into different styles of music the “Volksmusik” and “Schlager” image never disappeared. Therefore, Heino could be accused of staging his own parody during the late years of his career. Summarizing his biography, one can state that Heino surely has had a varied career so far and can be considered an interesting object of study in many ways. Therefore, he should be introduced further to non-German-speaking audiences that are interested in German Popular Music. 32 Mensch Heino! Der Sänger und die Deutschen (21:48). 33 Der deutsche Heino (00:50). 2. The controversial reception of Heino in Germany Despite his commercial success, Heino is considered to be a very controversial figure inside of Germany. The controversy goes back to the early stages of his career, when he started to perform his “Volksmusik” repertoire. As many of his songs were reinterpretations that also had been used by the military during the NS period (1933–1945). Consequently, Heino was considered to be a conservative, rightwing artist and linked to the dark times of German history. Yet, as Heino was managed by a professional team of lawyers and songwriters, none of his songs was directly connected to NS ideologies. But, many lyrics – especially the soldier songs (e.g. Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuß) were listed in the songbooks of the Wehrmacht or the SS (e.g. Wenn alle untreu werden, Des 34 Der deutsche Heino (02:47). 35 Der deutsche Heino (04:20). 36 Der deutsche Heino (04:03). 37 Mensch Heino! Der Sänger und Die Deutschen (08:24). 38 Mensch Heino! Der Sänger und Die Deutschen (13:13). 39 Mensch Heino! Der Sänger und Die Deutschen (16:13). 40 Mensch Heino! Der Sänger und Die Deutschen (39:30). 75 1.4Heino…ÜberAlles!?ThecontroversialreceptionsofaGermansingerinNorthAmericanandGermanpunkrockscenes Geiers schwarzer Haufen).41 The majority of these songs already dated back to the last century or even had a much older history. Some also had been used by pacific youth organizations (e.g. “Wandervogel”) at the beginning of the century. Because some of the songs had been re-contextualized by the Nazis, the re-recordings by Heino caused many controversies in Germany. Primarily, by people who suffered during the NS time (e.g. leftwing political activists) and the kids of the war generation, who were not at ease with their parents past and therefore could not identify with Heino and his music. Yet, not everybody was aware of the controversial history that the lyrics had gone through, which also might explain the huge success of Heino. In addition, other people did not care much about the historical background of the songs and simply welcomed the traditional repertoire, which reminded them of their youth. Finally, the controversies about Heino can be described as being partly political and partly generational. As these songs represented the repertoires of the war generation, some people preferred to listen to “Schlager” or “Beat” music during the 1960s and “Pop” or “Punk” during the 1970s and early 1980s in Germany. 3. The reception of Heino in German punk rock scenes The 1970s also saw the most prominent scandal about Heino and his repertoire of traditional “Volksmusik”, when he re-recorded all three verses of the song Das Lied der Deutschen in 1977. The music of this song is based on a melody by the composer Joseph Haydn and part of his famous Kaiserquartett. It was composed in 1797 for the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, which is reflected in the lyrics by the words: „Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser“(“May god protect Franz the emperor”). This shows that originally the song was not connected to Germany or German nationalism at all. Yet, the lyrics became rewritten by the German poet Hoffman von Fallersleben on the Island of Helgoland in 1841. His new text expressed the wish for unification of all 48 German mini-states. This is primarily articulated in the first line of the first verse: „Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles“ (Germany, Germany, above all). Yet, these lyrics – especially the words of the first line – became also misused by the NS regime and interpreted as a claim for German superiority and expansion. Practically, this was done by using the first verse of the song “Deutschland, Deutschland – Über Alles” as an introduction to the Horst-Wessel-Lied (Die Fahne hoch…), a song which clearly can be categorized as NS repertoire and remained banned in Germany since 1945. As a consequence, after WW2 only the third verse of Das Lied der Deutschen (Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit / “Unity and Justice and Freedom)” was sung at official occasions and later also used as German national anthem. Therefore, the recording of all three verses – including the words “Deutschland, Deutschland Über Alles” – on a single, which was issued for 2000 German school children, was a huge provocation for many people. The scale of the scandal was even bigger, because Heino was asked to record all three verses of the song for Ministerpräsident Hans Filbinger (head of state in Baden-Württemberg at the time), who used to work as a navy judge during WW2 and also had sentenced people to death. Therefore, the recording placed Heino even closer to the dark side of German history and the scandal was immense.42 The criticism of Heino finally accumulated in a different scandal, which 41 Mensch Heino! Der Sänger und Die Deutschen (26:00). 42 Mensch Heino! Der Sänger und Die Deutschen (29:07). 76 emerged out of the German punk rock scene. A German Punk called Norbert Hähnel, who ran an independent record store in Berlin (“Scheißladen”), started to ridicule Heino by dressing up with dark sunglasses and blond hair, performing play back impersonations to original Heino songs at legendary Berlin punk clubs like “Risiko” and “SO 36”. He even called himself “Der Wahre Heino“(“The real Heino”) and also managed to get some media attention during the first part of the 1980s.43 Yet, Hähnel got sued by Heino and his lawyers and had to pay 10 000 DM or go to jail for 20 days, if he would not pay the fee.44 At this point, even the famous German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen got involved and organized a solidarity concert (“Knastkonzert”, 1986) for Norbert Hähnel in order to raise the money and prevent Hähnel from going to jail. Finally, the concert turned out to be a success and the money could be handed over to Norbert Hähnel, who kept it, went to jail anyway and opened a bar with the money called Enzian (Berlin) – named after the title of a famous Heino song.45 The scandal of Norbert Hähnel (“Der Wahre Heino”) is just one example, which shows how the German punk rock scene reacted to Heino and his music. Although, Heino got ridiculed by Hähnel and Die Toten Hosen – that at some point also dressed up in “Heino Style” (blond wigs, dark sunglasses) – he was taken seriously and regarded as a pop cultural enemy by the German punk scene.46 This is also confirmed by Hähnel, who states that he was not interested in only acting out a parody. Instead, he also wanted to attack on Heino as a person.47 This behavior clearly differs from other Heino parodies, e.g. performed by Otto Waalkes – a famous German comedian. The critical attitude towards Heino within the German punk scene is highlighted by an interview with the musician, actor and comedian Rocko Schamoni (Studio Braun, Fraktus) that can be seen in the documentary Heino – Made in Germany, which was written by Oliver Schwabe (2013). The attitude of the German punk rock scene becomes perfectly summarized by his words: Wir brauchten solche Feindbilder und Heino war das Beste (“We needed such enemies and Heino was the best”).48 Therefore, one can conclude that Heino was a very controversial figure in post-war Germany and seen as a pop cultural enemy to a lot of people. Primarily, to the German punk rock scene. 3. The reception of Heino in North American punk rock scenes Heino is also known to some audiences outside of Germany - mainly within groups of German migrants, who live outside of the country. The documentary Mensch Heino, Der Sänger und Die Deutschen (ZDF Zeit, 2018) for example, displays his popularity amongst German migrants in Namibia.49 In contrast, the documentary Heino – Made in Germany focuses more on the reception of Heino in Germany and North America. Although, Heino is almost unknown by the American music industry, he has a small following of fans within some German communities in North America as well. For example, Jello Biafra – the singer of the legendary US-American punk band The Dead Kennedys – tells that he went to a Heino concert with his ex-wife at the “German-American Hall” in San Francisco, where the whole audience was able to sing along with the Heino lyrics.50 As Heino is good friends with the German entertainers Siegfried & Roy he also used to play in Las Vegas. But, in general it is difficult to see a Heino show in North America. Nevertheless, Jello Biafra, who comments frequently on Heino in the documentary Made 43 Heino – Made in Germany (41:24). 44 Heino – Made in Germany (48:25). 45 Heino – Made in Germany (49:05). 46 Heino – Made in Germany (46:32). 47 Heino – Made in Germany (46:40). 48 Heino – Made in Germany (29:22). 49 Mensch Heino! Der Sänger und Die Deutschen (01:40). 50 Heino – Made in Germany (34:42). 77 1.4Heino…ÜberAlles!?ThecontroversialreceptionsofaGermansingerinNorthAmericanandGermanpunkrockscenes in Germany, surprisingly is a big Heino fan. Although he thinks that Heino is a bizarre and trashy pop figure from Germany, he is fascinated by his looks and the sound of his music. In addition, the same documentary introduces the Canadian comedian and Heino impersonator Marc Hickox, who – as well as Norbert Hähnel – performs with dark sunglasses and a blond wig on his head. He frequently tours between Toronto and Los Angeles as a Heino impersonator. Yet, in contrast to Norbert Hähnel, no deeper criticism of Heino can be found in his stage persona. Although, Hickox does not officially agree with the fact that he is a punk, he confesses that there is nothing more punk than dressing up as Heino.51 For him, Heino is considered to be an exotic underground phenomenon. The documentary shows that, although Heino is only known to smaller audiences in North America, the parody character by Marc Hickox is always well received wherever he shows up. Hickox also had the chance to meet Heino in Bad Münstereifel at the famous Heino Café, when he visited Germany and was welcomed with open arms. Therefore, one can conclude that in North America Heino is considered to be a “trashy cult figure” from Germany and his reception by migrants that live in the US or Canada and North American punks (e.g. Jello Biafra) seems to be always positive. 4. Comparison and results Looking back at the examples, one can conclude that the analysis of the Heino phenomenon in German and North American punk rock scenes is worth a final comparison. At first, we can state that the reception of Heino in the German punk scene has been very negative, while the reception of Heino in North America seems to be always positive. These findings were backed up by the analysis of two parodies. The first one, by Norbert Hähnel (Germany) and the second one by Marc Hickox (Canada) and by the inclusion of interviews with two famous representatives from the German (Rocko Schamoni) and USAmerican (Jello Biafra) punk rock scenes. In search of an explanation for these differences, one can assume that the deviant perception might be due to the language barrier between the German lyrics and American audiences. While his lyrics can be fully understood in Germany, in North America the lyrics of Heino are not always understood and remain mysterious to the majority of listeners. Yet, it is not the lyrics themselves that are responsible for the big controversies around Heino in Germany, but the cultural and historically charged contexts around his lyrics. As these cultural aspects are totally missing out in North America, the reception of Heino differs fundamentally from his reception in Germany – even if an American would understand his German lyrics. Having this in mind, what remains for the average American listener is a strange looking (hydrogen blond, dark sunglasses), “trashy figure” with a very robotic body language. Therefore, in North America Heino is mostly understood in an ironic way. This is also coherent with punk rock attitude, as irony is considered to be typical for punk rock as well. Although, some irony is also present in the parody by Norbert Hähnel, his criticism of Heino is rooted deeply, because he is fully aware of the cultural contexts behind Heino persona. That is why his parody goes beyond irony. It becomes clearer, when we consider Heino’s reaction towards different comedians and their parodies, too. While Norbert Hähnel was sued to pay 10 000 DM, Heino tolerates and even seems to appreciate the parody of Marc Hickox, when both met in Germany.52 52 Heino – Made in Germany (44:45). 51 Heino – Made in Germany (42:52). 78 Yet, despite these differences on the surface, both punk rock scenes are strangely connected by the German expression Über Alles (Above All), which is considered to be a taboo slogan in Germany, as it is linked to the first verse of Das Lied der Deutschen, which was misused during the NS period. Due to its recontextualization during wartime, the original meaning, which dates back to the times of Fallersleben completely vanished and is mostly unknown in Germany, today. In comparison, the re-contextualized meaning of the German expression Über Alles is also known in North America. Yet, it is connected to the “dark past” of Germany, too. Therefore, Jello Biafra himself used the expression in the lyrics of the iconic punk song California Über Alles by The Dead Kennedys. By doing so, he tried to criticize fascist tendencies within US-American politics, e.g. by mentioning Governor Jerry Brown (Governor of California from 1975– 1983) in his lyrics. As a consequence, one can conclude that the post war recontextualization of the German expression Über Alles, has been transferred into the Anglo-American vocabulary and today is understood in the same way as in Germany. Yet, when the song California Über Alles is sung by punks at a Dead Kennedys concert, one can argue that another re-contextualization is happening, which turns the expression into a leftwing / punk rock slogan. This interpretation might be probably more valid for the North America cultural context, because of the existing language barrier, which makes it easier to deand re-contextualize a slogan. Especially, if it is taken from a foreign language and not completely understood in its original meaning. Finally, one can summarize that it is the different understanding of the cultural contexts around the Heino phenomenon, which divide German from North American punks, when it comes to Heino and his music. A further example, which perfectly represents these different attitudes towards Heino is told by Jello Biafra in Made in Germany: It was the soundman of the Dead Kennedys, who – on a German tour in Hamburg (1982) – played a Heino song to the audience before the beginning of the show. When the music started, the German punks laughed and folk-danced to the music and made fun of it in an ironic way. Yet, when a second Heino song was played, the German punks started to throw “everything they could find at the soundman”.53 Acknowledgements: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Harnisch and PD Dr. Günter Koch, Lehrstuhl für Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft. Universität Passau - Germany. Funding: Graduiertenzentrum. Universität Passau – Germany. References Der deutsche Heino. Available in: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Vh25RT_h-3Y (NDR, 2007) Heino – Made in Germany. Available in: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=M-39Unh0X2E (ARTE, 2013) Mensch Heino! Der Sänger und Die Deutschen. Available in: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOtPose2Hk8 (ZDF, 2018) 53 Heino – Made in Germany (39:40). 79 1.5 The Subculture Archive Manifesto. The role of scholars in the preservation of subcultural heritage Mara Persello 54 A b s t r a c t In times of information overload archives are more relevant than ever, as it becomes increasingly difficult to identify reliable sources. Archives have to guarantee quantity and quality of information while dealing with economic and hegemonic factors. Because of technological and social changes, archives have to process fragile digital documents and cope with changing search habits. Archives have also – they always had – the responsability of selecting what is important and what is not. Now that the first attempts in archiving subcultures have been made, it has become clear that the plurality of the cultural forms of this blurred field have to be properly preserved. Collecting documents has not only to do with the improvement of preservation and distribution strategies, but also with definitions: the creation of a subculture archive is an ethical decision. Keywords: archive, collection, subcultural heritage, indexing. 54 Universität Potsdam. Hamburg, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]. 80 1. Definition in the making Subcultures studies as we know them started developing in the twentieth century, and after years of empirical research and debates about definition, it is becoming clear that the time is rife to start collecting and preserving subcultural production. This task comes with some difficulties, because of the ephimeral nature of the subcultural documents and because of the fact that scholars still do not agree on what can be defined as subculture, and even if this term is appropriate at all. The archiving of subcultural objects is urgent because they are precious and fragile documents of capital interest for the research, but the lack of field definition jeopardizes their quality. A possible way to bypass the problem of definition and at the same time to avoid the dispersion of important sources is to list the whos and what of the field, the profiles of those dealing with subcultures, as well as the products of subculture. Who defines subculture, what does subculture produce, which cultural subjects handle these production. 1.1 Whos I am a scholar making research on subcultures, a member of a subculture, and an archivist. As a scholar, I use institutional libraries and archives a lot, obviously. Research in the humanities, even more than in other fields, means going through books, journals, documents; to browse catalogues and bibliographies. What we do is to search what we are looking for: we know (or at least, we pretend to know) what, where and how to look for information, we know the reliable journals, the good authors, the respected theories. We don’t have all these skills from the beginning. For collecting information in a reasonable way we get help from professors at the university, syllabus and conference (private and public) talks, committed students, helpful librarians. As member of a subculture, the greatest part of the resources that helped me build my identity are not to be found in institutional repositories, but more likely in a network of real and virtual friends, or at subculture-gatherings (concerts, football matches or costplay conventions, depending on which subculture you are in), in video or audio recordings, fanzines and specialized magazines or books, that quite rarely find their way to the library, but can nowadays easily be found online. As it happens with libraries and archives, it is easy to get lost at the beginning, we need mentors and some sort of social connection to help us figure out what is good and what is not. In both cases, as scholars and subculture members, we have to deal with such a huge amount of records, it would be impossible to listen, see or read everything in order to have a first-hand knowledge of each single piece of information. Whether we like it or not, we rely on the judgment of others to form our opinions. As a scholar doing research on subcultures I find myself inbetween worlds, on one hand I recognize that I am part of an institutionalized system of power – the academic world; on the other hand I know that subculture empowered me in a way that institutions do not represent. Subculture is a cultural form worth investigating and preserving, but there are difficulties on both sides. For many academic environments subculture is not relevant, and for many subculture members subculture should not be institutionalised in any way; still, the dialectical interaction between subculture and mainstream cannot be avoided (Bennett & Guerra, 2019). Inevitably, scholars doing research on subculture end 81 1.5 The Subculture Archive Manifesto. The role of scholars in the preservation of subcultural heritage up tranferring subcultural knowledge into institutionalised power systems, and often apply hegemonic structures to their research. What scholars can do is to be aware of the importance of this translation, because while doing research we define our object, and because of the blurred definition and the lack of spokespersons that usually characterizes subcultural scenes, when we describe subcultures we constrain them into boundaries and we assume the position of delegates even if nobody ever gave us such an authority. We use resources we collect from subcultural production and it is in our responsability to make them available in a correct and respectful form. As an archivist, at last, I am well aware of the fact that to preserve and provide access to information is a huge ethical issue. Even if libraries and archives do their best to ensure free access to as much information as possible to all, still they can offer only what has been preserved, and to those willing to search. As any other cultural institution does, archives relate to the cultural context they are immersed in. Just think about all the documents we lost through history because some religious or temporal power or some excessively zealous archivist considered them inappropriate. Libraries and archives are connected with other cultural and political institutions, and the thematic organization of the documents they preserve is shaped accordingly. The search tools and cataloguing systems used in archives and libraries, help us move through the shelves and guide our knowledge in a specific direction. Valued professors, respected subculture members and indexing systems have the same influence on our learning processes. It cannot be changed but it has to be clear that our choices are always moulded by the cultural context. Whatever position we take – scholars, subculture members, archivists – we are part of a social and cultural discourse building knowledge. Who is entitled to talk about subculture? Who defines subculture? If we consider the academic research on subculture, we can look back at almost a century of debate, so I have to take the responsability to pick a couple of statements that I consider reasonable without going through a summary that cannot possibly be presented here. I agree, for a start, with the definition of subculture having a focus on the private and the personal, and expressing itself at first through action rather than through definition (Auslander,2006). When subcultures become visible enough, it is the job of the media (Cohen,1972) to describe them as moral panics, or alternatively as new harmless trends, or cultural phenomena (Polhemus,1996). It is sometimes difficult to set apart contributions of media experts and scholars, because to give shape to a definition, media pick something from the subculture as they see it, and something from the studies (at least, in the case of reliable journalists) about that subculture. On the other hand, scholars define subcultures through interviews, participant observation, documents produced by the subculture and about the subculture, and this includes reports from the media. Media and scholars define subcultures, then. And do subcultures define subcultures, with their flat hierarchies, spontaneous actions and scattered groupings? As every cultural definition, the definition of subculture is always in the making, every sce (Bennett, Peterson,2004) can represent subculture in a different way depending on local circumstances. Subcultures even include in their peculiar bricolage (Hebdige,1979) a lot of what they hear and read about themselves. The very fact that different scenes of the same subculture do exist testifies how ideas travel with and through media: not all punks in the world were in London in 1977 to witness the “real” 82 punk, most of us heard of it on TV, radio, magazines and so on over the years. Maybe it can be said that the definition of subculture is partly made by all these actors: media, scholars, subculture members. The resulting definition is a unique and at the same time mutifaceted concept. It is then the texts created by these cultural actors to be relevant and worth archiving. 1.2 What Even if we’re still unsure about the correct definition of subculture, i think we all agree that subcultures create some new kind of culture, produce and rearrange symbolic meanings and give their active contribution to the cultural construction. This takes the form of media documents, that archives can preserve. Subcultures have always produced a huge amount of subcultural documents, fanzines, records, events and radio programs, political action: many of these documents are lost forever, and others are going to be lost soon, but there are also interesting examples of preservation. There are plenty of private collections and some of them are open to the public; some subculture groupings have already started small-scale archives, some libraries collect materials in their local history repositories, some art galleries organize exhibitions. Take the libraries: there is a growing interest and cooperation between subcultures and trusted institutions such as local or research libraries and repositories. Libraries and Archives have a long and sound history and sophisticated technologies for the storage, so for sure the documents are in good hands. In the case of libraries the problem is (and it is a huge problem at the moment in the debate regarding the possibility of sharing contents) that the description standards used for cataloguing and indexing are inadequate for the materials subcultures produce. The same can be said for archives. As long as archivists have to deal with traditional fanzines, records or photographs, it still works, but some fanzines are unique pieces, sometimes the same people record the same songs with a different name, and not all photographs can be connected with a specific event or place. Summing up, and triying not to dig too deep into library science, there are two main problems, which are inherent to the indexing logics, that make it difficult to work with subcultures: description fields and subject headings. The library standards of description are inadequate (for example, the same fanzine can change the title in every issue. This makes the field “title” developed for the cataloguing of periodicals useless). The subject headings are keywords that should relate to the contents of the document, this implies a knowledge of the field that is possible only if the field has some kind of institutionalised presence (even the most lerned archivist cannot apply the category ‘glunk’ if it does not exist in the controlled vocabulary, and anyway not many fans of glam rock know the term has been used sometimes to define glam-punk). Another institution which has taken the responsability of storing subculture documents and memorabilia are museums. The musealisation of subculture is a sensitive topic: usually, what comes in museums are irreplaceble pieces of history, that cannot be used, or shared. Collector’s pieces on display are sometimes interpreted from the subculture as a form of exploitation, and it is difficult for museums, because of their structure and function, to describe living cultures in the making and to be open to ongoing contributions. Private archives and collections, finally, are remarkable DIY projects, but they 83 1.5 The Subculture Archive Manifesto. The role of scholars in the preservation of subcultural heritage usually have poor funding and aknowledgment or no funding at all, they are the product of a group of a few (sometimes just one person) involved enthusiasts, but unfortunately lack external support and cannot ensure continuity. Let’s say we have a clear definition of subculture and can develop a proper indexing system, we have reasonable economic support and specialised archivists. And what about all those documents not directly related to the subculture production, but being a comment or a consequence of its action (like media coverage or academic research)? It is easy to see that a classification of this hazy cultural field after the straight archival traditions should be avoided, the risk would be to leave out important information. There is also an issue regarding the temporal level: even if one could be able to organize an indexing system which includes all available documents to date, it cannot be predicted which other forms subcultural strategies may take in the future. The lack of defined field boudaries and of coordinated archives should not discourage from trying if not a global, at least a connected view of these documents. I am suggesting that we can look at new technologies and try to make the best out of them. After all, there is much more in common between internet and society than between culture and archives. In fact, the world wide web technologies seem to be based on the same cultural textual models Geertz (1973) and Lotman (1984, 2005) presented: the culture being a web cultural subject produce and are suspended in. 2. The whos and what in a web By now it looks like we have cultural subjects with different profiles contributing in a way or another to the definition of subculture, and plenty of subcultural products collected with different archiving systems scattered at every level, institutional, non-institutional and private. It is clear that it is not possible, and not even desirable, to force all this information to a single standard. My suggestion ist that the steps already made for the preservation of subcultural documents can be coordinated via a loose definition of the position of subculture inside the cultural system, through an aknowledgment of the subculture as an intellectual capital of our culture. The abstract model that could be taken is that of the Lotmanian Semiosphere or of the Geertzian web: both for the semiotician and for the anthropologists the definition of culture is that of a web of connections, every junction being a cultural text. As long as these texts are connected, in some way, to the whole web, they are still meaningful and worth preserving. Such a model could help preserve different documents that cannot be filed under a relevant (subculture) category. Furthermore, this form respects the identity of the subculture and shows the position of that subculture in the Big Picture. Here the subculture scholars can be useful. We know how these connections work, because we use archives, libraries, we browse media and subcultural products, and we are aware that while writing about subculture we are describing it, therefore partially creating it. That is why we make our best to cite the sources. But then it is difficult, for scholars, to make them available, because this is not our job as scholars: if we put a list of references at the end of our articles we expect the readers to go and search for those documents, if interested, by themselves. Sometimes this operation is frankly impossible, if the sources cited are lyrics of some obscure band nobody ever heard of, or unpublished memories 84 of a friend of a friend. We all know the frustrating feeling of using tons of information for an article and then leaving it in a box or in a computer folder never to be used again. If we have, as scholars, this information, and if we are allowed to use it, why not involve archivists and librarians? In virtuous academic environments this happens already, but archives quite rarely communicate with each other and they are at their best a resource for the local researchers. The academic world is asked to operate on society: the so-called third mission (dissemination) is an important aspect of the research; scholars have the moral duty to preserve and give publicity to the sources used. To preserve the sources in a correct way, by the way, protects subculture from abuse. Once we identify the actors involved in the creation of subculture – subculture members, media, scholars – and once we identify the actors involved in the preservation of subcultural documents – archives, museums, research centres – we can move to a more practical way of rearranging the information with the involvement of all these subjects, thanks to the philosophy underliying the subculture ethos but also the world wide web ethos. Other than in the past, it is nowadays much easier to share information. The web is a social creation more than a technological one: it is meant to be open, free and collaborative, as Tim Barners-Lee himself always insisted. 3. The GLAM Project It is actually the museums and archives themselves who realised their treasures were well kept but almost unavailable to the public, and they are working to solve this problem. Using new technologies, which help share information easily, traditional institutions are developing the GLAM project: the idea is basically that galleries, libraries, archives and museums can put their resources online using a new and more general single common standard of cataloguing, and connecting them despite the different indexing systems. If we visit an archive or a library, we see that a book, a recorded file and a picture are described in different ways (for some archives the authors are important, in other archives records are ordered by subject, or year, or dimensions). The GLAM project is trying to find a standard of description useful for all kind of documents. It is obviously quite complicated, but not as impossible as it seems, because these standards use machine generated codes instead of descriptions. The turning point is to make the documents machine-readable. Practically described, every time we put a new definition in a wiki, this entry is identified with an URI – Uniform Resource Identifier – and stored into Wikidata. This means that every entry gets some kind of identification number and every other information put online connected to this URI will be available to those searching for the first entry: I will be able to move from a book title to an author, to the place where the author lived, and to the map of how to get there, to the timetable of the trains to get there and to the weather forecast for this weekend. These kind of metadata – descriptions related to entries – are not the traditional metadata (title of the book, author, year of print) archives and museums and libraries usually use to describe their resources. And this is because until now we tought it is a person who will need to identify an entry, and when we think of a person, we are usually quite focused on our own culture. So if you go to a library looking for a book of Jane Austen you’ll have to search for Austen, Jane. But if someone from Vladivostok looks for the same author, they will definitely use another name-form. 85 1.5 The Subculture Archive Manifesto. The role of scholars in the preservation of subcultural heritage The URIs bypass the problem, because it is not the different forms of the name Jane Austen that have to be connected, it is one single machine readable number. The world of information grew much bigger lately and the opening of old standards can be very useful for the mapping of the subcultural documents, because nowadays the language we have to learn is not the complicated self-centred language of archives and libraries, but just a set of machine generated URIs which come as metadata with the resource we are putting online. 4. Scholars sharing their sources Such a procedure could be easily used by scholars researching about subculture, and we should do it in our own interest. Especially when thinking about subcultures, we deal with unique copies of flyers printed on poor quality paper, photographs in analogic formats with fading colors, fragile cassette recordings. All this material should be converted and put online: I am well aware of the copyright issues, but there are many ways of protecting intellectual property that can be discussed, each scholar has the responsability of the contents he/she collects and produces anyway, and has to make sure he/she is allowed to make them public (Guerra & Quintela, 2016). The unbearable burden of copyright can be lightened through a mindful share of responsabilities. It is nonetheless urgent to find a way to preserve the documents. Once online, every document will get a URI, and is ready to be connected with other already existing URIs: the flyer of a concert should be linked with the bands playing, the venue, the year (if available), the city, and every other inferable information. This work will be made automatically through the machine readable URIs, as for the person on the other end of the computer, doing the research, this person does not need to follow all the links, he/she can choose the more relevant ones depending on the goals of his/her research (Guerra, 2019). Even better: if the person doing the research has some information to add, it can be done adding contents online and linking them with the given information. For example, private fotos or recordings of the concert can be linked to the flyer. Such a storage system, via URIs, free and available, seems to me the closest one to a model of subculture thinking; there is no hierarchy, nobody saying what is good and what is not; the knowledge is based on the cooperation of many voices, everybody – the archivist, the scholar, but also the private citizen with an internet connection – can cooperate on the building of a definition of subculture. Last, the web model fits the structure of subcultures, made of parallel scenes, local and translocal. Let aside the technical aspects, this paper is about the importance of preservation. Archives and museums are making their bit and it is the scholars, in my opinon, that not only have plenty of records to share, but could be involved in structuring the information flows. This could be done with little funding, with scholars cooperating with subculture members in the definition of a basic thesaurus, whose implementation can advance with further contributions from media, archives, collegues. Working in the third mission sector, scholars would coordinate the information and information sources, sharing their knowledge in order to connect all available voices and accounts, respectfully accepting the multifaceted nature of subculture. 86 References Auslander, P. (2006). Performing glam rock: Gender and theatricality in popular music. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Bennett, A. & Guerra, P. (Eds.) (2019). DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes. Abingdon/Oxford: Routledge. Bennett, A., Peterson, R. (ed.) (2004). Music scenes: Local, translocal, and virtual. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. Cohen, S. (1972). Folk devils and moral panics. London: McGibbon & Kee. Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York: Basic Books. Guerra, P. (2019). Rádio Caos: Resistência e experimentação cultural nos anos 1980. Análise Social, 1(230), Retrieved from: http://analisesocial.ics.ul.pt/ Guerra, P. & Quintela, P. (2016). Culturas de resistência e média alternativos. Os fanzines punk portugueses. Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 80, pp.69-94. Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture. The meaning of style. London: Routledge Lotman, J. (1984, 2005) On the semiosphere. In Sign Systems Studies, 33(1), p. 205-229. Polhemus, T. (1996). Style surfing: What to wear in the 3rd millennium. London: Thames & Hudson. 87 1.5 The Subculture Archive Manifesto. The role of scholars in the preservation of subcultural heritage 88 THEME TUNE 2 (R)EVOLUTION IN STYLE NOW!: GENDER, SCENES AND DIY CULTURES © Esgar Aclerado 89 2.1. Klitclique - Vienna’s F€M1N1$T Answer to Sad Boys Magdalena Fuernkranz 55 A b s t r a c t The female artists G-udit and $chwanger, aka Klitclique, act as rappers and F€M1N1$TS in Vienna’s art and underground music scene. Founded in 2005, the hip hop duo uses trap rap and a certain DIY ethic to reconstruct the sounds of feminism. The fact that Klitclique raps from a feminist perspective seems to arouse greater interest in the art world than in the hip hop scene. Regarding the first album release, Klitclique plans physical releases in the form of installations as an equal component of its music. In their performances the two artists use music, language, and props as response to a male culture that still ignores, controls and irritates female sexuality. In this paper I will discuss the image and effects of feminism in trap rap, the role of languages in existing conceptions of gender identities as well as the de-/construction of gender clichés by analysing Klitclique’s lyrics and performances. Keywords: Feminism, identities, Vienna music scene, trap rap, art. 55 University of Music and Performing Arts – Department of Popular Music. Vienna, Austria. E-mail: [email protected]. 90 1. Primer On 18 December 2017, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen appointed a new right-wing government. The two big winners of the autumn’s election namely the ÖVP (center-right People’s Party) and the FPÖ (radical right Freedom Party) have agreed on a common agenda. The ÖVP won 31.5 percent by calling for restricted immigration and limiting support for immigrants especially referring to Muslims - one of the FPÖ’s signature issues (Weisskircher, 2018). Considering the government’s agenda, neoliberal and discriminatory aspects become visible. By taking a closer look at “women“ in the government’s agenda, five key points are defined: “Equal pay for equal work”, with the word “income gap” not appearing a single time, in second place “Reconciliation of work and family life”, then “Social security - also in seniority”, “Women’s health” and finally “Prevention of violence and integration of women”. Because women assume responsibility in “education, care, business, the environment or in voluntary activities”, as the government programme states in this order, these achievements should be better acknowledged (Schmidt, 2017). In the context of white supremacy and neoliberal tensions there is artsy feminist resistance from the underground. Klitclique’s art and music is dedicated to the end of patriarchy in hip hop and elsewhere. The duo is associated with the fraternity Hysteria (“Akademische Burschenschaft Hysteria zu Wien”), a left-wing and feminist project in Austria that satirically takes up the rituals of fraternities. According to Hysteria’s Facebook page, Leopoldine of Austria founded the fraternity in 1810. The well-educated wife of Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil, execrated the immoral life of her husband. The historical Leopoldine intellectually outmatched her husband Pedro and advised him on the leadership of Brazil, under her influence the independence of Brazil was initiated. Reviewed as a satirical project, the feminist fraternity seeks to establish the “golden matriarchy”. Hysteria calls for the withdrawal of men into private life. With posters and slogans such as “My husband stays at home!” in Gothic print, the restriction of male suffrage and the withdrawal of male football as a “real sport” are required. The statutes, duties, demands and the fraternity song can be read in the manifest Mein Mampf a reference to Mein Kampf (”My Struggle”), the 1925 autobiographical book by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. In the sense of the tradition of Austrian fraternities determined by sexism and anti-feminism, a women and transgender quota in public offices of 80 percent is required. The feminist fraternity’s slogan ‘Off to the golden matriarchy’ inspires Klitclique’s art concept. 2. Klitclique and the sound of trap Founded in 2015, the hip hop duo uses trap rap, art, and a certain DIY ethic to reconstruct the sounds of feminism. Klitclique consists of the two artists G-udit, Judith Rohrmoser, and $chwanger56, Mirjam Schweiger. Judith Rohrmoser, was born 1983 in Salzburg (Austria), she studied graphic arts and printmaking techniques at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and graduated in 2011. $chwanger, Mirjam Schweiger, was born 1986 in Salzburg, she studied contextual painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and graduated in 2012. Their performances and art installations in galleries, at parties, in clubs and in off-spaces, shift between insulting the audience and fogging expectations, repeatedly drawing self-attention, partly disguised with masks. Klitclique’s DIY-career depends on the artists’ self-presentation, their self-marketing and 56 German for ‘pregnant’. 91 2.1. Klitclique - Vienna’s F€M1N1$T Answer to Sad Boys active shaping of their career as well as the recognition by other protagonists, colleagues and consumers of the queer feminist artsy underground scene. As part of a radical backlash, Klitclique deconstructs dominant dynamics of power and contributes to musical, queer and anti-discriminatory interventions. In their performances, the two artists use music, language and props in response to a male-dominated music sector that ignores or controls categories of inequality such as sexuality, ethnicity, body or age. The sound of the trap allows an extension of Klitclique’s listener circle. Musical characteristics include the slow tempo; the dominant 808 Subbass Kick Drum or the fast hi-hat beats as well as an atmospheric soundscape (Doerfler, 2018, p. 243). The word “trap” is a slang term from the US southern states and had no relation to music at the beginning. It derived from the drug milieu and in the narrow sense referred to a specific place where drugs are used. “Trap” may also mean drug trafficking in general or certain mental states (paranoia, megalomania, et cetera) that often occur in people who have long been involved in drug trafficking (Raymer, 2012). The term was used to describe a hip hop sub-genre by rappers dealing almost exclusively with drug dealing in their lyrics, its surroundings, and its concomitants (for example money, violence, parties). These songs are usually dedicated to persons who “trap” aka deal with drugs. These rappers were therefore called trap rappers and laid the foundation for the entire genre with their “trap rap”. In German-speaking countries, however, trap is more about communicating certain images and moods, as well as entertainment in contrast to the authentic, based on real experiences portrayal of the life of drug dealers. The beats for these tracks are typically held in a sombre atmosphere and are therefore often accompanied by a similarly aggressive rap performance. Nevertheless, there are often humoristic elements in the songs. Depending on the track’s beat, there are references to the genres crunk, gangsta rap or even the genre of horrorcore. 2.1. G-udit, $chwanger and the sound of feminism With the DIY release of their first single and video D€R F€MINI$T, G-udit and $chwanger left the Vienna underground and destroying the Parisian genius penis along the way with Chérie je suis un Genie. Klitclique use irritation and self-irony as a concept of their performance. The lyrics are not prepared by a long hand, but improvised. An obvious example of Klitclique’s certain universality in dealing with irritation is the track D€R F€MINI$T. As the duo’s most well-known song, it is illustrated by an expressive video starring the performance artist Florentina Holzinger. Starting with the common statements “Feminism? Of course, but” to exaggerated absurd facets like “I’m the ‘going to vote for the only woman in the election campaign’-feminist”, “I’m the ‘carry my child for me and maybe I get it sometime’-feminist” or “I’m the ‘women must be dressed in porn and talk to each other about anything other than men’-feminist,” making personal references “But then I shaved my legs and smeared Coco Chanel in the face and studied at the academy” to result in “Everyone must, no one wants-feminism“. Combined with the same suffix and spelling out of the eponymous noun DJ Vadim’s The Terrorist in a significant similarity, the song celebrates feminism in different varieties and variations. G-udit and $chwanger state that they are Vienna’s answer to sad boys, a reference to Swedish Cloud Rapper Yung Lean (Jonatan Aron Leandoer Håstad), 92 who founded Sad Boys in 2012 together with producers Yung Sherman (Axel Tufvesson) and Yung Gud (Micke Berlander). The fact that Klitclique raps from a feminist perspective seems to arouse greater interest in the art world than in the hip hop-scene. With the debut Schlecht im Bett, gut im Rap (“Bad in bed, good at rap”), the musicians enter a terrain where they have never planned to be active in. “The debut is somehow a story about its own genesis. We had never originally planned an album because we’re also from freestyle. It’s much more self-sufficient” (Klitclique in Pichler, 2018). As a provocative statement the album follows the principle of conceptual eclecticism with a different concept for each track. The track Maria is a tribute to the Austrian artist Maria Lassnig. In the style of trap rap Klitclique states, “Career bitch at the age of 90, she only paints himself, each brushstroke survives content wise”. On the other hand, tracks like LSDAP or NCNP are partly the result of hours of freestyle recordings. “$chwanger and G-udit use whatever they want in a candy store, picking the best out of every genre and add some street cred on top of that” (Pichler, 2018). In addition to art performances, everyday props, which have been created down to the smallest detail, are shown to their full advantage in Klitclique’s music videos, such as the DIY mixing console “Menstruator PMS 2000” made of lacquered cardboard. G-udit has also designed a textile jewellery collection called the golden vulva. Regarding the visual component, Klitclique’s Gesamtkunstwerk is often ranked as a provocation. This applies not only to the duo’s music, but above all to the Austrian art industry and its market-oriented hierarchies that repeat Klitclique in their performances, as in the track D1G 1RG€NDWA$ (“Your Something”): “Your gallery owner is at the toilet and draws 1 line. He is at the toilet and all alone twelve bottles of wine”. The irrepressible mockery of the duo is not only the result of increasing conformity and rampant neoliberalism, but also alternative milieus, especially the hipster-scene. 3. The terms scene and DIY industry in the context of Klitclique The term scene was originally used in journalistic and everyday contexts; its prelude was the concept of community. Bennett describes two main ways of community applying to music: 1) “as a shared connection with a locally created musical style becomes a metaphor for community, a means through which people articulate their sense of togetherness through a particular juxtaposition of music, identity and place”; and 2) “as a romantic construct, created by the music itself through which individuals can cast music itself as a ‘way of life’ and a basis for community” (Bennett, 2004, p. 224). Straw (1991) distinct musical communities as groups whose population is rather stable because of the wide range of sociological variables and musical scenes. A musical scene is “the relationship between different musical practices unfolding within a given geographical space” (Straw, 1991, p. 373). Considering a scene as a cultural space where a range of musical practices coexists, participants interact within processes of differentiation. Scene membership is not restricted to gender, class or ethnicity, but may cut across all of them (Bennett & Peterson, 2004). The global music industry creates music as profit-oriented for mass markets and is seen alongside scenes where music mainly is produced as non-profit-oriented. The transformation 93 2.1. Klitclique - Vienna’s F€M1N1$T Answer to Sad Boys of music scenes affected the development of the DIY industry as a domain of smaller event organiser collectives and fans-turned-entrepreneurs (Bennett & Peterson 2004). Klitclique is part of Bliss, an independent event organiser collective, producing und performing queer feminist Viennese art between academy and contemporary hip hop, pop, performance and provocation. The founder and curator of the political electronic club series Marlene Engel meets artists in a place that has no national borders. Subcultural communities have formed online trying to give the club culture of the 21st century new structures. Genre misfits are mixed with the original club idea of a safe space that maintain the organisation of queer feminist events. “When we were teenagers, there were no women’s rooms to go into” states G-udit (Saoud, 2018). They went first into the graffiti scene, then on confrontation in the battle rap ring. In rap battles, they have developed their skills for suggestive chains of associations that may seem odd as split in individual parts, but combined these parts form an overall concept. Instead of battling their opponents verbally with technique or poetic sophistication, the duo uses irritation and self-irony. In 2015 Klitclique started working more intensively on their music with producer Mirza Kebo always keeping control of the production process instead of receiving finished beats. In the circle of the Hysteria fraternity, a network was also established that promoted exchange and made experiments possible. Regarding their debut Schlecht im Bett, gut im Rap (“Bad in bed good at rap”) all songs were written and performed by Klitclique, produced and recorded by Mirza Kebo. The artists also collaborated with producers of experimental club music and DJs like ƒauna, or Franjazzco. The record isn’t considered to be a feminist manifesto in the sense of equality at all; accordinly the rappers demand the ‘golden matriarchy’ in their lyrics. 4. An analysis of Klitclique’s video clip M By drawing critically on Angela Mc Robbies’s argument that “women are currently being disempowered through the very discourses of empowerment they are being offered as substitutes for feminism” (McRobbie, 2009, p. 49), I’d like to offer an analysis of the video clip M. The video begins with a close up at the performer Lilly Pfalzer, who writes mama on her arm with sun cream. The ringing of a mobile phone can be heard and G-udit is faded into the picture. At that moment the beat begins. A woman’s voice can be heard and G-udit raps “ciao mama”. The words “mami” and “please send me some money” are repeated several times using auto-tune. The protagonists move in a barren landscape reminiscent of California and in a cardboard imitation of it. Emoji with pecuniary meaning are faded in alternately. Through a video overlay – two video clips share the display screen at the same time, one smaller and superimposed on a larger image – the scenery changes between real and fictional landscape. Again and again video clips of elitist food or text phrases such as “non-profit off space art project” or “swift code” are shown. G-udit addresses her mother “I need more money to put my name into art history”. Ad-libs like “Sheesh!” or “Skreet!” are also used imitating male rappers from Down South, cloud and trap rap. $chwanger states “Money. I have expenses so many expenses. Art’s so expensive” later she adds “life’s so expensive”. The rappers are mainly shown seated with dynamic intermission when G-udit is on the cell phone addressing the lyrics directly to her “mami”. 94 The performer Lilly Pfalzer starts dancing and supports Klitclique’s solicitation for maternal appropriation in the favour of art. Pfalzer’s performance reaches its climax with the text line “I pay you back when we have matriarchy”. At the same time, this line refers to the fraternity Hysteria, which in its statutes calls for the “golden matriarchy”. The textual reference to the geographical location of the music video clip is established with the line “I’m in LA participating in this charity sculpture group show and it costs so much money”. The sample of an on-hook tone signal ends the track. Klitclique leaves the cardboard scenery, a moving jeep with the two rappers and the performer can be seen in the video overlay. The beat starts again after a few seconds and both rappers softly shaking their heads and arms to the beat, sitting on the loading area of the jeep. 4.1. Deconstructing hegemonic masculinity in Klitclique’s video clip M In one of the earliest debates on the relationship between gender and pop music, Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie already formulated in 1978 in their essay “Rock and Sexuality” the thesis that rock music is essentially involved in the construction of sexuality. Above all, gender differences are constantly reproduced (Frith & McRobbie, 1978, p.373). Klitclique tries to cross gender boundaries and to deconstruct hegemonic masculinity with a subversive female performer, a bad cardboard scenery, the parody of props in hip hop like expensive cars or jewellery and lyrical allusions to the patronage in art. Lilly Pfalzers appearence partly corresponds to the androcentric trope of a female performer in hip hop. Nevertheless, this is defined by disturbing elements. She wears a colourful swimsuit, cut shorts, snakeskin boots, a colourful cap, and sunglasses. Additionally, she has silver colour on her lips. G-udit und $chwanger wear cropped tops but several layers and create an artsy look including their fancy sunglasses. Membership of the fraternity Hysteria, as well as state support for their art, allows Klitclique a position of power in the empowerment discourses mentioned by McRobbie, that in this case does not replace feminism. This video clip underlines the role of Klitclique as representatives of new feminism. By drawing on the “new” in feminism the junction of the postcolonial, the post- and transhuman, the cyber, the transnational, the colour and queer struggles need to be examined critically. These spaces propose alternative mappings on the nomadic organization of pleasures and desires including new modes of accountability and of speaking about one’s own experiences. Most significantly, the gender question is an instrument in achieving other political aims besides redressing gender justice (Grzinic & Reitsamer, 2008). Klitclique’s visual call for the “golden matriarchy” demonstrates new modes of accountability by drawing on the artists’ own experiences in the Viennese art and music scene. The video release was accompanied by an exhibition at the non-profit contemporary art venue ”Wellwellwell”. The venue includes an exhibition space and hosts occasional events related to a broad range of artistic and discursive activities, managed by artists studying at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and a guest curator. The project was established as intimate and informal environment to support artistic experimentation, discussion and learning with main focus on introducing the work of artists connected to the 95 2.1. Klitclique - Vienna’s F€M1N1$T Answer to Sad Boys University of Applied Arts. Consequently, Klitclique transfers Lucy O’Brien’s comment on how “women have always written to make sense of their world, to clear an inviolable space that is theirs rather than the possession of a man” (O’Brien, 2002, p.180) in the 21th century. 5. Klitclique as “ArcheYOLOgINNEN” Regarding the first album, Klitclique releases installations as an equal component of its music. The latest installation is called KLITCLIQUE. ARCHEYOLO and was shown in July und August 2018 at the MUSA. The Museum Startgalerie Artothek is a venue for the collection of contemporary art established by the City of Vienna’s Department of Culture. The objects – acquired by the Department of Culture as part of a comprehensive support program since 1951 – represent a cross-section of Viennese art of the last decades. Humour is an important aspect for the “ArcheYOLOgINNEN” in their joint work and in their special field of research. Klitclique examines the fictive everyday life of Viennese women from past centuries from a feminist perspective. The artists explore the origins of male-dominated historiography and discover stories that they retell from a different perspective. Special female public characters of the recent past are as much in the centre as fertility goddesses of antiquity. As so-called “ArcheYOLOgINNEN” they pursue an interest in things that were of particular importance to women but possibly irrelevant to the development of humanity. They reconstruct selected objects of research and present them as an installation. The result shows a post-factual collection of objects that provoke associations. The areas of cosmetics, care, clothing, ritual objects, fertility statues, and documents that pass on knowledge about poison recipes find their place in this presentation.Thus, the fictitious finding of an ashtray from the possession of the former Minister for Women’s Affairs Johanna Dohnal arouses great interest, as she could have become the first female President of Austria. Klitclique explores selected props of women who may have been of personal importance to their owner. Maria Lassnig’s childhood socks, lost on the way from Carinthia to the Vienna Art Academy, are also included in the collection. Usually, the “ArcheYOLOgINNEN” build selected objects as historical sources of research from cardboard and present them in the form of installations, whereby some artefacts can be marvelled at in showcases as in a cultural-historical exhibition. 6. Is it art? Is it music? Klitclique’s art transcends between social criticism, self-irony and queer hip hop. Although the art market and feminist discourses are satirized, the content of Klitclique remains in its comfort zone. Even if the duo is trying to get a lowthreshold access – free download of the album and free concerts – most fans have probably already seen a university from the inside. The culture-funding framework Shift, an instrument that expands the spectrum of Viennese art and cultural life57, supported the production of the vinyl debut. Klitclique’s performance represents empowerment, feminism and criticism of prevailing power structures in its musical work. The artists Judith Rohrmoser and Mirjam Schweigerer comment on the current (political) culture of Austria with provocative texts, trap sounds and a subversive staging concept. They act in a fluid space between art and music, while at the same time having 57 Funding is available for projects that provide artistic and cultural impulses at decentralised locations. 96 connections to the fraternity Hysteria. Recaptured as a politically leftist feminist project that satirizes the rituals of beating fraternities, the activists postulate a matriarchal society. When G-udit yodels on the first track of the album “Steuergeld, Oida, freu dich für mich” (“Taxmoney, dude, be happy for me“), she flirts with the accusation that artists would make themselves comfortable at the taxpayer’s expense. There have been few misunderstandings in the Klitclique’s bubble. That it is about fun, solidarity among women, and genderqueer people. Klitclique consciously seeks to cross gender boundaries and deconstruct hegemonic masculinity with subversive female performance, contextualization of matriarchal art, the parody of props in hip hop, and lyrical allusions to the predominance of art. The courage to conquer stages without fear is a message that gets across (See Garrigós et al., 2019). I’d like to conclude with a simple question: Who’s afraid of the sound of the matriarchy? References Bennett, A., Peterson, R.A. (Eds.). (2004). Music scenes: Local, translocal and virtual. Nashville: University of Vanderbilt Press. Ben Saoud, A. (2018). “Schlecht im Bett, gut im Rap”: Das improvisierte Matriarchat von Klitclique. Der Standard. Retrieved from derstandard. at/2000081389376/Klitclique-Das-improvisierte-Matriarchat Doerfler, F. (2018). HipHop-Musik aus Österreich. Lokale Aspekte einer globalen kulturellen Ausdrucksform (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Vienna: University of Music and Performing Arts. Frith, S., McRobbie, A. (1996). Rock and sexuality. In: Frith, S., Goodwin, A. (Eds.). On Record – Rock, Pop & the written word (pp. 371-389). London: Routledge. Garrigós, C. & Triana, N. & Guerra, P. (2019). God Save the Queens. Pioneras del Punk. Barcelona: 66 RPM EDICIONS. Gržinić, M., Reitsamer. R. (2008). New feminism: worlds of feminism, queer and networking conditions. Vienna: Löcker. McRobbie, A. (2009). The Aftermath of feminism: Gender, culture and social change. London: Sage Publications. O’Brien, L. (2002). She Bop II. The definitive history of women in rock, pop and soul. London: Continuum. Peterson, R., Bennett, A. (2004). Introducing the scenes perspective. In: Bennett, A., Peterson, R.A. (Eds.), Music Scenes: Local, trans-local and virtual (pp. 1-16). Nashville: University of Vanderbilt Press. Pichler, M. (2018, June 8). Unzerfickbar: Klitclique im Porträt Michaela Pichler. The Gap. Retrieved from https://thegap.at/unzerfickbar-klitclique-im-portraet/ Raymer, M. (2012, November 20): Who owns trap?. Chicago Reader. Retrieved from http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/trap-rap-edmflosstradamus-uz-jeffrees-lex- luger/Content?oid=7975249 Schmidt, C.M. (2017, December 16) Frauen und Familie: Fast immer ist von Müttern die Rede. Der Standard. Retrieved from https://derstandard.at/2000070508901/ regierungsprogramm-oevp-fpoe-kurz-strache-frauen-familie Straw, W. (1991). Systems of Articulation Logics of Change: Communities and Scenes in Popular Music. Cultural Studies, 5 (3), 368–388. Weisskircher, M. (2018, January 3). Is Austria’s new government breaking sharply to the right? Not more than the rest of Europe. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/01/03/ is-austrias-new-government-breaking-sharply-to-the-right-not-morethan-the-rest-of-europe/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d47c62bc5f1a 97 2.1. Klitclique - Vienna’s F€M1N1$T Answer to Sad Boys Websites Okazaki, Elsa. (2017) KLITCLIQUE “M”. Video premiere of their latest hit song. Available in: http://wellwellwell.at/archive/klitclique-m/ Klitclique (http://www.klitclique.com) Audio and visual medias Klitclique (2018). Schlecht im Rap, gut im Bett. Vienna: Schlecht im Bett Records. Album Download: http://www.klitclique.com/album-download/. Klitclique (2017). M. [Online video]. Retrieved from https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jrRGFHKygI Klitclique (2018). Chérie, je suis un genie. On Klitclique. Schlecht im Rap, gut im Bett [Vinyl]. Vienna: Schlecht im Bett Records. Klitclique (2018). Der FEMINIST F€M1N1$T. On Klitclique. Schlecht im Rap, gut im Bett [Vinyl]. Vienna: Schlecht im Bett Records. Klitclique (2018). D1G IRGENDWA$. On Klitclique. Schlecht im Rap, gut im Bett [Vinyl]. Vienna: Schlecht im Bett Records. 98 2.2. Is this not a world for women? Paolo S. H. Favero 58 and Ligia Lavielle Pullés 59 A b s t r a c t Urban music is still a marshy conceptual ground, but it is the best definition for the members of certain music circuit of production and consumption from Cuba. In the city of Santiago de Cuba, this musical circuit is structured mainly by two music scenes. Reggaeton scene is one of them. The male images and sounds of this urban music represent one of its first features: it is a male symbolic world. This paper addresses a thinking system about women in this male world within the reggaeton scene, which is based on the reproduction of the social symbolic violence. My intention is question about the experiences of musicians, dancers and any participant in the reggaeton scene in order to explore what extent this symbolic violence is expressed. This work is a part of a more general research about music scenes rap-reggae and reggaeton from the city of Santiago de Cuba. Keywords: reggaeton scene, women, symbolic violence. 58 University of Antwerp. Antwerp, Belgium. E-mail: paolo. [email protected]. 59 Universidad de Oriente - Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Integral de la Cultura. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Cuba, Cuba. University of Antwerp. Antwerp, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected]. 99 2.2. Is this not a world for women? 1. Introduction Este es el lenguaje urbano, de la calle y a las mujeres además no les gusta que le den tantos rodeos, les gusta ir al grano60. This way, a producer of urban music from Santiago de Cuba city, showed his point of view on how women are seen by people who produce urban music, especially reggaeton61. It is just a glimpse of some ideas within a system of symbolic thought about male and female. Precisely the roles of women within the reggaeton production and scene are addressed in our paper. We would like to highlight the gender performativity within the reggaeton scene. Behind every role, a symbolic conception of male and female are being built by the producer, consumers, and even non-consumers of urban music. A process of social reproduction has supported such ideals of gender. But, in reggaeton music, and most obviously in trap music, these incorporated thoughts have been pushed to the extreme. Maybe the most prominent issue in reggaeton music has been the extreme eroticism – or even pornographic character - which persists in woman’s representation. People who are not young have called it “a moral crisis”. However, contradictorily, reggaeton is enjoined by men as well as women. Hence, the criticism (and even the superlative criticism) about the gender perceptions in this music, has not been well argued. This paper will stress some key points about gender in reggaeton music. 2. A general view... Many encyclopedias refer to urban music or urban contemporary music as a genre of the 1980s and ’90s “defined by recordings by rhythm-and-blues or soul artists with broad crossover appeal” (Enciclopaedia Britannica, n.d). Rap music, which originated from the American black music, mainly since 1980´s, is also included (Nazareth and D Amico, 2012). In Cuba, and possibly in all Caribbean islands, urban music always sounds close to Hip Hop: rap (obviously), reggae, reggaeton, the current trap, reggaemuffin, dancehall, etc. Now, urban music in Cuba has a wider scope that includes other music genres created in private studios, independently from cultural institutions. Producers have their own ideas about what urban music is. They stress it is not only music close to hip hop culture and developed in home recording studios (private ones), but also music that needs a commercial delimitation in this category known as ‘urban’. Then, musicologists and ethnomusicologists (Cruces, 2004) describe it as a vague concept, because it entails a dialogue with the urban spaces, or in other words, with the urban determinism. Could music made in the city just be considered “urban music”? Could the rap made in rural spaces not be considered within this category? When analyzed from an academic perspective, urban music is still a muddled concept. However, the producers and consumers do not have problems to see the boundaries. As mentioned above, currently, Cuban urban music is recognized as a wide and inclusive music scene by many producers and consumers. Reggaeton, rap, reggae, trap, electronic merengue, kisomba, and others, are framed in this category. The first of the six rhythms mentioned, is deemed among the most popular. Reggaeton musicians are entwined with rap and reggae musicians, in terms of visual and musical issues, but at the same time, the former is separated from the latter because of different lifestyles (Bennett, 1999) and extreme discourses. 60 Translation: “This is urban language, of the street, and also, women don’t like the beating around the bush, they like to get to the point.” 61 In Spanish language it can be written ‘reggaeton’ or ‘reguetón’. 100 In the city of Santiago de Cuba, the urban music scene is divided, at least into two close, but different music scenes: rap-reggae and reggaeton. Since the last decade of the twentieth century, an entwined and common history characterized the creation and consumption of reggae, dancehall, reggamuffin, rap, and reggaeton. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, these musical genres were divided by their musicians (especially by MCs) into two symbolic and not symmetrically separated scenes. I have called this symbolic separation “the first schism of Cuban urban music”. As a part of this history, rap and reggae music from Santiago have been closer to each other, compared to other rap scenes developed on the island, at Havana city, for instance. Moreover, the rap roots came from the reggae made in Jamaica around the 70s; hence, an historical link between both music styles is demonstrated, not only regarding the music, but also concerning cultural processes of marginalization and exclusion. However, in Santiago de Cuba, and also in Guantánamo city, this relationship is stronger than in any other part of Cuba. The rap-reggae scene is sustained by young people (and not so young) involved in Hip Hop and Rastafarian cultures. Then, a mixture of both cultures is rendered by the visual, musical, and oral discourse of songwriters, singers, DJs, and others involved in rap and reggae music. The main performative characteristics of this scene are the stress on ego, mutual challenging, the criticism toward racial discrimination and social criticism. Alongside, other topics such as the pride of blackness and songs about love and spiritualism are introduced. Therefore, it is not strange to find phrases like: I don´t believe in Babylon, within a rap discourse. Reggaeton is an extension of rap music and other music components. During the first years of the twenty-first century, reggaeton music was created by the same young people from Caribbean cities like Panamá and Puerto Rico, involved in the production and consumption of rap, raggamuffin, and dancehall (Wayne, Ziquero & Paccini, 2010; Ziquero, 2003). Rap music is the most popular expression of Hip Hop culture and the latter rhythms (dancehall and raggamuffin) were a more danceable extension of reggae music. Hence, the same visual and music codes of rap music were exposed by reggaeton singers, because there was not much difference between genres. At the beginning of reggaeton music, for instance, baggy pants, golden chains, XL pullovers, caps, sport shoes, etc., were worn by reggaeton singers as well as rap musicians. Indeed, during the first period and at that moment, every reggaeton singer began their musical career singing rap or another close genre as reggamuffin or dancehall. Today, any good singer of reggaeton has to know how to sing in the recitativo singing style of rap. 3. Reggaeton in extremis… taking the trap to the extreme… During the first years of the twenty-first century, the Caribbean reggaeton began to be more popular than rap, because the songs are more danceable than rap music. For instance, women and men commonly say: sin reggaeton no hay fiesta, es muy rico para bailar, te mueve todo el cuerpo62. The initial popularity of this rhythm, led to an increased interest of the Latin music industry forward the reggaeton performers, even if in Cuba the relation between the two was more problematic. In other words, reggaeton singers 62 Translation: Without reggaeton there is no party, it is very nice to dance, it moves your entire body. 101 began to be seen as singers separated from Hip hop culture and from rap musicians. Some Cuban authors refer to this process of separation between rappers and reggaeton singers in Cuban urban music (Zurbano, 2006; Borges Triana, 2015; Jiménez, 2010; Casanella, González & Hernández, 2003), in which, reggaeton singers were represented as betrayers of the Hip Hop movement, by young people who remained in rap and reggae music. A continuously reproduced commercial recipe has ensured the popularity of this music genre. Intertwined topics about sex, marginality, challenges among each other, and a stress on fun are expressed in its oral and also visual discourse. The first one is the most common topic, in which mostly heterosexuality or hyper-heterosexuality is emphasized. Summing up, the heterosexual relationship is the most prominent topic within reggaeton music, in terms of lyrics, as well as, in the visual representation in musical and non-musical videos. Moreover, this hypersexualized discourse has a transversal character, interweaving with all the other topics. A content analysis of the music videos demonstrated at least three ways in which the hypersexualization of the heterosexual discourse is strongly expressed by reggaeton musicians in Cuba: (1) sex and eroticism, (2) falling in love, and (3) an unhappy love affair. The first one is stressed to a much larger extent than the others. Reggaeton visual discourse frequently points out the female body in a sexual way, foregrounding the women dancing in very short pants, showing their breasts, buttocks, hips, and at the end, showing erotic dancing in front of men, or serving (female bodies or drinks) to men. The explicit oral discourse stresses phrases and words going from seduction games to sexual relations, for instance: tú estás rica, tú estás buena, culo de mula, sexo contigo, yo te voy hacer63, etc. The speech is the most upsetting and criticized element in reggaeton. But an emerging question is concealed in this music: To what extent is the relation between male and female put forward in these lyrics and visual discourses, part of daily life? If we look at a Cuban woman’s daily life, we can find some similar words, phrases, and attitudes in her social relations. For instance, if you are a woman walking down the street, it is usual to hear “piropos”64 about your beauty or your “coolness”. But it is as frequent to hear about your breasts, buttocks, and in the worst case about your female private parts. Women are most often desired because of their body, and not because of themselves. The sexualized relation between men and women is part of daily life, we just need to learn how to detect it. Reggaeton undressed what was concealed behind the whispers among men. Reggaeton put in loud voice what a man tells a woman when she is walking in front of him on the street. “I am not looking for a smart woman. I am just looking for a woman that looks ideal, well, “que está buena”, somebody recently told me while I was in a recording studio, and he was not a reggaeton musician. In this respect, a reggaeton singers hared with me: (Vaillant): Y escribe de lo que ve. El cantante de reggaeton que es lo que ve, eso65. This is one of Cuban’s gender problems that has not been examined in detail: the naturalization of dominant relations in terms of hypersexualization, this is, symbolic violence in gender relations. According to Bourdieu, symbolic violence conceals power relations unrecognized and naturalized by both the dominant and the dominated person; because we build our socialization relations based on the reproduction of symbolic capitals. On the first page, in the first chapter, within one of the first most important and popular books 2.2. Is this not a world for women? 63 Translation: popular expressions: you are delicious, you are good, mule’s ass, sex with you, I am going to do you. 64 These are popular and spontaneous compliments on the public way, which can, however, also be obscene. 65 And he writes about what he see. The reggaeton singer sees that. Interview 2016. 102 written by Bourdieu and Passeron (1977, p. 4) , symbolic violence is explained by this French sociologist: “every power to exert symbolic violence, i.e every power which manages to impose meanings and to impose them as legitimate by concealing the power relations which are the basis of its force, adds its own specifically symbolic force to those power relation”. Furthermore, he adds some ideas about the process in which special social relations become eternal and naturalized. All of this was written in the early seventies, by a young and already mature classic of social sciences, even before he wrote the most classic text explaining the symbolic domination over females: The Male domination. When men feel the authority to say any sexual phrase, word, or compliment to women, and even touch her without her permission, and these acts are naturalized or even enjoyed by both of them, we are facing Symbolic Violence. When women naturalize that they have to comply to certain standards in terms of physical characteristics and sexual attributes (western face, big buttocks and breasts, ethnical characteristics) to be chosen, there is symbolic violence. In this respect, I agree with Meza Márquez when she says: The discourse of femininity is transmitted through symbolic violence by means of words, gestures, ways of doing, and the values and attitudes expressed in the different institutions of socialization. It legitimates itself, thus, a system of relationships that privileges men over women, which is established as natural and inevitable, which shapes the desire of women and which legitimizes this exposition of the woman’s body in the function of this meaning (Màrquez, 2015, p. 15). Cuba is an island within the Caribbean geographic zone. The hypersexualized stereotypes are common, and urban music has reproduced these patterns, as well as other musical genres, but in a very explicit way. For instance, Ziqueiro (2013, p.116) explains about the canon of female representation which was introduced to rap discourse since 1998, but also in Hollywood discourse when Latino images and artists “had become somewhat of a fad”. On the other hand, the remarkable hypersexualization in reggaeton came from the “street” or “ghetto” culture, which is a mixture of American ghetto culture, described by Ziquero (2003), and Caribbean lower neighborhoods. According to Rosana Reguillo, the social analyst should pay attention to mediations which influence the narratives and discourses, and the social context which provides the main base for the discourse, in this case for the visual and verbal audiovisual discourse. Following Bourdieu and Foucault, the researcher of youth, Reguillo (2000, p. 12), proposes: Looking at the constitution of society as a dynamic process in which social actors carry out actions, produce discourses and construct a sense of the world from complex negotiating processes and always from a historically constructed and situated place, and from deep historical backgrounds -cultural (such as gender, nationality, ethnicity, social class) and elective attachments (such as the different 103 2.2. Is this not a world for women? identification processes or diverse members that the actors update on the course of their biographies (Reguillo, 2000, p.12). From this point of view, the socially lower neighborhoods and a stereotypical marginality constitute an historical “anchorage” upon which the discourse of reggaeton has been built, although almost every reggaeton singer has experienced a social mobility process. Hence, the marginal “anchorage” provides a great environment, in which this explicit way of hypersexualization, characterizing reggaeton audiovisuals, is included. In the end, reggaeton singers are lighting up the shared social ideals on women. They are reproducing the embodied and quotidian social relations between male and female, and showing it via Media circulation. However, is hypersexualized music new in the Caribbean or Cuban music? Rumba is a danceable music genre considered musical heritage. One of the styles of rumba dance consists in an erotic game of seduction, where the woman moves her shoulders, hips, and legs in an erotic way, while simultaneously avoiding the man’s pursuit. It is a simulation of the seduction game. Timba, on the other hand, has a part named by musicologists (López Cano, 2005, p.8) as the “despelote”66, which recalls the sexual climax. Then, if sexualized music is not new in Cuban, neither in Caribbean music, and is even common; if the conveyed ideas on female sexuality are considered to be normal in the public sphere, why is reggaeton seen as an aggression toward women? First of all, the other mentioned music genres were also criticized in their time of “boom” or when they emerged. For instance, rumba was deemed under the gaze of racial and social prejudice, and marginalized as a vulgar music and dance at the begging of twentieth century. A second and maybe more important issue, has been the extreme version in which reggaeton has showed the visual and oral violence in gender relations. Woman as a sexual figure serving a man is not a new idea, but it is showed in an extreme way. Moreover, inside the reggaeton scene, there are singers who are breaking the moral boundaries even more and speak out loud about intimacy and sexuality. Surprisingly, in certain cases, women are not seen as a sexual slave, but a sexual mate, sharing exactly the same role as men. In the latter case, we could ask ourselves: can this still be considered symbolic violence? 4. Y se formó la gozadera… As we have said above, the treatment of heterosexual relations is not an isolated topic to reggaeton musicians. In 2006, Daddy Yankee said reggaeton is street, sex, and struggle (Zenit Dinzey-Flores, 2006, p. 36). Moreover, one of our interviewee’s synthetized reggaeton: es mujeres, gozadera67, cosa gorda, a phrase which is showing the heterosexual relations entwined with the widest sense of fun, associated with reggaeton. This playful character bears the hypersexualized discourse spread out by reggaeton musicians, and by this way, it is more accepted, sung, and danced between the choruses of the strong bass music. Coming back to Caribbean culture and specifically to Cuban culture, one of the most shared issues of popular tradition in Cuba is the playful character, explained in a very early essay written in 1928 by the Cuban intellectual Jorge Mañach, of which the conceptual epitome is the Cuban “choteo”. Following Mañach, this feature of the Cuban social subjectivity consists in mocking 66 The higher ecstasy embodied in the dance movements. 67 I am not aware of an English word that exactly translates ‘gozadera’. The explosion of fun is the closest I found. 104 everything, based on disrespectful feelings for things, ideas, persons, or facts traditionally deemed as “serious”, which conceals a lack of respect towards any authority or a total dismissal of this authority: tirar todo a relajo … no toma en serio nada de lo que generalmente se tiene por serio68 (Mañach, 2011, p. 102). I coincide with Santizo and Meza (in press) regarding the fact that this sense of joke or mockery is essential to understand gender representation in reggaeton, because it conceals the reality of unequal gender relations. Every music producer included in my fieldwork pointed to the danceable character of reggaeton, which contributes to its entertainment value. In this entertainment, where “nothing is taken seriously”, gender relations between men and women are quintessentially conceived and are the most important issue. Vaillant (reggaeton singer): Mira cada cantante le da su punto de vista independientemente. Pero nunca se sale de lo que se está hablando. Sexo, fiestas, lo que puede hacer el hombre para la mujer (2016)69. Luisito (reggaeton singer): Cosa gorda es fiesta en grande. Si vas por la calle y ves a una mujer que está rica le dices, oye cosa gorda. Cosa que tú contestas. La jerga callejera. Ves la mujer de la forma en la que está vestida, como se ve, es decir, todo se basa en la cosa entre el hombre y la mujer70. These testimonies contain the most significant issues about the gender representation between male and female: • Sex and party. The word ‘sex’ is put alongside the word ‘party’, and this mix is not fortuitous. Sex is deemed a central issue in the playful character that characterizes reggaeton, but also in many visual representations of women in popular music. However, respecting one of the interviewees’ words, I have to note that the man says: what the man can do “for” the woman, and not how the man can “use” the woman. • Woman as a pleasuring image for men. • The relation between women and men as the central issue in this kind of popular music. I consider that, within the oral and visual treatment of gender relations in reggaeton music, not everything is about joking because of the lack of authority. First of all, I consider that women, and also the heterosexual relation, have become the most important issues that are enjoyed in a music video or just audio play, and here, we may think that these issues have substituted the aesthetic sense primarily based on the music. Secondly, many other videos, not of reggaeton music, reveal this sense of fun where the visual representation of women is centralized in the discourse. Indeed, this aspect is considered by musicians an issue that makes music more commercial, more popular, and once again, more enjoyable. The difference, as I have said above, consists in the fact that reggaeton producers carry this issue to an extreme representation, 68 Nothing is taken seriously. 69 Look, every singer gives his own point of view to his music, but he always speaks about the same topics: sex, party, what men could do for the woman. Interview in 2016. 70 ‘Fat thing’ is party. If you are walking down the street and you see a delicious woman and you say her: hey fat thing. Then you say the street slag. You see a woman in the way she is dressing. I mean, everything is about man and woman. 105 2.2. Is this not a world for women? thanks to not only the funniest version of the “choteo”, but also because it is considered a space without law, against the traditional morality, or a space where they can or they wish to say everything they want. In this space of “apparent” freedom women are also participating. 5. ‘Vamo´a portarnos mal’ 71 In the most extended critics about reggaeton music, the issue about female representation is one of the most common. But, has someone ever asked the women how they feel about it? As observer and also participant in Cuban parties and leisure places where reggaeton is the most played music, it is explicit how women (including myself) participate in these danceable spaces through dancing and also singing. I have to note that one of the most popular dances of reggaeton is as sexualized as the words and visual images of its audiovisuals. Moreover, outside the dancing venues, many women (children and girls included) sing the reggaeton songs every time. Then, why do women enjoy the reggaeton almost to the same extent as men? The same playful character which is concealing the unequal relation in the oral and visual representation of this sexualized heterosexuality in reggaeton, is simultaneously providing a space of moral liberty, as Thorton (1995, p. 32) demonstrated in relation to Britain young people forming club cultures more than 10 years ago. It is a fact: many women enjoy dancing “perreo72” as well as men. This dancing is a playful representation of a sexual relation. The man, probably a young person, places himself behind the woman, and both move their hips at the same time. This ludic sexual representation is enjoined by both in this moment and at the same level, because the man never pushes or menaces the woman to dance with him. He always asks her for permission, or at least, this is the unwritten rule. If both men and women agree to do this, we can ask: Can this still be considered symbolic violence? Finally, this could be or could not be reproducing the same social dominant process of symbolic violence. When women feel that being chosen depends only on the way she moves her hips, probably we are talking about symbolic violence. But, if women do not care about this and just move their bodies inside a symbolic and physical space of moral freedom, and at the same time, women enjoy the sexual representation as well as men, we think there is no symbolic violence. Despite this, there are contradictory moral assumptions considered by women about this music genre. During our interviews many of them exposed they do not like some reggaeton songs and artists, but at the same time, they still go to the spaces where reggaeton is the main rhythm and enjoy dancing it. Moreover, some of them, despite their criteria about the “bad music for women”, keep the music of some of these “unmoral” musicians on their phones. For us it was clear: women still unveil moral perceptions which allow them to protectthemselves against dominant patterns in this music, but at the same time they enjoy much of this musical discourse mediated by a ludic narrative. The moral prescription is even present in the dancing places, considered also symbolic freedom spaces where the simulation of sex is not problematic. When I went there to take photographs during my fieldwork, I discovered crucial differences between men and women: the first ones dance and make poses for my photos, many women stop to dance immediately when they discover me. In order to be able to take pictures, I had to explain what my work 71 In English: “Let’s go bad”. 72 A dance that simulates the copulation between dogs. 106 is about. Sometimes, it worked, but many times it did not. Nevertheless, today there are many ways to dance reggaeton, it is not only between heterosexual couples. People dance in peer groups, alone, in a circle with somebody in the middle, in front of the stage; moving the hips, just the shoulders, just the legs and feet, or the shoulder, hips and legs altogether. The body movements also change every time according to fad, and people are not always dancing in this very explicit sexual way. 6. Conclusions At the sunset of the twentieth century in Cuba, a genre very close to salsa known as “timba” in Cuba, was the most criticized style of music, because the artists were showing a raw version of a damaged Cuba, a country that was surviving in the deepest economic crisis experienced after the social change of 1959. But in this same last decade, a more dangerous and disruptive rhythm was being created in the Caribbean and consumed in the western part of Cuba, first among poor people who preferred to spend their dark days (metaphorically and literally speaking) dancing and sweating without moral prescription: the roots of reggaeton and then reggaeton itself was born. Behind the reggaeton voices (reproduced by producers as well as consumers) there is a social change (Gámez, 2011) which is known but still unrecognized by Cuban people. This music genre brought with it a lot of polemic and contrasted opinions, almost always in dual positions. On the one hand, there was the intellectual, political, moral, and even religious discourse expressed by many voices against this aggressive way of moving, singing, speaking and writing texts. On the other hand, there was the popular opinion, involving mostly young people, who did not care about it. One of the most criticized issues inside this polemic discourse on reggaeton was the place given to women. However, why did most of the population, including women, not pay attention or care less about the place given to women in this genre? First of all, what reggaeton was saying about women and is still saying in this loud voice in every corner or popular spaces, could be heard in everyday life. These phrases about women continuously expressed by reggaeton musicians are found in the realm of our quotidian life. They just are revealing their daily experience in a very explicit way. The symbolic domination process persisting in the male-female relations and experienced in everyday life, is reproduced by people in Cuba, but the same symbolic power is thrown in our faces, in a very explicit way and concealed by a veil of luxury, ludic sense and entertainment. Hence, let´s shift our daily symbolic process of gender domination together with reggaeton voices. In Cuba, people criticize reggaeton music, the lyrics, the videos, but never question social reality. Cuban society seems to accept the existing and persisting gender relations in which men have a dominant position. The situation is not questioned; it is naturalized and integrated by everyone. This leads to a constant reproduction of inequalities and gender violence. Women in Cuba are facing structural gender violence. Regulations and legislations should be put in place to prevent these situations and guarantee women’s rights and safety. However, no such instruments are available enough in Cuba. 107 Acknowledgments and funding: We acknowledge the funding received by the University of Antwerp and especially we wish to thank to the Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (VIDI) and also to the Universidad of Oriente from Cuba. References Bennett, A. (1999). Subcultures or neo-tribes? Rethinking the relationship between youth, style and musical taste. Sociology , 33(3), pp. 599-617. Bourdieu. P & Passeron, C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture. London: Sage Publication. Borges Triana, J. (2015) Concierto cubano. La vida es un divino guión. La Habana, Cuba: Ediciones Unión. Casanella, L., González, N. & Hernández, G. (2003). El rap en Santiago de Cuba. Causas y azares. Revista Movimiento de la Agencia Cubana del Rap, 2, pp. 42-47. Cruces, F. (2004). Música y ciudad: Definiciones, procesos y prospectivas. Trans. Revista Transcultural de música, (8). Retrieved from https://es.scribd.com/document/256653064/ Cruces-Francisco-Musica-y-Ciudad-Definiciones-Procesos-y-Perspectivas. Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d). Urban contemporary music. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/urban-contemporary-music. Gámez Torres, N. (2011). Escuchando el cambio: Reguetón y realidad cubana. Revista Temas, (68), octubre-diciembre, pp. 56-65. Jiménez, J.C. (2010). Un primer acercamiento a la historia del hip hop en Santiago de Cuba. (Unplublishing master´s thesis). Cuba: Instituto Superior del Arte. Camagüey. López Cano, R. (2005). Del barrio a la academia. Introducción al dossier sobre timba cubana. Trans Revista Transcultural de Música, (9). Retrieved from http://www.redalyc.org/artículo.oa?id=82200901. Mañach y Robato, J. (2018). Indagación al choteo (online) (First publication in 1928). Red editorial S.L. Retrieved from https://books. google.com.cu/books?id=jzeX6POBJA4C&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq Nazareth, E & D Amico, F. (2012). Urban Music. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/urban-music-emc. Meza Márquez, M. C & Santizo, H (in press). Sacrificio Martínez y Príamo Pérez o el amor en tiempos de reguetón. Colectivo de autores (Eds.), Aproximaciones interpretativas multidisciplinares en torno el arte y la cultura. Universidad Autónoma de aguascaliente. México. Manuscript submitted for publication. Meza Márquez, M. C. (2015). La identidad femenina y las relaciones amorosas: amores en el diario de la abuela. (1881-1934). García Vargas, H & Rivera Meza, J. F (Eds.), La subversión de narrativa y mediaciones para la construcción de un contradiscurso femenino (pp.14-23). México: Editorial universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. Reguillo, R. (2000). El lugar desde los márgenes. Músicas e identidades juveniles. Nómadas (Col), (13), pp 40-52. Thorton, S. (1995). Club cultures. Music, media and subcultural capital. Cambrige: Polity Press. Wayne, M., Ziquero Rivera, R. & Pacini Hernandez, D. (2010). Los circuitos sociosónicos del reggaetón. In Trans. Revista Transcultural de Música, (14), pp. 1-9. Zenit Dinzey-Flores, Z. (2006). De la disco al caserío. Urban spatial aesthetics and policy to the beat of reggaeton. Centro Journal Volumen XX, (8), pp. 35-69. Ziquero, R. (2003). El indiscreto encanto del reguetón. A propósito de una explosión en el campo cultural latino. Revista Movimiento de la Agencia Cubana del Rap, 6, pp. 15-17. Ziquero, R. (2003) New York Ricans. From the hip hop zone. Palgrave. Mac Millan. Zurbano, R. (2006). Mami no quiero más reggaetón. In Revista Movimiento de la Agencia Cubana del Rap, 6, pp. 4-12. 2.2. Is this not a world for women? 108 2.3 Dead in Absentia: the lack of a female Hollywood character Vanessa Sousa 73 A b s t r a c t Dead in Absentia is a Latin expression that dates from the nineteen century and it is nowadays used by lawyers and judges to pronounce a person’s death even if a body hasn’t been found. In absentia (2000), Absentia (2011) and Absentia (2017) are three types of independent cinematographic experiences where you can find something, or someone, in absentia. The Brothers Quay where the first filmmakers using this concept by making a short movie. Later in 2011, it was the time of Mike Flanagan filming a horror movie named Absentia, and then in 2017, the creator Matthew Cirulnick and Gaia Violo decided to produce a TV Show, also called Absentia, but filmed like a movie. Exploring the different ways used by the filmmakers to create such strong characters in such different styles of production is the foundation for this article that wants to explore, in the essence, the concept of ‘absentia’. Keywords: visual arts; cinema; feminism. 73 University of Porto – Faculty of Arts and Humanities. CITCEM - Transdisciplinary Research Centre «Culture, Space and Memory». E-mail: [email protected]. 109 2.3 Dead in Absentia: the lack of a female Hollywood character Let us speak of death and its absence. Of the fear it provokes, of the theories concerning life after death and, in particular, of the strength of the woman when she faces death. Philosophy, since the dawn of its inception, has concerned itself with the end of Man; and from this enquiry sprang two noteworthy sources to understand the thoughts of the most renowned philosophers: death as the human being’s complete oblivion – both in physical and spiritual senses –, and the death of the physical body, one which is survived by the deceased’s soul. Arthur Schopenhauer, the seventeenth century German philosopher has a very concrete idea of what the end of life means. Death is “a harrowing solution of the bond formed by the procreation with lust, it is the violent obliteration of the fundamental error of our being; the great disillusion” (Schopenhauer, 1995, p. 86). But just when readers find themselves utterly distressed by the previous sentence, the philosopher adds: “So miserable and so insignificant is the individuality of the majority of men that they lose nothing upon their deaths: in them, that which yet capable of possessing some value, that is, the general traits of humanity – lives on in the remaining men” (ibidem). And if we read on this small text titled “Death” we will come to the realisation that the German philosopher does not make all these affirmations with a basis for them in mind. To Schopenhauer, death brings fulfilment to Man when the latter intends to live in a better world because, for that to happen, to merely place Man in a better world would not suffice; it would also be necessary to transform Man in such a manner that He would no longer recognise Himself. And such feat is only attainable by death: to be placed in another world and to completely change one’s being is, in essence, one and the same thing”(Schopenhauer, 1995, p. 86).But what is particularly worthy of note for the purpose of the present paper in Schopenhauer’s interpretation of death is his opinion of immortality and, even here, the author is quite forthright with his readers: “To demand the immortality of the individual is to desire to prolong the error ad aeternum. Because every individuality is, in essence, a singular error, a mistake, something that should not be; and the true end to one’s life is to rid oneself of it” (Schopenhauer, 1995, p. 86). Hence, we can surmise that, for this forerunner of Nietzsche, not even the individual conscience74 lives on after the death of the physical body. In contrast, in Montaigne’s philosophy, we find a scepticism that disregards the ideas of the nihilists and believes that to learn to die is to learn to live, that the inevitability of death must be faced in a natural and accepting manner and that philosophy plays a key role in aiding us to prepare for the unescapable. In other words, to meditate on death puts the thoughts of the Great Unknown out of one’s mind precisely because one becomes acquainted with this Unknown – and that which one finds familiar holds no fears to them. On another, yet still very much pertinent and related, topic – what if death ceased to exist? How would humanity react to it? And better – and more importantly – yet: what would be the consequences to mankind? It was with this idea in mind – which many would regard as utterly absurd – that José Saramago built the narrative that he dubbed As Intermitências da Morte (Death at Intervals). “In that day nobody died” (Saramago, 2005, p. 13): these are the first words of a story that has every element to be an absurd one and, yet, it is not. Death75, the novel’s main character, decides to take a holiday and, as consequence of said decision – one to which every single individual is entitled to –, chaos ensues: funeral agencies and the undertakers are left without jobs; florists suffer large losses of revenue because, bluntly put, death is the most 74 On the subject of individual conscience, Schopenhauer continues further with his discourse regarding finitude: “from the moment that death brings an end to an individual conscience, should we really wish that this very same conscience is revived to last an eternity? What does it contain, in the majority of times? Nothing more than a torrent of insignificant, embarrassed and earthly thoughts, cares without end. Let us, then, let it rest in peace once and for all.” (Schopenhauer, 1995, p. 86 and p. 87). 75 The name is written by the author in lowercase letters to distinguish death the character from Death the natural, physical phenomenon. 110 lucrative side of their business; hospitals are overcrowded with patients and, consequently, are in infernal disarray; and the deathly ill are left in to wallow in everlasting pain while they continuously eye the clock and watch time go by without being delivered from their atrocious suffering by death. The desperation of those who seek to die with their remaining shreds of dignity intact is so extreme that they conceive absurdly fantastical and inventive, yet ultimately unfruitful, ways to take their lives. And what of the suicides? Those attempted to end their lives by leaping from the highest bridge of the city, by ingesting a poison more effective than that given to Socrates, by blowing their brains out with guns of the largest calibre available to them – all to no avail. Nothing. There was no way, fashion or form to die. We could present more examples of lives ruined by Death’s holiday, the consequences are quite countless, but we already have enough material to realise that a break from one’s job is not always possible nor advisable. In the Law of Portugal, according to Article 66.º of the Decree-Law nº. 47 344 from the 25th of November, 1966, “personality is acquired at the moment of one’s full and living birth”. And, as every individual that is born must perforce die one day, Article 68.º was created and which states the following: “Personality ceases to exist upon death […] One is presumed deceased when their body is not found or identified, when one’s disappearance occurs under circumstances that leave no doubt as to one’s death.” Here we find the definition of presumed death. The short film titled in Absentia (2000), from the Brothers Quay; Mike Flanagan’s horror film Absentia (2011); and the television series created by the young Italian scriptwriter Gaia Violo, also named Absentia (2017), aside from sharing the same title, these three Independent Cinematographic Records have a female character that faces death as their main focus. There was not, to the Romans, a single specific and coherent doctrine concerning the enduring of the soul beyond death, in the sense that the soul had its very own fate one completely independent from its body. The soul was viewed as a spectre, a ghost that harassed the living, especially when the latter did not supply the former’s mortal remains with an appropriate resting place or did not observe the necessary funerary rites. In the abovementioned short film by the Brothers Quay we find a young woman alone in an asylum compulsively writing amidst the surrounding phantasmagorical environs. For a brief moment, the woman transfigures herself into a Kafkian mannikin and a third male figure appears, caressing the woman’s dirty hands. After these episodes, we can surmise that, as was the case with the Kafkian visions before, this man was an hallucination: that of her own husband. Nothing is said of this man’s fate, but we do know that he is absent. The letters that the woman systematically writes to this man, whom she swore to be faithful until death parted them, end up at the bottom of a broken clock which is strikingly similar to a mailbox. And there they remain, the dust of time stratifying upon them and pilling upon this woman, a being that has but become stagnant since ever since she was no longer able to ascertain if her husband was alive or dead. All these elements seem to denote that the cause for her to be confined to those four walls in a psychiatric ward somewhere was this limbo in which the young woman was left in in the wake of her husband’s disappearance. The filmmaker Mike Flanagan builds his narrative of terror by having as its core the visions that a woman has of her partner, who has been missing for seven years now, and is on the brink of having him “declared dead in absentia” 111 2.3 Dead in Absentia: the lack of a female Hollywood character before the state of California. The man appears before her for the first time when the document that declares him as officially dead is likely to be signed soon. Her subconscious led her to see something that is not real because of the guilt she felt at confirming the death of her husband without first finding his pale, motionless body. To bury an empty coffin because the body was never found always leaves a small ray of hope in the hearts and minds of the presumed deceased’s friends and family. It was for this reason that Tricia feared signing the declaration of “death in absentia”. On the one hand, she believed that, by signed the aforementioned declaration, she would close a chapter of her life but, on the other, she felt that such act would mean that she had given up hope of finding her husband alive one day. And it is this very feeling that, albeit seemingly positive, proceeds to destroy little by little the lives of those who hold on to that hope because they find themselves incapable of “moving on with their lives”. They remain attached to their pasts as if it were stones in the river of time, frozen in the exact moment they accepted their loved ones’ death in absentia. Hence, it is not only those who, allegedly, died that are absent. The lives of those that are left to mourn that can also be considered as absent.To Sigmund Freud there is a difference between mourning and melancholy. In mourning, one lives the pain that afflicts them through stages. Melancholy, on the other hand, assails us in such overwhelming manner that it gives us no quarter, no chance to refute its existence and, while it is possible to overcome the feeling of melancholy, it is far easier to accept the mourning. Flynn was only three years old when her biological mother disappeared. For this reason, she had learnt to call “mother” the only woman she knew as such: her stepmother Alice. This is the backstory that the viewer is privy to in the first episode of the 2017 television series, Absentia. Stana Katic is the American actress that lends voice, body and soul to Emily Byrne, a female character that is at once wife, mother, and daughter and still has a career as an FBI agent, one tasked with finding the killer responsible for the gruesome deaths of several women. Over the course of the case Emily disappeared without any semblance of a trace nor lead, which drove her family and colleagues to infer that the agent was the latest victim of the murderer she was chasing and, after a long and unfruitful search, they hold an empty casket funeral for her. And here I must briefly stop and provide a spoiler warning to those who have yet to watch the series, but in the interest of the present paper and to provide a more detailed analysis of the subject matter at hand, I must discuss a pivotal event of the plot. It turns out that Emily Byrne was not really dead. And to those viewers who thought that they were before a story detailing a family’s efforts to deal with the loss of one of its members, it should be noted that in the very first episode this preconceived notion is addressed; what Gaia Violo intended when she penned the script was the viewpoint of someone who, in the eyes of society at large, had been dead for six years and, seemingly out of nowhere, reappeared in the lives of her loved ones and friends, destabilising the false harmony that crept up on the lives of those people after a symbolic funeral that was merely held to to help them move on. The surprise factor only materialises when the viewer understands that Emily has no recollections of what has transpired in the last six years of her life. She does not know how she came to disappear, what happened to her during that six-year-long period, and why she was only now found. The plot develops around this amnesia to which there is no apparent plausible reason; 112 however what interests me is not so much the mystery fiction component of the plot but instead the manner in which Emily will interact with and relate to her family and friends, especially her (now ex) husband, son, father and brother. In Agent Byrne’s perspective, “yesterday” she was investigating a serial murder case and “today” she is waking up in her hospital bed; but to her loved ones, between “yesterday” and “today” stands a long six-year gap. In order to face death, be it the death of a loved one or one’s own (alleged) death, strength is a necessary asset. And by strength I do not mean that which is gained by lifting dumbbells in a gym, but instead to the mindset of being able to survive events as utterly crippling as the death of those we love. Judith Butler writes in first person to define what she deems the “feminist impulse” that “frequently stems from the recognition of my pain, or of my silence, or of my fury, or of my perception, which are eventually not solely mine, restricting myself in a shared cultural situation, which in turn enables and empowers me in unexpected ways” (Butler, 2011, p. 74-75). It is this impulse that the female characters from the three cinematographic expressions I analysed in the present paper illustrate in the small and in the big screens, for the “acts through which gender is constituted shares similarities with the performative acts in theatrical contexts” (Butler, 2011, p. 72). In today’s cinematographic expressions “man controls the fantasy of the film and also appears as the representative of power in a supplementary sense: he is as such in his quality of holder of the spectator’s gaze, transferring it to behind the screen to neutralise the extradiegetic tendencies represented by the woman as spectacle” (Mulvey, 2011, p. 126). One could say that Hitchcock is a master of voyeurism because he elevates the visual pleasure that cinema provides. One of the biggest examples of this disturbing gaze is portrayed in Vertigo, where Laura Mulvey writes that the Deft use (…) of the processes of identification and liberal use of the subjective camera from the point of view of the male protagonist profoundly attracts the viewers towards his position, forcing them to share in on his uncomfortable gaze. The scene on screen and its diegesis absorb the viewer in a voyeuristic situation that parodies in cinema their own situation. (Mulvey, 2011, p. 129). The works of the Brothers Quay, Mike Flanagan and, especially, of Gaia Violo attempt to deconstruct this idea that the male hero of the narrative is always the active element and the heroine the passive element of the action. If the female character ceases to be considered as the image and the male character as the holder of the gaze, it begins to be possible to demonstrate the importance of the role of the woman in the plot, and do away with the female’s side role as inspiring muse to the hero (Guerra et al., 2018, 2019). To the nineteenth century French poet and critic, Charles Baudelaire, the woman is “a scintillation of all of Nature’s graces condensed in a single creature; she is the object of admiration and the liveliest of curiosities that the painting that is life can offer to those who contemplate it” (Baudelaire, 2006, p. 307). However, I must note that Baudelaire is renowned for his use of irony in his texts; hence we cannot forget that, in one of his most famous opuses, Le peintre de la vie Moderne (The Painter of Modern Life), the idea 113 2.3 Dead in Absentia: the lack of a female Hollywood character of beauty is described as an inseparable duality: “beauty is made up of an eternal, unchanging, element the quantity of which is very much difficult to determine, and of an element that is relative, circumstantial, which will be, if we so wish, alternately or together, the times, trends, morals, the passion” (idem, p. 281). Both the “eternal” element and the “ephemeral” element are needed to the equilibrium of human nature. The possibility of reversing the roles is, largely, in the hands of feminist artists and influential persons with ties to culture that have a voice within the artistic community and are able defy identities, calling into question their origins and ideological functions, and “working in defence of an non-patriarchal expression of gender and of body” (Wolff, 2011, p. 120). The question is made: what do these totally different cinematographic experiences have in common? The answer is clear: three female characters that broke the stereotype of the perfect female Hollywood characters by showing their imperfections and at the same time, their perseverance, by living their story to the end as they want. Funding: This work is supported by National Funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology under the project UID/HIS/04059/2013, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Operational Program Competitiveness and Internationalization – COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007460). References Baudelaire, C. (2006). A invenção da modernidade: sobre arte, literatura e música. Relógio D’Água: Lisboa. Butler, J. (2011). Actos performativos e constituição de género: um ensaio sobre fenomenologia e teoria feminista. In A. G. Macedo, F. Rayner (Org.), Género, Cultura Visual e Performance: antologia crítica (pp. 69-87). Braga: Edições Húmus: Universidade do Minho. Flanagan, M. (Director). (2011). Absentia [Movie]. FallBack Plan Productions: USA. Guerra, P. & Oliveira, A. (2019). Heart of glass: Gender and domination in the early days of punk in Portugal. In D. Vilotijević & M. I. Medić (Eds.), Contemporary Popular Music Studies (pp. 127-136). Wiesbaden: Spinger. Guerra, P. & Bittencourt, L. & Gelain, G. (2018). “Punk Fairytale”: Popular Music, Media, and the (Re)Production of Gender. In M. S. Texler & V. Demos (eds.). Gender and the Media: Women’s Places (pp.49-68). Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. Mulvey, L. (2011). Prazer visual e cinema narrativo. In A. G. Macedo, F. Rayner (Org.). Género, Cultura Visual e Performance: antologia crítica (pp. 121132). V. N. Famalicão: Edições Húmus & Universidade do Minho. Quay, S., Quay, T (Directors). (2000). In Absentia [Short movie]. British Broadcasting Corporation: UK. Saramago, J. (2005). As intermitências da morte. Editorial Caminho: Lisboa. Schopenhauer, A. (1995). Dores do mundo: pensamentos e fragmentos. Hiena: Lisboa. Wolff, J. (2011). Recuperando a corporalidade: feminismo e política do corpo. In A. G. Macedo, F. Rayner (Org.), Género, Cultura Visual e Performance: antologia crítica (pp. 101-120). V. N. Famalicão: Edições Húmus & Universidade do Minho. Violo, G., Cirulnick, M. (Creators). (2017- present). Absentia [Television series]. Masha Productions: Israel, USA. 114 2.4 Lesboqueer Culture in electronic dance music scene in Spain Teresa López Castilla 76 A b s t r a c t From the beginning of the twenty-one century a lot of women’s collective DJs are emerging around the world working on the idea to make visible women in EDM scene. In the case of Spain, I focus my attention on a collective women DJs in 2002 in Barcelona with the purpose of subverting the sexual stereotypes around of electronic dance music into the club culture. This work presents the pathway of LesFatales’s collective in Barcelona in relation to its DIY way to work and its affinity with queer identities. The aims of this paper will be to explain this kind of project, pioneering in provide a particular electronic music scene related to queer identities, wit a feminist perspective and a guide for other collectives in Spain, that join a lot of people 15 years ago displaying different subjectivities and nonormative sexual identities around electric music scene. Keywords: Women’s collective’s dJs, electronic dance music, club culture, queer identities. 76 Universidad de Jaén. Jaén, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]. 115 2.4 Lesboqueer Culture in electronic dance music scene in Spain 1. Overview In this paper I would like to explain the meaning and the reason to be of the musical activity of lesboqueer women in the electronic dance music scene in Spain. First of all, I would like to clarify the term ‘lesboqueer’, which I use as a way to describe the protagonists of this story: ‘women who like women’ but who do not take part in the commodificated mainstream culture for lesbian girls while they consume music in a lesbian club. Next, I would like to talk about ‘scene’ and ‘subculture’ (Bennett, 2004, 2015) in popular music from an interdisplinary view. Cultural studies, sociology and ethnomusicology help us to understand the relations among music and space in the construction of identity. We consider this research within the current concept of ‘scene’, as a scholarship analysis’s model which include the study of social meaning in the music as a contemporary source in daily life. Otherwise the term ‘subculture’ it used here necessarily to underscore the queer identities features related to this culture club which are working in contrast with dominant culture. After exposing these terms we will be prepared to introduce the study case, a DJs women collective located in Barcelona (Spain) whose name is LesFatales. Looking at their case, we can know more about how different but similar collectives are working around the world to make women DJs visible in a global queer identity scene. 2. Reason to be The first point will be to contextualize our case study as it relates to the underground scene of electronic dance music in Barcelona (Spain), to queer identities and to club culture. The work of different writers like Andy Bennet, Ola Johansson, Sheyla Whiteley, McRobbie, Susan Driver, Jodie Taylor, et cetera helps me explain what I mean when I talk about ‘scene’ and in other lesboqueer subculture. The idea is to have a theoretical basis taken from subcultures studies in the last decade to understand minority groups (women, people of color, mid-lowerclass people) as active agents constructing their identities in interaction with electronic dance music in club culture environment. We know that around popular music many subcultures have been expressed while they were constructing their resistanting identities against dominant culture and politics. All subcultures created around popular music means in every historic moment a different way of expressing collective identity. In this process the music is a merging and constructing agent that works towards making the identity through interactions with people. One of the places where that happens it’s the club and the aim of this research is to understand the sociocultural meanings in a queer and postfeminist scene. In relation to this idea, Jack Halberstam (who has studied queer musical subcultures in the United States) emphasizes the importance of queer subcultures in opposition to mainstream gay and lesbian culture (2006, p.8). He informs about the power of media to present queer subcultures in a “voyeuristic and predatory” way which recognized and incorporated them at the same time. So this, one of the activist principles of queer culture is to oppose commodification to the mainstream culture that exists in gay and lesbian communities. In the context of electronic music of our case study, this principle tries to create other socio-musical spaces outside of commercial leisure, a safe place to construct and reinforce plural sexual identities in interaction with music in 116 the space of club culture. With this idea we aim at the statement supported by musical sociologist and subcultural studies scholars who sate that “popular music production and consumption is a vital resource in self-making and an integral node in the lifeworlds, collective identification and resistance practice of people” (Taylor, 2013, p.197) 3. Queer subculture in the electronic music scene According to Jodie Taylor, “queer subcultures become generative spaces where queer feelings, identities, experiences and politics are frequently expressed and negotiated in aesthetic terms: that is, through style” (Taylor, 2013, p.194). This idea is valid to explain how Lesfatales collective was emerging at the beginning of this century to resist commodification of lesbian clubs, and above all, to propose another kind of musical taste associated to lesbian women in night clubs. At the same time Lesfatales was joining people (at the beginning only lesbian and queer women) around a different style made of: • A particular electronic music genre (techno, minimal, electroclash) featured for the diversity between Karol Dj aka Elektroduenda (Electrovarieté) and DJ Rosario. • An idea of freedom to express a plural visibility of different sexualities among women included their ways to dance, to dress, to be in the club. For example, in 2008 when I met this party/collective in Barcelona the first time I could see how women showed their breast while they were in front of the stage dancing crazy and uninhibited. • A feminist activism to get more women playing electronic music in the clubs and supporting different social issues related to sexuality, inequality, and violence against women. • An idea of DIY management to be able to do all these things freely. Because of this, we can say that the Lesfatales collective have made a type of queer subculture around electronic music against patriarchal ideology, as an example that queer subcultures can produce alternative temporalities as J. Halberstam (2006, p.2) states: “by allowing their participants to believe that their futures can be imagined according to logics that lie outside of the conventional forward-moving narratives of birth, marriage, reproduction, and death”. Another important question into this idea of temporalities is to find intergenerational people participating in this party, thus changing the conventional concept of youth and adulthood alongside race, class and maturity. All these reasons conform a style into this queer subculture as Halberstam (2006, p.2) say paraphrasing Stuart Hall and Judith Butler around the term of ‘ritual’ as: “motion as a practice that can either reinforce or disrupt cultural norms”. But I dare to affirm that this queer subculture is part of a global scene: in the last decade many different collectives are emerging around the world with more or less the same principles and style (as I just say above with a feminist activism into electronic music). According to Bennet (2004) we can say 117 2.4 Lesboqueer Culture in electronic dance music scene in Spain that this subculture take place in three ways: as a local, trans-local, and virtual scene. Because these options satisfy a socio-musical necessity that happen in every city, but at the same time there exists networking among collectives and women artist in electronic music scene with similar perspective who also connect virtually through different platforms like female: pressure; pinknoises; shemakesnoise. Since the year 2000 there has been an increase of collectives of women DJs with a queer/feminist perspective constructing a network to provide more visibility to these artists, and simultaneously joining non-binary people (lesbian, queer, trans, and so on) in festivals, clubs, and parties. In this sense we can talk about a multi scene like a contracultural phenomenon “around stylistic and/or musicalized association as face-to-face contact in a venue, club or other urban setting” as Straw claims, where “memberships are not necessarily restricted according to class, gender or ethnicity, but may cut across all of these” (Bennett, 2004, p.225). Without a doubt we can consider the term “scene” here like a juxtaposition of electronic dance music, identity and place where these collectives are constructing other kind of cultural production and identities representations in local, translocal and virtual scenes. Some examples are Room4Resistance in Berlin, Discwoman in Brooklyn NY, Girls Gone Vynil in Chicago, etc. I would like to underline The Mahoyo Project, a creative collective from Sweden set up by three women (MyNa Do, Pia Do, Farah Yusuf) who work as filmmakers, photographers, DJs, club organizers and stylists. Their multicultural and racial diversity joined the arts and culture scene since 2008, establishing a wide network worldwide. Through transnational collaborations, they try to constantly challenge the status quo and push the limits where creativity becomes a weapon to challenge norms, structures and stereotypes. While they have Swedish nationality, they were born in China and Somalia, and recently traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa to collaborate with local artists who have counterparts in the creative scene in Stockholm where the collaboration continues. In both places we see a budding movement where norms and stereotypes are challenged. With this collective as proof I would like to support the idea of “aesthetics of heterogeneity” a term used by Jodie Taylor (2013, p.199) to describe how these queer women artists manipulate and reconstitute a variety of translocal popular music forms. This fluidity between musical genres are included into the sessions of Mahoyo Project as a mix of hip-hop, R&B, dancehall, Kuduro and House music. This is a feature existing in a queer music style according to a plural, openminded and sexually diverse perspective in all queer scene. 4. Knowing’s work in Spain Certainly, we can say that Lesfatales, like the other collectives named above, have been making a particular musical scene based on electronic dance music (I will talk about what kind of music this is) and participating in a feminist/queer way to create the party and their sessions. According to Johansson, music works here as “a cultural form that actively produces geographic discourses and can be used to understand broader social relations and trends, including identity, ethnicity, attachment to place, cultural economies, social activism and politics” (2009: 2). In this sense above all, LesFatales has growned in a DIY project with a feminist/queer perspective. 118 I have to say that Barcelona, where this collective emerged in 2002, is the principal capital of electronic music in Spain, celebrating an important festival, SONAR every year for the last 25 years. This tell us that LesFatales was rising in a city with an electorinc music scene but which lacked representation of women artist. In addition, the members of the collective wanted to create an alternative musical culture around the lesbian nightlife in Barcelona, apart from the commercial music normally consumed in lesbian clubs. Karol Villalon, aka Elektroduenda and Charo Salas, aka Dj Rosario founders of LesFatales with Gemma Delaguer aka Punto G -the VJ who does the visual performance- thought to generate this party to provide an alternative to nightlife’s commodification and to make a DIY space where unknown women DJs could Dj. In a flyer for a party on 2 July 2008 we can read an autodescription of their objective: Lesfatales Faktory, a women’s collective emerges from the necessity to create a representative platform in this área. Our aim is to facilitate interrelationships among artists and at the same time to help their external promotion by offering multidisciplinary sessions with quality and variety, which in other way were more limited and restricted. So, here we are! Ready to fill your nights and to grow with every beat surrounded by vinyls and projections to make you dance until daylight with our DJs: Elektroduenda, Neopinchadiscos, Cosmic, Dj Rosario, Cliché. Dance and dance…Elektropop, House, Elektroclash, Minimal, Elektro… Go with the flow by visuals mix of Punto G. These parties were only for (lesbian) women above at the beginning, and for non-binary people after. At that time, they were located in a workshop where Karol was working as a sculptor, but that on Sundays afternoon she transformed into a private club. There was not only a party with electronic dance music (not commercial) and Riot grrrl music, but they also organized exhibitions of photography, drag king workshop or even Djing classes (called ‘Mamá quiero ser Dj’) for women. Then they started to play in LGTBQ events in Barcelona and at the same time started writing fanzines with a feminist perspective. As more and more women were attending their events LesFatales moved to a bigger venue called Pigalle in a central street of the Gracia neighborhood. Is important to note that while this collective was growing, there were others emerging in Madrid and Bilbao (Clitpower and SoyTomboy respectively) in contact with them and doing some collaborations between 2006 and 2008. At this point LesFatales was doing a monthly party frecuently in other alternative and well-known venue in ‘Gracia’ neighborhood called KGB from 2008 to 2012 when they move definitively to Nitsa Club in ‘Sala Apolo’, close to Rambla in the downtown area, an important venue for electronic music in Barcelona. Since 2012 they have been doing parties in the same DIY way but with less frequency. At the moment LesFatales have at least a party once a year, because their members are working in different projects. Karol, for example, is doing a workshop called Deepdance linked to mindfulness. From the beginning LesFatales have collaborated with other collectives in 119 2.4 Lesboqueer Culture in electronic dance music scene in Spain social justice causes all linked to feminism and alternative leisure in streets’ parties in Barcelona in the ‘Barrio de Gracia’ o ‘Poble Sec’ neighborhoods. Lately they have been organizing other parties in the afternoon called ‘vermut electrónico’ in smaller venues linked to alternative and queer people. An example was the last year in a Social and anarchist Centre in Poble Sec named ‘Mundis Jauja’. There they were a party collaborating in an altruistic way to take in money for refugees. With the provocative slogan “Queer Parties Made in BCN with Love and Lust” (invented since 2010) Lesfatales celebrated fifteen years last summer. As they tell us: we have spent fifteen years ‘fatalenado’!” In sum, you can see a DIY perspective in their work translated not only in the self-management of the party. The way that they show and make the logo and the pictures/flyers could be described as ‘neopunk’ (Bennett & Guerra, 2019). Another relevant feature of LesFatales is how they set out a dresscode for their audience in every party naming it form an ironic point of view and subverting mainstream pictures and events introducing camp elements. For instance: halloqueer parties, vuelta al cole, la virgen del vinilo 2.0…) In addittion, I would like to call attention to the visuals which Punto G shows are based on women’s body deconstructing and subverting aesthetics representations and stereotypes allocates to female body but she gives it a new meaning something like rage, fury, desire, anxiety, and so on. Then, these bodies are not related to a normative erotic, but rather they change our vison in a post-pornography way (LesFatales have collaborated with post-pornography collectives like Post-Op in some parties). Punto G VJ deconstructing a binarism view of the body and sexuality juxtaposing concepts as: masculinity/ femininity; crazy/subjectivity; fetishism/technology… mixing different pictures with strong contrast and saturated colors on black, white and red background. These female representations go against the idea of woman as a sexual object and more towards a power referent. An interesting detail that stands out is how every LesFatales’s party finishes with a particular song which creates a sort of community and mutual understanding among the crew. Its about the musical French group Justice (electro house, electroclash music), the song ‘We are your friends’ (2006). In that video we can see this song ringing at the end of the last party in January creating a sort of involvement among people. Finally, I would like to sum up what kind of music and different artists were working in LesFatales’s parties. In addition, in the last party in January this year the famous DJ Cora Novoa a renowned Spanish artist, composer and producer was playing beside LesFalates. 5. Conclusion LesFatales emerged out of the necessity to offer a space to give visibility to women DJs who like playing electronic dance music outside of mainstream music. At the same time, they were constructing a place for lesbian and queer people doing it in a DIY way using different underground, alternative and legendary locals in Barcelona. Above all, they have been producing a ‘subcultural capital’ (Thorthon, 1995) in the queer electronic scene in their city but in contact with other collectives and parties in other points of Spain (Guerra et al., 2018). As I claim in this paper, this collective is part of a global scene with the same principles and feminist/queer perspective within the underground electronic music scene, making events, parties, and even festivals with a DIY intention. 120 Last but not least, I conclude that this study case is within the four points underlined by J. Halberstam and Jodie Taylor (2013, p.199) “in order to claim queer territory and establish queer visibility in contemporary subcultural studies”. Queer subcultures blur traditional distinctions between those who study and archive culture and those who make and consume culture. I recall that this study is based on an autoethnographic way calibrated it with subcultures and queer studies. This research considered the analysis of the leisure pursuits of queer and lesbian girls, so this I call them lesboqueer culture, paying attention to women not proposed by the dominant subcultural narrative, but now recuperated by post-subcultural studies (Jack Halberstam, Maria Pini, Sara Thorthon, Jodie Taylor, Rosa Reitsamer …). This research (a part of my dissertation on 2015) is like an archive to describe, to tell, to record this subcultural production which enable to know it and to continue in the future providing a queer discourse into queer electronic scene. Queer subcultures are not always youth-centric as subculturalists often remain active participants well into middle-age. Myself as a ‘insider’ researcher and middle-age ‘young’ have participated in the party meanwhile I check other ‘young’ people like me. In the end, I could say that the particular style of lesboqueer culture in the electronic scene conform a ‘heterogeneous aesthetic’ which comprise in the same party different kind of music according to different works of women DJs in the same party. This musical scene is in conjunction with a plural sexualities, identities and subjectivities which are participating in that kind of parties “to mark distinction, affiliation and communal identification in radically different ways to many hetero, lesbian and gay subcultures” (Taylor, 2013, p.199). References Bennett, A. & Guerra, P. (Eds.) (2019). DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes. Abingdon/Oxford: Routledge. Bennet, A.; Driver, S. (2015). Music scenes, space and the body. Cultural Sociology, Vol. 9(1), pp. 99–115. Bennett, A. (2004). Consolidating the music scenes perspective. Poetics, 32, pp. 223-234. De Nora, T. (2000). Music in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Driver, S. (2007). Queer girls and popular culture: Reading, Resisting, and Creating Media. New York: Peter Lang. Guerra, P. & Bittencourt, L. & Gelain, G. (2018). “Punk Fairytale”: Popular Music, Media, and the (Re)Production of Gender. In M. S. Texler & V. Demos (eds.). Gender and the Media: Women’s Places (pp.49-68). Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. Halberstam, J. (2006). What’s that smell? Queer Temporalities And Subcultural Lives. In Sheyla Whiteley and Jennifer Rycenga (Eds), Queering The Popular Pitch (pp.1-22). New York: Routledge. Kindle Reader e-book Johansson, O., Bell, T. (Eds). (2009). Sound, Society and the Geography of Popular Music. UK: Ashgate. Taylor, J. (2013). Claiming Queer Territory in the Study of Subcultures and Popular Music. Sociology Compass, (7)3, pp. 194–207. Whiteley ,S, Bennett, A. and Hawkins, S. (Eds.). (2005). Music, space and place: Popular music and cultural identity. Aldershot: Ashgate. 121 2.5. Understanding the dynamics of the solidarity economy: A study on some cases in Turkey Cihan Ertan 77 A b s t r a c t Globalization of the economy and the dynamics of the market mechanism have brought about numerous problems for both individuals and society in general. Environmental problems, lack of sufficient information being conveyed between market and consumers, lack of information concerning the processes of producing etc. are the examples of the problems that are brought about by the market mechanism. Alternative economic practices are being constituted by individuals in various forms of sociation such as collectives, entrepreneurs etc. in order to cope with those problems mainstream capitalist economy caused through creating social values for the common good. The concept of solidarity economy is being adopted in the article in order to indicate these alternative economic practices; and the main of this article is to shed light on the solidarity patterns of the activities relied on nonmainstream economy within the scope of some cases in the light of four cases from Turkey. Keywords: solidarity economy, nonmainstream economy, social value. 77 Duzce University - Department of Sociology. Duzce, Turkey. Email: [email protected]. 122 1. Conceptual framework It would be appropriate to commence first with how the solidarity economy can be defined and how it can be differentiated from other economic activities. Some conceptual difficulties exist concerning to define economic activities that focus on the social common good and that are apart from mainstream market economy whose primarily aim is to make profit (Bravo, 2016). These economic activities, distinct from the market economy in most cases, are being conceptualized by different terms such as social entrepreneurship, alternative economy, DIY economy, social economy, solidarity economy etc. and those definitions may be used interchangeably (Öztürk, 2013; Baglione & Schlüter, 2010; Santos, 2009; Hoogendoorn et. al., 2010). Along with the diversity of concepts and beyond them, these kind of activities should be understood in a broad sense since these are not solely the activities based on the economic interests but are the response to the market mechanism that cannot meet the conditions of a desirable society. Environmental problems, lack of sufficient information conveyed between market and consumers, lack of information concerning the processes of production etc. are the examples of the problems of the market mechanism (Ikemoto & Matsuni, 2015: 3). To define the solidarity economy is not an easy task since the characteristic of a solidarity economic activity is based on the local social conditions and cultural contexts although social issues of today may not easily be considered apart from globalization (Öztürk, 2013). Yet, even if making a conceptual definition of it is not easy, it can be explained as the pursuit of economic, social and environmental goals by ventures focusing upon the social issues such as democratization of the social structure, pollution, ecology, human health, inequality, problems of disadvantageous individuals etc. (Haugh, 2007). As Dacheux and Goujon suggested (2012: 205), solidarity economy is a countermovement toward the global economy that detracts the human from the center in the interest of actors of the global market economy, seeking to put the human and cultural diversity again at the center of the economy which means the “democratization of the economy” that may result in a more democratic world. From this point, it can be suggested that, as a nonmainstream economic activity, solidarity economy can be used as a generic term in order to refer to the ventures focusing on the social and environmental issues, even sometimes irrespective of whether they make profit or not. For, being socially responsible, doing social good and making a profit may not be composing mutually exclusive position (Hoogerndoorn et al., 2010). As Pearce pointed (as cited in Quiroz – Nino & Muga – Menoyo, 2017, p. 2 - 3), economic systems can be classified by their values, principles, priorities, and their aims to be fulfilled by the people and organizations. According to this, three types of economic systems can be addressed: (1) the private, (2) the public, and (3) the social. The first type of economic system refers to the private sector and its basic aim is to make profit in the market economy. The second type contains the institutions of public service. The third one, the social economic system, is being identified by solidarity and principles of reciprocity. The distinctive characteristics of the social economic system are depended on the purpose and the actors of it. In this context, the actors of the social economic system are largely – it is said largely because, as can be seen in the samples given below, some activities of solidarity economy can be created by private entrepreneurs or jointly with public initiatives that yet their main purpose is not to make profit - civil society whose members are seeking the 123 2.5. Understanding the dynamics of the solidarity economy: A study on some cases in Turkey common good, good living, to protect nature and environment, to make the information flow possible between producer and consumer, to call for equality and solidarity etc. Solidarity economy usually involves the small scale local efforts and encompasses wide range of microeconomic ventures from creating a local social currency to organic farming cooperatives, consumption cooperatives, collective kitchens (Santos, 2009; Dacheux & Goujon, 2012, p. 206). Globalization of the economy and the dynamics of the market mechanism have brought about numerous problems for both individuals and society in general. As Mindt and Reickmann suggested (as cited in Quiroz – Nino & Muga – Menoyo, 2017, p. 1), current economic system causes both destruction of nature, climate change and social injustice along with the various forms of problems individuals have to face. In order to overcome these problems or failures of the market mechanism, which can be listed as increasing gap between individuals, ignorance of nature issues, increasing poverty, alienating individuals from their altruistic nature etc., some various activities emerge which can be conceptualized as “solidarity economy”. Thus, solidarity economy is beyond solely being a set of economic activities in a traditional sense, it is an interactional situation between individuals based not only on economic interests but also on altruism and solidarity. Although it is related solely to entrepreneurship not to social entrepreneurship, Gartner (1985) points to the need of criteria through which ventures can be classified and compared to each other, thus diversities of ventures can be discovered with reference to the similarities and differences between them. Although these classification tools suggested by Gartner (1985) seem to be primarily for ventures pursuing economic profits, it can be broadened and utilized in order to both understand and interpret the activities of solidarity economy. This conceptualizing consists of: (a) individual(s) which refers to the background, experience, and attitudes of the entrepreneur; (b) process is related, generally speaking, to what the entrepreneur does and how she does so; (c) environment involves the factors triggering the emergence of a venture; (d) organization points to the characteristics of the entrepreneurship in terms, for instance, of whether it is manufacturing, service, retail or wholesale etc. (Gartner, 1985). As Hoogendoorn et al. (2010) suggested, social entrepreneurs might be classified and assessed by four different paradigms, noting also that it is difficult to differentiate these paradigms or schools of thought with certain boundaries. To briefly summarize, the Innovation School, firstly, focuses on the individuals who seek to produce solution for social problems in an innovative way and they can make it by either nonprofit or for-profit enterprises. Secondly, the Social Enterprise School is being described as the ventures which are completely nonprofit and have a fundamental principle in terms of nondistribution of profits. Since it can have positive contribution to effectiveness, adopting business methods, according to this school, is a favorable idea for the success of organizations. Another approach which tries to identify social enterprises is being called The Emergence of Social Enterprise in Europe (EMES). According to the EMES approach, a social enterprise is an initiative who is lunched by a group of citizens, has an agenda for the common good, is highly participatory, is horizontally constituted, allows for limited distribution of profit, and its decision making process is not based on capital ownership. The types of organizations such as cooperatives, associations, foundations can be counted within this approach (Hoogendoorn et al., 2010; Defourny, 2013). Finally, UK 124 approach defines social enterprises as “businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximize profits for shareholders and owners.” (as cited in Hoogendoorn et al., 2010, p. 9). As is seen, these approaches above, in a Weberian sense, can be considered as ideal types of social enterprises which means that a venture with the aim(s) of social benefit may have the characteristics fitting into one approach or more than one approaches simultaneously. However, besides all the distinctions between these approaches, it can easily be claimed that the creation of social value and solving a social problem are the common ground all of these approaches share (Bravo, 2016). From Simmelian formal sociological perspective, meeting social needs that are not met by the market economy by creating social value is the form of the social enterprises and they may only differ from each other by how they act within this form. As can be seen from the some cases from Turkey discussed below, the actors of social enterprises may have different agendas although their shared principle aim of creating and maintain social value never changes. The main aim of this article is to shed light on the solidarity patterns of the activities relied on nonmainstream economic activity within the scope of some cases in Turkey which will be presenting below, rather than focusing on the ways of the economic organization of the cases. In that context, the article argues the forms of the sociation of the actors of the solidarity economy as cultural formations. Thus, the article seeks to shed light on the multilateral agenda of the actors of solidarity economy included in the study, demonstrating that micro activities around the ethos of solidarity economy cannot be restricted to a given contestation area and hence that they should be considered in a broader sense since a solidarity economic actor might be resisting in various field with the various aims to the dominant social constitution that brings about some social and political problems at once such as ecological issues, human health, economic inequality, gender inequality etc. by creating, offering, and implementing alternative social values apart from the hegemonic ones. In this article, solidarity economy will be used as the concept in order to refer nonmainstream economic activities within the article since it is considered that solidarity economy presents a broader conceptual framework which is both more accurate regarding the aims of it and less evocative of conventional economic activities seeking to have individualistic profit. The following sections of the article include, after methodology, the cases that are given a place within the study and the analyzing of these cases in the context of their own dynamics such as aims and actors in order to provide an insight concerning some cases of solidarity economy in Turkey. 2. Methodology Qualitative research method was adopted in order to obtain data from the field. The reason of adopting such a research strategy is that it can provide more detailed and accurate data concerning the experiences of the research objects so as to build elaborate sociological perspective. As Denzin and Lincoln suggested (1998: 3 - 8), qualitative research is a useful strategy that enables the researcher to study how “social experience is created and given meaning” and that provides the researcher with empirical materials in order to illuminate the everyday activities, routines, “problematic moments”, and meanings in 125 2.5. Understanding the dynamics of the solidarity economy: A study on some cases in Turkey individuals’ lives. Some of these empirical materials are case study, personal experience, interview, visual text, and observation of all which help to explain the reality socially constructed by individuals’ points of view. Thus, to study the attributed meanings of individuals to their activities illuminates the social reality that is constructed upon these activities, and thus reveals the ways of sociation of different social groups and the forms of their divergence, convergence, and articulation experiences with regard to social structure. Therefore, the study, using the qualitative data related to the cases it researches, seeks to comprehend the dynamics of the solidarity economy, which is relatively a new social phenomenon, with reference to the experiences of the actors of this economy. This study is depended upon the data obtained from four ventures of solidarity economy in Turkey whose names are Kadıköy Cooperative, Eppek, Arthereİstanbul, and The Kitchen of Woman Refugees (TKOWR)78. In that context, face – to face in-depth interviews were carried out with three collective actors of solidarity economy in Turkey, İstanbul which are Kadıköy Cooperative, Eppek, and Arthereİstanbul. TKOWR was interviewed by sending the research questions and taking back the detailed answers through e – mail from the one who is both one of the founders and volunteers of TKOWR. In addition to in – depth interviews, other qualitative indirect data sources such as web pages, social media accounts, and internet videos containing interviews with the actors of the solidarity economy were drew on with the aim of to comprehend their various micro activities around the notion of solidarity economy. 3. Bread Case of Solidarity: ‘Eppek’ The word is “Eppek” is a witty usage of the word “Ekmek” in Turkish which means “Bread” in English. “Eppek” is an individual enterprise which has been brought into life in 2016 by a married couple who had had a professional occupation before the venture of Eppek. The interviewee said that “… after a health problem which was caused by the nutritional habits and indoor working conditions, I resigned and settled in a farm that is engaged in organic agriculture”. This farm is also the place they buy one of their flours that they use in order to make a bread today. This farm is engaged in an organic agriculture which they called “wise peasant agriculture”, containing some oldschool farming technics such as dealing with the insects producing curative by stinging nettle or garlic rather than using chemical pesticide. Alongside of this farm Eppek is connected with other organic wheat producers from other cities in Turkey such as Çankırı, Antalya, Çanakkale. This social interaction and “sociation”, in Simmelian perspective (Wolf, 1950, p. 9 – 10), between actors of solidarity economy is crucial since it ensures the maintenance of the activities of this economy based on the spirit of the idea of solidarity. At first, the entrepreneurs of Eppek commence making their own bread from the organic flours at home just for themselves. Later on, they come to be known by their social circle and take orders from those who would like to consume healthy and organically produced bread. Before opening a store, they were conveying the breads to consumers distributing them on agreed date and place. The entrepreneurs of Eppek highlight the need of the direct relation and interaction between producer, seller and consumer which is one of the main characteristic of the solidarity economy who focuses on health issues related to nutrition and organic farming. As the interviewee stated: 78 Acronym of the author. 126 We provide our customer with the names and the addresses of the producers we work with so that they can go visit them and see how their bread is being produced. This is the transparency that we would love to provide. They can also work voluntarily on harvest season and help the workers of the farms and I think it is significant for solidarity. To provide consumers, unlike mainstream market economy, with the opportunity to have the information about production process constitutes a mutual trust between the producer and the consumer. Besides, this principle of transparency enables the consumer to have control on and be involved in the production process, and to construct an interaction with the product she consumed. Eppek is in cooperation with small growers which are not easy to find out but at that point communication between the actors of solidarity economy becomes significant both in terms of solidarity economy itself and of the actors supporting each other within this economy. As the interviewee pointed out: To reach these small growers seemed impossible at the beginning. However, the owner of the farm I was working voluntarily helped me to reach to other small growers of wheat who doesn’t use any chemical. So we went out for a ‘wheat tour’ which was quite long. They gave me some other names who are also small growers using ‘ancestry seed’. That is to say, we found out the producers in the field… It should be added that these small growers are household producers. However, as it can be seen, they don’t produce only for themselves and for their consumption (Ironmonger, 2000: 3). However, at the same time, they don’t produce for mass market, either. In that context, being able to reach and interact with each other is crucial both for entrepreneurs and small growers since this interrelations between the actors are inherent to solidarity economy. In this regard, it is crucial whether these growers are in a position to constitute an interaction and whether they are located in a place that is convenient for this interaction. As the interviewee suggested, “the small growers who have connection with the city are luckier than the ones who do not have in terms of selling their products. That’s why today the production of ancestry seed is quite limited”. Environmental awareness comes into prominence in the case of Eppek as in other samples of solidarity economy. It is quite obvious in the way they produce their bread by using organic or ancestry seed wheat bought from small growers. Besides, there are some other solidarity practices which arise from the interaction between Eppek and its customer which doesn’t seem possible in the system of market economy. For instance, as the interviewee stated: “We are buying organic egg from one of our small producers. They send us these eggs in a cardboard box and we sell them to our customer in these boxes. We ask our customer for bringing the boxes back after they are done with it. So both the producer, we, and customer can use the same boxes continually and, in this way, we can contribute to prevent waste and to protect environment.” 127 2.5. Understanding the dynamics of the solidarity economy: A study on some cases in Turkey 4. Kadıköy Cooperative Kadıköy79 Cooperative has been legitimized in 2016. However, its emergence as an idea is depended on the neighborhood solidarity groups that have been constituted after Gezi movement whose agenda is that, as the interviewee suggested: “We needed a cooperative because agricultural policy in Turkey has been changing not for good. The only model of egalitarian and democratic collective structuring was to constitute a cooperative.” Even before the cooperative was legitimized, the core team of the cooperative was playing an active role by distributing the products of small growers making ecologic farming in the given area of the city by the ecological concerns. The cooperative is a consumer cooperative and the products are being sold in the store of the cooperative at the lowest price. The cooperative does only add extra price on the products in order to afford some outcomes such as taxes, transport, rent, and bills. The main purpose of such kind of pricing is to cover the outcome of the cooperative, not to earn profit. The cooperative doesn’t add any extra price on the products from the disadvantageous groups such as women (e. g. jams from The Kitchen of Refugee Women; fabric wallets and bags hand-made by African women migrants), and former convicted. Besides, they pay for the items from these disadvantaged people not when the items sold but in advance. The interviewee underline the altruistic structure of the cooperative which is shared by the members of it: We don’t pursue individual economic profit. We consider ourselves as a part of the solidarity economies in the world… I put myself after the cooperative. I every time tell my other friends in the cooperative that in case there is a problem in the process of preparing the products such as lack of money in the cashbox let me know about it and we can deal with it between us… When we are organized, it would give a pleasure in a different level. I go to the store of the cooperative, empty the trash, clean it from the floor to rest room. I do all of these with love. I am aware that if I reach and sell the products of these small growers, she would be schooling her child(ren) easier. That’s the point of the solidarity economy. (Interviewee 2, Female). Kadıköy Cooperative has 5 principles or social interests of which each one of them is the fundamental element of the solidarity economy. According to the interviewee, “nourishment is a contestation area” (Interviewee 2, Female) and all these principles of the cooperative is concerning to protecting environment, consuming healthy food, and reconstructing the relationship between human and nature for common good. … (1) Ecologic farming, (2) solidarity with the small growers who make ecologic agriculture, and ecologic relations … (3) solidarity in a broad sense (4) reciprocity (relations between producer and consumer based on mutual trust and initiative) (5) democratic organization and equal decision making. 79 Kadıköy is a district in İstanbul. 128 Concerning gender relations of the cooperative, it should be suggested that majority in the cooperative are women. According to the interviewee, the reason of that women are higher in number than that of men is that women develop more positive relation to nature than men, and also, maybe more importantly, that they are much more in need of being in solidarity than men. As she stated; “The need of women and men to be organizing politically, especially when the ecology is at stake, can be different. Women are always at the forefront… Women are always more reactional than men against harming the nature. I don’t know what is problem men have…” There is a priority of women in the agenda of the cooperative. Thus, solidarity between women is being seemed more significant. The interviewee tells about it as follows: “When we find a women cooperative to be in solidarity, it makes us happier. We take an action quickly and contact with them in terms of what they produce, how they produce etc...” There is also a subunit within the cooperative consisting of solely women which pays attention only to women issues and seeks the solution to the problems they are informed about through solidarity. It should also be noted, concerning gender regime, that women actors of the cooperative act completely independent from the men in the cooperative in terms of women issues. In this context, it can be suggested that those who are able to speak on behalf of women are only women. … One day we informed about that one of our friends was harassed by a security staff… We immediately mobilized to act with solidarity, found a lawyer, tried not to leave her alone and to make sure of if she was in need of psychological support etc… This women unit have such duties. When women unit makes a decision, it is being sent by e-mail to all the members of the cooperative and men cannot discuss about this decision. They have to admit as it is… 5. The Kitchen of Refugee Women (Tkorw) The collective organization of ‘The Kitchen of Refugee Women’ has been founded by Syrian women, migrated from Syria to Turkey, under the same roof of Okmeydan80 Social Solidarity Association which is a neighborhood association previously founded by local Turkish women in order to deal with the local problems of the neighborhood; for instance, helping poor families, sharing second hand dresses etc. However, after massive migration from Syria to Turkey, the women who are the founder of the neighborhood association had met the immigrants and been a part of their compelling process of being an immigrant in a host country. Hence, the association have become an organization which started to meet the needs of Syrian immigrants and now these immigrants women are the active member of the association. The main aim of this solidarity is to incorporate women to production and, in this sense, improve economic condition of Syrian women immigrants. From this aim, the idea of constituting a kitchen has emerged and the kitchen has opened officially in 2017 and now it is in its process of being an Cooperative. This solidarity constituted between Turkish and Syrian women has multifold outputs in terms of both child rights and women visibility in public space that 80 A district in İstanbul. 129 2.5. Understanding the dynamics of the solidarity economy: A study on some cases in Turkey engenders a negotiation and change in gender relations, although these are not primarily defined objectives of the Kitchen. As the interviewee suggested: The life conditions of Syrian refugees in Okmeydanı is quite difficult. Anybody who is able to work, including children, were working as informally. The only ones who didn’t work or were not allowed to work were women since it is not approved in their own culture. However, labor is an adults’ responsibility, children should be going to school and play with their peers. When we asked women coming to our association regularly about what we could do together in solidarity, we did meet in common: meal, pickle, and jam… Some of our friends, who hesitated even to go out before, come to the Kitchen to work now leaving their children with their husbands. As one of the Turkish women from the organization stated, “Women predominantly play an active role in this solidarity practice and the husbands of these Syrian women don’t exist. They are said that they go work or they are ashamed that’s why they don’t attend to organization.” (https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=p3VVZhbBKIA). It can be claimed from this statement that the participation of the Syrian immigrant women to the organization despite of the attitudes of their husband and turning their mundane unpaid domestic labor into a labor through which they are able to be improved socioeconomically can be read as a resistance to patriarchy and hegemonic cultural structure which place women in a subordinated position. In addition, the main aim of the kitchen is not only to support these refugee women economically but to constitute intercultural dialogue between Turkey and Syria that is being needed especially in the times of high-intensity migration occurs. This aim based on the principle of solidarity is being described by one the members of the organization as follows: These women have met by making jam and pickle… We, as the association, were considering of how we could maintain this solidarity, how we built up a life in that we live together with our Syrian neighbors … And now, The Kitchen of Refugee Women is an industrial kitchen with full of hope in where 17 women lead the way of miracles. Products such as jam, pickles, regional food are being made by 17 Syrian women who escaped from the war in Syria and came to Turkey as a refugee. By this alternative economic organization, these refugee women are having an opportunity to improve their social - economic condition by means of selling their homemade products. The solidarity that the actors of the Kitchen seek to construct is relied also upon the cooperation with other local cooperatives, initiatives, and association. These products made by the women are being sold in various places such as their own association, kermis, other cooperative; for instance, Kadıköy Cooperative and Eppek that have been mentioned previously sells the products produced by refugee women in the Kitchen. It can be seen that human health is also considered by the organization. The 130 organization noted that they would like to eat the food they can produce and share this healthy and clean food with the other residents of the neighborhood. It is highlighted by the members of ‘the kitchen’ that we should be avoid the self-interest since we need to do so for the common good. 6. Solidarity meets art: The Case of ‘Arthereistanbul’ ArtHereİstanbul, at first glance, can be considered a place in where only artistic activities take place. It would be a superficial understanding if the issues of how these artistic activities are being organized and what social values, which is the distinctive characteristic of solidarity economy, are being created through the aims of the place wouldn’t be taken into consideration. Additionally, ArtHereİstanbul does identify itself as an art-café in that homemade foods are being sold. However, the management of the café is non-mainstream since there is no one employed here. If the visitors of the ArtHereİstanbul would like to drink or eat something, they help themselves and leave the price, which is written on a list, in the box. It can be suggested that this way of running the café’ is based on mutual trust between people thus it contributes to constitution and reinforcement of social sense of trust. Further, it also eliminates the hierarchical relations between the actors, for example between waiters and visitors. This might be seen as an insignificant symbolic level of the interaction; however, this symbolic interaction arises from and refers to the main principles that are to be a democratic, nonhierarchical, and horizontal organization, through which the organization crates its form of sociation. ArtHereİstanbul has been founded by Syrian artist Omar Berakdar in 2015 in İstanbul, Yeldeğirmeni which is a district of the city whose rents for places were relatively low in first years following the opening of ArtHereİstanbul. However, a gentrification process has been initiated in that district especially since 2016 and now it is a challenging factor for the actor who seeks to field of practice with insufficient resources. The founder of the ArtHereİstanbul considers this process in an interview as follows: There is a magnificent cosmopolite energy in here. Yeldeğirmeni is a very active district with its people, graffities, art studios, collective art places. At first, rents were reasonable in here… but within the last two years, the scene has completely changed in Yeldeğirmeni. Dozens of cafés have been opened of who have set forth with the idea of engaging in artistic activities and identified themselves as ‘studio – café’ (so as do we)… Unfortunately, it has brought about some costs. Yeldeğirmeni is a center of attraction now and rents are getting higher. It would be sad if Yeldeğirmeni would be considered by the people living here as expensive. (Sanaç, n.d.). ArtHereİstanbul has been founded primarily, at least at the beginning, for Syrian artists, who migrated from Syria to Turkey due to the war and political upheavals in Syria, with the purpose of providing them with a studio for 131 2.5. Understanding the dynamics of the solidarity economy: A study on some cases in Turkey free, a ground to construct an artistic network and to continue performing their arts, and a place to both exhibit and to sell their works. Although it has been founded by the artists from Syria, it constitutes a common ground for Turkish artists as well. Thus, it can be suggested that ArtHereİstanbul is an inter-cultural juncture of Syrian and Turkish cultures which is also significant because a massive migration from Syria to Turkey has taken place since early 2012. ArtHereİstanbul have a characteristic of an answer to these political changes and of creating a social value which seeks to bring people from different cultures together by using the art as common ground: “I guess it is a reaction against the geopolitics changes, mass migrations, rigid politics about borders, wars, depressive international politics atmosphere, inequality, lack of freedom of speech…” (Sanaç, n.d.). The primary aim of the organization is not to make profit rather, as mentioned before, to create social value based on solidarity by using the field of art as common ground. The main income of the organization is being provided from selling the works of the artist; by this way while the organization can maintain itself – in terms of covering the rent and bills-, artists are being supported as well. Therefore, the main aim is to constitute social ground relying on solidarity. The solidarity between the actors is not based on directly financial support but social interaction. For instance, one of the Syrian artist who was interviewed stated that once he worked as an interpreter from Turkish to Arabic in a biennial, which he found this opportunity through ArtHereİstanbul and he couldn’t have had this otherwise. This demonstrates that the founding sprit of the organization is solidarity between the actors, especially immigrants, who may not have social, cultural, and economic resources in a market in that capitalist competitive values are dominant. In addition, the place of the organization hosts performers from diverse artistic field such as music, theater, poetry etc. from all over the world who would like to meet the people interested in their performances. The participation to these artistic events is for free as well as performers are not being paid for their performances. As the founder of ArtHereİstanbul emphasized, “… the groups who come to our place and perform are not doing it for money but for themselves and for the community… It creates a great interaction between the artists and audiences” (Sanaç, n.d.). It can be asserted that the nonmainstream economic activities are at stake in the context of the organization and these activities are being utilized for the purpose of the organization that focuses upon creating social value rather than having economic profit. 7. Close remarks Although the difficulties concerning how the solidarity economy should be defined, this article seeks to make an empirical contribution to the theoretical framework about the solidarity economy by means of the cases that are included in the study. All three cases included in the study seek to create social values, implementing micro and alternatives ways of constituting a collective economic practices based on solidarity, which are neglected by the macro political and economical social structures. It can be suggested that the characteristics of solidarity economy is primarily based on the social and political dynamics of a society in a given time. However, it doesn’t mean that global conjunctural dynamics don’t have any influence in emergence of the actors of solidarity economy. In other words, it should be considered as 132 an intertwined process which determines the primary characters and aims of the solidarity economic activities. The cases of ArtHereİstanbul and The Kitchen of Refugee Women do exemplify this feature of solidarity economy since these are the organization emerging in local so as to meet social need for the common good; however their emergence is based on the some global political dynamics such as inner conflict and war in Syria. It should also be suggested that the actors of solidarity economy mentioned above act within the hegemonic economic structure by being alternatively articulated. This requires, in the context of popular cultural approach, to utilize the mediums of the dominant along with the aims of creating social values that are neglected by the dominant. Various mediums at hand are being mobilized by the actors of the solidarity economy in accordance with the focuses of the organizations. Thus, the creation of social values by the actors of the solidarity economy is not limited to tangible activities but facilitated by technological information generating media such as Instagram and Facebook. The scope of the solidarity economy cannot be limited to founder actors of organizations, associations, initiatives or ventures. Therefore, individuals who don’t play an active role in constituting a solidarity economy and participate in it as a consumer can be considered as the part of this economy since they, somehow, organize their everyday life practices based on the tenets of solidarity which seeks to build a just and sustainable world. It can, lastly, be indicated that within the cases being incorporated into the study women seem to more active in the solidarity economy than men do. Thus, the claim of the feminization of the solidarity economy, avoiding a deterministic argument, can be suggested. 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(Interviewer) & Berakdar, O. (Interviewee) (N.D.) Savaşa ve politik çekişmelere üstün gelen sanat aşkına: ArtHere. Retrieved from http://www.bantmg.com/magazine/issue/post/48/740 134 135 2.5. Understanding the dynamics of the solidarity economy: A study on some cases in Turkey THEME TUNE 3 ASK THE ANGELS’: DIY CULTURES, UNDERGROUND MUSIC SCENES AND ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE © Esgar Aclerado 136 3.1 Digital platforms and the professionalization of DIY in the popular music field. The experiences of longtime independent musicians Francesco D’Amato 81 A b s t r a c t Over the past ten years grassroots music production has been incentivized by an increasing number of web-platforms that allow to autonomously manage music promotion and distribution. The adoption of such tools has been fostered by the promise to facilitate the development of sustainable DIY careers, however is widely debated ‘how much’ and ‘for who’ they are actually able to do so, especially considering the wider changes affecting music production. The article aims to offer a specific contribution to this debate, presenting the results of a qualitative research which investigates the practices and evaluations of fifteen DIY musicians who experienced the transition from the pre-web 2.0 era to nowadays. It will be highlighted how experiences and uses of digital platforms supporting selfproduction are generated at the intersection between the conditioning of the hyper-competitive context that they contributed to create, perceived as a request of professionalization, and the different sensitivities, resources and aspirations of the musicians. Keywords: music, DIY, digital platforms, social media, economy of attention. 81 University of Rome “La Sapienza” – Department of Communication and Social Research. Rome, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]. 137 3.1DigitalplatformsandtheprofessionalizationofDIYinthepopularmusicfield.Theexperiencesoflong-timeindependentmusicians 1. Premises and promises Over the past ten years grassroots music production has been incentivized by an increasing number of web-platforms that allow to autonomously manage fund-raising, promotion and distribution of music contents, such as social networks and content aggregators (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube), generic and specialized crowdfunding platforms (i.e. Kickstarter and Music Raiser), various web-services specifically aimed to musicians (i.e. Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Bandcamp, Tunecore, Reverb Nation). The adoption of such tools in the context of music self-production has been fostered by the promise to facilitate the development of sustainable DIY careers, engaging wider audiences and improving the efficiency of self-production despite the limited resources that typically characterize it. How ever there is currently much discussion concerning ‘if’, ‘how much’ and ‘for who’ they are actually able to do so, especially considering the wider changes affecting the context of music production (Hesmondhalgh & Meier, 2015; Haynes & Marshall, 2018). Maximizing the potential of the platforms requires new skills, an exhausting affective labour and considerable investments in time and social capital, while the results are often below expectations (Sargent, 2009; Young & Collins, 2010; Hracs, 2015; D’Amato, 2016; Haynes & Marshall, 2018). At the same time, old and new gatekeepers and intermediaries still seem to have considerable relevance in the current environment, overcrowded of proposals and new tools to be used strategically (Young & Collins, 2010; Hesmondhalgh & Meier, 2015; Hracs, 2015; Haynes & Marshall, 2018). In order to offer a specific contribution to this debate I will present the results of a qualitative research investigating the practices and experiences of fifteen Italian musicians who have been self-producing since the beginning of the millennium, who directly experienced the changes in self-production from the pre-web 2.0 era to nowadays. Such a type of respondents clearly implies a remarkably defined and narrow point of view on the research topic, however for this same reason it can offer very specific – and in my opinion valuable – insights on the changing conditions of music self-production. The musicians were all between 33 and 40 years of age, they all regularly play live and published several albuns (never less than three), most of which selfproduced, acting within the same or with different projects. They all can be considered underground, albeit with different degree of popularity in the scene, and almost all of them do other jobs in order to make a living, mostly related to the music field. Four of them also created their own independent micro-labels and have produced other musicians. Their music can be ascribed to very different genres: progressive, alternative and post- rock (Davide, Andrea, Marcello, and Federico), elettro-rock (Gianluca), pop-rock (Marco, Ascanio), industrial and avant-garde (Giuseppe), elettro-pop (Paolo, Fabrizio), breakcore (Riccardo), garage and noise (Luca, Stefano), a mixture of rap, rock and canzone d’autore (Lucio), jazz (Alessandro). The in-depth interviews aimed at exploring which changes these musicians have experienced in their work - especially in relation to the introduction of web-platforms supporting self-production (the most used by the respondents were Facebook, YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Tunecore and to a lesser extent Mixcloud, Jamendo, Cd Baby, Kickstarter and Music Raiser) – how they evaluate such changes and what affects different perceptions regarding improvements or worsening of both their situation and music self-production in general (Bennett & Guerra, 2019). 138 The rest of the paper will be organized as follows: the second and third paragraphs will present the the discourses of the interviewees concerning their approach to DIY, the current context of self-production and its problems, while the fourth and fifth will shift the focus on the potentialities ascribed to digital platforms, the skills and resources considered necessary to use them effectively, the ways in which different types of musicians deal with these issues. The last paragraph summarizes the results and place them critically in the context of wider cultural and social dynamics linked to what Bascetta (2015) calls the ‘economy of promise’. 2. The musicians and their context Talking about the motivations leading to self-production, most of the interviewed spoke about the literal “urgency” of making and realizing their music, despite the lack of financial support from a label, which in some cases was not found, at least not without the request to modify their projects, while in other cases was not sought, in order not to risk to incur in interferences or because the labels were considered substantially inefficient - or even counterproductive - for the ‘alternative’ proposals of still unknown musicians. In the past, with a label that came into play before we recorded, it happened that they chose the artistic producer and the person for the mixing, and it came out a record that I don’t like how it sounds, I listen to it now and I’m not happy. Instead for that album I wanted to have complete control: I chose the engineer, working closely with him, I chose who made the cover, who took the photos, who made the video, I chose the press agency, I even found the evenings alone, and I had to match everything ... it was a very tough job. (Gianluca). Instead of sending it to labels, with which to quarrel, because that was my experience, I said to myself “you know what? I make myself a vinyl in 500 copies”. I wanted to have complete control of the product, including graphics, photos, etc. (Riccardo). Most labels ask you money to press the record and then care more about the selling than the promotion and circulation of the music. (Alessandro). In some cases, taking of the DIY path was influenced by the discourses linking alternative culture and expressive freedom to independence from the music industry. I started to produce myself in part because an independent label would not have guaranteed anything more than you could have done alone, and in part because from of my political background, I 139 3.1DigitalplatformsandtheprofessionalizationofDIYinthepopularmusicfield.Theexperiencesoflong-timeindependentmusicians came from the social centers, from that path, so obviously there was an ethical discourse linked to independence. (Lucio). It was probably a choice conditioned by the cultural and social dynamics of the time, because between the 1990s and 2000s, when we were just eighteen years old, we were pervaded by an atmosphere and by a corridor voice that stimulated to start selfproduction, since it was considered the only way to be able to propose your own idea of an artistic project. So, we were partly stimulated by a desire for autonomy, partly ‘conditioned’ - in quotation marks - by this rumor, that the official recording industry would never ever funded and supported alternative culture. So, for those who did alternative culture the only way was selfproduction, if only because there were specific spaces dedicated to this, such as the social centers and many fanzines. (Andrea). The dilution of these spaces is perceived by all the respondents as one of the defining features of the actual context, in which their uses and evaluations of the digital platforms are formed. There are two aspects shared by all the representations of the changes in the music production environment that emerged from the interviews. First, an overflow of content supply, favored by the democratization of the means of production, promotion and distribution of digital content, which for some is also contributing to blur the boundaries that defined self-production as a niche and alternative practice, distinct and distinctive, since now it has become the ‘normal’ way of doing things, especially among younger people, regardless of the adherence to an antagonistic ethos (Guerra & Feixa, 2019). The DIY was once the exclusive production of the underground, the hardcore, and those people there, who made the political choice of doing everything by themselves, so there were also few who did this thing. Now since everyone can do it, everyone does it, even the ones who are more in the mainstream environment. (Gianluca). Second, the confluence of this enormous amount of contents within the same digital channels – such as YouTube - despite their differences. According to the interviewees, the same has happened in Italy - to a certain extent also in the venues for live performances, mainly due to the downsizing and transformation of the occupied social centers, which in the nineties were crucial to the growth and circulation of independent cultural production. Such a change is generally considered to be connected both to their failure of the search for alternative economies able to guarantee a long-term sustainability. Different intersecting explanations are generally provided for this change: the difficulties in developing alternative economies able to guarantee a long-term 140 sustainability (De Sario, 2009), the internal tensions derived from attempts at transforming social centers in social enterprises (Moroni, Farina, Tripodi, 1995), the weakening of countercultural social movements following the dramatic events occurred in 2001 during the G8 in Genoa. Such changes resulted in an increased crowding of proposals, implicitly determining heightened competition for the public’s attention. Moreover, due to the second aspect, niche and self-produced projects would no longer be in competition only with each other, within limited but distinctive spaces in which to meet a partly self-selected and potentially interested public. It follows, on the one hand, the persistent position of power of the gatekeepers controlling the places of offline and online access to the public (such as local promoters, traditional media or those crowdfunding platforms selecting the projects to be published on the website among those received), on the other the perceived relevance of those subjects and services considered to able to facilitate access to such places and/or to increase one’s own visibility (i.e. press or booking agencies, the sponsored post on Facebook, the premium account on Soundcloud). 3. DIY ways This understanding of the context conditions the possibilities identified by the interviewees in order to grow and sustain the independent music activity. In the first instance there is a kind of free- or underpaid- labour, as in the case of venues offering the chance to perform live but without providing any cachet (often not even the refund for the expenses). Sometimes the venues propose economic agreements that incentivize the promotion of the concert from the part of the musicians or explicitly entrust the sale of the tickets to them. Do you know what happens in the smaller clubs? They propose you a different treatment on an economic level: if you have the name or a label behind you are guaranteed a cachet, on the contrary you arrive as any band that is trying to get noticed, then they offer you a percentage, which means that you have to fill the place [...] sometimes you even have to make pre-sales, ask your friends to come, something that benefits mainly those who organize. The club tells me ‘if you bring me people, I pay you’, all right, I have many friends who come to my concerts, but if I keep playing for my friends tell me what the fuck I’m going to do in the club? (Gianluca). Such practices – that appear to be conventions of the independent music world (Becker, 1982) – point to and imply another crucial work from the part the musicians: the accumulation and mobilization of social capital (Reitsamer, 2011; Hartman, 2012). This could consist, as in the quoted example, in the mobilization of ‘bonding’ social capital convertible into economic capital. Other times it takes the form of networking aimed at building the linking social capital able to connect with specific subjects and channels, deemed necessary for growth and which would otherwise be difficult to access. 141 3.1DigitalplatformsandtheprofessionalizationofDIYinthepopularmusicfield.Theexperiencesoflong-timeindependentmusicians In the context of self-production, if you don’t have an agency, or someone who actually proposes you, or friends who make you play, then you can’t go around playing. (Luca). Everything happens through personal knowledge, through people you know in the scene that introduce you to other people with whom they have already worked, while when you write by yourself generally you don’t get any answers [...] you can’t get to some types of venues and get some types of reviews unless you have to have someone talking about you, sponsoring you, you have to have a label, or to be luck and have friendships in circles that can help you to get known, otherwise you alone, even if you work like crazy, you don’t access some more important places and channels. You keep doing concerts, sell something, but can’t climb a step further. (Gianluca). Even being reviewed requires an intermediary, at least for me it was so, because from the moment that this guy, who had a billion contacts, has taken the trouble to promote the record, two reviews each day came out. Before that I guess we wrote 100 times to Radio Onda Rock, in vain, then when this guy said ‘I take care of it’ in two days the review came out. It’s a matter of contacts, it’s a world that moves by contact ... even to get to the press, you get there only if you know someone who knows someone, at least for us it was like that. (Marcello). A third order of actions – aimed at increasing the visibility both towards music professionals and audiences - imply the investment of economic resources: the purchase of the opening of concerts by famous artists (critically mentioned by one interviewee who was talking about the heavy metal scene); the subscription to more or less prestigious contests whose mission is to spot and guarantee fair recognition to the best proposals from new and unknown musicians; the hiring of booking and press agencies; the sponsorship of contents posted on social media and the subscription to premium accounts or programs offered by some web-services. Regarding the live contests in Italy, Jacopo Tomatis (2018) has noticed that they hardly produce a significant boost for the careers of those investing in them (through the payment of the subscription fee and sustaining travel and overnight expenses), rather he identifies their function in the artificial creation of a demand able to absorb the enormous offer of aspiring musicians. Booking and press agencies are often deemed necessary to access venues and media. It’s interesting to note that, according to many interviewees, one of the main reasons why local promoters favor the musicians proposed by a booking agency is because they consider the hire oh such agencies as a sign of professional investment, an heuristic useful to make a quick discrimination among the huge amount of musicians who propose themselves. 142 The problem with doing everything by yourself is that it is considered unprofessional, for example the fact that you directly call the promoter to ask to play [...] there is a request for professionalism, intended as professional who take care of that, while if you do it by yourself it seems a rough work. (Marcello). The problem is that if the director of the venue receives fifty e-mails it’s difficult to break into his mailbox. In this case the booking agency works, because the director already knonw the professionalism of the agency and just looking at the mail sender decides to open or not [...] today it is more difficult that they pay attention to musicians and bands that propose themselves autonomously. (Giuseppe). It’s hard to find gigs without having a booking agency or without being able to write that you are produced by a label [...] this trend is arriving even to the smaller club, it doesn’t reach all of them yet but middle-size clubs are already beginning to do some stories. (Gianluca). Another of the most important criteria adopted by the local promoters to choose performers, and partly by journalist and bloggers to decide who to write about, concerns the numbers and the follow-up on social media, as already pointed out also by Haynes and Marshall (2018). The same happens with those crowdfunding platforms that choose the projects to be published – and therefore eligible for financing - on the basis of the proponents’ following on social media, considered a proxy of their chances to reach their goals. Such platforms usually earn money only from the successful campaigns and to host a large amount of projects with little chances of success only risk of creating background noise, diluting financings and negatively affecting the results of others (D’Amato, 2017). 4. DDIY (Digital-Do-It-Yourself) These reports represent digital platforms as tools to foster visibility and cultivate reputation both with the audience and – as a consequence – with the subjects that potentially allow to monetize the musicians’ following. However, in the musician’s opinion, for their use to be effective, considerable investments and skills are required. One kind of investment, already mentioned, concerns the sponsorship of posted contents or the subscription to premium accounts. Another one concerns the production of high-quality contents used to promote the music on hyper-crowded channels, primarily videos for YouTube. Skills in the strategic planning of promotional activities and contents and in the use analytics - framed by some platforms as a sign of professionalism and an essential activity to improve one’s career (Maturo, 2015) - are also considered very important. 143 3.1DigitalplatformsandtheprofessionalizationofDIYinthepopularmusicfield.Theexperiencesoflong-timeindependentmusicians All these aspects are often summarized in the idea that DIY through digital platforms requires – in order to maximize their potential benefits - a more professional approach, that is a serious, scrupulous and competent use of such tools, which in turn requires differentiated skills, not only technical ones but also in the areas of management, fund-raising, marketing, SEO, web-design, storytelling, as well as the mastery of different codes, in order to properly take care of the various multimedia contents. There is also the work see how much of a song average of the minutes more scientific idea of statistics. (Marco). on analytics, so you go to has been listened to, the listened to, you get a little your results looking at the Music today is just as important as the video-clip, as the image you give of yourself, as having to take a picture when there’s a lot of people under the stage, taking a selfie with the people behind you because then you work more, because the more people see that there is other people behind you, the more they come to see you the next time. Today you find out that music is probably the last of the important things: if you are very good at telling your story, at pushing yourself, promoting yourself, then your product counts up to a certain point. This is the change, I’ve understood you can’t focus only on the songs anymore, on what you write, but that you have to take care also of the whole story. (Lucio). Before, there wasn’t much care of the image, from the point of view of the pictures or other, because in any case there was no way to publish them, there was no web-space for that, so everything was aimed only to play, to improve playing and recording […] Now you have to take care of your Facebook page, you have to take pictures, you have to take care of the graphics, and you have to do everything with more care and attention. This is the work that takes most of time, personalizing every single e-mail, working on your image, taking care of the way you dress, calling a photographer and paying for it, because as soon as the shot is not professional everyone recognize that, and that difference, between your amateurish photo and the ultra professional one causes people to bypass your proposal, your page, your link […] once you played once it was played, you spent time, but without this extreme care of so many details, because the relevant details were only those in the music […] all this takes time the you should devote to writing, to what is the art with 144 which you propose, since you have to learn to use the media, to become a communicator, to become a graphic designer, to become a digital PR, to become a booking agent […] On the one hand this gives you the mastery of your project, which is great, the real problem is that it takes carefree and linearity to the composition. (Giuseppe). The complicated thing is that everything is becoming a little more professional, the independent music, even small and underground, is starting to have very industrialized features. You have to have the press office to do promotions, otherwise nobody pays you attention and you don’t get reviews, then if you do not have the booking is very difficult that somebody replies to your request for gigs, you have to put money to increase visibility on the internet [...] All of them probably have understood that they can perhaps earn more money from so many small groups trying to be noticed, so they say ‘come on, seriously, you are not going to hire a press agency for the video? Aren’t you going to use a press office for the record? How could you think to post about your new video without paying at least 50 euro in sponsorship? How can you think of looking for gigs by yourself instead of paying for a booking agency?’ (Paolo). The choice of how to deal with these perceived “requests” implies for the interviewees whether or not accepting to act differently and to be different compared to the ideals of musical activity and performer to which they aspired. Of course they are all well aware that self-production has always implied by definition a certain amount of self-management and the burden of having to deal with extra-musical obligations, nonetheless some of them have pointed out that the amount and the type of things to deal with has changed: on the one hand, there are more aspects to take care of, more options to evaluate, more choices to be made (i.e. regarding the tags to be found more easily from the algorithms or the settings when sponsoring a content, and if the sponsorship doesn’t bring the expected results some are never sure if the whole ‘sponsorship’ thing is a swindle or if they haven’t made the right choices), more contents to produce, all obviously at the expense of the time devoted to the composition and the improvement of their musical skills; on the other, all these activities require new skills (e.g. SEO or web-design) and concern aspects that were not considered so relevant in the underground independent scenes, while now they appear crucial. Those who self-produce had always been more managers than the others, those who self-produced before the web had to send the demo to record companies, DJs and journalists, bring them to the local promoters, make the posters of their concerts, there has always been 145 3.1DigitalplatformsandtheprofessionalizationofDIYinthepopularmusicfield.Theexperiencesoflong-timeindependentmusicians more work. In this historical moment, however, there are seven more: in addition to those things, you have also to prepare the videoclip, open your profile on Bandcamp, on Sound Cloud, on You Tube, you have to continuously publish content there, get in touch with the digital distribution, two hundreds passwords, you’re the secretary of yourself, you lose the pieces, it’s a mess. And everything to get very few moneys as always, if everything goes well. (Lucio) Having to cultivate your image consistently on social networks, this is really a novelty, because this thing was once less required to small underground self-produced bands […] today you can delegate part of your musical ability if you are good at building a coherent public imaginary. Today the musician must be able above all to handle the communicative codes, but the novelty lies in the fact that this leads - in part - to a discharging of responsibility with respect to the product, the product is less necessary, I mean it’s more a mixed thing, it’s the resulting of your way of showing it and making this process become part of the fascination. Your product is completed completed with what you show, your art today is completed in part with your being there as a character. All this, of course, is to the detriment of music, because you have to dedicate time and energy to the social media. Before, this happened much less, because there was no need to have a constant public image. Now even if you are an underground musician you have to be partly a musician, partly a designer, partly a creator of stories and imaginaries. (Fabrizio) 5. Reactions and dispositions What are the actual reactions of the interviewed musicians to what they perceive as the approach required in order to maximize the potential of digital platforms and, more generally, to improve their career chances in the actual environment? Simplifying a little, it was possible to distinguish three dispositions. • The disposability to adapt to a more professional approach, investing resources and adapting one’s skills, in the belief that this can improve - or has actually improved - the self-production performance, so as to reach either an acceptable level of activity or a degree of following and public appreciation that could attract investors. In these cases, planning strategies and taking care of communication contents are sometimes seen as an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the project, as well as a widening of the areas in which to exercise the authorial activity, that 146 is in which to recognize themselves as authors. This means that these activities don’t appear to be merely instrumental but integral parts of the musicians’ efforts for self-determination and self-realization. The use of many new platforms forces you to consider with more awareness and from a wider perspective the coherence of the various elements articulating a project, with music being the central one but not the only one. It forces you to pay equal attention to all the contents of which the musician is author and responsible: the videos, the photos, the posts and other things. It’s hard but compelling. It forces you to design different things in connection. It is an enlarged concept of composition: not just music but of the whole process, of which music is one part. There are many more choices to make in order to build your own recipe. (Alessandro). Of course, in my ideal world I’d stay at my house to take care of the music, while someone else takes care of all the other things... which in reality is not even so true: I really enjoy having the complete control over all I am doing. (Federico). • The refusal to adapt, either because some don’t believe this would change much – unless they don’t modify their music too, abdicating what they (like all the respondents) perceive as their vocation (Bellini 2015) or simply because they are unwilling to adopt a professional approach to self-production (regardless of any political commitment). Therefore, in these cases there is an acceptance of the prospect of continuing to do other jobs to maintain themselves and the musical activity, which is ultimately not self-sustainable. Music career is subordinated to a sense of self-determination which lies in the choice of doing what they want in the way they want to do it. You do what you feel you have to mainly for an existential reason, so once you do it, once you are able to make it listen even just to three people, putting it there [on YouTube] and having this possibility it’s already a lot […] I also sometimes think ‘if I had a little more economic stability, it would be better’, it’s normal because I’m working my ass off, but in the end you think ‘Am I working my ass off because it’s the doctor’s prescription? No, so what? It’s me who want it, is clear’ [...] you must simply do what you feel you have to, because if you start thinking about how to make a market strategy, then it becomes a strategy, you’re doing something else. (Stefano). Moreover, here the judgments on digital platforms are not necessarily negative, since - according to some - at least they make easier to maintain the same level of musical activity, although that’s not enough to live on it. • Between these two extremes there is an area of more ambivalent experiences, where opposing tendencies and concrete difficulties generate greater tensions and frustrations. What emerges in this cases is a difficulty to adapt, which may regard, on the one hand, the acquisition of skills or the availability of resources to invest, including time, but, on the other, also a marked hostility towards the culture of access and constant self-promotion, particularly evident in the aversion of many towards 147 3.1DigitalplatformsandtheprofessionalizationofDIYinthepopularmusicfield.Theexperiencesoflong-timeindependentmusicians crowdfunding, inasmuch to undertake a campaign would require precisely the latter. Above all, some of them seem to suffer the continuous exposure, evaluation and competition fostered by the use of social media. With others we talk about this worry of continuously doing things showing you are doing them, even when you don’t actually do that much. There is the continuous observing what others do, measuring yourself on what others do, and since you are in turn subjected to this thing you need to continuously implement this machine, putting things in it, so as to give others the impression that you too are doing a lot of things... it’s an exhausting machine, especially if you’re not so competitive. Sometimes you spend more time at showing than at making, because inevitably you have less time [...] but you have to stay there [on social media] because everybody is there, it’s the only way to let people know what you’re doing. (Fabrizio). It’s nice but it’s also a crazy effort. I mean, it also depends on your age, this year I am 40 years old, and I have made records in every way, selfproduced, half-produced, honestly sometimes I think I’d like to worry only about my music. (Davide). 6. Final considerations Many of the interviewed musicians share the opinion that digital platforms can help increase the sustainability of DIY careers, however only on the condition of contextualizing their use in a more general approach defined by greater professionalism and strategic thinking, fostered by a renewed hyper-competition and covering all aspects of self-production, included the management of available resources. Such an approach requires giving the communication activities and contents the same importance as the music and requires resources to invest, skills to be trained, even an adequate personality. Most of the musicians interviewed believe that digital platforms benefit the subjects most skilled in self-marketing and self-branding strategies, something already noticed in the literature on micro-celebrities and publicity through social media (Marwick, 2013). Few others are more skeptical towards the democratizing potential of digital platforms and refuse to adhere to a more strategic approach, because of its perceived distance from the ‘original’ ethos of ‘true’ DIY or simply from their own sensitivity. However among the musicians who believe, to varying degrees, in the empowering potential of digital platforms, there are some who manifest, on the one hand, tensions related to the greater quantity and the different type of work necessary to self-produce effectively and efficiently, to the constant examination of their skills (not only the musical ones) and to the increase of options to choose from, and therefore also of the risk of making mistakes; on the other, sometimes the regret emerges for not having been able to better exploit the opportunities foreshadowed by the new media, because of unskillfulness, gaps or an aversion to the kind –and quantity – of communicative work required. These experiences seem to exemplify the paradox of choice (Bellini, 2015, p.78-79): if on the one hand the autonomy and control produced by a variety of options are positive, on the other hand, an excessive range of choices risks overloading and debilitating rather than liberating, while results more easily end generating frustration and debasement. 148 It must be noticed that, beyond the results achieved by the musicians, their work involves an economic benefit for the services used, both when they are paid and when they look free (Terranova, 2000, Maturo, 2015). In this context of heightened competition the marketplace of attention (Webster, 2014) feeds the economy of promise (Bascetta, 2015), which stands at the base of new declinations of neoliberal capitalism aimed at the very long tail of aspiring creative competing for the attention of online and offline audiences: the promise of visibility it’s the ‘value proposition’ through which many physical and web services are promoted and for which some musicians agree not only to play for free, to sponsor contents on social media, to subscribe premium accounts, to pay booking and video production agencies, press offices and digital webservices, but also to continuously share different type of data and contents that feeds the value of digital platforms. References Bascetta, M, (2015). Economia politica della promessa. Roma: Manifestolibri. Becker, H. (1982). Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bellini, P. P. (2015). Il mio posto: Sociologia della realizzazione. Milano: Mondadori. Bennett, A. & Guerra, P. (Eds.) (2019). DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes. Abingdon/Oxford: Routledge. D’Amato, F. (2016). With a little help from my friends, family, and fans: DIY, participatory culture and social capital. in music crowdfunding. In S. Whiteley & S. Rambarran (eds) The Oxford Handbook of music and virtuality (pp. 573-592). New York: Oxford University Press. D’Amato, F. (2017). Il crowdfunding per progetti culturali. Mediascapes Journal, 9, pp. 246-259. De Sario, B. (2009). Resistenze innaturali: attivismo radicale nell’Italia degli anni ’80. Milan: XBook. Guerra, P. & Feixa, C. (2019). Golfos, punkis alternativos, indignados: Subterranean traditions of youth in Spain, 1960 ̶ 2015. In D. Vilotijević & M. I. Medić (Eds.). Contemporary Popular Music Studies (pp.111-126). Wiesbaden: Springer. Ha y n e s, J., & Marshall, L. (2018). Beats and tweets: Social media in the careers of independent musicians. New Media and Society, 20(5), pp. 1973–1993. Hartman, K.. (2012). Capital transformation in Boston Music Scenes. Sociological Insight, 4, pp. 59-72. Hesmondhalgh, D., & Meier, L. M. (2015). Popular music, independence and the concept of the alternative in contemporary capitalism. In J. Bennett & N. Strange (Eds), Media Independence (pp. 94-116) Abingdon and New York: Routledge. Hracs, B. J. (2015). Cultural intermediaries in the digital age: The case of independent musicians and managers in Toronto. Regional Studies, 49(3), pp. 461-475. Marwick, A. E. (2013). Status update: Celebrity, publicity and branding in the social media age, New Haven & London: Yale University Press. Maturo, N. (2015). Music as immaterial labour: SoundCloud and the changing working conditions of independent musicians (unpublished master’s thesis). Toronto: McGill University. Retrieved from http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/ webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=139840&custom_att_2=direct Moroni, P., Farina D., & Tripodi P. (1995). Centri sociali: che impresa! Roma: Castelvecchi. Reitsamer, R. (2011). The DIY careers of techno and drum’n’bass DJs in Vienna. Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, 3(1), pp. 28-43. Sargent, C. (2009). Local musicians building global audiences. Information, Communication & Society, 12(4), pp. 469-487. 149 3.1DigitalplatformsandtheprofessionalizationofDIYinthepopularmusicfield.Theexperiencesoflong-timeindependentmusicians Terranova, T. (2000). Free labor: producing culture for the digital economy, Social Text 63, 18(2), pp. 33-58. Tomatis, J. (2018). Lettera aperta sui premi musicali. Giornale della Musica. Retrieved from https://www.giornaledellamusica.it/articoli/lettera-aperta-sui-premi-musicali Webster, J. (2014). The marketplace of attention: How audience take shape in a digital age. Cambridge: Mit Press. Young, S., & Collins S. (2010). A view from the trenches of music 2.0, Popular Music and Society, 33(3), pp. 339-355. 150 3.2 DIY and Independence as means of cultural resistance and artistic production Maria Auriemma 82 A b s t r a c t The contribution is part of my doctoral research project that investigate DiY and Independence as means of aesthetic and cultural production inscribed in historical libertarian conception of art and artists in society. The research steps out from the Neapolitan scene where a group of artists started a series of events; this group is part of a larger set of practices which operate as a form of cultural resistance, fracturing the field of the dominant culture and creating a space of freedom where themes of language, space and relationships become problematic. Here takes place the experimentation of different expressive languages and modality of relationship, arising the political aspects as well, connected to such practices. As such, it is the experimentation with one’s own cultural and political identity. Keywords: DIY, independence, Napoli, artistic identity, performance, libertarian. 82 University of Napoli “L’Orientale”. Napoli, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]. 151 3.2 DIY and Independence as means of cultural resistance and artistic production This contribution investigates Italian DIY practices related to independent artistic and aesthetic creation, inscribed in historical libertarian conception of art and artist’s role. At the end of 19th century, classic anarchist thinkers were questioning the concept and the role of art and artists in society. PierreJoseph Proudhon, denigrating the concept of “art for art” thought that the art, by then degenerated, addressed only a small minority and in doing so neglected both the true and the ideal, thus becoming a mere object of luxury, leisure and immorality, an article of prostitution. In asking the artist to become more social, Proudhon wasn’t asking to renounce to the aesthetic quality, on the contrary, he believed that the artist would be truly revolutionary only if he would not separate the aesthetic quality from the ethic value in his work, for a misunderstood concept of ‘art for the sake of art’ (Ciovolani, 2000). The art, therefore, should be at the same time realist and idealist, it should depict reality and point to the ideal: “l’art a son principle et sa raison d’être dans une faculté spéciale de l’homme, la faculté esthétique. Il consiste, avons-nous ajouté, dans une représentation plus ou moins idéalisée de nous-mêmes et des choses, en vue de notre perfectionnement moral et physique” (Proudhon, 1865, p.218). Other thinker, such as Kropotkin, Bakunin, Grave, basically sustained the idea that art shouldn’t be detached from the social reality and that artists shouldn’t enclose in their ivory tower or, worst, they shouldn’t think they were better than common people. Artists must know and learn that the artefact of their genius was depending on the collective intelligence and creativity. Bakunin and Kropotkin in particular, saw the artists as a new caste, enclosing in itself to create and reclaim some privileges. Both saw in the modernity the highest expression of human creativity and Kropotokin, with a surprisingly contemporary eye, could already appreciate the power of the beauty of a machine, in which, he believed, the man could enjoy the results of his intelligence, he writes: Seeing how a gigantic paw, coming out of a shanty, grasps a log floating in the Nevá, pulls it inside, and puts it under the saws, which cut it into boards; or how a huge red-hot iron bar is transformed into a rail after it has passed between two cylinders, I understood the poetry of machinery. In our present factories, machinery work is killing for the worker, because he becomes a lifelong servant to a given machine, and never is anything else. But this is a matter of bad organization, and has nothing to do with the machine itself […] I fully understand the pleasure that man can derive from a consciousness of the might of his machine, the intelligent character of its work, the gracefulness of its movements, and the correctness of what it is doing; and I think that William Morris’s hatred of machines only proved that the conception of the machine’s power and gracefulness was missing in his great poetical genius. (Kropotkin, 1899, p.118) Considering the inextricability of the aesthetic quality and the ethic value, and the ‘poetry of machinery’ from which men can experience pleasure instead 152 83 Mario Gabola, born 1981, is a saxophonist whose first musical experience belonged to the marching bands and, later, to the free-jazz of only alienation, the Italian case, as well as DiY in general, could be read as a practical translation, or a practical articulation of the inheritance of those instances. Taking DiY not as a culture, but as a tactic of survival, we can read the experience of a group of artists and friends based in the city of Napoli, in South Italy. Between 2008 and 2013, in the Campania region and in the city of Napoli in particular, invisible and subterranean artistical fluxes developed, bringing to the establishment of connections between artists coming from all over Europe, USA, South America, and Asia. One of the main points of intersection was a small festival that started in Avellino, a small town surrounded by mountains, the festival was named Altera! Pratiche non convenzionali. It was created by a group of passionate artists, researchers and indefatigable experimenters such as: Mario Gabola83, Sec_84, Andrea Saggiomo85, Gaelle Cavalieri86, Tiziana Salvati87, Gianluca Pellegrini, Francesco Gregoretti, M. DellaMorte88 amongst others. The group opted a particular attitude and a singular organizational method: the complete self-exclusion from the mainstream circuit and the recourse to minimum economical resources. A mobile and fast organization that, combined with a dense net of spaces, allowed to move easily from place to place; a net composed especially of relationships and interpersonal exchanges, a net that permitted the artists to recognize and select each other, to get in relation with poetics and aesthetics similar to theirs, to get to know new strategies and different ways to approach the specific linguistic of their art and to refine their research bringing to a complete renounce of the idea of artistic product, of fame, and of the definition of ‘artist’ (in the sense of someone who belong to a caste, trying to define an exclusive territory from which he can reclaim some privileges). scene; then he moved towards more experimental forms meanwhile he started organizing concerts in small venues in the Campania region. He collaborates with musicians such as Roberto Bellatalla, Arnadu Rivière, Alexei Borisov and Olga Nosova, amongst others, and he is a massive presence in several experimental music group. Besides, Gabola connect to his artistic activity the organization of workshops related to the manipulation of technological devices. With the musician Sec_, he has played at the Experimental Intermedia hosted by Phil Niblock in New York, and in Israel. 84 Sec_ (aka Domenico Napolitano), born 1985, is a musician, composer, sound designer, author of articles and essays published on national and international magazines; recently he started a PhD at the University of Napoli “Suor Orsola Benincasa” with a project focused on vocal technologies. His election instruments are the Revox with tapes, laptop, synthesizer and different electronic devices; the collaboration with international artist such as Jérôme Noetinger, Dave Phillips, Franck Virgoux made him a reference point for the Italian and European music scene. He was also member of the artistic direction and organizational team of the festival Flussi set 85 Andrea Saggiomo begins his artistic path as theatre director and actor, founding the theatre 86 Gaelle Cavalieri, from Florence 87 Tiziana Salvati, from a small in Avellino (the last edition was in town nearby Bari (South Italy), at- 2016). Nowadays he connected his tended the master’s degree in Visual experimental vocation with the Arts and Disciplines of Spectacle in professional organization creating, the Accademia di Belle Arti in Natogether with Renato Grieco, Giulio poli, where she graduated with and Nocera and Andrea Bolognino to the world, working as light designer of experimental thesis in Photography. festival La Digestion in collaboration but living in Napoli for 15 years, company Piccola Officina Teatro starts her artistic path in the theatre (after renamed Compagnia Andrea Saggiomo). After several important production, in 2011 the company the Compagnia Andrea Saggi- During the years of the academy, with Morra Foundation in Napoli. omo. Already photographer and she collaborated with various artistic ceased its institutional theatre painter, with a minute but athletic journey. Saggiomo has always been and strong body, she was perfect as groups such as Quarta Pittura. She specializes in photo-dynamic 88 M.DellaMorte moves in between interested in experimentation with performer, so she started acting in technique while continuing her theatre and performance; she devel- analogic film camera and so started the plays for which she was meant pictorial work using different mate- oped an original and hybrid formula: a project with a Super8 camera to light design. She was stable rials (oil, acrylic, assemblage). Later and the production of sound presence in every production of she dedicated to the multimedia physicality without satisfaction, based on light and photoresistor. the company and still works with interaction through the use, in her words without self-referentiality. research without intellectualism, He works with Gaelle Cavalieri, in Andrea Saggiomo on some projects. live performances, of TV screens, Her obscure and obsessive poetic, most of the performances, and with As soloist she experiments the closed-circuit television camera, attracted by the horrific and the international film-maker; he also construction of small audio device physical actions and projectors. morbid, recall sometimes the collaborates to the programming composed with disparate mate- Since 2005 she realizes stop motion actionism, but corrected in the light of a research on scenic devices and of Indipendent Film Show ideated rials (iron sprigs, balloons, screws) cartoon movie and since 2013, by Raffaella Morra and held in some accompanying an intense work on she collaborates with musicians, DiY practices that is characterised location of the Morra Foundation. the sonorities of ungraceful voice. performers, actors and dancers. by an irony charged with paradox. 153 3.2 DIY and Independence as means of cultural resistance and artistic production The festival, in six editions, involved eight towns in the Campania Region and more then 80 artists both from the local scene and from international context. It is important to underline, here, the fact that already at its early stage the group acted criticizing the mainstream world of art and music, often expressed in those kinds of events where the spectacular dimension has more weight than the relational one. Maybe the first visible sign of this critic attitude was that all the indications about the kind of performance (music, video, theatre performance, and so on) had disappeared; there wasn’t the urge to label an artistic expression with the strict language of critics and market. The end of the festival didn’t mean the end of the group’s activity, in fact they designed other two events back in 2010: one was an experiment in the streets of the city, the other a kind of gathering of artists and friends in the countryside. The first one, named Queste quattro cose (These four things) took place in Napoli in the month of August, when the city was almost empty: four performances in the streets, one for each Saturday, without authorization and with the electricity borrowed from local shops. The spaces were chosen right in the city heart: Piazza Dante and Port’Alba, an open passage that connect Piazza Dante to Piazza Bellini and that has a large arch forming a semi-covered space at the beginning and at the end of the passage. One of the performances, starring musician Sec_ and performer M. DellaMorte, was everything but the normal shows we are used to experience in the streets: loud noise sounds, musique concrète, grotesque voice and small gestures, with several people passing and responding with screams or jokes to the scenic actions. After the performance, wine was offered to the people that had remained until the end and in a short time a ball appeared, and a spontaneous volleyball match, involving the artists and the ‘former’ audience, started and went on until 1:00 am. The other event had no name and was set in the countryside in the province of Benevento, where two of the members of the group had moved seeking relief from the chaotic urban life. Their house was a small two floor house, with a large garden. The group decided to meet there and show each other some of their personal project, fragments, preview, essays, and experiments. They went there with camp tents and spent two days organizing the food and the performances day by day. The idea of this unnamed, undefined, event arose firstly because the artists felt the danger to be too much recognisable as a cultural entity or organization; or worst to be included in the good practice of cultural and social innovation that the city was experiencing at that time (starting in those years the topic of “commons” had entered the political agenda of the city, very often with nothing more than a propaganda based on “assenting” to the occupation of buildings in order to receive consent from marginal social forces traditionally opposing to the mayor). Another concern of their critics was the so called ‘festivalization of the culture’, where they could only see a commodification of lifestyles, of artistic creation, and a simple way to buy an experience that seemed as much as possible real. Even though the first intuitive move is to consider this lack of ‘identity’ as an identity itself, it is possible not to follow this path that can results as a naïve approach to their work: it is not in the uncertainty of their borders as a group and as artists that the identity has to be sought, but in the perversion of common strategies, in the appropriation of technological knowledge, in the will to share competences and experiences. 154 In the case of the event in the countryside, so, we are not faced with a regular festival structure, not even with the regular relationship between performer and audience and between the people involved; there isn’t an intended structure, even if it is possible to recognise some elements referring to different cultural situations: a symbolic stage; the rural space and a shared responsibility. • The symbolic stage recalls live arts and theatre. The settings, here, always follow the classic division between audience and artist, that’s to say it follow the visual implant of the spectacular event, even in those performances that seek another spatial relation with the spectator. Regarding this aspect, we should point to the fact that the intention is never directed towards any kind of participation, a keyword for a lot of the European art of the last decades, as the lucid book of Claire Bishop, Artificial Hells shows (Bishop, 2012). In this respect the audience is left as simple audience; because the participation is believed to be real only when every participant knows exactly all the details of the event they are involved in. • Rural space recalls the tradition of some free festivals (McKay, 1996). Here we can recognize most of the features of festival as sites to explore new form of encounters, different ways of living, places where to develop or reinforce identity and to strengthen the relationships with those in that community, to develop and preserve the well-being (O’Grady, 2015). One difference is significant: this event is not intended for a proper audience and it is not intended to gather people with the same cultural inclination or artistic taste; it is conceived as a party where everyone share the same position, in different moments and where the focal point is to share one’s own results. There isn’t an entrance fee and very rarely (only once until last year) an artist needs to be reimbursed, this is due to the voluntary adhesion, on the wish to be there. • Shared responsibility for food, cooking and cleaning recalls a commune lifestyle. This responsibility is a request from the beginning. Each one is responsible for common spaces, for washing and preparing the food and the supplies; the organization of the duties follow a day-by-day (or better an hour-by-hour) plan. It is a commune feature, it’s true, but only for a concise time, no one whish to live in a commune. These 3 elements are combined in a situation that is a retreat both from everyday life and from any kind of confrontation with an occasional street audience; on the contrary, with the four performance staged in the street (Queste quattro cose) we can still talk of an artistic identity of the group confronted with occasional audience (or an audience of non-spectator), of an artistic disruption in everyday life, an incision of a normal situation with theatrical and artistic signs (Vicentini, 1981). Looking closer, we can focus on the kind of space used in the countryside and the kind of relationship between people that arise in it, differentiating the audience identity as such and the artist’s identity. The spaces are, generally, two with completely different structural and environmental characteristics: a room of about 20 square meters, located on the first floor of the tufa house, completely painted in black; the open space, 155 3.2 DIY and Independence as means of cultural resistance and artistic production in front of the tufa staircase and the henhouse. Depending on the type of performance, the most appropriate space is chosen: smaller and intimate performances are assigned to the black room, while concerts (especially those with drums) are played at the ‘henhouse’. The dark, closed room recalls directly the traditional scena all’italiana, a space that opens upon the otherwhere, a magic cave that, with its emptiness, opens the possibility of writing within the space (Mango, 2003); but it also recalls, as an appropriate metaphor, the camera obscura: a space for the delicate phase of the development of an image, in this case the development of a performative image. In this kind of space, the people almost instinctively occupy the place of a proper audience, a compacted one, assuming the related behavioural norms and entering directly the world of the artist without any sort of distraction. The open space, emancipated by the twentieth century theatre practices that invade public spaces, streets, unconventional places, recalls two operations: it is true that it is the expression “of the will to deny oneself to a certain system of production and fruition of the spectacle that wants it reduced to the status of goods” (Mango, 2003, p.183) and it is also true that it constitutes “a liminal territory, a non-coded space [...] in which a new relationship between spectacle and public and, more generally, between art and life happens” (Mango, 2003, p.183); on the other hand, unlike those theatrical practices, such as the Living Theater, which tried to “get out of the institutional places of art and invade those of life” (Mango, 2003, p.184) and transform a non-place into a theatrical one, here we witness a voluntary retreat, or disappearance, from those same non-institutional places. What is missing here is the will to affect a daily situation with theatrical signs; one withdraws to an isolated place, far from possible casual or solicited contaminations between art and life. The audience, in this setting, is free to behave more loosely while the performer is forced to assume the interferences of the situation in the play. The relation inscribed in this context is not fixed and while it allows the spectator a certain degree of freedom (Wilkie, 2002a; 2002b), it restrains the artist’s freedom. The artist can also decide to play on the inadequacy of one of the spaces to the performance and, for instance, some musicians with the aesthetics of the high volumes, can choose to play indoors to saturate the environment and create a disturbing effect in the ‘audience’. Likewise, theatrical performances, can be performed outdoors, to challenge the dispersive conditions of the open environment and to solicit the ‘spectators’ to develop a sense of intimacy in the absence of a space that fosters it. In this context, the whole situation of the event can be read and analysed from the theatrical point of view: a physical frame, completely detached from everyday life, (the rural space in its entirety) and a time frame are established (2 or 3 days); within this framework everything that happens responds to ‘other’ rules and behavioural norms; there are roles, but interchangeable; there are fixed structures for the functioning of the whole event that everyone knows and, in this sense, one can speak of an area in which everything that happens has those artistic qualities that establish an inextricable link between art and life. In other words, the whole situation, and for the whole duration, can already be read as an artistic, performative fact, in which the art goes beyond its specific linguistic, renouncing at it, to return an almost exclusively aesthetic experience of life. Read in this sense we can’t avoid stressing firstly the position towards what is called audience development and, secondly, the features that make this 156 event more akin to a party, a feast. For that concerns the audience development, the current and growing attention to the audience characterized by the care for the pedagogical and social aspect of participation in the play, is seen as more akin to a sort of consumer development: forming an audience –and make it loyal - so that it can consume more theatrical or spectacular products, but feeling as a part of an exclusive community and equipped with its new toolbox that thrills to use. It is clear that both the events we have seen here are careless regarding any sort of audience development, especially the one in the countryside where the relationship is so deeply criticized that the only request is to share, at least for some moment, both the role of the audience and that of performer: who first see, acts later. Due that performing is not mandatory, each one has to provide its energy for the functioning of the whole situation; the attention is shifted on the friendship relations that already exist or that can come into existence in that very moment and, in this sense, this event is more like a feast. Having already said that there isn’t an entrance ticket, we can add there isn’t even a bar with volunteer serving drink or food: everyone knows where everything is and, also, there is no need to pay, for everything has been payed collectively. As a feast, a party, we can think about this space as a space of latent resistance that fractures the field of the dominant culture creating a space of freedom where themes of language, space and relationships become problematic and are confronted with artistic means. In this freed space takes place the experimentation of different expressive languages and different modalities of relationship between those involved, arising the political aspects as well connected to such practices. As such, it is the experimentation with one’s own cultural and political identity. It is in these spaces that the solitude and the sense of powerlessness of an artist (of a person) meets the solitude and the sense of powerlessness of another, and it is right in this meeting that the first political act is situated. References Bishop C. (2012). Artificial Hells. Participatory art and the politics of spectatorship. London: Verso. Civololani E. (2000). La sovversione estetica. Arte e pensiero libertario tra Ottocento e Novecento. Milan: Elèuthera. Kropotkin P.A. (1899). Memoires of a revolutionist. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Mango L. (2003). La scrittura scenica. Un codice e le sue pratiche nel Novecento. Roma: Bulzoni. McKay G. (1996). Sensless acts of beauty. Cultures of resistance since the sixties. London: Verso. O’Grady A. (2015), Dancing Outdoors: DiY Ethics and democratised practices of well-being on the UK alternative festival circuit. Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, 7(1), Griffith University epress. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2015.07.01.04 Proudhon P.J. (1865). Du but de l’art et sa destination social. Parigi : Garnier Frères Libraires-Éditeurs. Vicentini C. (1981). La teoria del teatro politico. Firenze: Sansoni. Wilkie F. (2002). Kinds of Place at Bore Place: Site-specific performance and the rules of spatial behaviour. New Theatre Quarterly, 18(3), pp. 243-260. Wilkie F. (2002). Mapping the Terrain: a survey of site-specific performance in Britain. New Theatre Quarterly, 18(2), pp. 140-160. 157 3.3. Creating a magic world: Punk, DIY culture, and feminist ethics in contemporary Turkey Fulden Ibrahimhakkioglu 89 A b s t r a c t This essay offers an analysis of Istanbul based feminist punk acts. Through music, protest, art, and zines, feminist punks do not only seek to negate the prevalent misogyny sedimented in hardcore/punk culture and beyond, but they also seek to create new spaces where new values would take root. A feminist effort to “lead a good life in a bad life,” to borrow from Judith Butler, has repercussions that resonate well beyond the confines of an individual’s life. Acts of resistance undertaken collectively translate into acts of world-building and transformation. By drawing examples from the Turkish punk scene, this essay unpacks the work of feminist ethics in punk music, which is “to create a magic world,” where women and gender non-conforming individuals can exist and flourish. Keywords: Turkish punk scene, feminist punk, ethics and politics, Judith Butler, Valerie Solanas. 89 Middle East Technical University – Department of Philosophy. Ankara, Turkey. E-mail: [email protected]. 158 1. Introduction I believe in the radical possibilities of pleasure, babe! I do. I do. I do. (Bikini Kill, I Like Fucking, 1998). In her Adorno Prize lecture, Judith Butler (2012) asks: can one lead a good life in a bad life?. With this question, Butler seeks to demonstrate that the question of the good life is inseparable from larger political structures at work and that the very conditions of possibility for the individual life are dependent on power relations that go beyond the scope of the particular life of the individual in question. Thus, rather than attempting to answer this question once and for all –as Adorno did, when he proclaimed, “wrong life cannot be lived rightly” (2005, p.39)– detached from the particular situations in which the question becomes manifests, Butler points to various ways in which ethics and politics are interwoven. Butler’s thinking here is much influenced by that of Foucault’s, whose genealogical analyses sought to lay bare that “power is everywhere” and “comes from everywhere” (Foucault 1998a, p.63) and therefore is diffused, pervasive, and productive rather than centralized and coercive. In his later work, Foucault attempts to think about resistance in terms of moral agency, where resisting power in creative and collective ways is bound up with the ethics and aesthetics of existence. If power is dispersed, so must resistance be. This essay is an attempt to rethink what it means to live a feminist life in pockets of resistance that make up the punk scene in Istanbul. As Sara Cohen notes, “the term ‘scene’ is commonly and loosely used by musicians and music fans, music writers and researchers to refer to a group of people who have something in common, such as a shared musical activity or taste” (1999, p. 239). The term “scene” also denotes complex networks of cooperation and participation. Drawing from Nancy Fraser’s (1990) and Michael Warner’s (2005) groundbreaking writings on publics and counterpublics, this paper approaches Istanbul feminist punk scene as a form of counterpublic that marks a site of resistance. Given its current status, feminist punk could said to be a counterpublic within a counterpublic, having emerged as a response to both the cishet male-dominated punk scene that establishes itself as an anti-authoritarian counterculture and the heteronormative/patriarchal mainstream culture. The interviews I conducted in Turkish through email with artists, musicians, and organizers show that the local feminist punk scene in Istanbul operates as a counterpublic in at least three ways: first, individuals and collectives produce and circulate new discourses that seek to eradicate sexism in the scene and the larger public; secondly, feminist punks reclaim and transform public spaces that have historically been dominated by cishet men (such as the stage, bars, and venues); and lastly, the scene serves as a growing network that makes possible forging connections both on a local and global level. Through these encounters that are the results of various creative acts, new possibilities of feminist solidarity emerge. The local feminist punk scene, in short, serves as a counterpublic constituted by a “diffuse network” where the participants’ “identities are formed and transformed” through these encounters and acts of cooperation (Warner 2005, p.56-57). I contend that 159 3.3. Creating a magic world: Punk, DIY culture, and feminist ethics in contemporary Turkey Butler’s question “can one lead a good life in a bad life” is pertinent here as the feminist punk musicians and artists I interviewed describe their musical and artistic endeavors in terms of an attempt to live a good life in a bad life, highlighting the collective struggle of creating spaces for ourselves where we can exist, create, and flourish. I write “we” rather than “they” because I am not the disinterested observer of scientific positivism here, but instead actively involved in the scene I set out to study. While from the perspective of scientific positivism, one might suggest that my own involvement makes me biased, from the perspective of feminist epistemology, that grants me epistemic privilege (Fricker, 1999): I am both a researcher and a musician, both a thinker and an activist, whose perspective on the scene is informed both by lived experience and the theoretical frameworks that I bring to bear on that experience (See Guerra et al., 2018, 2019). This endeavor provided me with the opportunity to reflect on the practices that I undertake alongside others, which exceed the confines of academia, yet nonetheless, deserve academic scrutiny. This project thereby seeks to bridge two worlds that may sometimes reveal themselves to be quite separate and perhaps even irreconcilable: the unruly world of punk and the orderly world of academia. Performing what Donna Haraway (1988) calls situated knowledge, my analysis is both a reflection of my own situatedness in the scene as well as the distance I take from it by virtue of my status as a researcher. Throughout the essay, the switches between “we” and “they” attest to this dynamic of being both an insider (i.e. a participant) and and an outsider (i.e. a researcher). In line with Butler’s paradoxical question, this essay is comprised of two parts and a short conclusion. The first part, “The Bad Life,” is about oppressive norms that envelop women and non-binary individuals in the punk scene and beyond, which make up the conditions of possibility for moral agency and resistance. The second part, “The Good Life,” is about the struggle to create pockets of resistance in the form of counterpublics, through various practices including developing and disseminating a new language and aesthetics through blogs, zines, online and offline groups and forums; sharing vital information and consciousness raising in workshops; organizing other events such as concerts and exhibitions to provide the opportunity to showcase and celebrate each other’s work. As Fraser puts it, there is a “dual character” to feminist counterpublics: “On the one hand, they function as spaces of withdrawal and regroupment; on the other hand, they also function as bases and training grounds for agitational activities directed toward wider publics” (Fraser 1990, p.68). That is to say, while spaces created by feminist punks provide refuge to women, femmes, and trans, queer, and non-binary individuals who identify with the counterculture, these spaces are not merely escapist. On the contrary, they provide empowerment that is not limited to these spaces but rather has a wider resonance. Providing a space for self-expression and selftransformation, nurturing a culture of support, cooperation, and solidarity, the feminist punk scene as a counterpublic seeks to provide tools that would in turn help dismantle systems of oppression that feed on individualistic culture of competition as well as the self-doubt and silence of women and non-binary individuals. Further, many technical skills that people attain in these do-ityourself spaces (including design, print, writing, and public speaking) translate into their professional lives. My analysis is informed by the responses I received from four women (Gizem 160 from the band Crudez, Aybike from the band Reptilians from Andromeda, and Sare and Ipek who are artists and co-founders of queer feminist punk collectives Queer-A and Chaos, I Am Your Mistress, respectively) along with my own experience in the scene, playing with the feminist punk band Secondhand Underpants and co-running Chaos, I Am Your Mistress (CIAYM). I asked these women to reflect on the gender dynamics in the local punk scene, state what they feel is missing or could be improved upon, what they do to address these issues, how they situate their own work within the dynamics in the scene (in terms of their own contribution and impact), if and how they see their work as political, and lastly, what they are inspired by, along with some more personalized questions regarding their work. While their answers varied, there were some important common grounds in the ways in which they talked about the problems within the scene as well as how they thought about their actions aiming to combat those problems. These interviews laid bare that feminist punks undertook practices that are transformative, which one could characterize in terms of “collective world building” (Arendt 1998, p.95). While there is extensive literature on third-wave feminist practices and countercultures in relation to punk and DIY scenes, which this project at hand is situated within and builds upon (Clark-Parsons 2017, Downes 2012, Sandoval & Fuchs 2010, Zobl 2009, Kearney 2006, 1997, Sowards & Renegard 2004, Harris 2003, 2004), there is little to no academic work that specifically focuses on the Istanbul punk scene, let alone the local feminist punk scene. Nonetheless, the punk scene in Istanbul (feminist and otherwise) serves as a counterpublic that bears importance to examine as a site of resistance precisely because it is out of the radar of the current government, whose acts of repression have thus far mostly targeted dissenting politicians, journalists, academics, and public employees. The underground art and music scenes, on the other hand, continue to provide safe havens for many dissenting groups and individuals. Unlike the mainstream feminist movement, the feminist punk scene’s transformational and empowering activities including counterdiscourse production, communitybuilding, and the transformation of space have been persevering without interruption and with no attention or interference from the government. If we were to think counterpublics as “spaces of withdrawal and regroupment” (Fraser 1990, p.68), we could also think it in terms of “lines of flight” à la Deleuze & Guattari, namely, as creative trajectories that push to move beyond what is readily available and that seek to create the world anew. Underlying the efforts of feminist punks, is the desire for collective world building. In this way, counterpublics do not simply organize against mainstream public, but orientates away from it. It fathoms and builds a new world, which could potentially undermine the old one. As Foucault once stated in an interview, “Not only do we have to defend ourselves, not only affirm ourselves, as an identity but as a creative force.” (Foucault 1998b, p.164) The feminist punk scene operates as a counterpublic in this way through the affirmation of the works of women and gender non-conforming individuals “as a creative force.” 2. The Bad Life The bad life in which one seeks to lead a good life refers here, in a word, to sexism. During our interview, Aybike noted that even though the punk scene purports itself to be radical and critical, it continues to be laden with 161 3.3. Creating a magic world: Punk, DIY culture, and feminist ethics in contemporary Turkey misogyny. She noted the prevalence of (physical and verbal) violence against women, but also against men, perpetrated by other men in punk bands. She sees this situation to be a reflection of the patriarchal culture in which we live. Sare noted that many (male) bands embrace a kind of machismo as part of their aesthetics and stage performance. She stated that “their defense of machismo and our subjection to it is justified in this man’s world,” where women who object by saying “we do not want to listen to your sexist curses” would be seen as feminist killjoys. She also noted that while some of the male musicians playing in these bands are known to have committed numerous homophobic and misogynistic acts of violence and harassment, they continue to take an active part in the scene. “This is something that everybody silently ignores,” she said. Sare also noted a paradox in the way in which some male musicians showcase themselves. She said: “Yes, it is quite a provoking act to insult a political leader right now and we like these acts, but as long as we fail to face the hate crimes and hate speech within our scene, these words do not mean a thing. Because after I listen to all those bands that get me all riled up, I witness one of those musicians, who was playing that music that got me all riled up just moments ago, getting violent with his girlfriend outside the venue, for instance.” While this culture of violence and harassment is deeply rooted and much normalized in the scene, feminists are fighting back. For instance, CIAYM, designed as an online and offline community for women and gender nonconforming individuals involved in punk and metal scenes, has come up with ways to look out and care for one another, seeking to replace the culture of violence with that of nurturing and support. The first issue of the CIAYM zine, which was released on October 31, 2017, focused on the problem of reclaiming pleasure as a survivor of assault. The issue featured various essays, poems, lists and aphorisms about surviving sexual violence, responding to street harassment, and learning to self-love and self-care. It not only sought to serve as a survival manual, but also to coin a new language through which women can affirm and empower themselves. Other strategies feminist punks have employed in combatting gendered violence is through whistleblowing. There have been numerous cases where a woman would come forth as a survivor of assault and where legal mechanisms don’t work, women would expose the perpetrator online in an effort to inform and warn others, and also to publicly shame the perpetrator. Such acts let the men in the scene know that they are not going to get away with their violent acts. This strategy serves to hold men accountable for their actions. It lets them know that toxic masculinity will not be tolerated. It tells them, “your jig is up.” While the culture of violence is a major problem against which feminists are fighting, another problem associated with the local punk scene is male domination simply by virtue of numbers. Aybike and Gizem both expressed a desire for there to be a higher number of women and queer/non-binary/ gender non-conforming individuals actively making music, taking up space, and being more visible. Sare stated that in the past few years, she noticed that more women pick up a guitar and that makes her “happy and excited.” She added: “I believe that in time, we will grow in numbers and become more powerful.” Aybike noted that she finds it problematic that bands are also fetishized as “all-girl bands” or “female fronted bands,” whereas all-male bands are simply just “bands.” Fetishization misses the mark and places women in an uncomfortable position within the scene. It stems from a place that renders 162 women the Other, presupposing that the default musician is male. If omission constitutes one pole of marginalization, fetishization makes up the other. Many women in the scene express simply desiring to make music and hoping that their music will be appreciated, and not the fact that they are women making music, as if that were an anomaly. When sensationalized as such, women feel unheard and misunderstood. Yet the growing number of women taking the stage changes the course of the conversation and undermines macho presence by virtue of using a different language; a feminist language. Political criticism is no longer the prerogative of men to assert toxic masculinity, but it serves as a tool for women and non-binary individuals to centralize our concerns, make ourselves heard, and build bonds amongst each other. In this way, we reclaim the stage and create spaces for ourselves to exist, play, and enjoy. We are no longer nothing but “feminist killjoys” who ruin the “fun” by standing up to sexist language and culture of violence, but we assert ourselves in new ways through creative acts whereby we seek to build a new world for ourselves. There are, of course, a number of obstacles that render the visibility of women on stage difficult to attain. One obstacle is the sheer disregard of women as musicians, creators, and leaders in punk. Even though Aybike is the frontwoman and the songwriter for the band Reptilians from Andromeda, the music writers continue to refer to her band as “founded by Tolga Özbey and his wife.” She does not think it is fair that just because her partner has a longer history in the punk scene that she is pushed aside as simply “the wife of the guitar player.” Our competence is challenged even when there are no male musicians in our bands. In one show we played as Secondhand Underpants, one of the sound engineers said that he could not hear the guitar and asked a staff member to check the amplifier. When he came up on stage, he told me that my guitar was inaudible, because I did not turn the sound on (even though I had). He mansplained to me that if I do not turn the sound on on my guitar, there would be no sound. I told him I was aware of that and I had been playing for over fifteen years at that point. He did not care and did not check the amplifier. During the first song we played on our set, there was no guitar sound at all for the audience (although there was guitar sound on stage, so we were not aware that the audience could not hear the guitar). The same staff member came up on stage to replace the amplifier in the midst of that first song, interrupting our performance and causing a distraction for everyone. Not only is our competence questioned by male professionals, who are supposedly there to cooperate with us to ensure a smooth performance (even though they often wittingly or unwittingly sabotage us), our work can also be underrated and undersupported within the punk scene. We are sometimes subjected to aesthetic standards that are external or unrelated to our work. Secondhand Underpants received several reviews written in international zines by men with a patronizing, orientalist undertone, who talked about how the music was not really for them but they thought it was “cool” that women were playing music in Turkey –such an “oppressive country.” We organized a Ladyfest in Istanbul for the first time in June 2018, which had little attendance (65 tickets sold, whereas a punk show with local and predominantly male bands the previous week sold over 100 tickets) that covered only the two third of the expenses. The local punk scene is small, comprised mainly of men, who are for the most part comfortable and compliant with patriarchal norms and male 163 3.3. Creating a magic world: Punk, DIY culture, and feminist ethics in contemporary Turkey privilege. Many of them do not realize the importance of supporting women’s work and having a more radical, diverse scene. In fact, they may sometimes feel threatened by our existence and choose to either mock us or ignore us altogether. (That is not to say, of course, that there are no male allies in the scene –their presence and support is much appreciated). There are only a few venues that allow punk shows and even fewer venues that feel safe to play as women and gender non-conforming individuals. Even though grrrl collectives expose perpetrators online and call for banishment, intimate partner violence continues to be prevalent and normalized in heterosexual relationships and the perpetrators continue to be supported by their friends, fans, and bandmates who “know” that they are “good guys who just did a mistake” (sometimes over and over again, as most perpetrators are serial perpetrators). Lastly, making music is expensive and time consuming and many of us have demanding full time jobs, very little free time, and not enough funds. We receive little monetary compensation for our musical efforts that for the most part will not even cover the expenses. It can feel like what we do is in vain and that feeling is more constant in some occasions than others. This is “the bad life” in which we try to live well and create room for ourselves. “The good life” that we seek to build within this bad life comes from this struggle. 3. The Good Life In her infamous SCUM Manifesto, Valerie Solanas writes: “In actual fact, the female function is to explore, discover, invent, solve problems, crack jokes, make music - all with love...in other words, create a magic world” (1996, p.14). Taking this suggestion to heart, the first issue of the zine by the feminist punk collective CIAYM opened with Solanas’s words. The zine itself was a product of the struggle to create a magic world. This epigraph created controversy because of Solanas’s history and the collective soon thereafter came to be misrepresented as a bunch of “man-hating feminists.” While it never ceases to amaze us how a movement about women and gender non-conforming individuals can constantly be misconstrued to be about cishet men, what I would like to highlight here instead is the creative impulse, which is a critical component in the movement. To use a Nietzschean terminology, it is not with reactive values or ressentiment does one take a stance against men and lock themselves in a polar opposition. It is with action, and not reaction, do we create new values and ways of being, seeing, feeling, thinking, and speaking. That kind of transformation is not simply about saying “no” to sexism, but rather about actively building the world anew by saying “yes” to ourselves. Such praxis, I suggest, is the work of feminist ethics, which in reality could never be separated from feminist politics. Going back to Butler’s question in the beginning, inasmuch as we attempt to live good lives in bad ones, the conditions of possibility of those lives are set up beforehand by forces that are beyond our making. Yet within those conditions possibility we struggle to create new ways to be, that is, to create a magic world. Feminist praxis, in that sense, is about creating and implementing new values that are life affirming. As Sare talked about how the queer anarchist punk collective Queer-A came to be, she explained that as they were trying to articulate some “queer feelings” in their own communities that were supposed to be safe (“anarchist, leftist, feminist communities,” as she put it), they were made to feel like “freaks,” on top of the marginalization that they were subjected to as women 164 and/or LGBTQ+ individuals in the larger society. “As a few of us freaks came together, we organically and horizontally became organized,” she states. They organized a “queer week” featuring various talks, panels, workshops, and discussion groups. “We realized that there was a lot to talk about,” she says. Adding that the collective continues to organize events and continues to exist by “taking the streets, living our best lives, and through various creations we make,” Queer-A combats “homophobia, transphobia, slutphobia, violence that punishes anti-normative acts, and all kinds of oppressions.” “We need to stand together as a first step,” she notes, “yet we also know that each one of us is strong.” Building safe communities where individuals can exist, create, and flourish is one strategy whereby the feminist punk scene establishes itself as a counterpublic. Collectives like Queer-A and CIAYM provide a haven for those who experience oppression in various ways, where they can gather and grow stronger together. Supporting the works of queer and feminist artists, musicians, and writers, these collectives also facilitate various kinds of creations, which in turn motivate and inspire others. Countless times when I would get off the stage after playing a set, young women would come up to me and tell me how much courage and motivation our performance has given them. It is these types of acts that break the spell of masculine valorization and monopoly over the scene, creating spaces for others to partake and transform. Self-empowerment, that is to say, serves in turn to empower others. In line with research on feminist community building through zines and blogs (Clark-Parsons, 2017; Sandoval & Fuchs, 2010; Kearney, 2006; Harris, 1999), the scene as a counterpublic relies on and promotes the circulation of useful, empowering information, counterdiscourses around body posivity, sex posivity, self-love, and self-care, and playful, provocative aesthetics that draw young women in and help bind them together. Referring to her own creative endeavors, Sare states that writing and drawing have always served as outlets for her through which she could express her traumas, heartbreaks, joys, and desires. “In time, painting those things that bother me has become a kind of responsibility for me. I usually paint about sexual pressures, abuses, pleasures, and sorrows that keep me preoccupied and that I’ve lived through. That devolves into my political struggle. My zines, paintings, poems...everything I create is shaped around my fears, dreams, and goals.” Music, writing, and art provide means for self-articulation whereby its creator can reflect on and draw from their own experiences in ways that resonate with others. Supporting and showcasing these works moves and motivates others to reflect on their own experiences and explore their own ways of selfexpression. It also helps forge lasting connections that are both local (between women, queer, non-binary and gender non-conforming individuals within the local scene) and transnational. Sare stated that Queer-A has made connections and keeps in contact with queer collectives and individuals from various cities and countries. Online communities in particular have facilitated these kinds of international connections. As Zobl (2009, p.1) suggests, zines (and we may add blogs and other venues in cyberspace) “function as a heterogenous, ‘culturally productive, politicized counterpublic’ (Nguyen, 2000) for feminist networking and critical reflection by young women in different parts of the world”. Many of the followers of CIAYM’s Facebook page, whose content is mostly in English, are from outside of Turkey. Such connections also make possible some international collaborations. CIAYM, for instance, released a split album called 165 3.3. Creating a magic world: Punk, DIY culture, and feminist ethics in contemporary Turkey HERESY comprised of feminist bands from various parts of the world. Ladyfest Istanbul 2018 featured Dream Nails from the United Kingdom as the headliner. Some feminist punks in Istanbul occasionally write for London based organization Loud Women’s ezine and CIAYM interviewed Cassie, who runs Loud Women, for the upcoming issue of their zine. Spanish grrrl collective Furor Uteri also interviewed CIAYM for their zine. These kinds of connections and interactions make possible for sharing vital information and strategies, whereby individuals and collectives learn from one another and grow together. They extend solidarity beyond the confines of the local scene. By reaching out, feminist punks seek to bridge the local and the global. Diverging from the strategies of the mainstream feminist movement in Turkey that centers protest, the kind of political action in which feminist punks engage is not only about building a better future, but heavily relies on the transformation of the present. As Sowards & Renegard (2004, p. 63) write with regards to young feminists, “[T]hird wave feminists employ rhetorical activism through enjoyment of their lives in the present, rather than, or in addition to, the use of resistance”. Humor here serves as a rhetorical tool for resistance (Billingsley, 2013). Humorous, playful language and attitude, the use of feminist jokes, colorful and powerful presence, high energy music have become tenets of the feminist punk scene, from zines and blogs to stage performance and Instagram stories. As Sowards and Renegar (2004, p. 63) write, “Excitement and humor is...a part of third wave feminist activism. Humor becomes an outlet for addressing oppression and discrimination”. Humor can also serve as a subversive tool insofar as it can help play with and disrupt gender norms. Through these rhetorical strategies, the stereotypical figure of the angry feminist is replaced by the witty, sarcastic feminist who pokes fun at norms and chooses to perform joy, overcoming feelings of hopelessness or desperation. When used in radical ways, humor can be very empowering for women and gender non-conforming individuals who are left feeling powerless. It becomes a tool whereby we can empower ourselves, perform critical resistances, and subvert norms. In an interview, Silvia Federici (2018) states: “I am a strong believer that either your politics is liberating and that gives you joy, or there’s something wrong with them.” Joyful militancy, she suggests, is about “being fully present to [your] life” and recognizing “the transformative possibilities inherent to [your] work,” as opposed to the Nietzschean image of the camel in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, who is overburdened by work that needs to get done, where “the outcome is always out of reach, always projected into the future, and you feel continuously defeated.” She states: “Joyful politics is politics that change your life for the better already in the present. This is not to deny that political engagement often involves suffering. In fact our political involvement often is born of suffering. But the joy is knowing and deciding that we can do something about it, it is recognizing that we share our pain with other people, is feeling the solidarity of those around us.” The kind of work I see feminist punks to be doing is tied to this idea of joyful politics. It is not that we are unburdened by the weight of the “bad lives” we are expected to suffer through as well as the tenacity of the norms, prejudices, and preconceptions we run up against even as we attempt to transform them, but our work seeks to bring joy into the world not in some distant future, but right now, in the present. Gizem from Crudez states: “Punk is feminist, punk is queer...you realize that punk is not just music and with all those deconstructive feelings and 166 thoughts you have, you set out to reconstruct something new. You recreate yourself and explore yourself.” It is this creative impulse, the drive to put forth a new discourse, aesthetic sense, a new language, values that are the seeds of change, which makes feminist punk formations a kind of joyful militancy. Ipek, the co-founder of the grrrl collective CIAYM, states: “I see CIAYM’s position to be located in the happiness shared by those who cannot help but fight for something, who are wholeheartedly committed to the DIY culture. Spreading this happiness through sharing is the point.” When Ipek and I prepared the first issue for the zine CIAYM, we wanted to use glitter as part of the material for the covers because we thought that glitter is pretty, shiny, joyful, and very annoying for a lot of people at the same time because it will spread all over and it is almost impossible to get completely rid of it. That seemed to us like a good metaphor for feminist tenacity. When I took the covers for the zine to the copy shop for binding, a stern looking middle aged man, who was helping me out, ended up being covered in glitter from head to toe as he was binding the issues one by one. His friend who stopped by to say hi commented sarcastically, “Oh how lucky, you’ll be shining like a star for the rest of the day.” He gave his friend a death stare, clearly irritated with the entire situation. This encounter made me think of glitter in terms of another metaphor: a tool to dismantle patriarchy with contagious femme joy. Secondhand Underpants entitled one of our records “Joy Puke,” because it was precisely the effect we wanted it to create: the uncontrollable multiplication of joy. The audacity to laugh in the face of patriarchy, in a context where politicians claim women ought not to laugh in public. That is not to say that feminist punks are naive or happy-go-lucky or that we do not take anything seriously. On quite the contrary, the kind of aesthetic put forth by Chaos, I Am Your Mistress (as one could tell by the name) is dark and chaotic. During our interview, when I asked Ipek why she chooses to use the figures of dead, rotting women in her artwork, she talked about how women are often used in art as figures of beauty and perfection (which she sees to be linked to “reproductive futurism,” to borrow from Lee Edelman) and how death expresses “the sad exuberance of the duality in the creation and death of a terrific beauty, thereby multiplying with that which femininity is imbued as part of an amazing cycle.” She said that the multiplicity of meaning that we get from this duality embodies the vulnerability and power of being a feelingthinking being on this planet. She proclaimed that she was inspired by “how the world glows like a pearl, yet is rotting from inside out. We are together in this.” She names this “glow of femme energy” a “grrrl hell” [kızlık cehennemi]. CIAYM is inspired by and enveloped in this grrrl hell and seeks to bring its wrath to shatter your boy clubs. “Grrrl hell” is also about reclaiming space. Dive bars, dark alleys, testosterone filled concert venues are being reclaimed by a growing number of women and gender non-conforming individuals. When we organized a Ladyfest in Istanbul, we held it at a venue that is much supportive of the local punk and metal scenes, yet precisely because of this reason, a venue that has hosted many events with all male lineups. When that stage and the front of the stage became occupied by outspoken, talented women, femmes, butches, androgynous, fluid, genderqueer individuals, flamboyant men, trans individuals, that space was transformed from a cis masculine/heteropatriarchal space to a diverse space where we feel at home. As Travers writes: 167 3.3. Creating a magic world: Punk, DIY culture, and feminist ethics in contemporary Turkey A key tactic for creating more inclusive public spaces in general and cyber spaces in particular involves following in the footsteps of the civil rights activists in their lunch counter campaigns and contesting the space by literally claiming the space…[and] feminists are already doing just that. Simply using the space as if it were yours subverts traditional and exclusive assumptions about public space. It contests its exclusive character and begins the transformative process (Travers, 2003, p. 233). That is to say, while these venues are supposedly “neutral” as public spaces, they have historically been dominated by men. The presence of a female/queer/ non-binary/gender non-conforming majority claiming that space for ourselves is disruptive and transformational. Over and over we were asked why we were organizing a “Ladyfest” and whether that was not “reverse discrimination.” Yet it is seldom that any of these individuals who were questioning our choices would pause to think why 90% of all punk shows feature all male lineups and the impact that has on the scene at large. Are not all those shows Boyfests, only without the name? Why is it we assume that music cishet men create stands for the taste and expression of all? When women are invited to play in one of those shows, often times we feel our presence there as a token. After our performance at Ladyfest Istanbul, a male musician mentioned that I spoke much longer in between songs than I did during our previous shows. I told him that it was not a conscious decision, but I just felt more comfortable speaking out in that space where I felt I belonged. It is time we realize that male self-expression and the spaces where that unfolds are not ungendered or unmarked. It is time we mark hegemonic masculinity in our scenes for what it is and recognize other possibilities for art and music that can be life affirming and life enhancing: the fires of grrrl hell are burning. 4. Conclusion: The Good, the Bad, and the Feminist Life With regards to the question of social transformation, when I asked Gizem what she is doing to bring about the change she wants to see in the punk scene, she said that she “tries to be [herself] the best way she can and not stay quiet.” The good life in the bad life comes about when we find ways to manifest our reality that has been distorted or dismissed. The reality presented to us as “the reality” is marked by the (sub)cultural constructions of masculinity that stand for neutrality. Feminist punk is ultimately about collectively reworking and transforming that reality. Taking place at the intersection of ethics and politics, the work of feminist punk is tied to the struggle to live a good life in a bad one, to the attempts to create a magic world for ourselves and others where we can exist, become, transform, and flourish. It is the work of collective world building, the work of establishing counterpublics, of creating new languages, aesthetics, values that facilitate a practice of freedom. As a new erotic culture is emerging out of the feminist punk movement in Istanbul, which seeks to replace rape culture and heteropatriarchal norms around intimacy and sexuality, women and queer, non-binary, gender nonconforming individuals continue to create together and support one another. 168 It is a culture of care, nurturance, pleasure, friendship, community, self-reliance, and joyful experimentation that they cultivate. They are playful and subversive; powerful and empowering. 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The use of fanzines as pedagogical tools in the University: fostering DIY cultures and academic research Minerva Campion 90 A b s t r a c t This presentation aims to analyze the use and appropriation of fanzines by students in the university in Colombia. I understand fanzines as pedagogical devices that help developing horizontal relations between the professor and the students. This experience has been carried out since January 2018 during the courses of Society and Communication (6th Semester) in the Department of Political Science. Likewise, this presentation is going talk about punk pedagogies related to three categories: the body, horizontality and social justice. As a university professor, I consider that it is necessary to foster punk pedagogies in the classroom to develop DIY cultures, autonomy and more horizontal relations. In this sense, we promote an alternative evaluation method that encourages the participation and allows the development of the students’ academic interests. To summarize, we propose the next questions for the presentation: how can we foster punk pedagogies in the classroom? What does the use of the fanzine imply as an alternative pedagogical tool? Keywords: fanzine, punk, pedagogy. 90 Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Department of Political Science. Bogotá, Colombia. E-mail: [email protected]. 171 3.4. The use of fanzines as pedagogical tools in the University: fostering DIY cultures and academic research 1. Introduction This paper arises from a personal concern towards the teaching methodologies I use and the learning methods my students have in my classes at the Department of Political Science in the University. Taking as a basis some of the materials I have been gathering around punk pedagogies (Dines 2015; Kahn-Egan, 1996; Haworth, 2012; Smith, Dines & Parkinson, 2017 and Furness, 2012); I reflect on the possibility of establishing these type of pedagogies in the classroom. Among these texts, I was profoundly motivated by the one written by Tom Parkinson (2017). In my case, I apply the understanding of ‘being punk in higher education’ through a phenomenological perspective to show some of the findings I have had during my years as a professor in the University with the use of fanzines and punk pedagogies. Therefore, my research questions, or more properly, my personal concerns regarding these topics are: What is the meaning of a ‘punk pedagogy’? What is the relation between this pedagogy and the development of a more accessible writing in the class room? How can students foster their creativity while learning? To answer them I use a phenomenological approach, which consists on focusing on the lived body experiences (Merleau-Ponty, 1975) I have had inside and outside the classroom. As this paper reflects on personal experiences, Cartesian thought and scientific eurocentrism, are left aside. This is why this paper is written in first person, in order to express my process of perception of the punk pedagogies and methodologies developed in the classroom. I am also trying to involve the perspective of phenomenology in the sense of Merleau-Ponty, this is, that our bodies are in the world; lived experiences are part of us, and in this case, it means transcending the dualism of the subject and object of study. I have considered three relevant issues or categories that are fundamental for understanding the punk pedagogies we develop in the classroom: the body, horizontality and social justice. As I teach in a department of Political Science, I acknowledge that politics are linked to the pedagogy and to the body. This is an epistemological position that is rooted in transmethodology: it calls into question some of the principles of the discipline of Political Science, in order to find new methods, theories and objects of analysis. In my perspective, it also has to do with the question Haworth (2012, p.1) was asking: “was I doing something different in my classroom?” or was I just reinforcing and reproducing the mainstream contents and forms of understanding political science? 2. Punk pedagogies and methodologies Although alternative pedagogies concerned me since I began teaching, I started thinking about punk pedagogies during the second semester of 2017, when a student came to interview me about what I considered punk was. One of his questions was around the stigmatization of punk and I thought it could be an interesting issue to research in the university. This is how I got to know KISMIF and Punk Scholars Network, and I decided to create a new network in South America that could gather punk scholars and the people of the scene. This is how the Red de Estudios Punk – RedePunk (Punk Studies Network) began in Colombia. I agree with Haenfler (2012, p.38) that “I was naïve about the revolutionary potential of punk so too was I naïve about life in the academy”, because punk pedagogies and their revolutionary potential go hand in hand with the questioning of conformity: 172 Punks question conformity not only by looking and sounding different (which has debatable importance), but by questioning the prevailing modes of thought. Questions about the things that other take for granted related to work, race, sex, and our own selves are not asked by the conformist whose ideas are determined by those around her. The nonconformist does not rely on other to determine her own reality (O’Hara 1999, p. 28). Punk, as proposed by David Vila (2017), can be understood as an object of study or as a series of practices. I understand punk pedagogies as both of them, as a pedagogical exercise inside and outside the university, and also as an object of study. Concretely, I believe as Freire (1996) that education has to be liberating and that it constitutes a space for the transformation of the practices. Punk is much more than looking different or dressing with certain type of aesthetics, it has much more do with non-conformity; or as Vila (2017) puts it, it means criticism towards authority. It is “more than torn up clothes and abrasive music (…) especially the question everything mentality” (Haenfler, 2012, p. 38). This reflection also leads me to another question Haworth (2012, p.1) asked: “If I do not have a certain punk aesthetic and work as a teacher in the public school, is that considered selling out?”. In my case, the answer is more complex, I work in a private institution. Can we find spaces of resistance in the private universities? I do not think there is an easy answer to this. Anyway, I think neither public nor private institutions can be considered punk. In this sense, I do not claim the university as a punk space as Punkademics do, because universities are institutions. In spite of that, people who work or study in universities can develop punk pedagogies, methodologies and contribute to punk in many ways. For Miner and Torrez (2012, p.28) the space of the university can be a punk space; they take up the example of the Chicano activism of the Santa Barbara Plan, “we do not come to work for the university, but to demand that the university work for our people”. I agree with both of them that we cannot leave the institutions in the hands of the right-wing individuals, because punk knowledge systems also have to penetrate the structures of capitalism to transform the universities. In what ways? 1) Including punk epistemologies, 2) infiltrating the university with punk students and professors, 3) discussing about power and privilege, 4) comparing the academic curricula with the neoliberal logic of capitalism and subverting it, 5) considering ourselves as agents of change, 6) considering each social situation as a potential revolutionary act (Miner and Torrez 2012, p.34). Although these are useful proposals and serve Punkademics as guidelines, I do not think institutions can be claimed as punk spaces, in fact, punk has to be outside the institutions in order to be punk. As I mentioned before, I understand the exercise of punk pedagogies from a phenomenological perspective and specially, from the experience of the lived body inside and outside the classroom. In this case, it is related on the one hand, to the concept of decolonial aesthesis (Mignolo 2010), the way of feeling and living my own perception. And on the other hand, it is related to the lived body experience as explained by Merleau-Ponty (1975). The phenomenological method contributes to a better understanding of school environments, especially through the lived experiences of the actors 173 3.4. The use of fanzines as pedagogical tools in the University: fostering DIY cultures and academic research of the formative process (Aguirre-García, 2012). Considering this method, and specially the importance of politics, the body and pedagogy, it seems relevant the consideration of transmethodologies. These are not procedures, nor direct ways of knowledge, but the foundations to think a new way of capturing and opening the imagination towards the creative process. This will allow other methods to emerge; other epistemological conceptions of the production of knowledge to arise (Pérez Luna, Moya and Curcu 2018, p. 16-17). 3. Punk pedagogies and the use of zines in the classroom As Susan Thomas (2018) points out zines’ most conservative definition is a “self-published, black-and-white photocopied booklet”, normally made by hand, then reproduced on a photocopier. Nowadays, other kinds of zine making exist and zinesters still work on analogical but also in digital contexts. I have been using zines as pedagogical tools in higher education since the first semester of 2018. Our zines have been developed by students of 6th semester in a subject called “Society and Communication”. Normally that course has around 30 to 35 students. The contents we study during the course are related to Media Studies and Communication theories (Functionalism, Critical theory, Structuralism, Palo Alto, Cultural Studies, and Communicology for liberation, Communication for Development, and Communication for Social Change, Communication and Good Living). Until this semester, the students connected the theories with their own experiences or with practical examples that explained those theories. On the contrary, this first semester of 2019, we are doing a macro project that links Music and Resistance. The students have chosen their favourite musical gender (punk, salsa, reggae and so on) and they will write about its relation to resistance from the race/gender/class debate. The use of zines in the classroom is related to new ways of creating and doing beyond the Cartesian epistemological foundation. This practice has to do with the combination of labour, creativity and material to foster the individual and collective work for community building (Honma, 2016). It also allows the students to have the authority to talk in a space normally subjugated by adult voices and dominant narratives that may not represent the interests or concerns of all students (Lonsdale, 2015). Zines offer many positive experiences in the classroom. They offer a sense of ownership and authority, and they foster creativity because they are created by multigender composing. Students can create new meanings of their lived experiences, so the zines serve “as a bridge between the writing skills we emphasize in the classroom and the writing they do in their everyday lives” (Lonsdale, 2015). In relation to the previous ideas, I consider these three categories: the body, horizontality and social justice; to develop a punk pedagogy and methodology for our zine-making project 3.1 The body First of all, it is important to understand that everything crosses our bodies; our daily lives, the way in which we see ourselves and the way others see us. This means that our bodies are politicized and that they are established according to different social hierarchies. Me, my body, myself; I am going to be seen, read 174 and categorized whether I am tall, short, a woman, black, indigenous, this is, everything crosses our bodies. According to Barrera Sanchez (2011) there are different approaches towards the body: it can be understood as domination (Marx and Foucault) or as the structures reflected by the habitus (Bourdieu). Nevertheless, the body has specially been analysed by feminist studies: body for other by Basaglia (1983); the lived experience by Simone de Beauvoir (1981) and in South America, by the concept of territory (Cruz et al. 2017). The ways other perceive our bodies and the way we interact with them is related to standpoint epistemology. In this sense, people who suffer oppression in their own bodies have the epistemological privilege to narrate that experience. For example, myself, as a white, urban, European woman, I am not going to be able to see through the eyes, or live through the body of an indigenous peasant, because both of our experiences are totally different. At most, I could have some empathy towards the ways she feels oppression, but I am never going to be able to understand her completely; as her ways of being are given by the social position she has. The acknowledgement of the body is very useful to work with colonial subjects and to link subjectivity with Political Science. In this case, to avoid students feeling uncomfortable with the making of the zine project, the task will never be the creation of a perzine. Mayorga (2013) already pointed out these difficulties. The objective of the zine is to foster creativity, discover students’ research interests and specially to develop a “peer- driven content into the classroom, [so that] students benefit when voices that resemble their own are seen, read, and valued (Lonsdale, 2015). To put it in de Certeau’s (1995) terms, it serves to “free the imprisoned speech”; and it is particularly important for the youth to develop their own voice and projects. Zines are often used in the classroom to promote alternative pedagogies and forms of creative selfexpression that are unencumbered by the need for technological skill or pressures to conform to particular aesthetics or abilities. Because of their do-it-yourself ethos, zines are often embraced by those from marginalized backgrounds because of their freedom to experiment with different modes of writing, expression, and presentation (Honma, 2016, p. 34). Zines connect students with DIY experiences to foster creativity and research in alternative ways. Fostering these speeches is an act of poetic and creative experience, and it makes our writing less pretentious and more accessible to other people that are not in academic spaces. As Parkinson (2016) notes the lack of creative capacity brings the lack of spontaneity, and specially, the schooling system provokes it through the Mcdonalization of education (Haenfler, 2012, p. 43). Zines tackle with people’s forms of oppression and they address social issues. This means they are not only useful against alienation but also to connect with the humanity (Haenfler, 2012, p. 47). Zine creation allows students to think outside of the box about social issues. It fosters engagement with material that is beyond textbook learning. It breaks down barriers of the “right” way to think 175 3.4. The use of fanzines as pedagogical tools in the University: fostering DIY cultures and academic research about a social problem for my students. They got personal and shared their struggles and triumphs in their zines. It was an empowering experience for both my students and myself (Thomas 2018, p. 747). 3.2 Horizontality Our second category has to do with horizontality and creating more solid collaboration relationships between students and professors. In this sense, it is important to share spaces inside and outside the academy. We mainly identify two spaces outside our classes: the semillero punk and the field trips with the class where we write our zines. On the one hand, the semillero is a research group mainly formed by grade students, a couple of professors and people involved with arts and the promotion of culture. We meet weekly. In this space, we have the possibility to know each other, develop our research skills and organise workshops or other events. On the other, we have already been to one field trip with our course of Society and Communication, to a village near Bogotá, which name is Facatativá. We spent the day with the students of our class and the students from the semillero sharing youth experiences and fanzine practices (RedePunk, 2018). We also developed some workshops with local Youth and Human Rights organisation, and they appeared in the regional television (Canal13, 2018). Since the beginning of our zine-making project, I noticed the students were not aware of the purpose of this task, so we designed a workshop together with a colleague about fanzines, creative commons and copyright (La FacultadCasa Itinerante, 2019). This semester (first of 2019), we are planning to go to Medellin to develop the project of Music and Resistance. These spaces outside the university help sharing bonds and other kind of networks that transcend the academy. In the classroom, there is also a horizontal construction of the evaluation process of the subject Society and Communication. At the beginning of the course, we discuss the percentages of the evaluation methods and the contents of the course. We also evaluate our homework and zines collectively, so everybody reads everybody’s zine and gives a qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Finally, some of our classes are taught in the street. 3.3 Social Justice Our third category is about social justice and the ethics of education. As Castro-Gomez (2007) notes when talking about Lyotard, university education has two purposes: the education of the people and the moral progress of humanity. I consider zines work for both of them. They help learning to do research and they focus on social justice. According to Chu (1997, p. 83): “zines attest to the importance of looking at youth-initiated media as realms of meaning and agency, particularly as they serve to illuminate young people’s own perceptions of what is wrong with their larger social environments”. When talking about social justice, we consider it in terms of the appropriation, the sustainability and the circulation of the fanzine. On the first place, the students learn the theories of communication and apply them with practical examples. When looking at the contents of the fanzines, I find that students tend to write about political issues regarding Colombia (the elections, the murder of social leaders, uribismo, castrochavismo), they are 176 normally “left” zines, they talk about territoriality, peasants and rurality; and use critical and decolonial theories. In terms of circulation, we try to make our writing more accessible to discover circuits that are different from the ones in the academy. The first and second semesters of 2018, we shared the zines in the streets of Bogota, in la La Valija de Fuego (bookshop) and the Fanzinoteca of the National Library of Bogotá. The second semester we also went on a field trip to Facatativá to present the zines. Finally, the sustainability of the zine has some difficulties because it is attached to the classroom evaluation. Only one group has expressed the interest to continue doing and printing the zine, once the course has finished. Although the zine-making project promotes creativity and fosters their research interests, it is difficult to maintain it during time. 4. Conclusion In this paper, I have discussed about the punk pedagogies used in the classroom, understanding them through three fundamental categories for the zine-making project: the body, horizontality and social justice. I have carried out this exercise using a phenomenological perspective and considering the lived body experience. In the first place, the body is important to understand standpoint epistemology. We consider that lived experiences are what make us unique. We see the world from our social and epistemological position. When students write about their own interests, they foster creativity and discover what moves them. In this sense, students of the subject Society and Communication tend to write their zines about political issues regarding Colombia from a critical perspective. Likewise, they understand this project as an exercise to foster their own ideas and discover their research interests. The aforementioned issues are also linked to the necessity of writing a zine with social purposes. This is why the zine, as a pedagogical device, raises the awareness towards our social contexts. Concerning the development of horizontal relations between the students and the professor, we have to mention the collective zine-making project evaluation in qualitative and quantitative terms, and the field trips we make to circulate our zines outside the University. This semester (first of 2019), we are planning to go to Medellin to develop the project of Music and Resistance. These spaces help sharing bonds and other kind of networks that transcend the academy. However, there are also some limitations. For example, when we think about the aforementioned question: how can we develop our writing more accessible in the classroom? The students’ zines are still too academic and too difficult to understand in non-academic spaces. Another limitation I have found and that I am trying to solve during this semester is that many students do not understand the aim of the zine. Some zines of the course, for example, have bibliography citations and some others use images from the Internet without regard whether they have copyright or not. To avoid these I have organised with a colleague a workshop to talk about fanzines, copyright and Creative Commons. Finally, and beyond these limitations, zines connect students with DIY experiences and other circuits outside the academy; it makes them write about social issues and encourages them to make their writing more accessible. 177 3.4. The use of fanzines as pedagogical tools in the University: fostering DIY cultures and academic research References Aguirre-García, J.C. & Jaramillo-Echeverri, L.G. (2012). Aportes del método fenomenológico a la investigación educativa. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Educativos, 8(2), pp. 51-74. Barrera Sánchez, O. (2011). El Cuerpo en Marx, Bourdieu y Foucault. Iberóforum. Revista de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Iberoamericana, 6(11), pp. 121-137 Canal13 (2018). Punk campesino. Video. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfAcN_4fWNU> Castro-Gómez, S. (2007). Decolonizar la universidad. La hybris del punto cero y el diálogo de saberes. El giro decolonial. Reflexiones para una diversidad epistémica más allá del capitalismo global, pp. 79-91. Chu, J. (1997). Navigating the media environment: How youth claim a place through zines. Social Justice, 24 (69), pp. 71-85 Cruz, D.; Vázquez, E.; Ruales, G.; Bayón Jiménez, M. & García-Torres, M. (2017). Mapeando el cuerpo-territorio. Guía metodológica para mujeres que defienden sus territorios. Instituto de Estudios Ecologistas del Tercer Mundo. De Beauvoir, S. (1981). El segundo sexo. Buenos Aires: Siglo XX. De Certeau, M. (1995). La toma de la palabra y otros escritos políticos (Vol. 2). Mexico: Universidad Iberoamericana. Dines, M. (2015). Learning through resistance: contextualisation, creation and incorporation of a ‘punk pedagogy’. Journal of pedagogic development, 5(3), pp. 20-31. Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Furness, Z. (Ed.). (2012). Punkademics: The basement show in the ivory tower. Brooklyn, NY: Minor Compositions. Haenfler, R. (2012). Punk ethics and the mega-university. In Furness, Z. (Ed.) Punkademics; The Basement Show in the Ivory Tower. Brooklyn, NY: Minor Compositions. Haworth, R.H. (2012). Anarchism & Education: Learning from Historical Experimentations. In Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education. Bristol: PM Press. Honma, T. (2016). From Archives to Action: Zines, Participatory Culture, and Community Engagement in Asian America. Radical Teacher, 105, pp. 33-43. Kahn-Egan, S. (1998). 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The philosophy of punk: more than noise!!. San Francisco: AK Press. Parkinson, T. (2017). Being punk in higher education: subcultural strategies for academic practice. Teaching in Higher Education, 22(2), pp. 143-157. Pérez Luna, E., Moya, N. A., & Curcu Colón, A. (2013). Transdisciplinariedad y educación. Educere, 17,Available in: <http://www.revele.com. veywww.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=35630150014> 178 RedePunk 2018. Punk, territorio y Resistencia social. Facatativá. Available in: <https://www. facebook.com/pg/Redestudiospunk/photos/?tab=album&album_id=561918580896859> Smith, G. D., Dines, M., & Parkinson, T. (Eds.). (2017). Punk pedagogies: Music, culture and learning. London: Routledge. Thomas, S. (2018). Zines for teaching: A survey of pedagogy and implications for academic librarians. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 18(4), pp. 737-758. Vila, D. (2017). Should I stay or should I go? A survival guide for punk graduate students (pp.43-56). In Smith, G.D., Dines, M., & Parkinson, T. (Eds.) Punk pedagogies: Music, culture and learning. London: Routledge. 179 3.5. Music and fashion in Spain in the 80’s Angels Bronsoms 91 A b s t r a c t This paper explores the influence of music in the fashion choices of the women that witnessed the changing (gender) roles in the Spanish society of the late 1970’s, a period of invisibility of women in all fields. The generation in this study are both baby boomers and Generation X, a powerful group of 10 influential professionals of the music industry, culture, arts and fashion born between 1953 and 1969. Their oral testimonies serve to understand how this generation with their attitudes, corporal aesthetic, sexuality and style, made fashion statements and found the melting point through music. Music, films, the urban art scene, videoclips or magazines, were global influences in the fashion choices of that generation. Keywords: Popular music, fashion, female subculture, Spanish history 1980-1989. 91 Universidad Autónoma Barcelona, Periodisma. Barcelona, Spain. E-mail: abronsoms@ global-business-school.org. 180 Rapper’s Delight is one of the most influential songs in mainstream hip-hop released and produced in 1979 by Sugarhill Records, a label owned by Sylvia Robinson, a talented singer, record impresario, producer. Sylvia was and influential rap pioneer and is considered the “Mother of Hip-Hop”. Sylvia died in 2011 at age 76 and her story, as most of the women that navigated on a very male dominated industry, went unknown. The present research takes off in Spain also in the late 1970s, a crucial decade after the political transition towards democracy after Franco’s death in 1975. An account of a moment in history of women that witnessed the change of roles in society while few pioneers understood and defended feminism. Before 1970 women in Spain were totally isolated and vetoed in the public sphere, from work to politics, from mass media to art. A very important rupture from the traditional scheme of the nuclear family unit happened when these women started working outside the home. Many women gaining control of their lives derived into freedom of expression in many fields such as art, as well as in music and fashion. The research takes the format of interviews to a group of 10 professionals of this generation and with their testimony we can understand and interpret this period and what was meaningful to them: Christina Bifano is a textile designer and fashion historian that works predominantly in education and trends research. Michele Curel was a photographer in concerts, at interviews, backstage and now she is the president of the Asociación de Fotógrafos Profesionales (AFP). Movie director and writer Isabel Coixet qualifies herself in the 1980s as an aspiring filmmaker, now she says, “I am one”. Lydia Delgado started as a classic dancer and became a leading designer in the Spanish fashion scene in the mid and late 1980’s with her own label that has stood out for bringing a wilder edge to sophistication. Patricia Godes was the first music writer and journalist who offered a serious treatment of black American music in media. Patricia Soley Bertran was a professional fashion model in the 1980’s today she is a university lecturer, researcher, writer and essayist. Marta Vall worked as a freelance in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, now she is the Marketing Manager of Universal Music in Spain. Anna Vallés started working as a stylist, fashion journalist, advertising stylist and fashion consultant for many magazines and became the Fashion Director of the Spanish editions of Woman and Marie Claire. Silvia Ventosa was the curator of the Museum of Ethnology Barcelona back in 1985 and now she is the Head of the Department of Fashion and Textile of the Design Museum in Barcelona. Bertha Yebra spent the 1970’s and 1980’s travelling, doing interviews around the world and going to rock shows. Founded Popular 1 in 1973 a music magazine that still in business today. In the 1960s, the representation of femininity that dominated many music discourses, together with the roles that women played while working in industries with almost nonexistent female representation, varied from country to country. ¿Had Sylvia Robinson in the US the same limitations than movie director Isabel Coixet or fashion designer Lydia Delgado in Spain? In the early eighties in Spain, the access to artistic and cultural creativity was limited to the main capitals in the country: fashion, art, film, music and design, were represented mainly in Madrid and Barcelona. After Franco’s death, the desire to recover the lost ground, to join the vanguard, to recover “modernity”, and to re-figure in the cultural panorama, explodes. Political liberty led mostly left-wing forces to city councils. The sexual revolution was intensely lived. The young man and women, whose parents 181 had been subjected for decades to severe repression in this area, head first to promiscuity (which only halted the onset of AIDS in the middle of the decade) and accepted without reservation the new status of women by the feminist movements. The conditions of freedom established in Spanish society, where it no longer seemed possible to prohibit anything, also facilitated the rise of drug consumption among the young generations. The decade of the 1980s was a decade of material prosperity, which favored the allocation of resources to projects of young, prepared and creative people who began to look towards London and New York, rather than Paris, pursuing their initiatives and looking for stimuli abroad. These group of people with new ideas and willingness to carry them out, and with enough economic capacity to do so, traveled and shared with their friends what interested them. They transited through all cultural territories in a completely transverse way; what today without hesitation we would call “entrepreneurs”. An important nucleus of these entrepreneurs belonged to the field of design, but also highlighted professionals in music, literature, architecture, photography, journalism, fashion, illustration, comics, television and cinema. They did everything and experimented with everything. They created bars, shops, fashion collections, discos, magazines, television programs and movies, all of which had no reason to envy to their British or American counterparts. But they were not mere copies: they all incorporated a character of their own that little by little gained fame and put Barcelona back at the head of the cultural vanguard. In the late 1980’s Barcelona was chosen to hold the 1992 Olympic Games, legitimizing its modernization to the whole world. The first musical manifestations, the counterculture literature and new journalism became the agitators of the grey age of a dormant Spain of the late 1970’s. More and more, Spanish people could communicate in English and were able to read the imported magazines from the UK and the US like The Face, New Musical Express or Spin showcasing that other modern young people existed beyond our borders. Barcelona was prolific in terms of music publications: Rock Espezial (September, 1981) was heiress of the legendary Vibraciones (the music magazine par excellence of the 1970’s), as well as Popular-1, one of the oldest music publications in Europe. The movie theaters that displayed daily double sessions such as Cine Céntrico, Spring, Loreto or Maldá became the scenarios where paraded the heroes and dreams of this generation. In the art scene, the international influences came from the street art and fusion of genres like sculpture, photography, installations, painting and graffiti. Second hand stores for music, clothing and books were also very popular and people did things for themselves consciously seeking to feel fulfilled. It was a total DIY culture. Back in 1979, the small coastal town of Canet de Mar, organized one of the first rock festivals at the style of the international events and pioneered the panorama by contracting the mythical bands of the NY punk underground scene like Blondie and Ultravox. The first urban tribes began to blur the hippies of the 1970’s that followed the symphonic music style called Música Layetana and mainly settled in La Floresta outside Barcelona. The beards and long hair gave way to the tribes of the early 1980’s: rockers, mods, punks and skins and with them those wonderful bands like Ramones, Sex Pistols, Dammed, Clash, Jam. “No future” as the slogan from punks was adopted also here by a whole generation that broke conservative molds and sought in music the religion 3.5. Music and fashion in Spain in the 80’s 182 that will identify them with others through the simple and direct messages of pop and rock music. Barcelona was ahead of most cities in Spain with a small circuit concert hall were local bands like Los Burros, Loquillo, Brighton-64, Decibelios or Rebeldes played every so often. In that context, music promoter Gay Mercader created scenarios in bullrings and stadiums were fans meet their idols: Police, Bob Marley or Elvis Costello. Madrid was forging a countercultural movement called “La movida” that expanded all over the capitals and in all forms. The independent underground mass media spread the buzz and the music industry signed record contracts with all the bands of the moment like Kaka de Luxe, Alaska y los Pegamoides, Zombies, Aviador Dro, Las Chinas, La Mode, Vulpess, Radio Futura, Gabinete Caligari or Parálisis Permanente. The representatives of such artistic and spontaneous cultural movement of the late 1970’s congregated around clubs and markets, art galleries and multidisciplinary artistic scenes of the capital of Spain to reclaim their more cosmopolitan spirit, from a country that was slowly recovering their voice, identity and future. The first local televisions were born in Catalonia and Spain in 1981 in an atmosphere of political transformation. This environment favored participation in the public life and demanded freedom of expression. Catalan culture and language were persecuted under Franco’s dictatorship for more than forty years. Catalans took conscience that the recovery of their identity was essential and for that reason various media groups and organizations launched local newspapers, FM radios and tv-stations written and spoken in Catalan. Transportation was becoming more democratized and travel helped youth around the globe to become part of a generation that sought the modern world that was being showcased on the magazines or in one’s imagination. London, Paris or New York were global tastemakers that dictated the direction of fashion, art, music and design across the world. The 1980’s was sort of the golden age for music journalism since technology enabled the coverage of many shows live and bands agreed on being interviewed backstage or in hotel rooms. Journalists versatile in languages were invited by record companies and culture industries to interview their artist, promote exhibits and performances. No technology could substitute the direct contact with the idols (Guerra, 2018, 2019). The design bars were the sanctuaries for fun both in Barcelona and Madrid and all over the peninsula. These comfortable spaces were created for the enjoyment by a very prolific vanguard of artists, designers, architects and engineers that changed the previous underground concept by the one of modernity, “Copeteo” (drinks) with VIP’s while socializing in the newly decorated city industrial grounds. The male dominated effervescent music scene yielded little space for female artists, to the exception if the female sang in a band of men. Fortunately, a whole new generation of liberal women who travelled, worked as DJ’s, fashion designers, movie directors or journalists were advancing into their claims of not conforming to being sexualized objects. In the early 1980s, the socialists began revitalizing the textile industries. Zara, opened its first store in La Coruña back in 1975 and started experiencing growth outside the country. In Barcelona, brand-based Mango opened its first store in 1984 in Paseo de Gracia and gradually expanded. The local fashion magazines were in sync with the creators of the trends: Dunia, Telva and the local editions of Cosmopolitan, Elle and Vogue. Miller’s quote enlightens how fashion choices are linked and influenced by music: “Music has the powerful link to search for authentic experiences: emotions, creativity and lifestyle. 183 Fashion has long been charged with superficiality yet is one of the most financially successful creative industries, with a power and reach that extends beyond itself” (Miller, 2011). Media played a crucial role in the expansion of marketing opportunities and the global success of the fashion and music industries in late 1970’s and 1980’s. The music industry alone could not have constructed idol’s images without the help of the editors, art directors, managers, photographers and stylists; video performances and photo shoots shaped the cultural and social dialogue. The media provided certain models of femininity and masculinity to which young men and women could adhere to; enabling the possibility to communicate more democratically. The changing decade needed to portray the youth subcultures, the stars, celebrities, fans, glamour, and seduction on the glossy pages of the new magazines with reference headers like i-D magazine, The Face, Blitz, New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Rolling Stone. The modern cable music channel MTV emerged in the US in the early eighties as a new powerful medium reaching the media capitals of New York City and Los Angeles and creating an absolute necessity for the bands to be appealing and aesthetically perfect when standing in front of a crowd. Marketing strategies made use of the musicians looks and attitudes to make fashion statements that influenced and were imitated by the young generations. Radio stations were programming the new wave artist and “the power of fashion was used as a commercial tool: punk sold newspapers, and the new romantics sold fashion” (Blame, 2016, p. 33). The seventies were years of utopia in many ways. Artists and designers were eager to transform the rules of the culture and society of the time and construct alternative realities in the public sphere, art, architecture or design scenes. An experiential and participatory attitude was the radical reform. People preferred to be engaged in city streets, parks, communes, nightclubs and festivals than in galleries, museums or conventional studios. This was the atmosphere that influenced also the trends and tastes in the Spanish society. In terms of fashion, the end of the seventies was the end of an era in many senses were hippies, the glam, the disco music and bands with the looks of the Bee-gees or the late Elvis all coexisted in one space. Iconic artists like David Bowie or bands like the New York Dolls were using unisex looks with platforms, leopard patterns, silk blouses and tank tops from the women’s stores. The Spanish females interviewed in the study, identified themselves mainly with the garments that had to do with their tribe: leather pants and jackets, stiletto boots, velvet, lipstick, oversize plaid blazers, lace-up costumes, bright, fringed or voluminous dresses, fishnet shirts, skirts held together by safety pins, fur vests, leather-clad, shredded fabric, denim and more. French sociologist Michel Maffesoli coined in 1980 the term urban tribe to describe the young city people gathering in relatively small, fluid groups, sharing common interests that were different from the interests of mainstream culture. Since then, the subculture phenomenon became part of everyday city life in Spain and around the world as urban tribes proliferated calling themselves punks, mods, new romantics, new wave, rockabillies or hip-hop. Fashion brands and the entertainment industry understood the powerful message that those subcultures expressed with their androgynous looks or punk rock attitudes and steeled the glamour of the grunge styles, the mysterious personalities of their divas or the sexiness of the free-spirited creators. “Fashion and music open up a constant dialogue on a territory that 3.5. Music and fashion in Spain in the 80’s 184 has to do with identity, feminism, gender, sexuality, and cultural appropriation as references to understand the role of fashion as a medium to innovate, communicate and seduce” (Baron, 2016, p.3). The female’s roles that helped this generation construct their fashion identities and choices were a mix of styles. In the representation of female bodies, the roles and values of women musicians are critiqued, sexualized or admired more on how they look besides their artistic attributes. In that context, the representation of feminity in punk music, portrayed the most defiant, ambiguous and androgynous contradicting the traditional notions of sexuality. Debbie Harry (as cited in Harry, 2012), a punk icon, was highly imitated, and was mentioned frequently by the group interviewed. Her look was very chic and personal, and she gives the credit of her mix of downtown punk and pop sensibility to Steven Sprouse, an influential fashion designer and artist from NY of the 1980’s. Her ability to constructing her identity was not just a lack of money but a very high sense of creativity and purpose: I did my own hair and makeup because I didn’t have enough money for anyone else to do it. Sometimes I didn’t have time to bleach my hair, so the roots were just there. And the brown in the back was because I couldn’t see back there to do it. I wore black high-waisted tights, peg-leg pants and men’s tuxedo shirts, or underwear as outerwear. Sometimes I wore a bridal gown and ripped it up. But my style changed after I met Stephen Sprouse around 1975, when he moved into my apartment building on the Bowery. Steve was horrified by the things that I would try—like a red Forties dress with white cowboy boots. But I was just wearing what I had... (Harry, 2012, p. 45). The legacy of poet and performer Patti Smith is also considered an inspiration for many frontwomen in the music industry. Her album “Horses” has been considered by critics as one of the greatest and most influential albums in the history of the American punk rock movement. The cover photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe portrays the singer on a very unisex pose wearing her own clothes and showcasing her natural way of dressing. In the words of Viv Albertine (2017, p, 104), leader of the Slits, one the most radical female punk bands of the early 1980’s: “I have never seen a girl who looks like this. She is my soul made visible, all the things I hide deep inside myself that cannot come out. She looks natural, confident, sexy and an individual. I don’t want to copy her or copy her style, she gives me the confidence to express myself in my own way”. Viv Albertine is also considered a pioneer feminist who used fashion to define her anti-establishment punk nature and identified anger as her gasoline. The Slits, her band, hasn’t been properly acknowledged because they were ahead of their time in a music industry that was ruled by the laws of patriarchy. In the music scene, punk feminism, in the late stages of 1970s and early 1980’s, became a rule of thumb for a generation willing to overcome prejudices. Punk feminism served to destroy stereotypes and behaviors and became a way to survive the male-dominated record industry. Punk as a raw expression was not only an attitude but a fundamental part of the spirit of these female pioneers in Spain. These women used it to gain social power on a global world that can very well serve feminism today. 185 References Albertine, V (2017). Clothes, clothes, clothes. music, music, music. Boys, boys, boys. London: Faber & Faber. Baron, K. (2016). Fashion + music (1st ed.). London: Laurence King Publishing. Blame, J. (2016). Fashion + music (1st ed.). London: Laurence King Publishing. Guerra, P. (2018). Ceremonies of Pleasure: An Approach to Immersive Experiences at Summer Festivals. In E. Simão & C. Soares (eds.). Trends, Experiences, and Perspectives in Immersive Multimedia and Augmented Reality (pp.122-146). Hershey: IGI Global. Guerra, P. (2019). Angels with Dirty Faces: Punk, moda e iconoclastias contemporâneas. dObra[s] – revista da Associação Brasileira de Estudos de Pesquisas em Moda, 12(26), Retrieved from: https://dobras.emnuvens.com.br/dobras/index/ Harry, D. (2011, July 1). Behind the Muses. W Magazine. Retrieved from https:// www.wmagazine.com/story/designer-musician-muses-deborah-harry 3.5. Music and fashion in Spain in the 80’s 186 187 3.5. Music and fashion in Spain in the 80’s THEME TUNE 4 TRIBULATIONS AND MOVEMENTS: HYBRIDITY AND DIFFERENCES IN POSTCOLONIAL ARTISTIC AND MUSICAL SCENES © Esgar Aclerado 188 4.1. Even if you cannot sing, even if you cannot play…Do-It-Yourself! The 1980s Brazilian music scene and the emergence of BRock Juliana Müller 92 & Cláudia Pereira 93 A b s t r a c t : This paper intends to reveal the ways by which the punk attitude and its D.I.Y. philosophy have influenced the 1980s Brazilian music scene by inspiring the emergence of a national rock style known as BRock. It also relates this fact with the political opening taken place along that decade in Brazil, after more than twenty years of military governments that led the country under a wide cultural censorship. Other subjects to be approached by this paper involve the fact that the creation of BRock was led by a group of white middle-class young males that was aware of the D.I.Y. philosophy that came from abroad; and, also, how the music festival named Rock in Rio - first held in 1985 - has supported BRock bands that until nowadays present themselves to the festival’s audience which now congregates people from different generations. Keywords: Brock, DIY, Brazilian music scene, punk, Rock in Rio. 92 Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]. 93 Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]. 189 4.1.Evenifyoucannotsing,evenifyoucannotplay…Do-It-Yourself!The1980sBrazilianmusicsceneandtheemergenceofBRock Samba and bossa nova are usually the musical genres internationally recognized as some of the best samples of authentic Brazilian music. But this paper intends to provide a complementary perspective to this idea, by presenting an overview about the emergence of Brazilian rock and roll. More precisely, the Brazilian rock of the 1980s, considered by a group of local musicians, journalists and academic researchers as (1) a very particular music scene94 that played an important role in the country’s recent history (2) a movement that was directly influenced by the English punk attitude and its D.I.Y philosophy that had become recently known in Brazil and (3) a milestone for those youngster’s generation which more than thirty years later still reverberates among the country’s youth cultures. Brazilian professor, journalist and former drummer of amateur punk bands Arthur Dapieve wrote one of the first books regarding the history of rock in Brazil along the 1980s (Dapieve, 2015). One of this paper’s authors had the chance to interview him in person95, so this work mainly results from a compilation of pieces of information taken from both his book and interview, together with additional theoretical contributions that will help us to support some of the main ideas to be here presented. At first it is important to mention that the emergence of 1980s Brazilian rock came along with one of the most relevant moments in the twentieth century history of the country: the beginning of political opening after wenty-one years of military governments (1964-1985)96 which, among other consequences, led the country under a strong cultural censorship. By taking advantage of his professional experience as a journalist that covered the musical accomplishments of the 1980s youth generation – his own generation, as he usually highlights - for some of the largest media vehicles in Brazil, Dapieve figured out a particular argument regarding the emergence of Brazilian rock; we are going to present it in the author’s own words: “The argument is that rock only gained Brazilian citizenship in the 1980s, overcoming decades of ideological distrust thanks to its participation in the redemocratization process”97 (Dapieve, 2015, p.7). According to his argument, rock genre had certainly manifested itself in Brazil before the 1980s, mostly due to the inspiration brought by 1950s and 1960s both English and American music scenes. But at the local level such influences were then subjected to criticism – even by youth cultures - for being considered naive, demonstrating no connection with the local culture besides being unaware of the main social and political issues the country was going through. At that time, the already mentioned samba and bossa nova, together with a few songs of protest that managed to dribble the military censorship, were considered more authentic and culturally aligned with the national context. But still, not everybody felt fully represented by what it was then considered as “real” Brazilian music. That was when the early 1980s brought two great news: first, the end of the military dictatorship; second, the DIY (do-it-yourself) attitude mostly provided by the English punk movement in the 1970s that started becoming popular in Brazil a few years later. Dapieve states that the punk’s influence in Brazil at that time was certainly given by this music style but most widely by the philosophy intrinsic to it. The title of this paper is in fact a fragment taken from his book that intends to illustrate such influence: “do-it-yourself, even if you cannot sing, even if you cannot play”98 (Dapieve, 2015, back over). The DIY attitude then served as an inspiration for a group of young Brazilian musicians to create a local type of rock and roll, sung in Portuguese, which addressed common subjects to youth 94 We take into account the concept of the term scene provided by Haenfler (2011, p.23): “Scenes exist at several levels and the term holds a variety of meanings. Generally, scene refers to a subcultural identity, overlapping networks of people that hold similar interests and beliefs and follow similar styles. It also signifies a specific genre of music; [...] Scene can also refer to geographical location, including cities (for instance the “Boston scene”, the “Salt Lake City scene”, or the “Louisville scene”), states (California scene”), regions (“West Coast scene”), countries (U.S. scene), or the world (the worldwide punk scene)”. 95 Face-to-face interview held in 11 April, 2017. 96 There is a wide bibliography available on the period of the military dictatorship in Brazil, including its main causes and consequences. As a historical contextualization, we chose to use as references for this paper Gaspari (2002) and Ventura (1988). 97 This is a translation provided by the paper’s authors from the original text written in Portuguese: A tese é a de que o rock só conquistou cidadania brasileira nos anos 80, superando décadas de desconfiança ideológica graças à sua participação no movimento de redemocratização. 98 This is a translation provided by the paper’s authors from the original text written in Portuguese: do-it-yourself, ainda que não saiba tocar, ainda que não saiba cantar. 190 cultures such as love, sex and urban life, but merged them with strong protest lyrics involving issues like ethics, politics and social justice that made sense in their local environment. Some of these bands and single artists also mixed their guitar chords with local rhythms and musical instruments. Dapieve named this movement as BRock. Along our face-to-face interview he stated: When the punk movement, the do-it-yourself, is established in England along the seventies, it basically kicked off a new idea by saying ‘look, we want to go back, we want to make a sound as visceral as it was at the beginning of rock. Because rock is becoming an establishment [...] and we do not want this bourgeois life. We do not want to musically evolve once we think the message is more important than the form’. So the hardcore bands from São Paulo in Brazil, for example, still nowadays have songs that are deliberately rough; the guys know how to make three chords and the whole work is done on three chords, because what matters is a lyrics that is also very simple, as a way to mark a position on an aspect of the reality, a social and a political critique. […] So there was this influence in Brazilian music that in a certain way responds to something that happened in the world music (Dapieve, 2015). According to Dapieve, punk and its DIY attitude had influenced BRock as a whole but the way it was decoded could vary among its various bands. It is also worth to mention that, despite a few exceptions, white middle-class young males led the creation of “BRock”. Some of them even had relatives in the military. These young guys were considered part of a tiny group that was “Well-informed about the direction of rock and roll out there and was not satisfied with the misconceptions of the music in here”99 (Dapieve, 2015, p.199-200). But this news about the international punk movement ended up circulating in apparently incompatible places in Brazil such as the youngsters of the poor outskirts around São Paulo city and the ones that belonged to high and middle classes of Brasília, the capital of the country, most of whom where the kids of politicians and public employers that had the chance to travel abroad and be aware of what was going on in the international music scene. They were all caught by that idea of “we do not have to play well, what we need is a powerful message”. BRock was born in the major urban centers of Brazil, such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasilia and Porto Alegre, but it spread all over the country and inspired the emergence of countless bands. Many would not compose more than a couple of songs but they were played on local radios and performed on small town’s stages; that helped providing the feeling that something really new was going on in the Brazilian music scene. It is worth to remind that the political opening Brazil was going through had a major role in the creation of this local rock style. It would not be possible to conceive it under the strong censorship imposed by the military government. It was in this context, meaning the end of a twenty-year period of military dictatorship, and the emergence of a new Brazilian rock style created and 99 This is a translation provided by the paper’s authors from the original text written in Portuguese: Bem-informada sobre os rumos do rock lá fora e inconformada com os descaminhos da música aqui dentro. 191 4.1.Evenifyoucannotsing,evenifyoucannotplay…Do-It-Yourself!The1980sBrazilianmusicsceneandtheemergenceofBRock attested by the local youth, that in January of 1985 Rock in Rio100 music festival was held for the first time in Rio de Janeiro; and was immediately considered one of the world’s largest music festivals by gathering together more than one million and three hundred thousand people along ten days of music concerts. It was pioneer to bring to South America some of the most acknowledged international artists of the music scene at that time and, most important of all, in what regards to the scope of this paper, gave room for some of these recent emerged BRock bands to play on the same stage, for an audience of that size. Along three decades, meaning 1985 to 2018, Rock in Rio became international and had seventeen editions taking place among Brazil, Portugal, Spain and the United States. In Rio de Janeiro, where the latest edition was held in September of last year, the festival in fact attracted current young people together with members of its first audience of 1985. Many of them are parents in the forties, fifties and sixties that attend the festival in the company of their own daughters and sons – and even grandsons. Some of the bands they enjoy are the ones that made part of BRock and still find their place in the local music scene. This might illustrate the argument that Bennett (2013) states “for many aging followers of rock, punk, dance and other contemporary popular music genres, the cultural sensibilities they acquire as members of musicdriven youth cultures have reminded with them, shaping their life courses and becoming ingrained in their biographical trajectories and associated lifestyle sensibilities”. (Bennett, 2013, p.2). One of this paper’s authors had the chance to attest that through a twoyear research focused on mapping the reasons why, in the Brazilian context, Rock in Rio music festival has been capable of keeping itself relevant among individuals of diverse generations along more than thirty years (1985-2018). Finally, Dapieve makes it clear that the influence of punk music and its D.I.Y attitude has not been strict to the 1980s Brazilian music scene; it still resonates nowadays, and in a way that goes beyond BRock. Said he along our interview: When you say ‘you do not have to be [musically] virtuous, what you need to have is a clear and relevant message’, you kind of open the door, for example, to a very particular kind of funk and rap that is made in Brazil, even to local electronic pop music, that all together represent a relevant portion of what many Brazilians of all ages listen to. These genres can be simple in lyrics but carry on a very strong and expressive message in social terms. This idea is still fundamental nowadays in order to shake the establishment and bring some type of freedom to the Brazilian music scene. Dapieve considers it a further mark of that do-it-yourself punk philosophy, besides being a reflection of the “naturalization” of rock as considered a sample of authentic Brazilian music. As a relevant Brazilian musical movement in the 1980s, BRock was inspired by music styles and attitudes that came from abroad but were changed into something new and local, created and generally attested by Brazilian youth cultures. It somehow materialized the feeling of freedom brought by a new political context, by a new future that was just about to be started. In this sense, we believe BRock is in fact an 100 A summary of the festival’s history is available in the English idiom at: http://rockinrio.com/rio/ en/history. Accessed on 12/10/2018. 192 empirical example of what Grossberg (1983, p.104) emphasizes as an effective “affective alliance” created by music that is “locally produced” (Grossberg, 1983, p.111): the affective power of the music will vary with the context into which it is inscribed, potentially effecting specific reorganizations […] The cultural politics of any moment in the history of rock and roll is a function, then, of the affective relations existing between the music and other social, cultural, and institutional facts (Grossberg, 1983, p.104). Then, we also believe BRock can be considered as a symbolic representation of protest and disruption of previously established local standards; as a way found by Brazilian youth to manifest its will to change the world or, at least, the local world around them. Acknowledgements: To the faculty of the Postgraduate Program in Communication of Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUCRio) in Brazil. To the participants of the research group “JuX – Rio de Janeiro youth cultures and their media representations”, for our positive and productive meetings. Funding: Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination (CAPES) – Brazil. Carlos Chagas Filho do Amparo Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) – Young Scientist Scholarship of Our State. References Bennett, A. (2013). Music, style, and aging: growing old disgracefully?. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Dapieve, A. (2015). BRock: o rock brasileiro dos anos 80. São Paulo: Editora 34. Gaspari, E. (2002). A ditadura escancarada. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. Grossberg, L. (1983) The Politics of Youth Culture: Some Observations on Rock and Roll in American Culture. Social Text, 8, pp. 104-126. Haenfler, R. (2011). Straight edge: clean-living youth, hardcore punk, and social change. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. Ventura, Z. (1988). 1968: O ano que não terminou. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira. 193 4.2. Animals in film and social media. Symptomatologies of the capitalocene and Portuguese law Ilda Teresa de Castro 101 A b s t r a c t Some contemporary film production documents a (re) frame of the place, the ancient Greek tópos, that is entitled to non-human-animals. This change emerged as an epistemic concept in science and humanities and looks at animals as plurals in their singularity and singular in their plurality — like Derrida´s (2006) animot. Meanwhile, Social Media disseminate a profusion of titles, including activist or scientific videos, providing crucial information that supports this latest scientific and philosophical proposals. In this research I explore this context focusing ethics and values, modes and manners, in a study case of two videos about two animals of the same species, both published on a social network on same day. However, in their extreme difference, they represent the demarcation of two opposing tendencies in today’s societies and question the boundaries of the value of the “human” in “humane”, for instance. Keywords: Critical Animal Studies, capitalocene, non-human-animal laws. 101 New University of Lisbon - Faculty of Social and Human Sciences - Institute of Philosophy. Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected]. 194 Film studies has begun to recognize how our experiences of animals can be as definitive as they are primary, forever shaping our understanding of how other species make their ways in the world. This recognition remains, however, incomplete. As Anat Pick writes in Screening Nature, film studies “has focused less on animals themselves than on how animals are symbolically produced in representation. Animals remain cinema’s ‘elephant in the room’: the medium’s unacknowledged presence but also its potential for seeing the world, and animals, differently” (2013, p. 311). Movies often use animal imagery in superficial ways, to evoke a visceral experience and to underscore their own indexicality, to serve as proof of “the real.” But such proof has often come at the expense of animals, routinely violated, or threatened by violence in film (e.g. Michael Haneke’s (2005) Hidden and Kornél Mundruczó’s (2014) White God), and at the expense of our understanding of animals. Even a genre as common as the wildlife film does a poor job of transcending mainstream story structures (Bousé, 2000). Can movies move audiences to better understandings and a new engagement with animal beings?” (Pick, Castro & Porter, 2018, p. 72) 1. Introduction Short films and feature films, whether documentaries and fiction or experimental films, are the usual object of study of film studies and other studies on film, audio-visual and cinema. However, looking at the past ten years of research on Animals and Film and Animals on Film and the possibility of film raising viewers’ awareness towards an ecological ethics and practice that includes nonhuman animals, it is important to point out the impact of the films including, and on, animals disseminated to social networks’ media audiences, which do not always fit into the most common features of the previous genres. Two very different typologies can be identified in this broad area: those that explore animal image according to mechanicistic and anthropocentric models as entertainment or artistic experimentation and those who record realities experienced by non-human animals outside these approaches. I am interested in the latter. They are captured by people who do not have a professional background in film and have not outlined contents beforehand. They use mobile phones or non-professional cameras and CCTV cameras as well sometimes. Despite their lack of training, equipment and planning, these films are widely disseminated, and sometimes go viral on social media through platforms such as Facebook from data storing on YouTube. This type of film did not exist before the so-called Social Media Revolution. When I started my research on the subject in 2006, its relevance or influence was still to become significant. Hence, I had the opportunity to witness the steady, ever-growing increase in the dissemination of, and interest in these small videos. The growing involvement of the public, coupled with a more respectful, aware attitude towards these realities is now undeniable and seems to be inseparable from the impact of these contents. A major part of this interest is due to the fact that a significant number of these recordings include rare and relevant information on the practices of other animals in inter-species and intra-species relationships, their unbelievable abilities unknown to most viewers, their singularities and their sentience. Objectively speaking, these recordings make public characteristics and qualities denied by the Cartesian capitalist model over the past three hundred years. They are evidence as well. 195 4.2. Animals in film and social media. Symptomatologies of the capitalocene and Portuguese law Examples include animals that resist going into slaughter, in manifest attitudes of fear and some degree of awareness of what awaits them, others apparently in despair at being separated from their offspring or parents or even grateful after being rescued from exploitation. Still, specifically, ravens that solve complex puzzles, happy cows prancing on the grass, goats jumping on balanced structures (Figure 4.2.1), pigs living in familiar environments, displaying well-being, the friendship between a child and a chicken, manifesting itself in a long hug (Figure 4.2.2), a cat that saves a baby from an attack by a dog, a dog that risks its life to save another dog, buffaloes that rescue other buffaloes from the onslaught of lions or elephants who rescue their calves and recently the case of an orca that carried its dead calf for seventeen days or a narwhal that was adopted by a band of belugas (Figure 4.2.3). Figure 4.2.1 Figure 4.2.2 - Boy hugging chicken Conversely, there are examples of human cruelty against other animals, which are mostly recorded inadvertently or using hidden cameras. 1.1. For the first time The fact is that the popularisation of mobile phone cameras and the globalisation of the internet and social networks have enabled access to, and the dissemination of, previously inaccessible content. The consequences – as far as ecological awareness and animal ethics are concerned – are significant. Figure 4.2.3 - Narwhal with a group of belugas 196 Some highlights are: • For the first time in the history of Film, by posting previously inaccessible information on other animals, these informal, non-cinematographic videos (in the professional sense of the term) are a film archive containing unique, until recently unpublished, documentation; • Access to this multiplicity of content and information has contributed to the reformulation of concepts and practices by a huge percentage of the population whose main focus is animal rights and animal sentience – albeit often regarding certain species only; • These films are simultaneously educational, political and anthropological documentation, which is far from unusual in the History of Cinema. Nonetheless, if films with animals have had an anthropological and political meaning from an early stage, their contents have not been staged or preconceived, which is a first. The first famous film featuring an animal, for instance, “Topsy the Elephant”, is also a representation of human power over the lives of other animals. Topsy’s execution was staged by Edison as a public event (Figure 4.2.4) and was extremely convenient for his commercial interests and speaks volumes about the political and anthropological ways of society at that time. The same can be said throughout the history of cinema regarding the different uses and representation of animals. However, there was a project behind all those films which modelled their making. This is not the case in these films: there is no staging, no plot and often no previous intention whatsoever until the moment when it spontaneously becomes imperative to capture the event. The degree of proximity to animal reality in these videos is unusual, if not unprecedented, in the History of Moving Image. It is as close to a realistic, honest film encounter with other animals as there can be. It may well be the freest from anthropocentric and economic manipulations up to now. The effect of this proximity on the public is a significant, ongoing process. Many animal protection associations are linked to social media influence in the dissemination of casual recordings on other animals, as well as the involvement of users in the actions and programmes triggered by this network. What data can be gathered from these small films as educational, political and anthropological documentation? 1.2. Case study For my case study, I have compared two videos about two animals of the same species, both published on Facebook social network on 5 November 2017. The first, in the wake of the forest and animal devastation resulting from the fires in Portugal in October 2017, is an example of this type of record. The second is a video produced in the context of a regular posting as a Public Figure. While not corresponding to an occasional or spontaneous record, the latter provides access to an unprecedented reality and – from an anthropocentric mechanicistic perspective – almost impossible to imagine. What do they portray? What do they mean and what lessons can be drawn from values, representation, habits and ways from these two videos? The first case documents a pig farmer who keeps sows trapped in the same place twenty days after the forest fire: burnt-down cement piggeries where they Figure 4.2.4 - Topsy the Elephant 197 4.2. Animals in film and social media. Symptomatologies of the capitalocene and Portuguese law were caught by the fire unable to escape and without any help (Figure 4.2.5). Figure 4.2.5 - Burned pigs Several sows have burns and are trapped by crates in confined spaces. One of them “is pregnant and has extensive burns – muzzle, eyes and whatnot – and is quite possibly blind, as it bumps into things”. Still, “you only call the vet if it’s for free”. The pig farmer says that “paying is out of the question” because she “wrote them off as lost income”. According to her, “It’s a pity, the one that’s about to give birth!” She adds that “anyway, they must all be dead by now”, so “there’s no need for a vet.” Later on, the pig farmer says, feeling repugnance for the burns: “Why would I ever want the vet to come here and remove all those scabs?” In short, twenty days after the fire, the sows have had no medical assistance and they do not even have a clean space with minimal comfort. They continue to suffer from burns in the same place and without assistance. In the second case, Esther the Wonder Pig is lying on a living room couch (Figure 4.2.. 6). Esther is fed in the mouth and cleaned with a napkin after the meal. According to the biography on her Public Figure webpage, Esther was born in 2012 and, probably due to the fact that she is a micro-pig, she was sent to a dump of a farm, from which she managed to escape. Figure 4.2.6 - Esther the wonder pig – OMG, it´s pasta night! 198 When their foster family decided to adopt Esther, they were misled: they thought that it would always be a micro-pig – Esther turned out to be a tonne of work instead. Esther’s foster family say that they had the opportunity to give her the life she deserves, rather than the one that was meant for her. They wonder what kind of people they would be if they denied it to her and add that she deserves everything they can give her, just like all the other pigs they have not yet been able to rescue. They left the small house where they used to live and opened a sanctuary farm to help animals in need. Esther’s films and photos are aimed at making their audience realise how brutal life is for these loving, intelligent, compassionate animals and influencing daily choices such as becoming a vegetarian or a vegan102. What inferences about values and ways can be drawn from this comparison? I) Fact 1. There is a different (diametrically opposite, even) treatment, despite: • the same referent = subjects of the same species; • the same historical time = events from roughly the same period of time, posted on the same day; • the same medium and public dissemination space – the internet and Facebook. As far as values are concerned, there is a clear distinction in the allocation of value despite the circumstances in common. What is the origin of this value distinction? Even though they belong to the same species, one is deemed as an animal destined for livestock or agro-industrial exploitation, whereas the other is a pet. In Portugal, such cases are subject to diametrically-opposed legislation as well. Pets are protected from maltreatment by Decree-Law 69/2014, which penalises crimes against pets. According to Article 389 (Concept of pet), • For the purposes of this Title, a pet is an animal kept by humans, in particular in their home, for their entertainment and companionship. • The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall not apply to the use of animals for the purpose of agricultural, livestock or agro-industrial exploitation, nor to the use of animals for entertainment purposes or any other purposes deemed legal. Thus, whereas Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union requires that the EU and its Member States pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals as sentient beings in the definition and implementation of EU policies, this obligation does not constitute a legal basis for the EU to legislate on all matters relating to animal welfare. Some issues remain within the exclusive competence of the Member States. This means that, although the Legal Protection states that “[f]arm animals are protected by a general set of EU rules on farming as well as specific provisions on transport and slaughter / killing. Furthermore, specific additional rules exist for the keeping of laying hens, chickens for meat production, pigs and calves”, and whereas “the EU also integrates animal welfare requirements into the rules for agricultural subsidies (cross-compliance and rural development 102 The following are links to sanctuary support: www.estherthewonderpig.com and http:// www.happilyeveresther.ca/ 199 4.2. Animals in film and social media. Symptomatologies of the capitalocene and Portuguese law programmes), as well as for organic farming”, in practice, the latter have no legal protection and are considered mere property – much like a tire, for instance – without any legal recognition of their sentient nature. This applies to horses, pigs, rabbits, goats, cows, etc. These animals have no value as such: only a utilitarian value – a case of legalised devaluation, so to speak. The law denies the exploited subject its value as a sentient subject. This legal, institutional, state devaluation that influences and guides individual and collective human practices occurs despite a significant ethical shift in public opinion mostly in the wake of scientific and neuroethological findings in the past few decades and their dissemination, namely in social media. 103 One egregious example is Plataforma Sociedade e Animais (Society and Animals Platform), which brings together nineteen groups. It started when political party PAN – Pessoas-Animais-Natureza (People-Animals-Nature) became visible in Portuguese civil society and these groups felt threatened by public interest in animal protection. Strategically, they have adopted a very misleading image (including the name itself), which suggests that they are a group of people inter- Neutering is a striking example of differences in legal protection: ested in protecting animals when in fact it is the exact opposite: they are • in the case of pets, it must be carried out by a veterinarian using anaesthesia; only interested in their own profit at the expense of animals. Like the pig farmer on the video, they are not • in the case of animals exploited in livestock production, such an interested in transparent legislation obligation not exist: the operation may be carried out by an(y) employee that lives up to the current reality, without anaesthesia. However, as proof of the ethics involved in this model of thought, from a social point of view, the only situation that gives rise to some criticism is the sterilisation of pets. which is why they have come together to lobby. Unfortunately, MPs across part of the political divide are partial to these lobbyists: some are praised for their support to hunting, whereas others do not refrain from advertising bullfights on their social Hence: Swine 2 – Pet > Legal protection from maltreatment; recognition of sentience; intrinsic value; social valuing; empathy network pages – some even do it directly on institutional pages, in a seeming business-as-usual attitude behind which lies a huge conflict of interest. These people are not interested in extending the defence of the sentience of pet dogs and cats to other animals that have Swine 1 – Farm animal been proven to be sensitive, as this > Status of thing, property, utility value; non-recognition of sentience; no wish to continue to exploit without intrinsic value; social devaluation; no legal protection from maltreatment any ethical limits. For this reason, would include animals which they II) Fact 2. Ways and empathy From an empathic point of view, both videos get significant interest on Facebook. Esther the Wonder Pig gets 60m views on a public figure page regularly maintained on an international network. The other one gets 926 views of the original posting, on an individual page and on a scale based mainly on national links. Both have many “Likes” and comments – support in the case of the former and reproach and indignation in the latter.Critical reactions to animal maltreatment on Facebook – as well as the growing number of animal protection projects, associations and events – suggest that the Decree-Law does not represent the opinion of the majority of the Portuguese population, but rather the opinion of certain lobbies, in the sense of the common dictionary definition: 1. An organised attempt to influence a legislator in order to achieve a given aim or defend a certain interests; 2. A group of people seeking to influence legislators. Lobbies related to livestock, hunters’ organisations and, in general, people living off animal husbandry may influence decision-making bodies!103 on the same day that Portugal approved a bill criminalising the mistreatment of pets, Belgium named a minister for animal welfare for each of its three federal states (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels). It is worth noting, in this case, the separation between those in charge of protecting animal welfare and those in charge of food production due to possible conflicts of interest between the two areas. However, in Portugal, both are under the scope of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Affairs, which decides on the economic interests of animal producers and / or owners and on the rights and interests of animals – an obvious conflict of interest. 200 III) Fact 3. Values and confort zone However, whereas a post alerting to animal maltreatment can easily be acknowledged by many and give rise to indignant comments by the reading public (Figure 4.2.7), there is a lack of response – contradicting previous manifestations – to posts that deepen the same issues, delving into the legal background that allows the said mistreatment and what is behind these legal options, probably due to the conflict of interests within consumers (Figure 4.2.8). Inevitably, these legal options point to the relationship between the interests of animal exploitation and widespread consumption habits, questioning the netizens’ own comfort zones. Figure 4.2.7 - Public post reaction 201 4.2. Animals in film and social media. Symptomatologies of the capitalocene and Portuguese law Figure 4.2.8 - Public post reaction related to consumers conflict of interests 2. Close Considering Film and Film Studies on Non-human Animals, this typology can play an important role and encourage professional filmmakers to take a more honest, direct approach to other animals. With this in mind, two complementary aspects can be highlighted from these cases: the closeness to frequently non-disseminated realities testified, documented and shown by these films and their impact on raising viewer awareness towards a proactive attitude. In the heyday of audio-visual capture and dissemination, it is a priority to systematise these phenomena and realise how Film and Film Studies can integrate the qualities and effectiveness of these examples. Regarding ethics and values, two different recent, ongoing situations can be found in this case study: despite all the differences, they are part of a transformation and shift of the paradigms that have guided the relationship between human and non-human animals in the past few centuries. In their extreme difference, they represent the demarcation of two opposing tendencies in today’s societies and question the boundaries of the value of the “human” in “humane”, for instance. These films show behaviours conditioned by factors that are external to the referenced subjects and the value of these subjects for themselves (e.g. legislation, veterinary costs or financial support from the state for goods written off due to fire). However, their strong impact on social network audiences and the way they affect everyday life is part of an epistemological and historical shift in everyday values and practices: they announce new inscriptions of the human and the lifestyles of Capitalocene societies. At a time when rare and endangered species reach tragic numbers and the short- and long-term future outcomes are a matter of concern, it is reassuring to recognise a global movement that tends to foresee and sustain the defence of the Living and which points to a broader, more accurate human awareness104. Still, in view of the critical state we have reached, the length of the process and the lack of adequate legislative measures are alarming. Legislation and government bodies must definitely be quick to follow these changes and human movements, abdicating the mechanicist primacy and capitalist interests that have contributed so much to the present and impending bleak, tragic future. It is this indispensability and urgency to do away with models of thought, production and consumption that bring calamitous public and planetary misfortune that the recent resignation of the French Minister of Ecology105 has ratified. We cannot – most of us do not want to, even if many still do not know it – waste more time on behind-the-scenes moves and lobbying interests that are alien to the well-being and common interests of human and non-human alike. 104 It is worth noting how useful technology is in this respect. 105 Nicolas Hulot, the French Minister of Ecology, resigned live on a radio show on 28 August 2018. Hulot argued that he had been faced with the French government’s decision to halve the cost of hunting licenses (from €400 Acknowledgment: Anabela Mayor. to €200/year), authorise hunting protected species, make concessions to the powerful hunting lobby Funding: Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). and reverse the proposed ban on glyphosate herbicide by the Ministry of Agriculture, negotiating directly with farmers and industries instead. 202 References Bousé, D. (2000). Wildlife films. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. Castro, I. T. (2018). Eu animal argumentos para uma mudança de paradigma – Cinema e ecologia. Lisboa: Ilda Teresa Castro & Zéfiro Editora. Comissão Europeia (2017, June 6) - Lançamento da Plataforma da UE para o bemestar dos animais: perguntas e respostas sobre a política de bem-estar dos animais. Retrieved from: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-17-1426_pt.htm. Derrida, J. (2006). L´animal que donc je suis. Paris: Galilée. DR (2014, September 5), Diário da República n.º 89/2014, Série I de 2014-05-09, DecretoLei n.º 69/2014. Retrieved from https://data.dre.pt/eli/lei/69/2014/08/29/p/dre/pt/html. EUR LEX (2012, October 26), Versão consolidada do Tratado sobre o Funcionamento da União Europeia. Retrieved from https://eur-lex. europa.eu/legal-content/PT/TXT/?uri=celex%3A12012E%2FTXT. Mundruczó, K. (2014). White God, Hungary: Proton Cinema/Pola Pandora Filmproduktions/ Filmpartners/The Chimney Pot/Film i Väst/Hungarian National Film Fund/ZDF/Arte. Haneke, M. (2005). Hidden. Paris: Les Films du Losange/Wega Film Pick, A. & Guinevere, N. (2013). Screening nature: Cinema beyond the human. Tasmania: Berghahn Books. Presenter, Pick, Castro & Porter (2018, January). Painel session “Animals in film”. In Program of the meeting International Conference Minding Animals 4, Mexico City, 2018. Retrieved from: https://derechoanimal.info/en/icalp/congresses/minding-animals-2018 Edison, T. (1903). Topsy the Elephant. USA Video´s Websites Bird playing with dog: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNSjbcqfW3I) Boy huging chicken and chicken huging boy: (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX-ib_rFvnc) Burned pigs – 5/11/2017 – 2:37: (https://www.facebook.com/ silvia.coutinho.756/videos/1717324545008169/) Cat rescues little boy from dog attack – 0:56: (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRhV8YoEUqA) Cat with pig: (http://24.media.tumblr.com/7cd29a17d7df07ab58558cf21bd1c0af/ tumblr_mnvxv5Y09L1qix8jfo1_250.gif) Causal understanding of water displacement by a crow — 3:17: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZerUbHmuY04) Chèvres en équilibre - goats balancing on a flexible steel ribbon – 1:10(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58atNakMWw) Coconut carrying octopus stuns scientists — 0:45 (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUN6c5yWJhQ) Cows in various actions – 2:04 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6r0HSpftQA) Dog saves another dog after getting hit in the highway – 0:56 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTg5VGbzTq8) Esther the Wonder Pig − OMG, it’s pasta night! https://www.facebook.com/estherthewonderpig/videos/1577227759051109/) Happy cows – 3:06 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUZ1YLhIAg8) The interspecies internet – 20:01 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGMLhaa98GI) Pig gives birth to nine piglets after jumping off truck going to slaughterhouse – 0:54 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw0GSzVsqtY) 203 4.2. Animals in film and social media. Symptomatologies of the capitalocene and Portuguese law Pig escapes from a truck on the road – 1:14 (https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=PHK7OhT3HtA) Happy cows – 3:06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUZ1YLhIAg8 Chèvres en équilibre - goats balancing on a flexible steel ribbon – 1:10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58-atNakMWw Cat rescues little boy from dog attack – 0:56:https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=JRhV8YoEUqA – Causal understanding of water displacement by a crow — 3:17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZerUbHmuY0 Coconut carrying octopus stuns scientists — 0:45 https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUN6c5yWJhQ Bird playing with dog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNSjbcqfW3I Boy huging chicken https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX-ib_rFvnc Cat witighttp://24.media.tumblr.com/7cd29a17d7df07ab58558cf21bd1c0af/ tumblr_mnvxv5Y09L1qix8jfo1_250.gif Dog saves another dog after getting hit in the highway – 0:56https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTg5VGbzTq8 Cows in various actions – 2:04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6r0HSpftQA The interspecies internet – 20:01 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGMLhaa98GI Pig gives birth to nine piglets after jumping off truck going to slaughterhouse – 0:54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw0GSzVsqtY Pig escapes from a truck on the road – 1:14 https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=PHK7OhT3HtA 204 4.3. A (de)(post)colonialist proposal of musical scene Tobias Queiroz 106 A b s t r a c t This paper seeks to critically analyze the notion of ‘musical scene’ (Straw, 1991, 2006), in which, through its propagation in academia, as well as some of its methodological applicability, we find a discourse based upon a ‘modernist’ and ‘universalist’ ideal. Using decolonialist theory, we propose to rethink this notion, which in turn makes us critically review its archaeology and, at the same time, opens gaps through which we can apply this notion of musical scene and other musical forms which need to be anglophone. From that, we suggest to reconfigure the idea of musical scene by moving away, in a manner of speaking, from what is conventionally thought of as assumptions of scene, such as the anglo-saxon language and what is generally understood as cosmopolitanism. Keywords: Musical scene, decoloniality, decolonialism, Brazil. 106 Rio Grande do Norte State University - Department of Communication. Mossoró, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]. 205 4.3. A (de)(post)colonialist proposal of musical scene 1. Musical scene Chronologically, Shank (1994)107 is one of the pioneers in applying the notion of scene to visualize the geographical, youth culture and intricate local web aspects emerged from the ‘Raul’ club, connected to other production hubs around the world. Shank (1994), by using the notion of scene, and without citing Straw’s (1991) seminal article about ‘musical scene’, points to the same floating signifiers described by Straw, in other words, visualizes Austin’s scene within a wide network and observes its actors in a floating manner, however, these early formulations of scene are epistemologically distant from each other. While Straw’s idea of musical scene is close to Bourdieu’s idea of field and cultural prestige, the humanist and fluid geography of Doreen Massey (1998) and the concept of actor ressignification with its ensuing tactics and strategy studied by Michel de Certeau (Freitas, 2014; Shank’s (1994) work on musical scenes about rock in Austin is based on lacanian psychoanalytic theory. In the article by Hesmondhalgh (2007, p. 41), he describes the context of the musical scene studied by Shank (1994) as a series of temporary identifications, which create a ‘productive anxiety’ (Shank, 1994, p. 131), that, in turn, stimulates the drive to participate live, face to face, on the scene. With this same reasoning, Hesmondhalgh (2007) interprets Shank’s (1994) scene study as a productive achievement, but, in opposition to other studies about local music creation, bases it on a (lacanian) theory of human subjectivity (Hesmondhalgh, 2007, p. 41). This realization of distant applicabilities to a notion with the same name, ‘scene’, shows us, among other factors, the mobility and flexibility of the term. This fact was also criticized by Hesmondhalgh (2007) who considered this ambiguity confusing. To him, there has been an increase in such confusion exactly by the use of the term in studies of popular music, which could not define it very well, because the term may “sometimes to denote the musical practices in any genre within a particular town or city, as in Shank (1994), sometimes to denote a cultural space that transcends locality, as in Straw’s approach.” (Hesmondhalgh, 2007, p. 42). Another problem, mentioned in the same text by Hesmondhalgh (2007), refers to the term ‘scene’ when it is exactly related to the metaphoric floating signifier. Straw suggests we observe it from two main prisms: the actors and the geography. Consequently, this flexibility creates wide margins by not allowing us to bind the volatility of the actors and of a living, constantly mutating object, the scene, to a set of tight, unchanging variables. Surely, we have found problems in some applicabilities, and we feel discomfort due to a certain fetishizing of the term. However, its strength for some studies lies in and spans the spheres proposed by it: the territory, in other words, the geography surrounding objects and spaces occupied by music, as well as its actors, mobilities and contributions. We thus consider and propose this double starting point for future research. Within this perspective we found other interesting examples in the literature. The same reasoning can be found, for example, in Hillegonda Rietveld (2010) when she investigated the psytrance scene in the Indian state of Goa. According to the author, the participants on a local level perform emotional connections between their cosmopolitan experiences of technological acceleration and everyday life (Rietveld, 2010, p. 69). The notion of scene, from Straw (1991), was quite useful for the author to understand space as a fluid crossroads in a dimensional multiweb of 107 Will Straw himself corroborates this observation (2004). 206 influences and musical ideas (Rietveld, 2010). To her, this breakthrough, where the liquidity of the public melds into a vast network, resonates with Foucault’s (1984) notion. In a recent paper (2015), written six handed, Benjamin Woo, Jamie Rennie e Stuart R. Poyntz visualize Straw’s (1991) theory of musical scene as a more developed bourdiesian theory of a social space of circulation (Benjamin et al., 2015, p. 4). This movement is important to understand how musical scene research was, in part, established in academia, as seen, for example, in Sarah Cohen’s (1999) suggestive paper. The author discusses the validity of the theoretical notion to study musical activities in specific geographical spaces. She cites Seattle’s, south London’s and New Zealand’s rock scenes and Liverpool’s indie rock scene (Cohen, 1999, p. 239-240). At another point, she mentions the intricate network needed to support the musical scene, with its structure, institution and actors: The scene is created through these people and their activities and interactions. Many forges close relationships with each other and form clusters or cliques, while others are part of looser networks or alliances. Such relationships involve a regular circulation and exchange: information, advice, and gossip; instruments, technical support, and additional services; music recordings, journals, and other products. Such relationships comprise an informal economy. Through them, knowledge about music and the scene is generated, distinctions are made between being inside or outside, and the boundaries of the scene are thus marked. Central localitions for interaction between scene participants include record shops and rehearsal and recording studios - most of which are frequented by men who shared the jokes, jibes, and jargon, the myths, hype, and bravado surroundings bands and band-related activity. Live performance venues also act as a social hub of the scene, providing a space where musicians and musical styles can interact and where the scene is made more visible, physical and real (Cohen, 1999, p. 240). Cohen’s (1999) comments are well defined as to the structure and circulation of people and, principally, to what they do when they gather together around music. We have, in other words, the actions of the actor’s center stage, such as gossip, information, advice and the establishment of wider or narrower groupings which still utilize subjective socialization techniques to include or exclude someone from their friendship circle. All these actions are preferentially put into practice exactly on the sites dedicated to music production/circulation, especially in concerts, which, according to the author, are “a space where musicians and musical styles can interact and where the scene is made more visible, physical and real” (Cohen, 1999, p. 240). This same reasoning applies to Straw’s (1991) notion of musical scene. In his text, he states that it is not enough to designate particular cultural spaces as one or the other, he, however, suggests to examine the forms by which particular musical practices “work” to produce a sense of community in 207 4.3. A (de)(post)colonialist proposal of musical scene metropolitan musical scene conditions (Straw, 1991, p. 373). As such, beyond the actors and their actions to shape this circuit around musical practices, Straw (1991) also suggests as a distinctive element to think of musical scenes, “cosmopolitanism”. Upon analyzing the differences and similarities of punk scenes in Canada and the United States, for example, we find, in his text, a similar dialogue of continental and intercontinental traits of these expressions in both countries, especially the use of a certain musical vocabulary of the global culture of alternative rock music. We must, in this case, devote care and regard to our investigations to locate, identify and suggest the tensions emerged from this relationship between cosmopolitanizing and local cultures. This cosmopolitanism has been one of the main vectors to investigate and locate the musical scene in countless places the world over. The assumption of cosmopolitanism led many studies to highlight and direct their investigations toward global metropolises, such as London, Austin, Liverpool and countries like New Zealand, Canada and the United States. 2. Anglophony In an attempt to better understand Will Straw’s proposal, we must be mindful to a remarkably active author in the seminal work on musical scenes. Edward W. Said (1990), who inspired the canadian researcher to use the term “System of articulation, logic of change (...)” also present in the title of his leading article. Said’s work, cited by Straw (1991), is “Figures, configurations, transfigurations” (1990), initially featured in Race & Class magazine. The beginning of Said’s article is a contextualization of the anglo-saxon language’s massive presence in certain spaces, from commercial aviation to financial institutions. From technology to, later, countless other types of media. Thus, the author illustrates what he called “system of universal articulation”, using examples from literature, and his field of study at Columbia University in New York, and to stake his claim on intellectual and thinking spaces which go beyond essentialist discourse. Will Straw (1991) reread this from the perspective of music and stated: “If the status of the local has been transformed within contemporary societies, this is in part through the workings of what Edward Said has called an ‘increasingly universal system of articulation’ (Said, 1990, p.8). This ‘system’ is, obviously, shaped by economic and institutional globalization (...)” (Straw, 1991, p. 369). In other words, and once again, looking at Said’s (1990) statement, we must be mindful to [...] the world system map, articulating and producing culture, economics and political power along with their military and demographic coefficients, has also developed an institutionalised tendency to produce out-of-scale transnational images that are now in the process of re-orienting international social discourses and processes (Said, 1990, p.8). This last statement from Said refers to, for example, the emergence of images about terrorism and fundamentalism during the 1980s from mediatic and metropolitan centers like Washington and London, practically in unison. Said also states: “Moreover, they are fearful images that seem to lack 208 discriminate content or definitions, and they signify moral power and approval for whoever uses them, moral defensiveness and criminalisation for whoever they designate” (Said, 1990, p. 9). In this way, the Palestinian thinker highlights their use to create hierarchical spaces and reductionist keywords, preventing us, from expanding our gaze and investigations into other territories which surpass the constructed idea of the “System of universal articulation” grounded in Eurocentric and North American ideas. In the following quote from researcher Felipe Trotta (2013), we can see, in a closely related reasoning to that of Said (1990), another element of the strong presence of metropolises and the symbolic and conceptual power of language in scene studies: “the centrality of English in Social Sciences”. There are also other elements suggested by the Brazilian researcher in the same text toward the hierarchizing character of the term “musical scene”. To illustrate the geopolitics of the term’s proliferation as well as its applicability we suggest the following considerations: The terms employed in the interpretations of cultural practices reveal processses and thoughts tied to the context in which they were produced. In this regard, the word “scene” is shaped in some way by the thinking related to given styles and genres of music, which approximate ideas of cosmopolitanism such as those experienced in anglophone environments. The centrality of English in social sciences in general facilitates the diffusion of this terminology and its attempts at adaptation and translation to similar, local contexts. It is not hard to see that such translation tends to be more effective when local practices resemble, formally and symbolically the original contexts in which such terms emerged. That is why it is much easier to talk about “scene” when referring to electronic music than to samba in Lapa. The English language and the term itself denote conceptual, symbolic, social and linguistic strategies of valorization of specific musical practices, hierarchizing even tastes and ideas (Trotta, 2013, p. 68)108. Trotta (2013, p. 60-1) compares the discomfort and the non-applicability of the term to musical movements located in Brazilian and Portuguese speaking territories, such as Carioca samba and Pernambucan frevo, even if both genres meet, a priori, the requirements of musical scene’s topics of conceptualization (Straw, 2006), such as movement of people; microeconomic networks which allow for sociability; a bigger and geographically dispersed phenomenon etc. In other words, we have the notion of musical scene initially forged by sociologist Will Straw (1991) in his investigations of alternative and punk rock and a few cities of Canada and the United States. Therefore, from this perspective, we emphasize two points in our line of inquiry: a) the idiomatic and b) the geopolitical. The reverberations of Straw’s (1991) text - written in anglosaxon language - from reflections about expressions of a musical genre - punk and alternative rock - brings forth all the idiomatic ideological power and, at 108 This and all quotations from Portuguese were translated by the author, with some stylistic freedom, into English. 209 4.3. A (de)(post)colonialist proposal of musical scene the same time, the cosmopolitan and diffusing presence of genres emerged in anglo-saxon countries and with a large technological communication infrastructure inherent to their places of origin. As we deepen our observations, we can see the United States and Great Britain as the birthplace of alternative and punk rock movements. In other words, “alternative rock” acts as an umbrella genre which hosts numerous other subgenres, mainly those related to small record companies and labels. As such, the emergence of “alternative rock” as a term derives from two musical scenes which arose in the late 1980s and with strong media presence in the 1990s, the first one being North American “Grunge109”and the other British pop, or “Britpop110” for short. The massive presence of these two countries in the creation of (sub) genres of music, musical scenes as well as their global mediatic proliferation is unquestionable. So, to discuss musical scene almost invariably leads us to talk about grunge, heavy metal, hardcore, punk, glam rock, rock, indie, pop and other, related genres. If, by this line of thinking, we have the designation of the musical scene from these assumptions, as stated by Trotta (2013, p. 68), consequently we have a kind of centrality of studies around the axis Europe-North America. Therefore, this geopolitical pattern also informs us, from numerous studies undertaken in these regions, minimum standards for the recognition of a musical scene which may, not necessarily, include the structure (records, bars, pubs, labels, studios, venues for concerts); a given infrastructure (including local, regional and international mobility which facilitates the interchange and live performances of bands, for example); a set of signs (important elements in the sharing of a market culture for music); scientific and technological production (education and training of human resources and availability of media resources which strengthen the circuit of diffusion of sounds); the economic (from simple capacity to afford a musical instrument to the possibility to enhance the circulation of music through trade of artifacts). It is worth mentioning that these data and, sometimes, scene studies, carry with them a part of these minimal details needed to understand a movement as a musical scene. There are movements and research about music problematizing scenes, however, they frequently ignore regional context and, consequently their connection to local everyday life and also fail to acknowledge the role of public policy for culture. It is as if we were presented with investigations in which the musical scene had a life of its own, completely independent and disconnected from its urban and social environment. After these considerations about the issues brought up by the use of certain terms, which carry in their etymology and/or applicability assumptions of value hierarchies; where the presence of the anglo-saxon language is almost a prerequisite for the existence of a musical scene111; the importance of going beyond the idea of investigating what might be seen as “cool or subcultural” (Straw, 2012); an uneven distribution in the geopolitical scales of scientific production and the concentration of studies in large cities/global megalopolises, we ask: how do we rethink our local countryside appropriations in Brazil, for example, beyond cosmopolitanism and the idea of modernity so dear to eurocentric and north American discourse? And, drawing from Grosfoguel (2008) we wonder: is it possible to devise a critical cosmopolitanism which helps us to think about the musical scene while, at the same time, going beyond localism, nationalism and colonialism? 109 Born in Seattle, in the United States, “Grunge”’s main figures in the 1990s were bands Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. Their sound was a mix of indie rock, heavy metal, hardcore and punk elements. 110 “Britpop” was, in a way, a response to the explosive success of North American “Grunge” around the world. So, bands like Oasis, Blur, Suede and Pulp became its cornerstones and put into practice a kind of return to the sounds of British bands from 1960s, 70s (glam rock and punk rock), and 80s (indie pop). 111 The adverb “almost” is necessary in order to represent exceptions to musical scenes without anglophony in their main genre. However, as Trotta pointed out (2013) about Tecnobrega in Pará, where Portuguese language is present in the songs and brega is the genre, there is an intimate dialogue with cosmopolitizing elements of mediatic culture. “The cultural circuit of tecnobrega processes (...) a strong localism (the city, the venues, the brega tradition) and its cosmopolitan impulses (technology, samples, djs [...]) (Trotta, 2013, p. 67). 210 3. Musical scene off-the-rails An interesting study which reiterates the notion of “urban” scene (Irwin, 1997 [1970]) comes from Slovenian researchers Miha Kozorog and Dragan Stanojevic (2013) in which they seek to reconceptualize the notion of musical scene from authors John Irwin, Barry Shank, Will Straw and Keith KahnHarris. Their approach to theatralization from Irwin (1997 [1970]), Kozorog and Stanojevic (2013, p. 356-357) conceptualized scene as a metaphorical reflection of the actor, upon acting. That is to say, he takes on roles in order to perform and, later, leave the stage - possibly to join another actor or scene. We can see this movement as twofold: on one hand it contains the same claim to pluralism as Irwin’s and, at the same time, it makes us rethink how fluid the scene also is and how it cannot be disconnected from its surroundings. The authors go on about theatralization, understood as a metaphor for a cognitive modulator which represents an individual and his power to choose between several available lifestyles where by he exercises his acting. That is, the individual, called actor by Irwin (1997 [1970]), is encouraged by peers to move between scenes, which are defined in different locations and temporalities, which may not necessarily be his own scenes. In order to understand the main concepts behind the idea of scene, such as the cognitive operator “actor” and, consequently, its derivations “role/ performance/acting”, “theater”, “meaning/signifier”; identify elements of sociability such as “behavior protocols”, “communication”, “negotiation”, “interaction” and the geographical “localization” element, we emphasize below John Irwin’s (1973) five topics whereby he seeks to theorize the notion of scene from Californian surf. (1) Referring now to The Scene-that is, to the dominant genre-the most important distinguishing feature is that it is explicitly recognized as a life style by a large group of people. This distinguishes it from other very similar sociological concepts such as “subculture” and “behavior system” which may be entities recognized only by social scientists. 2) Participation in most scenes, and certainly The Scene, is voluntary. This is strongly suggested in the metaphor and points to an important dimension in the collective phenomenon. People as they have come to recognize scenes and participate in scenes, by their use of the metaphor, indicate that they can participate voluntarily. (3) The scene is a noninstrumental system. Though participants may join into collective goal-oriented enterprises, the scene members can and do interact together in an orderly fashion because they share a set of meanings, and understandings, interests, and not because they have to cooperate to attain some goal. The source of cohesion, then, is the shared meaning world or shared patterns of the scene and not goal attainment and other attendant social system problems. (4) Commitment to scenes and especially The Scene is highly variable. For some, it is a permanent way of 211 4.3. A (de)(post)colonialist proposal of musical scene life; for others, it is a passing fad. (5) The scene supplies its members with an important identity. Persons who surf think of themselves and are referred to as surfers. This identity does not refer to their position in some social system such as an occupational or family role, but to a category in the meaning world, the system of beliefs and values of surfing (Irwin, 1973, p. 133). This initial conceptualization offers us a few ways other theorists have used to refer to musical scenes, from which we might extract a few keywords. Respectively: in topic number 1) the “lifestyle” of the scene and its distinction from the sociological definition of “subculture”, 2) the theatrical metaphor of term “scene” and its voluntary nature; 3) a non-instrumental system of sharing of meanings, something along the lines of “subjective protocols”; 4) commitment to the scene. This element didactically illustrates how fluid, diverse, vast and complex is the participation of actors in the scene and 5) “identity” as a system of beliefs and values. As we have seen, the notion of scene as understood by Irwin (1973) is vast, open and manifold. There are no a priori elements which might be used to designate or exclude a given configuration/city/bar, even if it meets these criteria. The same expanded notion, but deeper and more detailed, we see in one of the self-revised definitions of Will Straw (2006) about musical scene, he argues: 1) the recurring gatherings of people in the same location; 2) the movement of these people between similar spaces; 3) the streets where these movements take shape; 4) all the places where activities about a particular type of cultural preference develop; geographically scattered phenomenon of this movement where there are examples of local preferences; or 6) networked microeconomic activities including sociability and connecting the scene to the city (Straw, 2006, p. 6). In this definition by Straw (2006), the geographic elements include all of its six topics, in an apparent evolution of Irwin’s (1997 [1970], 1973, 1977) idea of scene, in which the Canadian sociologist (not unlike Will Straw) already reflected upon urban change and the volatility of its inhabitants. To reinforce this exclusionary element of the application of the notion of scene let us take, for example, Felipe Trotta’s (2013) article. Regarding the understanding of scene by Straw (2006), Trotta states: “By this definition, it is hard to envision musical practices which could not, in principle at least, be associated with the notion of scene. However, the strength that arises from the breadth of the term is also the source of its frailty” (Trotta, 2013, p. 60). 4. Conclusions At last, we would like to emphasize that the theoretical applicability of the notion of scene does not, at least not naturally, debate the first versions of the term coined by Irwin (1997 [1970], 1973, 1977). This happens because, in much research, it corresponds a priori to only a few genres of music, therefore assuming a pre-shaped and closed definition of what can and cannot be included. Just as the initial idea by Irwin (1997 [1970]) is derived from a youth group located on the fringes of society, such as surfers, while his research is tangled with the epistemological presence of the Chicago School - we thus have 212 a foundational sociological reading for further studies, as well as for debate around musical scene, especially from Will Straw (1991), who developed the notion of scene from a “system of articulation”, where there is intense media influence in the proliferation, audience and consumption of specific genres, primarily those originated in euro-north-american countries. Another element is the idea of urbanity, present in the first discussions around scene, but that, in much later research, became a synonym to large cities and metropolises. An exclusionary double movement which prevents us from recognizing other scenes from the outset, such as those not anglophone in their genre of music and/or located in so-called “peripheric” cities/regions. Anglophony in musical scene - from the initial idea of Straw (1991, 2006) and applied by numerous researchers - has become practically synonymous with the “outsider” found in Irwin’s surfer groups (1973), but with the trappings of “alternative” or “cool” usually reserved for expressions of genres outside the major circuit of communication. The same observation was made by Trotta in the following example: It is unnecessary to make an exhaustive list in order to identify the deep connection between musical practices which most easily adapt to the term “scene” and use of English. It is alternative rock, jazz from New Orleans or city-based styles mentioned by Straw on his analysis of dance music: “Detroit ‘techno’ music, Miami ‘bass’ styles, Los Angeles ‘swingbeat’ etc. (1991, p. 381). In his research about electronic music in Brazil, Simone Sá mentions the style variants which make up the “scene(s)”: “electro, disco-punk, minimal, retro-rock, new wave”, in an endless classificatory effort, which multiplies by the day from the unfolding and fusion and mixture of more consolidated subgenres of electronic music such as house, techno, drum & bass and garage and trance” (2013, p. 65, author’s highlights). It is worth mentioning the Brazilian author’s comments, through which he recognizes the anglo-saxon language as one of the main vectors of cosmopolitan status for non-anglophone countries. “It is as if (...) English monopolized cosmopolitanism, placing cultural practices which make use of this “universal” language higher up on the hierarchy (Trotta, 2013, p. 66). Within this perspective, cosmopolitanism asserts itself through anglophony, as a symbol of “eurocentric modernity” exported to non-anglophone countries. We stress that we do not intend, once again in line with Trotta (2013), to discuss in a reductionist or dualist manner the discourse about northamerican cultural imperialism, on the one hand, or close our eyes completely to the ideology embedded in language as an instrument of power. What we wish is to enumerate these elements, problematize and critically review their proposition, especially because, studying musical scenes in small towns in the Brazilian interior is to overcome the idea of “large cities” as the “rightful” birthplace of musical scenes. In our ongoing research about musical scenes in small towns in Brazil’s interior, we introduced, and still do, an inquiry into its constitution. We could see something vibrant in the bars and concerts of local bands. It was something potent, but we felt the literature did not help us to fully understand it from previously debated scientific perspectives. 213 4.3. A (de)(post)colonialist proposal of musical scene We were investigating musical scenes in small towns in Northeastern Brazil from the geopolitical issue of the centrality of studies and, for a brief moment, our provocative - in a manner of speaking - starting point was geography, which classified us as a “peripheral” region. As we reflected upon the ideas of musical scene, we started to realize that our questions were legitimate, but the search for an understanding of the phenomenon was on a collision course with them. This was a result of us naïvely seeking to question the geopolitical, ignoring the importance and presence of other elements (language, bands, means of communication), we noticed that it was impossible to disentangle the geographical - like the use of the “peripheral” term - from the political, including the constitution of the Brazilian state - which went through colonialist, slavebased and class-based experiences - our nation’s foundational triad whose reverberations we encountered throughout everyday contemporary life. In the same vein we revisit Irwin’s (1997 [1970]) central idea, in which he states that scene “refers to a set of patterns followed by a collection of actors in various moments and locations in their everyday lives” and, in a conversation with other researchers, mainly Straw (2015), reflect upon the understanding of scene also as the sharing of a configuration of behavior patterns, in a similar manner to Will Straw when he refers to ethical worlds shaped by elaboration and preservation of tastes, identities and rules of behavior in a group of actors, however, it should be added, not restricted to only one city, neighborhood or bar. We also suggest thinking about musical scenes as byproducts of our political and social constitution. In our case, we think about bars, which we researched, and other spaces as privileged locations for the materialization of the scene, and, at the same time, an interconnection between these cities in the activities surrounding music. We can therefore, not only expand and think about the materialization of musical scenes in non-metropolitan realities, but also attempt to observe this urban phenomenon in a macro or regional scale. Questioning modernity mainly through decolonialist theory creates a geographical and conceptual displacement by inserting the Americas into modern discussion, much in the way that it also creates a temporal redefinition by displacing their “beginning” from the XVIII century to the XVI century arrival of the europeans at the continent. Such a thought, commonly shared by decolonialism theorists such as Mignolo (2003, 2008), Grosfoguel (2008) and Dussel (2005), helps us rethink the map of modernity and its dynamics as well as rethink the notion of musical scene and some of its most hotly contested elements, which a few studies deemed “distinctive”. In other words, our endeavor is to rethink musical scenes from a Latin American viewpoint, consequently expanding the original idea of musical scene (Straw, 1991, 2006, 2015) while also putting us on the map of global discussion of urban phenomena of musical scenes in another perspective. That is, ours is a decolonial perspective of musical scene. Hence, we believe in the possibility of opening gaps to think beyond large cities, metropolises and the euro-north-american model and, thus, provide a few escape routes and openings to think of musical scenes of non-anglophone genres and/or other territorialities, as well as other forms of cultural expression. 214 Acknowledgements: This work is the result of a Portuguese-Brazilian project ‘Under Connected. On and offline luso-Brazilian music scenes’ coordinated by Paula Guerra from the University of Porto (Portugal) and Jeder Janotti Júnior from Pernambuco Federal University. The central focus of this project is the developing a comparative approach to the underground music scenes in Portugal and Brazil, while articulating the paradigms of sociology and communication. The project includes two goals: deepening the knowledge of underground music scenes and their potential in terms of creativity, employability and DIY; and grasping the importance of social networks - online and offline - to the artistic and musical processes. In this paper, we present the results of the luso-Brazilian scientific agenda and the results of the study. More broadly, emphasis will be put on reconsidering the dominant paradigms of the Anglo-Saxon kind commonly deployed in addressing music scenes, thus promoting the constitution of theoreticalanalytical models better suited to the sociocultural realities of Brazil and Portugal. Funding: Foundation for Science and Technology – Portugal and Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination – Brazil / CAPES. References Benjamin, W., Jamie, R. & Poyntz, S. (2015). Scene Thinking. Cultural Studies, 29:3, pp. 285-297, DOI: 10.1080/09502386.2014.937950. Cohen, S. (1999). Scenes. In Homer, B. & Swiss. T. (Eds.), Key terms in popular music and culture (pp. 239-250). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Dussel, E (2005). Europa, modernidade e Eurocentrismo. A colonialidade do saber: eurocentrismo e ciências sociais. Perspectivas latino-americanas. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales. Retrieved from http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/ar/libros/lander/pt/lander.html. Foucault, M. (1984) What is an Author?. In Rabinow, P. (ed.) The Foucault Reader (101-120), London: Peregrine/Penguin. Freitas, K. (2014). Resenha de CEARTEAU, Michel: A invenção do cotidiano: 1. Artes de fazer. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2008. ENTRELETRAS, 5(1), p.207. Grosfoguel, R. (2008). 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Notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in Porto Alegre Belisa Zoehler Giorgis 112 A b s t r a c t Porto Alegre is the capital city of the Rio Grande do Sul state, located in the most southern region in Brazil. Its colonisation had an important role played by immigrants from Azores (Portugal), together with people from other European and African countries. This paper has the objective of producing initial notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in this city, and the research question is which facts compose a possible historical perspective of music in Porto Alegre, and how they are related to each other, as well as changes in the city across time. The investigation, considering from the 18th century until the end of the 1990s, was conducted based on bibliographic review. As a conclusion, it was possible to identify places, artists, music groups and genres, as well as how the social processes and historical facts had been relevant on the events in this music scene. Keywords: History of music, music scene, historical perspective, Porto Alegre, Brazil. 112 Feevale University. Novo Hamburgo, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]. 217 4.4. Notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in Porto Alegre 1. Introduction The topic of this paper is a historical perspective of music in Porto Alegre, the capital city of the Rio Grande do Sul State, in Brazil. This is the most southern state in the country, and has borders with Argentina and Uruguay. Porto Alegre is a very interesting place to observe. Immigrants from the Azores (Portugal) had an important role in the colonisation, together with other populations that already lived in the region, such as other people with Portuguese background, from São Paulo, and black people, from Africa, which were slaves. With the passing of time, this city developed a quite interesting music scene, with the arrival of other immigrants and cultural influences. Also, being near to other countries which had been colonised by Spanish immigrants was a relevant fact. The research observes from the arrival of the Azorean immigrants, in the th 18 century, until the end of the 1990s. This investigation has the objective of producing notes which make possible to build, like a timeline, a historical perspective of music in Porto Alegre. The research question is which facts compose a possible historical perspective of music in Porto Alegre, and how they are related to each other, as well as changes in the city across time. Concerning the methodology, the investigation was conducted based on bibliographic review. The references are related to the history of music in Porto Alegre, with Arthur de Faria (2017), Luiz Antonio Gloger Maroneze (2007), Marcello Campos (2014), Fabiane Behling Luckow (2011), Luiz Artur Ferraretto (2007; 2013), Adriana Amaral and João Pedro Wizniewsky Amaral (2011), Adriana Amaral, Ivan Bomfim, Marcelo Bergamin Conter, Gustavo Daudt Fischer, Michael N. Goddard and Fabricio Silveira (2017), Mauro Borba (1996), Hardy Vedana (1987; 2006), Alisson Avila, Cristiano Bastos and Eduardo Müller (2001), and Ivan Paolo de Paris Fontanari (2003). 2. T he 18 th and 19 th cenTuries For the purpose of this paper the historical perspective of music in Porto Alegre starts with the arrival of immigrants from the Azores in the 18th century. There was a series of musical activities related to the azorian folklore, such as the dances called chimarrita and pezinho, and also carnival (Faria, 2017d). In this period the first theatre, Casa da Commédia, opens, which was formerly known as Casa da Ópera. Although the population preferred open air performances, which took place on a stage that was set up on Sundays and holidays. Porto Alegre had, with the passing of time, immigrants of other European countries besides Portugal, such as Germany, Italy, France, England, Spain and Ireland (Vedana, 1987). There are records of musical activities with African rhythms in the 19th century, which happened near where we can now find the Lima e Silva Street, in the Cidade Baixa neighbourhood (Faria, 2017d). There was a place called Candombe da Mãe Rita, where robbed slaves played candombe with percussion instruments. In this place there were also rehearsals of Christmas acts called cocumbis, related to religious syncretism. Six bands were playing in Porto Alegre near 1870 (Vedana, 1987). União Brasileira, Firmeza and Esperança played at the Menino Deus chapel, and there were also others, such as Euterpe, Sete de Setembro and Corporação Musical do João Ferreira Lima. Lídia Knorr, a female composer, publishes in 1881 her sheet music for genres such as polka (Faria, 2017d). There is a lack of more profound information about her. Os Cubanos, a kind of music group called ‘rancho’, used to play popular music in the streets of Porto Alegre around 218 1880, between Christmas and Three King’s Day (Vedana, 1987). From 1885 on, there were also other “rancho” groups: O Moçambique, Os Benguelas and Os Baianos. São Pedro theatre was inaugurated during the 19th century. At this time, with other people coming from a previous association, José Araújo Vianna created the “Sociedade Philarmônica Porto-Alegrense”, which lasted for 20 years (Faria, 2017d). Music soirees were also organised by the “Sociedade Partenon Literário”, created by the city’s first generation of writers. The concentration of the black population in the region near the current Rio Branco and Bom Fim neighbourhoods was the reason it started to be called the African Colony. At this time, the batuques took place there, including open air performances (Faria, 2017d). 3. Records, radio and balls Different popular music genres originated from a synthesis of sonorities produced by African and European immigrants to the Americas in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries (Faria, 2017d). From this process, genres such as jazz, tango, samba, choro, marchinhas, Cuban rhythms and blues came into being, and later made possible the emergence of rock, bossa nova and soul, among others. The first record company in Porto Alegre, Discos Gaúcho, started at the beginning of the 20th century, and was the second one in Brazil. It belonged to Savério Leonetti, who also owned the Casa A Eléctrica, which sold gramophones and needles (Vedana, 2006). Discos Gaúcho recorded genres such as waltz, dobrado, choro, polca, maxixe, habanera and schottischs, amongst others (Faria, 2017c). The record company also made it possible to record the music of artists like Octavio Dutra, music composer and instrumentalist, responsible for a generation of musicians and the leader of the Terror dos Facões music group. During the period between the 1920s and 1930s a modernisation process based on European and American influences took place in Porto Alegre (Maroneze, 2007). It had consequences in terms of different urban and cultural aspects. Public meetings begin to happen with streets, bars and coffee shops as protagonists and places. At this time, there is a change in the development of sociality, with the practice of what was called “footing”, when people walked in the city centre to meet others and be seen. This behaviour expanded to the night life with music, representing a city which started to have a kind of metropolitan way. The manifestations of a music scene related to the elite began to take place in the city centre. Cidade Baixa and Ilhota neighbourhoods had the other musical performances in Porto Alegre, and the area was called the “zona boêmia”, where the “seresteiros” played (Faria, 2017b). These places were similar to the African Colony, and considered to be a peripheral region. They were inhabited by the population removed from the city centre, mainly formed by black people, who were descendent of slaves. There were no phonographic registers of the music produced by them. At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1924, the first radio station in Porto Alegre went on air, Rádio Sociedade Rio-Grandense, but it soon closed because of financial problems (Faria, 2017a). The second one was Radio Sociedade Gaúcha, which started in 1927. In this period another important place for the music scene opened in Porto Alegre: the cinema theatre Recreio Ideal was the first one in the city 219 4.4. Notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in Porto Alegre that had an exclusive building (Faria, 2017e). The musicians played live during the exhibitions, as the films were still silent. It was considered an important entertainment, and the best musicians performed at these occasions, such as the piano player Radamés Gnatalli. Tango was a strong music genre in Porto Alegre at that time, because of the nearness of Argentina and Uruguay and also because of the El Mundo and Belgrano radio stations, from Buenos Aires, whose content could be listened to in Rio Grande do Sul (Faria, 2017e). It made it possible for many tango music groups to perform in Porto Alegre. During the first decades of the 20th century, live music could also be found at the cabarets, like Clube dos Caçadores, Brazil Club and Club Marly (Luckow, 2011). They were a place for male sociality where the chanteuses - female singers - performed, such as Jane Marny and Marcelle D’Orlys. The main music genres were Italian, Brazilian and French songs, and also tango, waltz and habaneras, besides operettas, accompanied by small orchestras. Around the middle 1930s “jazz” or “jazz-bands” music groups were present at the parties, balls and music recordings. They played, except for jazz, music genres such as maxixes, polcas, schottischs and habaneras. There were plenty of these music groups in Porto Alegre during that period (Faria, 2017f). Besides the other music genres already mentioned, “jazz” had in its repertoire tango, waltz and milonga as well (Faria, 2017a). The music for carnival in Porto Alegre was marchinhas and sambas. These were the main music groups in the city until the 1940s, when the orchestras known as “big bands” came into being (Faria, 2017f). They were inspired by music and films from the United States, which relate to the idea of modernity from this country that increased during Second World War (Maroneze, 2007). In this period, Porto Alegre had two more radio stations: Difusora started in 1934 (Ferraretto, 2013) and Farroupilha in 1935 (Faria, 2017a). There were plenty of music programmes, with hired artists that performed live. Difusora had the main audience during the 1940s, and in the 1950s Farroupilha becomes more important than the former (Vedana, 1987). Between the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s the repertoire on the radio stations in the city was mainly international (Faria, 2017a). They played Caribbean music, bolero, salsa, Paraguayan guarânia and American pop, as well as tango and some hits of what was considered as Brazilian music, which was the one produced in Rio de Janeiro. There was no place on the radios for the music from Porto Alegre that already had, at that time, its own identity (Faria, 2017a). It happened because of the national unification policy by Getúlio Vargas, who governed the country from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. He had forbidden the state’s anthems to be played and commanded its flags to be burnt. There was a strong usage of radio as a centralising communication media. During this period, samba was the music genre established as a national symbol, broadcast by the state radio Nacional, from Rio de Janeiro. What started to be considered as the regional music was the one produced in the inland part of the state of São Paulo and in the Northeast of the country. There were no record companies in Porto Alegre since the closure of Discos Gaúcho in 1923 (Faria, 2017a). Consequently, the artists that have not left Rio Grande do Sul did not record albums at that time. After Vargas left the government some actions that had the objective of valuing the cultural manifestations in the region took place (Faria, 2017a). The Departamento de Tradições Gaúchas (traditions department), in the Júlio de Castilhos school’s 220 student union, started in 1947. The next year, the traditions centre CTG 35, created by Barbosa Lessa and Paixão Côrtes, began its activities. During the same period, O Tempo e o Vento (The Time and the Wind) a book trilogy, by Erico Verissimo, started to be published, and “Contos Gauchescos” (Short stories from Rio Grande do Sul), by Simões Lopes Neto, is republished. A generation based in a night life behaviour came into being in Porto Alegre between the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1960s (Faria, 2017a). Lupicínio Rodrigues, a black singer and composer, who was born in Ilhota neighbourhood, became famous for his sambas (Campos, 2014). During the same period, Túlio Piva started to compose samba as well (Faria, 2017g). New musicians, especially the ones who had just arrived from the inland part of Rio Grande do Sul, used to perform at the Public Market, where they were evaluated by the more experienced ones (Faria, 2017a). They usually got donations after playing. These presentations made it easier for the musicians to get a chance to work at the radio stations in Porto Alegre, which had live programmes as theatres, soap operas and music performances. During their golden years, the radio stations held an expressive cast of singers (Faria, 2017a). Considering different generations, it is possible to mention artists such as Fernando Collares, Guilherme e Gilberto Braga, Roberto Giannoni, Edy Polo, Sérgio Dias, Vaine Dutra, Renê Martins, Zé Bode, Francisco Lopes, Valdir do Carmo, Alvaiade, El Chamaco, Heitor Barros, Armando de Alencar, Alcides Gonçalves, Johnson, Sady Nolasco, Carusinho; and the female singers Horacina Corrêa, Teresinha Monteiro, Gessy Dávila, Neusa Teresinha, Lucy Natália and Maria Helena Andrade. The latter was one of the few of her generation to record an album, accompanied by the music group Primo e seu Conjunto Melódico, in 1957. The Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra was created in 1950 by the Hungarian conductor Pablo Komlós (Faria, 2017a). Its members were mainly part of the cast of Rádio Farroupilha. In the 1950s, when the evening programmes were broadcast, 92% of radio were on in Porto Alegre (Faria, 2017a). At this time, the music group Conjunto Farroupilha and the female singers Elis Regina and Lourdes Rodrigues started to perform. Bars, balls and cabarets were the places for live music (Faria, 2017a). Balls were the major opportunity for musicians and artists who performed on the radio, and consequently were well-known. Orchestras played at the balls and, during the break, the conjuntos melódicos (melodic music groups) performed. These melodic music groups were instrumental. Its repertoire were bolero, mambo, samba-canção and Italian, French and American songs (Faria, 2017b). Music was played softly, so people at the balls could talk and dance at the same time. These music groups recorded albums and performed at balls such as the Baile da Reitoria, which took place at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Weekly. The most famous among these music groups were Conjunto Melódico Norberto Baldauf, Flamboyant and Flamingo (Faria, 2017h). The first had a contract with Rádio Gaúcha, and the second, with Rádio Farroupilha. Both played on the first television broadcast in Rio Grande do Sul, by TV Piratini, in 1959. Flamboyant, which played samba-jazz, was very important for the development of Elis Regina as a singer, and performed with her at the inauguration of TV Gaúcha, in 1962. Renato & Seu Sexteto was also an important music group during this period. These groups’ repertoire was partly authorial. 221 4.4. Notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in Porto Alegre 4. Rock and TV The first groups that played rock in Porto Alegre, Poposky e Seus Melódicos and Stardust, came into being in the end of the 1950s (Faria, 2017h). They had the formation of conjunto melódico and played instrumental music. During this period, the balls started to have also the rock groups, as well as the orchestras and the melodic music groups. According to Glênio Reis’s account (as cited in Ávila; Bastos; Müller, 2012), at the beginning of the 1960s, there were around eight presentations of rock groups each night at the balls. The clubs hired them by the hour. The bands were Os Incendiários, Bulls, Os Monges, Thunderballs, Os Morcegos, Os Jetsons, Os Brasas, The Bachfools, among others, according to Mutuca and Cláudio Levitan’s Report (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). In the 1960s, the rock band Liverpool was formed. They recorded the album Por Favor Sucesso (Please Success) in 1969, released by Equipe Record Company in Rio de Janeiro, according to Fughetti Luz’s account (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). Liverpool lasted until 1973 and some of its members formed the band Bixo da Seda. When TV broadcast companies started in Rio Grande do Sul, all programmes were live (Faria, 2017a). This brought a change for the radios, and by the end of 1966 there were no longer radio programmes with an audience at the studio. Videotape started to be on TV in 1963, and the local TV stations received the tapes with the recorded programmes from the other TV companies they were associated with. These companies were located in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Consequently, it was no longer needed to hold a huge cast of artists, and many musicians lost their jobs (Vedana, 1987). Musical TV programmes such as O Fino da Bossa, Jovem Guarda and music festivals with competitions, from the TV channel Record (São Paulo), which were widely important during the 1960s, are an example of the broadcast use of videotape (Faria, 2017a). Local programmes, produced in Porto Alegre, were not able to compete with them. TV Gaúcha, for example, was purchased by TV Excelsior, which produced programmes in Rio de Janeiro and in São Paulo, and whose owners also owned the air company Panair (Faria, 2017a). This made the videotapes transportation, which was by airplane, much easier. After TV Excelsior’s closure, in 1968, TV Gaúcha associated with TV Globo, from Rio de Janeiro. This period is the end of what was called anos dourados, the golden years, and modernisation actions then took place in Porto Alegre. Because of interventions in the urban space in the 1960s, another urban imaginary begins (Maroneze, 2007). There is a conflict between the promised benefits of these actions and the negative effects that derived from it, that were not considered previously. Expectations of a future, which were positive, then transformed into nostalgia in a context of tension between tradition and modernity. Modernisation of urban space between the end of the Second World War, in 1945, and the beginning of the military dictatorship in Brazil, in 1964, had later developed in social tension (Maroneze, 2007). It is possible to point out that decadence of sociality in the urban environment was brought about by the military coup. This decay can also be explained with public works commanded by authoritarian governments, centred on viaducts, tunnels and the extension of avenues, to improve the rapid circulation of vehicles. An example of consequences for this transformation in sociality relates to security problems, as it happened to the city centre in Porto Alegre (Maroneze, 2007). At the same time, television starts to be central for entertainment and for themes for social conversation. 222 5. The 1970’s Many projects began to take place in Porto Alegre in the 1970s, with the objective of creating spaces for the local bands and artists to show their work. The 1.ª Mostra de Música de Porto Alegre (first exhibition of music) happened in 1972 according to Kledir’s account (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). The event was not competitive, and wished to recall Woodstock Festival and be against the military dictatorship with a solidary process and the creation of a new world of peace and love. Another project was the Rodas de Som (Circles of Sound) at Teatro de Arena (a theatre that recalls an arena, with the audience seated around the stage) in 1974. The event, according to Kledir, was always crowded, and took place on Fridays at midinight. Three or four artists and bands performed in each gig. Some of them were Bixo da Seda, Os Almôndegas and Hermes Aquino. During this period, Rádio Continental was the radio station which gave visibility for this music scene. Júlio Fürst, according to his own account (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012) presented a programme where soul and funk records were played. From 1975, sponsored by the denim brand Lee, he started to present a programme called Mr. Lee In Concert, initially with country music. After attending the music festival Musipuc, that took place at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, where he could see artists such as Nelson Coelho de Castro and bands like Inconsciente Coletivo, he noticed the strenght of the local music scene. So he proposed to sponsor to play more music by the bands and artists from Porto Alegre, which is what actually happened, and the idea succeeded. Some artists brought him their own recorded tapes, and other ones, like Os Almôndegas, recorded at the radio station. Rádio Continental, according to Nelson Coelho de Castro’s account (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012), also broadcast the audio recorded at the music festivals. From this moment, a series of concerts, sponsored by Lee, started to happen, called Vivendo a Vida de Lee (Living the Life of Lee), according to Júlio Fürst’s report (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). These events took place at Teatro Presidente, a theatre, with bands like Bobo da Corte, Byzzarro, Palpos de Aranha, Cálculo and Inconsciente Coletivo, and also the artist Hermes Aquino. Three thousand people attended the first occasion of this event, and the police had to close the traffic in the street in front of the theatre, Benjamin Constant Avenue, because the place had the capacity for one thousand and five hundred people. In three years, twelve editions of this event happened. Between the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, Porto Alegre had many artists and bands that played Brazilian popular music (Música Popular Brasileira) and rock (Borba, 1996). During this time the city started to have a record company again: ISAEC. It made it possible to record the album Paralelo 30, produced by Juarez Fonseca in 1978. This record contained the first register in vinyl of MPB artists such as Bebeto Alves, Carlinhos Hartlieb, Raul Ellwanger, Nelson Coelho de Castro, Nando D’Avila e Cláudio Vera Cruz, and became an important milestone for music in Porto Alegre. In 1981 there were seven radio stations in Porto Alegre (Borba, 1996). The same year, Radio Bandeirantes went into air, wanting to be an alternative station which aimed to make the local music scene more visible. This radio station received cassette tapes recorded independently by musicians and bands. It keept going on when Bandeirantes replaced on the dial Difusora station and, from 1983, had its name changed to Ipanema, which played primarily rock, but also local MPB. 223 4.4. Notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in Porto Alegre Besides that, Ipanema radio also broadcast live concerts by landline phone, according to Kátia Suman’s report (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). Consequently, a culture of valuing local musicians and bars with live music came into being at that time, according to Ricardo Barão’s account (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). The first independent album recorded in Porto Alegre, Juntos (Together), by the artists Nelson Coelho de Castro, Bebeto Alves, Totonho Villeroy and Gelson Oliveira, was produced in 1981 (Borba, 1996). It was financed by selling coupons, so the record was purchased by supporters before it was made. The artist Nei Lisboa also used bonus to produce its first album, Pra viajar no cosmos não precisa gasolina. They were all MPB artists, who formed a music scene with others such as Kleiton e Kledir and Vitor Ramil. During this time, they were considered as popular music from Rio Grande do Sul, under the acronym MPG (Música Popular Gaúcha), according to Arthur de Faria’s account (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). With the passing of time, the rock scene had increased, and MPG artists started to lose their visibility in the city. 6. The end of the 20 th century In the 1980’s, many bands had started and finished in Porto Alegre (Borba, 1996). Replicantes was a punk rock band; Taranatiriça, Urubu Rei, Garotos da Rua, TNT, De Falla, Atahualpa y uns Pânques, Prisão de Ventre, Fluxo, Bandaliera, Júlio Reny e Km Zero, Engenheiros do Hawaii, Nenhum de Nós and Prize played rock; Astaroth and Leviaethan were heavy metal bands. They performed in places like Ocidente, a bar, and Auditório Araújo Vianna, an auditorium - which still exists in the same place, in Bom Fim neigbourhood – and Terreira da Tribo – that was located in Cidade Baixa neighbourhood at this time; B 52’s, Danceteria 433, Crocodilos and Taj Mahal were other venues, also in Bom Fim, but these ones no longer exist. Because of this music scene’s growth, another record company in the city, ACIT, launches a compilation album with rock bands, Rock Garagem, in 1984, and Rock Garagem II, in 1985. The “1º Festival de Rock Unificado”, a rock festival, took place in 1985 and was organised by Unificado, a school which offered preparation for undergraduate courses admission exams (Borba, 1996). Ten thousand people attended the concerts of ten bands at Gigantinho sports arena. Four bands signed contracts with RCA record company, from Rio de Janeiro: Replicantes, Engenheiros do Hawaii, Garotos da Rua and TNT. De Falla, another band, did not perform at the festival, but it was also hired by the same company. The other bands at the festival were Taranatiriça, Júlio Reny e Km Zero, Astaroth, Banda de Banda, Os Eles and Prize. RCA then launched the compilation album Rock Grande do Sul in 1985, with the bands hired, which later their individual albums had recorded in the company. One of the producers had the idea of creating a record label for rock, called Plug, when he came to Porto Alegre to attend this festival, according to Claudinho Pereira’s account (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). In 1986 Vórtex was created, a record and video production company, which launched Replicantes’s second album (Borba, 1996). This company also made videos for the bands in Porto Alegre, as well as producing the cassette tapes that were used to show their music, in compilation and individual albums, according to Carlos Eduardo Miranda’s account (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). It was a period, nevertheless, in which that rock scene started to decay. 224 Rock in Porto Alegre features three specific characteristics: a strong inspiration from the United Kingdom; an aesthetic that shows a carelessness regarding excellence when playing and singing music, called estética da chinelagem; and a hermetic humour, based on inside jokes and nonesense (Silveira, 2014). What is called chinelagem could be also defined as a sense of improvisation in music and concert production (Amaral A. & Amaral, J. P. W., 2011). These could be considered as fundamental elements for the constitution of an identity of rock produced in Porto Alegre. During the 1980s, this music scene had some visibility on TV because of the TV show Pra começo de conversa, presented by Cunha Júnior and later by Eduardo Bueno (Borba, 1996). The TV programme had interviews and was broadcast by TVE – TV Educativa, the public channel of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. The electronic music scene began in Porto Alegre in the 1980s and developed also in the 1990s, in venues such as Ocidente, Taj Mahal, Elo Perdido and Fim de Século, which was later called NEO (Amaral et al., 2017). Cidade Baixa and Bom Fim neighbourhoods were considered as the underground of this music scene, and Moinhos de Vento neighbourhood was seen as a place for mainstream electronic music. DJ Nando Barth, DJ Fabrício Peçanha and DJ Double S were some of the DJs that played in electronic music parties, starting with dance music and later with other eletronic music genres such as house, techno and trance. In the end of the 1990s projects such as Fulltronic, a rave, and Mix Bazaar, a clothing and accessories fair that had a party as well, were part of this scene (Fontanari, 2003). In the 1990s, in TVE – TV Educativa, there was a show called Radar, where rock bands and artists performed live, had their videoclips shown and were interviewed (Borba, 1996). Another programme was Tele Ritmo, presented by Clóvis Dias Costa, where videoclips were exhibited, in TV Guaíba. Regarding radio stations, besides Ipanema, that keept on supporting the local music scene, there was also Felusp, which went on air in 1988 and belonged to the Lutheran University of Brazil – ULBRA. This radio station was later called Pop Rock (Ferraretto, 2007). Between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, there were still bands such as DeFalla, Engenheiros do Hawaii, Bandaliera and Nenhum de Nós, according to many accounts (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). During this time, other bands came into being, such as Graforréia Xilarmônica, Cidadão Quem, Acústicos e Valvulados, Barata Oriental, Space Rave, Maria do Relento, Walverdes, Rosa Tattoada, Tequila Baby, Papas da Língua, Os Cascavelletes and Ultramen. Some of these band’s members had belonged to other ones that stopped playing. MPB artists like Bebeto Alves, Nei Lisboa and Vitor Ramil were also still recording albums and performing concerts. In the 1990s, the main venues where the bands played were Porto de Elis, Ocidente, Rocket88, Megazine, Garagem Hermética and Fun House, according to many accounts (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). In Porto de Elis, many concerts under the name Segunda Sen Ley (Monday without law) took place weekly and generated a compilation album in 1995. In this period, the rock music scene starts to be located in Independência neighbourhood, and the local record company ACIT launches a specific label for rock, called Antídoto. From the middle to the end of the 1990s, rock bands such as Cowboys Espirituais, Tarcísio Meira’s Band, Os The Darma Lóvers, Tom Bloch, Comunidade Nin-Jitsu, Bidê ou Balde, Cachorro Grande, Video Hits, Identidade and Fresno – this one representing what was called emocore – 225 4.4. Notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in Porto Alegre came into being. Nei Van Sória and Flávio Basso (also known as Júpiter Maçã), both former members of TNT and Cascavelletes, and Wander Wildner, former vocalist of Replicantes, started solo careers, according to many accounts (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). During this time, heavy metal bands Hibria and Hangar also started. In the transition between the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, the popularisation of the internet, which had its usage open to the population in Brazil in 1994, brings many changes to the music scene, according to Mini and Gaby Benedict’s account (as cited in Ávila, Bastos & Müller, 2012). From this time, producing, promoting and distributing music becomes easier than before. 7. Final remarks This research reveals that Porto Alegre had an interesting development of its music scene, related to many different music genres. As a matter of conclusion, this paper made possible to identify places, artists, music groups and genres, as well as to understand how the social processes and historical facts across time had been relevant for the events and changes in this music scene. An important influence of immigrants of Europe and Africa could be noticed on the cultural manifestations in the city. The effect caused by the nearness of Uruguay and Argentina could be perceived mainly in the first half of the 20th century. After the Second World War, the impact of the cultural habits of the United States has increased in Porto Alegre, bringing a modification in social behaviour and in the music genres that became more important in the city. This research also made possible to perceive changes in the city’s urban space which affected the music scene with the passing of time. These changes were related to politics and policies from different governments. It was also possible to notice how the different authoritarian governments of Brazil brought a negative impact to the music scene, as well as to other aspects of the cultural and urban environment. A lack of more detailed register of the music produced by the black population and by women in Porto Alegre is an issue that was evident during the process of this bibliographic review. As a suggestion for future research, these aspects could be investigated, in order to enable more visibility for these people’s role in the music scene. This paper had the intention of producing initial notes for a historical perspective of the music scene in Porto Alegre. It is possible to say that this objective has been reached. This research has the purpose of being useful for other studies and to inspire deeper sights of the music in Porto Alegre, including, for example, more information regarding cultural manifestations such as carnival. References Amaral, A., Amaral, J. P. W. “S2, S2” (2011). Afetividade, identidade e mobilização nas estratégias de engajamento dos fãs através das mídias sociais pelo Happy Rock gaúcho. In Herschmann, M. (org.). Nas bordas e fora do mainstream. Novas tendências da indústria da música independente no início do século XXI. São Paulo: Estação das Letras e das Cores. Amaral, A.; Bomfim, I.; Conter, M.; Fischer, B.; Goddard, G. D.; Silveira, F. Mapeando cenas da Música Pop em Porto Alegre: memórias, materialidades e indústrias criativas. In Amaral, A., Bomfim, I.; Conter, M. B.; Fischer, G. D., Goddard, M.; Silveira, F.. (orgs) (2017). Mapeando cenas da música pop: Cidades, mediações e arquivos. Vol. 1. João Pessoa: Marca de Fantasia. Ávila, A.; Bastos, C.; Muller, E. (2012). Gauleses irredutíveis: causos e atitudes do rock gaúcho. Porto Alegre: Sagra Luzatto. 226 Borba, M. (1996). Prezados ouvintes. Porto Alegre: Artes e Ofícios. Campos, M. (2014). Almanaque do Lupi: Vida, obra e curiosidades sobre o maior compositor popular gaúcho. Porto Alegre: Editora da Cidade/Letra & Vida. Faria, A. (2017a).A Era do Rádio. Retrieved from https://www.academia. edu/10002112/A_Era_do_R%C3%A1dio_-_Uma_Hist%C3%B3ria_ da_M%C3%BAsica_Popular_de_Porto_Alegre_-_Cap%C3%ADtulo_IX Faria, A. (2017b). A Fenomenologia da Cornitude: Lupicínio Rodrigues. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/19520054/Lupic%C3%ADnio_Rodrigues_-_Uma_ Hist%C3%B3ria_da_M%C3%BAsica_Popular_de_Porto_Alegre_-_Cap%C3%ADtulo_X Faria, A. (2017c). A utopia da Casa A Electrica. Retrieved from https://www. academia.edu/10615110/A_Casa_A_Electrica_e_os_Discos_Ga%C3%BAcho_-_Uma_ Hist%C3%B3ria_da_M%C3%BAsica_Popular_de_Porto_Alegre_-_Cap%C3%ADtulo_III_ Faria, A. (2017d). As Origens. Retrieved fom https://www.academia. edu/10001950/As_Origens_-_Uma_Hist%C3%B3ria_da_M%C3%BAsica_ Popular_de_Porto_Alegre_-_Cap%C3%ADtulo_I Faria, A. (2017e). Da Belle Époque à Era dos Jazz. Retrieved from: https:// www.academia.edu/10002020/A_Era_do_s_Jazz_-_Uma_Hist%C3%B3ria_ da_M%C3%BAsica_Popular_de_Porto_Alegre_-_Cap%C3%ADtulo_IV Faria, A. (2017f). Paulo Coelho, o rival de si mesmo. Retrieved from: https:// www.academia.edu/10002098/Paulo_Coelho_-_Uma_Hist%C3%B3ria_ da_M%C3%BAsica_Popular_de_Porto_Alegre_-_Cap%C3%ADtulo_VIII Faria, A. (2017g). Túlio Piva, o mais improvável samba (parte II). Retrieved https://www. academia.edu/21593889/T%C3%BAlio_Piva_o_mais_improv%C3%A1vel_samba_-_Uma_ Hist%C3%B3ria_da_M%C3%BAsica_Popular_de_Porto_Alegre_Cap%C3%ADtulo_XI Faria, A. (2017h). Um milhão de melódicos melodiosos ou: os anos de transição. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/24747626/Um_ Milh%C3%A3o_de_Mel%C3%B3dicos_Melodiosos_-_Uma_Hist%C3%B3ria_ da_M%C3%BAsica_Popular_de_Porto_Alegre_Cap%C3%ADtulo_XII Ferraretto, L. A. (2013). A inauguração da Rádio Difusora. Uma História do Rádio no Rio Grande do Sul. Retrieved from http://www.radionors. jor.br/2013/05/a-inauguracao-da-radio-difusora-2013.html Ferraretto, L. A. (2007). Rádio e capitalismo no Rio Grande do Sul: as emissoras comerciais e suas estratégias de programação na segunda metade do século 20. Canoas: Editora da ULBRA. Fontanari, I. (2003). Rave à margem do Guaíba: música e identidade jovem na cena eletrônica de Porto Alegre. Dissertation. Porto Alegre: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Luckow, F. B . (2011). Chanteuses e Cabarés - A performance musical como mediadora dos discursos de gênero na Porto Alegre do início do século XX. Dissertation. Porto Alegre: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Maroneze, L. A. G. (2007). Porto Alegre em dois cenários: a nostalgia da modernidade no olhar dos cronistas. Thesis. Porto Alegre: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul. Vedana, H.(2006). A Elétrica e os Discos Gaúcho. Porto Alegre: Pallotti. Vedana, H. (1987). Jazz em Porto Alegre. Porto Alegre: L&PM. 227 4.5. The post-party: postmodernity and utopia after the end of the party Leonardo Felipe 113 A b s t r a c t Made of 12 fragments, this paper seeks to speculate how elements of economic and political order have the power to affect our modes of social interaction, aesthetic fruition and leisure. It proposes that mega-clubs could be considered as examples of non-places, according to the concept developed by Marc Augé. The article also addresses problems related to the production of knowledge in the field of scientific and artistic researches. The study case is the Brazilian independent electronic scene: the techno parties in which the author appears not only as an observer, but also as a participant. The cut-up method, a technique borrowed from literature, was applied in the writing of the article. Keywords: party; after-party; non-place; cut-up method 113 Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Base POA. Portoalegre, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]. 228 1. Man-machine In the twentieth century not just Kafka, Chaplin, Duchamp or Marinetti tried to express our relationship with the machine.. African American culture between the wars were an important means that enabled the adaptation to modernity’s faster times. Jazz players and tap dancers promoted an aesthetic translation of industrial age’s rhythms and forms (Dinerstein, 2003). They made up a social experience that would help us to reconfigure our perceptions of the world. That enterprise was an answer to the orders imposed by the new times and the new spaces created by the machine. 2. Motor city Fordism had a great impact on the makings of modern sensibility. The moving assembly line was developed by Henry Ford in the 1920s and introduced the technical division of labor to the world of production. As a regime of accumulation, the method managed to supply mass production to mass consumption, establishing the American way of life. Fordism was also a mode of economic regulation, an ensemble of norms, networks and patterns spread to the whole society that ended up organizing all social relations in the post-war. The system was a sociological project that overcame the economic with deep consequences to human life. From the end of the 1960s on, some developmental tendencies within the capitalist system provoked the overcoming of Fordism. In Post-Fordism, the matrix of social relations is technology. Information and flexibility are the keys in this new system in which the production process is no longer based on manual work, but rooted on technology (Jessop, 1992). Other important features are the regime of financial speculation, the specialization of jobs and consumption, the globalization and trans-nationalization of capital. The shift from Fordism to Post-Fordism also signs the replacement from disciplinary societies to the societies of control, a technological evolution that derives, according to Deleuze (1992), from a mutation of capitalism. 3. Dead can dance The zombie has already been identified with the worker who lives the alienation of capital and the exploitation of his work force. The zombie is always hungry. He is an amoral being who acts objectively, with nor reason or passion. What guides him is pure instinct. The zombie as a figure of alienation is the entranced consumer suggested by Marxian theory. It is Guy Debord’s description of Brigitte Bardot as a rotten corpse and Frederic Jameson’s “death of affect”; and of course what media utopianist Marshall McLuhan called “the zombie stance of the technological idiot.” Thus, zombification is easily applied to the notion that capital eats up the body and mind of the worker, and that the living are exploited through dead labor (Larsen, 2010). The origin of this creature belongs to the imaginary of the African diaspora, since it is part of Haiti’s voodoo. The zombie is related to colonialism and slavery. These systems enabled the accumulation of wealth that brought capitalism to its industrial phase. 229 4.5. The post-party: post-modernity and utopia after the end of the party Figure 4.5.1 – Cut-up Method Source: https://www.casaplana.org/Metodo-Cut-up. 4. Funtime There is a critical tradition that understands our contemporary modes of fun and leisure as expressions of the logic of the capital in the cultural field. The term Culture Industry refers to the close relation between industrial capitalism and popular culture, and the importance of mass media regarding social control. Adorno reminds us that “to amuse oneself means to be in agreement” (Adorno, 2010, p. 41)114. “The same energy dragged from the worker in the factory or at leisure turns on the turbines of power”, writes situationist Raoul Vaneigem (2016, p. 36). Guy Debord (1997) describes our times as an era of pseudo-festivities that disappoint and always promises new disappointments. Among the many contemporary ways of celebration, the culture arouse around techno music seems to reflect these problems in a very particular way. It represents “the technical development of the age of the party”, in the words of the psychoanalyst Thales Ab’Sáber (2012, p. 54). The enjoyment of techno thus dreams of reversing the order of the world. Its dream without forms is to put the world in its reverse, in its human contrary. It is a place of constant action, but without production; of exhaustive suspension of day and night, but without awakening nor fatigue; of the body turned into pure act and the spirit 114 All the translations from Portuguese sources were made by the author. 230 lost in infinite layers of constant flow, but without dreaming. So, the time of life could finally be the time of the party. (Ab’Saber, 2012, p. 39) According to Ab’Saber, the new order of the party brings together mimicry of frantic work, fashion, pure body, autoeroticism and the dissolution of the self in a post-dramatic, selective and highly codified environment. In the inverted world of capital, in which all human life, including the spirit and especially the body, was subdued by rationalization and the contradictions imposed by capitalism, the techno party allows us to celebrate the fact that there is nothing to celebrate. 5. Utopia As a musical genre techno has its origins in Detroit. The motor city whose industrial landscape gave shape to the music is an urban icon of Fordism’s rise and fall. Techno was born from the reappropriation of industrial detritus, it is “a lament about what it was like to be young and black in post-industrial America” (Collin, 1998, p. 24). However, techno’s development as a lifestyle occurred on the other side of the Atlantic. Berlin was a city in transformation after the fall of the wall, in 1989. The reunification is an event that marks the input of commodities in the Soviet bloc about to dissolve. There were a lot of empty buildings in the East sector where a culture based on the punk ethos of “do it yourself” was born. The music Detroit DJs were creating was the perfect soundtrack to a culture risen from ruins in which “a certain attitude was translated into architecture” (Rapp, 2010, p. 62). Almost 30 years later, due to particular circumstances present in Berlin, such as “wasteland, empty buildings and cheap rents, liberal authorities, tireless activists and techno institutions” (Rapp, 2010, p. 13), the techno lifestyle that appeared originally as a counterculture, fusing music, everyday life and politics, has been transformed into the city’s official culture. Berghain/Panorama Bar is the greatest temple of electronic music in Europe and one of the most famous Berlin tourist spots. The club is located in an old power plant that was transformed into a space of idleness and leisure. For Ab’Sáber the club represents “the spirit of cultural totalization that electronic music seeks to have in our time” (Ab’Saber, 2012, p. 35-36), a “synthetic digital-utopia of consumerism” (Ab’Saber, 2012, p. 46). Fusing music, dance, lighting, fashion and architecture, it seems to update the Wagnerian concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, since it allows us to experience the total work of art. If just we can get in. Clubs such as Berghain also represent the rise of an after-party culture that “reshaped Berlin’s clubbing scene, paving the way for its current global fame” (Rapp, 2010, p. 121). Berlin became the city where the party never ends. This scene was mostly frequented by “people from the modern service industry” (Rapp, 2010, 167), most of them freelancers who work very hard. Rapp wonders if the after-party culture is linked to this way of life in which “the weekend no longer represents the counterpart to the working week (…), but simply provides a break in the generally self-determined pattern of accomplishing various tasks, ultimately belonging to the same mode of existence.” (Rapp, 2010, p. 167). 231 4.5. The post-party: post-modernity and utopia after the end of the party Figure 4.5.2 – The After Universal History Source: https://medium.com/@leofelipe/mil-plat%C3%B4s-8d5ac1eb494c. 6. Life and death on the New York dance floor Tim Lawrence (2016) notes that the shift from industrialization to postindustrialization and the turning of New York into a neoliberal city led to the complete reorganization, and eventually death, of the world-famous Downtown’s party culture. Madison Moore (2016) proposes that nightclubs could be seen as places where we distract ourselves from the pressures of contemporary capitalism, perform our identities and develop our creative potentials. All of those items seem to be quite related to capital’s productive demands. However, the party culture from Club 57 and Studio 54 that has 232 already been compared to an art form is now almost extinct. In a world of surveillance, paranoia and excess, clubs have become superlatives. 7. Non-places Mega-clubs offer a collective experience for a world made for solitude, individuality, and the ephemeral. Like airports and highways, they could be seen as examples of non-places. As it was defined by Augé (2013), non-places are transit zones in which we experience similarity and solitude in a collectively way. They are super-coded environments where the urgency of the moment rules. The non-place challenges the anthropological concept of place, because it is not identitary, relational nor historical. The non-place has no memory. It is the opposite of utopia, because it does exist and there is no organic society inhabiting it. Its archetype is the traveler’s space. The emergence of non-places is a product of what Augé calls supermodernity. Supermodernity is a historical moment marked by the excess. According to the author, it is the body itself that will suffer the effects of the spatial construction imposed by this new historical moment. Changes of scale, acceleration of means of communication and the multiplication of images are the main effects caused by supermodernity’s spatial construction. 8. Travelling without moving The dance floor is also a space of excess. The identity relations that are established in it are fleeting pacts that vanish when the music or the drug effects come to an end. We share our autism in a transit zone that keeps us in motion without the need to move around. We are fixed lonely travelers performing zombie dances. Virilio (2015) has compared the experience of the car traveler, isolated inside its automobile, to that of the spectator in the movie theater. This is a similar experience to what happens on the dance floor: “Nightclubs reproduce quite well the effects of the old movie houses, dancers go there to be alone on the dance floor... alone in the crowd, protected by the activation of 7,000-watts amplifiers and laser beams” (Virilio, 2015, p. 73). The congruence of the eye and the motor happens in the dance floor by the specific rhythm of the lighting. Just as it happens in fast travels and in the accelerated transport of people and things, these are states that reproduce the effects of picnolepsy. It is the same effect of the epileptic attack that can change the state of consciousness, provoking “the subtraction of the subject from its perpetually repeated spatial-temporal context” (Virilio, 2015, p. 104). 9. Dream baby dream Brion Gysin (1982) called flicker the perpetual repetition that subtracts us from the consciousness, conducing us out from space and time. It is a phenomenon caused by the modulation of alpha rays emitted by the brain. In the 1960s Gysin and Ian Sommerville conceived a series of kinetic works for the purpose of reproducing the flickering effect. They called it dreamachines. The dreamachine is made of a 100 watts bulb, a motor and a rotating drilled cylinder. The user of this device sits in front of it with closed eyes to experience visions produced by the flashes of light. These are induced hallucinations provoked without the ingestion of any psychoactive drug. 233 4.5. The post-party: post-modernity and utopia after the end of the party 10. This must be the place However, Augé (2013) observes that the anthropological place and the nonplace are fugitive polarities, which never fade nor are fully realized. They are “palimpsests in which we keep scrambling the game of identity and relation” (Augé, 2013, p. 74). It would be dishonest not to admit that there is something positive in techno party culture. About a decade ago, Brazil saw the emergence of the phenomenon of the independent party collectives. The collectives are groups formed mostly by university students that began a program of politicization of the party. In this program lies the criticism on the idea of amusement. It is the attempt of having fun in disagreement to the social order and capitalism’s determinations. These groups seem to be part of the same tradition of political activism founded by the Letterists and developed later by the Situationists in their harsh view on the spectacular society. These avant-garde movements born in postwar Europe criticized the consumer society proposing the reinvention of everyday life as a way of changing the social order. For them theory must include action. One of the main concepts created by the Letterists is the unitary urbanism (Home, 1998). It understands the city as a place for new visions of space (and time), and the architecture as a tool for life’s transformation. The contemporary movement of the Brazilian party collectives happens in reaction to processes of neglect and privatization of the public space. It signals the city as a territory of disputes. Previous generations sought the transgression of customs and the expression of their identity and sexuality inside the private space of the nightclub. Today it is outdoors that many youngsters operate (Bennett & Guerra, 2019). Many of the party collectives are self-managed and have horizontal organization. The occupation parties occur free of charge in run-down spaces, passageways and other unusual places that come to have new meanings on the urban tissue. The non-place becomes a place. However, to put a free party on the street does not makes it “democratic” or accessible for all. Factors such as the location, the type of music or even the dressing codes of the regulars are signs of economic marking and social exclusion that cannot be disregarded. Even so, there is a huge difference between the plurality of the party occupations and the highly selective environment of mega-clubs. Another positive factor is how gender discussions play an important role. Women participation, especially as DJs, is remarkable. The presence of transgenders in the scene, acting not just as performers but also as producers of the events, is also very important. These singularities make Brazilian independent party scene a phenomenon much distinct from Ab’Saber’s or Rapp’s study case. Governments, careless in many important questions concerning the urban space, try to restrain all this movement. The agglomerations of which the street party is part also include actions of a more explicit political nature, such as protests and demonstrations. Party collectives in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre have been finding it harder to put the PA on the street, due to new laws that impose high fines and even the arrest of organizers. 11. Before and after science For more than two years I have been researching the Brazilian independent electronic party scene aiming the elaboration of a theory for this new age of the party. I have been attending to parties in São Paulo (Mamba Negra, Carlos Capslock, Odd), Belo Horizonte (1010, Masterplano, Mikatreta) and Porto 234 Alegre (Base, Vorlat, Arruaça). In Porto Alegre, I have been participating in discussions held within the collectives, working with them in the production of parties both legal and illegal. The development of this research ended up affecting my writing. It went apart from academic templates, getting closer to a more subjective format, which is often related to the artistic research. My ethnographies do not hide my participatory position. The methodology I have been exploring is based on what I have called crítica afetiva (affective criticism). It is an attempt to face some questions aroused by my position of observer and participant. The central question here is: is it possible to approach in a critical way something you love, something you are part of? Criticism seems to be a process of disruption, a movement of detachment from the subject that we are into. The first result of this research is called A História Universal do After (The Universal History of the After Party). The text can be placed between genres such as fictional narrative, journalism, memoir, art criticism, theoretical essay, autoethnography. I consider it a novel. It includes elements and proceedings borrowed from fiction, poetry, critical theory and journalism, including the writing technique known as the cut-up method. The cut-up was largely used by William Burroughs (1982) in the 1960s. It is a technique based in chance and appropriation that can be compared to the concept of détournement of Letterists and Situationists: the kidnapping of signs aiming to expose the spectacle and break up passiveness (Debord, 1997). It is a subversive approach to writing. In The Universal History of the After Party I also make use of humor – inside jokes – in the attempt of creating an intimate theory for the subject I am deeply attached. The narrative is written in the first person and includes all sorts of texts, such as messages and e-mails, posts and commentaries from social media and even newspaper articles written by myself in the last years. It is a very confessional writing. The novel tells the story of an ambitious post-scientist/partygoer whose study case is, of course, the party. I frankly describe the drug use in the scene and this use itself have become a sort of methodological procedure for the writing. I face one of the many psychological consequences of drugs consumption: the feeling of paranoia. Ideas stole from several authors appear in it. I could mention some of them: Pascal, Marx, Freud, Deleuze, Guattari, Burroughs, Chris Kraus, Eve Segdwick, Graig Saper, Maffesoli, Augé, Norman Mailer, Roger Callois, Ab’Saber. It also documents some social, affective and formative experiences that occurred in my own apartment where many afterparties took place. For me the space of the after-party is at the same time real and imaginary. 12. Genuflection115 A few parties ago I’ve started to dance with my knees bent and I can already feel the positive effects on my body. Paranoia is an accurate translation of the vicissitudes of the supreme condition of production relations. It is well known, however, that the structure of any ideology is recognized primarily by the way bodies act in a given space. The movement on the dance floor today reproduces the relation of individuals with their real conditions of adaptation to work, the immaterial work of fictitious capital. Ford’s experience was made up of rationalized gestures with consequences in the sensitive world. Paranoia can be defined psychosimultaneously to a form of attention produced at the end 115 This section belongs to the novel The Universal History of the After-Party. It was translated from Portuguese to English by the author. 235 4.5. The post-party: post-modernity and utopia after the end of the party of the industrial age. With the new posture I’ve opened up more space in the floor. It was an attempt to reach the depersonalization of man as an ideological factor, this little horse clearly fearful of castration. I believed that if there wasn’t any difficulty it was because the thing was not being done correctly. The determinant morphology of the subject is based on pelvis contrition. On contrary, the zombie is always against his becoming. He is within a loop absolutely without ever leaving from inside of which has no outside. His hips are tied. If things were different the zombie would be an offense to the state. Possessing entities or any major assertion from the thighs and glutes would be conceived as a crime. Today, the mechanisms of post-advanced capitalism associated with the repeated execution of certain gestures (often aided by the ingestion of refined drugs) lead to a state of morbid passivity. It is up to the bodies to refuse the positions that are imposed on them. The genuflection prioritized the material over the spiritual in the engines that propelled Christian faith and absolutism. It is a phenomenon that is related to the myth, the machine and the movement. We are dancing in answer to economic changes of the turn of the millennium, after the capitalist system refined even further its methods of production, reproduction and accumulation (hypertonic concentration) of wealth – and control. The immateriality of work connects us to it at every moment of our lives. Physical environments are not distinguished from imaginary ones. Technology can no longer be translated aesthetically from past experiences with the machine. The reconfiguration of our perception, which will enable the means of creating a new sensibility for the faster times of the inert movement, will be accomplished by dance, the static dance of fictitious capital. The institution of a new order is manifested by its symbolic power stylizing the body in a kind of rhythm experience. My concept of possession is a dogmatic insistence that such manifestations are not ambiguous nor are they natural laws: they are the embodiment of discontent. Figure 4.5.3 – Ecarta Foundation Building decorated with graffiti sponsored by Leo Felipe Source: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Felipe#/media/Ficheiro. 236 Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Professor Paula Guerra and KISMIF from University of Porto for all the support on this crazy research. References Ab’Sáber, T. (2012). A música do tempo infinito. São Paulo: Cosac Naify. Adorno, T. (2010). Crítica cultural e sociedade. Indústria cultural e sociedade (pp. 45-61). São Paulo: Paz e Terra. Augé, M. (2013). Não lugares: Introdução a uma antropologia da supermodernidade. São Paulo: Papirus. Bennett, A. & Guerra, P. (Eds.) (2019). DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes. Abingdon/Oxford: Routledge. Burroughs, W. (1982). The cut-pp method of Brion Gysin. Re/search #4/5: A special book issue (January, 1982), pp. 35-38. Debord, G. (1997). A sociedade do espetáculo. Rio de Janeiro: Contraponto. Deleuze, G. (1992). Postscript on the societies of control. October, 59, pp. 3-7. Dinerstein, J. (2003). Swinging the machine: Modernity, technology, and african american culture between the world wars. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Collin, M. (1998). Altered states: The story of ecstasy culture and acid house. London: Serpent’s Tail. Gysin, B. (1982). Brion Gysin by Terry Wilson. Re/search #4/5: A special book issue (January, 1982), pp. 39-43. Home, S. (1998). Assalto à cultura: Utopia, subversão, guerrilha na (anti) arte do século XX. São Paulo: Conrad. Jessop, B (1992). Fordism and post-Fordism: A critical reformulation. In A. J. Scott & M. J. Storper (Eds.), Pathways to regionalism and industrial development (pp. 43-65). London: Routledge. Larsen, L. B. (2010). Zombies of immaterial labor: The modern monster and the death of death. e-flux Journal #15 (April, 2010). Retrieved from https://www.e-flux.com Lawrence. T. (2016). Life and death on the New York dance floor, 1980-1983. Durham: Duke University Press. Moore, M. (2016). Nightlife as form. Theater, 46 (1), pp. 49-63. Rapp, T. (2010). Lost and sound: Berlin, techno and the Easyjet set. Berlin: Innervisions. Vaneigem, R. (2016). A arte de viver para as novas gerações. São Paulo: Veneta. Virilio, P. (2015). Estética da desaparição. Rio de Janeiro: Contraponto. 237 4.5. The post-party: post-modernity and utopia after the end of the party 238 THEME TUNE 5 ‘HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE’. ETHNICITY, CITIES, MIGRATIONS AND POLITICAL MOBILIZATION © Esgar Aclerado 239 5.1. The Struggle for a differenciated education: The ‘I Am Bilingual’ project in Lábrea/AM Claudina Azevedo Maximiniano 116 A b s t r a c t The indigenous presence in the Amazonian cities causes tensions related to the right to the city. The Brazilian legislation, based on the1988 Federal Constitution, guaratees specific rights to the indigenous peoples. However, the State limitations to provide public policies in indigenous lands, as well as the wish to access the “facilities” that urban areas offer, such as market for handicrafts, shopping, entertainments, causes temporary and / or permanent indigenous people to the cities displacement. In this text, I bring the Middle Purus region as reference, and I highlight the “I Am Bilingual” Program and the “Paumari Language Championship”, actions carried out by the Paumari People in Lábrea municipality, Amazon southern – Brazil. I present these experiences as these people’s political mobilization strategies in order to create their own / specific educational methodologies, inserted in the ethnic self-affirmation struggle before the stigmatization process lived by them, mainly in the city urban area. Keywords: Differentiated education, mobilization, indigenous language. specific methodology, political 116 Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Amazonas - Campus Lábrea. Lábrea, Amazonas, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]. 240 1. Introduction The indigenous presence in the Amazonian cities has intensified in the last decades. This process presents some tensions linked to the right to the city. Based on the 1988 Federal Constitution, the Brazilian legislation guarantees specific rights to indigenous peoples. However, the access to such rights is restricted to Indigenous Lands. Indigenous people living in the city cannot access these rights. Brazilian State’s limitations itself to provide public policies in Indigenous Lands, as well as the wish to access the “facilities” offered by the city, such as the market for handicrafts, shopping, entertainment, among other possibilities, lead to a temporary and / or permanent indigenous’ displacement to the cities. There are numerous social situations that corroborate to an intense dialogue between the village and the city. The access to education is a constant in the indigenous people’s speeches as the main reason which led them to the decision to leave the village and go to the city. The indigenous presence in the cities causes / impresses a new ‘ethnic physiognomy’ on the cities (Almeida, 2008), at the same time, in which a denial process of this presence is perceived. Institutions, such as the school, the Basic Health Units (UBS), do not emphasize the presence of indigenous people as interlocutors. In the UBS case, especially in smaller cities, care is denied and it is pointed out that it is the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health’s (SESAI) responsability, through the Special Districts of Indigenous Health (DISEI). However, the DSEI has in its specificity, reserved the service to the indigenous in the village and / or community. In relation to schools, there is a “silence” from the Municipal Secretariats, State and the Federal Network of Teaching about the enrolled students. Such institutions receive these students however they do not perform any actions that meet the specificities and / or help to minimize the impacts suffered by the students in the daily school life. There are reports of symbolic violence, rejection and bullying117. Such situations affect directly the teachinglearning process, and in the person formation, since the majority are indigenous children, adolescents and young people who are daily provoked to face this situation. This ‘silence’ reinforces the stigmatization process in the city, which is embodied in prejudiced attitudes and speech, as well as in the constitutional rights denial. To illustrate it, I bring the school daily example, where the indigenous peoples’ theme appears frozen in the Brazilian history content and it is related to the Europeans’ arrival period and the Brazilian literature. I also bring to the discussion the Law 1145 of March 2008, which forces to teach the Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous history and culture, which is often quoted in the teaching plans, but not concretized in the classrooms context, and does not cause consistent reflections that culminate in changes in everyday relationships, related to the ethnic diversity present in urban schools. This reinforces the ‘silence’ and accentuates the stigmatization process, experienced by the natives living in the city. So far when my sister is studying. I also have other sisters who study outside the village and sometimes they come and say “ I am not going to study anymore. Even the 14 years old sister, who lives with Fausto, she says she will not study anymore, because people call her “too much indigenous and say that the indigenous space is in the forest not in the city. 117 [...] It is an English term (bully = “agressive”) which refers to all verbals or physical, agressive forms, intentional and repetitive attitudes that occur without obvious motivation and are practiced by one or more individuals, causing pain and suffering, with the aim of intimidating or assaulting people who do not have possibility or ability to defend themselves, attitude which is carried out within an uneven forces or power relationship. http://brasilescola. uol.com.br/sociologia/bullying.htm. 241 5.1. The Struggle for a differenciated education: The ‘I Am Bilingual’ project in Lábrea/AM Sometimes I see people calling: “Hey, indian!”, even when I go outside, they say “Hey, indian!”, when I am not there, I get upset sometimes. It is one thing weird because it seems that the person who called us “indian” does not have indigenous blood. But when people say: “Hey, indian!” again, the person gets... we are not used to. (Fascicle: 20, p. 8). The indigenous people social situation in the city causes an individual and collective effort to break with the stereotypes and conditions that affect individuals and the community. This situation instigates the natives who live in the city and also the Indigenous Movement, in order to insert a new point on the demands list. The permanence / residence right in the city is still in discussion, which includes respect for indigenous citizenship, regardless the locus where they live. Indigenous people living in the city suffer from the stigmatization effects, the denial of the right to movement freedom and, above all, the permanence in the city and the access to what it allows. In this sense, I present the attempt to mobilize the Paumari People, through the ‘I Am Bilingual Intercultural Program’, a program that originate the ‘Paumari Language Championship’, as political mobilization strategies in order to break with this inequality and prejudice relationship, especially in the city. What I am considering as strategies are political actions organized in a specific way, based on specific social situations, which when analyzed together, produce a forces agglutination process that point to a mobilization process related to the issue of the Right to City. These actions have in their core different motivations that base the decision to live in the city. The decision to live in the city breaks with the idea that “Indian place” is in the village, and with the popular crowd “in the forest.” In the narratives heard during our stay in the Amazon countryside such as São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro and Lábrea, it is very common to hear people say that a certain indigenous person is no longer “so indigenous”, since this person already lives in the city and speaks Portuguese well. In this sense, indigenous identity is associated with the “exotic” idea, the distance. The native ethnic identity of living in the city is questioned all the time. At the same time, they suffer from various types of discrimination and prejudice. Regarding the idea of social rights, the discourse is reversed, because as they live in the city, “they are not so indigenous.” Such situations challenge especially the indigenous leaderships, new leaderships begin to emerge in the indigenous movement scenario, claiming for the indigenous people’s right to live in the city. This mobilization process in order to the right of residence in the city is not dissociated from the traditions and / or distance from the communities of origin. An indigenous leadership in Labrea, who lives in Caititu Indigenous Land, said in a meeting: “I have a house there (village) and here.” This speech was based on a critical narrative about the question of not being served at the municipal hospital. The issue is about a self-assertion natives’ movement who live in the city and through actions and differentiated claims are making public the indigenous’ right to live in the city. It is a ‘silence’ disruption process, the ‘invisibility’, and the ‘denial of identity’, experienced by the indigenous people that left their villages and communities for many reasons and now live in the cities. Gradually, a political agenda is set by the indigenous people who live in the city. This agenda is a serie of demands that presents itself as a ‘new’ demand for the indigenous movement. 242 Before these prerogatives there is an effort to present this “new agenda” in the agenda of the indigenous movement, which has been taking place in recent decades. This effort breaks the idea of dichotomy and polarities between village/community and city and points to the relationships complexity and connections established by these social agents, in which the condition of living in the city must be included. This dynamism points to the “ethnic reconfiguration now underway in the Amazon” process (Almeida, 2008, p. 13). This agenda has been made as a result of an indigenous insertion decade’s process in the city. The individual experiences, the suffering, produced an approximation process of confluences on indigenous from the same area, that produced the formation of specific communities. The process of forming new collectives is becoming a strategy for indigenous people self-identification and mobilization in the city. In these new collectives, which will guarantee the space occupation, and the “invisibility” break, that is still noticed when it comes to the indigenous thematic in the city. The city that appears as an opportunity place, presents itself as a great challenge to these social agents. The overcoming of the barriers faced in the daily life will require some city occupation strategies. From this perspective, the collectives have been built, according to the social situation specificities. So, I present the program “I Am Intercultural Bilingual”, which has as result the “Paumari Language Championship”, as an expression of the differentiated Education struggle in Amazon south, more precisely in Lábrea municipality. 2. The ‘I Am Bilingual project’: a mobilization political strategy The ‘I am Bilingual Intercultural’ Program, is a Paumari people’s initiative, which I consider, in this reflection, as one of the indigenous mobilization stratregies who live in the Amazonian cities. The seek of formalize/legalize the mother tongue, as part of mobilization strategies in order to live in the city. The speech is retaken as a facing criteria of the stigmatization process live by the indigenous people in the city. For more than two centuries, after the severe pombalino Law prohibitions of 1758, the indigenous languages and the nheegatu were kept in the national society margin, without a definitive legal .... they persisted, entrementes, praticed hidden almost whispered, as so low the voices sounds, denotating submission and fear. Persisted as domestic languages, spoken mainly in the houses and aldeias borders , in the family life or in the assobradados backs or in the kitchens. Speaking the indigenous language or make its use did not asserue someone to the citizen condition. (Almeida, 2007, p.12) The exclusion condition, the non recognisement situation, the prejudice with the speakers and non consideration with one peopels language condition, intigates this mobilization. The linguistic factor is accionated as one of the mobilization process fundamentals. A singular event of this process occurs in 2002, with the co-oficialization in three indigenous languages, Tukano, 243 5.1. The Struggle for a differenciated education: The ‘I Am Bilingual’ project in Lábrea/AM Baniwa and Nheengatu, in São Gabriel da Cachoeira – AM. The number 145 law approvation of 11th December, 2002, is highlighted in the indigenous mobilization scenery, as a mark in the use of the indigenous languages relations in the urban context. The use of the indigenous languages in amazonian cities is something and in many cases of the language speakers are prejudice and injury victims. The three languages co-oficialization in the upper Rio Negro, breaks oficially with the non – oficial condition. However, the satatus of one peoples’ language, is something to still be conquered. Therefore, even in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, is still necessary tha this law 145 must be applied. The law stablishes that: Art. 2º The status of non oficial language, conceded by this object, forces the municipality to: S 1º Serve the basic public services in the public departments in the oficial language and in the co – oficial language, orally and written. S 2º Produce the public doccumenttion, as well as the institutional publicitary campaings , in the oficial language and in the three co – oficials. S 3º Incentivate and support the co-oficial languages use and learning in the schools and in the midia. There are another indigenous languages in São Gabriel, so it is in the article 6th that: “The use of the others indigenous languages spoken in the city will be guarranted by the estadual and federal legislation”. According to the Rio Negro Indigenous Organizations Federation, in the city (FORIN): There is a huge linguistic cultural diversity with more thantwnty languages belonged to four linguistic families: Tukano Oriental, Aruak, Maku e Yanomami . Some of this languages as the tukano and baniwa have many speakers. However, as others as the tariana and the dow, are spoken by few people. (FOIRN site). Taking São Gabriel da Cachoeira’s experience as a reference, we will have a dialogue with another experience, the program ‘I Am Bilingual’ in LábreaAM. Designed by the Paumari People, the program has the young leadership, Edilson Paumari as reference, and it is part of the respect for language struggle, and also a recognition guarantee of the differentiated and bilingual education right. The teacher Edilson Paumari says in his narrative, that after studying outside the village experience and understanding the value of the mother tongue, he got motivated to begin a Paumari language strengthening process, since some young people in the city were no longer speaking the language, and many were already speaking Paumari,”with the Portuguese language intense ‘mixture’ in the villages, according to him. And, even 244 though, the elderly people were no longer counting their traditional stories. The dances and the Paumari music were getting lost. It was in this intense dialogue context, between the village and community that the ‘I am bilingual’ project was born, and as a continuity of the differentiated education issue, the “Paumari Language Championship” was born too, broadening horizons in the indigenous school education perspective. According to the author of the project, the objective is to help the Paumari people to make this dialogue between the two worlds: The Paumari world and the non-indigenous world. In this school environment where the indigenous identity is identified and recognized by the surrounding society mainly through the language, the Bilingual Program emerged. Formally, the action began in 2011, starting with Edilson Paumari’s initiative, a Pauamari indigenous who had a long relationship and training in Pauamari linguistics with SIL missionaries. Edilson went to FUNAI with a request from Paumaris’ students, who were enrolled in formal education schools in Labrea, and after reporting some embarassing situations in formal schools , they would like to have a space to speak and learn more about their language in a complementary way, as the Portuguese language received at the formal school. (Meneses & Bruno, 2014, p.10). The ‘I Am Bilingual’, is produced in a context of insertion of the natives in the city. The proposal is based on the use of the mother tongue as a strengthening of ethnic identities, having as reference the discourse of suffering, denial of collective identities lived by indigenous people in the city. A social suffering, according to Bourdieu (1998) of the social world contradictions, lived in social dramas form. The narratives express the drama and suffering experienced by the natives living in the city. Living in the city is hard because there is a different language to ours, and we have to dress and behave differently, in the village we do different things. [...] So, we are living on this way and it is about twenty-five years that I arrived in Lábrea’s suburb. My children were still small, did not study there and came to study in here. So, I did not how to live anymore because we enrolled our children at school and my wife also had interesting in their education then decided not to come back. I still wanted to return to the village like the others who are still there but she thought better to stay and we stayed in the city, even suffering .[...] (Fascículo, 43, 4 PNCSA). The individual sufferings that ‘touch’ the collective. In facing strategies context, the search for alternatives to deal with the social problems 245 5.1. The Struggle for a differenciated education: The ‘I Am Bilingual’ project in Lábrea/AM lived in Lábrea, the ‘I Am Bilingual’ project is produced and in 2012, turns to I Am Bilingual Program, developed by the Municipal Department of Education of Lábrea Municipality. In 2012, FUNAI contacted the Secretaria Municipal Department of Education and Culture (SEMEC) and requested collaboration to continue this activity. SEMEC agrred to provide its sapace to the classes and also hire the teachers [...]. (Meneses & Bruno, 2014, p. 12). According to the Indigenous School Education coordinator of the municipality, the ‘formalization’ of the ‘I Am Bilingual Program’ process , was based on an agreement between the Mayor at the time, Jean de Barros, and the Education Municipal Secretary , Valdinei Vital de Lima, who decided to include three indigenous teachers, in 2012, for language teaching: Paumari and Apurinã. Since then, teachers: Edilson Paumari, João Baiano Apurinã and Francisco Pereira Apurinã, have become part of the Francisca Mendes Municipal School payroll, where the program classes take place. It should be noted that no legal instrument was created to formalize this program in the Education Municipal Secretary. However, the municipality Indigenous Education coordinator, affirms that in the Municipal Education Plan, recently approved by the Lábrea Municipality, a goal was elaborated and approved, which includes the diversity issue, the natives cultural valorization in the city. This goal was created in order to guarantee the continuity of the “I am Bilingual” Program. However, the teachers were not hired by the city hall in 2017, and the program was not working. Lábrea’s Municipal Education Plan (2015 - 2025) in dealing with Indigenous School Education states: SEMED also attends Indigenous Education with the elementary education first stage (from 1st to 4th grades) and has gradually implemented the fundamental education final years, based on the Federal Constitution in its article 210, 2 paragraph: Regular primary education will be taught in Portuguese, also ensuring the indigenous communities their mother tongue uses and own learning processes and to this it is developed capacitation programs to the teachers, just to emphacize that the teacher who teaches there is part of this community and ethnicity. And among the objectives: 14. To ensure the differenting schooling attending to the indigenous populations who live in the urban area , respecting their specificities and their area or nucleus demands. And Goal 2: To universalize the nine year- primary education for the entire population from six to fourteen years- 246 old, and ensure that at least 60% (sixty percent) of the students achieve this stage in the recommended age, until this PME118 last year validity term. As the goal strategies presented above: 2.15 To strengthen and expand in collaboration system with institutions and State programs the indigenous culture valorization, living in the municipal headquartes. The Municipal Education Plan is still in the implementation phase. The objectives and goals presented above can be considered advances in the Indigenous School Education line, produced from the indigenous struggle. Lábrea’s municipality adhesion to the “I am Bilingual” project was the result of the Paumari People’ struggle through the teacher Edilson Paumari, the leadership Agenor Paumari and the teacher Joel Paumari, indigenous people who live in the city and are Paumari people’s leaders. The project proposal is to strengthen children, adolescents and young Paumari and Apurinã people, who face suffering everyday in the city, as an exclusionary social situation result, that devalue and ridicule indigenous people and traditions. In the daily school life, indigenous students are victims of various aggressions. Many students do not assume their ethnic identity at school as a way to “protect” themselves from bullying. Learning the mother tongue makes the younger people aware of their traditions, listen to their stories, and make them to appropriate themselves of values and traditions. In this way, the program can be understood as a confrontation form. It implements a mobilization strategy built in the urban context in dialogue with the village. The ‘Paumari Language Championship’, which, as we have already affirmed, emerges from the ‘I am Bilingual’ Program, as an action to strengthen the Paumari language and traditions in a direct dialogue with the villages. Such event happens in a previously chosen village and involves the Paumari who live in the villages and in the city. The first ‘Paumari Language Championship’ was held in São Clemente village, Lake Maraha Paumari Indigenous Land, in 2014. The championship is a competition between communities, which is carried by the presentation of Paumari’s dance and history. Each community prepares itself throughout a year for that moment. The idea of the competition is connected to the moment of the team´s formal presentation. The presentations happened on the event last day. However, the event is much more than a competition. The older ones enjoy singing and dancing and there is an involvement from the whole community, young people and children participate, actively. The championship is a reunion time, political meetings, articulation, dating and various exchanges. During the event, everyone who knows the songs is invited to sing. The songs are accompanied by dances that involve all people. In the houses, people paint, talk, exchange information about the paintings and the stories are told and passed to the young ones. It is a pedagogical process that follows the Paumari’s rhythm, in an intense information flow, which is materialized in a teaching-learning process. And this process is fundamentally communal, where there are a deep elderly’s listening and the attention of children and young people. The ‘Paumari Language Championship’, is a great research process, carried out collectively, the community seeks information 118 Municipal Education Plan. 247 5.1. The Struggle for a differenciated education: The ‘I Am Bilingual’ project in Lábrea/AM and creatively elaborates the presentation throughout a year. The story is a attentive listening exercise result of the elderly’s memory, searching to bring to the event a story according to the Paumari’s narratives elements. The ‘Paumari Language Championship’ is a Paumari’s themselves creative reflection process, on his traditions in dialogue with their current experienced situations. One of the main objectives of this event is to produce didactic material for the Paumari’ schools. In the ‘I Am Bilingual’ Program context, the ‘Paumari Language Championship’ is a Paumari people collective effort to build an Indigenous and Differentiated Education process. And in the city, ‘I Am Bilingual’, replies to the need to work on Indigenous Languages, answering the question of the ethnic identity denial in public schools in Lábrea city. The indigenous students enrolled in public school schools in Lábrea are inserted in the formal education logic. However, there is no pedagogical action to dialogue with these students’ origin. Even at the Amazon Education, Science and Technology Federal Institute, (IFAM) and at the Amazon State University (UEA) where there is a policy of access for indigenous students through access quotas, there is no specific diversity policy. Indigenous students who are regularly enrolled in these technical institutions and higher education are not considered in their origin specificity contex. Considering the public education networks context in Lábrea, there is no policy of attending to the diversity in the urban context. The indigenous presence, especially of the Apurinã, Paumari peoples in large numbers, and the Jarawara and Jamamadi in a smaller number, receive no other specific assistance than the “I Am Bilingual” Program, during this program period, which worked in the municipal schools contraturno. 3. Final considerations The expansion of Paumari’s people’s project, to a program a city hall project, even with the legal weaknesses presented above, the Apurinã peoples involvement, demonstrates the ongoing mobilization process in Lábrea city, where the linguistic, as Almeida (2007) states is one of the most outstanding social foundations, related to the self-affirmation of these subjects, directly, in the urban context. The ‘movement’, the indigenous people’s concern about living in the city, in terms of confrontation and social intervention, is noticed to guarantee their rights and life quality. To break with the stereotypes, the struggle for equal rights, even through the pressure for the Brazilian State recognizement of the differentiated condition, in specific rights line, ensuring them by the Brazilian legislation, as well as in confronting prejudice by non-indigenous. In the last decades the indigenous “movement” has strengthened itself, the native’s mobilization process in the city has presented advances, mainly in the education line. As example, Manaus may be cited, where approved in the Education Goals Plan the Indigenous Education implementation in 2005, and created the Indigenous School Education Center as the indigenous movement struggle result, in Manaus, in 2006. The ‘I Am Bilingual’ Program was effectived in Lábrea, in 2011. These initiatives reveal the indigenous movement strengthening in the city, which, through diversified strategies, establishes itself in the political scenario of the municipalities. The natives’ self-assertion various strategies coincide with the silence “breaking” imposed on these people, as well as giving them visibility in the city. Such strategies make possible the social stigmatization 248 process breaking, which is experienced by indigenous people in the city. And, in this process, the language learning and / or strengthening, the language use in the various social spaces, in particular the school occupation, a formal teaching institution, knowledge space, teases the society and guarantees visibility to the indigenous who are living in the city (Guerra & Lisboa). Initiatives in education public policies line existing in Manaus and in Lábrea, cannot be read as isolated cases. They are based on the social mobilization context, on ethnic reconfiguration (Almeida, 2008) that has been happening in the Amazonian cities. These iniciatives express the indigenous movement strengthening in the city, which is gaining shape in each new conquest. Despite the process fragility presented above, the indigenous movement struggle in the city is materialized through facing strategies which guarantee the of the indigenous self-assertion movement solidity in the city. References Almeida, A.; Santos, W. B.; Glademir, S. (2008) (Org.). Stigmatization and territory: social mapping of the natives in Manaus. Manaus: New Amazon Social Cartography Project / Amazon Federal University. Almeida, A.; Santos, W.B.; Glademir, S. (2007). Lands of languages: Indigenous languages officialization Municipal Law. São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazon. Manaus: PPFSCA / UFAM / FUND. FORD. Bourdieu, P. (1998). Counterfogues: tactics to confront the neoliberal invasion. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar. Guerra, Paula & Lisboa, Danielle (2017). For a Greater Enchantment: Memories, Imagery, and Rituals of the Xucuru-Kariris of Palmeira dos Índios, Brazil. Porto: Concordia University of Edmonton/ Universidade do Porto. Júnior, E. de A. F.; Souza, N. C. de C. (2008). Indigenous people in Rio Preto da Eva city - Indigenous Community Beija-flor. Rio Preto da Eva - Amazon. New Amazon Social Cartography Project. Manaus: UEA, Fascicle 20. Lima, C. L. S.; Almeida, A. M. S. de. (2012). Indigenous people of Boa Vista city, Roraima Maloca Grande residents. Amazon New Social Cartography Project. Manaus: UEA, Fascicle 30. Maximiano, C. A.; Meneses, E. S. de. (2009). The Upper Rio Negro’s Adolescents and Young Indians. New Amazon Social Cartography Project, Manaus: UEA Editions, Fascicle 3. Maximiano, C. A. (2008). Indigenous Women in Manaus: ethnic identity and organization as a way to form community. Society and Culture in the Amazon Postgraduate Program - Amazon Federal University, Manaus-AM. Maximiniano, C.A; Santos, G. S. dos. (2007). The Upper Rio Negro’s indigenous women and artisans in Manaus. New Amazon Social Cartography Project. Manaus: UEA, Fascicle 18. Menezes, T. C. C.; Bruno, A. C. dos S. (2014). Indigenous territories in the school: language and social mobilization in the Amazon South. Available in: https://revistas.unila.edu.br/sures/article/view/142. N. 03. Santos, J. N. Pinheiro, M. das G. S. P.(2012) Public policies and indigenous school education in Manaus (2005-2011). Educational Praxis. Thematic Dossier. Educational Policy: analyzes and perspectives. Santos, G. S.; Maximiano, C. A. (2007) Indigenous people in Manaus: the Sateré-Mawé in Redenção neighborhood. New Amazon Social Cartography Project. Manaus: UEA, Fascicle 17. Silva, V. R. G. da; Bruno, A. C. dos S. (2008). Indigenous Associations in Manaus - AMARN – The Upper Rio Negro’s Indigenous Women Association - Numiã Kura. New Amazon Social Cartography Project, Manaus: UEA, Fascicle 20. Silva, J. R.; Sales, G. dos S. (2010). Wotchimaücü: Tikuna in Manaus. New Amazon Social Cartography Project, Manaus: UEA, Fascicle 28. Indigenous Languages in Rio Negro. http://www.foirn.org.br/category/ indigenous povos-indigenas-do-rio-negro/linguas/ 11/15/16 249 5.2. A humble introduction on music videos of Turkish immigrants: Case study #1: Ismail YK Görkem Özdemir 119 e Aslı Bâla Aşkan 120 A b s t r a c t The Turkish immigration that started on 30 October 1961 began a hybridity in German culture. Second and third generation Turks grew up in Germany created an underground cultural wave, which combines all the traditional and conservative features of Turkish culture with a postmodernist approach. Although referred as ‘confused culture’, this movement rapidly spread in musical scene amongst immigrant Turks in Germany, and Turkey. This paper mainly focuses on how German-Turks combined traditional musical elements with extreme postmodernist features in music videos. One of the most popular Germany born Turkish artist & project has been chosen to be the subject of this topic: İsmail YK. Even though the majority of Turkish press and mainstream popular music scene has considered artist’s works as kitsch and even absurd, there is a significant amount of audience who admires İsmail YK’s style and works. His popularity and stable position on TV is directly related with the audience’s expectations. We will reflect our findings within the topics of traditional values, cultural hybridity and gender perspectives from the artist’s video clips that involve industrial and nearfuturistic elements. Keywords: Popular music, postmodernism, industrial fashion, music videos. 119 Independent Research and Artist. Istanbul, Turkey. E-mail: [email protected]. 120 Independent Research and Artist. Istanbul, Turkey. E-mail: [email protected]. 250 1. Introduction In this paper, we tend to examine the impression and representation of the ‘youth’ and cultural hybridity caused by immigration on Ismail YK’s music videos. YK’s music videos represent us a very complicated relationship between a hybrid aesthetic perception and audience’s perception of it. To clarify the difference and distinction between “cultural degeneration” and “cultural hybridity”, we choose Ismail YK’s music, his interpretation with visual communication through his music videos, his musical background and his audience. We knitted our research around some questions, such as: from which aspects do migration influences popular music? Who is the target audience? What are the elements in music they are responding? While the majority of Turkish music audience considering him as kitsch, how did he achieve his fame? What does he provide to Turkish immigrant audience to satisfy them? Amongst with the answers to those questions, in this paper, the features in artist’s presentation that make him create a strong bond with the audience will be analyzed. Why did we choose him? Even though his music is quite visible and on the surface level, many intellectual and academic circles ignore him. While our interest has been grown amongst YK’s music, we also tend to take a brief look at the slum cultures in Turkey. He is substantially different than other immigrant Turkish musicians in Germany (Rafet El Roman, Cartel, Killa Hakan etc.). He directly reflects the hybridization of Turkish and German cultures. His dialect, lyrics and his music videos turn this cultural hybridization into a visual material. His use of visual media is very wise and a lot different than his peers. Even though some social and academic circles have ignored him, the esoteric features of his music are indisputable. 2. Brief history of Turkish immigration in Germany The immigration started with a simple cause: ‘labor suppl’ after the Second World War. Agreements were signed with Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia and Yugoslavia. In November 27, 1961 55 guest workers have been landed in Düsseldorf Airport. They were first ones to come to Germany. These workers were in the position of guest workers (“Gastarbeiter” in German), they need to return their homelands after a certain period. It should have been mentioned that neither German government nor German citizens expected Turkish immigrants to be permanently stay in Germany. In the words of Max Frisch “We wanted a labor force, but human beings came”. We can flag this unforeseeable happening as one of the beginning points of cultural conflict. As in the beginning, immigrant workers were meant to be guests, not permanent residents (Kırmızı, 2016). They built an isolated life from the local German citizens, lived in their neighborhoods, with their own markets, social spaces, and continued their habits and lifestyles. It is a common phenomenon for diaspora communities to experience a “homesick” that makes them to load more meaning and values on their homeland. This may result with them carrying their own culture, and live according to it. In this sense Arabesk music has been seen (and maybe accepted) as the most familiar representation of Turkish music culture in Germany. While majority of the young population in Turkey, disapproves this idea. Sales numbers in Germany shows the opposite (Wurm, 2006). The genre addresses to both old and young population at the same time. This genre of 251 5.2. A humble introduction on music videos of Turkish immigrants: Case study #1: Ismail YK music represents their social problems. Arabesk music mostly acts as a conveyor of shared emotions among Turkish immigrant communities, and creates a unity between them. Martin Greve (2006) have been briefly summarized the generations of Turkish Immigrants and change of musical styles during the 40 years of immigration. Immigration Phases Musical Styles Until 1961 Pre-Immigration European Art Music 1961-1973 Immigration Anatolian Folk Music, immigrant Songs From 1973 Family Merges Popular music (especially ‘arabesk’) 1980s Political Refugees Political Songs Settlement Process Turkish Art Music Third Generation Pop music, hiphop 1990s Table 5.2.1 – The generations of Turkish immigrants Source: Greve, 2006, p.23. Ismail YK, involves in the third row. Even though hip-hop had a peak at mid-90s, and continue its popularity up to this day, Ismail YK have been producing pop songs with extremely expressive lyrics and a techno influenced arabesk music. In this case, we can define the “ethnic culture” has been used as a shield to prevent cultural degeneration. Over the generations, the sharp edges of the cultural definition have been shaped, merge of cultures have been visible in many artistic expressions. Even in the institutions that focus on artistic education, bi-culturalism and bi-musicality have been important topics to focus on (Kalyoncu, 2004, p.64-75). By the time, Turkish labors will start involving with the German social life and move their social status above the ‘guest labors’. In the education phase, the distinction has been blurred out by time. Instead of “foreigners training”, “intercultural education” have been start to used as a term (Kalyoncu, 2004). Music education had an important role in removing the discrimination. Due to the unpredictably big immigration, Germany start involving Turkish cultural features into their media. Being an outsider in a community where one has to spend a part of their lives may lead them to experience their individuality in more expressive ways. In our case, the example will be an individual who moved into Europe from a 3rd world country [or a “developing country” back then] will lead them either to adopt the new music culture easily, or insist on protecting what they brought there from their ‘home’. Being away from the culture they truly feel belong to make their home, country, culture and people more valuable for them. (Güney, Pekman & Kabaş, 2013). 2.1. A Short Description of Arabesk Martin Stokes (1992) introduces the genre as follows: Arabesk is a music of the city and for the city. It portrays a world of complex and turbulent emotions peopled by lovers doomed to solitude and a violent 252 end. It describes a decaying city in which povertystricken migrant workers are exploited and abused, and calls on its listeners to pour another glass of drink, light another cigarette, and curse fate and the world (Stokes, 1992, p. 7). Arabesk music mostly features embellished melancholic vocals, domination of bağlama (a local instrument), dense string sections and idiosyncratic percussive elements. Turkish audience who lives in urban areas and mostly involved with popular music identifies arabesk as kitsch. Because of the extreme expression in lyrics and always-sad mood, genre directly appeals to blue collar and worker class in middle Anatolian regions. In Stokes (1992) definition, Turkish musicologists define arabesk as a manifestation of the negative values associated with the Islamic cultural heritage of the Turks. Which is a perspective where majority of the educated population related audience of this genre and their musical preferences with “lack of education”. Malinowski’s discussion on the conflict between low-culture and high-culture can be observed clearly in the Arabesk genre. However, Arabesk is not only a musical genre. It should be seen as an intricate culture. In Turkish cinema, between the 1970 and 1990, an undeniable section (approximately 30%) of movies identified as Arabesk. Glorifying the notion of convict of fate is the most common ornament of Arabesk lifestyle. Topics are mostly focused on the exaggerated pain, a platonic love, or low-quality living conditions directly caused by economic circumstances. 3. Ismail YK and his music 3.1 Who is Ismail YK The “YK” in his name references to his surname, and his previous band he performed with his siblings, “Yurtseven kardeşler” (Patriot Siblings). His family is originally from Sivas. YK was born in Germany, 1978. He is the youngest one of 5 siblings. He states that he never felt distant to Turkish culture, music and literature while growing up in Germany. His relationship with music started at a very young age, and he states that his father’s interest in music influenced him. He also indicated that Barış Manço, Orhan Gencebay, Ibrahim Tatlıses, Freddie Mercury, Santana, and Michael Jackson have been an influence for his music. His first job in the music industry was an internship as a sound technician, when he was at 10th grade. He learned the discipline from the jobs he worked at. His music career is based on Turkey’s music industry, and in his interviews he says that he chooses to invest all his money on his music, in a country where he believes he can be rewarded. In his opinion, songs he wrote are expressing people’s feelings through his personal experiences. His popularity had been increased at early 2000’s, right after he started his solo works apart from his previous band (Yurtseven Kardeşler). 3.2 YK on mainstream media Ismail YK took the biggest attention from his potential audience, with the help of his music videos. His emergence on Turkish mainstream media was ground breaking. He blended many musical genres into each other such as 253 5.2. A humble introduction on music videos of Turkish immigrants: Case study #1: Ismail YK pop, rock, r & b, reggae, techno, etc. with a sauce of arabesk. He revives the reproductions of certain characters in his music videos, and especially states those characters are not him, but someone else. In this sense, we can say that he also expresses his artistic outcome with acting in his videos. He also believes that he expresses not only his feelings, but also his audience’s. The outfits, dances and additional visuals (lights, colour palettes, special effects etc.) were quite unusual for 2000’s Turkey. 3.2.1 Early works of YK As a musical project, his first debut in 2002 was unsuccesful. From album cover to music videos, it can be observed that a low budget musical production and a poor visual communication exist in this album. Instead of a mere solo debut, he preferred to stay in the music collective that he previously worked with his siblings, but took the lead role in “ISMAIL ve Yurtseven Kardeşler” solo album. Neither the melodies nor the lyrics along the album were catchy enough to be a hit on the charts. The instrumentation is mechanized and inanimate due to heavy use of MIDI. Ismail YK’s music videos were not visually interesting enough to compete with local artists. He represented a rural image, rather than a modern urban figure at that time. In here, we would like to take a pause to note that many catastrophic political, social and economic crises happened in the first half of the 2000’s Turkey. The effects of this period of economic imbalance were visible in the whole music industry. After a couple years, YK boomed with a second debut from another production company. Comparing to previous one, higher budged styling on his physical appearance and a more polished music were preeminent in his later albums. YK dominated the national music awards consecutively for three years, broadcasted several TV shows, and his music was playing across the country. His conflicting lyrics distinguished him from the mainstream musical scene. 3.3 Music videos of YK He uses commonly referred fetishized elements as a sign for marginalization in his early music videos. Some of his music clips directly refer to the regular problems of daily life. He uses a wide variety of concepts in his audio/visual communication. YK uses notable sections in his videos for dance and special choreography with others in his early appearance on TV. Dances and themes existing in YK’s videos have noticeable influences from well-known pop stars, such as Michael Jackson and Britney Spears. YK’s music videos have female images in the ‘attractive trap’ role in his videos. But in his interviews and his song ‘Radikal Feminist’ (Radical Feminist), he expresses and states his approach to feminism. He uses the terms that haven’t been used in Turkish pop music scene before. Ismail YK inserted ‘gynecocracy’ and ‘matriarchy’ in a mainstream song, and involved these terms into Turkish pop music literacy. Although YK’s lyrics involve terms that references to feminism, his music videos involve highly heteronormative roles. One of his first music videos ‘bombabomba.com’ has an undeniable Sean Paul influence. Beside the harmony, lyrics also references to Sean Paul, and even Shaggy. The use of Foley techniques in his music videos enriches the environment. With the help of sterile environments, references to Internet use, sharp and retro science-fiction clothing designs, and possible future scenarios about technology, he also draws a futuristic portrait in his music videos. 254 The dances and themes existing in YK’s videos can be seen as either liberating for female figures, or extremely misogynist. In his music video ‘80 80 160’, he portraits himself as a conservative character, while female character has been portrayed as a figure who extremely expresses her lust, who represents herself as a cliché high school girl. The threat between the pair is built on lust. One of the clearest references made in YK’s music videos is the concept of online dating. Before the ‘pre-tinder era’ on online dating. Another one of his music videos, ‘Şekerim’ (can be translated as ‘honey’) shows that YK uses his masculine approach amongst women, again. The styling used on his video has many masculine features such as holster as an accessory, greased hair and leather outfits. Both the music and the video can be considered as multilingual. On the base of gender references, this is one of YK’s most aggressive videos. Beside a short scene about body shaming against women, YK also tutors a child about how to approach to women. Conservative features in the Turkey’s social structure is seen when YK runs away from the main girl’s big brother. The hidden message on the video is an ode to masculinity. Video indicates that women will desire a man, if he is masculine enough. YK portrays a conservative image in his videos when he tells a love story. Otherwise, he uses foreign models as casting, and shows a lot of masculinity, female objectification, and male gaze. The children appeared in some of his videos involves an innocence to the messages in his videos. One of the most significant changes in YK’s style can be seen in 2 different versions of his music video, ‘Allah Belanı Versin’ (God Damn You). Increase of the budget YK (and the production team) spends on his videos is increased. From the outfits to the stage lighting, the car models that he ‘tears up’ in the name of express his anger shouts out that YK developed his audio-visual production phases. While YK shows extreme masculinity in his videos, his song ‘Radikal Feminist’ also shows that he is sensitive about gender equality. However, instead of gender equality, he says that gynecocracy will take over the system. Also the promotional video of this song shows female characters in leather clothes, in an extremely dominant role. Lyrics in this song, the representation of women and the futuristic environment on this promotional video can be interpreted as some kind of revenge. We can say that the context in YK’s music videos represents the confusion caused by multi-cultural habitat. However, YK stated that he always kept his bonds with Turkish culture with the help of his family, their approach to music, his cultural environment and the cultural hybridity in Germany. He carries the ‘migrant Turk in Europe’ image both in his lyrics, and music videos. While the futuristic images and cyber-punk environments represent the European identity, his approach to female-male relationship is mostly influenced by Turkish culture. On the sneak-peak of his last music video, the female character wears a headscarf (or hijab). This choice of casting caused some argument amongst his audience. A section of his audiences say that he plays to the conservative Turkish audience, and the music industry that is under the influence of a dominant government. Beside the criticism against this representation of ‘conservative love’ of YK’s, another part of his audience -and people who do not consider themselves as his fans or audience- supports the idea of women from different beliefs, cultures and social circles become more visible in music videos. Majority of Turkish musicians do not use religious implications or contradictive 255 5.2. A humble introduction on music videos of Turkish immigrants: Case study #1: Ismail YK representations of different cultures in their music videos. Around the same time with this sneak-peek of YK’s new music video, another immigrant Turkish musician, Hadise had been faced with a ban for her music video due to ‘inappropriate behavior and nudity’. This escalated the arguments of cultural representation, and their public acclaim in Turkish audience. Besides all the mixed messages, and even confused representations of those messages, Ismail YK have been identified himself as a Turkish musician who gives consequence to gender equality, and multiculturalism. 4. Conclusions Ismail YK has been identified as a successful financial project by a portion of the music audience in Turkey. However we believe that he highlights an important issue in Turkish mainstream pop music once again: transculturalism. İsmail YK is a solid example of cultural complexity with his music and music videos. He uses different elements from European pop music and Turkish arabesk. YK shows his difference from other successful musical projects with his novel approach to local music (both in Germany and Turkey), current trends and his relationship with his audience. YK communicates with his audience mostly on music and video streaming services. He adopted a more mature role by the time he gets older. Eventually, he started using more modest and daily accessories in his videos instead of futuristic elements, futuristic technological devices, and design clothes with near-future references. YK is a solid example of how popular music culture shaped by the current social trends, technological innovation, and political situation of the country where his music is sold. He also demonstrates the example of how the second generation of immigrants cannot be detached from Turkish culture, and merge that culture with the current culture they are living in. The audience from many countries, not limited to Australia, China, and Turkey, demands live concerts from İsmail YK’s. We tried to demonstrate that the spread of a closed underground culture, around the globe in other immigrant Turk communities. İsmail YK used the right popular music elements to create his sustainable musical style. This case study was the first example of a research-series that we are planning to continue. Our future research will be focusing on the other immigrant Turkish musicians or collectives that is based in Europe. References Güney, P. K. (2013). From streets to ‘clubs: A musical journey of the German-Turkish youth. Sosyoloji Dergisi, 27(3), pp. 251-271. Kalyoncu, N. (2004). Historical development of intercultural music education in Germany and Turkish Music Culture In The Process. TAYF Müzik Araştırma Dergisi, 1(1), pp. 69-75 Kırmızı, B. (2016). The Past and the Now of the Problems of the Turkish Immigrants in Germany. Journal of Turkish Language and Literature, 2(3), pp. 145-156. Stokes, M. (1992). The Arabesk Debate: Music and musicians in modern Turkey. Oxford: Clarendon Press Wurm, M. (2006). The soundtrack of migration youth: German Turks and Turkish popular music in Germany. Unpublished manuscript. 256 5.3. The Laudero Del Desierto and his place in bajo sexto´s construction field121 Ramiro Godina Valerio 122 A b s t r a c t Economic circuits for the bajo sexto, a symbolic musical instrument of U.S. /Mexico border culture, have increased in recent years leading to the emergence of new brands. Among various brands from Mexican northeastern and South Texas, The Luthier of the Desert123, is one of the most distinguished because of its innovative visual design and physical construction, giving it an advantage within the field (Bourdieu, 1990). This article analyzes bajo sexto construction field and its main characteristics to understand and examine how newcomers and dominants take their position within the “field” and, specifically, how The Luthier of the Desert has won a place being one of the recent brands. Keywords: Norteña music, bajo sexto, border-culture, luthier, instrument visual image. 121 The present work is carried out within the framework of the SEP-CONACYT project, no. 243073: “Death and resurrection on the border. Regional processes for the construction of culture in northeastern Mexico and South Texas: the cases of hip hop and norteño music” directed by Dr. José Juan Olvera. 122 Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León - School of Music. Mexico, Mexico. E-mail: [email protected]. 123 Original name in spanish: El Laudero del Desierto. 257 5.3. The Laudero Del Desierto and his place in bajo sexto´s construction field121 1. Outline Conjunto norteño (northern music) (Peña 1985, p. 14; Díaz-Santana, 2015, p.15), Mexican norteña music (Montoya, 2014, p. 136-137), or simply “norteña” music, emerged in the northeastern Mexican countryside in the mid-nineteenth century (Ayala, 2000, p. 39-40). It would migrate to the city and beyond the northern border into the U.S. with immigrants seeking better economic opportunities. This music became a commercial product of the Texas regional recording industry in the 1940s (Ragland, 2009, p. 65-73) whose market were Mexicans on both sides of the Rio Grande. Moreover, Mexico’s national cinema participated in the construction of “lo norteño”124 primarily within the music and films of iconic musician and actor Eulalio Gonzalez “Piporro,” becoming an indispensable element for the music´s popularity outside of the region. In the last quarter of the 20th century, key groups such as Los Tigres del Norte would help “...launch a highly expansive and lucrative norteña music industry ...” (Ragland, 2009, p. 142). In the global era, the scope of this musical expression grew to the extent that musicians from other countries such as Chile, Colombia, and Holland created their own bands imitating the Mexican ones. For these reasons, and according to Ramirez-Pimienta, “since the last third of the 20th century until now norteña music is what mariachi music was during the first part of the 20th century” (2013, p.14, [personal translation]) meaning it has become a musical symbol of Mexico in the world. An essential part of constructions of “lo norteño” and its music are the instruments: bajo sexto125 and the diatonic accordion. The sound and visual image of the bajo sexto and accordion have played a central role in the production, circulation, and consumption of this music, such that, the growth of the instrument manufacturing industry has paralleled the growth of norteña music’s popularity. In this article, I present part of my ethnographic research on the bajo sexto and its economic circuits in northeastern Mexico and South Texas, one of which is the instrument manufacturing industry. Tradition and innovation are two important characteristics defining the industry and while on the surface these may seem like opposing forces, visual design provides a space that potentially connects or disconnects the two. While brands that utilize tradition as a principal characteristic are the oldest and most well-known, those considered innovative are seeking a new path to gain a foothold in the market. One of these brands, The Luthier of the Desert, has gained a valuable position in what Bourdieu (1990) refers to as the “field,” mainly through its innovative designs for the instruments visual image. In the following case study, I examine how the Luthier of the Desert has been positioned in the bajo sexto´s field of manufacturing. I begin by offering a rationale for the importance of bajo sexto research, followed by indicating the brands within the manufacturing industry in the delimited area. This includes a general typology of bajo sextos made by these brands. Next, I address those factors that have enabled to the Luthier of the Desert to win a place in the field of bajo sexto manufacturing. Which are the main characteristics of the field? What are the elements that make it possible for a new brand to win a place in the field? What are the characteristics of the market catered to by the Luthier of the Desert? My fieldwork was conducted from November 2014 to September 2018 in the U.S. cities of San Antonio, Laredo, and McAllen, in Texas, and in the Mexican cities of Saltillo, Monclova and Torreon, in the state of Coahuila; and the metropolitan area of Monterrey in the state of Nuevo Leon. I also communicated with informants in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas through internet social networks. It is important to mention that during the 124 Lo norteño is an imaginary of Mexico’s northern regional culture and identity commercialized in popular media. 125 This is a chordophone with twelve metal strings, grouped in pairs and played with a plectrum. Its traditional function is to accompany the accordion by playing chords, bass notes and making some ornamentation. Bajo sexto variants have emerged, such as the bajo quinto and the bajo cuarto, which have ten and eight strings, respectively. 258 latter part of my fieldwork, I have examined other brands, beyond those discussed in this study, however, they will be addressed in a later work. 2. Bajo sexto´s makers and a typology about their instruments Academic scholarship on the bajo sexto is relatively recent and growing. First references tell us about bajo sexto as part of musical traditions and as a common product of music stores in northeastern Mexico and South Texas by the end of nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth (Diaz-Santana, 2015, p. 96-104, ; Garza, 2006, p. 132-135; Guerrero, 2002, p. 28-29), besides, this instrument appears as part of a family heritage and as a handmade product in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico (Montoya, 2013, p.191-208, tomo I). Although there is a theory about its origin (Montoya, 2013, pp.191-208, tomo I), there is no certainty about its emergence “specific” place nor its organological ancestry. In this regard, and referring to aforementioned theory, Hernandez indicates “… it would be corroborated with effective arguments derived from the study and comparison of other documentary sources such as the different types of bajo sextos used in various musical regions of Mexico; it means, it is necessary to carry out a solid etnolauderia of the different variants of Mexican bajos…” (Hernández, 2017b, p. 11-12 [personal translation]). Within this initial construction of knowledge about bajo sexto from the academic studies, emerged a question Have been done studies on these instrument makers? Inquiring about it, I found two types of research: those studies that reference the bajo sexto as corollary information and those who utilize it as the direct subject of their investigation. About the first type of research: first one was mentioned, and it tells us about an instrument maker from Guanajuato, Mexico, who migrates to Pennsylvania, USA in 1917 (Montoya, 2013, p. 205-206, tomo I); another one tells us about a guanajuatense migrant that arrives to Anahuac, Nuevo Leon, in 1999. This man worked for twenty-five years creating guitars and bajo sextos in a self-taught way (Ayala, 2009, p. 124, 125); another contribution narrates the knowledge circuits about bajo sexto´s construction in the municipalities of Allende and Santiago, both in Nuevo Leon (Ayala, 2014, p. 142-143). On the other hand, the second type of research, in the US literature there is a text that addresses the migrant Acosta family. These Jalisco´s manufacturers would arrive to San Antonio, Texas (McNutt, 1991, p. 172-187); a second one work deals the Macias family history, based in the same city of San Antonio (Young, 1987, p. 131-134). In the Mexican literature are Hernandez Vaca works and my own research. Hernandez tells us about bajo sexto manufacture in Paracho, Michoacan, identifying 4 stages: 1) Without influence of the electric guitar; 2) With influence of the electric guitar; 3) increase in manufacturing; 4) With drug trafficking themes (2014). In a recent research, Hernandez studies the migration of builders and knowledge, and tell us about manufacturing investment related to Paracho, Michoacan (2017b). Within my research about bajo sexto makers, I documented its presence in the city of Monterrey visiting instrument workshops and music stores. In part, this ethnographic research addressed the instrument’s visual image (Godina, 2014); in another work I examined the personal history of instrument maker Rubén Castillo. This study exposed the recent history of bajo sexto´s construction in Monclova, Coahuila (Godina, 2017a). A recent work shows the links between Monterrey, Nuevo Leon 259 5.3. The Laudero Del Desierto and his place in bajo sexto´s construction field121 and Paracho, Michoacan, through this chordophone (Godina, 2017b). In light of these past contributions on bajo sexto construction, this article offers a new perspective. Figure 1 summarizes obtained information through my fieldwork, adding to the fore mentioned texts. The resulting topics articulated in the information in Figure 5.3.1 are interesting. This time I will only mention them in a general way. The first one is migration. The main migrations, in terms of number or transcendence of the brand, came from Jalisco, Michoacan and San Luis Potosi. Jalisco migrants nested in San Antonio, Texas; San Luis migrants did it in Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon; and Michoacan migrants have been present in all northeast of Mexico and some cities at South Texas; the second one is the growth of instrument manufacturing industry. Oldest brands were established around twenties, and in the nineties, there was a clear increase of brands number. It favors a wide range of instruments, prices and designs. The third one is about brand positioning. The best positioned brands are the longest ones: Macias, Hernandez [from Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon] and Acosta [from Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon], which were established in reference cities for record industries of conjunto (San Antonio, Texas) and “norteño” (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) music. This brand positioning, at least from the perspective of some musicians, is measured by: visual and sound characteristics of the instrument, price and groupings that acquire those instruments.126 This is replicated in those interactions between musicians and fans through of convergence points around the instrument at social networks.127 Another relevant topic is knowledge circulation. Mainly, knowledge passes from father to son or sons128 although it can also happen from family to family through friendship. Another way for knowledge circulation is labor link. This type of circulation is common, specifically, with some brands from Texas and Coahuila. In San Antonio part of Andrés Peña´s knowledge passed to Agustin Escobar, and later, Escobar shared a little with Jacob Salinas. Angel Hernandez, from Monclova, learned it from Vicente Acosta in Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon. In turn, Angel shared it with his brother Javier and his friend Ruben Castillo. To finish this section, I expose a bajo sexto typology as result of my fieldwork. I represent these kinds of bajo sextos through Figure 5.3.1. The full bo3dy bajo sexto is it that Hernandez Vaca identify like “without influence of the electric guitar” (see past pages). Its sound and image were diffused through radio and cinema in the middle of the 20th century. In those years, it accompanied the accordion in unfavorable acoustic spaces and without amplification. For this reason, its body needed to be widened and using wood that resonate. Now this model is called classic or traditional; the cutaway bajo sexto is it that Hernandez Vaca calls “with influence of the electric guitar” (see past pages). Another clear example of this influence is that bajo sexto was amplified using pickups. The image of these bajo sextos was stamped on LP´s (Long Play), influencing musicians to purchase this kind of instrument or to make a cutaway on their full body model. Amplification and cutting would become almost the norm in the music industry. Another cutaway can be possible in this model, called doble cutaway. Finally, the solid body bajo quinto. This model is not typical in the region; however, it represents an example of customer orders because in recent years consumers has more interference in instrument visual image. An important note is: since 1990´s, cutaway bajo quinto presence has been increasing to the extent that currently this kind of bajo is the most common. It was possible, or conditioned, when electric bass entered in the group, so it was no longer 126 This perception has been resulting of my experience like participating and no participating observer. 127 This can be an example: ReyesAccordions.Com. “Bajo sexto reviewers”. Published at https:// www.reyesforo.com/?forum=41322 128 Many of these brands have ramifications through their offspring. 260 necessary to play the bass line in the bajo sexto. Although the trend of bajo sexto is reborning. Figure 5.3.1- Full body bajo sexto is to the left; cutaway bajo sexto is in the middle; solid body bajo quinto is to the right. Ramiro Godina collection. The bajo sexto´s construction “field” and the Luthier of the Desert129 Family/ Brand Origin Residence & begin at instrument making Active or not Labor (L), commercial (C) or friendship (f) link Acosta Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco San Antonio, Texas. 1920 No Macias (L) Macias Michoacan San Antonio, Texas. 1930 Yes Acosta (L) Peña México San Antonio, Texas. ¿? No Escobar (F) Escobar Texas San Antonio, Texas.1996-97 Yes Macias (C) Peña (F), (C) Salinas (F), (C) Salinas ¿? San Marcos, Texas. 2015 Yes Escobar (F) (C) Garcia Guanajuato Anahuac, Nuevo Leon. 1955 No Hernandez Matehuala, San Luis Potosi Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon. 1920 Yes Castillo (C) Hernandez [de Monclova] (C) Acosta San Luis Potosi Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon. 1948 Yes Castillo (C) Hernandez [de Monclova] (C) Aguirre Santiago, Nuevo Leon Santiago, Nuevo Leon. ¿? ¿? Avila ¿? Allende, Nuevo Leon. ¿? ¿? Ochoa Santiago, Nuevo Leon Santiago, Nuevo Leon. 90´s Yes Avila (F) Herrera Paracho, Michoacan Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. 1994 Yes Castillo (C) Badines Paracho, Michoacan Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. 2010 Yes Ochoa (F) 261 5.3. The Laudero Del Desierto and his place in bajo sexto´s construction field121 Flores Allende, Nuevo Leon Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas. Near 1970. Yes Garcia, Teofilo ¿? San Fernando, Tamaulipas Yes Garcia, Nemesio ¿? San Fernando, Tamaulipas ¿? Rojas Michoacan Laredo, Tamaulipas. ¿? Yes Heraclio ¿? Saltillo, Coahuila. 70´s No Escobar [de Saltillo] (F) Escobar Coahuila Saltillo, Coahuila. End of the 70s and beginning of the 80s Yes Heraclio (F) Nunez Michoacan Saltillo, Coahuila. ¿? Yes Hernandez ¿? Monclova, Coahuila. 1990 Yes Castillo (L), (F) Hernandez [de Coahuila] (L), (F) Hernandez [de Guadalupe] (C) Acosta [de Guadalupe] (C) Herrera (C) Castillo. “Kin” Monclova, Coahuila Monclova, Coahuila. 2000 Yes Mendoza. “Luthier of the Desert” Torreon, Coahuila Torreon, Coahuila. 19992000 Yes Flores (F) Figure 5.3.2 - Brands in Mexican northeast and South Texas130 According with Bourdieu, field is a space of interaction, a field of objective relationships between individuals or institutions that compete for an identical game. In this field of haute couture [in our case the bajo sexto´s construction], the dominant ones have the greatest degree of power to build objects as something unusual by the signature procedure (the “griffe”); are those whose signature has the highest price. In a field, and this is a general law for all fields, those who hold the dominant position, those who have more specific capital, are in many ways opposed to newcomers (purposeful employment of this metaphor taken from the economy), those who arrived late, the upstarts who do not have much specific capital. Those with more seniority use conservation strategies whose objective is to take advantage of a capital that they have accumulated progressively. The newcomers have subversion strategies oriented towards a specific capital accumulation that supposes a radical alteration of the value table, a revolutionary redefinition of the production principles and the products appreciation and, at the same time, a devaluation of the dominant´s capital (1990, pp. 216-217). Analyzed as a “field”, bajo sexto´s manufacturing industry is that “space of interaction… between individuals or institutions that compete for an identical game”. But what are they competing for? As I mentioned, bajo sexto´s manufacturing industry is a growing profitable business, so “…the “dominant ones” have the greatest degree of power to build objects as something unusual by the signature procedure…” their instruments prices are the highest. As “dominant” brands are Macias, Hernandez [from Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon] and Acosta [from Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon]. According with musicians, these brands have an indisputable quality in their instrument´s visual and sound images, these ones have many years of experience and their instruments have been played by famous musicians and bands. Some “newcomers” and their 129 Personal communication with con José Mendoza, by Ramiro Godina Valerio, Torreon, April 1st, 2016. Audio, Ramiro Godina´s collection. 262 customers have been influenced by the “dominant” brands. An example of this influence is related by the bajo sexto´s maker Ruben Castillo, from Monclova Coahuila. …my customers from Monclova do not want a rosette with another ornamentation if it does not is like Hernandez one. I use “concha”, a typical ornament in Michoacan instruments, just to write the customer name in the fingerboard but my customers do not want to know nothing about Michoacan instruments… (Ruben Castillo, personal communication, 2016). Hernandez influence on newcomer brands is an example of greatest degree of power that “dominant ones” posses, this can be called capital. Just dominant brands posses this element that makes a big difference within the field. These brands have accumulated that “specific capital”, as I mentioned, through the experience and those instruments bought by famous musicians and bands. Their designs are a confinable path to walk. On the other hand, bajo sexto´s “newcomer” brands have increased since the nineties. These brands have two paths to take: tradition and innovation. The tradition path is a sure way for the instrument´s sell. These designs have been sold many years by dominant brands and the instrument´s images have been disseminated in the recording industry products (Guerra, 2013). Almost all brands make these designs although trying to include a distinguishing feature. It is necessary to mention that innovation is present in traditional brands when they are developing their own designs. Additionally, these instrument makers have some consumers who wants an exotic model, so results are innovative too. At the same time, “newcomer” brands make their innovative instruments based on bajo sexto´s construction principles. The Luthier of the Desert is a brand created by Jose Mendoza who was born in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico. With a bachelor´s degree in medicine and animal husbandry, he learned from his father some techniques about carpentry. Along with his studies he maintained his love for music and became a guitar player. In 1999 he started to repair his own guitars. It was just the beginning. Mendoza does not have an instrument maker as father nor any kind of links with other luthiers. Considering this condition, an uncomfortable way to go into guitar construction´s secrets, Jose began a process of self-learning that he calls “trial and error”. According with Mendoza: [The musical instrument construction] is a mystical thing, is like a mystery, a tremendous mystery and you cannot find information on any corner. It’s fascinating how this process produces a way to build, to unite wood with strings, to learn how you produce a sound, this is... more than that. It was a mystery and still is a mystery to a lot of people, construction is fascinating. I suddenly found that I had tools and knowledge, I was a musician and I knew how to work with wood, and I started doing research too, struggling a little bit because master craftsmen are very jealous of their knowledge. This knowledge 263 5.3. The Laudero Del Desierto and his place in bajo sexto´s construction field121 transfer is typically form father to son. Not everything is learned on the Net, not everything is learned on the Net, so ... there are always secrets in all of this, and little by little I have been unraveling it (Jose Mendoza, personal communication, 2016 [personal translation). Among his first projects were the classical and jazz guitars construction. In 2008 and 2009, he noticed a quality´s increase in his instruments, a new business was coming. In those years a customer, a norteña music player, visited Mendoza´s workshop. This musician asked to Mendoza to make a bajo sexto, Mendoza said: yes! “... I gave it to him [the instrument], he was delighted and “the soup was spilled” (la sopa se regó). Analyzing other instruments when copying, researching on classical guitar construction, studying electric guitar information, were some paths walked by Mendoza to hybridize his ideas on bajo sexto. An interesting question is: What are the elements that make it possible for a new brand to win a place in the field? Bourdieu tell us of “conservation and subversion strategies” in his concept of “field” (see past pages). “Conservation strategies” are used by the best positioned brands to “take advantage of a capital that they have accumulated progressively”. Among some activities used these brands are: • To consider that younger brands are making a lower quality copy of their models (in some cases it is true).131 • At the best positioned brand´s workshops photographs and journal´s images referring to famous musicians and bands that have bought their instruments are common. This practice is used in instrument makers social networks too.132 • To share videos in their social networks of famous musicians playing their instruments.133 To write the brand name in bajo sexto headstock is a recent practice that has an interesting impact in the customer´s perception. These main practices show that bajo sexto´s visual image has a principal role in these strategies, innovation and tradition are in stage once again. According with Steven Ray Pearlman, who makes a work on Standardization and innovation in mariachi music performance in Los Angeles, considers ‘innovation’ involves the substitution of non-standard musical elements into otherwise traditional forms. The elements substituted may be small and auxiliary to the main form or may involve major structural alteration and even the importation or the creation of entirely non-standard forms. The important concept is one of restructuring. The effect of this restructuring is formal change. This approach is consistent with an anthropological view of innovation and cultural change, as originally formulated by Barnett (1953), in which innovation implies process. Understanding innovation in any cultural context then involves searching for those forces and conditions under which it is likely to occur and to have effect, that is, to affect cultural change. In the case of mariachi music in Los Angeles, the primary forces affecting standardization and innovation are more easily understood in terms of social and contextual factors (see Pearlman 1983) rather than in terms of traditional conservatism or musical creativity, although these factors cannot be ignored (1984, p. 1). 132 Acosta, Hernandez and Macias workshops have these images. 133 Macias bajo sexto videos in social networks have been shared principally by their own customers. 131 This reference is according our personal communications with these instrument makers, specifically Macias and Hernandez. 264 Innovation in bajo sexto´s visual imagen has a principal role in “subversion strategies”. In my fieldwork I saw “small and auxiliary elements substituted” in some bajo sextos and just with the Luthier of the Desert I saw a “main form substituted” or a “major structural alteration” that created a “non-standard form”, maybe a non-standard hybridization. Initially Mendoza´s bajo sextos was called just Mendoza and these had a traditional image than now. I can mention some The Luthier of the Desert´s subversion strategies that make possible his place in the bajo sexto´s “field”. • An innovative name for a brand.134 • A constant social network activity. • To share videos where he argues their instrument´s quality • Their instruments have a nontraditional visual image I consider that shared material in his social networks and the way how it is showed make a difference. He is not only showing his finished instruments, he is building an identity, arguing why it have a place in the field (Guerra, 2013, 2016). An example135 of this material is a video in his YouTube account. He begins it giving the date and showing finished instrument then he mentions the model name, in this case the model is called Jaguar King. Mendoza finishes introduction with a drink. Later, luthier gives specific information about this model. This has a shiny polish; does not have a traditional sound hole; a special Pepe Mendoza bajo sexto´s pickup (unique case in the delimited area) and a Fishman one. The Luthier of the Desert mentions that his bajo sexto pickups has same quality and is prettier than famous ones, additionally these are made in Mexico. Customer´s name and last name on the fingerboard is a customer idea. Mendoza mentions “look here this is a characteristic feature of my brand, the screwed mast”. Brand name is in instrument headstock. This model includes a special cutaway. This video continues with an instrument sound test. In the delimited area this kind of videos are unique. These are a specific strategy to win “capital” and create his own “capital”. His videos show us that his market is not only Coahuila, Mexico. His instruments have been sold in national and international contexts, form Chiapas to Nuevo Leon, from Argentina to USA. Maybe younger people are his principal customers because of designs but another kind of customers is buying your instruments. 3. Conclusions Mexican northeastern and South Texas bajo sexto´s construction “field” has been configured by instrument maker´s migrations since 1920. These migrations came from Jalisco, Michoacan and San Luis. In recent years new brands from native people have been emerging. Oldest brands or “dominants” have accumulated specific capital positioning themselves as principal references in the “field”. Their longevity and fame are two fundamental elements than makes a difference. Additionally, social networks have being another path to increase their brand positioning, sometimes this activity is developed by their own customers or followers. On the other hand, “newcomers” have two ways: innovation or tradition. The Luthier of the Desert has taken innovation path in a different form. After the copy and study stage, Mendoza 134 Instrument maker´s last name usually is the name´s brand. Generally, it is more a cultural result than a strategic action. 135 EL LAUDERO DEL DESIERTO B5 “Rey Jaguar”. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Q6bDKYNFxTE 265 5.3. The Laudero Del Desierto and his place in bajo sexto´s construction field121 has hybridized his ideas, and these have made possible unusual models. As older brands, Mendoza is using social networks to spend out his instruments, adding interesting activities in them as an instrument sound test, arguments about instrument construction and guaranteeing their chordophones. He is not only winning that “specific capital” but creating his own “capital”. Acknowledgements and Funding: Thank you to the Council for Culture and the Arts of Nuevo Leon (CONARTE), the School of Music of the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon and the SEP-CONACYT project, no. 243073, directed by Dr. Jose Juan Olvera, because without their financial support my participation in the KISMIF international conference would not have been possible. I also want to thank to the organizers of the international KISMIF Conference because it was a personal and academic growth event. Thank you to Cathy Ragland and Jose Torres, because of reading this text and for their advices. Finally, I am grateful for the perpetual support of my family. Thanks God. References Ayala, A. (2000). Desde el cerro de la Silla. Origen y consolidación del conjunto norteño en Monterrey. Monterrey: Herca. Ayala, A. (2009). Música popular (pp. 115-153). In H. P.;M. E. (ed.). Monterrey: Consejo para la Cultura y las Artes de Nuevo León. Santiago: Anáhuac. Ayala, A. (2014). Música popular (pp. 113-143). In H. P.;M. E. (ed.). Monterrey: Consejo para la Cultura y las Artes de Nuevo León. Santiago: Anáhuac. Bourdieu, P. (1990). Sociología y cultura. Mexico: Grijalbo. Díaz-Santana, L. A. (2015). Historia de la música norteña mexicana. Mexico: Plaza y Valdés Editores. Díaz-Santana, L. A. (2016). El bajo sexto: símbolo unificador cultural en la frontera México-Estados Unidos. Acta Musicologica, Volume 88, Number 1, pp. 49-62. Garza, L. M. (2006). Raíces de la música regional de Nuevo León. Monterrey: Consejo para la Cultura y las Artes de Nuevo León. Godina, R. (2014). Constructores de bajo sextos en Monterrey. Mi aproximación primera. In L.O. M. Las Primeras Jornadas sobre la Música Norteña Mexicana, de1er Congreso Internacional Del Folclor “GUANAJUATO 2014”, El folclor y la música norteña tradicional. Guanajuato, Mexico. Godina, R. (2017a). Construcción de bajo sextos en Monclova, Coahuila. El caso del maestro Rubén Castillo. In L. A. D-S. II Coloquio La investigación musical en las regiones de México. Zacatecas, Mexico. Godina, R. (2017b). El bajo sexto parachense y su presencia en el noreste mexicano y el sur de Texas. Una aproximación etnográfica a la economía del instrumento. In B. M. XIII. Migración, braceros y mojados; fusiones y nuevas creaciones. Foro Internacional de Música Tradicional. Mexico City, Mexico. Guerra, p. (2013). A instável leveza do rock. Porto: Edições Afrontamento. Guerra, P. (2016). Keep it rocking: the social space of Portuguese alternative rock (1980 – 2010). Journal of Sociology, 52(4), pp.615-630. Guerrero, H. (2002). Nuestros instrumentos. Apuntes sobre el bajo sexto. Música en Monterrey. Revista de divulgación y guía musical ,Vol. 1, núm. 5, pp. 28-29. Hernandez, V. (2014). Los fabricantes de bajo sextos en Paracho, Michoacán. Paper presented at Coloquio Internacional sobre la Música Norteña Mexicana, Tacámbaro, Michoacán, May 28th to 30th. Audio of Ramiro Godina´s collection. Hernandez, V. (2017a). Bajosextero. Los constructores de bajo sexto y bajo quinto en Paracho, Michoacán [text facilitated by Hernandez]. 266 Hernandez, V. (2017b). Los guitarreros migrantes de Paracho, Michoacán. In B. M. XIII. Migración, braceros y mojados. Foro Internacional de Música Tradicional. Mexico City. Montoya, L. O. (2013). El bajo sexto es del Bajío mexicano. In M. L.O. (Co.). ¡Arriba el norte…! Música de acordeón y bajo sexto. Gestación de la música norteña mexicana, tomo I. (pp. 191-208). México: INAH/ CONACULTA. McNutt. J. (1991). Miguel Acosta instrumentista. In G.J. S. (Ed.). Hecho en México. Texas-mexican folk arts and crafts. (pp. 172-187). Denton: UNT. Peña, M. (1985). The Texas-Mexican Conjunto. History of a workingclass music. Austin: University of Texas Press. Ragland, C. (2009). Música Norteña. Mexican Migrants creating a Nation between Nations. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Ramírez-Pimienta, J. C. (2013). Introducción. Música Norteña Mexicana (pp. 1115). In M. L.O. (Co.). ¡Arriba el norte…! Música de acordeón y bajo sexto. Gestación de la música norteña mexicana, tomo I. México: INAH/ CONACULTA. Young, R. 2001 (1987). Macías. The Stradivarius of Bajo Sextos. In J. T. y A. V. (Ed.), Puro conjunto. An album in words and pictures (pp. 1-12), Austin: CMAS books-University of Texas. Personal communication Agustin Escobar, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, San Antonio, Tx., April 20th, San Antonio, Tx. (Ramiro Godina collection). Agustin Herrera Equihua, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, November 24th, 2014, Monterrey, N.L. (Ramiro Godina collection). Agustin Herrera Amezcua, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, December 2nd, 2014, Monterrey, N.L. (Ramiro Godina collection). Darío Acosta Jr., phone communication, by Ramiro Godina Valerio, June 10th, 2018. Jesus Acosta “Chuy Gallero”, social network communication [Facebook] by Ramiro Godina Valerio, July 24th, 2018. Jesus Reyes Badines. interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, November 27th, 2014. Monterrey, N.L. (Ramiro Godina collection). Jose Hernandez, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, November 22nd, 2014. Guadalupe, N.L. (Ramiro Godina collection). Jose Juan Hernandez, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, November 25th, 2014. Guadalupe, N.L. (Ramiro Godina collection). Jose Juan Hernández Loredo, phone communication by Ramiro Godina Valerio, June 12th, 2018. Jose Mendoza, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, Torreon, Coa., April 1st, 2016 (Ramiro Godina collection). Reynaldo Alonso Escobar, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, December 3rd, 2016, Saltillo, Coa. (Ramiro Godina collection). Ruben Castillo, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, April 2nd, 2016, Monclova, Coa. (Ramiro Godina collection). Ruben Castillo, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, December 16th, 2016, Monclova, Coa. (Ramiro Godina collection). Ruben Castillo, phone communication, May 4th, 2017. Ruben Gerardo Flores, social network communication [Facebook] by Ramiro Godina Valerio, July 24th, 2018. Salvador Hernandez, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, November 22nd, 2014. Guadalupe, N.L. (Ramiro Godina collection). Silviano Herrera Fernandez, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, August 7th, 2017, Paracho, Mich. (Ramiro Godina collection). Vicente Acosta, interview by Ramiro Godina Valerio, November 22nd, 267 5.3. The Laudero Del Desierto and his place in bajo sexto´s construction field121 2014. Guadalupe, N.L. (Ramiro Godina collection). Other references Bajo Sextos Acosta Junior. (2018, July 29th). Available in: https://www. facebook.com/bajossextos.acostajunior?hc_ref=ARQ7FBMp9OTfxrf_ dURkwvKXbyX0q6aDLFiaaMtzaFDieXnEjwP7xV7rzswRKaMPDw Bajosextos Badines Monterrey. (2018, July 29th) Available in: https://www.facebook.com/jesus.badines Bajo Sextos Dario Acosta Jr. (2018, July 29th) Available in:https://www.facebook. com/bajosextos.darioacostajr?hc_ref=ARSPm5LGdNKQdI_60waxwMBYORL_4ektYVA NyycElMaN9dwtDx8hAasVyZGiuIib6tg&fref=nf Bajosextos Flores. (2018, July 29th) Available in: https://www.facebook.com/ bajosextos.flores?hc_ref=ARRaFGiZQwd9PyzgoNtbMBYPU9Yx18kh3t_ hInk9woL6BxTeZvaKQb8hfjBOinWtrDA&fref=nf bajoquintos acosta. (2018, July 29th) Available in: https://www. youtube.com/channel/UC-6empAZCb_ecwd5GM8jow Bajo quintos Hernandez. (2018, July 29th) Available in: https://www. facebook.com/Bajo-Quintos-Hernández594645873965221/ EL LAUDERO DEL DESIERTO B5 “Rey Jaguar”. (2018, July 29th) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6bDKYNFxTE EL LAUDERO DEL DESIERTO. (2018, July 29th) . Available in https://www. youtube.com/results?search_query=laudero+del+desierto El laudero del desierto. (2018, July 29th) . Available in : https:// www.facebook.com/El-laudero-del-desierto 1742113796017174/?hc_ref=ARRUSWtOYdWvjiQQf1s6BaGCgNJRdFSL2mlGd6XWHJEQun_ aKZ1F1xe8dWpwUjnfO4&freff Gus Escobar.(2018,July29th).Available in: https://www.facebook.com/gus.escobar.357/ photos?lst=100010015689654%3A100000897715626%3A1532928357&source_ref=pb_friends_tl Guitarras Núñez Casa Luthier. (2018, July 29th) Available in https:// www.facebook.com/guitarrasnunez.casaluthier Jose Agustin Herrera Amezcua. (2018, July 29th) Available in https:// www.facebook.com/jose.herreraamezcua?ref=br_rs Jesus Badines Bajos (2018, July 29th) Available in https://www. youtube.com/channel/UCL09ulMArnrYY9sdv1bPp4A Jose Juan Hernandez. (2018, July 29th) Available in https://www. facebook.com/josejuan.hernandez.52459Gus Macias Bajo sextos. (2018, July 29th).Available in https://www.facebook. com/Macias-Bajos- Sextos475826009148792/?ref=br_tf “Macias Bajo Sexto”, en Reyes Accordions. (2018, July 29th) Available in http://www.reyesaccordions.com/Macias.htm Ruben Castillo. (2018, July 29th) Available in https://www. facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004947191674 “Bajo sexto reviewers”, ReyesAccordions.Com. (2018, December 19th). Available in https://www.reyesforo.com/?forum=41322 Salinas Guitars & Bajo sextos. (2018, July 29th) Available in: https://www.facebook.com/Salinasguitars/ Salvador Hernandez. (2018, June 29th). Available in: https:// www.facebook.com/salvador.hernandez.39982 Salvador Hernandez. (2018, June 29th) Available in: https://www.youtube.com/user/veyn100 268 5.4. ‘Patriotisms’ of Polish popular music Mirosław Pęczak 135 and Piotr Zańko 136 A b s t r a c t The co-creation of collective identities through popular culture has a very rich tradition in Poland. This phenomenon can be traced in patriotic plots in popular music visible in the songs of The Peoples Republic of Poland and in popular music after 1989. This overlaps with the phenomenon of subcultural nationalism, the folklorisation of popular culture and the so-called high culture and the official historical politics. In our paper we will analyse the chosen lyrics of popular songs (including rock and rap music) and present how patriotism has been defined and how its significance has changed over the course of years. Our analysis will encompass popular song lyrics in the years 1996-2016. We conclude that whereas in communist Poland, patriotic popular songs were in accord with the political reason of state which was forced from above, however contemporary patriotic songs of Polish popular artists are particular and party-oriented. These texts can be described by the expansion of chauvinist subcultural nationalism (in the authors’definition: patriotism), which found an institutional frame in organizations and parties such as Law and Justice (the governing party in Poland), The National Movement and Solidarity 2010. Keywords: popular music, patriotism, nationalism, historical politics. 136 University of Warsaw, Poland. E-mail: [email protected]. 137 University of Warsaw, Poland. E-mail: [email protected] 269 The main purpose of this article is to recognize the content of discourse of Polish patriotism in selected texts of popular music. We argue, that after 1989, Polish patriotism evolved from pro-European attitudes towards nationalistic attitudes. One can even put forward the thesis that currently in the public space in Poland (also in the field of popular culture) we are dealing with a specific war of cultures, a symbolic dispute between cosmopolitan liberals and isolationist (neo) conservative collective identity (Burszta,2013). Tim Edensor (2002) in his famous book National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life rightly notes that the affective power of traditional cultural forms and persuasive practices related to the nation are complemented and increasingly replaced by the meanings, images and actions taken from popular culture. He also efficiently analyzes complex relationships between broadly understood entertainment and national identification, that appear in a variety of situations, such as sports spectacles, contemporary forms of carnival, or attempts to reactivate national myths, as for example is the case of the film “Braveheart” (Ibidem). Edensor’s analytical work concludes with a notion that today, unlike, for example, 50 years ago, the association field around “patriotism” begins to include the pop culture and entertainment, while national identification is lacking pathos and certain formality, which was obligatory in the past. Indeed, ceremonies full of pathos are still being practiced, but more and more often you can hear and see that cultivating patriotism consists of contexts of a feast, festivity and an entertaining spectacle (it is very visible in Poland during the debates about the celebration of Independence Day). After 1989, at first, patriotic themes in Poland came down from large stages, locating themselves in specific niches, such as the skinhead subculture’s scene, or the scene of so-called identity rock (Wojdyła, 2005). The situation changed only in the second decade after the fall of communism, with the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in 2004 as a direct impulse for implementing patriotic themes in popular music. In 2005 Lao Che, a rock band, released its “Powstanie Warszawskie” (Warsaw Uprising) album, which paved the way for similar initiatives. This album abandoned the worn-out martyrdom code for the sake of literality, sometimes even using some drastic metaphors. It also tried to convey emotional climate. Specific expressionism, or better: neo-expressionism, dethroned a kind of ideological national elation. It is worth mentioning that the songs from the album, unlike most patriotic lyrics written for special occasions, do not have any propagandistic character, nor can they be directly written down in any political project. Above all, they implement the original vision of its authors, as it usually happens in the formula of a so-called concept album, Lao Che’s specialty (they have always released a “religious” or a “folk” album). Historical events are not a political emblem but a subject for the artist. The main author of the idea, Hubert “Spięty” Dobaczewski, tried to give the album a polyphonic character by combining the original text with various quotes – from speeches, film dialogues, or poetry from the Uprising period. There are attempts, however, to update the expression, for example in the song “Stare Miasto” (The Old Town), where phrases like “Welcome to the place / Where Fryco138 dies” are heard (Lao Che, 2005). The paraphrase of the modern football hooligans’ slogan conveys its contexts and has its consequences, as the last anniversaries of the Warsaw Uprising became the stimulus for a so-called new right-wing art (murals in which “canonical” insurgent ethos is mixed with the hooligans’ ethos), as well as the opportunity to manifest a new kind of patriotism, which we can call “a 5.4. ‘Patriotisms’ of Polish popular music 138 “Fryco” means a German 270 patriotism of a football hooligan”. It need not be and probably is not the sole merit of Lao Che, but without their album the band would not have moved on a wave of patriotic intensification, with many others alongside. There have been a lot of CDs, concerts and musical performances over the last 10 years, mostly (but not only) devoted to the Warsaw Uprising, which is commonly perceived as a manifestation of the renaissance of patriotic attitudes and general interest in history. They are accompanied by numerous so-called historical reconstructions. In a research report on reconstructions and re-constructors, written in 2012, Tomasz Szlendak (2012) notes that patriotism can be a motivation, but it can also be a consequence of participation in reconstruction movements, that mainly refers to those reconstructing Polish troops from World War II. Many facts and events from the area of current popular music, such as L.U.C’s album “Zrozumieć Polskę” (To understand Poland), a compilation “Gajcy” devoted to a famous poet from Warsaw Uprising time, De Press’s album “Żołnierze Wyklęci” (Excommunicated Soldiers), a concert and album untitled “Morowe Panny” (Brave Maidens) in homage to Uprising young female participants are undoubtedly a sign of a new trend among Polish musicians that explore the history of the war and occupation period. Nevertheless, all these performances and albums represent very different models of understanding of patriotism. L.U.C is closer to Braudel’s historical sensitivity focused on the details, or a sense of humor embedded in the realities of the war cataclysm. Andrzej Dziubek from De Press leaves no doubt singing: “Fight Bolsheviks in any form, because this is your biggest enemy today”. “Morowe Panny” in turn generated an unprecedented model of patriotism: a feminist patriotism (De Press, 2009). Apart from attempts to create new approaches to history, as well as unconventional manifestations of patriotic feelings, more traditional expressions are also functioning. Paweł Kukiz, once the first scoffer of Polish rock, has recently played a role of a defender of allegedly endangered Polish national feeling. One of the manifestations thereof is his song about Erika Steinbach, who is a German conservative politician known for her anti-Polish sentiments (Kukiz, 2012). The same singer also appeared in the rock-opera “Krzyżacy” (Teutonic Knights), a peculiar performance representing a nostalgic patriotism based on school curriculum novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz, who wrote patriotic novels during the partitions of Poland at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Similarly, guitarist Andrzej Nowak, co-founder of the heavy metal band TSA, at the moment a front-man of Złe Psy (Mad Dogs), wants to be considered a patriot according to a nationalistic understanding. The evidence thereof consists of lyrics of his widely commented song “Urodziłem się w Polsce” (I was born in Poland): “I proudly wear Polish colours. As knights, and soldiers. If needed I am obstinate” (Złe Psy, 2012). Some Polish rappers also use the nationalistic or even chauvinistic tones in their lyrics. Our analyses show that lyrics of musicians that constitute the Polish scene of patriotic rap, often contain anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic threads (Zańko, 2018). The pedagogy of hatred towards the Other (who in this case is a Muslim), used by right-wing and ultra-right-wing circles, including Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) party currently in power in Poland, is for example present in a song titled “Eurokalifat” (Eurocaliphate) performed by Szejk Biforjuz (2016): “I am terrified to see how many are coming here. No 271 more pork in menu, but they are all swines. They want our public money and produce kids. In two generations you will have three mosques standing in the neighbourhood. They conquer Europe with their birth rate. That is how you do it today, no need to use guns. You have to be happy, that is end of discussion. If you say something contra, they’ll call you a fascist”. Basti, another rapper, uses even more aggressive anti-islamic poetics. In one of his songs he predicts the imminent end of western, liberal Europe, flooded by radical “Islamic hordes”: “We don’t want any war, but we have it today. Crazy people make Jihad in Allah’s name. European governments and their leftist policy. Versus radical Islam and intentions to have a caliphate. They hate us, they don’t know democracy (Guerra, 2013, 2016). They don’t respect our laws, they want Shariat all over the world. They are stronger with Christianity’s weakness. They are happy, those murderers from ISIS. That is the consequence of deviated tolerance (…) don’t look at the West, because its end is near. We need to be wiser than they were there. They are doomed, they will lose the war. That is the end’s beginning, they will be flooded by the Islamic hordes” (Basti, 2016). We should add here that patriotic rap has recently been heard more and more often at the so-called Independence Marches in Warsaw that take place every year on Independence Day (November 11th). This patriotic manifestation, intended to commemorate the day Poland regained its independence, is in fact the greatest manifestation of Polish nationalism. Despite the fact that the threads of martyrdom and national patriotism seem to dominate the lyrics of popular music, we can also find artists who oppose such narratives (Zańko, 2018). A good example is Maria Peszek, who in the song “Sorry Poland” is in favor of open, constructive patriotism, whose essence is working for the common good of citizens: “(…) I pay subscription. And I pay for a ticket. I go to elections. I am not a stowaway. Just don’t tell me to die. Just don’t tell me, don’t tell me. Don’t tell me to fight, don’t tell me to die. Don’t want my blood, Poland! (…) Better an alive citizen than a dead hero” (Peszek, 2012). Analyzing “patriotic” expressions of contemporary Polish artists and pop music performers, it can be noticed that today’s pop-patriotism is different in relation to that of the times of the communist regime. First of all, it is not associated with the imposed “raison d’état”. Mostly it is of original character. It also has a particular character, or that referring to political parties. It also noted that a multi-current expansion of chauvinistic nationalism subculture (in the words of its partisans: “patriotism”) expands in a much larger scale than even in the last decade of the communist regime (See Guerra, 2019). It has also found a convenient institutional framework in such organizations as Ruch Narodowy (National Movement). The contemporary music scene does not, of course, divide in the same way as the political scene, but now and then the consequences of the aforementioned historical policy propagated by the ruling party are shown. The new work of Kukiz or Nowak are not the only examples, as we could see during the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, or recent Independence Marches. Maybe it is not the same as “Patriotism of Tomorrow” invented by Law and Justice Politicians, but we certainly can see here a vision of national unity with a strong nationalistclerical tone. Sevenfold attempts to set fire to the rainbow at Warsaw’s Zbawiciel Square, along with commentaries made by right-wing politicians who saw in this artistic installation by Julita Wójcik a symbol of LGBT, find their artistic expression in the song “Niezwyciężeni” (Invincible) of Konkwista 88, a group that has many merits in expanding a nationalistic way of thinking: 5.4. ‘Patriotisms’ of Polish popular music 272 “Contemporary streets. Addiction and homosexuality. Did they fight for it? Did they die for it? They should be back. At least for some time. Brave and firm. The pride of our nation” (1996). To sum up, the peculiarity of our times is a subcultural war of nationalist radicals with anarchists, which is a detachment of a larger whole: culture wars. These culture wars – whose sources date the youth revolution of the 1960s in the United States – are understood here metaphorically as a political and symbolical dispute over the collective identity and a shape of social reality, which is a result of having different sources of moral interpretation. The actors in this dispute are liberals and conservatives, two axiologically different camps that embody two different visions of the nation as a moral community (Burszta, 2013). On the one hand, we have heirs (ers) of the contestation movements of the 1960s and their love of freedom, people who imagine the social world as a place for everyone regardless of race, origin, religion or sexual orientation. On the other hand, we have the so-called guards of tradition and Christian values, for whom all manifestations of the liberalization of social life are perceived as a threat to the Western civilization. Unfortunately, in Poland the voice of the former does not reach everybody. The voice of various patriotic-nationalist (sub) cultures is much louder. The same refers to politicians that proclaim national pride, as well as the Church hierarchs who warn about a moral corruption of the cosmopolitan West. We claim that the modern redefinition of patriotism against such powers unfortunately has no greater chances. References Burszta,W. (2013). Kotwice pewności: wojny kulturowe z popnacjonalizmem w tle. Warszawa: Iskry. Enderson, T. (2002). National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life. Lonodn: Bloomsbury Publishing. Guerra, P. (2016). Keep it rocking: the social space of Portuguese alternative rock (1980 – 2010). Journal of Sociology, 52(4), pp.615-630. Guerra, P. (2014). Punk, expectations, breaches and metamorphoses: Portugal, 1977–2012”. Critical Arts, 28(1), pp.111-122. Guerra, P. (2019). The Song Is Still a ‘Weapon’: The Portuguese Identity in Times of Crises. Young, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1103308819829603. Pęczak, M. (2015). „Patriotyzmy” muzyki popularnej. „Kultura Współczesna”. Nr 1, pp. 46-56. Szlendak T., Nowiński J., Olechnicki K., Karwacki A., Burszta W. J. (2012). Dziedzictwo w akcji. Rekonstrukcja historyczna jako sposób uczestnictwa w kulturze. Warszawa: Narodowe Centrum Kultury. Warszawa: Iskry. Wojdyła, Ł. (2005). Wizja historii w tekstach muzycznych polskich grup skrajnie prawicowych. Toruń: Centrum Edukacji Europejskiej. Zańko, P. (2018). Pedagogie patriotyzmu, “Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny”. Nr 4 (in print). Audio Media: Lao Che (2005). Powstanie Warszawskie [CD]. Warszawa: Ars Mundi. De Press (2009). Myśmy rebelianci. Piosenki żołnierzy wyklętych [CD]. Warszawa: Agencja Artystyczna MTJ. Kukiz (2012). Siła i Honor [CD]. Warszawa: Sony Music Entertainment Poland. Złe Psy (2012). Polska (urodziłem się w Polsce) [CD]. Warszawa: Katowice: RDS Music. 273 Maria Peszek (2012). Jezus Maria Peszek [CD]. Skała: Mystic Production. Konkwista 88 (1996). Biały honor, biała duma [CD]. Hard Records (No data). Szejk Biforjuz (2016). Eurokalifat. This song can be heard here: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=7o2hpViCxOc (access: 15 December 2014). Basti (2016). Z sensem [CD]. Łódź: Legal. 5.4. ‘Patriotisms’ of Polish popular music 274 5.5. In the flow, in the city: music and skateboarding Cláudia Pereira 139 and Marcella Azevedo 140 A b s t r a c t This study aims to shed light on the relation between music and skating, particularly on how certain genres of music relate to skateboarders’ urban daily practices. The premise of this paper is that skateboarding, a type of youth subculture, is a lifestyle that transforms the urban order first, and subverts it later, creating alternative obstacles and shortcuts. Above all, skateboarding imposes its own rhythm, immersed into a subjectivity that moves in and out of chaos through the help of music. Hence, music in general and more specifically genres of music skateboarders prefer can be considered forms of communication that establish subcultural identity bonds and exchanges amongst skaters, while simultaneously preserving unique personality traits and subjectivities. For this paper’s theoretical framework, we consulted primarily — not exclusively — Bourdieu (1989), Certeau (1994) and Haenfler (2014). In addition to the literature review, we also use conducted in-depth interviews and a survey with 296 skateboarders. Keywords: subcultures; skateboard; music; city; space and place. 139 Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 140 Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 275 5.5. In the flow, in the city: music and skateboarding 1. Introduction The present paper is an excerpt of a larger article that we have adapted in order to present specifically the empirical study that was conducted. By observing the urban and the city, we can find a huge typology of inhabitants. Among these types is the skater, which we chose to analyze. Not so much for its belonging to a youth and leisure culture that is typical of contemporary cities, or the subcultural traces that are left through the paths that it travels, but mainly due to its role as a mediator between the urban and the city. The skater is therefore a mediator through movement and displacement, evidencing possibilities, which were, at first, unpredictable for the architect. The urban is the city in movement and the skater is one of its most remarkable actors. The movement of skateboarding is almost unpredictable: there are continuities, discontinuities, accidents, and falls. There are also rhythms, which are marked by the presence of music in the practice of the skater. The aim of this work is to discuss the relationship between music and skateboarding, particularly how certain music genres relate to daily practices of urban skaters. The premise is that skateboarding is a “lifestyle” which comes first to modify the urban order and to subvert it then creating alternative ways, obstacles and shortcuts, imposing its own rhythm to urban movement, a rhythm sometimes immersed at subjectivity of those who practice it, other times synchronized with the chaos, through music. Thus, music is, in this context, considered a form of communication between the urban subject and the city. What is presented here is a part of the results of an investigation realized in two phases between years of 2016 and 2018, among the activities of the Research Group JuX – Carioca youth, their cultures and media representations, from the Graduate Program in Communication Studies of PUC-Rio. In the first phase, we walked by Rio de Janeiro streets, in order to take notes from a direct observation in the skate lanes and squares, also interviewing some practitioners. The corpus that supports this discussion consists in the second phase of the research, with the application of 296 questionnaires answered by skaters by online social networks and seven semi depth interviews between November 2017 and March 2018. We consider that the streets, slopes and obstacles of the city are key to the skater’s course. The music, always intrinsic to their daily practice, gives rhythm to the transgressor mobility in the city. The skater performs subjectively his “topological” (according to Michel de Certeau (1994), “deforming the figures”) and “delinquent” route (“dismantling and displacing codes “) through the “flow”.”Flow” is a slang used mainly by rap singers, designating the way by which they fit their verses in the beat of the music, but also the way they sing them (faster or slower). In skateboarding, the word is quite the same: flow can have two senses, the first refers to the ability - has flow the skater who makes seem easy a complicated maneuver; and the second is related to a stream of events, o a context, an environment, a lifestyle, a daily life, ultimately leading our actions and decisions - a singer is in rap’s flow and a teacher, in the flow of academic life. The song, for the skaters, is a kind of narrative that provides not only concentration and rhythm to their performance, but also a specific spatiality, perhaps of subjectivity, through which the city is in-bodied or is culturally absorbed by the body. Sometimes I wake up and I want to give a quiet spin, then I put a rap, I put a reggae to give a spin like this only to enjoy the day (Nuno, 21, of Nova Iguaçu - RJ). 276 Thus, the skater, now immersed at music, and modified by it, however fully articulated with the paths and traces of the city, is a reflective subject, or the result of a subjective reflexivity driven by the beating at rhythm and the lyrics touching in his headset. The music, in words, establishes for the skater a “third” city: not the planned one, not the transgressed one, but the subjectivized one - an endogenous city. I do think we see the city in a different way. The other people look at the city, they don´t see anything, so they only see objects but for us it is like a playground (Rodrigo, 41, of São Paulo - SP). It’s like an amusement park, right? (Paulo, 21, Bauru - SP). By the time we write this text, there are 8.5 million people interacting with Brazilian cities through board and wheels, a number which is more than twice of eight years ago. It is a worldwide market that is about 3 billion dollars, $300 million of it is in Brazil. There were 296 questionnaires applied between November 2017 and March 2018. Nighty eight percent of respondents were male and 2% female, all aged between 12 and 52 years old. Figure 5.5.1 –Gender Forty seven percent stated that they practice at least three times a week, 22% skate everyday, 20% practice once a week, 7% every 15 days and 4% once a month. Figure 5.5.2 - How often do you practice skateboarding 277 5.5. In the flow, in the city: music and skateboarding Nighty percent practice street category, 25% mini ramp, 21% park, 16% bowl, 11% banks, 8% vertical, 7% freestyle, 6% downhill slide, 2% downhill speed. Less than 1% concentrates in categories such as freestyle dancing, mega ramp, push race, slalom, overall, mountain boards / mountain skateboard and carver / surf simulator. Figure 5.5.3 - Skateboarding styles Nighty five percent stated that they usually listen to music while skating. The 5% who answered not to listen to music while practicing were then discarded. Figure 5.5.4 - Do you listen to music while skating? Regarding the frequency with which they listen to music, 40% said that they do it whenever they go skating, 35% that almost always and 24% that it only happens sometimes. 278 Figure 5.5.5 - If positive, how often? Eighty six percent stated that they listen to rap, 68% hip hop, 55% rock, 22% punk, 15% pop, 12% hippie, 7% funk, 2% reggae, 1% MPB, 1% trap. The other music styles registered less than 1% of the answers. When questioned about their style as skaters, we had: 60% rap, 36% hip hop, 18% rock, 9% punk, 5% hippie and 2% pop. Others registered less than 1% of the answers. Figure 5.5.6 - Music styles Bringing those numbers for Brazilian culture, we observed that local rhythms such as funk carioca and MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) do not circulate in a representative way inside skating subculture (HAENFLER, 2014). On the other hand, it indicates that rap, hip hop and rock are representative of the strong influence of black and American music among skaters. About the role of music for them, 62.9% answered that music plays the role of giving the rythm, 60% entertainment, 45% concentration, 40% acceleration / deceleration, 1% inspiration. The other answers counted less than 1%. 279 5.5. In the flow, in the city: music and skateboarding Figure 5.5.7 - About the role of music As we saw before, flow is more than a rap and skating subculture slang, the term reveals a way of doing things. It is in the rhythm of music that the maneuver takes shape. The rhythm marks the symbiosis between the body, the skateboard and the asphalt of the city. It’s the music that communicates the intentionality and thus establishes the relationship between the city and the people of the city. We concluded that music is a mediator between the subject skater and the city, establishing a communication between his or her world and the outside world. In addition, it contributes, through the rhythm (predominantly of rap and hip hop), both to the configuration of a city designed as obstacle to a practitioner´s view, as for his own identity configuration, such as subject and also as part of a group. The paper aims to contribute to the cultural studies in the field of communication, at first level and in the field of Social Sciences in a second moment, assuming that music, as an “object objectified” (Boudieu, 1989), establishes a dialogue between people and things, between subject and lived world. And that skateboarding is a subculture rich in symbolic aspects which therefore deserves to be exploited, due to their growing presence at urban areas landscape of Brazil. Acknowledgements: This paper is a result of the research led by JuX – Juventudes Cariocas, suas Culturas e Representações Midiáticas (in english, JuX – the Carioca Youth, their Culture and Media Representations), study group inserted within the scope of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro’s Postgraduate Program in Social Communication, with special thanks to them. Funding: This study was funded by FAPERJ - Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Young Scientist Scholarship of Our State) and also in part by the Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination - Brazil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001. References Bourdieu, P. (1989). O poder simbólico. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Bertrand Brasil. Certeau, M. de. (1994). A Invenção do cotidiano. Artes de fazer. Petrópolis, Vozes. Haenfler, R. (2014). Subcultures: the basics. New York, Routledge. 280 281 5.5. In the flow, in the city: music and skateboarding THEME TUNE 6 ‘IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS HEART’: LIMINALITY AND UBIQUITY OF CONTEMPORARY ARTISTIC CREATIONS © Esgar Aclerado 282 6.1. ‘Rest in Peach’. The relevance of emojis in the gender maneuvering of language Chiara Modugno 141 A b s t r a c t Looking for ways in which new generations may still be able to negotiate gender dynamics today, this paper’s aim is to investigate the use of emojis in texting as a Barthesian “second-order semiological system”, in order to disclose their potential as a gender maneuvering tool. Presenting emoji-texting as a metalanguage has a series of implications, most notably revealing its predisposition for the continuous negotiation of meaning behind each of its single expressions (emojis). In order to unravel this claim, the present paper employs a step-by-step approach, progressively situating texting within the realm of culture as signification. Once this is accomplished, the concept of gender maneuvering will be added to the picture, so as to offer an interpretation of such a newly acquired potential. In the same ways as (post)feminists of present times are re-appropriating pariahwords (bitch, slut, bad-ass), new emerging languages such as that of emojis offer a paramount opportunity to the maneuvering of language as a means to fight against its gendered nature. Keywords: Emojis, gender maneuvering, language, signification. 141 Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture. Rotterdam, The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected]. 283 6.1. ‘Rest in Peach’. The relevance of emojis in the gender maneuvering of language 1. Introduction Among the numerous negative characteristics attributed to the youngest generations, texting undoubtedly owns a prominent position. The most urging preoccupation concerns whether the new language, emerging (and relentlessly evolving) from communication exchanges via text messages, has any sort of negative effect on youth, most notably whether it translates into impoverished literacy attainment during education (Plester, Wood & Bell, 2008). What is certain is that the language employed in conversations staged within computer mediated discourses, commonly referred to as “texting language” (TL), has rules of its own. These rules are mediated between the need to write shorter texts and that to semantic unambiguity: namely, content still needs to be understandable (Choudhury et al., 2007). In this regard, technological developments are straightforwardly intertwined with linguistic developments, so much that the question arises whether they are gradually modifying language or if what emerges is, instead, a language of its own (Gorney, 2012), as naming it “texting language” may suggest. Such complexity sparks interest towards this postmodern way of communication and offers an awe-inspiring starting point for analyses grounded in the most different perspectives, perhaps even questioning whether its effects are exclusively negative (Vosloo, 2009). The aim of this paper is precisely that of investigating TL from an original standpoint, partly distancing itself from traditional literature centred on texting’s negative influence on language, to focus, on the other hand, on its revolutionary potential. This objective will be pursued by situating texting and, in particular, the use of emojis in its practice within the realm of culture as signification. Doing so will allow to unravel the potential of emojis as a means towards the maneuvering of language, in particular acting against its intrinsic gendered nature (Mills, 2008). What will follow is a brief and concentrated introduction to some of the fundamental concepts of linguistics, a necessary step towards the further development of this paper. Both Saussure’s “firstorder semiological system” and Barthes’s “second-order semiological system” will be discussed and applied to the realm of texting, in order to illustrate the first hypothesis of this paper: texting language owns a revolutionary potential, something that “ordinary language” does not possess. Subsequently, going one step further in what is possibly an ambitious endeavour, texting through emojis will be combined with Mimi Schippers’ (2002) theory of “gender maneuvering” and exemplified with an everyday-life case study in an attempt to disclose how the use of emojis may serve the purpose of challenging gendered language. 2. Texting as signification 2.1. De Saussure, Hall and the universe of (youth’s) texting The founder of linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure, provided a fundamental distinction when he contrasted language, the (social) structure, and speech, the individual act (De Saussure, 1964). Only the former can be an object of analysis, since the essential meaning of the latter is lost as soon as it is performed. Language, instead, is a socially organized system of signs. Every 284 linguistic sign stands to represent a whole, in turn constituted by a signified – the meaning (more precisely, the concept) – and a signifier – the form, or sound-image, employed when referring to the concept (De Saussure, 1964). Young generations in particular form sexting’s community of speakers, similar to what Zerubavel would call “optic communities” (1997); the continuous redefinition, modification and adaptation of such a language in present times also plays a significant role in the negotiation of youth’s own identity (Ringrose & Harvey, 2015). It is possible, for now, to think about texting as a first-order semiological system, the one portrayed by de Saussure, where a brand-new list of signifiers (the form, or sound/image) finds a satisfactory relationship with as many signifies (the concepts): • TDTM – Talk Dirty to Me • NSA – No Strings Attached • GNOC – Get Naked On Camera • POS – Parents Over Shoulder • FWB – Friends With Benefits As any kind of language that is not instantly consumed, encoding/ decoding processes are at work between the moment of execution and that of reception. As Stuart Hall (1980) would have pointed out, the correct reception of sexting messages lays in the relation of identity between the active and passive sides of the exchange. While among teenagers the symmetry stands and they are able to successfully decode abbreviated text messages, the degree of asymmetry between them and their parents’ codes often results in distortions (Hall, 1980), the so-called “aberrant codes”. The relative knowledge of recipients (influenced by age in particular) confines the language of texting to a specific category – once again, texting’s community of speakers. Members of this community own the means to properly comprehend text messages; however, as Hall points out, their decoding can still develop in several different forms: a) Dominant code Figure 6.1.1 Members of the same community of speakers correctly decode the message according to the dominant-hegemonic position. Sender and receiver both use the same codes in their communicative exchange. 285 6.1. ‘Rest in Peach’. The relevance of emojis in the gender maneuvering of language b) Negotiated code Figure 6.1.2 In this case, the decoding process takes place in a medium between “adaptive” and “oppositional” elements. The receiver understands the code (Talk Dirty to Me), and could then choose to respond in the same way (for example, “POS” – Parents over Shoulder); however, she replies with her own ground rules. c) Oppositional code Figure 6.1.3 In this final instance the receiver – while, once again, perfectly comprehending the sender’s code – responds contrarily to it, using an “alternative framework of reference” (Hall, 1980, p. 138). Parents are left out of the community, and they would often need a guide to understand their children’s rhetoric (Katzman, 2010). They would then employ yet another code: the “aberrant code”, belonging to all individuals who do not share the same language (Eco, 1972). 2.2. From first- to second-order semiological system: Barthes meets emojis In order to go one step further with the present semiotic analysis of texting, Roland Barthes must be included in the discourse. When discussing “myth as a type of speech”, the author introduces a second-order semiological system, one that goes beyond the signifier + signified = sign Saussurean equation (Barthes, 1957). In the mythical dimension, indeed, a shift in the relation of signifier and signified occurs when the linguistic sign (concept + sound/ image) of the first (classical) system actually becomes just a signifier in a second system, that of metalanguage – namely, myth itself. What has been just described is a process of “appropriation”, whereby a sign is emptied of its literal meaning and is subsequently employed as mere form in the expression of something else. It is here believed that the realm of texting provides for a metalanguage, as well: a second-order semiological system. The necessary shift in the relationship between signified and signifier occurs, in particular, whenever emojis are employed in communication. It is exactly through emojis that a clearer description of Barthes’ theory will be carried out. A paradigmatic 286 case is that of the aubergine: far from being a symbol for farmers’ markets and veganism, this vegetable lately underwent a deformation. Traditionally (or, originally), its sign used to be: visual form (image) – signifier) Aubergine (the concept – signified) + (the However, when emojis started substituting for actual words in texting practices, the above-mentioned sign “aubergine” was emptied of its original content and became just pure form-signifier to a second semiological system, that of the texting language. Nowadays, whenever the aubergine emoji is employed in texting, notwithstanding its literal meaning being clearly visible, the reader would still grasp something different. Such a distortion of the form is allowed by the linguistical meaning that already hides behind it: the alreadyestablished connotation of aubergine-as-a-concept served the erotic intention of representing, and expressing, a phallic image. As a matter of fact, mythical language is characterized by intention, rather than form. The combination of the first-system sign (or second-system signifier) with its new signified generates a second system and a new sign, which Barthes calls signification. Further support to this hypothesis comes from recent news reports. The “peach emoji” case rapidly took over the Internet when, not long ago, Apple released a beta version of iOS 10.2, which introduced a new-look version of the beloved peach emoji. The new image was more closely resembling the actual fruit; no problem would have emerged if the first-order semiological system – the one where “peach” would actually mean a peach – was at work. However, that was not the case, as the peach emoji was in truth the most appreciated sexting symbol, in the guise of derrière. A madness of tweets and Facebook posts went viral, so much that the original peach emoji was finally re-established in the next iOS upgrade. This event shows how emoji-texting is a metalanguage, similar to Barthes’ second semiotic system, rather than a first-system language in the Saussurean conception. 3. Emojis and gender maneuvering: the case of ‘period emojis’ Now that the qualification of emoji-texting as a second-order semiological system (or metalanguage) has been clarified and illustrated through the aubergine and the peach emoji case, in order to address the final claim of this paper (and its essential goal, as well) the concept of “gender maneuvering” must be introduced. The term was initially coined by Mimi Schippers (2002) to indicate micro-level, local phenomena whereby patriarchal gender dynamics are challenged by communities of women performing alternative kinds of femininities, often owning up to what are traditionally considered negative gender stereotypes on women. The author employed this term to refer to processes of gender re-negotiation taking place in the alternative, hard rock subculture (Schippers, 2002). Nonetheless, gender maneuvering is not at all confined to music subcultures: Nancy Finley employed the same term to describe similar dynamics enacted by a group of Roller Derby skaters; she described gender maneuvering as: A collective effort to negotiate actively the meaning and rules of gender to redefine the hegemonic relationship between masculinity and femininity in the normative structure of a specific context. These 287 6.1. ‘Rest in Peach’. The relevance of emojis in the gender maneuvering of language strategies change familiar meanings of gender, violate rules of interaction, and shift positions so that the links between gender relations are damaged and transformed within that context. When effective, they challenge localized gender relations and produce ‘alternative’ gender relations (Finley, 2010, p. 362). More specifically, instances of gender maneuvering include women challenging hegemonic masculinity by owning up to pariah femininities, negative stereotypes associated with women rejecting traditionally “feminine” behaviours to embody more “masculine” connotations, such as bossiness or sexual openness, leading to the widely used appellatives of “bitch” or “slut”. By re-appropriating of such pariahs, women are able to turn previously insulting stereotypes into empowering, alternative gender identities. Bringing emojis back into the picture, having already demonstrated how they can serve as tools in the re-negotiation and modification of language – as a metalanguage, they can be emptied of their original meaning, and be assigned a new one – the present paper argues and supports the employment of emojis as instruments for the gender maneuvering of language. In order to clarify how such process could be carried out, what follows is a paradigmatic example derived from contemporary communication exchanges, specifically among young women and girls: period emojis. As a matter of fact, among the infinite emojis one can choose from when texting from both phones and computers – including some ridiculously (almost oddly) specific ones – no emoji has been designed to represent a rather fundamental part of the female existence, menstruations. Women can emoji-text about getting a haircut, their nails done, or even a head massage, but that taboo-thing they experience every month is conspicuously absent from their set of emojis. This is clearly not surprising, as societies confine menstruations to the realm of “pollution”, tacitly supporting their identification with both dirt and danger (Laws, 1991) and welcoming them as yet another emblem of universal male dominance (Buckley & Gottlieb, 1988). Such an absence has not remained unnoticed: a plea for “period emojis” has been circulating on the Internet, to the point where their eventual introduction in near-future updates has been repeatedly hypothesized. Nonetheless, women around the world have already found their way around this issue. Employing a strategy that closely mirrors what has previously described as (gender) maneuvering, they re-appropriated a number of already-existing emojis, and began using them as signs expressing something different: period, in its various shades. Considering emojis as a second-order semiological system allows comprehending this maneuvering, enlightening the reasons enabling it: emojis are emptied of their original meaning, and become pure form to a whole different sign, one that stands for “period”. Some examples include: the calendar plus the angry face emojis, the flamenco dancer, the erupting volcano, the red alarm clock and the red “no entry” sign; but there truly are endless combinations, each one signifying a different emotional or physical state derived from the universe of menstruations. 288 4. Conclusion Analysing (emoji) texting under semiotics’ and linguistics’ theoretical lenses allows for a better understanding of the rise of neologisms – as well as new languages altogether – in the digital era, as well as specific audiences’ ways of encoding and decoding them. The mutability/immutability paradox (de Saussure, 1964), supportive of both the impossibility by communities to actively and purposely perform change in language themselves, and, on the other side, the ever-lasting potential for modification – stemming from both the arbitrariness of the sign and the erosion of time – pose stimulating interrogatives on the next evolution the realm of texting would undergo. The purpose of this analysis was primarily that of introducing the idea of a (gender) maneuvering of language (emoji-texting in particular), by progressively illustrating TL (texting language) using traditional theories of linguistics. Such traditional theories, nonetheless, allow for an innovative reading of TL, one that supports its positive potential for change. The example of “period emojis” is just one instance reflecting how such a maneuvering process is already taking place among young women’s community of speakers; however, the present paper is intended as a starting point, rather than a finish line: it is hoped that the idea of a (gender) maneuvering of language will be further explored by the academic community, paying particular attention to all discriminated, underprivileged communities – the only ones that maneuvering can truly empower to affect change. Acknowledgments: The author would like to acknowledge the support of Giuliana Minniti and her assistance in the editing of this paper. References Buckley, T., & Gottlieb, A. (1988). A critical appraisal of theories of menstrual symbolism. In Buckley T. & Gottlieb A.. Blood magic: The anthropology of menstruation, (pp. 1-53). Berkeley: University of California Press. Barthes, R. (1957). Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang. Choudhury, M. et al. (2007). Investigation and modeling of the structure of texting language. International Journal of Document Analysis and Recognition, 10(3-4), pp. 157-174. Eco, U. (1972). Towards a semiotic inquiry into the television message. In Splendore T. P.. Working papers in cultural studies 3 (pp. 103-121). Birmingham: University of Birmingham. De Saussure, F. (1964). Course in general linguistics. New York: McGraw-Hill. Finley, N. (2010). Skating femininity: Gender maneuvering in women’s roller derby. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 39(4), pp. 359-387. Gorney, E. (2012). The Language of texting: Altering English or a language of its own?. The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research, 13(1), pp. 39-42. Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/Decoding. In Hall S. et al., Culture, media, language (p. 128-138). London: Hutchinson. Katzman, D. (2010). Sexting: Keeping teens safe and responsible in a technologically savvy world. Paediatrics & Child Health, 15(1), pp. 41-42. Laws, S. (1991). Issues of blood: The politics of menstruation. Berlin: Springer. Mills, S. (2008). Language and sexism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Plester, B., Wood, C., & Bell, V. (2008). Txt msg n school literacy: Does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect children’s literacy attainment?. Literacy , 42(3), pp. 137-144. Schippers, M. (2002). Rockin’out of the box: Gender maneuvering in 289 6.1. ‘Rest in Peach’. The relevance of emojis in the gender maneuvering of language alternative hard rock. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Ringrose, J., & Harvey, L. (2015). Boobs, back-off, six packs and bits: Mediated body parts, gendered reward, and sexual shame in teens’ sexting images. Continuum , 29(2), pp. 205-217. Vosloo, S. (2009). The effects of texting on literacy: Modern scourge or opportunity. Shuttleworth Foundation. Retrieved from: http:// bomedia.pbworks.com/f/Positive%20Texting.pdf Zerubavel, E. (1997). Social Optics. In Zerubavel E. Social mindscapes: An invitation to cognitive sociology, (pp. 23-34). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 290 6.2. Distributed cognition in dance: Artistic skills in social interaction Dafne Muntanyola-Saura 142 A b s t r a c t Are the dancers’ skills interactive? Our pragmatic stance looks for the social roots of artistic skills in the communication and attention patterns of dancers in the studio. Dance is a setting to study distributed cognition through modalities other than speech. We look for distributed cognition not only at the communicative level, but also at a more phenomenological level of joint action and perception. Through a cognitive ethnography of a dance rehearsal and Conversation Analysis we are able to delimitate here the modalities in use such as speech, marking, gesture and space. Findings show how multimodal translation, incremental concretion, space management and listening are examples of artistic skills. We explain what really happens when dancers act as experts in the field, with a culturally defined normative frame. Keywords: Ethnography, dance, skill, distributed cognition, multimodality. 142 Autonomous University of Barcelona. Catalonia, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]. 291 6.2. Distributed cognition in dance: Artistic skills in social interaction 1. Introduction Where is the social legitimacy of artistic practice? In other words, where is the source of artistic skill in a dance rehearsal? Choreography is an example of an organized activity. Organized practices that are retained and considered legitimate are (re) produced in the interaction with the other participants. Artistic practices that are repeated and retained become legitimate. Moreover, through the processes of interaction and communication dancers generate ways of understanding the everyday (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). The key mechanism of preservation is a continuous and coherent conversation (Berger in Vera, 2016). But a dance rehearsal includes other skills that are not communicative. Speech is only one of the vehicles for meaning while in the dance studio. Precommunicative attention is a particular skill that involves listening to the other (Muntanyola-Saura, 2015a). Other embodied modalities, such as gesture or marking appear in rehearsal. A body is a piece of consequential equipment, and the dancer is always putting it on the line (Goffman, 1982). In this paper the goal is to discover the chain of interactions that explain other dancers’ skills. We look for distributed cognition not only at the communicative level, but also at a more phenomenological level of action and perception. Key elements for the coordination and performance in dance come before explicit communication patterns. Moreover, these cognitive elements are not only arbitrary products of situated action (Kirsh, 1995), functional elements of distributed cultural systems (Hutchins, 2005) or social organizations (Nöe, 2015), nor embodied elements for coordination (Gibbs, 2006). We claim that artistic skills have cognitive functions that go beyond communication. We suggest that they are cognitive skills that only come into being when they are socially legitimized as intersubjective typifications (Schütz, 1967). The source of artistic skill is in the distribution patterns of communication and interaction in the dance studio. Thus, we take a dance studio as a setting for distributed cognition. Through a cognitive ethnography of a dance (Muntanyola-Saura, 2014) and Conversation Analysis (Sacks et al, 1978; Mondada, 2014) we are able here to explain the directionality of artistic skill. We take a bold theoretical stance within an interdisciplinary approach, and make a detailed empirical analysis of qualitative data. Specifically, we analyze a phrase were the dancers get stuck and enter an iteration of episodic sequences of action. In this empirical example the dancers together with the choreographer apply their artistic skills to solve a wrong grip. By delimitating the modalities in use such as speech, marking, gesture, touch and space on the one hand, and by locating the precommunicative skills of the agents involved on the other, creative cognition in dance becomes part of a complex cognition system of actors, environmental cues, and social rules of communication. We put forward how the resulting corrections and adjustments are not merely an epihomenon of an individual dancer or the choreographer, but part of an interactive activity built around shared authority. 2. Theoretical framework How do we recognize artistic skill? Taking into account the lastest discoveries in neuroscience does not necessarily means falling pray of mainstream reductionsim. An ethnographic stance such as the one we propose takes 292 social experience at face value. When listening to music, or watching dance, we are not connecting pitch, wave-length and vibrates. The irreducibility of experience is what puts social experience at the center of our analysis. The artistic experience becomes a holistic and contextual social process, given that one does not expect absolute values, but new notes in a melody, or words in a conversation that make sense, for that matter (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986, p. 86). Moreover, in order to understand artistic skills and judgements we cannot isolate the experience of the dancer from its context. The need for contextualizing also appears in experiments such as visual ilusions, which also vary accross cultures, times and contexts (Henrich, Heine & Norenzayan, 2010). Even tangrams and the Ponzo Ilusion are the result of socially located interactions (Muntanyola-Saura, 2014a). From the point of view of the field of neuroscience, we are neuronally programmed to be social. A key finding in neuroscience is that of mirror neurons in bonobos by Gallese et al (2004). Shared motor representations, visualized in a specific region of the brain (insula), move beyond the individual. At a neural level, language and emotions build and filter the information most useful for our behavior: When we experience an emotion, we do not maximize all the possibilities: our body filters those ready to be expressed (Damasio, 1999). In other words, being afraid might well be useful to avoid complicated or dangerous situations. And at the same time, a conversation might helps us avoid a fist or two. Evolutionary psychologists such as Cosmides & Tooby (2013) put forward plasticity as the key attribute of the brain: our brain as a teenager is not the same as the one we will have at older age, and thus changes with the interaction with the physical and social environment. Moreover, a key cognitive mechanism that keeps evolving is that of intentionality: following Searle’s (2010) account of the mind, neurons cause intentional states. We make things happen, and we perceive and experience things happening to us. Thanks to intentionality we attribute and extend causality to what we see and remember. In the case of dance, perception and memory are strongly linked to movement. And more specifically, to joint moves: movement that involves more than one dancer at a certain level of synchronization. Musicians and dancers live a shared present as an experience of togetherness (Schütz, 1971). Rehearsing in a studio becomes a social situation. It gets close to the extended mind claim by Clark (2008): minds extend beyond the boundaries of the human organism. The social organization of perceptual experience is directed to the world, not to the brain (Nöe 2004, 2015). Artistic judgements in a museum are built in spontaenous conversation: people take pictures and talk all the time about what they are seeing. There are shared comments on individual experiences that are filtered on the spot. In doing so the audience follows their own systems of relevance, a product of socialization, past experiences and the like. Moreover, there is a specific secondary socialization of the public in the art field, since their knowledge comes with going to other exhibits and fairs, as well as with their professional background. Following the constructionist proposal of Berger and Luckmann (1966) attitudes and expectations are built in socialization, within the family and at school. Later on, members of the same generation, friends, colleagues and professors, among others, act as secondary socialization agents in social contexts such as the studio, the conservatory or on tour. The discourse of the dancers in relation to their work is part of a taken for granted reality (Schütz, 1962). 293 6.2. Distributed cognition in dance: Artistic skills in social interaction At the same time, the actuality of the exchange and the sequentiality of the unfolding conversation shapes artistic judgement. Conversation is everyday legitimation (Berger in Vera, 2016). Individuals incorporate some practices and discard others, responding to the expectations of their partners and peers (Goffman, 1959). When Goffman claims that we find truth in a wedding, he is pointing towards the existence of social rituals that reinforce social expectations and thus define socially legitimated practices. So judgement happens at this moment, in interaction, and doesn´t necessarily preexist at a neuronal or individual level. The brain need not, after all, maintain a small scale inner replica of the world (Dennet, 1997). We all need space for thought, for debating, for reading, for writing. A subjective assertion becomes interesting in terms of judgement if it is publicly shared in argumentation. Perfumistas develop a public language among themselves, and they do so by filtering and sharing their individual experience (Alac, 2017). Fele (2016) claims that dialog is selective. But as Alac shows in most of her research and specifically in her key theoretical contribution, the Multimodal Interactive System, not only speech is selective. Her ethnographic work shows how body gestures and methaphors all take place in a circle of selecting attention, verbal and instrumental coordination, and finally pointing and mapping. In fact, most of the time conversation at work is multimodal. On the one hand, as defined by Schütz (1971, p. 161), dance practice needs the expectation of reciprocity, that is, intersubjectivity. So when dancers dance together they participate in a matter of mutual tuning in. Tuning in thus becomes a key coordination mechanism previous to any form of communication. DeNora (2014) talks about a mutual determining relationship that builds a common reality. On the other hand, communicative modalities act as solicitations (Dreyfus, 1998) for those in artistic practices. Solicitations are Gestaltian attractions of objects and people. As Goffman (1982) claims, these conversations are focused interactions that tend towards joint attention. In other words, aesthetic judgment comes with a shared act of attention, as in Hennion (2005). In dance rehearsals there are specific dancers, which we call filter figures, that gather all the attention (Muntanyola-Saura, 2014b). The surrogate figure simplifies some of the moves, performs them somehow in a slower pace and makes the learning process of new moves easier. Following Alac (2005), modalities in context are vehicles for specific information, and this is why it is scientifically relevant to look at the multimodality of communication patterns in critical judgements. In dance, sonifications, which are a type of verbal sound, convey the dynamic of the moves, while touch has a more structural function of transmiting the grips, and marking, a very interesting “hidden” modality, projects the moves into the body (Kirsh et al, 2017). We can thus apply here the concept of incremental information developed by Khodyakov (2014) in his analysis of conductor–musicians relationships in an orchestra. In order to give legitimacy to conductors that come and go, orchestra musicians demand concretion in the conductor’s instructions. We will see how the choreographer, like the conductor, is responsible for translating this communicative modalities in the dance studio. One way of making the information flow specific enough is for the choreographer to translate from the visual to sound and other modalities, such as distributed marking. In Muntanyola & Kirsh (2010) you can find a detailed acccount of marking as a relevant modality in dance. In Muntanyola- 294 Saura (2015) and Muntanyola-Saura & Sanchez-Garcia (2018) we make the case for distributed marking in synchronized swimming and aikido. Moreover, the sharing of perceptual information conveys a shared sense of agency. Nöe (2015, p. 10) goes beyond intersubjective consensus and claims that seeing (and all kinds of perception) is the organized activity of achieving access to the world around us. The joint interpretation of a dance instruction means living through a vivid present together, by experiencing this togetherness as a “We” (Schutz, 1967). The social organization of artistic practice emerges in observation of particular interactions. Nöe takes choreography as an example of an organized activity. Our theoretical stance claims that artistic skill is a pragmatic outcome of observed patterns of interaction that are social but not yet communicative. Cognition becomes a by-product of the individual’s cognitive needs together with its immediate physical environment. Our holistic claim is thus not new in sociology of the arts (Durkheim, Goffman, Garfinkel, Bourdieu, Becker). Still, as recent publications such as Artistic Practices (Zembylas, 2014) puts forward, there are few studies that put together the all well-known claims of microsociology with those of contemporary cognitive science, in what is has been call an integrated social sciences model Cosmides & Tooby (2013). In terms of projection, finding the right grip in dance is a complex result of a situated action. Situated cognition (Kirsh, 1995), distributed cognition (Hutchins, 2005) embodied cognition (Gibbs, 2006) and cognitive ethnography (Muntanyola-Saura, 2014b), acknowledges this. Communication, as a product of the coordination mechanisms of joint attention, is clearly multimodal (Muntanyola-Saura, 2012). In artistic settings, we find studies on dance and music (Muntanyola & Kirsh, 2010; Keevalik, 2010). Listening as a skill is an outcome of multimodal communication in the studio. As one of the dancers in Muntanyola-Saura (2015b) puts forward, what helps memorizing is keep moving and trusting your partner is there with you. Listening means being a good partner, that is respondent and present in the moment, so that there is a shared awareness of time and space. 3. Methods We developed a cognitive ethnography of a dance rehearsal. Cognitive ethnography is a type of ethnography that studies of the situational nature of cognition. In the specific artistic context, our minimal unit of analysis is the social interaction among dancers and the choreographer. Individual actions cannot be fully understood without taking account the social context of the dance studio. Following De Jaegher, Di Paolo & Gallagher (2010), we define training sessions as a bundle of social interactions. We collected data through observation in December 2014 of four weeks of rehearsal in London of the piece ATOMOS by the word-class neoclassic company Wayne McGregor- Random Dance, residents at Sadlers Wells Theater. As part of the project directed by David Kirsh, from the department of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) we filmed the rehearsals, took pictures and conducted structured interviews with the dancers. Interviews contributed to understanding the frame of the interaction from the subjective point of view of the rehearsal participants, through the complementary use of visual perception, digital video observation and interviews, allow us to describe and analyze the communicative and interactive patterns of work at a micro level. 295 6.2. Distributed cognition in dance: Artistic skills in social interaction We applied ELAN analytical software for small-scale micro interactions (Max Plank Institute for Sociolinguistics) as an analytical tool for multimodality. ELAN ® was originally developed by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics for the analysis of micro-gestures and interactions. Unlike Atlas.ti or InVivo, Elan favors the simultaneous encoding of various aspects of the process, by including the whole video, without fragmentation. Therefore, it is more suitable for classification of movement, while admitting the transcription of narratives and interactions. Excel field notes taken during the process helped in the transcription of communicative events. In a second step, we selectively exported to Excel the interactions’ content in order to statistically account for modality types. Successive rounds of inductive coding were applied to pinpoint the most relevant set of cues and criteria used for event classification. We followed Jeffersonian conventions as applied in Conversation Analysis (Sacks et al, 1979) included in figure 6.2.1 together with a screen-shot of ELAN. Figure 6.2.1 – Jeffersonian Transcript Conventions and screenshot of ELAN software for Conversation Analysis Source: Dafne Muntanyola-Saura. 4. Results and discussion We reduced the complexity of the analysis by choosing a set of specific steps from a rehearsal and maintaining the naturalistic setting of observation. The selected dance phrase from 16 December 2014 is a typical configuration of a triadic relationship between a duet of dancers and the choreographer. The central dancers are the reference for the choreographer, and form a 296 triangle with him, in a specific spatial configurance that remains stable across the dance instructional process (see Kirsh et al, 2016 for a detailed account of how the choreographer and the dancers position their bodies in space). The female dancer (FM) and male dancer (MD) are the center of attention, and the rest of the dancers (we include duet C & J in the analysis) follow them. This is an example of making, a type of instruction analyzed in Kirsh et al (2016). In the phrase we transcribe here, the dancers forget a specific grip. Not only the duet, but the whole company is momentarily bound together in a sequence of movements until the situation is resolved, efficiently or non-efficiently. Figure 6.2.2 – Multimodal Distribution of instructions Source: Dafne Muntanyola-Saura. Figure 6.2.2 shows the presence of different modalities in the sequence of interactions during the rehearsed phrase. Speech dominates, followed by marking and joint attention, which involves doing the moves full out, that is, dancing together. The percentages go over a 100% since the communicative actions overlap, as we will show in the excerpt of Conversation Analysis. The data collected shows us how the choreographer is present in modalities, specially in space management, one of the observed skills in choreography (Figure 6.2.3). When spacing is critical, Wayne McGregor embodies the moves of the other dancer and alignes with them, as we see in figure 3. This is a form of multimodal translation that contributes to the incremental concretion (Khodyakov, 2014) of instruction. In Figure 6.2.3, the choreographer gestures, touching his right leg first, and pointing with her right hand later, to clarify visually verbal instructions that refer to the female dancer’s legs. The music is loud, the dancers are French and gestures are frequent. The choreographer give dancers resources that he has at hand. He uses terms such as energy, movement, velocity, the gaze, actions and texture, as collected in our fiednotes. The dancers and the choreographer also work with distributed marking (Figure 6.2.3), which appears in Figure 6.2.2 as distributed cognition. Marking is a cognitive strategy common to dancers and athletes, and also musicians and other embodied artists, which allows them to communicate moves without doing the full thing, selecting aspects such as weight, speed, direction or dynamics. 297 6.2. Distributed cognition in dance: Artistic skills in social interaction Figure 6.2.3 – Modalities at work: multimodal translation through gesture, visual perception, speech and embodiment (top 3a-3b), and marking, with the dancers’ full out left and the choreographer’s large marking right) (bottom 3c-3d) Source: Dafne Muntanyola-Saura. We will present our findings in three excerpts of Conversation Analysis (Figure 6.2.4, 6.2.5 & 6.2.6). In figure 6.2.4, the dancers forget a specific grip. FD & MD learn a specific grip and repeat it 3 times (0-40s). The participants of rehearsal agree upon the ongoing activity through the same frame (Goffman, 1974). Then FD fails to stand in position and en pointe, and MD uses the wrong arm to hold her hip. The dancers FD and MD repeat up to eight times the grip with the right hand, they get stuck and the error consolidates (0’40-1’54s). The dynamics of partnering indicates a level of distributed cognition at the level of perception. FD & MD are figuring out the grip by joint attention and translating one modality to another (marking, touch, gesture, speech, gaze). W in that action FM& MD F 15 ull Out C looks at the conflicting grip and marks it Interruption because the dancers don´t know how to do the grip 25 FD No no don´t put the elbow like this promenade promenade cmon W promenade WHOOM (sonification) thats it 298 W marks left finger turns C marks her right arm 35 C & Jfull out but with the wrong grip (left arm instead of right) FM stops at the conflicting grip 40 MD & FD marking MD marks right arm while FD grabs his hand 45 MD it is there that I went to grab it MJ ah no MD & FD marking a second time Marking 3rd time MD marking elbow instead 55 FD no ..no laughs Marking 4th time, MD joke gesture Marking 5th time, FD positions MD arm, and she positions hers and tries to grab his hand 60 MD wait Marking 6th and 7th MD marking right arm, FD grabs his hand FM Put your elbow like before, the hand like this, voilà 70 W approaches smiling FD positions MD hand, mark it and get stuck again, and when they stop FD laughs at W Figure 6.2.4 - Excerpt 1 of Conversation Analysis FD is an expert compared to MD because of longer years of training and artistic recognition: she is a dnaseuse étoile from the Paris Opera, and he is member of the corps de ballet. She has the upper hand in the verbal exchange and proposes multiple times functional solutions that she performs directly on the MD body. The way for FD to know if it the right grip is by touching and grabing the hand, by feeling the pressure. Her negative indicates that it doesn´t feel right. Having a shared optimal grip of the world, in joint attention, comings with shared agency, feeling at ease with their bodies and that of 299 6.2. Distributed cognition in dance: Artistic skills in social interaction others. This is a desirable outcome in the context of dance making, since feeling good is one of the products of stable conditions of interaction. We can thus describe the process of finding the right grip in terms of incremental information: multimodality requires concretion in order to maintain these feeling of shared agency. 120 MD keeps holding the right arm in position FM No like this it is classic FM I don’t have a grip...MD(The arm) It is behind... FD not it is not behind (They skip the conflicting step, and they also to the next grip wrong, right arm instead of right) FD shakes her head C & J mark the step with the left arm 130 The’re stuck (comment of the researcher) W so you’ve got one you’ve got from this you gotta turn 140 W embodies marking left finger turn, in line with FD 150 MD ((…)). FD and you put the hand how? The hand how? I think I did it like this W and then turn, and then turn MD marks right arm, FM turns his hand, W moves their bodies, they repeat the grip, FD looks at W Figure 6.2.5 - Excerpt 2 of Conversation Analysis Source: Dafne Muntanyola-Saura. In further iterations in Figure 6.2.5, the reference dancers marks the conflicting grip (1’55-3’00s). We see how the interative and interactive sequence that we just described deteriorates. The turn, the shape of the arm and the mechanics of the grip are all wrong. FD & MD end up skipping the conflicting 300 step and using the wrong arm to perform the following step, expanding the mistake along the phrase. At this point the choreographer’s steps in and recalls the turn they skipped by marking it with the whole body. He manages spaces and lines up his body with that of the dancers, to increase clarity. It appears that the modality of embodied instruction appears when the choreographer wants to make sure the dancers understand what he is conveying in detail. Both the expert dancer (FD) and the choreographer use specific balletic turns to judge the fitness of the steps. The former judges the grip MD is proposing as wrong because it belongs to a classic vocabulary, while the company works with neoballetic thus contemporary forms. The latter focuses on the structure of the phrases and keeps them going, so that they mark again the wrong step they had previously skipped. Participants of the interaction are applying typifications in speech shared by all members of the company. These are instances of shared typifications that culturally structure and organize the observed interaction in the studio. The dynamics of partnering in Figure 6.2.4 and 6.2.5 already indicates a level of distributed cognition at the level of perception. FD & MD are figuring out the grip by point attention and translating one modality to another (marking, touch, gesture, speech, gaze). W this is just a turn MD PAPAPAPA W you’re not clear FD no but its ok...yeah strange that arm 240 They mark the turn, MD MMM sonification, W looks at C&J W how do you hold it? W points at C & J 250 C & J show the step with left arm W noo he would not do that, its the same arm, the same shape FM marking the MD arm to communicate shape 301 6.2. Distributed cognition in dance: Artistic skills in social interaction W it was really lovely from here, it was kind of W marks the grip with right arm 270 FM It was filmed right? (to O) W you filmed it O? W embodies FD and marks the grip with MD MD holds the marked right arm walking to the camera 280 Figure 6.2.6 - Excerpt 3 of Conversation Analysis Source: Dafne Muntanyola-Saura. In figure 6.2.7, the central dancers cannot seem to get the right grip, so the choreographer changes his attention no another perceptual reference (3’016’00). He turns towards the peripherical dancers in the background, and by pointing to the C & J duet, asks them how they did it to perform the step. As anticipated in Figure 6.2.4, Line 35, and Figure 6.2.5, line 130, C&J have been doing full out and marking the conflicting step with the dancer J left arm, which is wrong, as stated by the choreographer verbally at the end of Figure 6.2.6. The choreographer uses a culturally shaped qualifier again, an esthetical verbal judgement (lovely), to give value to the particular grip that they are all trying to figure out. He proceeds to mark the grip with his right arm, the shape of it (again another loaded term within ballet culture), and then embodies the grip taking the place of the female dancer and with the male dancer as the partner. The fact that he chooses this modality and manages the space getting so close to the dancer as to touch him breaks the dominant triangle that defines the instructional triad, as stated at the beginning of this section, and shows the salience of this particular grip. As a closure for the selected phrase, an episode of distributed memory takes place. The FD asks the assistant for the filmed rehearsal, and they all go watch it. The choreographer also formulates the question to O, and all three move towards the camera. Here it is interesting how the male dancer keeps holding his right arm in position, as a reminder or maybe as a claim that he indeed remembers the right grip and that he will be able to compare it with the video screen. This excerpt shows instances of distributed memory together with the skills of multimodal translation, embodied incremental information and space management. 302 5. Conclusion The analysis of artistic practice starts with social interaction. The Conversation Analysis of excerpts from this cognitive ethnography of a dance rehearsal shows how distributed cognition is an efficient account of the social organization of dance rehearsal. Rehearsals are made of indexical conversations. Video aided observation visiblizes communication. It has proved to be useful in finding structural accounts of expert creativity that depend not only on the agents’ intentional behavior, but also on the social field that structure the observed environment. This paper makes visible what really happens when dancers act as experts in the field, within joint attention and a culturally defined normative frame. First, we show evidence for the multimodal composition of the rehearsal’s communicative patterns. Second, we locate incremental concretion, marking and space management as examples of artistic skills. Third, we show how these skills, part of distributed cognition, go through the interactive process of multimodal translation and shared agency. Thus, multimodal translation is a type of artistic skill. Fourth, artists judge their practice in terms of joint agency. They filter and share their experiences in the moment. The dancers solve the problem (getting the grip) by distributed awareness of a cognitive goal and the sharing of information in joint attention. Fifth, tactile modalities (embodiment/ marking) provide feeling & flow. Joint agency is based on shared frames of legitimate conversation between the choreographer and the dancers. Artistic judgement (what to do and what not to do) is a socially defined principle of conversation. In all, artistic interactions are sequentially ordered in time, finely tuned for coordination, and are the basis for distributed cognition. The naturalistic studio setting provides evidence for distributed cognition in dance making. Social interaction happening in the studio is pre-communicative and multimodal These pragmatic products of interaction become goals for intersubjective interaction if, and only if, they rely on of shared and public meanings. The participants of rehearsal agree upon the ongoing activity through the same frame. In words of cognitive sociologist Cicourel (2002, p. 15) the inferences and/ or judgments that we form progressively on interactions are transformed in structural accounts. Such structural accounts include the established and functional use of language, as well as assumptions about the organizational constrictions and expectances. In that sense, artistic skills are distributed across dancers and choreographers that listen to each other. They are part of a higher level of organized activity. Beyond the atomization of the dancers bodies and the choreographer’s brain, interaction is taken as the key unit of artistic skill. References Alac, M. (2005). From Trash to treasure: learning about brain images through multimodality. Semiotica, 156(1/4), pp. 177-202. Alac, M. (2017). We like to talk about smell: A worldly take on language, sensory experience, and the Internet. Semiotica, 215, pp. 143–192. Berger, P. & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality. New York: Anchor Books. Cicourel, A. V. (2002). The Interaction of discourse, cognition and culture. Discourse Studies, 8(1), pp. 25-29. 303 6.2. Distributed cognition in dance: Artistic skills in social interaction Clark, A. (1998). Supersizing the mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clark, A. (2008). Pressing the flesh: A tension in the study of the embodied, embedded mind. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 76(1), pp. 37-59. Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2013). Evolutionary psychology: New perspectives on cognition and motivation. American Review of Psychology, 64, pp. 201-229. Damasio, A. (1999). The Feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. New York: Harcourt Brace. De Jaegher, H., Di Paolo, E. & S. Gallagher, S. (2010). Can social interaction constitute social cognition? Trends in cognitive sciences, 14(10), pp. 441-447. DeNora, T. (2014). Making sense of reality: Culture and perception in everyday life. London: Sage. Dennet, D. (1987). The Intentional stance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Dreyfus, H L. & Dreyfus, S. (1986). Mind over machine. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Dreyfus, H L. (1998). The current relevance of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment. The Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy, 4, pp. 375-378. Fele, G. (2016). Il paradosso del gusto. Societàmutamentopolitica, 7(14), pp. 151-174. Gibbs, R.W. (2006). Embodiment and cognitive science. New York: Cambridge University Press. Gallese V; Keysers C. & Rizzolatti, G. (2004). A unifying view of the basis of social cognition, Trends in Cognitive Science, 8, pp. 396–403. Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday. Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Goffman, E. (1982). Interaction ritual. New York: Random House. Henrich, J., Heine, S J. & Norenzayan, A. (2010). Most people are not WEIRD, Nature, 466(7302), p. 29. Hennion, A. (2005). Pragmatics of taste. In M. Jacobs & N. Hanrahan (Eds), The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Culture (pp. 131-144). Oxford: Blackwell. Hutchins, E. (2005). Material anchors for conceptual blends. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(10), pp. 145-172. Khodyakov, D. (2014). Getting in tune: A qualitative analysis of guest conductor– musicians relationships in symphony orchestras, Poetics, 44, pp. 64–83. Keevallik, L. (2010). Bodily quoting in dance correction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 43(4), pp. 401-426. Kirsh, D. Muntanyola, D., Lew, A., Jao, J. & Sugihara, M. (2016). Choreographic methods for creating novel, high quality dance, ACCELERANDO: Belgrade Journal of Music and Dance, 1, pp. 188-195. Kirsh, D. (1995). The intelligent use of space. Artificial intelligence, 73(1-2), pp. 31-68. Mondada, L. (2014). Instructions in the operating room: How the surgeon directs their assistant’s hands. Discourse Studies,16(2), pp. 131-161. Muntanyola-Saura, D. (2014a). A cognitive account of expertise: Why Rational Choice Theory is (often) a fiction. Theory & Psychology, 24, pp. 19-39. Muntanyola, D. (2014b). How multimodality shapes creative choice in dance. Revista Internacional de Sociología, 72(3), pp. 563-582. Muntanyola-Saura, D. (2015a). Distributed marking in sport corrections: A conversation analysis of synchronized swimming. Journal of Cognitive Science, 16(3), pp. 339-355. Muntanyola-Saura, D. (2015b). Partnering in dance rehearsals: The place of listening and rhythm. Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa, 8(3), pp. 429-452. 304 Muntanyola, D. & Kirsh, D. (2010). Marking as physical thinking: A cognitive ethnography of dance. In Proceedings of the IWCogSc-10 ILCLI International Workshop on Cognitive Science (pp. 339-355). San Sebastián: Donosti Universitea. Muntanyola-Saura, D. and Sánchez-García, R. (2018). Distributed attention: A cognitive ethnography of instruction in sport settings. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 48(4), pp. 433-454. Nöe, A. (2004). Action in perception. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Nöe, A. (2015). Strange tools: Art and human nature. New York: Hill and Yang. Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. & Jefferson, G. (1978). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. In J. Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction. Academic Press: New York. Schütz, A. (1962). Collected papers. The problem of social reality. The Hague: Maurice Natanson, Phaenomenologica. Schütz, A. (1967). The Phenomenology of the social world. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. Schütz, A. (1971). Making music together: A study in social relationships. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. Searle, J. R. (2010). Cognitivism. Unpublished Lecture Notes. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley. Vera, H. (2016). An Interview with Peter L. Berger: Chamber music at a rock concert. Cultural Sociology, 10(1), pp. 21-29. Williams, R. (1985). Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society. New York: Oxford University Press. Zembylas, T. (Ed.) (2014). Artistic practices. Social interactions and cultural dynamics. Abingdon: Routledge. 305 6.3. The self-sustainable world of Shahzia Sikander Conceição Cordeiro 143 A b s t r a c t This paper aims to put into perspective the need to create a feminine figure. A flat figure, in black in most works (drawing and painting), a shadow which is present in some of the works of the artist Shahzia Sikander (1969, Pakistan), and considered by Fereshteh Daftari as an alter ego, as the representation of self-feeding and self-survival: a woman who generates and feeds on her own energy, in a will to safeguard her own identity (self-sustainability). Shahzia Sikander is a diaspora artist and her works presents hybrid qualities, in a process of reconciliation between the West and the East. Her work is influenced by Hindu mythology, by Mughal’s miniature paintings and by Western artists like Sigmar Polke, amongst others. As a woman born in a Muslim territory, Pakistan, Shahzia Sikander takes us to places/spaces where the delicacy and fluidity of the Mughal miniature painting is significant, a presence felt even in her digital animation work, consisting of several layers, in a palimpsest process. Her work questions the issues of gender, religion, hierarchy, Western and Eastern culture, from a perspective of dialogue and numerous solutions. Keywords: Painting, hybridity, alter ego, identity, culture. 143 Portalegre Polytechnic Institute - School of Education and Social Sciences. University of Lisbon - Faculty of Fine Arts. E-mail: [email protected]. 306 1. Shahzia Sikander’s first works Regarding the work Perilous Order (1994-1997)144 by Shahzia Sikander, Fereshteh Daftari writes: A pure invention of Sikander’s hovers in the lower centre: the shadowy silhouette of a female figure, perhaps an alter ego, with roots in place of feet – inter-connected roots that absorb energy only from themselves, suggesting that this woman is selfnourishing. (Daftari, 2006, p. 14) This text resonates again and again as we approach the work of Shahzia Sikander. Throughout her work this image of a headless woman with feet transformed into strings, navel-strings, which provide the circulation of vital elements for existence, essential for self-sufficiency, arises frequently. Shahzia Sikander (1969), born in Pakistan, now living in New York, recognised internationally as a re-inventor/translator of miniature Persian paintings. She began this artistic process of study and reinterpretation of indo-persian miniature painting after studying Mughal miniature paintings (sixteen to nineteen century), at the Lahore National College of Art, Pakistan (1992). Already in the U.S.A., she took a master’s degree from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), in 1995. Her prolific work has altered within the miniature painting process and the production of digital animated projections of large scale. We sought to trace the development of this feminine silhouette, which accompanies Sikander’s work, created in the 1990s, until 2016. 1.1. Shahzia Sikander and her alter ego The work Untitled (1993)145, as shown on Shahzia Sikander’s webpage, corresponds to a pictorial vocabulary created during her studies at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Shahzia Sikander: I made this work in 1993-94, many moons as a young female artist saddened at the lack of women representation in the arts and the constant expunging of the feminine by all sorts of disrespect and fear of the female146. 144 We can see this work in Shahzia Sikander, Catalogue of exhibition held March 8-April 19 of the Renaissance Society, 1999, In 1998, Homi Bhabha interviewed Shahzia Sikander, in which he asks her about this female form. H.Bhabha (...) Sometimes you have a Durga figure or a Kali figure, a destructive character from Hindu pantheon. And then again, uncannily shadowing it and doubling it will be a veiled form. (...) plate 7. Retrieved 20 April 2018 from https://pt.scribd.com/document/82892166/Shahzia-Sikander. 145 The work Untitled, gouache on board, 12 x 24 inches, 1993. Appears titled as A Slight and Pleasing Dislocation, 1993, in the solo exhibition Shahzia Sikander: Apparatus of Power, 2016, at the Asia Society Hong Kong Cen- S. Sikander: For instance, the red, floating female form with the loops at the bottom. It evolved over those yellow tissue drawings. It was very much about how the pigment sits on the paper, and tre. We can see the same form Untitled in the catalogue of the Renaissance Society, 1999, plate 1. 146 shahzia.sikander, Instagram (30 October 2017). 307 6.3. The self-sustainable world of Shahzia Sikander in that respect the form began as a set of very painterly marks. When I did these drawings in graduate school, I was asked if I had seen Eva Hesse’s work, Nancy Spero’s work. Obviously, these were references outside the tradition of miniature painting. Sure, I looked at their work. But I was trying to generate forms not for the sake of making art historical references, but simply at the level of experimentation with materials and process. I then subjected those forms to the experience making miniatures, subjecting them to detail, definition – accessorizing, ornamentalizing, and decorating them. I started adding things to the floating figure. Where there were feet, I substituted with root forms. I was obsessed with interconnections and the idea of being self-contained, not rooted in any one context. Obviously this was a large part of my experience at RISD (Bhabha, 1999, pp. 18-19). The pictorial vocabulary that gives rise to the female figure of Untitled brings together the feminine Hindu mythology, with the works of feminist artists such as Eva Hesse and Nancy Spero. A newcomer to the United States of America and still a student of RISD (1993), Sikander proposes with this vocabulary the affirmation of what it is to be a Muslim woman in a Western country. Sikander’s firm resolution to remain attached to the Hindu-Persian miniature painting, traditionally transmitted through a male language, which dominated this pictorial process, results in this female figure without a head, or sometimes with a veil and whose feet are replaced by strings that join the two legs, in a process of self-sufficiency, as she herself states in the interview with Homi Bhabha. It is possible to visualize this pictorial vocabulary in a video of 2000, where the form to which we refer materializes with ink on paper, where Sikander exposes: A lot of images that exist in my work were happening because I was interested in subverting Hindu with Muslim and Muslim with Hindu. Having grown up as a Muslim in Pakistan I didn’t have that much information about Hindu mythology and when I came here I realized that these were the things which still interested me, and I was looking at the idea of the Hindu goddess, but it didn’t matter how many hands it had, just the notion that it was the female body with several hands was important (…). In 2013, Hilarie Sheets (2013) establishes the relation of this feminine form and the works of the Cuban / American artist Ana Mendieta: ‘It was about a form afloat and uprooted’, says Sikander, who felt a kinship with Ana Mendieta’s bodyworks. Her signature nomadic silhouette has reappeared in many finished works, sometimes like a 308 spectre feminizing the head of a Mughal courtier, sometimes joined with the multi-armed Hindu goddess brandishing an array of weapons and wearing a veil, like a cross-cultural female superhero. In the works Who’s Veiled Anyway (1994-97)147 and Separate Working Things II (1993-95)148 we can see from the lower left side of the frame, small figures as they exercise the formulation of the final form: woman standing with veil, woman with feet in shape of strings with veil, woman with strings replacing the shape of the head. In the upper left corner, the same shape is just outlined, not filled. These works result from a reworking, over previous works, where the white and blue colour of the ink, erase parts of the frame, as she explicitly states: I remove all the colour and took the white and that white became as an editing tool, but as I placed the white on top of the veil archetypal forms figure that I created a prototype of sort, but it got hijacked completely by issues around identity and I was very interesting to see that there was so much fluctuation in what one was doing. At the same time there was this kind of a graffiti’s gesture which broke the preciousness of this object which was something that I was very eager to engage in, also plus it was the androgynous notion of the self. They’re not necessarily just the gender in terms of male/female (Sikander, 2017). Regarding the representation of the veil, Shahzia Sikander, in the interview, recently mentioned (1999), with Homi Bhabha, she explains: Even for me such thing as the veil, which I use a lot in my work, remains exotic. It is a charged and provocative stereotype. The first time I put it in my work, everyone reacted strongly. Why? It is not a question of what kind of meaning the image is transmitting but what kind of meaning the viewer is projecting. I actually wore a veil, for a brief period of time, for the purpose of recording people’s reactions. I would go to the grocery store and to the bar, and people would get confused and intimidated. Obviously, for me, it was just the opposite. Nobody could see my body language or facial expression. That gave me more control, security, and articulation. (Bhabha, 1999, p. 24). In the 2000 video, Shahzia Sikander (2000) clarifies the placement of the veil on these female figures: The goddess had a very specific face and here I was tripping off the face, and putting like a headdress like the veil on top of it, and yet, the veil is on 147 We can see this work in the catalogue of the Renaissance Society, 1999, plate 20. 148 We can see this work in the catalogue of the Renaissance Society, 1999, plate 18. 309 6.3. The self-sustainable world of Shahzia Sikander top of her, in the goddess, not to underestimate what’s behind the veil. The minute you bring the word veil into the equation it kind of connects you to a Muslim identity or a woman’s identity and these are loaded issues to take on, because anything associated with Islam is either terrorism or oppression for women. Culturally it’s not, you know, my experience. The goddess, the archetype, the form emerged as self-affirmation and selfsustainability, now appears to us on a higher projected scale where support is infinite and weapons become swift, as in Unseen at The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art (2008), and at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2012). Shahzia Sikander (2014) defends this project thus: Another project which is part of the exhibition on view here was done in Shangri-la at The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, the large scale projections were done at night and they were an attempt to engage with the site itself. My ongoing interest in the colonial history of the subcontinent functioned as a portal into the space. Some of the projections work as framing devices that expose elements of landscape hidden at night, while also extending the architecture itself like the wall of the living room that descends to open the house to the environment. The projections erect an invisible wall rising high above the architecture hoisted by the density of the trees, while transforming the space. The projections also recontextualized my own ideas by shifting the scale of the drawings and rendering them in foliage and architecture. Light and shadow take centre stage highlighting the textures colours and geometry of the space into a theatre of light evolving into a dimension that is sculptural illusionistic and temporary imagining Doris Duke. It was how I grasped the stunning sight. Her presence was everywhere permeating her collections, her house and its extensions into nature. The projection of the multi-armed female is a metaphor for Doris Duke herself mythical majestic monument rising from the Mughals suite looming over Shangri-la, overlooking the formidable Pacific where her ashes were sprinkled (…). The work Untitled appears in 2016, in the exhibition / catalogue Shahzia Sikander: Apparatus of Power, at the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre, with the designation of A Slight and Pleasing Dislocation. In the interview of Allison Young (2016) to the curator of the exhibition Claire Brandon, it states: In contrast, A Slight and Pleasing Dislocation isolates a singular shape: a flesh-coloured female 310 figure that floats on top a black background. Its carefully articulated legs elide with structures shaped like whisks, and a series of curved lines encircle a heavily-bosomed torso. A powerful and haunting stand-alone image, A Slight and Pleasing Dislocation functions as an isolated study in Sikander’s signature vocabulary of images. The form has since had a long life in many of her subsequent works, including Eye-I-ing Those Armorial Bearings (1989–97), Perilous Order (1989–97), and Elusive Realities (2000) (Brandon in Young, 2016). Further in the same interview, we can read: As Sikander’s practice expanded to encompass other media—including drawings on walls, tissues, and windows, as well as the digital realm—this figure grew in size, making its way onto the wall in 1997 at the Drawing Centre in New York. In that exhibition, the figure was repeated several times in different variations, sometimes oriented horizontally or flanked on both sides by multiple arms clutching knife like weapons. This armed version appeared in Sikander’s first animation, Intimacy (2001). That same year, the figure was included in the top register of the print Heist from the series No Parking Anytime. The way in which the figure in A Slight and Pleasing Dislocation has taken on new meanings in works spanning multiple media, geographic contexts, and visual variations since 1993, demonstrates what Sikander has called an ‘apparatus of power’. This visual device refers to the potential of a given image to communicate differently depending on its context and format. In following the life of this image, we see that the ‘apparatus of power’ is sensitive and responsive to time (Brandon in Young, 2016). 149 We can read a note at the web page of Princeton Museum collec- In 2016, the Princeton Museum collection, from Princeton University, USA, is enriched by the work Untitled149, which integrates a series of works entitled Ecstasy as Sublime, Heart as Vector, in glass and ceramics fixed to the wall on the landing of stairs, the same signature of Shahzia Sikander, the same form and symbolism we have been following, and for which Shahzia Sikander has the following explanation: tion: Ecstasy as Sublime, Heart as Vector spans the four stories of stairs in the Louis A. Simpson International Building. This shimmering, sixty-sixfoot-high, glass and ceramic scroll takes visitors on a journey from the mortal bonds of humanity to the realm of abstraction, integrating A very signature image for me is the feminine form that has roots – rather than feet – but does not have a head. The idea of the female divinity was very present within a complex system. That’s been expunged from so many cultures and religions and the headless form – for me, a beheading – emphasizes the removal of the feminine.150 elements from diverse cultures, faiths, and the artist’s personal iconography. The fourth image at this gallery is the work we refer at Princeton Museum collection. 150 shahzia.sikander, Instagram (7 April 2017). This work as the comment we transcribe below. Excerpt from Interview @brooklynrail. 311 6.3. The self-sustainable world of Shahzia Sikander 2. Concluding notes Shahzia Sikander presents herself as an artist of the transnational movement, of the movement of artists who combine cultures with different origins, in a hybrid process, defended by Homi Bhabha as a process that originates the third space, a space where cultures combine new structures of authority, new political initiatives, which are inadequately understood through the knowledge received (Rutherford, 1990, p. 211). Faithful to her origins, Shahzia Sikander challenges the programmatic construction of patriarchal teaching to assert herself as a self-sustainable woman who gives voice to female knowledge and empowerment. References Bhabha, H. (1999). Chillava Klatch: Shahzia Sikander Interviewed by Homi Bhabha. In Sikander S., Catalogue of exhibition held March 08 to April 19 at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 1998. Chicago, IL: Renaissance Society, University of Chicago. Bhabha, H. (2006). Another country. In Frankel D. (Ed.), Without boundary: seventeen ways of looking (pp. 30-35). New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Daftari, F. (2006). Islamic or not. In Frankel D. (Ed.), Without boundary: seventeen ways of looking (pp. 10-27). New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Rutherford, J. (1990). The Third Space. Interview with Homi Bhbha. In Rutherford J. (Ed.), Identity: Community, Culture, Difference (pp. 207-221). London: Lawrence and Wishart. Sheets, H. M. (2013, April). Shahzia Sikander: Maximalist Miniatures. Artnews. Retrieved from: http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/15/shahzia-sikander-maximalist-miniatures/. Sikander, S. (2000). Shahzia Sikander. Retrieved from: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qWI8VinqU0. Sikander, S. (2014). Shahzia Sikander: Drawing Ideas. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf_x7WhCZro. Sikander, S. (2017). Presentation. SAI 6th annual symposium – “Migrations and Transformations”, Cambridge, Harvard University South Asia Institute. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvqQEyq2KOY. Young, A. (2016). Interview with Claire Brandon, Curator of Shahzia Sikander: Apparatus of Power. Shift. Retrieved from: http://shiftjournal. org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SHIFT_Claire-Brandon.pdf. 312 6.4. Contemporary artistic manifestations: Agenda, mapping and territoriality Susana Januário 151 and Paula Guerra 152 A b s t r a c t The changes that have taken place in the artistic world in Portugal – since the 1980s – are materialize in manifestations that translate, in general terms, the democratization of culture and culturalization of society. These manifestations emerge and break with established logics that result in new forms of creation/ mediation/reception/conventions/canonizations. Our research focuses on these manifestations that namely take form of new do-it-yourself logics and work practices, in which artists/creators take over the role of producers/managers; and manifestations in which the position that gatekeepers and the processes to build reputations is central to promote these activities. Based on the analysis of content produced by a set of media (last ten years), it has been designed a territorial agenda of these artistic manifestations, which allows us to understand the incidence of these manifestations in the national territory and the emergence of new hegemonies in the Portuguese “cultural/artistic agenda” and the consequent processes of creation/mediation/reception/canonization. Keywords: Alternative artistic manifestations, territory, cultural/artistic/ creative agenda. 151 University of Porto - Faculty of Arts and Humanities. University of Porto - Institute of Sociology and KISMIF Executive Committee. E-mail: [email protected]. 152 University of Porto – Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Institute of Sociology – University of Porto. CEGOT and CITCEM - Transdisciplinary Research Centre «Culture, Space and Memory». Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. KISMIF Convenor. E-mail: [email protected]. 313 6.4. Contemporary artistic manifestations: Agenda, mapping and territoriality 1. Introduction The changes that have taken place in the artistic world in Portugal – since the 1980s – are materialize in manifestations that translate, in general terms, the democratization of culture, culturalization of society and artistic cosmopolitanism. Initially explained and understood as alternatives and/or underground, these diverse manifestations emerge and break with established logics that result in new forms of creation/mediation/reception/conventions/ canonizations (Jürgens, 2016). This presentation is based on the research process initiated under the PhD program in Sociology. The research project focuses on these complex and reticular manifestations based on pluralism, experimentation, eclecticism and transdisciplinarity. Its symbolic strength derives from the fact that they are new forms of cultural authority (cultural turn, according to Chaney, 1994) that reverse the traditional ones (class/community/tradition). Based on the analysis of content produced, in the last ten years, by a set of media considered relevant in relation to cultural/artistic production/ mediation/dissemination, it has been designed a territorial agenda of these artistic manifestations. Its interpretation allows us to understand, on the one hand, the incidence of these manifestations in the national territory (location/ spatial density) and, on the other hand, the emergence of new hegemonies in the Portuguese “cultural and artistic agenda” and the consequent processes of creation/mediation/reception/canonization (See Bennett & Guerra, 2019). Thus, what we are sharing at the moment is a cartography of dynamics that allows us to construct a preliminary mapping of the artistic manifestations under study. Our research – ARTOPIA. Paths, intersections and circumstances of urban artistic manifestations of alternative character in contemporary Portugal – was planned in five fundamental phases, which seek not only to reflect the regular reflexive/recursive effort of the sociological practice, as they try to allude to the artistic creative process, which justifies precisely their designation: 1. From the Impulse to the Maturation; 2. From Sketch to Materialization; 3. From Rediscovery to Contemplation; 4. From Presentation to Sharing and 5. From Signs to Exhibit. This presentation follows the logic of this terminology, although adapted to this specific subject. 2. Preliminary impulses of creation: presentation The manifestations we are studying – which we can point out in the binomial culture vs. popular culture (Santos, 1988) – break with established logics of creation, mediation, reception, conventions and canonizations (Jürgens, 2016). These complex and reticular manifestations could take form of: (i) initiatives that are based on the notion of artistic relational density and agglomeration of stakeholders (Costa, 2002; Fortuna & Leite, 2009; Silva et al, 2013); (ii) new do-it-yourself (DIY) logics and work practices, in which artists/creators take over the role of producers/managers; (iii) manifestations in which the role that gatekeepers and the processes to build reputations is central to promote these activities (Silva et al, 2013, 2015); (iv) scenes that are inscribed in urban territory, a space of confluence of different worlds of art and culture (Crane et al, 2002; Thornton, 2009). 314 These artistic manifestations represent significant social relational spaces, that is a social subfield (Bourdieu, 1996, 2003; Guerra, 2015) with relevance and increasing densification, where artistic production/diffusion/reception conditions must be understood and interpreted as an artworld (Becker, 1984, 2007) and in a heterogeneous and segmented urban cultural context (Crane, 1992; Crane et al, 2002). Although these manifestations have been traversed by distinct organizational genesis, they operate in networks of access control and recognition in the art world and they provide new careers and actors in the national artistic value chain with an organic territorial translation (scenes) (Bennet & Peterson, 2004; Pais, 2010; Straw, 1991). Some of these spaces/ scenes provide important cores of conviviality (and sociability/socialization) (Jauss, 1990), whose creative processes and cultural activities can be strongly conditioned by the physical/material attributes of the spaces themselves. In short, we are dealing with artistic manifestations assumed as forms of social practices/life, in which aesthetic objects play a crucial role as arbiters of relations, meaning and social actions in the daily life of late modernity (Jameson 1991, Zukin 1995). 153 Público is a Portuguese daily newspaper founded in 1990; it is pioneer concerning to the publication of collectible articles, such as CDs, CD-ROMs and books, among others. Ípsilon is Público’s arts supplement, published on Friday. 154 Created by Time Out Company (London/New York), Time Out magazine is based on several editions, each dedicated to one of the cities in the world. The aim of the magazine is to make readers aware of what they can do in the city, at cultural and leisure level (arts, festivals, gastronomy, itineraries, fun ...). In Portugal the magazine has two editions, dedicated to the metropolitan areas of Lisbon, with Time Out Lisboa, and Porto, with Time 3. Preludes of maturation: methodology The map that have been drawn is the result of an extensive content analysis produced, between 2007 and 2017, by a set of media devices considered relevant with respect to cultural/artistic production/mediation/ dissemination in Portugal. In the research it was selected news/notes/reports referring to manifestations mentioned as alternatives, independent, informal, underground or those considered in the exploratory process carried out during the investigation by privileged actors/agents of the subfield under study. The selection process has been accurate during the course of the research as manifestations appeared and pointed to disruptive logics (partly evidenced by the content of journalistic information itself). On the other hand, it is important to note that there is a basic condition in the selection process - the unequivocal character of the multidisciplinarity of the artistic manifestation to be considered. It has been selected the follow Portuguese printed media: 1. Ípsilon (Weekly supplement on culture/arts of the Público)153; 2. Time Out (Lisbon and Porto)154; 3. Revista E (supplementary on culture and current affairs indexed to the weekly magazine Expresso)155 and Umbigo Magazine (art, culture, fashion and lifestyle)156. The selection of these media has been based on the following criteria: i) the content scope – it was selected media whose editorial and audience references referring themes such as culture, free time and leisure, art and lifestyle; ii) diversity in relation to the type of periodical - supplement of newspaper or journal of the specialty, and iii) the coverage – it was privileged the national and regional coverage. In the regional dimension, the Time Out of Lisbon and Porto was taken as a reference, whose coverage is respectively Lisbon Metropolitan Area and neighboring counties and North/Centre of the country. It should be noted that this register refers to manifestations considered relevant as a whole (for example, an art festival which in itself results from a condensation of several singular events of multiple arts) and to singular events (such as a concert or an exhibition promoted by one or other the manifestation that operates continuously). Out Porto. The first one is published since 2007, and it has a weekly periodicity. Time Out Porto, with a monthly periocity, went on the stands for the first time in April 2010. 155 Expresso is a weekly Portuguese newspaper, published since 1973. “Revista E” - which is part of the newspaper - was launched in 2015 and takes on a broad format, whose contents are essentially devoted to culture, behavior, trends and great works journalism. This magazine is the result of the fusion of previous supplements, namely Revista and Actual (supplement that included the weekly itinerary of culture and leisure). 156 Umbigo is a magazine of art, culture, fashion and lifestyle edited in paper format (quarterly periodical) and online with daily update (since 2013). Born in 2002, this magazine has undergone several transformations, becoming more and more comprehensive; since 2017, it has become a bilingual magazine (Portuguese and English), in order to reinforce the dissemination and promotion of Portuguese art and culture, along with an international art component. Partner of Sá da Costa bookstore, the magazine has support from the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, the Lisbon City Council and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. 315 6.4. Contemporary artistic manifestations: Agenda, mapping and territoriality The table below show us the number and years of registrations that we have considered. Finally, it is important to notice that our main reference for registration is the supplement Ípsilon (Público), because of its univocal specialty (the culture) and the qualitative nature of the reports, which goes far beyond the agenda type usually associated with regular newspaper supplements. Medias Years Number Ípsilon 2007; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017 651 Revista E 319 Time Out Lisboa 2007; 2012; 2017 Umbigo 576 14 Time Out Porto 2012; 2017 * 146 1706 Table 6.4.1 - Years and number of registrations by type of media The variables of this analysis were: i) the municipality where the manifestation takes place; ii) NUT III157 (Intermunicipal Communities); iii) the manifestation (designation); iv) the type of event (artistic area) evidenced by the journalistic content. 4. A first sketch: the construction of a cartographic agenda Of the 849 recorded occurrences, it can be verified that most of them (demonstrations / events) happen in the capital of the country, Lisbon, in the period considered (2007-2017). Porto158 appears in second place, although the number of registrations is practically 1/6 of those registered in Lisbon, as shown below. Braga is the third municipality in this view – this is explained exclusively by one case/manifestation – GNRation (which has been created in 2012 under the European Youth Capital; its main goal is to promote artistic activities in general and to explore digital arts in particular). Figure 6.4.1 - Number of occurrences per municipality between 2007 and 2017 157 Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (European Commission). 158 Porto is the second most important city at national level. 316 Figure 6.4.2 - Map of occurrences, by municipality between 2007 and 2017 Following the Figure and the Figure below, we can observe the distribution of occurrences by NUT III, that is, by what we can call “sub-regions” that, in reality, correspond to the intermunicipal entities/communities. Figure 6.4.3 - Number of occurrences by Intermunicipal Communities (NUT III), between 2007 and 2017 317 6.4. Contemporary artistic manifestations: Agenda, mapping and territoriality Figure 6.4.4 - Map of occurrences, by Intermunicipal Communities between 2007 and 2017 The Metropolitan Area of Lisbon is the one that stands out the in the context of analysis, followed by the Porto counterpart. The highlight of Alto Minho in third place is justified by the case already pointed out in Braga. The city of Viseu, located in the inter-municipal community of Viseu Dão-Lafões (interior centre of Portugal), fully justifies the occurrences registered in this “sub region”, mainly by Jardins Efémeros, a multidisciplinary festival that since 2014, has been consolidated as a major initiative not only in local and regional territory, but also at national level, because of its growing international character; Jardins Efémeros is today a significant element for attracting audiences from all over the country. The perception of these data shows us the structural mark that characterizes the Portuguese sociological reality. We are referring to the macrocephaly, which is proved by the fact that most of occurrences occur in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, in which Lisbon is the municipality with more events. Regarding to the manifestations as a media content/reference, we highlight as main regularity a relevant distinctiveness between them. The following set of graphics show the manifestations presence in the media, by region(s). 318 Figure 6.4.5 - Manifestations (number of occurrences) in the North and Centre of Portugal, between 2007 and 2017 In the North region we point out the mentioned case of GNRation in Braga. It is a space of relevance (less than a decade of existence) with regard to support to production, mediation and artistic dissemination, especially in music and audiovisual. In Central Portugal, territory where is located cities such as Coimbra, Leiria and Viseu; it is in this one that we find some artistic manifestations which are our study subject. Of these, Jardins Efémeros is the manifestation with greater prominence in the media analyzed, as pointed out previously. But the hegemony in the North is the municipality of Porto (Figure 6.4.6). This is the second most important socio-economic city in the country, and undoubtedly the one in the North, and it has been known as a tourist attraction. The manifestation that is evidenced in this city is Maus Hábitos, a cultural space of the city, with little more than 15 years, that appears as an alternative place in the artistic field of Porto. Maus Hábitos has a transdisciplinary nature and it has been launched several artists and promoted many initiatives to support artistic production, mediation and dissemination; it has become in a notorious space in the city’s artistic and cultural itinerary. Figure 6.4.6 - Manifestations (number of occurrences) in Porto between 2007 and 2017 319 6.4. Contemporary artistic manifestations: Agenda, mapping and territoriality Figure 6.4.7 - Manifestations (number of occurrences) in the Azores, South and Centre-South of Portugal, between 2007 and 2017 In the south of the country (Figure 6.4.7) – specifically in Alentejo and Algarve – LAC – Laboratório de Artes Criativas represents the manifestations that are the subject of the research. Its international character is evident in the artistic residences that it promotes – a fundamental aspect in order to bring out national and foreign artists. LAC is a non-profit cultural association formed in 1995 by a group of people from a wide range of artistic areas - plastic arts, music, architecture, cinema and others – and its main goal is to promote artistic creation in the region. Another case in the region is Festival Materiais Diversos, an initiative promoted by the non-profit cultural association Materiais Diversos. Its main objective is to enhance artistic decentralization. Since 2009, this association is dedicated to the performative arts in general, where dance and music stands out; the Festival occurs in three localities of this territory: Cartaxo, Minde and Alcanena. Finally, there is one of the relatively recent but emblematic cases: Festival Walk & Talk, in Azores. Founded in 2011, this annual festival, initially dynamized in Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel Island, has been extended to one of the other nine islands of the Archipelago - Terceira Island. The festival is a transdisciplinary artistic platform (visual arts, performing arts, architecture, design, music, and video) that seeks to encourage artistic creation in Azorean territory. In South, there is a territory that should be taken as primordial. We are referring to Lisbon, the territory with the greatest cultural and artistic dynamics. This fact is not entirely new - indeed, the centrality of Lisbon assumes itself as an indelible structuring mark of the country’s sociological design. Portugal is a macro-cephalic country at all levels, and the artistic and the cultural areas are no exception. It was Lisbon that most felt the “winds” of change that preceded the democratic revolution of April 25, 1974 and its consequent collapse of the political dictatorship that lasted more than 40 years. The opening to “contemporaneity”, at the decade of 1970, took place almost exclusively in Lisbon, whose condition as political, economic, demographic and social capital allowed the overture to an international level. It was at this point that we began to point out the transverse emergence and transdisciplinarity of artistic styles, sensed in music, in the plastic arts, in the cinema. It is in this context - and already in a phase of consolidation of the change and, let us say, a cosmopolitan turning point - that in the mid-1980s there emerged artistic and cultural manifestations that broke with the hegemonic tendencies in the 320 artistic field. It has been started some new means of supporting creation/new creators and innovative and distinctive processes/models of artistic mediation and diffusion (Jürgens, 2016; Guerra, 2018). Galeria Zé dos Bois - ZDB is one of these initiatives, which is unequivocally assumed to be the one with the highest number of references in terms of media content considered. ZDB is unique in the research subfield, because of its longevity (more than 20 years) and, above all, notoriety in the artistic and cultural sphere, not only in the city of Lisbon, but also in the regional and even national level. Figure 6.4.8 - Manifestations (number of occurrences) in Lisbon between 2007 and 2017 There are several initiatives in Lisbon and in the adjacent cities. Of these, the most recent is Festival Iminente, whose first editions were held in Oeiras (Lisbon’s neighbouring city) and which will take place in the city of Lisbon in 2018. Iminente appears in 2016 and it is curated by the most recognized nationally and internationally Portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto - Vhils and by the artistic platform/gallery Underdogs; it is characterized as the materialization of a creative movement that unites several “new” forms of art and it seeks the establishment of dialogues between Portuguese culture and art and other forms of expression and cultures, as a manifestation of avantgarde. A note for Colectivo Cultural Bacalhoeiro which stood out, especially in 2012, but disappeared in 2014 because of (low) financial conditions. This specific case is assumed to be paradigmatic in terms of one of the characteristics that can be defined in the subfield we are considering in our investigation, a certain fragility that marks the initiatives; their essential character of independence and autonomy to the economic and political powers can explain this fact. Moreover, it is difficult to find initiatives at this level whose continuity and consolidation do not depend on some support (governmental or sponsorship). 321 6.4. Contemporary artistic manifestations: Agenda, mapping and territoriality Manifestations 2007 AISCA (Viana do Castelo) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 5 BoCa - Bienal de Artes Contemporâneas (Lisbon/Porto) 7 Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa (Lisbon) 1 Casa Independente (Lisbon) 29 Colectivo Cultural Bacalhoeiro (Lisbon) 19 47 Contagiarte (Porto) 1 12 Espaço Mira (Porto) 4 Espaço SOU (Lisboa) 1 Festival Arte e Resistência (Lisboa) 1 Festival cul.urb_viseu.fest (Viseu) 1 Festival da Água e do Tempo (Castelo de Vide) 1 Festival Iminente (Oeiras) 3 Festival Materiais Diversos (Cartaxo) 1 2 1 Festival Múltiplo (Lisboa) 1 Festival Silêncio (Lisboa) 2 Festival Temps d’Images (Lisboa) 2 Festival Todos (Lisboa) 3 1 4 2 1 2 Festival Viseu A (Viseu) 1 Festival Walk&Talk (Ponta Delgada – Azores) 2 Festival Zona Não Vigiada (Lisboa) 1 1 2 GNRation (Btraga) 5 Gesto Cooperativa Cultural (Porto) 1 5 6 7 7 Guimarães Noc Noc (Guimarães) 2 LAC - Laboratório de Atividades Criativas (Lagos) 2 2 1 14 20 1 4 2 MEXE - Encontro Internacional de Arte e Comunidade (Porto) 45 1 Underdogs (Lisboa) 1 18 Village Underground (Lisboa) ZDB (Lisboa) 28 1 Jardins Efémeros (Viseu) Maus Hábitos - Porto 1 9 173 119 15 14 Table 6.4.2 - Evolution of the references in the media 17 8 157 322 The last case, in Lisbon, that we would like to stand out is Casa Independente. This is an artistic project of the Ironia Tropical, a cultural association which, since 2012, is committed to making the House a multidisciplinary artistic and cultural venue with a varied program of concerts, exhibitions, workshops, art residencies, recitals and other initiatives. Another interesting note concerns to the force and recognition of these artistic and cultural manifestations. In fact, the recognition (measured by the number of references) of the media to these manifestations translate, to a certain extent, the recognition of these in the subfield that they integrate. The table below (Table 2) shows that some of the manifestations remain over time and reinforce their recognition (examples of the ZDB in Lisbon and Maus Hábitos in Porto are illustrative); and others “disappear” from the media (they are no longer referenced). Some factors may explain this: first, the disappearance of the manifestations (cease to exist, as the case of Colectivo Cultural Bacolhoeiro); second, the changes that are operated in the manifestations itself (communication policy, for example or programming change) and, finally, the hype – a significant element in a fluid subfield as we are dealing with (Underdogs, Village Underground and Casa Independente (all in Lisbon) are paradigmatic). At last, one of the aspects that we want to point out is the type of events that emerge most within the scope of these manifestations. These artistic manifestations have distinct models – we are looking at, on the one hand, spaces that promote the most varied type of initiatives which are being disseminated by the media (concerts, exhibitions, performances, etc.) and, on the other, specific and dated events such as festivals, which promote the most diversified type of initiatives in a given period of time (and for that they are specifically categorized, as shown in the chart below). Figure 6.4.9 - Type of events/initiatives promoted by diverse artistic manifestations between 2007 and 2017 As we can see, there is an obvious hegemony of concerts. The promotion of this type of event dominate the set of occurrences. In fact, spaces such as 323 6.4. Contemporary artistic manifestations: Agenda, mapping and territoriality the ZDB (Lisbon) and Maus Hábitos (Porto) are, in most cases, referenced in the media about the promotion of a concert. Many of the concerts (more precisely the musicians themselves or bands) are reasons for reporting with some editorial notoriety. One of the issues to be explored in the continuity of the research will undoubtedly be the measurement of the real weight of this type of events in the effective agenda of the demonstrations; that is to say, it will be important to see if we are dealing with an agenda that, in fact, has a more consistent impact on the promotion of concerts, or whether they are the most publicized by both (the promoters and the media initiative). The mapping that we tried to do allows us to infer a picture of the subfield we are studying, some of the contours of which we will consider in the final breviary we present. This portrait, considered as a dynamic scenario, will serve as a basis for the continuation of the research, namely as a support for the selection of the cases to study in a more profound and intensive way. 5. Towards maturation: elements for reflection What we are sharing in this presentation is absolutely preliminary, once based on a first and brief analysis of the data and, therefore, merely descriptive. Although we can consider some conclusive aspects. First, there is a (structural) hegemony of Lisbon and Porto in all national territory, although we can point out here and there some relevant events in other territories (for example Viseu, Braga and Azores). This (still shy) dissemination is probably related with territorial cultural policies, based on the valorisation of their territories and their intent in standout at cultural and artistic, but also leisure and tourist level. In turn, it is possible to notice a hegemony of musical events, although the manifestations are artistically multidisciplinary (e.g. ZDB in Lisbon, Maus Hábitos in Porto). At last, the gatekeeping effect seems clear. The media agenda is not neutral, and the systematic references are not casual. They result in part from the hype of artistic manifestations and from the tendency towards canonization within this subfield. This aspect is one of those that we intend to explore in the intensive phase of the research; we believe that there are communication strategies of the manifestations to be more visible. In short, we are dealing with a fluid subfield - which does not distinguish it from the totality of contemporary sociological reality - where the eventual ephemerality of existence (as has been seen in some of the cases) is seen through configurations that cross borders, interlace processes, logical and diversified arts – distinctive ways seeking of doing and promoting art and culture. This is what we will try to understand in later phases of research. References Becker, H. S. (2007). Telling about society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Becker, H. S. (1984). Art worlds. London: University of California Press. Bennett, A., Peterson, R. A. (Eds.) (2004). Music scenes: local, translocal and virtual. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. Bennett, A. & Guerra, P. (Eds.) (2019). DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes. Abingdon/Oxford: Routledge. Bourdieu, P. (2003). Questões de Sociologia. Lisboa: Fim de Século Edições. Bourdieu, P. (1993). As regras da arte. Lisboa: Editorial Presença. 324 Chaney, D. C. (1994). The cultural turn: scene-setting essays on contemporary cultural history. London: Routledge. Crane, D.; Kawasaki, K., Kawashima, K. (Eds.) (2002). Global culture: media, arts, policy, and globalization. New York: Routledge. Crane, D. (1992). The production of culture – Media and the urban arts. Vol. 1 Newbury Park/London/New Delhi: Sage Publications. Costa, P. (2002) As atividades da cultura e a competitividade territorial: o caso da Área Metropolitana de Lisboa (Doctoral dissertation). Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, Lisboa. Fortuna, C., Leite, R. P. (Eds.) (2009). Plural de Cidade: Novos Léxicos Urbanos. Coimbra: Almedina. Guerra, P. (Ed.) (2015). More Than Loud. Os mundos dentro de cada som. Porto: Edições Afrontamento. Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism or the cultural logic of the late capitalism. London: Verso. Jauss, H. R.. (1990) Pour une esthétique de la réception. Paris: Gallimard. Jürgens, S. V. (2016). Instalações provisórias – independência, autonomia, alternativa e informalidade. Artistas e exposições em Portugal no séc. XX. Lisboa: Sistema Solar/Documenta. Pais, J. M. (2010). Lufa-lufa quotidiana. Ensaios sobre a cidade, cultura e vida urbana. Lisboa: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais. Santos, M. L. L. (1988). Questionamento à volta de três noções (a grande cultura, a cultura popular, a cultura de massas). Análise Social, XXIV (101-102), pp. 689-702. Silva, A. S., Babo, E. P., Guerra, P. (2015). Políticas culturais locais: contributos para um modelo de análise. Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, (78), pp. 105-124. Silva, A. S., Babo, E. P., Guerra, P. (2013). Cultural policies and local development: the Portuguese case. Portuguese Journal of Social Sciences, 12(2), pp. 195-209. Straw, W. (1991). Systems of articulation, logics of change: communities and scenes in popular music. Cultural Studies, 5(3), 368-388. Thornton, S. (2009). Seven Days in the Art World. London: W.W. Norton & Co. Zukin, S. (1995) The Culture of Cities. Cambridge, MA.: Blackwell. 325 6.5 Challenging canonical orthodoxy: Do-it-yourself cultures break into religion Guilherme Borges 159 A b s t r a c t The purpose of this presentation is to show how the religious sphere is being increasingly colonized by do-it-yourself cultures (DIY). Free from following traditional precepts, individuals find themselves in a position to give wings to spirituality, distant from institutional belongingness and belief. Antithetical to the conventional religious practitioner, “moving figures” arise. These are characterized by the detachment of believing and belonging and by the idea of spirituality as a possibility for building identities, independent of what is seen as “true faith” or “authorized faith”. Even in the field of religion, DIY cultures enable the construction of post-traditional identities; therefore, “religious bricoleurs” are open to different gender performances and to the discussion of taboo themes related to sexuality. Consequently, it’s not surprising that the DIY practices maintain an underground and anti-hegemonic position in the sphere of institutionalized religions. Keywords: Religion, DIY cultures, bricolage, gender performance. 159 University of São Paulo, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 326 This presentation is part of a bigger research that arises from a large amount of data showing the fast decline of Catholicism in Brazil. The exposure may start boring, with some boring numbers, but it’s just to expose how the national demography points out to the continuous and increasingly decline in the number of Brazilian citizens claiming to be Catholics. The decline began somewhat shy: in 1940, Catholics accounted for 95.2% of the Brazilian population; in the following decade, this number fell to 93.7%; in the year 1960, Catholics were 93.1% of the total population; in 1970, 91.1% of Brazilians declared themselves Catholic; a decade later, that number was 89.2%, and in 1991 it fell to 83.3%. With the beginning of the new millennium, there were vertiginous declines: in 2000, the percentage of those declaring themselves Catholic declined by almost 10% and came to 73.8% of the national population (Pierucci, 2004); the same pattern of decline continued a decade later, reaching the current statistics of 64.6% (Menchen & Brisolla, 2012). For the first time, the absolute number of Catholic supporters declined, from 125.5 million in the year of 2000 to 123.3 million in 2010. A loss of 2.2 million devotees during a period in which Brazilian population experienced an increase of more than 20 million persons (Steil & Toniol, 2013, p. 232). If, until the 1970s, “all Brazilians were Catholic”, nowadays, on the other hand, there is a very fast decline in the number of devotees, a phenomenon that occurs in conjunction with the collapse of a cultural heritage common to various layers of the society. Cultural heritage, yes, but also clerical heritage, because it came from a church that tried to give to Brazilians, indistinctly, the hallmark of “Catholics by nature”, “Catholics from the beginning”, “Catholics in the roots” (Pierucci, 2005). With this collapse of the collective memory, representatives of Catholicism see a reduction in the possibilities of spreading their faith (Cardoso, 2016). The once “Catholic nation” is characterized, today, by vigorous struggles between a declining majority faith and its rising minority competitors. But the collapse of the collective memory may not be deleterious only to the dominant religious institution. As a consequence of the strengthening of an individualistic ethic, it is verified that the symbols of religious institutions become a material available to particular devotions. Indeed, it is quite possible to say that it is a gradual process of bricolage (Hervieu-Léger, 2008, p. 41), in which private choices rule over collective belief systems. The religious scenario is colonized by a do-it-yourself culture (DIY). At this culture, each individual sets up his or her own spiritual life. Released from following traditional precepts, individuals find themselves in a position to give wings to spirituality that is distant from institutional belongingness and belief. At first glance, this turn off from religious institutions has as main target the majority creeds. However, there is no indicative that shows minor confessions as immune in this deviation from normalized spiritualities. Individualism stresses the truths of any faith authorized by specialists, since the very necessity of an external authorization, beyond the individual, undergoes a process of cultural devaluation - and this occurs independent of the background of these specialists, whether they represent majoritarian or marginal creeds. Danièle Hervieu-Leger notes that, since “the greatness of modern societies” (Hervieu-Léger, 2003, p. 2) implied the construction of an anthropological profile based on autonomy, the historical cultural result was an ethics based on radical individuality. In this sense, it is possible to talk about a properly modern spirituality, far from the ideal type of the regular believer. Hervieu-Léger (2008) 327 6.5 Challenging canonical orthodoxy: Do-it-yourself cultures break into religion typifies the figure of the regular believer as that one well-defined in relation to his religious linkage, as well as in relation to the values and norms to follow, which are always those of the institution to which he belongs by inheritance. In opposition to this ideal type, “moving figures” arise (Hervieu-Léger, 2003, p. 31). These are characterized by the non-connection between believing and belonging and by the idea of spirituality as a possibility of building identities, independently of what is seen as “true faith” or “authorized faith”. The diversity of religious traditions appears as nothing more than reserves of symbolic suggestions, à la carte, in which the individual can enjoy comfortably, exercising the creativity of bricoleur. So, the space achieved by DIY spiritualities is understandable. These devotions not only do not impose themselves on the individual, but also are authenticated by him or her in the personal journey amid the various experiences of his or her biography. Before proceeding, it should be clarified that these religiosities have an individualist foundation, but they have it in the sense of being constituted by the valorization of possibilities of individual autonomy. This does not mean that they are individualistic in the sense that they are fatally cultivated from “petty-bourgeois” goals, restricted to the satisfaction of private and hidden needs. In a DIY logic, religious traditions are seen as theological deposits, with a wide range of free symbols available to be enjoyed according to the needs of the moment, whether such needs are restricted to the domestic sphere or directed to the public sphere. In this regard, the theologian Chung Hyun Kyung, a professor at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York and lecturer of the World Council of Churches, comes to mind. Kyung adopts a posture that she calls “syncretic”, as opposed to standardized religious cultures (Stewart & Shaw, 2005, p.16). Not only her works, but also her devotions seek to juxtapose a Christian Presbyterian doctrinal arsenal to postulates of Islamic mysticism, Zen Buddhism, Latin American Catholicism, as well as other devotional traditions seen as equally relevant. Based on this syncretism, Kyung militates in favor of interreligious dialogue, but also concentrates on ecological causes, thirdworld issues and feminist concerns (Kyung, 2009, p. 175). A charismatic figure in her own country, she has produced and starred a number of programs on Korean television with the aim of giving visibility to the feminist struggle by using many religious teachings that are dear to her. Also, it is possible to cite the Brazilian case of the Ecumenical Youth Network (REJU in the Portuguese initials), one more example of DIY religiosities that inform actions in the public sphere. It is a coalition that has as a striking feature its progressive political interventions, which are carried out based on the encouragement promoted by different forms of spirituality (Silva, 2016, p. 84). The Network has as its thematic axis, among others, the confrontation with the physical, moral and symbolic violence that afflicts women, homosexuals and transsexuals (Silva, 2016, p. 14). During these struggles, militants rely on inspirations ranging from the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé to Buddhism, through Judaism, all in bricolage with the majority Christian teachings. This interreligious stance, coupled with the discussion of taboo themes such as abortion and gay marriage, makes the REJU assume an underground and anti-hegemonic position in the scenario of institutionalized religions. As can be seen from the foregoing, even in the field of religion, DIY cultures give power to the construction of post-traditional identities; due to that possibility, “religious bricoleurs” are able to cast doubt on several moral dogmas. 328 Funding: This work was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) under Grant number 140161/2016-3. References Cardoso, R. (2016, January 21). Os 7 pecados da Igreja Católica. Istoé. Retrieved from: https://istoe.com.br/166428_OS+7+PECADOS+DA+IGREJA+CATOLICA. Hervieu-Léger, D. (2003). Catholicisme, la fin d’un monde. Paris: Bayard. Hervieu-Léger, D. (2008). O peregrino e o convertido: A religião em movimento. Petrópolis: Vozes. Kyung, C. H. (2009). Feminism and African and Asian spirituality: Towards a spirituality of eco-feminism. In D. G. Hallman (Ed.), Ecotheology: Voices from South and North (pp. 175–178). Eugene: Wipf and Stock. Menchen, D. & Brisolla, F. (2012, June 6). Censo aponta queda no número de católicos pela 1ª vez no Brasil. Folha de S. Paulo. Retrieved from: https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/ poder/51843-censo-aponta-queda-no-numero-de-catolicos-pela-1-vez-no-brasil.shtml. Pierucci, A. F. (2004). “Bye bye, Brasil”: O declínio das religiões tradicionais no Censo 2000. Estudos Avançados, 18(52), pp. 17–28. Pierucci, A. F. (2005, April 10). O retrovisor polonês. Folha de S. Paulo. Retrieved from: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/mais/fs1004200504.htm. Silva, I. T. (2016). Efeitos de Sentido do Discurso Político-Religioso realizado por Jovens: Articulação em Rede para Monitoramento de Políticas Públicas (Unpublished master’s thesis). Universidade Católica de Pernambuco, Recife. Steil, C. A. & Toniol, R. (2013). O catolicismo e a Igreja Católica no Brasil à luz dos dados sobre religião no censo de 2010. Debates do NER, 24, pp. 223–243. Stewart, C. & Shaw, R. (2005). Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis. New York: Routledge. 329 6.5 Challenging canonical orthodoxy: Do-it-yourself cultures break into religion 330 THEME TUNE 7 ‘MAN NEXT DOOR’. QUEER STUDIES AND IDENTITIES RECONSTRUCTIONS © Esgar Aclerado 331 7.1 ‘Strike a pose’: Madonna and gender subversions Roney Gusmão 160 A b s t r a c t This research aims at analyzing how Madonna’s career presents dialectical articulations with the postmodern period, emphasizing the strong relationship established between her performances and cultural identities of ghetto groups. It is interesting to note the ambiguities contained in the binomial perpetuation / rupture, as seen in the way in which Madonna provokes the visualization of subaltern expressive forms and, at the same time, seems to reproduce the hegemonic ethos of the capitalist nexus. Thus, the present research has been developed through bibliographical investigations of concepts such as gender, postmodernity and myth, whose theoretical interlacings have made possible to understand Madonna as part of a time loaded with ambivalences, making it an archetype of contemporary culture. Keywords: Madonna, gender, myth, postmodernity. 160 Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia - Center for Culture, Languages and Applied Technologies. Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 332 1. Introduction I think it was a time where something new was needed. Something new and artistic. Something out of the norm. It was timing more than anything in the ‘90s. I think it was the time when the world was ready for it. And it would take somebody like Madonna to bring that to the forefront (Gould & Zwaan, 2016). The transcript above was extracted from the speech of Jose Gutierez in the documentary Strike a Pose (2016), which dealt with the Blonde Ambition Tour (1990) and the film Truth or Dare: In Bed with Madonna (1991). Gutierez, in addition to participating in the tour, also composed the troupe of dancers in the video clip Vogue, noted that in a context of association of AIDS with the gay community, the artistic scenario could serve as a place of refuge and empowerment. It was in 1990 that Madonna released the hit Vogue, preforming the hip-hop style called “voguing”, much practiced in the suburbs of New York since the early 1980s. Voguing consists of enhancing divas poses, making the pastiche, style and rhythm in playful ways of advertising gay pride. At the heart of conservative discourses on moral degeneration, Madonna provoked visibility into LGBT artistic expression, performing in the mainstream media what was confined to the American ghettos. In a pertinent debate on this subject, Butler (2003) analyzes the discourses contained in the body based on problematizations around the gender. The author mentions the strong association of the body with the idea of danger and pollution, since sexual practices contribute to demarcate boundaries between bodies from cultural delimitations. Anal sex, for example, would be a form of pollution that would corrupt the body physically and socially. Likewise, AIDS consisted of an explicit mode of pollution, mainly because it was associated with marginal groups, whose unregulated permeability seemed to be a place of pollution and danger. Thus, AIDS is represented as a ‘gay disease’, but in the hysterical and homophobic reaction of the media to the disease there is a tactical construction of a continuity between the polluted status of the homosexual, due to the violation of borders that is homosexuality, and disease as a specific modality of homosexual pollution. The fact that the disease is transmitted by the exchange of bodily fluids suggests in the sensationalist graphs of homophobic signifying systems the perils that permeable bodily boundaries represent for the social order (Butler, 2003, p. 189). In this sense, the notion of “pollution” applied to the body as a place of discourse can also be interpreted from aesthetic notions that escape hegemonic norms. Thus, when traits and behaviors confront heteronormativity, associations with the “degeneration of the body” appear as a legitimizing mechanism of hegemonic discourse. Thus, voguing, and all cultural expression associated with the gay community in the early 1990s, was subjected to hostility, since it defended the maintenance of cultural identities guetified 333 7.1 ‘Strike a pose’: Madonna and gender subversions far from the limits stipulated by the agreed morality. It is in this context that Madonna provoked the visibility of gay performances, intending hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces around notions about gender. The single Vogue became one of the most successful of Madonna’s career, which has since become increasingly associated with the gay public. While Vogue played on radios and nightclubs of various segments, militant opinion was not unanimous: some believed that music would generate greater visibility of ghetto groups, while others held the view that Madonna had achieved a mere cultural appropriation for marketing purposes. Anyway, what most calls attention in the career of Madonna are exactly the contradictions that it provokes. Such fact only inscribes it more intimately in the postmodern historical context, whose contours must be understood from the interpretation of the many meanings negotiated socially and (re)constructed in the course of time. On this subject, we agree that “artistic creation is inscribed in the social world itself and, as such, subject to determinations, but being particularly relevant, it also influences it through the knowledge and interpretations it generates about the world” (Guerra, 2017, p. 510). In this way, studying Madonna and the debates she brings about requires considering the social context that surrounds her, since both those who love her and those who hate her do so on the themes she provokes and the norms she transgresses. 2. Body and speech For Butler (2003, p. 29) the concept of gender “does not denote a substantive being, but a relative point of convergence between specific sets of relations, culturally and historically convergent”. From this, the author suggests a discontinuity between sex/gender between sexed bodies and culturally constructed genders, an idea that deconstructs the subordination of gender to binary sexual forms. Through this debate, we can assume that the body does not end with the idea of gender, but it is through the body that the social construction of the gender is expressed, having in it printed subversive or conventional forms of identity. Therefore, the body expresses discourses that are not definers of gender identities, but, instead, are products of the psychic feeling of gender. But Butler (2003, p. 194) insists on the argument that “acts, gestures and desire produce the effect of an inner core or substance, but produce it on the surface of the body through the play of significant absences, which suggest, but never reveal, the organizing principle of identity as a cause”. These gestures are performative, whose identities are expressed by corporeal signs, (…) by means of which men both fix rules and conduct, and seek to transform themselves, by modifying themselves in what they have of more singularity by following a work in the which includes certain aesthetic values that meet certain style criteria (Milanez, 2006, p. 188-189). Therefore, the body has its physiologically constituted real dimension, but also presents a discursive, political and cultural materiality. This debate is interesting for the research presented here because it 334 questions issues about the many possibilities of gender expression through performance. Dance, tricks, walking and talking are ways in which subjects announce speeches by drawing them in corporeal materiality. The body, then, is a fundamental expression of the otherness of subalternized groups, having its surface as an announcement of discourses and subversive forms of social existence. The voguing style, therefore, represents one of those corporeal expressions of minority cultural identity, whose resistance discourses are driven by performance. However, in transposing this style to the mainstream media, would Madonna contribute to militancy or would only make the discourses of otherness ephemeral? By breaking with the gender demarcations, by incorporating homosexuality into their performances, would not only reinforce stereotypes? First, in order to penetrate these problematizations, it is important to note that discourse / body / memory ideas are intimately associated. By referring to voguing as a gay expression of segregated Afro-Latino groups, Patton (1993, p. 91) recalls that MTV is an important new site for the struggle control of popular memory. Because of their short duration, music videos provide important raw material for the bricolage construction of memory links (...) Vogue exemplifies the transient but pivotal moments in the reconstruction of gay and Afro-Latin history in contemporary popular culture. In the postmodern period, characterized by the ephemerality of signs and the thickening of images, the media instruments can offer subsidies for the memory of ghetto groups by amplifying the reverberation of speeches. Madonna, for example, has been very present in MTV’s history since the early 1980s, participating in awards, interviews and marathons to promote her videos and shows. Among Madonna’s most iconic performances is Vogue’s presentation at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, which Patton refers to. At the time, Madonna, accompanied by two backing vocals and the seven performers of the Blonde Ambition Tour, used a choreography that clearly showed her dancers in poses and gestures that violated sex binarisms. The lyrics, in turn, is a reverence for detachment from social modulations through rhythm, having already in its beginning an imperative: “Strike a pose!”. 335 7.1 ‘Strike a pose’: Madonna and gender subversions Figure 7.1.1 - Madonna performing “Vogue” in “MTV Music Awards” (1991) Source: https://popcultura.com.br/2016/08/25/melhores-apresentacoes-vma/ As we discussed in the first part of this text, the early 1990s were marked by hostile events for the gay community, especially as regards the proliferation of AIDS as an occasion for homophobic discourses. In this scenario, Vogue content was quite attractive to gay groups because it added empowerment to dance bodies as opposed to discourses that persisted in the moral corrosion of traditional values. Vogue, therefore, is an invitation to a fearless performance, capable of printing gender identity on the bodies of those who belong to the segregated gay community: Look around, everywhere you turn is heartache. It’s everywhere that you go. You try everything you can to escape the pain of life that you know. When all else fails and you long to be something better than you are today. I know a place where you can get away. It’s called a dance floor, and here’s what it’s for, so come on, Vogue (Madonna, 1990). The music is basically composed by phrases in the imperative, summoning the listener to a place: “the dance floor”. This is where identities can be extravasated in the body and where gender identities go beyond binarisms: “Ladies with an attitude, fellas who were in the mood. Don’t just stand there, let’s get to it. Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it” (Madonna, 1990). “Ladies with an attitude” may be referring to female empowerment, lesbians or also drag queens, so present in voguing dances. Immediately after this sentence, Madonna mentions “fellas who were in the mood” dealing with boys also present or the fluid exchange of gender identity. About being “in the mood”, Guilbert (2002, p. 129) understands that It evokes the stereotyped refusal of the wife on Saturday night, ‘not tonight darling, I’m not in the mood’, similar to (but franker than) ‘not tonight, darling, I have headache’. So a woman who is in the mood is a woman who accepts the male desire, so the expression. Applied to a ‘fella’ could designate a man who accepts male desire, couldn’t it? 336 It is important to emphasize that both the performance and the lyrics of Vogue were disseminated by the mass media, giving prominence to the gender discourse proposed here. Thus, Vogue constitutes a place of memory for underground groups of LGBT culture and militancy because of the wide popularity, taking this style even to spaces of heterosexual coexistence in that it promotes the intertextuality of identities that contests hierarchies (Patton, 1993). In short, “the dance floor” can be interpreted as the place to legitimize gender flow and expose in the body the language of empowerment. “The dance floor” is, above all, a place where gender identities can finally be transitory. 3. Madonna and postmodernity In the course of her career, Madonna has become one of the show business biggest exponents, collecting records that other artists can hardly beat. The magnitude of her image marked generations, subverting norms and sustaining others, a fact that inevitably made Madonna a postmodern myth loaded with ambiguities. But what is a myth? Why can Madonna be considered a myth in contemporary society? Barthes (2013, p. 223) understands that the function of myth is “to transform a sense into form”, that is, myth is a mode of signification capable of embodying language. Obviously, the author also mentions that myth has full articulation with historical time as it materializes socially (re)constructed senses. Thus, studying a myth requires understanding the surrounding ideological interests within a society, as well as the set of interests negotiated in a historical time that shape the mythical character. Thus, by studying Madonna as a myth, we need to understand that her career has become so successful precisely because of her ability to subsume the logic of postmodern capital. This fact is noticeable, both in her business vocation, and in her ability to reinvent herself as a strategy of perpetuation in such an ephemeral market. Given this, it is also possible to perceive that her interest in provoking the public with unconventional themes is also part of a context conducive to the deconstruction of hierarchies. Jameson (1985) notes that, after World War II, new social perspectives began to reverberate on the planet. Allied to the reintroductions in capitalist production that impacted styles and desires of consumption, a greater ephemerality of the signs was observed, which caused a collapse of references of the past by the desire of a perpetual present. In this context, the media played a crucial role in historical amnesia as it transformed reality into images in a series of perpetual presents. Art also played a fundamental role, because it was where the outbreak of minorities groups that challenged the agreed norms and claimed visibility became more evident. It is in this respect that the author coherently concludes his reasoning: “We have seen that there is a way in which postmodernity reverberates and reproduces - reiterating the logic of capitalism in society. The most important question is whether there is also a form of resistance to this logic” (Jameson, 1985, p.26). Thus, subversion and conservation are characteristics that coexist in postmodernity, mainly because it is marked by the productive restructuring of late capitalism, but is simultaneously compounded by the outbreak of previously invisible groups. Hence, Jameson (2007, p. 73) suggests “that we make at least the effort to think dialectically the evolution of late capitalism as progress and a catastrophe at the same time.” 337 7.1 ‘Strike a pose’: Madonna and gender subversions Of course, the erosion of hierarchies with the visibility of minorities must also be understood by the integration between aesthetic production and the production of goods. We are not suggesting that contemporary social transformations have been determined by capitalist production, but rather we understand that the cultural face of postmodernity establishes a relation analogous to the economic conjuncture, whose analysis requires a dialectical understanding of the historical period. Madonna then serves as an archetype for the understanding of postmodernity, since her mythical image reveals many of the characteristics of the period in question. Kellner (2001, p. 373) observes that “the way Madonna evaluates depends on one’s politics and morality, and anyone who cultivates an aesthetic of shock and excess like Madonna will certainly offend and become the target of criticism”. In other words, just like postmodernity, Madonna may be the target of criticism or acclamation, depending on the angle the subject chooses to evaluate, after all, the ambivalences, continually reproduced by postmodern society, are, somehow, revealed in the characters myths that make up this context (Guerra, 2014, 2016). Vogue performance can also be used as an expression of these ambiguities, since, at the same time as it suggests the deconstruction of hegemonic systems of gender, it can also be interpreted as an acclamation to consumption, built on concepts around fashion and the Image. In this discourse, Madonna ratifies the construction of alterity mediated by narcissism and consumption, suggesting a subversion by the adequacy to the norms of the system. In the documentary Truth or Dare: in bed with Madonna (1991), this realization is clear when Vogue’s presentation on the Blonde Ambition Tour is edited with the overlay of images that reveal the glamor of fame, of fashion, of money and consumption. Madonna is thus a symbol of the narcissistic 1980s, a period that still exerts a strong influence when the cultivation of the individual self and the obsessive pursuit of one’s own interests were venerated as cultural mythologies. The imperative ‘goes deep!’ Echoed throughout the 1980s and Madonna went deep and got there. However, as she became the most famous artist of her era (and perhaps of all time), Madonna produced works that had consequences and contradictions, and which, in a number of ways, helped subvert prevailing conservative ideologies (Kellner 2001, p. 374). 338 Figure 7.1.2 - Video clip Vogue directed by David Fincher in 1990 Source: http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/david-finchers-five-finest-music-videos.html In addition to bringing references to Voguing as a marginalized cultural identity, Vogue also makes a mention of fashion, style and consumption contained in Vogue Magazine. This further reinforces the ambiguity of music, which is situated here between the challenge and, at the same time, the maintenance of the current system. At the recent MDNA Tour (2012), Madonna continued to subvert gender hierarchies for her dancers’ costumes (crossdressed), but at the same time, with each imperative contained in the refrain (“Come on, Vogue!”), Cameras move away and reveal the Vogue Magazine’s logo gleaming on the stage. Perhaps the idea is that fashion, consumption and narcissism are prerequisites for the summoning sung in the music: “Oh, you need use your imagination”. Figure 7.1.3 - “MDNA Tour” (2012) during the performance of Vogue Source: https://www.youtube.com/madonna 339 7.1 ‘Strike a pose’: Madonna and gender subversions 4. Considerations: ‘Beauty’s where you find it’ The fragment presented in this subitem is extracted from the song, through which Madonna seems to democratize the concept of “beauty”. However, the following question remains: Is this democratization achievable only by the combination of the various consumer goods offered in postmodern society? It is useful to remember that Barthes (2013, p. 221) warns that the myth periodically presents an innocent appearance, nevertheless “the myth hides nothing and also nothing sports: it deforms; the myth is not a lie nor a confession: it is an inflection”. As such, the myth has an ambiguous function of squandering hegemonic interests, mainly because it conceals the social hierarchy, and at the same time, subverts it. By deforming language, myth offers little resistance and, by captivating by its strong emotional charge, introduces ideologies very articulated to subversive and/or conservative interests. Therefore, myth is an expression of utopia, since it expresses a “concordance with the world, not as it is, but as it intends to be” (Barthes, 2013, p. 249). At the same time that it distorts reality, the postmodern myth integrates a vast network of (re)construction of meanings. It is the object of desire, speculation, fetish and passion, mainly because it gives shape to the identities of groups, sometimes seducing minorities, sometimes negotiating values with the current norms. Thus, in the game of seduction exercised by the mythical image of postmodern celebrities, one has the possibility of sublimating every fragment of pain written in daily life, in a seduced consented of the subjects to the utopian image of the mythical figure, even though it succumbs to perversity of the system. Of course, projection-identification intervenes in all human relations, as long as they are colored with affection (...). And so the imaginary is committed to the everyday fabric of our lives; but what is important here is to emphasize that the irruption of mass culture in information develops in certain types of relations of projection and identification that go in the direction of romance, tragedy and mythology (Morin 1997, p. 101). Art, therefore, can seduce this projection treated by the author. Through it, a load of affection is expended, emotionally connecting the spectator to the myth he has voiced. It is also through art that one has the opportunity to overflow the interdict and to express repressed desires. There, the catharsis of censored identities, of suppressed desires and of asphyxiated fetishes is carried out, also reinforcing the cohesion of subjects invisibilized by normative forces. And when we apply this reality to music and dance in the postmodern context, we can deduce that these expressive forms can serve for the cohesion of subalternized groups, since it allows the sharing of identities by the language of empowered bodies. In Vogue, “the dance floor” may mean this place of catharsis, self-acceptance, and social cohesion for resistance. 340 When we consider the importance of music and dance as powerful ways of expressing individual emotions and ideas, we are also associating them with forms of expression of experiences shared by a community and of social cohesion, integrating them into groups and promoting cooperation (Guerra, 2017, p. 512). In fact, as we have tried to show in this text, Madonna can be understood as the archetype of postmodernity mainly because both operate through contradiction. She is an icon of subversion, but she is also a simulacrum for a voracious society for consumption; Madonna also echoes the voices of minorities (especially the gay community), but also participates in the same game of marketing seductions that produces the exclusion of so many. Her business vocation, her obsession with staying in the market, her ability with imagery has made her a consecrated artist in the course of three decades, and such a feat has only been made possible by the incorporation of this very incongruity that constitutes postmodern society (Guerra, 2013). Finally, we must recognize that Madonna, like any other postmodern celebrity, has built her career under the same logic of commodities - treated as a brand and associated with consumer products. In fact, it should be noted that the extinction of this ambivalence (contestation x surrender to the system) would annihilate her subversive potential, after all the visibility of her performance occurs only through the negotiation of values within the capitalist nexus. If the extinction of her career would be better for militancy, we cannot say; but it is true to say that contradiction is a fundamental component of the contemporary culture that Madonna embodies. If, on the one hand, Vogue is basically composed of imperatives (“look around”, “use your imagination”, “come on”, “let your body move”, “go inside”, “get up for the dance floor”); on the other hand, it is important to remember that the interpretation of these verses is given to the public, which constructs meanings from socially negotiated references. What cannot be lost is that the imputation of meaning is a dangerous temptation in academic research, after all, Madonna, like any sign unit, can produce multiple interpretations, being possible even, as Barthes (2006) affirms, the coexistence of many readings in a social group or even in the same individual. Thus, according to Madonna’s (Keshishian, 1991) own words: “I do not endorse a way of life, but describe one, and the audience is left to make its own decisions and judgments. This is what I consider freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of thought”. References Barthes, R. (2006). Elementos de semiologia. São Paulo: Cultrix. Barthes, R. (2013). Mitologias. Rio de Janeiro: Difel. Butler, J. (2003). Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. Gould, E & Zwaan, R. (2016). Strike a pose [documentary]. Los Angeles: CTM Docs/The other room. Guerra, P. (2017). António e as Variações identitárias da cultura portuguesa contemporânea. Ciências Sociais Unisinos, 53(3), pp. 508-520. Guerra, P. (2016). Keep it rocking: the social space of Portuguese alternative rock (1980 – 2010). Journal of Sociology, 52(4), pp.615-630. 341 7.1 ‘Strike a pose’: Madonna and gender subversions Guerra, P. (2014). Punk, expectations, breaches and metamorphoses: Portugal, 1977–2012. Critical Arts, 28(1), pp.111-122. Guerra, P. (2013). A instável leveza do rock. Génese, dinâmica e consolidação do rock alternativo em Portugal (1980-2010). Porto: Edições Afrontamento. Guilbert, G.-C. (2002). Madonna as postmodern myth. North California: McFarland Company Publishes. Jameson, F. (1985). Pós-modernidade e sociedade de consumo. Novos Estudos CEBRAP, 12, pp. 16-26. Jameson, F. (2007). Pós-modernismo: a lógica cultural do capitalismo tardio. São Paulo: Editora Ática. Kellner, D. (2001). A cultura da mídia – Estudos Culturais: identidade e política entre o moderno e o pós-moderno. Bauru: EDUSC. Keshishian, A. (1991). Madonna: Truth or Dare - In Bed with Madonna [documentary]. Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Madonna (1990). Vogue. Madonna & Shep Pettibone [compositores]. In I’m Breathless. New York: Sire & Warner Records. Milanez, N. (2006). As aventuras do corpo: dos modos de subjetivação às memórias de si em revista impressa. (Doctoral dissertation). Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio Mesquita Filho – UNESP, Araraquara – SP). Morin, E. (1997). Cultura de massas no século XX: neurose. Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universitária. Patton, C. (1993). Embodying subaltern memory: kinesthesia & the problematics of gender & race. In C. Schwichtenberg (Ed.), The Madonna Connection: representational politics, subcultural identities and cultural theory. Colorado: Westview Press. 342 7.2 Queer zines in Madrid in 1990’s Laura López Casado 161 A b s t r a c t The aim of this paper is the study of queer zines produced in Madrid in the 1990’s. There were two pioneer groups in queer activism in Spain, La Radical Gai formed by gay men and LSD, formed by lesbians. La radical Gai published six numbers of their zine De un plumazo, plus two dossiers (one about HIV and the other one about a homophobic attack). LSD was created one year later than La Radical Gai; they published four numbers of Non-Grata. Both groups share ideology, but had different aims and agenda because of their specific gender experience: the main theme for gay men was HIV, whereas lesbians mainly focused on visibility. Albeit the groups did not denominate themselves as queer when they were formed (1991 La Radical Gai, 1993 LSD), they were the first to coin this term in the Spanish context (Solá, 2012, p. 267). La Radical Gai named their zine Queerzine in 1993 and LSD use this term in their first zine published in 1994, where they already defined themselves as queer lesbians. This paper will analyze these zines as historical documents, which help us to understand the characteristics and history of the zine production in Spain; as well as, the introduction of Queer Theory in the context of Madrid in the 1990›s. The zines were not only important for the academic group of Queer Theory but also for the activism movement of that period. Produced by university students, some of which continued their careers in academia, these zines promoted and boasted the introduction of Queer Theory in the University. Keywords: Zines, queer theory, La Radical Gai, LSD. 161 University of Lisbon - Faculty of Arts - Center for Comparative Studies. Madrid, Spain. Email: [email protected] 343 1. Introduction The zines are a potential weapon to disrupt the hegemonic discourse. In the 1990s, in Spain, two groups were pioneers disseminating the Queer Theory in Madrid and, for that purpose, they used their zines to disseminate the ideas and concepts proposed in the international context. Therefore, a revision and analyses of the zines give us keys about the arrival of this new trend in Spain, the principal aims of the queer activism, their alliances with foreign groups and the prospects of the zine use as a political instrument. One of the thinkers who addressed the zines and gender studies was Allison Piepmeier who wrote: Zines are a collective media, in which their authors construct identities, communities, and narratives that shape their cultural moments: discourses, media, representations, ideologies, stereotypes, and even physical detritus. (Piepmeier, 2009, p. 2). So, if the zines are narratives that shape their cultural, social and political moments, I am going to stop briefly what was going on in gender studies and western society in the ‘80s and its replica in Spain some years later. This way, we can understand why the zines that I worked with, are the respond of all this context. 2. The international and the Spanish context to origin the queer theory and movement It had been three crises which lead to the creation of the Queer Theory and push the expansion of the Queer activism: the crisis of the feminisms, the crisis of the gay movement and the crisis of the AIDS. But let’s go one step at a time. The feminism emerged linked to a very specific woman model, normally white and from a high-middle or middle class. The dissonant voices were isolated. But in the USA in the ‘80s, some new theorists who spoke out from their subjectivities as black women, chicanas, and lesbians started to change the definitions of feminism. Some of these authors are already known by all of us: Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherie Moraga, etc. These women pointed out the movement as the representation and the fight of the priorities of a specific kind of women. In Spain, this also takes place at the end of the 80’s (Trujillo, 2009) but the focus was the sexuality. The subject of the feminism was questioned by lesbians who demand a plurality of identities inside of the feminism (Osborne, 2008, p. 93; Trujillo, 2009, p. 162). The lesbian groups from in and outside the feminist movement started to raise their voices. On one hand, there were feminism lesbians and on the other, there were autonomous lesbian. The first ones wanted a space inside of the feminist groups, whereas the second ones believed that some aspects were irreconcilables with the feminism and thought that this movement only looked for struggles from the point of view of heterosexual women. Furthermore, debates around pornography, prostitution, and sexual fantasies were questioned, what caused that feminism were no longer a homogeneous struggle. The second crisis occurred inside the gay’s movement. Actually, from 7.2 Queer zines in Madrid in 1990’s 344 the beginning of the LGTB fight for their rights, the tensions between those who seek assimilation in the society and those who seek to fight against the establishment were widely acknowledged. Since 28th June 1969, when the riot at the Stonewall Inn broke out, which originated the first LGTB rights’ groups in the U.S.A, the divisions started. Obviously, the possibility of assimilation in the society only was possible for some subjects. Sylvia Rivera, a Puerto Rican transgender prostitute who was one of the protagonists of the riot explained: We were determined that evening that we were going to be a liberated, free community, which we did acquire that. Actually, I’ll change the ‘we’: You have acquired your liberation, your freedom, from that night: Myself: I’ve got shit, just like I had back then. But I still struggle, I still continue the struggle. I will struggle til the day I die and my main struggle right now is that my community will seek the rights that are justly ours. (Rivera, 2013, p. 34). In Spain, it was reflected this duality as well between either to pursue assimilation politics or the active opposition to the unequal structure which is founded the society. Unusual alliances were done, thus the Gay Capitalism was expanded and depoliticized the movement. These two crises, at the beginning of the 90s in the USA, conduct to some intellectual lesbian started to reflect on the identity politics of “the women” and “the gay” and developed the queer theory. The background was authors as Michele Foucault, Monique Wittig o Gayle Rubin and although was Teresa de Lauretis who is considered inside of the western academia who started to talk about the Queer Theory, it was Judith Butler with the books Gender Trouble (1990) and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick with Epistemology of the Closet (1990) who built a theoretical content to this new trend. The last crisis inside this context was the AIDS crisis. It was much more than a health crisis or an epidemic crisis. This terrible disease showed how the value system works. Misinformation, poor investigation and the countless number of deaths were directly connected with the bodies that were infected. AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) also as known at the beginning of the 80’s as “the homosexual illness” provoked an urgent activism. ACT UP, in the USA, was one of these groups of activists. As well as, one of the most important references to the groups that are the focus of my investigation. Government’s inactivity removes a conciliatory approximation from this group. Their actions were radical and forceful. Some of its members founded in 1990 Queer Nation, whose most frequently slogan was: “We’re here! We’re Queer! Get used to it!” In Spain, the phenomenon was very similar. Javier Sáez one of La Radical Gai’s members explained: The AIDS crisis showed that the social construction of bodies, their repression, the exercise of power, homophobia, social exclusion, heterocentrism, etc. They are phenomena that communicate with each other, that are produced by means of a complex set of technologies, and that the reaction or resistance to these powers also demands articulated strategies 345 that consider numerous criteria: race, social class, gender, immigration, disease ... fundamental criteria of struggle that put the queer crowds on the table (Sáez, 2005, p. 68). 3. First queer groups in Madrid: La Radical Gai and LSD In the 90’s the transsexual subject started to be more visible for the feminist movement in Spain (Gil, 2011, p. 178), but it is not until 1993 when within the Jornadas Feministas Estatales (State Feminist Conferences), they started to link the feminist and trans movement (Ortega & Platero, 2015). The questions about the gender and sexual dualism were increased and the rethinking of the feminism subject was constant. In these years, appeared the first queer groups. They were found a Radical Gai and LSD (although they did not start as a queer group and they come from the tradition of the gay movement -La Radical gai- and the lesbian movement -LSD-, who made the zines that are our study case. In 1991 La Radical Gai (LRG) was born. It was an excision of COGAM that was the gay group in Madrid. The central debate was around assimilation in a normative structure or renegade the models that propose the social model. The change between the letter “y” from the gay word, to “i” was a rebel act to dissociate to the gay imaginary that it had become depoliticize and commodified. Sejo Carrascosa, one of the members of LRG, said about how this group was born as an alienation from the reformist trend of COGAM with an institutional derivation for a “political pragmatism”. For Carrascosa behind that it was the intention to be an association that offers information, psychological support, legal assistance, etc. to the gay community. LRG hatched as a new political thinking, and although are not known in this time, after would be known as queer (Pecorado, 2015). In 1993 LSD was born, a lesbian group who decided to change the homogeneous representation of the women and more specifically of the lesbians. Fefa Vila, an LSD’s member, said in an interview with Marcelo Expósito and Gracia Trujillo: And from there came the LSD group that had many names: ‘Lesbians without doubt’, ‘Lesbians spread’, ‘Lesbians different sex’, ‘Lesbians without destiny’, ‘Lesbians suspicious of delirium’, ‘Lesbian without God’, ‘Lesbians are divine’, etc. There was, on the one hand, a discourse of identity and affirmation, and on the other, a discourse of displacement of one’s own identities and one’s own political strategies. We interrelated the discourses of identity with a series of discourses such as anti-capitalism, discourse against the army, against militarization, against war, etc. (Expósito & Garcia, 2004, p. 161). They consider themselves as feminists, even though they had a critical approach to this movement. LSD was born as a group like-minded LRG. 7.2 Queer zines in Madrid in 1990’s 346 The chronology of both groups cannot be explained one without the other. Both groups made contributions to social movement and to the Queer Theory as we will see later. They fought together on several struggles, they share objectives and strategies. The location of their meetings was already a declaration of intentions, since they took place far from the traditional gay neighborhood, because it was an entertainment center for them, without any kind of demand. They moved to Lavapies, the immigrant neighborhood, where people of the lower and middle class lived. They understood that the LGBT struggle is intersectional with other factors such as social class, nationality, disability… They did numerous of striking performances and actions very much linked as groups like ACT UP (mostly from the delegations based in the U.S.A and France, with whom had a sort of connections). Other groups which were inspired by and had some contact along the ’90s were Queer Nation, Grand Fury, Lesbian Avenger, Outrage, among others. 3.1. The zines: De Un Plumazo and Non-Grata. Both zines, “De un Plumazo and Non-Grata”, chose a name that gave a new meaning through an appropriation of pejorative words. A similar process to the queer word, that was a negative concept, but it was reclaimed for a group of people to give it a positive connotation and through it deactivate and change the power of the language. Thus, “De Un Plumazo” it is a play on words referring to the word “pluma” (feather) that in Spanish is used to refer “feminine boys” but the phrase complete “De un plumazo” also is used to refer “all of a sudden” or “at a stroke”; Whereas, the title “Non-Grata”, is referred to people who are not welcome in some social circles. De un Plumazo started its publications in 1991 and published six numbers in addition to a dossier about AIDS and another one about a homophobic assault in Madrid. The production of this non-professional publication had an irregular periodicity. • Nº 0 June of 1991 (15 pages) • Nº 1, octubre of 1991 (15 pages) • Nº 666, 1993 (19 pages) (without information about the month) • Nº 3 mayo of 1994 (27 pages) • Nº 4 of 1995 (31 pages) (month unspecified) • Nº 5 of 1996 (31 pages) (month unspecified) The number published in 1993 was denominated QueerZine. Miriam Solá affirms that it was the first time the word queer was written in the Spanish Estate (Solá, 2012, p. 267) and it is very significant that it was in a zine, the sign of the active role which this kind of publications have. LSD started writing inside of this number (nº 666) of De un Plumazo an article titled “El sida desde el lesbianismo. Un nuevo apartheid sexual” (“AIDS from lesbianism. A new sexual apartheid”). But it was not until 1994 when Non-Grata commenced, and it was active until 1998. Along these years they published four numbers. • Nº 0 1994 (27 pages) • Nº 111 1995 (31 pages) 347 7.2 Queer zines in Madrid in 1990’s • Nº 2 1997 (35 pages) • Without number. L.S.D 1998 (44 pages). As we can see on the dates of publication Non-Grata had an irregular production as well, and the zine was in constant development. The layout’s evolution and its design were evident along the years, which also proves the progress of the technology in that decade. These two groups belong to the activist scene, nonetheless, their contributions to the academia and the Queer Theory in Spain were numerous since some of the members developed a career linked to the university. Some topics cross through the zines, but although the trajectories were very similar in both groups, the social struggles as gays and lesbians change the approach to different issues. Moreover, the gender specificities within the society and the temporal context the 90s, demonstrated how these groups were the link between gay and lesbian fight and the queer crowd. The international influence and the Spanish historical context provide the zines with several topics that were exposed from a pioneering point of view, such as the word “queer” as mentioned above. De Un Plumazo. In every number of De Un Plumazo appears their postal address, and in some of them, their bank account, since the accepted donations to realize their labor. In all the issues they point out that they were “anticopirait” [sic], in other words, they follow the zine philosophy of spreading the culture without author’s rights. Additionally, we can observe that they published monographic zines as “Homosexual Body” (number 3), “Marica” (number 4) and the “Exile” (number 5). The main topics in all the zines could be resume in AIDS, homosexual body, identity and queer representation. AIDS AIDS was all over their heads. The uncertainty of the situation provoked that they started to share information and started campaigns of prevention. Meanwhile, public institutions chose to be quiet. The gays’ groups did not want to talk openly about this, because they were afraid it could increase the stigma around homosexuality. The slogans of La Radical Gai were “The first revolution is survived”; “somebody must start the prevention”. They included provocative images in zines, and they designed posters to put on walls, bars, etc. In the first numbers of the zine, the HIV appears in the “news” section, but later on they decided to distribute a Dossier (without date, but probably published between 1991 and 1992). This dossier has been prepared by La Radical Gai. Answer the question that rise up in our group of new forms of operation that are articulated. It also responds, in one way or another, an our personal reality. It responds, finally, to what we consider a need: the articulation of a direct fight against AIDS and against everything that it is assuming; a struggle open to all the people considered relevant, and a fight that, of course, must have a clear anti-homophic component. This dossier is, then, a first response. Now it’s your turn (La Radical Gai, n.d., p. 2). 348 They assert that it is urgent to prepare prevention methods and education programs that would be inclusive. They stress that it is important to refer to “risk practices” instead of “risk groups”. LRG reflect like all the groups inside of the gay movement affirm to be anti-army, feminist and contraries to any social or political oppression, it is the moment to define themselves as a seropositive movement (La Radical Gai, n. d. pp. 5-7). Also, they are sensitive to the lesbian invisibility regarding this disease. Moreover, LSD wrote an article in De Un Plumazo, before they had their own zine, where demanded information and political actions. Homosexual Body AIDS accentuated the corporal dimension of the gays and the negation of the body was a pernicious strategy in a big part of the gay groups. Some associations and groups deny being a potential sick body and decided to turn a blind eye. LRG pointed out that, historically, the characteristic of the “hypercorporality” in the individual it is inversely proportional to the consideration as a citizen, this is evidenced in slaves, women, etc. (La Radical Gai, 1994, pp. 4-7). But they reclaim as a homosexual body, the issue dedicated to this theme (La Radical Gai, 1994) demand the corporal dimension: they are bodies, bodies that could be sick, die, be discriminated, enjoy, bodies whereby fight… By agreeing with this corporality and sexuality not only do a condom apology to avoid HIV in the penetration, but also inform of a broad range of sexual practices and the possible risk involved. The strategy is to change this place of oppression to a place of resistance, they affirm “only being a body, will be something more” (La Radical Gai, 1991, p. 8). Sexuality Each number of De Un Plumazo question What does it mean to be gay? They know that their identity goes far beyond purely biological or psychological terms. For them, sexual relations acquire, depending on the historical and cultural context, a different political dimension (La Radical Gai, 1991, p. 3). They position themselves in a revolutionary spot. They emphasize what ties them to the rest of the social struggles, rather than what bonds them to the Gay community for the simple fact of their sexual orientation. In any case, they know that the identity is not independent of the external look. They were a group in one side in danger, the object of all the kind of aggression, but on the other side, the HIV had turned into a risk group, a danger to the society. AIDS shaped their identity (La Radical Gai, 1993). In the monographic about the homosexual body, they confess to using two strategies/theories of liberation. On one side, the dissolution of the sexual category, and, on the other side clinging to gay identity (La Radical Gai, 1994, p. 16. Queer Representations Queer art was present in different facets through the zines of De Un Plumazo. They wrote and investigated about literature, cinema, music, etc… Every topic where the representation could be more or less appropriates or maintain stereotypes and show the great value from those were not accommodating. But also, the own zine published poems, stories, illustrations and any kind of queer cultural production. The visual component is very important in the zines 349 and these are not an exception. Comics, posters, collage, and reproduction of provocative pictures were essential in these publications. Some of them were extracted from foreign books, magazines, zines, etc. Such as the reproduction of the comic strip by Allison Bechdel from 1988 (La Radical Gai, n.d., p. 16). They created very provocative posters, mainly around the AIDS topic and they usually use as the image of these posters as the back cover. The main objective of these images was to speak openly and to attract the society’s attention. Non-Grata The members of LSD created their own zine in 1994. Likewise, De Un Plumazo, they included in every number their postal address and bank account, for suggestions and financial support. We can observe in their zines not only that they were influenced by the American and French thinkers, but also by the overwhelming reality from Spain. In the editorial of the first issue declared: Of LSD we know that you can talk at length, with the risk, even of losing the ‘sex appeal’, but we do not care too much about who we are, where we come from and where we are going, although we do not stop nosing about our identity and its representations [...] We are lesbians, lesbian feminists, lesbians and ‘queer’, lesbians here and there, perverse fat, immense thin, short rebel, tall southerners ... we fight to transform a heterosexist world, racist, patriarchal, lesbophobic and capitalist, and, turn it into a Dyke Earth where to continue practicing Sex D / R / SM / GT / SV / SA / SL / SS ... GGGGG! (LSD, 1994, p. 3). Non-Grata is also permeated by recurrent topic listed below. Invisibility The main problem was the complete invisibility as subjects. Faced with this tremendous problem suffered by lesbians, they played with two strategies, exactly in the same sense that LRG. On one hand, “hyperidentity”, and on the other, the mobility of identities. It may seem contradictory, but both strategies served them depending on the moment. From the first issue of Non-Grata, they define themselves as queer lesbians and move away from the traditional lesbian feminism that they considered to be essentialist. They preferred to play with the gender, mobility of identities, and in order to prove that they changed their name, so it had a different meaning according to the moment, only the L standing for Lesbian was kept. Identity As it was stated above, the first article that they wrote as a group is inside of De Un Plumazo and there, they addressed the disease and lesbianism. They also continued to write about this topic in their zines. The first problem was to be a visible subject that could get sick. There was an utter silence in the few prevention campaigns that existed. They wrote in their 1995’s zine: 7.2 Queer zines in Madrid in 1990’s 350 We lesbians do drugs, we have sex with women and men, we are promiscuous, we bleed, and we are sexually assaulted. Our sexual identity does not make us immune (LSD, 1995, p. 4). The truth is that the pandemic did not affect at the same level to gay men than to lesbian women, however, they demanded inclusive campaigns and insisted on discuss openly the drugs issue. Our sexual identity is not understood as an aseptic sexual preference, but as a political option as the queer define it (...) From this reflection we can understand certain alliances with gays, because lesbians (as women) have been socialized and culturalized under the oppression of a patriarchal system. We fight for our lesbian sexuality, we work for our representations, and from them we want to expand, as one of the most sublime subversive acts, the pleasures and possibilities of our bodies (LSD, 1994, p. 4) The invisibility, stated above, impregnated their identity. They were the otherness, the invisible opposition. Utopia for them was a world without sexual identity, where homosexuality does not exist because heterosexuality does not exist either. But they understand that they need a label, a category to be visualized as individuals, for that reason they state that to be a lesbian means to be visible (LSD, 1994, p. 4). They oppose to the essentialist definition of women and reclaim to the feminist movement to rethink sexuality and questioning it. Foreign influence and the introduction of the queer thinkers The influence of queer thinkers in the reflection of the performative of the lesbianism and the political identity is sometimes implicit (LSD, 1995, p. 10) but it is explicit as well, introducing terms as “political fiction”, or by doing an overview and connections between Judith Butler, Teresa de Lauretis, Kate Millet, Luce Irigaray, Adrienne Rich or Virginia Woolf (LSD, 1998, p. 11) or fundamental authors for the development of the queer theory as Michel Foucault (LSD, 1998, p. 18). The number of 1998 it is the first one with a subtitle: “Memory in invention: eroticism and lesbian politics”. In this number writes Beatriz Preciado, Paul B. Preciado now, a renowned queer author in Spain and with wide international repercussion (LSD, 1998, p. 6). In his article brings some ideas that will be developed in his book Manifiesto Contrasexual (2002) one of the most important works of Queer Theory in Spain. LSD made a worthwhile contribution by translating texts which were not accessible in Spain, for example, an article by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (LSD, 1998, p. 34) one of the pioneers of the Queer Theory. Queer art/gender performativity Representations and a lesbian imaginary are necessary to be able to exist as a subject. According to this, LSD makes two photographic exhibitions of 351 7.2 Queer zines in Madrid in 1990’s which include a selection in the number of 1995. They were discussing about the body in both of them. One of them is “Menstruosidades” (LSD, 1995, p. 11). It was a word game between the word period in Spanish and the word monster, in which they treat the social taboo about the menstruation. The period marks the passage from childhood to maturity. It is the moment when you are seen as a sexual being, so they wrote: “therefore it is the first step towards sin and shame”. But at the same time marks the moment you can start the reproduction, but from the lesbian body, the discourse is different. They use it as a language to turn upside down the public and private rituals. In that same zine, there are photos of the other exhibition Es-cultura lesbiana162 , showing nudes from another gaze, from her gaze. This is not a traditional woman nude. Of course, as they explain, they were labeled as pornographic. But they defend that they were tired of being sexually used, so for them it was better to use their bodies to confirm a different imaginary (LSD, 1995, p. 19). Not only these photographs respond to the corporal and conceptual deconstruct, but also the images reproduced in the different zines continue this line. In the last two numbers are recurrent the review of literature, music, cinema…even the reproduction of poems in their pages. Photomontages, illustrations, and comics had a prominence in the zines. All of them with the same intention: representations of the queer and lesbian reality. 4. Conclusion These zines are powerful instruments which filter discourses not hegemonic. The two zines analyzed in this paper proved this. These zines were made in a crucial moment when the questions about the subject of the gender studies or the idea of identity for gay people, crash with an epidemic crisis. The desperation provoked a convergence between the absorption of the international theories in gender studies and a strong presence in their particular context. The reflections between the sexual practices which categorized them, and the development of their own identity culminate in two strategies: “hyperindetity” and the dissolution of the identity. The images they used were quite raw and inflammatory. They looked for an impact and an urgent answer. In the case of these zines, it must be considered, that they are important for both the social movement and the academic theory. The groups were formed by activists, but we must not forget that many of them came from the university and after the dissolution of both groups, some of their members continued working at the university. They brought certain theorists that years later would be introduced in the academia, and especially the LSD translated several articles for dissemination. There was a greater intention to publish the ideas and authors that were effervescing in Europe and the USA, and that was changing the feminist thought of the time. In Non-Grata wrote an article Paul B. Preciado, which years later would be a fundamental reference in queer theory in Spain. Queer Theory disembarks entirely in Spain in the 2000s (although in 98 Ricardo Llamas one of the members of LRG wrote Teoría Torcida163), it is not up until 2002 when Paul B. Preciado writes Manifesto contrasexual (edited then under the authorship of Beatriz Preciado), a book that has quite an impact and the theory spreads. Some of his ideas were published in the zine Non-Grata. Paco Vidarte and Javier Sáez, two members of LRG were the first in Spain to teach a 163 There is not an official translation of the queer word into the Spanish language. Teoría torcida (“Distorted theory”) it was an attempt to give it, but finally, had been maintained its English version. 162 It is a word game. On one side, the meaning is “It is lesbian culture”, but as well could be read as “lesbian sculpture”. 352 course on queer theory; it was in 2003 at the UNED (Spanish Open University) introducing in an official way, the Queer Theory in the Spanish academia. I emphasize that its scope was limited, but with the perspective that has given us the time, we see its importance as a background in the academic field and in the field of activism. They were the first queer groups in Madrid and the zines are the testimony of the great work that they made164. Funding: This work was supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology under Grant PD/BD/143049/2018. References Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge. Duncombe, S. (1997). Notes for underground: zines and the politics of alternative culture. Bloomington: MIcrocosm Publishing. Gil, S. L. (2011). Nuevos feminismos. Sentidos comunes en la dispersión. Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños. La Radical Gai. (n.d.). Silencio=SIDA. Madrid. La Radical Gai. (1991). De Um plumazo, (0). Madrid. La Radical Gai. (1993). De Un Plumazo, (666). Madrid. La Radical Gai. (1994). De Un Plumazo. El Cuerpo Homosexual, (3). Madrid. LSD. (1994). Non-Grata, (0). Madrid. LSD. (1995). Non- Grata, (111). Madrid. LSD. (1998). Non-Grata. Memoria en invención: erotismo y política lesbiana. Madrid. Ortega, E., & Platero, L. (2015). Movimientos feministas y trans* en la encrucijada: aprendizajes mutuos y conflictos productivos. Quaderns de Psicología, 17(3), pp. 17–30. Osborne, R. (2008). 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La re-politización del feminismo, activismo y microdiscursos posidentitarios. In Desacuerdos 7: Feminismos (pp. 264–277). Granada: Centro José Guerrero, MACBA, MNCARS, UNIA. Trujillo, G. (2009). Identidades, estrategias, resistencias. Política y Sociedad, 46, 161–172. 164 A previous version of this work Vicente Aliaga, J., & Mayayo, P. (Eds.). (n.d.). Genealogías feministas en el arte español: 1960-2010. Madrid: MUSAC. was published in Spanish in 2017. Vidarte, P. (2007). Ética Marica. Madrid: Egales. de un plumazo y Non-Grata”- Ci- Vila, F., Navarrete, C., & Ruido, M.-. (2005). Está mal. Trastornos para devenir: entre arte y políticas feministas y queer en el Estado Español. In Desacuerdos Sobre arte, políticas y esfera pública en el Estado español. 2. Barcelona: Museu D Art Contemporani De Barcelo. “Fanzines y teoría queer. El caso berpolítica. Hacia las Cosmópolis de la información y la comunicación. VV.AA. Ed. INAP. Madrid. 353 7.3. Female artists, social media and alternative economy: the case of Amanda Palmer Beatriz Medeiros 165 and Beatriz Polivanov 166 A b s t r a c t In this paper we seek to investigate the strategies that the independent artist Amanda Palmer uses in order to gain visibility and financial capital to promote her music. Our theoretical background is mainly related to the process of selfpresentation in social media, along with Bourdieu’s (2013) notion of symbolic capital. Based on the analysis of posts made by the artist on social network sites, such as Twitter and Instagram, apart from her blog and book / memoir (Palmer, 2014), we argue that her approaches for getting the audience engaged with her pledges can be gathered in three axes: a) public exposure of intimacy; b) negotiations of asking and c) advertising her crowdfunding projects. Keywords: Female artists, alternative economy, Amanda Palmer, social media. 165 Universidade Federal Fluminense. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 166 Universidade Federal Fluminense. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 354 1. Introduction The present paper aims to debate the techniques used by musician Amanda Palmer who, in 2012, obtained more than a million dollars to release her album Theatre is Evil, by using the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. The event engendered commotion and granted a visibility the independent musician had not encountered through her career until then. Her musical career started by the end of the year 2000, when she approached the drummer Brian Viglione and both decided to start a band. The Dresden Dolls soon won a place on the small musical alternative scene in Boston, and Palmer decided to get in touch with the people that went to their concerts. She relates, in her autobiography The Art of Asking (2014), that everything started with a mailing list – she and Viglione would gather all the e-mails of people that enjoyed their performances – to keep the public updated about their upcoming gigs, new songs and videoclips. In early 2000, mailing was one of the most efficient and immediate ways of online communication, creating a sense of community and importance to the e-moderator (Berge & Collins, 2006). With the popularization of online forums and blogs, Amanda Palmer created the Shadow Box forum in 2002, where she shared news about The Dresden Dolls and got in touch more easily with their fans. She also started a personal blog, sharing details of her daily life – not only focusing on the band anymore (Palmer, 2014)167. With the frequent use of online gadgets as a way to reach out her fanbase, Amanda Palmer gained the trust of the audience. After the Dresden Dolls hiatus phase168, Palmer continued on using online platforms as a mean to keep contact with her fans, merchandising her solo career and sharing her daily life continuously. Amanda seems to share everything related to her professional life (and almost everything related with her personal life) with her internet followers. When she decided to leave the Roadrunner Records – record company she was signed with since 2003 – she explained all the process and asked her online fanbase to help her with the breach of contract169. The Palmer process of asking climaxed in a very successful crowdfunding in 2012. The album Theatre is Evil was ready and the musicians asked for the amount of one hundred thousand dollars only to release the work she had made with The Grand Theft Orchestra170 band. The project, however, reached over one million dollars surprising not only Amanda Palmer herself, but also the media and general public. The artist, then, was invited to give a TEDTalk (Palmer, 2013) where she explains what she calls “The Art of Asking”, and to write a homonymous book about her life and work. After more than six years, Palmer still uses the crowdfunding method to profit with her art. She joined the platform Patreon in 2015, where the creator receives money from the “patrons” 171 for each production published on the platform and has more than 11 thousand patrons paying around 23 to 99 thousand dollars for creations172. This fact shows that not only Amanda Palmer can actually profit without having to be attached to a major record company – enhancing the idea of Do It Yourself, that is often connected with the artist –, but she also succeeded in causing engagement with the audience to the point of achieving significant capital. Being that so, in this paper, we intend to analyze Palmer’s strategies of “entrepreneurship” from the point of alternative economy and the female 167 Both forum and blog can still be accessed through the respective links: <http://www.theshadowbox.net/forum/index.php>, <http://amandapalmer.net>. 168That happened in 2007 – the band got back together in 2015 to perform gigs. 169 The public showed many forms of support, including the Rebellyon movement (the record company wished to cut the bits that showed Palmer’s stomach on the video clip for Leeds United), and the hashtag movement #LOFNOTC – Losers Of Friday Night On Their Computers (Potts, 2012). 170 According to Amanda (2014), the band is formed by four of her musician friends. The name and formation are seasonal, only appearing in things related to the Theatre is Evil and was chosen by her fans on Twitter at Palmer’s request. 171 Contributors are people that pay for creations on Patreon. 172 Amanda Palmer does not publish the exact total amount of money she makes, but some statistics can be seen at https://graphtreon. com/creator/amandapalmer. 355 7.3. Female artists, social media and alternative economy: the case of Amanda Palmer place by using the musician’s perspective (mainly her book / memoir, blogs and tweets), as well as theoretical background regarding specially dynamics of selfpresentation in social media and how to analyze contents from such media. 2. The strategies In 2009, three years before the crowdfunding event, Amanda Palmer (2009) created a blog entitled Why I am Not Afraid To Take Your Money. In her blog, she talks about a live webcast on Twitter she held, and the fact that she earned ten thousand dollars from it. She was then advised by a friend to do something free, so people would not complain since “the ask-the-fans-formoney thing has gotten out of control”. In that same year, 2009, Palmer had asked the Roadrunner Records to retreat her contract (Dombal, 2009), which means she did not have a steady income to survive every month. Regarding this, she tells her fans on the blog: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely noticed that artists ALL over the place are reaching out directly to their fans for money. How you do it is a different matter. Maybe i should be more tasteful. Maybe i should not stop my concerts and auction off art. i do not claim to have figured out the perfect system, not by a long shot. BUT … i’d rather get the system right gradually and learn from the mistakes and break new ground (with the help of an incredibly responsive and positive fanbase) for other artists who i assume are going to cautiously follow in our footsteps. We are creating the protocol, people, and right here and now. I don’t care if we fuck up. I care THAT we’re doing it (Palmer, 2009). As one can see, Palmer not only explains the way things are working out for her, but she also seems to be imposing the “new way” of “colleting” money from her fanbase. This delicate situation is soothed when she included her fans in the logistics of “figuring out the system”. As she has been doing on her whole career, she creates a sense of society – in Simmel’s (2006) terms of a group joined by common interest – by including her fans in her processes of choice making. She makes it clear then that this might not work out, but Amanda reinforces the idea that she is not doing it alone, but together with all her fans. The break with Roadrunner Records was not only important to create a sense of duality (mainstream versus indie or “alternative”), which is very appealing to the industry itself (Janotti Jr. & Cardoso Filho, 2006), but also gave Palmer a good deal of visibility. This strategy also works with her already existing fanbase, as Liza Potts concluded: “Connecting with fans while disconnecting from her label is helping her build and cultivate her community” (Potts, 2012, p. 361). Nonetheless, how does Amanda Palmer engage her online fanbase? To answer this question, we collected data from her tweets, blog and Instagram posts, in addition to Palmer’s memoir The Art of Asking (2014), trying to figure out the strategies she resorted to create connection with her fanbase. 356 After this immersion, we were able to categorize the musician strategies to engage her own public in three aspects: a) public exposure of intimacy with daily posts on Twitter, including trivial events, aiming to create a sense of familiarity and proximity; b) negotiations with the audience by asking what she/her band needs (she would often ask for a place to sleep, which is called couchsurfing, or food or instruments for gigs, indication of places to rehearse etc.); and c) last, but not least, the advertising of the crowdfunding itself. These three categories often mingle on the musician’s feed and blog posts, creating an online performance that does not detach personal daily rambling from professional appointments and issues on topics. We are going to discuss each topic in detail, displaying examples of the strategies appointed. 2.1. Public exposure of intimacy In The Art of Asking (2014), Amanda Palmer explains how her career was shaped and how she embarked on the idea of a crowdfunding – and, at some point, why people helped her so much. When explaining the “essence of crowdfunding” (Palmer, 2014, p. 198), she comments on a “tip” that may help the project work: “It is a question of finding your people, your listeners, your readers and make art with them and for them. Not to the masses, not to the critics, but to your circle of friends that is always growing” (Palmer, 2014, p. 198). Following this logic, we start to understand the employed strategy executed by Amanda Palmer in order to captivate her fans. She not only desires to achieve a number of followers that can be helpful to promote herself, but she also wants to make them feel they are part of her personal group of friends. In Figure 7.3.1, we can see a selfie that Palmer takes and posts on her Instagram profile. We can see that she complements the post with a sentence that gives the idea of her own “authenticity”, or reality. The picture seems to illustrate the sentence: Amanda is looking directly at the camera; her eyes are wide open, and she wears no make-up. The angle is a “close-up shot realizing intimacy” (Zappavigna, 2016, p. 276), with natural light as the primary light and what seems to be only a light filter. This lo-fi aesthetics reminds the kitsch movement that, as Emily Dolan (2010) well explains, was adopted by artists – especially musical artists – because its simplicity gives off the sense of realness and proximity with the audience. Amanda Palmer commonly uses this type of aesthetics and try to create a sense of proximity by the use of personal images, as we noted earlier (Medeiros & Dias, 2017) when analyzing the video of her crowdfunding campaign (Palmer, 2012a). In the video, Palmer shows paper cards with her request for the people to participate on her crowdfunding. Meanwhile, a compilation of songs from Theatre is Evil plays on the background – this way people can listen to what they are supporting, while reading the pledge from Amanda herself 173 (Medeiros & Dias, 2017). More than once, the musician gazes at the camera, as if she is sharing something directly with the viewer. She also tries to include her fanbase on the video with the usage of written discourse of plurality. She writes on the paper cards: “This is the future of the music (…) we are the media” (Figure 7.3.2), as if including the audience that helps her with this “new” form of making music. 173 We also understand that this limits Palmer’s fanbase and people that want to help, since she will only reach those who have knowledge of the English language. 357 7.3. Female artists, social media and alternative economy: the case of Amanda Palmer Figure 7.3.1 - Selfie that instigates intimacy Source: Instagram (30 October, 2017). Figure 7.3.2 - Video take – “This is the future of music” Source: YouTube (Palmer, 2012a) This shows a performance that tends to create a sense of intimacy, by presenting some sort of unity with her fanbase. She is asking for their money but is also offering a symbolic capital in return – in the crowdfunding case, we can see the involvement of “affective capital” (Polivanov, 2012) with social capital, since the people would be helping the person they trust or desire to consume. As Polivanov argues, the idea of “affective capital” can be understood as an additional form of capital to Bourdieu’s proposition. It is a symbolic type 358 of capital related to feeling part of a certain community, but, more than that, belonging and being loved or cherished within that group. It can be materialized, for example, through positive comments and likes in social network sites. This way, we argue that when Palmer shows a card saying “I love you” in her video (Figure 7.3.3), she is appealing to this notion of capital, which, in this case, can be directly converted into economic capital as well. Figure 7.3.3 - Video take – “I love you” Source: YouTube (Palmer, 2012a). This creation of this sense of intimacy would not have worked out if Amanda Palmer, since the early days, had not showed what people assume to be her intimacy, a way to “share the look. Feel the connection” (Palmer, 2014, p. 49). According to the artist, her insertion on digital platforms happened not only to promote her own work, but also to know who her fans were. This establishes a coherence of performance that is expected by the audience, as Goffman (1956, p. 16) well puts: “In addition to the expected consistency between appearance and manner, we expect, of course, some coherence among setting, appearance, and manner”. Pereira de Sá and Polivanov (2012) discusses the importance of a maintenance of the expressive coherence to construct the “authentic” idea of self in social networking sites (SNSs). They describe it as a process which is “intensely complex” and involves “the adjustment of the self “image” towards the meanings that one social actor desires to express to the other, and that is strongly attached in the usage of cultural-mediated values” (Pereira de Sá & Polivanov, 2012, p. 581). However, as they point out based on Goffman’s ideas, other social actors always permeate the process. The performance of the self thus suffers influences depending on the context, the people that are seeing it and giving meaning to it, apart from the performer herself. This means that it is never built only by the presenter her/himself, but also with her/his audience. And also, that a process of “self-disclosure”, as Nancy Baym (2010) puts it, is necessary. Amanda Palmer seems to understand this and the importance of maintaining her followers engaged while she declares showing every bit of her own being174. 174 We do not intent to discuss if she really shows every bit of herself. She probably filters the aspects that she feels her fanbase will not welcome the way she wants, but this cannot really be proved or judged by us. 359 7.3. Female artists, social media and alternative economy: the case of Amanda Palmer Figure 7.3.4 - Tweet printscreen – “Favorite place to be kissed” Source: Twitter (2011). The use of Twitter in this case is of utmost importance. On the platform, she can quickly connect with her fanbase, giving the sense of immediate interaction – it is also an easier way to respond to the ones that follow her, by giving quick answers and retweeting the things that interests her and her constant performance. In the Figure above, Palmer “confesses” to a follower what seems to be an intimate characteristic of herself – the favorite place in her body where she likes to be kissed. Hence for Palmer the Twitter is not only a platform that assists the construction of expressive coherence aiming the idea of intimacy between artist and audience – remembering that it can only be taken as an ideal “in order to build any assumption of stability, control or concreteness of the subject as a result of the process” (Pereira de Sá & Polivanov, 2012, p. 581). As we will see in the next topic, the consistent use of Twitter also prompts Palmer’s fanbase in attending her requests, because of the constant negotiations of asking that the artist makes. 2.2. Negotiations of asking As we stated earlier, Palmer started connecting with her fans on the internet since the beginning of her career. As argued here, she does not limit the topics she posts to those related to the art productions she is involved with. Palmer has always tended to involve people in the imbrications of her personal life – whether talking about her problems or explaining how her daily routine works. When she started using Twitter, she discovered that this connection with her fanbase could be more effective than using a blog (that took time for her to write and for people to read) or posting something on the forum (that is not as practical as the SNS tool). As the musician wrote: “Explaining how I use Twitter to those who’ve never used it, is difficult. It’s a blurry Möbius strip of love, help, information, and social-art-life exchange” (Palmer, 2014, p. 134). One of the first Amanda’s interactions with the audience on Twitter was in 2009 – when she first joined the SNS. She organized a pillow fight in Austin, where she was performing at the SXSW festival and, according to Palmer herself, it involved about a hundred people and no music: “there hasn’t any music. I just tweeted, I hit at fans with pillow, I gave some hugs and I left” (Palmer, 2014, p. 135). She describes these interactions on Twitter like an evolution of something that she has always done. When she was still part of The Dresden Dolls and she did not use Twitter, she would use other media to try to find places to stay during a tour: “Sometimes, when we didn’t have where to spend the night, we simply asked at the stage: IF YOU CAN HOST US TONIGHT AT HOME, RAISE YOUR HAND” (Palmer, 2014, p. 94). Amanda Palmer transferred this type of request to her Twitter profile, as we can see on Figure 7.3.5: 360 Figure 7.3.5 - Tweet printscreen – “looking for places to crash” Source: Twitter, 2011. As Chen (2011, p. 757) discusses “the more time people spend on Twitter, the greater their potential to gratify a need to connect to other people on the socialnetworking site”. Which means that, as Amanda Palmer solidifies her presence on Twitter, her connection with her followers grows. The connection formed on the internet – in a variety of SNSs – is capable of engaging collaboration (Junco, Elavsky & Heiberger, 2012), making the process of asking easier. As we can see in the Figure above, Amanda is asking not only for information (Liu & Jensen, 2012), but for a specific information – a place to stay – that we do not normally see celebrities engaging on. As Palmer makes it clear, she trusts the people she engages with on SNS, even if she is not sure who is watching, writing and responding to her. This can be explained, because on online spaces of interaction “people form social relationships with media actors who are other people on the social network” (Chen, 2011, p. 756). The internet has then helped her “build a connection” with her fans as an artist, to “feel directly the community repercussion and to take the livelihood from it” (Palmer, 2014, p. 123). At this topic, it is important to clarify that the Theatre is Evil project was not the first crowdfunding steered by the musician. Way before her success on Kickstarter, in September 2010, she developed the first crowdfunding activity on the platform. With the title Amanda Palmer Presents: Tristan Allen’s Debut EP (Recording/Release), Palmer (2010) helps a fellow musician to record and release what ought to be his first EP. The project is introduced with a video recorded by Amanda Palmer of herself explaining how she met Tristan Allen and offered him help. The project presents a set of four rewards depending on if people donated five, 15, 25 or 100 (or more) dollars, and it obtained 8.581 dollars – the pledge was for 3.300 dollars – from 437 backers. It is an impressive number, since the project had been up in the platform for only three days (September 17th, 18th and 19th), the Kickstarter platform had about one year of activity175, and Tristan Allen was not a well-known artist. The second project Amanda (2011) released on Kickstarter was in conjunction with her now husband, the English writer Neil Gaiman. With the title of An Evening with Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer, the crowdfunding promoted the idea of backers helping the couple to perform a tour on the US West Coast. 3.873 people backed up this crowdfunding and Amanda Palmer received 133.341 dollars – she had pledged the goal of 20.000 dollars, setting a new success. The crowdfunding was up in the platform for 26 days (from September 6 to October 3 of 2011) and involved two well-known people in the alternative/geek scene176. This project won 13 rewards, including the most expensive one (of 2.500 dollars), where the backer would receive a: ‘Golden Ticket’ VIP experience for ALL five shows including 2 tickets to each, admission to soundcheck 175 The Kickstarter was launched in April 28th, 2009. 176 Especially Neil Gaiman. He has been a HQ and romance writer since the late 1970s and has a considerable number of works converted to the screen, for example, Stardust (novel: 1999, movie: 2007), Coraline (novel: 2002, animation: 2009) and more recently, American Gods (novel: 2001, series: 2017). The writer is also famous for his comic book series Sandman, published by DC Comics (1989 – 1993) and Vertigo (1993 – present). 361 7.3. Female artists, social media and alternative economy: the case of Amanda Palmer & meet and greets with Amanda and Neil, the best VIP seats in the house, EVERY piece of merch available (including all solo NG & AFP items, TBD), a special hug from Amanda & Neil for being SO supportive, and a tour laminate & lanyard + signed, personalized, and NUMBERED (of 100) limited edition ‘An Evening With…’ CD set & poster + limited edition signed & numbered fine art print of AFP & NG, taken by Allan Amato + surprise from AFP & NG + digital download (Palmer, 2011). Besides the material rewards, including limited editions of pass entries to the backstage, albums, posters, and so on, the backer would also receive the experience of meeting and interacting with Palmer and Gaiman. In fact, the backer could accompany the couple throughout the tour, paying for the experience of being part of the crew. This can be configured as an exchange of symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 2013) between the artists and their fans, since it is a form of “the search for distinction to be distinctive” (Bourdieu, 2013, p. 300) resulting in some form of privilege and uprising in the hierarchy of Palmer’s fandom. This type of negotiation and capitalization is also present on the “main” crowdfunding project of Amanda Palmer, Theatre is Evil. Palmer also uses it constantly when she asks out on Twitter for inspiration to music lyrics or indications of people that can play with her on her gigs. The exchange does not focus only on the materiality, but also on the social recourses that will bring gratification to the fans that are able to help, and the musician herself. By doing it since the beginning of her career, and even involving the “smallest” and what seems to be most insignificant things, Palmer creates a culture inside of her constructed society – the culture of exchange. 2.3. Advertising the crowdfunding The last point that we bring to try to understand the strategies used by Amanda Palmer to engage people on her crowdfunding endeavor is the advertisement of the crowdfunding itself. At this point, she no longer “prepares” her public, but asks directly for the money she needs using the SNSs and her personal blog. We highlight right now the use of blog posts, where the musician would detail the daily routine of her productions linked with the Theatre is Evil project. One example is the post “IT’S MY BIRTHDAY AND HERE’S WHAT I WOULD LOVE” (Palmer, 2012b), made on 30 April 2012 – 29 days after the crowdfunding project started. On this post, Amanda brings together two important events of her life: the project and her own birthday. The picture that illustrates the blog – a selfie made by Amanda, with the phrase “Happy Kickstarter Birthday to me” –, enhances this. The blog post follows the ensuing point: guess fucking what? it’s my birthday!!!!! i’m 36. happy birthday me. la la la la la. guess what else? (…) like a rock n’ roll paul revere with tits, i launched my brand-new-album-pre-order on 362 kickstarter in the wee hours of the bostonnight. so before you ask me WHAT YOU CAN GET ME FOR MY BIRTHDAY, um, here’s a hint: FOR FUCK’S SAKE BACK THE KICKSTARTER (Palmer, 2012b, highlights in the original) By announcing the release of the project together with the disclaiming of her own birthday, Palmer asks for her fans to support her Kickstarter project as her present. We understand that she is using a trace of intimacy as something to engage the public. The musician appeals to the emotional side of her fanbase that constantly backed her up when needed, by asking directly for their support as a favor – or, at this specific case, as a gift. Later, on the blog post, she reinforces the request by saying: “i cannot tell you how much it will mean to me if you’re broke but you still choose to give me a dollar to back the project.” She also demonstrates that, even if the person cannot help financially, “if you can’t even do that…spread the link” (Palmer, 2012b). The action of sharing at this point is important to the musician that supposedly does not count with expensive and big means of promotion, but with online word of mouth that her fans can offer. This sharing of favors and experiences seems to be a characteristic of her constructed “society”. We can see that it takes shape while she constructs a type of online ambient affiliation (Zappavigna, 2011) of people that exchange symbolic capital with the musician and themselves. One example is hashtags movements, such as #LOFNOTC (Losers of Friday Night On Their Computers), where Amanda Palmer successfully creates discussions with her fanbase about her own life and the life of the people that followed her or the hashtag. She would often ask for responses, photographs, music, movies and books indication, creating a sense of trust and equal exchanges with her fans (Medeiros, 2018). According to Coleman (2015), the crowdfunding would not be so successful were it not for these early exchanges (the #LOFNOTC was created by Amanda in 2009). But we believe that the way she promoted the Kickstarter project also stars as an important figure in the outcome. Besides the Twitter movement and the blog posts where she would directly ask for her public for money or engage in helping with the publicity (it was not rare to read requests such as “share it with your friends and family”, creating a sense of domestic exchange), the video is an important feature to the crowdfunding visibility. As we previously discussed (Medeiros & Dias, 2017), the promotion video created by Amanda to explain Theatre is Evil project can be seen as a performance, since it engages responses from the viewers on the Kickstarter page and on YouTube. In the video itself, Amanda tries to bring forth the sense of community to engage her created society. When she states, “We are the media” (Figure 7.3.6), she may be trying to engage the sense of responsibility on her public. Since she is bringing a different approach to the music industry, the audience – and herself, hence the usage of the “we” – is responsible to share her work and make herself be known as an artist. 363 7.3. Female artists, social media and alternative economy: the case of Amanda Palmer Figure 7.3.6 - Video take – “We are the media” Source: YouTube (Palmer, 2012a). Besides that, the promotion video was posted in every profile Amanda had on SNSs by the time of the project. This means that people could find the video on Kickstarter platform, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Palmer’s personal blog. This creates a sense of spreadable media (Jenkins, Ford & Green, 2013) capable of creating not only visibility, but also meaning and value to the video and the crowdfunding itself, giving the visibility desired by Amanda Palmer that resulted on her gaining more than a million dollars. 3. Closes Throughout this paper, we understand that there is a clear notion about the importance of visibility to attain funds when it comes to “independent” artists. Amanda Palmer is not connected with any major or big publicity or record companies, which means that she is dependent on the public when it comes to her promotion. It is important for us to highlight, however, that the crusade of Palmer towards her crowdfunding success was not without any kind of conflict. She was severely criticized by the media, other music colleagues and the public in general for the use of the crowdfunding. The critics justify themselves by noting that even after receiving more money that she actually asked for, she maintained independent artistic practices, common on her career, as calling volunteer musicians on the stage, but not paying them. This specific analysis did not fall into our scope in this paper, but we believe that there can be future works to critically think about how “independent” women artists are seen in comparison with “independent” male artists – especially inside the rock scene and looking from the entrepreneurship perspective. We argue that independent female musicians tend to have to prove themselves through some specific values. In Palmer’s case, the construction of authenticity by using a coherent online performance seems to be a way to attain this legitimacy (Medeiros, 2018). She displays, as we saw in this paper, consistent and logical public appearances, notably on her SNSs, blog, and other social media. In conclusion, we understand that the use of social media to sell products, ideas or even services is widely spread among not only independent artists, but also big companies, in different areas. This creates a pattern of promotion and entrepreneurship that configures a way of capitalization. It seems, however, that for independent artists the SNSs and other online gadgets that can produce visibility are a necessary means. They build a sense of “co-presence” 364 (Miller, 2012) and interaction with the public in a way to make oneself known in order to be consumed. Funding: This work was supported by CAPES (Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination; Brazil), under scholarship for Beatriz Medeiros’ MA dissertation. References Baym, N. (2010). Personal connections in the digital age. Cambridge: Polity Press. Berge, Z. L. & Collins M. P. (2006). Perceptions of e-moderators about their roles and function in moderating electronic mailing lists. Distance Education, 21(1), pp. 81-100. Bourdieu, P. (2013). Symbolic capital and social classes. Journal of Classical Sociology, 13(2), pp. 292-302. Chen, G. M. (2011). Tweet this: A uses and gratifications perspective on how active Twitter use gratifies a need to connect with others. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(1), pp. 755-762. Coleman, C. (2015). Crowdfunding and Online Identity: Cashing it on Authenticity? Journal of Music Research Online, 6. Retrieved from: http://www.jmro.org.au/index.php/mca2/article/view/115. Dolan, E. (2010). ‘…This ukulele tells the truth’: indie pop and kitsch authenticity. Popular Music, 29(3), pp. 457-469. Dombal, R. (2009, April 1). Amanda Palmer Tells Roadrunner Records: “Please Drop Me”. Pitchfork. Retrieved from: https://pitchfork.com/news/34979amanda-palmer-tells-roadrunner-records-please-drop-me/ Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books. Janotti Jr., J. & Cardoso Filho J. (2006). A Música Popular Massiva, o Mainstream e o Underground: trajetórias e caminhos da música na cultura midiática. In J. Freire Filho & J. Janotti Jr. (Eds.), Comunicação e Música Popular Massiva. Salvador: Edufba. Jenkins, H., Ford, S. & Green, J. (2013). Spreadable media – creating value and meaning in a networked culture. New York and London: New York University. Junco, R., Elavsky, C. M. & Heiberger, G. (2012). Putting twitter to the test: Assessing outcomes for student collaboration, engagement and success. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(2), pp. 273-287. Liu, Z. & Jansen, B. (2012). Almighty Twitter, What Are People Asking For? Assist, 49(1), pp. 1-10. Medeiros B. & Dias N. (2017). Crowdfunding is Not for Everybody: Performance in the Art of Asking. In Merril J. (Ed.), Popular Music Studies Today. Systematische Musikwissenschaft. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Medeiros, B. (2018). Performatizando autenticidade na cultura digital: Amanda Palmer e os processos de legitimação de musicistas “independentes”. (MA Dissertation). Niteroi: Universidade Federal Fluminense. Miller, D. (2011). Tales from Facebook. Cambridge: Polity Press. Palmer, A. (2010). Amanda Palmer Presents: Tristan Allen’s Debut EP (Recording/ Release). Kickstarter. Retrieved from: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ amandapalmer/amanda-palmer-presents-tristan-allens-debut-ep-rec/comments Palmer, A. (2011). An Evening With Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer. Kickstarter. Retrieved from: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/anevening-with-neil-gaiman-and-amanda-palmer?ref=profile_created. Palmer, A. (2012a). AMANDA PALMER’s new RECORD, ART BOOK, and TOUR (pre-order on KICKSTARTER). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TveAzAs6NAY Palmer, A. (2012b). IT’S MY BIRTHDAY AND HERE’S WHAT I WOULD LOVE. Amanda Palmer. Retrieved from: http://blog.amandapalmer.net/its-my-birthday-and-heres-what-i-would-love/ 365 7.3. Female artists, social media and alternative economy: the case of Amanda Palmer Palmer, A. (2013). Amanda Palmer: A arte de pedir. TEDTalk. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj_P_6H69g Palmer, A. (2014). The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help. New York: Grand Central Publishing. Palmer, A. (2009, October 2). Why I am not afraid to take your money, by Amanda fucking Palmer. The Rumpus. Retrieved from: https://therumpus.net/2009/10/ why-i-am-not-afraid-to-take-your-money-by-amanda-fucking-palmer. / Pereira de Sá, S. & Polivanov, B. (2012). Auto-reflexividade, coerência expressiva e performance como categorias para análise dos sites de redes sociais. Contemporânea – Comunicação e cultura, 10(3), pp. 574-596. Polivanov, B. (2012). Dinâmicas identitárias em sites de redes sociais: estudo com participantes de cenas de música eletrônica no Facebook. Rio de Janeiro: Multifoco. Potts, L. (2012). Amanda Palmer and the #LOFNOTC: How online fan participation is rewriting music labels. Participations. Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 9(2), pp. 360-382. Simmel, G. (2006). Questões Fundamentais da Sociologia – indivíduo e sociedade. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Zahar. Zappavigna, M. (2011). Ambient affiliation: A linguistic perspective on Twitter. New Media & Society, 13(5), pp. 788-806. Zappavigna, M. (2016). Social media photography: constructing subjectivity in Instagram images. Visual Communication, 15(3), pp. 271-292. 366 7.4. #VaiMalandra Anitta’s music video in digital networks: political clashes and prejudices in Brazil Gabriela Gelain 177 and Christian Gonzatti 178 A b s t r a c t The Brazilian singer Anitta, by articulating the cultural matrices of AnglophileAmerican pop music (Soares, 2015) and the funk carioca (Pereira de Sá, 2014), has started a scenario of controversy by Spreading (Jenkins et al., 2014) of the videoclip named Vai Malandra. Anitta’s videoclip is here understood as (cyber)event (Henn, 2014) in the context of digital networks and it is also configured as an initiatory of semiosis (Peirce, 2002) that can be materialized in order to understand different complexities. Using the methodology called Sense Construction Analysis in Digital Networks (Henn et al., 2017), we mapped eight constellations of senses inaugurated by the Spreading of the video in specific contexts: Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. We have focused our efforts in two constellations that we called political confrontations and prejudices, capable of signaling in which way this videoclip brings discussions about sexuality and gender (LOURO, 2003) - including the confrontation between different feminist perspectives - aesthetic-body patterns, latinicities, and also conservatives and prejudiced perceptions about production, signaling some constructions/imaginaries of whiteness (Miskolci, 2015). In such circumstances, we understand that Pop Music inaugurates semiotic territorialities (Henn, 2017) in which different semiosis emerge, engender and confront each other, signaling how cultural differences are symbolically threatened in digital culture and the ways in which political content of Pop can be expanded. Keywords: Pop music, funk carioca, digital networks, gender, Anitta. 177 ESPM-SP - School of Advertising and Marketing - PhD in Communication and Consumer Practice São Paulo, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 178 University of the Rio dos Sinos Valley – Communication Department. Porto Alegre, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 367 7.4. #VaiMalandra Anitta’s music video in digital networks: political clashes and prejudices in Brazil 1. Introduction In contemporary times, given the potentialities of language through digital culture, we have noticed an intense production of meaning around the most diverse events. In other words, almost all people - acting through profiles on social networking sites (Recuero, 2014) - have an opinion for everything. Territories of constant “shouting, ruffling and confusion” have become articulated to the most different sociocultural, economic, political, and geographic issues in a chain of infinite potentialities. We tend to classify such processes in a binary logic: social actors who support something and those who stand against those who like and dislike, voters of a “yes” and those of a “no.” In contrast, what we have noticed through the analysis of sense construction in digital networks (Henn et al., 2017), methodology developed in the LIC group, Laboratory of Investigation of Cyberaccount, of the Post-Graduation Program in Communication Sciences of Unisinos (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) , reveals complexities, disputes and positions in the face of different polemics capable of getting us out of the dichotomous classification, allowing us to understand the nuances, approximations and motivations through the junctions between theories and methods, capable of demonstrating how networked conversations are engendered in certain contexts, as they can be configured in numerous constellations of meanings. In this context, we began to problematize the action, reproduction and propagation of signs - what Peirce (2002) understood as semiosis - around the music video Vai Malandra179, by singer Anitta. The music video debuted breaking records on Youtube reaching more than 15 million views in 24 hours. With a funk sound, the music was linked to the scene of the Vidigal shantytown (favela) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Enit bikinis of insulation tape to catch a tan on the slab, braids, bodies, plastic swimming pools, spinning, shacks, water boxes, the hill, the close in a butt with cellulite and all aesthetic mess, Anitta seeks to recreate the shantytown (favela) as someone with a “place of speech”, because it usually positions itself as a woman who emerged from such geopolitical territoriality. The researcher Rodolfo Viana (2018) makes a powerful metaphor in relation to what we understand here as a pop and political character (Melo & Gheirart, 2016) of the music video. He quotes a TV spot from Ipanema with Gisele Bündchen, in which she walks over the edge and places of Rio de Janeiro while all the ways open to her. A walk that has symmetries with the parade of Anitta on the hill in the video of Vai Malandra. The author then reflects that Carmem Miranda was not the last Brazilian with notable visibility abroad, but rather the model Gisele Bündchen - a woman within what has historically been convened as the beautiful, white, and southern of the country, with European descent and characterized as a possibility of perfection by advertising. On the other hand, there is an internationalization of Anitta, which reconfigures these markers of “perfect naturalness”, contradictory, with an “imperfect” ass - or true, insofar as it balances and has cellulites. He also understands that it is a model of favela captured by the exportation, which dominates the hegemony of a category of woman that is at the service of man’s desire, in that one of the male subjects on the scene has practically a harem in a slab, but instead shows that, in fast frames, people trans, fat, fag, queer. In this way, we are interested in dimensioning and problematizing the reverberation of the music video, focusing on its politicalactivist senses, as well as the closure of cultural differences, in a context in which audiences perform their digital affections, criticisms and perceptions about different objects. 179 Retrieved from: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=kDhptBT_-VI. On June 8, 2018, the clip had more than 270 million views. 368 2 . C e l e b r i t i e s o f p o p m u sic in context of networks Before we reflect on the video of Vai Malandra180, it is necessary to recognize that its sense-generating force is totally crossed by Anitta. Therefore, we understand that the analysis of the senses triggered by the video clip requires reflection on the aspects that characterize a celebrity in our current context. Edgar Morin (1997), in the 1960s, understood celebrities through a metaphor with the Olympians, qualifying them as “press interviews”, situated between the real and the imaginary, being able to elevate information to other statuses. In this context, the interfaces between cultural industries and these “mythological beings” constructed to be “venerated” as the goddesses and gods of Ancient Greece were already placed in this context. Such a celebrated status has been reconfigured through the emergence of social networking sites and the conversations and approaches that are embodied in them. Camila Cornutti (2015) understands that celebrity cannot be thought of as just a famous person. There is a complex of professionals and teams that build it and act on its image. It is not possible, at this juncture, to analyse the celebrity without its articulations with, for example, the fashion industry and journalism that will configure its powers in news. The author understands, therefore, that the dynamics of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram interfere in the circulation power of what is driven by a celebrity. Simões (2014) will understand this power, not properly in digital networks, but in society, as a power of affectation - which is defined through discussions about events. It is part of the understanding of Quéré (2005), for whom the event brings in itself the inaugural force of meaning, capable of instituting discontinuities in the subjects’ experiences, affecting their subjectivity, in order to point out an eventful dimension of celebrities. We emphasize - in order to broaden the understanding about the eventful dimension of celebrities from the perspective of the author - the importance of discussing two fields that interfere with this event logic. The first is the diversity of the logics of cultural industries capable of generating different celebrated affectations, while the second lies in the performance specificities of digital networks, capable of reconfiguring aspects of this discussion. There are different categories famous in the contemporary world. Cornutti (2015) will classify celebrities, revising theories around this discussion, through the contexts that generate their fame - webcelebrity, for example, would be one that has developed a status celebre through the possibilities of digital culture. But as we are concerned here with the production of meanings in the context of pop culture, we argue that there are specificities in relation to celebrities according to their main performance skills and the means in which they are advertised - music, film, television, radio, internet. It is true that many celebrities will perform multiple tasks, but it is also true that there is usually a predominant field of expertise. In the case of Anitta, for example, the performative directives of a singer of pop music predominate. For Thiago Soares (2015, p. 22), “Pop music is an articulator of real and fictional urban tessituras, from voices and bodies that materialize between networks of sociabilities.” The author also states that we are in a capitalist stage in which we can no longer work with binary analyses in the relationship between capital and culture. Cultural products thus have hallmarks of capitalist logic and, at the same time, are within a culture. He also argues that (Soares, 2012, p. 13) 180 The full presentation at Kismif’s Conference can be seen here: https:// tinyurl.com/vaimalandra-kismif 369 7.4. #VaiMalandra Anitta’s music video in digital networks: political clashes and prejudices in Brazil We need to recognize that we are facing new star system models and the emergence of social networks as a performance environment. Thinking about these tools will certainly help us to deepen and deepen our understanding of pop culture phenomena and products. Therefore, in relation to pop music, we have a celebrity that will be embodied through mainly live performances, shows, video clips in an ambience (McLuhan, 1969)181 situated in the reconfigurations of digital networks. For Raquel Recuero (2014), the social networking sites allowed the expansion of networks of sociability. Networking in these spaces arises from the connection between profiles that can divide, negotiate and construct different contexts of interaction, exchanging and disseminating information, creating links and establishing social networks on Internet platforms. For her, thus, the interaction is a performatic event, and can occur through different languages. Through these instances, profiles begin to be constituted and reconstructed, crossing the construction of identities. Soon, a music celebrity will also be involved in these dynamics, either through the intention to broaden their visibility by playing on different social networking sites, fan action or the logic of cultural industries and their different markets. Such potentialities reconfigure the notion of the celebrity’s episodic dimension. If the celebrity, in Simons’ perspective (2014), can be understood as an event, and if the senses triggered by events affect subjects and themselves, we argue that the inaugural power of events of a celebrity also crosses the developed and publicized products and cultural industries, given that the temporal duration of events is linked to their potential for creating intrigues, revelations, modifications of situations and affectations (Quéré, 2000). Given that the ambience through which video clips are released is digital culture, we propose here to reflect on them as inaugurators of e-events (Henn, 2014). 3. Notes to reflect the video clip as an e-video In Soares’ perspective (2012), the music video is configured as a media / television genre. The author narrates that, in the beginning, the format was called a musical number, becoming, then, the promo, a reference to the word “promotional”. In the 1980s, the term “videoclip” became usual. The “clip” would mean a cut (such as in newspapers and magazines), clamp or clamp, showing just the commercial aspect of this audio-visual content. He also discusses the aesthetic construction of this media category, capable of overcoming the boundaries between art and publicity - which would have been crucial for the development of MTV. In the context of digital culture, Simone Pereira de Sá (2017) will complicate the issue through the notion of post-MTV music video: when the internet becomes a means of dissemination, consumption and affectation of the messages of these pop products. It is our duty here to explain our understanding of consumption. Canclini (1999, p. 77) understands that “consumption is the set of sociocultural processes in which the appropriation and use of the products are carried out”, being therefore a basis of the integrative and communicative rationality of society. It is understood not only as the possession of objects, but as a way of understanding the distinctions with the other, the relations of solidarity 181 The notion of ambience presupposes that a new medium is capable of instituting cultural, cognitive, political, geographic, and economic changes - thus, the main message of a medium is itself. We are inspired by this Mcluhian notion to understand how the context of the internet, and more precisely of social networking sites, re-signified pop culture. 370 and the way in which biological and symbolic desires are sated, crossed by a communicational dimension. This notion of consumption defends the dynamics of objects and “(...) their ‘semiotic virtuosity’ in the various contexts in which things allow us to meet people.” (Canclini, 1999, p. 91). What crosses the multiple dimensions of pop culture in digital networks - as well as its configuration as cyberaccount. To paraphrase McLuhan (1967), Ronaldo Henn (2014) will understand that each medium is related to a kind of event. The author states that the event has a profoundly semiotic dimension: emerges an infinite possibility of unravelling the object that incarnates through semiosis (Peirce, 2002). Before, the semiotic object (event) generated signs (journalistic narratives) through the action of interpreters (journalistic logics), but such logics have been broken by digital culture, generating other possibilities of emergence and narrativization of events. The e-events are, as a consequence of these crossings, an event woven through the dynamics of the internet and, more properly, of social networking sites. Conversation in digital networks, from this perspective, materializes semiosis and makes possible to see a process of construction of the event under construction. This signalizes the possibility, through the logics through which the contents are scattered (Jenkins et al., 2014) through spaces of sociability, to make e-events (Aquino Bittencourt & Gonzatti, 2017). For Yuri Lotman (1996), the semiosphere would be the space of convergence and metabolization of the semiosis - the processes that produce meaning in reality would arise, as a result, the movements, exchanges, ruptures and closures of semiospheres. At this juncture, pop music celebrities operate as semioticized corporations through different products and their consequent consumption. Henn (2017) infers that cyberaccount is therefore capable of configuring semiotic territorialities, in which different semiospheres emerge, engender and confront each other, signalling how cultural differences are configured in these spaces. As a result of these discussions, we argue that if, as discussed here, not only celebrity has an eventful dimension, but also what it activates - its semiosis such signs can be configured as e-events, as the ambience of different digital networks gives them the portability and inaugural force of senses. There are also journalistic logics that will adjust to the speed, characteristics and languages of pop, configuring a pop culture journalism (Gonzatti, 2017). As a continuity of these perceptions, the videoclip, understood as a cyberaccount, in the context of digital networks, has its semiotic powers triggered: it configures itself as a trigger of semiosis that can be materialized in order to understand different complexities. Thus, the singer Anitta, by articulating the cultural matrices of Anglo-American-American pop music (Soares, 2015) and the funk carioca (Pereira de Sá, 2014), triggered a scenario of controversy by spreading (Jenkins et al., 2014) Go video of Malandra. With the analysis of sense-building in digital networks (Henn et al., 2017), we sought to analyse the semiotic traits he has developed, specifically discussing two networks of meanings. 4. Constellations of senses inaugurated by the spreading of the video Vai Malandra Conversations in digital networks can bring information about collective feelings, tendencies, interests, intentions, influencing culture and triggering different phenomena (Recuero, 2014). Pereira de Sá (2014) argues that it is 371 7.4. #VaiMalandra Anitta’s music video in digital networks: political clashes and prejudices in Brazil necessary to go beyond the analysis of the senses and ideologies contained in the video clip itself, but to follow its traces, links, displacements, connections (with other audio-visual products, software, communication platforms, human actors). The author draws on aspects of the actor-network theory and, by presenting categories that signal how funk reverberates on a specific web page, approaches the methodological movement with which we propose to work here: the analysis of the construction of meanings in digital networks developed for the study of e-events (Henn et al., 2017). The analysis of the construction of meanings in digital networks has as presupposition three movements: the mapping, the elaboration of sense constellations and the development of inferences about such processualities. The first movement, starting from cartographic inspiration, will seek a diversity of semiotic traces from a given object: publications on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, forums and journalistic materials - capturing the complexity of language matrices in their different contexts (videos, memes, gifs, photographs, audios, etc.). Subjectivity and process cross-sections are crucial for the elaboration of sense constellations: semiotic groupings that seek to reconfigure signs of different temporalities and territories in constellations capable of revealing singularities of events through specific perspectives. Finally, in inferences, the process gains theoretical-problematizing materiality through the discussion proposed by a given problem. The videoclip Vai Malandra was released on December 18, but before that date strategies were already developed for sensing power in digital networks such as the publication of the cover of the single (Covre, 2017) on the 12th, and the release of material teasers (Medeiros, 2017). We take as a cyber-focal point, the publication of the material and its consequent scattering, configurator of different territorialities and constellations of meanings. Through the Nimbus Screenshot tool, an extension of Google Chrome that allows us to capture materials in a larger quantitative scale, we begin to map the senses, being affected by the different paths that they took us, in three specific spaces: in Facebook, specifically in a publication with a link to the videoclip on the official Anitta website; on Twitter, through the hashtag Go Malandra in the advanced search; and YouTube, in the comment area of the video clip. In the mapping process, we kept a file with the annotations of the cartographic process. Between the fifteenth and twenty days of January, we proceeded to the process of developing the sense constellations. We take as a clipping, the saturation of the sense constellations, given the large amount of material collected. In Facebook, 308 comments were grouped in constellations - in the comment 13 already we had obtained six groupings and in the 80, eight, at which moment the material reached the main structure of its semiotic map. On Twitter, 324 comments and Youtube, 126 were grouped. We present, therefore, the characterization of each of the sense constellations elaborated through the mapping and analysis of the 758 comments. Stressing that the method does not presuppose groupings as excluding - they penetrate, articulate, stress and distance constantly. In fact, a comment may be grouped in more than one group. • Promotion of self / Publicity: profiles are promoting themselves through the hashtag of #VaiMalandra. People speak of themselves as malandras, develop montages with their faces in place of Anitta in the cover of the single. Brands and companies acting through the hashtag 372 to publicize their products and actions - be it creatively, such as Detran, which made visible the importance of helmet use in traffic through the scene in which Anitta is using the protection in the video clip, or just to place a product in circulation182. • Fandoms: senses related to Anitta fans. There is the presence of a female goddess through the image of the pop diva. They point out contradictions of those who did not like the music video. They use humour and memes (like an image of Monica’s character, created by Maurício de Sousa, seated in front of a computer, with a look that emulates Anitta in the music video and the phrase “damn, I’m so naughty!”). Concerns about the visibility and record of the video appear and the development of strategies to make the music, the clip and Anitta visible. They point to the singer as the new Carmem Miranda, develop haters’ quarrels and comment on dates and regions in which the music video was watched as a way to get a hold of the material - given that the algorithm of social networking sites spreads more powerfully content more comments. All fan comments are understood to be supporters of Vai Malandra. • Support: we understand that here are the semioticides that are not necessarily fans of Anitta, but who demonstrate positive perceptions regarding the music video. They develop an advertising of this “liking” through the publication of video, snippets of music, praise for the singer’s administration of their career, and use less “grand” adjectives than “Fandoms.” • Humour: Make comments about using the clothing of the clip in situations of their daily life, use memes, gifs and montages. There is also the debauchery of conservative comments. • Disconnected: senses that we cannot fit into a constellation. Marking friends, using emoticons, decontextualized comments. • Critics / Perceptions: comments that criticize, positively or not, the music. Debate the bodies of the video clip expressing wishes about them. They perceive differences between the funk of different regions of Brazil. They put opinions that are not crossed by a critical activism or hate speech. The other two constellations of meanings - denominated as “Cultural Preconceptions” and “Political-Identifying Confrontations” - will be presented through the inferences step, in view of the purpose of the article. We consider important, although we have already pointed out the engendering of the semiotic constellations, to emphasize that all the meanings of these two constellations are also configured as critiques and perceptions, but not all criticism and perception is grouped in one of these constellations. 4.1. Political-identity confrontations and cultural prejudices We focus our efforts in the constellations of political confrontations and cultural prejudices, capable of signalling the way in which the videoclip in question leads to discussions about sexuality and gender (Louro, 2003) - including the confrontation between different feminist perspectives - 182 As a company that published the image of a watch for sale with its description, and in the end used the hashtag #VaiMalandra so that when people searched for the keywords, they would see the product. 373 7.4. #VaiMalandra Anitta’s music video in digital networks: political clashes and prejudices in Brazil aesthetic-corporeal patterns, latinicities and conservative and Miskolci, 2015) that are inherent in the constitution of the Brazilian nation. As pointed out by the author, the notions of order and progress - the slogan of the Brazilian flag is “order and progress” - was, historically, a project aimed at whitening the population through the “mestizaje” of native and African peoples with Europeans through generations and the imposition of a model of sexuality based on the heteronormative logic, nullifying gender diversity expressions of sex. A historical past that is articulated in the present in which women and LGBTs suffer daily violence - which are potentialized when they are also about black people. In Political Confrontations, the signs were included that discuss the questions of gender, cultural, and musical implied in a political dimension. Feminisms appear, feelings of pride of Brazilian culture and funk and a great predominance of the Anitta butt loaded as image. Other corporalities - like a photo published by the webcelebrity Romagaga183 with two boys with their hard “sticks” in reference to the clip - are also triggered. Given the conservatism of Brazilian society, such symbolic actions are framed in our perception as confrontations that bring in themselves a content of debauchery and nonconformity with the norms of expression of sexuality that has an extremely moralistic dimension. We also emphasize that some comments orbit between politicized visions and conservatism in the lenses with which we are looking at these processes. The discussion of objectification also appears orbiting such grouping. On Facebook, the representative content of the video emerges in discussions that politicize its narrative and aesthetics: the butt without cellulite is exalted, placed as an incentive to break with the impositions of beauty made in relation to the female body. The music video is seen by the sonority and aesthetics as a rupture and possibility of confrontation with normative conventions, including media that invisibilize lives, geographies and bodies. The genre appears as They get used to the lyrics of funk that sexualizes the woman as long as she is a man who sings and the woman is an ‘object’ behind, when the woman is the ‘malandra’, stands as principal, shows real women and has attitude is considered to be ‘whore’. From there Anitta launches ‘Vai Malandra’ takes strike of YouTube (something that never happens with certain @ channels), receives numerous critics and boycott. Do you know why? Anitta is already hated by machistas for always raising the feminine power, launches a song that gives voice to the woman like the malandra, of the voice to the favelada, to the funk, brings diversity bringing people out of the standard. Anitta is giving voice to all that the prejudiced want to ‘erase’ society understands? That’s what bothers people. When the woman can not have a voice, she has to be inferior to the man, to be what they want, when they want, without any choice that is machismo! 183 Romagaga is a travesti (we found travestite as a translation, or cross-dresser / ladyboy / shemale or tranny) who became famous when posting videos parodying and commenting on the releases of the American pop divas, like Britney Spears and Lady Gaga. 374 Another point put in question is the way in which the video clip could be selling an image of a Brazil that would resound to the breast and butt, reinforcing a stigma of the nation in a transnational circuit - which is complex in that, although it is a criticism that it crosses the recurrent objectification of women in the media, when they sum up bodies, and a look that seeks to deny, also, the sexual experience and the sensuality of bodies by subjugating them. The discussions, however, do not assume, at least in this constellation of meaning, an odious discursiveness, but seek to reflect on the multiple readings of the music video. In response to some more conservative comments, which qualify the video as summarized as “bustle, chest and butt”. On Twitter, the signs assume a more imaginative content, but refer to the same issues already mentioned: do not deny the aesthetics of sexuality, spread the butt with cellulite as a possibility to break with the publicity hygiene of the butt and criticism regarding political contradictions of Anitta. For example: “I do not understand these people who speak, ‘the appealing lyrics and such’. What’s wrong with talking about bitching my love. No one fucks, no one sees a tail. Spare me. “ “First we say that she exaggerated a lot in the plastic, then we say that she is wonderful for showing the natural beauty. #brasilcontraditório #vaimalandra”. “I cannot believe that straight-haired, dirty-skinned men are talking about Anitta’s cellulite. #vaimalandra”- referencing a BuzzFeed story about men who did not clean their asses so they would not touch them (Gerstein, 2018). Some profiles also share an excerpt from the magazine Hybrida magazine, in which they report that Anitta “kicked her foot” to show the cellulite in the video, praising the decision making of the performer. Others report the difference between a woman making funk and a straight man: In the archaic thought of machismo man can do everything and a woman can only do what a man wants. The Kondzilla channel has 24 million subscribers and almost all week high videos so you do not find comments like they find in the video of Vai Malandra. A fake news, pointing out that the number of the bike in which Anitta appears at the beginning of the video would be a bill that aimed to criminalize the funk also had high spreadability in a context of political dispute. Readings from other music videos of the singer have also been present in a political confrontation relationship - the inclusion of fat and disabled people as dancers, the visibility of LGBTQs and feminist ideals through their lyrics, the internationalization of Brazilian musical genres and the criticism of the industrial abuse of the Amazon. In the constellation of meaning called Cultural Preconceptions are the signs that reveal conservative, hygienizing and hateful readings regarding brands of gender, sexuality, race, class and funk. Many of the senses perceived here are triggers of conversations that signal disputes - discussed in the constellation of Political Clashes. In all networks analysed, hatred is placed predominantly through words. There is a nuisance with complacent perceptions of the butt with cellulite - for example, “I think women all have things at home to do so let’s go to Facebook and let’s do kk dishes.” The future of the country - progress - is, in the reading of network actors, barred by the values portrayed in Vai Malandra. The hatred and the prejudice in the Brazilian context are also crossed by the presence of powerful religious fundamentalisms. The success of the singer 375 7.4. #VaiMalandra Anitta’s music video in digital networks: political clashes and prejudices in Brazil is thus seen as a diabolical work, index of sin. “Everything that has pact with the devil in success. The devil give today to take tomorrow”,”(...) the body, life and everything else, who gave God was the Creator and we can only use it as God allows. Obviously you did not understand anything; in hell things will be clear. Adjectives like “whore”, “putanitta”, “bitch of bandits” also appear. When some profiles say they are going to play music at Christmas to disturb conservative family members - the “trick” slang is also used to qualify such relatives - they receive in response that if the song is played the sister of the affronted commentary will have that “to bake” (to roll) on top of a stick. It qualifies the music video as a pornographic work, “garbage”, “portrait of a country sunk in the mud”. Feminism and Anitta are also disqualified through the senses present in this grouping: “I wanted to see a clip of her naked on the bite of the Bengal Kid,” “Anitta = invented woman who uses her sexuality to get somewhere, sad state of feminism today. She should have some dignity, clothes and a job. “ On YouTube and on Twitter appear manifestations very close to those already cited - associations between gender, education and the music video and discursive violence that affirm the need for control over the female: “Have you already verified the percentage of girls who managed to pass the ENEM 2018?” “ If that’s culture then is it okay to see ass, women in fine clothes? “” Woman. Married do not do that. No, “” I should go to x videos “,” If I take this Anita would break her shot in a roll, “are some of the examples”. 5. Final considerations We realize here that the semiosis around videoclips cannot be closed in a single sign: as already presupposes the very concept of semiosis, there is an infinite potentiality implied in the process. Through the analysis of the construction of senses in digital networks, we also defend a notion of pop music consumption in a communicational and semiotic dimension aligned with the ideas of Canclini (1999) and Lotman (1996): semiospheres inaugurated around certain objects configure semiotic territorialities (Henn, 2017) in digital networks in which the signs also become consumable. We understand that such territorialities, in which different semioticides emerge, engender and confront each other, signalling how cultural differences are symbolically threatened in digital culture and the ways in which pop and politicians are involved. The politicization of Anitta in digital networks will make it emerge and cross other e-events, such as the collection of a positioning of the singer in important political episodes for the country - such as the murder of Marielle Franco and the elections of 2018. 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Ferraz (Eds.), Cultura Pop. Salvador: EDUFBA/Brasilia: Compós. Torres, L. (2017, December 19,). Pesquisador da UFRJ avalia clipe de “Vai Malandra”, aposta funk de Anittta. Portal Pop. Retreived from: http://portalpopline.com.br/ pesquisador-da-ufrj-avalia-clipe-de-vai-malandra-aposta-funk-de-anittta/. 377 7.5 Aliens against Alienation. How queer developers subvert gameplay (doing it themselves) Roberto Cappai 184 A b s t r a c t In her call to arms book, Rise of Video Game Zinesters (2012), game developer Anna Anthropy describes videogame industry as a round-the-drain cycle in which games are designed by a male-dominated culture and marketed to a small maledominated audience. According to the author, the only way to fight this alienation is that different kind of people start to produce games by using user-friendly tools (like Twine or RPG Maker) as a means of self-expression. In this paper I will point towards some of the strategies deployed by artists in order to undermine game conventions, to provide unexpected game experiences and to put the player in someone else’s shoes. Keywords: Queer-gaming, game culture, critical play, subversion. 184 University of Pisa. Pisa, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] 378 1. About videogame (queer) analysis A few words about videogame (queer) analysis. Since the rise of game studies, a number of scholars from widely diverse academic fields have tried to approach videogames using the specific means provided by their theoretical camps. As a result, the early days of the debate on video games have been characterized by the ideological dichotomy between ludologists and narratologists. Before moving on video game analysis, it must therefore be emphasized that there is not an unequivocal framework to which we can refer in order to perform it: Due to their inherent multi-medial and multi-experiential qualities, video games are among the most complex “texts” that scholars analyse today. In addition to such literary commonplaces as plot, dialogue, setting, characterization, and so on, video games often invoke a flood of interconnected media forms, styles, and genres, from still photography, chiaroscuro, lens flares, and stop-motion animation, to genre forms such as westerns, noir, and horror, to play styles that include platforming, racing, shooting, and puzzle solving. Realistically, given this diversity of integrated interpretative stock, there is no definitive method for analysing video games. What the field of game studies is gradually realizing (…) is that video games, like many other forms of old and new entertainment media, need to be explicated in a variety of ways and with the operative presumption that such analyses are cumulative and complementary – even when they contradict one another (McAllister and Ruggill, 2015, p. 12). The venture becomes even more complicated analysing video games through the lens of queer studies. Nevertheless, the convergence between queer studies and game studies, which started not so long ago in North America, can breathe new life into video game analysis by providing a point of view focused on video game queer potential, challenging dichotomies and rigid frameworks and destabilizing conventional game making and game playing: Queer game studies open up possibilities for queer game play that is not about finding the “real” meaning of a game text, but playing between the lines with queer reading tactics. It considers gaming counterpublics as a space for reimagining whom games are for and who is for games (Ruberg and Shaw, 2017, p. x). Even though queer game studies can’t be considered a veritable discipline primary because of their lack of rigidity – it would be better to consider them a paradigm (Ruberg and Shaw, 2017) – the queer approach to game analysis can implement more classic approaches in order to better understand some aspects that are usually overlooked or even neglected, in terms of contents as well as game mechanics. Moreover, LGBTQ aspects are not necessarily prevailing, because “queerness, at heart, can be defined as the desire to live life otherwise, by questioning and living outside normative boundaries” (Ruberg & Shaw, 2017, p. x). In video games field, boundaries are imposed by game genres and conventional patterns of play established by the game industry. An example of queer video game without LGBTQ contents could be Passage185 , a short 2D game developed in 2007 by the independent artist Jason Rohrer. At first sight, Passage seems to be a conventional game in which the player controls 185 Retrieved from: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/ 379 7.5 Aliens against Alienation. How queer developers subvert gameplay (doing it themselves) a male avatar through a maze representing a lifespan from the young adulthood to death. As claimed by the author (Rohrer, 2007) and by Patrick Jagoda, who curated with Michael Maizels the first retrospective dedicated to Rohrer, Passage contributes to the long artistic tradition of the memento mori (…). In contrast to such historical works, Rohrer’s interactive memento mori requires the player to be complicit in the protagonist’s death. And unlike earlier Christian examples of the form (…), Passage foregrounds a series of choices that are ultimately of little consequence (Maizels and Jagoda, 2016, p. 27). Every play session of Passage lasts no more than five minutes, at the end of which the avatar simply dies. Nevertheless, the player may choose how to take advantage from this amount of time, running straight into the future or exploring the maze in pursuit of some reward, all alone or with a companion. Every decision will affect the gameplay experience: for instance, if the player choose to join up with a spouse on his journey, once she dies the avatar will move more slowly (Rohrer, 2007). Comparing Passage to similar mainstream role-playing videogames, it becomes pretty clear that Rohrer’s game is not challenging at all: there are no enemies to defeat, no character upgrade – the avatar goes more and more weak – and the reward system reveals itself useless. Briefly, Passage queers game conventions giving the player an unexpected gameplay experience. Therefore, a queer perspective on Passage could underline and bring out game’s potential that in this particular case has to be found beyond game contents. Indeed, the relationship between the two only game characters is heteronormative: as claimed by Rohrer, the male character represents the author himself, and the female non-player character is Rohrer’s wife (Rohrer, 2007). However, the author encourages players to give their personal interpretation of the game (Rohrer, 2007). My opinion is that one of the possible queer analysis of Passage is closely related to the idea of failure. Generally speaking, we cannot obviously consider death as a failure. But in video games – at least in conventional ones – when the avatar dies the game is over, and the player must make use of his gamer skills in order to avoid it. In other words, in video games death is a form of failure. According to Jasper Jull, (…) humans have the fundamental desire to succeed and feel competent, but game players have chosen to engage in an activity in which they are almost certain to fail and feel incompetent, at least some of the time (Juul, 2013, p. 2). This is what Juul calls “the paradox of failure in games”: even though we tend to avoid failure, we play games because in this way we can experience something that we normally avoid (Juul, 2013). In this sense, games are a sort of safe space. In order to solve this paradox, the author introduces the idea of a-hedonism. “This type of solution”, Juul says, “denies the first premise of the paradox by saying that humans are not simply pain-avoiding, pleasure seeking creatures” (Juul, 2013, p. 7). As stated by Jack Halberstam (2011) in the book The Queer Art of Failure, failure represents an alternative to hegemonic systems. During a conversation with Juul moderated by Ruberg, Harlberstam said: 380 Someone might actually want to fail, because they’re so dissatisfied with a particular social context. Take the social context of capitalism, for example. If winning the game of capitalism means accumulating wealth, then it may well be that anticapitalists want to fail at the game in order to produce other ways of thinking about money, other ways of thinking about relationships through property, or possession, or whatever it may be. But if you move to the realm of heterosexuality and heteronormativity, the queer becomes the failure logic. In an homophobic logic, the queer fails to be straight, literally. The butch fails to be a woman. The sissy boy fails to be a man. The queer adult fails to get married and have children. They all fail in their socially prescribed role. (Ruberg, 2017, p. 202). Therefore, moving to the realm of video games, a game that is designed to be unwinnable because elements that would make it conventionally fun to play – a challenge, for instance – are discarded, could be seen as queer. In fact, according to Halberstam, Juul’s idea of a-hedonism is implicitly queer (Ruberg & Shaw, 2017, p. 201). As said, death in Passage is something given, so that the player, in this sense, has no choice but to fail. This design choice shift player’s attention to other aspects that do not concern the dichotomy success/ failure. In other words, player’s choices have a qualitative impact – rather than quantitative – on the gameplay experience: Part of the goal (…) is to get you to reflect on the choices that you make while playing. The rewards (…) come in the form of points added to your score, and you have two options for scoring points: treasure chests, which give 100 points for each hit, and exploration, which gives double-points if you walk with your spouse. There’s a pretty tight balance between these two options---there’s no optimal choice between the two. Yes, you could spend your five minutes trying to accumulate as many points as possible, but in the end, death is still coming for you. Your score looks pretty meaningless hovering there above your little tombstone. (Rohrer, 2007, w/p). This treatment of character death stands in stark contrast with the way death is commonly used in video games (where you die countless times during a given game and emerge victorious---and still alive---in the end). Passage is a game in which you die only once, at the very end, and you are powerless to stave off this inevitable loss (Rohrer, 2007). On an emotional level, the queer potential of Passage and similar games is therefore stronger than the queer potential of a game like Muscle March, in which the game mechanics are the same of Japanese TV game Brain Wall (also known as Human Tetris) and characters are explicitly gay, but the game design is all oriented to fun. 381 7.5 Aliens against Alienation. How queer developers subvert gameplay (doing it themselves) 2. Queer call for radical, avantgarde, subversive, critical, weirdo (etcetera) video games Queer call for radical, avant-garde, subversive, critical, weirdo (etcetera) video games. In video game field, AAA (pronounced “triple-A”) is “a high quality game that is expected to be among the year’s best sellers” (Jones & Hertz, 2007, p. 12). For the most part, these high-budget video games have a lot of similarities between them in relation both to design and contents. As Anna Anthropy notes: Limitations of games aren’t just thematic. (…) Most games are copies of existing successful games. They play like other games, resemble their contemporaries in shape and structure, have the same buttons that interact with the world in the same way (mouse to aim, left click to shoot), and have the same shortcoming (Anthropy, 2012, p. 5). In their discourse on video game culture, Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson claim that even though video game nowadays is part of our culture, it still fails to engage strong social issues, politics, etc. (Goldberg & Larsson, 2015). Of course, there are some “experimental” exceptions, but as stated by the authors, Video game culture has been reluctant to step out of the boys’ room. (…) Game designer have historically eschewed reality and the present day for the fantastical and imaginary, with light-hearted science fiction, fantasy, and fairy-tale settings as staples of the form (Goldberg and Larsson, 2015, p. 7). Naturally, the inflexibility of video game culture depends not only on game designers, but also on specialist gaming press and game production: The specialist gaming press has a long tradition of consumer-oriented criticism, using simple, quantifiable parameters to measure the technical proficiency and craftmanship of the game designer, the ‘fun level’ of the game, and the ‘value for the money the game provides’. (…) Video game production has historically been prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, giving big name publishers a virtual monopoly on production, sales, and marketing. As a result, the culture identity of ‘gamer’ was from an early stage largely appropriated and shaped by the dominant corporate interests of the industry (Goldberg & Larsson, 2015, p. 8). In fact, as noted by Leigh Alexander, gaming culture was founded by outcast and weirdos in the late 1970s and 1980s, and the modern game industry emerged only later as a result of “a certain lack of self-esteem that maybe isn’t surprising for a medium born of nerds” (Alexander, 2017, p. 56). Of 382 course, things are much more complicated than this. However, it is clear that during video game early days game designers were driven by the willingness to experiment with the new-born video form. But “since Doom and CounterStrike began colonizing student computer labs all across the nation, the muscle-bound first-person shooter has been the dominant paradigm, though far from the sole one” (Ruberg & Shaw, 2017, p. 56). As a transgender game designer, Anna Anthropy claims that, at least in 2012, there was no game about her or anyone like her: Mostly, videogames are about men shooting men in the face. Sometimes they are about women shooting men in the face. Sometimes the men who are shot in the face are orcs, zombies, or monsters. (…) The few commercial games that involve a woman protagonist in a role other than slaughterer put her in a role of servitude: waiting tables at a diner (or a dress shop, a pet shop. A wedding party). This is not to say that games about head shots are without value, but if one looked solely at videogames, one could think the whole of human experience is shooting men and taking their dinner orders (Anthropy, 2012, p. 5). In the opinion of the artist, the problem with videogames is that they are created by a small group of people within a white, male-dominated culture for a small, male dominated audience. This is therefore a round-the-drain cycle that leaves out of the industry anyone outside the dominating group, fuelling what Anna Anthropy calls the “Culture of Alienation”. “It’s a bubble”, the artist writes, “and it largely produces work that has no meaning to those outside that bubble” (Anthropy, 2012, p. 13). As suggested by Anna Anthropy, as well as other game designers like Merritt Kopas and Mattie Brice, the only way to burst the game industry bubble is to create game that challenge it in terms of creativity, making simple short games that anyone can play. Anna Anthropy goes to the point: “the focus of video games could shift from features (…) to ideas” (Anthropy, 2012, p. 19). 2.1. It’s all about subversion In her book Critical Play, game designer Mary Flanagan looks to games as means of critical thinking and creative expression, pointing out the urge of a critical approach in creating and playing them: Critical play means to create or occupy play environments and activities that represent one or more questions about aspects of human life. These questions can be abstract, such as rethinking cooperation, or winning, or losing; concrete (…). Critical play is characterized by a careful examination of social, cultural, political, or even personal themes that function as alternates to popular play spaces (Flanagan, 2009, p. 6). The notion of subversion introduced by Flanagan in Critical Play is closely related to the notion of the critical by artists, as evidenced by Marcel Duchamp’s ready-made sculptures that turned everyday objects into something somehow 383 7.5 Aliens against Alienation. How queer developers subvert gameplay (doing it themselves) scandalous or the cross-gender self-portraits photographs made by the photographer Claude Cahun (Flanagan, 2012). In Critical Play, the notion of subversion is developed from Antonio Negri’s idea that “subversive practices still have the power to trigger social change when used on the right scale and with the right tools” (Flanagan, 2009, p. 11). As Flanagan demonstrates, because of its importance as cultural medium game might be a tool of subversion (Flanagan, 2009). Avant-garde game design is another notion introduced by Flanagan and resurfaced in Brian Shrank’s (2014) book Avant-garde Videogames, in which the author focuses on videogame as avant-garde art. In his work, Shrank considers avant-garde as “the force that opens up the experience of playing a game or expands the ways in which games shape culture” (Shrank, 2014, p. 3), and explores some avant-garde approaches to games. The author identifies two broad avant-garde strategies resulting from Peter’s Burger’s Theory of the Avant-garde and Clement Greenberg’s Avant Garde and Kitsch: a formal avantgarde and a political avant-garde (Shrank, 2014). The formal avant-garde “is realized in individual experience, letting art advice itself without regard of social concerns”, whereas political avant-garde “is realized in collective experiences, politicizing art or using art to change society” (Shrank, 2014, p. 14). Whether formal or political, compared to a mainstream video game, an avant-garde video game does not follow what the author calls “the familiar flow of games” (Shrank, 2014, p. 4). “Countergaming” is a further subversive idea provided by Alexander L. Galloway. In his book Gaming. Essays on Algorithmic Culture, the author looks to game mods as disruptive in relation to the intuitive flow of gameplay that characterizes industry’s design style, taking Peter Wollen’s seven theses on counter-cinema as reference (Galloway, 2006). It seems to me that Flanagan’s notion of radical game design, as well as Shrank’s notion of avantgarde games and Galloway’s notion of countergaming, is inherently queer. All of them, following different paths, lead the designer and the player to rethink games, subverting conventions and breaking the familiar flow imposed by the multi-billion game industry, although none of them capture the queer nuances of games precisely because of their rigidity. It is interesting to note, however, that all the above-mentioned authors, as well as other critics, designers, and scholars186 consider it necessary to do so: An independent gaming movement has yet to flourish, something that comes as no surprise, since it took decades for one to appear in the cinema. But when it does, there will appear a whole language of play, radical and new, that will transform the countergaming movement, just as Godard did to the cinema, or Deleuze did to philosophy, or Duchamp did to the art object (Galloway, 2006, p. 126). 186Tracy Fullerton, for instance, has According to the author, as Godard awaited “the end of the cinema with optimism”, so countergaming movement should aspire to a similar goal, “redefining play itself and thereby realizing its true potential as a political and cultural avant-garde” (Galloway, 2006, p. 126). Fortunately, more than a decade after Galloway’s call for a countergaming movement, something is slowly but inexorably changing. There is no a veritable countergaming movement yet, but during the last decade more and more authors are resisting to videogame developed a “Playcentric Approach” in order to create innovative games which are created taking into consideration the player experience at each stage of game design process (Fullerton, 2014). Furthermore, in her book Game Design Workshop, Fullerton encourages her students to find inspiration in ordinary things. 384 industry alienation. In the following section, I will talk about queer strategies deployed by artists and game designers in order to unleash video game queer potential by proposing a new pool of experiences, pushing the boundaries of ordinary gameplay experience. 3. Reading queer games queerly How can games be read queerly? My claim is that there is not a right way to do this. The queer potential emerges through games in very different ways that can also be contradictory. I think that a key to queer interpretation of games could be developed by pointing towards the ways in which a certain game subverts the dominant formats of video games, undermining genre conventions and providing unexpected gameplay experiences. 3.1. Making zine games: Dys4ia by Anna Anthropy In her call to arms book Rise of videogame Zinesters, Anna Anthropy notes that until not so long ago the creation of games was limited to people that know how to program, while it was daunting for someone who doesn’t code professionally (Anthropy, 2012, p. 9). However, since Internet has made selfpublishing possible and more and more user-friendly tools has been designed for people who aren’t professional coders, a new range of possibilities have been open-up in digital games field. For years, Anna Anthropy has been fighting in order to encourage hobbyists, independent game designers and zinesters to make their own games and distribute them outside the videogame industry, as if they were zines: What I want from videogames is for creation to be open to everyone, not just to publishers and programmers. I want games to be personal and meaningful, not just pulp for an established audience. I want game creation to be decentralized. I want open access to the creative act for everyone. I want games as zines (Anthropy, 2012, p. 12). Dys4ia is an autobiographical game about hormone replacement therapy, one of the best known Anthropy’s zine-games. In terms of structure, Dys4ia is made by a number of minigames which are very easy to master, so they could potentially be played by people who are not familiar with videogames. Comparing Dys4ia to mainstream games with similar structures – like Lazy Jones and Hot Pixels – it can be noticed that even the latter include some queer aspects, they all present canonical game mechanics, they are supposed to be fun, and they are challenging also because of the temporality aspect. Time pressure is an important element, that brings the player back to the “arcade” tradition. In her work, Anna Anthropy queers canonical and archetypical game mechanics and conventions, making them meaningful in the context of a personal narrative – for instance, she queers Tetris in order to express the feeling of inadequacy related to her body, and in the same way she queers PacMac to express the sense of hunger caused by the hormones. 385 7.5 Aliens against Alienation. How queer developers subvert gameplay (doing it themselves) 3.2. Simplifying game mechanics (making them significant): Lim by Merritt Kopas Lim187 is a game created by Merritt Kopas. It is a very simple game, in terms of both graphics and game mechanics. There are no identifiable characters: player’s avatar is a coloured block, and the other coloured blocks on the screen react violently if your colour is different than theirs, pushing the player’s block around a maze. There is also the possibility that player’s avatar is pushed outside the maze, being therefore deprived of the game experience. In this case, the player can get the end of the game navigating the maze from the outside. In order to not being attacked, the player may choose to “blend in” his/her block188 by holding the Z button, but your movement is slowed, and the camera begins to shake. Clearly, blending in is a form of violence that player imposes to himself/ herself, and it can be as painful as the violence imposed by others. Lim may be read as a metaphor of the difficulties of a queer woman living in a society that leaves queer people at margins, or as a metaphor of a queer developer who have to work outside the industry in order to develop and distribute her/his own games. As noted by Henry Jenkins: “what Lim demonstrates is a set of fundamental game mechanics that emerge from a life experience that exceeds gender binaries” (Jenkins, 2013). It is interesting to note that, at first sight, Lim may look like a conventional – although chip – maze game. However, in relation to Pac-Man or other less-known maze game variations, Lim does not fulfil any maze game convention, which is why the game cannot be analysed with the means of mainstream critics – they would make the game look of poor quality. In contrast to conventional maze games, there are not power-ups nor weapons, so that the player is forced to adopt a passive gameplay attitude and to focus on aspects other than achieve meaningless objectives. 3.3. Modding mainstream games: Gay Popeye by Jeff Hong As a visual artist, Jeff Hong is involved in a number of personal projects. In 2014 he launched a series called Punktendo, which “combines the three-chord simplicity of punk rock with the 8-bit simplicity of Nintendo games” (Ozzi, 2014) by replacing some of the most famous Nintendo games main characters with popular punk-rock musicians. There are also some games that are inspired by social issues of punk, and Gay Popeye is one of them. Even though the game is not intended to be queer – the author never used this term – it presents a queer narrative. The original Nintendo game puts on the heteronormative love triangle among Popeye, Olive and Bluto. The main objective of the game, which have similar mechanics to Donkey Kong, is to help Popeye claim Olive’s love reaching her on the top of the screen, after avoiding Bluto’s attacks. In Gay Popeye, Hong maintain the original game mechanics and changes the characters so that Popeye claims Bluto’s love instead of that of Olive. It might seem a simplistic operation, but Bluto e Popeye are conventionally two white, strong, male, heterosexual, stereotypical characters who are turned gay by the author. By subverting the game imagery, Hong gives the game a new meaning, unleashing its queer potential. 187 Retrieved from: http://www. gamesforchange.org/game/lim/ 188 While blending, the player’s block becomes the colour of the surrounding blocks. Retrieved from: http://punktendo. 3.4. Removing recurring features: Mainichi by Mattie Brice Mainichi189 is an autobiographical game about author’s day-to-day life as a queer, multiracial woman. Mainichi is also the Japanese word for “everyday”. com/NES/popeye.html 189Retrieved from: http:// www.gamesforchange. org/game/mainichi/ 386 In fact, playing Mainichi is like to flip through Mattie Brice’s diary. According to the author the game “is an experiment in sharing a personal experience though a game system” (Brice, 2012). The personal experience is the simple act to meet a friend for coffee as a mixed transgender woman. The game looks like a conventional RPG like Pokémon or Final Fantasy early episodes, but a lot of recurring features – fighting sessions or inventory menu, for instance – have been removed and settings are based on reality, so that the emphasis is on dialogues, and player focuses her/his attention on avatar’s feelings. Furthermore, Mainichi forces the player to go through the same day over and over again, denying character’s evolution, which is another feature that characterizes the majority of RPG games. The queer researcher Spencer Ruelos writes: The design of the game, making you relive the same day over and over again shares experiences of what means to navigate the world as a trans woman of colour and to constantly experiencing microaggressions regarding your gender and race. (…) This ‘hyper personal’ narrative, rather than disconnecting us from Brice’s characters, immerses players into her experiences, allowing for players to identify with her character and connect with her experiences of both pleasure and discrimination (Ruelos, 2016). As well as Anna Anthropy’s Dys4ia and Merritt Kopa’s Lim, Mainichi falls into the category of “personal games”. As Mattie Brice claimed in an interview with Leigh Alexander, I feel games also can, and maybe should sometimes, resist players. If there’s such a thing as ‘death of author’, I think there should be de ‘death of the player.’ Players shouldn’t have to be… the most important thing for games, especially as we live with an audience that’s so homogeneous (Alexander, 2013). Therefore, in addition to undermine RPG genre conventions, Mainichi deeply sabotages the relationship between the designer and the player. In this case, Mattie Brice’s approach to game design is opposite to that of Fullerton, challenging the primacy of play-centric design (Rusch, 2017, p. 120). References Alexander, L. (2013, April 29). Four perspectives on personal games. Gamasutra. Retrieved from: http://gamasutra.com. Alexander, L. (2017). Playing outside. In Ruberg B.; Shaw A. (Eds.), Queer game studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Anthropy, A. (2012). Rise of videogame zinesters: how freaks, normal, amateurs, artists, dreamers, dropouts, queers, housewives, and people like you are taking back an art form. New York: Seven Stories Press. Brice, M. (2012), Mainichi [auhtor’s note]. Retrieved from: http://www.mattiebrice.com/mainichi/. 387 7.5 Aliens against Alienation. How queer developers subvert gameplay (doing it themselves) Flanagan, M. (2012). Critical play: radical game design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Fullerton, T. (2014). Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. Boca Raton: CRC Press/ Taylor and Francis. Galloway, A. (2006). Gaming: essays on algorithmic culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Goldberg, D., Larsson, L. (2015). This is a chapter. In GoldberD. g; Larsson L. (Eds.), The state of play: creators and critics on video game vulture. New York: Seven Stories Press. Halberstam, J. (2011). The queer art of failure. Durham: Duke University Press. Jenkins, H. (2013). A game level where you can’t pass [blog entry]. Retrieved from: http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2013/01/a-game-level-where-you-cant-pass.html. Jones, S., Hertz, S. (2007). The videogames style guide and reference manual. The International Game Journalist Association/Game Press. Juul, J. (2013). The art of failure: an essay on the pain of playing video games. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Maizels, M., Jagoda, P. (2016). The game worlds of Jason Rohrer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. McAllister, K. S., Ruggill, J. E. (2015). Tempest: geometries of play. Ann Arbor: University of Michingan Press. Ozzi, D. (2014, November 5). Punktendo lets you play punk-rock versions of your favorite video games. Nosey/Vice. Retrieved from: https://noisey.vice.com. Roher, J. (2007). What I was trying to do with Passage [author’s note]. Retrieved from: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/statement.html. Ruberg, B. (2017). This is a chapter. In Ruberg B.; Shaw A.. (Eds.), Queer game studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Ruberg, B., Shaw, A. (2017). This is a chapter. In B. Ruberg; A. Shaw (Eds.), Queer game studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Ruelos, S. (2016). Queer game analysis: Mattie Brice’s Mainichi [blog entry]. Retrieved from: http://gaymeranthropology.blogspot.com/2016/02/queer-game-analysis-mattie-brices.html. Rusch, D. C. (2017). Making deep games: designing games with meaning and purpose. Boca Raton: CRC Press/Taylor and Francis. Shrank, B. (2014). Avant-garde videogames: playing with tecnoculture. Cambridge: Massachusetts: MIT Press. 388 7.6. The potential intersections of queer methodologies and punk productions: The Case of Baise Moi Temmuz Süreyya Gürbüz 190 A b s t r a c t Remembering Jose Esteban Muñoz’s famous quote, “often we can glimpse the worlds proposed and promised by queerness in the realm of the aesthetic” (Muñoz, 2009, p. 10), this paper explores punk productions in terms of queerness, or rather investigate whether it is possible for theories around queer methodologies to intersect with punk politics that are ingrained in certain forms of low-budget aesthetics in cinema. Adopting the punk movement’s do-it-yourself discipline, how certain filmmakers’ tendency to discard the already defined, almost a readymade form of filmmaking, will be examined to see what type of political position cinematic punk might refer to, specifically regarding the production and reception of the French film Baise Moi (2000). Keywords: Punk aesthetics, punk cinema, queer theory. 190 Nation University Ireland Galway. Galway, Ireland. E-mail: [email protected] 389 7.6. The potential intersections of queer methodologies and punk productions: The Case of Baise Moi This paper aims at bringing together two distinctively destabilizing methodological discussions on producing (queer) theory and (punk) art, the first of which explores how queer studies has an impact on cultural theory in terms of research techniques. This involves a brief investigation of queer methodologies or whether, such concept as a queer methodology could exist. I use this discussion to present a framework through which the second methodological discussion, which is about punk productions in cinema, can be examined. When punk is researched, there tends to be an element of subjectivity which highlights the lived experience and the participatory aspects of punk productions. Therefore, it seems possible to draw connections between the self-reflexivity of punk productions and the destabilizing effects of queer methodologies in research, considering their arguably shared act of defying exclusionary discourses and mainstream modes of practice. It is also an attempt to demonstrate this parallelism by way of looking at the reception and production of a specific film, Virginie Despentes and Carolie Trin Thi’s controversial film Baise Moi (2000). 1. The possibility of queer methodologies One of the most practical effects of queer theory in social sciences seems to pertain to research methods, promoting the possibility of new methods that account for personal experience and subjectivity as central as collected data, which contrast certain sections of social sciences and humanities that insist on empirical and quantitative methods. It is also the aim here to draw connections between how queer methods emerged and how they are received within different disciplines, and my own research topic, punk aesthetics in cinema. One of the key resources is the collection, Queer Methods and Methodologies: Intersecting Queer Theories and Social Sciences Research, published in 2011 and edited by Kath Browne and Catherine J. Nash. As they express in their introduction, they reject putting forward a definition of queer, emphasizing their main purpose as to encourage their contributors to attribute their own meaning to “queer”. This way, they give importance to the unclarity of the term, in order to “explore the internal ‘boundary policing’” and “to keep current sets of meanings associated with queer in circulation while also allowing room […] for others that are yet unknown, unasked or unacknowledged” (Browne and Nash, 2011, p. 8-9). As a result, the most visible commonality in the collection is that all authors integrate “queer” into their own research, presenting ideas that do not just illustrate, but also question the usefulness of queer theorizing itself. The authors’ subjective experiences with this approach towards academic study become crucial to the collection, bringing the element of subjectivity to the fore. The second main resource in this investigation is the special volume of WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly on queer methods. This volume is unusual as it also includes poetry and fiction, making an example of the effect of bringing “queer” to the traditional understanding of scholarly publication. The main arguments and questions that this special volume produces about queer methods revolve around one of the practical functions of queer theory, that is, the destabilization of the grounds on which academic research stands on: they ask: are we going to take traditional research methodologies’ constructedness for granted? Is not this constructedness of current methodologies a criterion that confirms the validity and quality of research in the first place? By claiming to challenge the tradition and to construct new methods that account for the 390 subjective experience of the researcher, are we risking the legitimacy of our research? All in all, their questions led me to another question that became central to my own research: would it be possible for a film scholar to account for subjective experience with their research subjects, namely, their corpus of study (in my case, a large list of low-budget independent films from mostly the punk era, that is, the late-1970s and 1980s)? What would it mean to approach film analysis and punk subculture with a queer orientation? When discussing the politics behind using the term “queer” instead of “gay”, “lesbian” or “bisexual” as a mode of address, Eve Sedgwick points out the performative activity that the term brings along: A word so fraught as ‘queer’ is – fraught with so many social and personal histories of exclusion, violence, defiance, excitement – never can only denote; nor even can it only connote; a part of its experimental force as speech act is the way in which it dramatizes locutionary position itself. Anyone’s use of ‘queer’ about themselves means differently from their use of it about someone else. (...) A hypothesis worth making explicit: that there are important senses in which ‘queer’ can signify only when attached to the first person. One possible corollary: that what it takes – all it takes – to make the description ‘queer’ a true one is the impulsion to use it in the first person (1993, p. 9). Sedgwick’s clarifying explanation of the usefulness of term “queer” emphasizes an impulsive activity of self-subjectification, rather than its possible categorizing effect (hence the term “queering”). An activity gains meaning through the subject who performs it, whereas a category gains meaning through the commonalities shared by the subjects it unifies. In this trajectory, the political side of “queer” stems from its connection to inclusiveness towards subjects that assumed identity formations exclude in society: “queer” is more about the activity of defying exclusionary discourses around identity and less about identification. In the light of this understanding of queering activity as a method of destabilization of established categorizations and techniques of describing others, it might be possible to combine subjectivity and collectivism while exploring the issues of identity, representation and societal participation. A big part of societal participation regards art production as it is the area for both subjective and collective expression. And here we are especially talking about aesthetics and methods that promote participation rather than imposition, highlighting the importance of lived experience rather than distanced studies. Drawing from the queering activity as a method for promoting subjective and collective participation, I would like to turn to punk discourse in academia and the cultural impact of punk in cinema through its possible queering aspect in terms of its destabilizing effects. Queer theorist Tavia Nyong’o, for example, has asked whether “[we might] theorize the intersection of punk and queer as an encounter between concepts both lacking in fixed identitarian referent (…)” (2005, p. 20), suggesting a framework where the participatory creative expressions are investigated through the combination of queer theory’s resistance against normalizing effects in popular culture and the anti-sociality 391 7.6. The potential intersections of queer methodologies and punk productions: The Case of Baise Moi of punk culture. Nyong’o’s explorations of this intersection deeply inspired this paper and the following is an attempt to apply this intersectional observation to a punk film. 2. Punk discourse and Baise Moi There are two occasionally overlapping issues that are touched upon in academic discussions that concern punk in terms of its historical and ethical positioning, both of which are related to the discourse around the authenticity of punk aesthetics and the recuperation of punk by mainstream forms of production. These issues highlight the importance of subjectivity in punk research. The first issue is punk being dead, summarized by Jude Davies as “the ‘punk is dead’ debate carried out among interested parties almost since punk’s inception” (1996, p. 4), underlining the longevity of the insistence on a strict definition of punk (the definitions may vary), in debates, academic or otherwise. However, the expansion of punk research from subcultural studies towards different disciplines and subjects – such as musicology, gender studies, film theory, later examinations of the movements such as riot grrrl, hardcore and anarcho-punk and studies that take account of lived experience on a global scale – seems to exceed the historical effectiveness of the debate on whether punk should be considered as a dead subculture. The vague consensus on the outdated-ness of this debate actually reflects the critique of the rigid categories of identity that has been associated with the rise of interdisciplinarity in social studies and cultural theory in general. This point is related to the second issue that has somewhat occupied the discourse: the complex relationship between punk and academia191. The objective distance that is traditionally required for academic research seems to be at the heart of the discussion of whether “punk research” conflicts with the subversion with which we associate the earlier punk movement in the late-1970s, and also with the politics of the aforementioned later movements. How could this distance, the supposedly objective voice of an authority, be thought as necessary to analyze the effects of punk, a term that is understood through its rejection of the authoritarian methods of producing art and knowledge? This is a question that seems to connect what queer theory has been bringing to cultural studies as I briefly summarized earlier. The answer to the question perhaps could be this mode of criticism’s goal of accounting for “lived experience”. Not just because of the subjective accounts, lived experiences and fieldwork of punk scholars who were or have been participants of different circles of punk subculture had a large part in their research, but also because the enriching contribution of the punk artists whose creative works and memories of the past provided knowledge on the complex ways through which the history of punk is being written and thought of. The parallels between how queer methods are examined and how punk is researched are more visible when we think about them in terms of their collective effort to document and create the historicity behind subcultural lives. The DIY ethics behind punk productions bring a certain collectivity to filmmaking as it can be traced in the aesthetics and production of French film Baise Moi. Here the argument is that Baise Moi has a queering effect in terms of its aesthetics and this is closely related to its low-budget conditions that are designed to provide a participatory sort of spectatorial experience rather than a cinematic professionalism. 191 See these resources for example: Bestley, R. & Ryde, R. (2016); Reddington, H. (2016); Halberstam, J. (2003). 392 Stacy Thompson, in his book Punk Productions: Unfinished Business, analyzes the history of punk from a materialistic perspective and he starts the definition of a punk production, first and foremost, as a commodity: “A “residual”, “emergent” and “unwanted” commodity” (2012, p. 6). This perspective demands looking into the production and consumption conditions of punk, therefore subtly problematizing the critical tendency to associate artistic works through their aesthetics with punk, merely because they seem transgressive in terms of their expression and structures. It does not, then, come as a surprise when Thompson lays out the problems of seeing the film Fight Club (1999) as a punk movie by way of analyzing its heteronormative ending and how it obscures its own material means of production. Thompson conceptualizes punk as a form of cultural production whose aesthetics are inseparable from its economics, thus offering a participatory experience. The low-budget production of Baise Moi does not only provide the material conditions that Thompson deems necessary to align an artistic work with punk’s do-it-yourself ethics, but also marks a certain collective effort in the creation of an aesthetic that utilizes aspects of hard-core porn imagery that opens up a complex discussion on authenticity and realism: Baise Moi’s filmmakers Virginie Despentes and Carolie Trinh Thi chose not to simulate the sex scenes and casted pornographic film actresses Raffaela Anderson and Karen Bach as the main protagonists. This is also why the film was banned in France initially and then given an X-rated certificate by the Ministry of Culture following a public condemnation in the mainstream newspapers after its entry to Cannes. This controversy, the ban and the rating issues that Baise Moi faced seem to reflect the status of punk commodity as an “unwanted” region of the commodification structures. But that is not the only aspect of the film that reflects this, both the filmmakers and actresses had been working in the porn industry while making Baise Moi; an industry that produces films whose consumption has always been highly restricted, regulated and at times banned altogether since its inception, depending on the laws around its viewing. Furthermore, the discussion about the pornographic film as a “low art” production has been occupying the discourse around pornography, regarding how it regulates and proliferates different sexualities and sexes through representation. This “low” status of pornographic productions is at the heart of the construction of the defiant politics in Baise Moi. There is an internalized notion in the film that “bodily” knowledge and spectacle can be embraced without seeking “high” status of other forms of representational politics of gender and identity, exemplifying a cultural resistance towards the acceptable, common-sense in a way, methods of art-making. 3. Punk aesthetics in cinema When being asked a question about whether she wanted to make the film as a response to sexism, Virginie Despentes gives the following answer: We wanted to make a punk movie. (…) We loved the movies from the 80’s [sic] Scorsese, Ferrara, De Palma’s Scarface [De Palma 1983], Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven and so with a tiny, tiny budget, we wanted to shoot the same kind of story: strong friendship, outcasts, graphic violence, sex and a bad ending (Despentes, 2009). 393 7.6. The potential intersections of queer methodologies and punk productions: The Case of Baise Moi She lays out the most important aspects of the film in this short answer; that their film is intended to be a punk movie, and that they had “a tiny, tiny budget”. The connection between these qualities can be also traced when she talks about the production process in another interview: It was difficult from the start to the end. People thought we would argue, so nobody wanted us to direct. Then they said Karen and Raffaela wouldn’t be able to act, that it was a bad idea to use porn actresses, that it was a bad idea to show real sex, that it was a mistake to shoot it on DV because it wasn’t high quality, that it was wrong to use available light because nobody would be able to see anything, and so on and so on (Despentes, 2002). The film’s production comes across in this description, as an activity of going against the norms of production and filmmaking itself, echoing Thompson’s reading of punk commodity in relation to how desire is embodied in its process: Because commodities are the bearers of desire, they can be read as expressions of the forces that shaped and became embodied in them. Punk in general can be grasped as a material exploration of how a specific set of illicit desires repressed within a dominant social order return to haunt it and, in the best cases, blast cracks in its surface. (2012, p. 6) Choosing to transform her book with the same name and to shoot it with her porn actress friends, using natural lighting and spontaneous camera angles, defending casting pornographic film actresses, Despentes’ filmmaking practice can be taken as emblematic of how producing punk is described by Thompson. This filmmaking practice presents a very opposite idea to the film scholar Nicholas Rombes’ description of the signatory gesture of new punk cinema: “the relaxing of critique in the face of overriding entertainment apparatus of the cultural industry, has, today, become the signatory gesture of new punk cinema” (Rombes, 2005, p. 85). Rombes asserts that there is a certain self-reflexivity and self-consciousness in new punk cinema that does not necessarily direct its critical eyes towards the mainstream and the dominant culture industry, but it incorporates this self-consciousness into popular and mainstream cinema and points back to itself that way. Stacy Thompson’s idea of punk not being independent from its production conditions here can be useful to problematize Rombes’ idea that punk film can be perfectly mainstream and safe as long as it carries a political tone and a self-consciousness. When we look at the production process of Baise Moi, and that of the other low-budget and “trash” looking films like Permanent Vacation (1980) by Jim Jarmusch or Pepi, Luci, Bom (1989) by Pedro Almodovar for example, we can see that self-reflexive style of filmmaking does not necessarily come from the perks of getting funded by mainstream production companies as demonstrated by Rombes’ notion of punk cinema. Even when Baise Moi received some of its low-budget from a relatively big production company Canal+, its production, distribution and screening went through a very tough journey to be able to reach to its audience, full of obstacles such as production codes and censorship. There is 394 also another interesting point here that all these films I mentioned are the first full-length films by their directors, presenting another pattern in production conditions: “low-budget” can be a means through which filmmakers form their own style and filmmaking methods that end up gaining their artistry from self-reflexivity. What is meant here as self-reflexive style is an activity of particularizing vision; the usage of the grainy, dark, distorted, skewed angles, imagery and coloring in film reflects visual element of the punk movement outside film, designed to attract attention to particular elements, rather than a whole. Regarding one the most known works on punk, Dick Hebdige’s investigation of punk mostly as a style in Subculture: The Meaning of Style), the final question I would like to propose then is this: can this style be embodied without an intensified understanding and embedded-ness of the significance of subculture and how that significance emerges? References Bestley, R. & Ryde, R. (2016), Thinking punk. Punk & Post-Punk Journal, 5(2), pp. 97-110. Brim, M. & Ghaziani A. (2016). Introduction: Queer methods. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, 44(3&4), pp. 14-27. Browne, K. & Nash C. J. (2010). Queer methods and methodologies: Intersecting queer theories and social science research. Farnham: Ashgate. Davies, J. (1996). The future of ‘no future’: punk rock and postmodern theory. The journal of popular culture, 29(4), pp. 3–25. Despentes, V. (2002). Scandale! Interview by Alix Sharkey. The Guardian. Retrieved form: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/apr/14/filmcensorship.features Despentes, V. (2009) Interview by Alan Kelly. 3:AM Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/virginie-despentes-interviewed/ Halberstam, J. (2003), What’s that smell? Queer temporalities and subcultural lives’. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 6(3), pp. 313-333. Hebdige, D. (2002) Subculture: The meaning of style. London: Routledge. Muñoz, J. E. (2009). Cruising utopia: The then and there of queer futurity. New York: New York University Press. Nyong’o, T. (2005) Punk’d theory. Social Text, 23(3–4), pp. 19–34. Reddington, H. (2016). The Political Pioneers of Punk: just don’t mention the f-word. In M. Dines and M. C. Worley (Eds.), The aesthetics of our anger: Anarchopunk, politics and music (pp. 91-115). Colchester: Minor Compositions. Rombes, N. (2005). New punk cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Sedgwick, E. K. (1993). Tendencies, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. Thompson, S. (2012). Punk productions: Unfinished business. New York: SUNY Press. 395 7.6. The potential intersections of queer methodologies and punk productions: The Case of Baise Moi 396 THEME TUNE 8 MIRRORS AND GLASSES: FASHION, GENDER AND ARTISTIC UNDERGROUND CULTURES © Esgar Aclerado 397 8.1 Grayson Perry as Claire: a fashion iconic at the art world Cláudia de Oliveira 192 A b s t r a c t This text we present an examination about the relationship between the English artist Grayson Perry and his alter-ego Claire, positioning them in the field of artistic creations that take the themes of the body and sexuality as expression and political practice. Since the second half of the twentieth century, art has been revealed through happenings, actions, performances, sensory experiences and varied artistic processes, important transformations on the perception that artists have had of their body. From these new procedures, two movements can be felt in the contemporary artistic field. First, the uniqueness of the body in art. Second, as contemporary artists have taken the body as one of the main arenas for debates around politics of identity and belonging, transforming it into place, where political, cultural and philosophical phenomena come together in different contexts. British artist Grayson Perry and Claire represent one of these new artistic configurations in contemporary art. Keywords: Grayson Perry, fashion, art world. 192 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - School of Fine Arts. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 398 In this text we present an examination about the relationship between the English artist Grayson Perry and his alter-ego Claire, positioning them in the field of artistic creations that take the themes of the body and sexuality as expression and political practice. Since the second half of the twentieth century, art has been revealed through happenings, actions, performances, sensory experiences and varied artistic processes, important transformations on the perception that artists have had of their body (Jones, 2006, p. 25). From these new procedures, two movements can be felt in the contemporary artistic field. First, the uniqueness of the body in art. Second, as contemporary artists have taken the body as one of the main arenas for debates around politics of identity and belonging, transforming it into place, where political, cultural and philosophical phenomena come together in different contexts (Jones, 2006, p. 26). British artist Grayson Perry and his alter-ego, Claire, represent one of these new artistic configurations in contemporary art. Grayson Perry has been seen by critics of British art as one of the most provocative artists who have emerged on the international art scene since the 1990s. In 2002, he was the winner of the Turner Prize, which led him to be a part of the Royal Academy of Arts. At the moment, Grayson Perry is the most popular artist in Britain. However, Perry has divided the establishment of British curators, artists, and critics of art, raising doubts in certain segments of contemporary art in relation to his work, and also in relation to his person (Klein, 2009, p. 45). His work is known mainly for the blend of various craft traditions, including pottery, tapestry and folk art, in a visual collage of icons to critique the hypocrisies of society through a wide variety of historical and contemporary themes (Klein, 2009, p. 47). Nevertheless, Grayson Perry and his work have been seen by the art world as “strange” things. What are the factors of these divergent views? What would be the discomforts and estrangements in relation to the person of the artist and his art? Two reasons seem to be quite significant in this division of opinions. Perry, as we said, is a potter and upholsterer, and also a cross-dresser - a transvestite. The first reason may seem innocuous, since there are artists who have used pottery, candies, vaseline and ketchup in their works (Klein, 2009, p. 55). The second motif, conveyed by a part of British art criticism, understands that Perry’s works are extremely accessible, and accessibility is often viewed by this universe as banal, being, on the contrary, intellectual impenetrability and the abstraction, extremely valued. We thus find a political division in the field of contemporary English art, where a set of practices and institutions creates a conflictual and hierarchical context. Movement considered by Nathalie Heinich (2008, p. 45), as intrinsic practice to the contemporary art. Confirming the position of Perry’s work as accessible, the artist Tracey Emin - the “enfant terrible” of the group known as YBA (Young British Artists), which emerges in the 1990s, and also winner of the Turner prize, with the installation My Bed, in 1999 - said with a wry smile, in an interview to the BBC, shortly after Perry’s award: “Grayson Perry is very popular with the masses” (Klein, 2009, p. 87). Tracey Emin, who sold her $ 10 million My Bed last year, according to the English newspaper The Guardian, is one of the English contemporary artists who compose the renowned group of British artists who graduated from the Goldesmith College of Arts, in the 1990s, which also included, among others, the artist Sarah Lucas, a feminist artist who discusses the mechanisms of visual representation about gender. In Sarah Lucas´s work, the artist creates 399 8.1 Grayson Perry as Claire: a fashion iconic at the art world the body of a woman, represented by a sofa, with two pumpkins representing a pair of exposed breasts on the back, and a vulva of raw meat in the center of the accent, and invites the viewer to feel the female body, declaring: “Try it, You’ll like it - Try this, you will like it”. The artist Demian Hirst, in The Natural Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, research’s death. For Damian Hirst, the work is a representation of death and speaks of something that was not there, but it was. The Sunday Times newspaper estimated the fortune of Demian Hirst two years ago at $ 370 million (Thornton, 2014, p. 38). We have verified from the examples above that by winning economic capital with distinction, artists from Goldesmith College appear to conform the hegemonic group of the English artistic field. Based on Tracey Emin’s observation of the awards and the person of Grayson Perry, the question is: why and how is Grayson Perry popular with the masses and unpopular with certain segments of the English art scene? Before going on a tour of the artist and his work, it is important to note that Grayson Perry’s artistic and life trajectory is very different from that of the artists who made up the YBA-Young British Artists generation. Firstly, Grayson descends from a family of the English working class. The artist did not attend schools of Fine Arts, such as the Royal Scholl of Arts or the Goldsmith College of Arts, but studied in the outskirts of London, in the Polytechnic of Portsmouth (Jones & Perry, 2006, p. 21). In the 1980s, Grayson moved to London and got involved with different cultural groups, including Punk counter-culture groups, filmmakers, poets and performers. Period in which the artist says to have been “Dickenseniano”, given the poverty in which it was (Jones & Perry, 2006, p. 22). We start from the hypothesis that Perry’s creations appear to be the result of research on a set of everyday practices that range from the sexual fantasies of his childhood to social criticism from the punk culture. Therefore, we consider that Grayson Perry speaks of himself in his work, and, I believe we can say that his works are “self-portraits”. Grayson Perry, for many critics, is an artist who sits between punk aesthetic and craftsmanship: as a result, his works are seen as domesticated and overly decorated. Perry’s ceramics dialogues with the Greek, in the form, and the decoration of the pieces have a thematic, whose narrative is erotic, grotesque and critical to contemporaneity. Themes that are also part of your tapestry (Thornton, 2009, p. 24). According to the artist, his visual representations are meant to be burlesque and consist of reversing order: getting rid of art with a capital A, which, he says, pretends aestheticism (Jones & Perry, 2006, p. 34). The decorative imagery of Perry’s objects addresses a severe critique of consumer culture, mass culture, and an exploration of bizarre sex. Their objects are filled with sadomasochistic scenes, presenting images of desert individuals in unusual and pornographic landscapes, focusing on the imaginary representation of fellatio and masturbation, showing these sexual practices as usual, being far beyond the domain of polite and courteous society (Klein, 2009 p. 51). The second aspect relates to Perry’s cross-dressing: Claire - her extravagant dressing suggests a dangerous blend of boundaries between masculine and feminine, intellectual and sensual, serious, and comical. The artist says he likes to dress like a girl since he was seven. However, Perry has been married for 25 years (Jones & Perry, 2006, p. 15). The important question to be discussed, in our view, about the artist’s alter ego is whether the masculinity and femininity of the person Grayson Perry, evoked in Claire’s representation, are 400 mechanisms that together act in the construction of his art, or if Claire is a creation disconnected from his work. A first response leads us to understand Claire as a creative device that subverts all gender markers by manipulating some diacritical signs, such as clothing, ornaments, but especially body, gestures, and performances, which make up a hybrid identity, where feminine and masculine are juxtaposed (Jones, 2006, p. 34). In this sense, we can say that Perry has used his body in a performance construction that disarms traditional conventions, creating a new identity configuration that stimulates provocations around the constructions of gender and the expression of sexuality, understanding that an identity implies the establishment of a difference, which is often built on a hierarchy (Buttler, 2015, p. 19). In analyzing his images, we perceive that the affirmation of difference, through androgyny, is the precondition of an “other” that constitutes its “exterior”: presented in drag identity, when wearing extremely stylized women’s clothes. The contestation and subversion evoked by Claire seem to translate an opposition not only to gender codes, but also to normativity, thus bringing art to politics. The persona Claire is itself a political device that on the one hand points to a reconfiguration of paradigms that touch the world of art, and, on the other, draws attention to a rupture in the mechanisms of representation of the figure in the art itself (De Lauretis, 1997, p. 32). The protest contained in Claire - especially in her body in performance - arises as a form of confrontation with artistic precepts and approaches political and social movements - in this case, LGBT movements. The construction of Claire was giving progressively. From the age of seven, Grayson was already dressed in his mother’s and sister’s clothes and was out walking through the cemeteries of his town, Chelmsford, south of London. In the 1980s, when Grayson is already in London, Claire embodies a critique of the ridiculous and conservative character of London bourgeois housewives, where Claire is photographed at the station of Saint Pancras, in London, wearing a 1960s dress, in a black suit, gloves, a vintage purse and a headscarf. This criticism of the conservatism of bourgeois women later became apparent in the public images of Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister of Great Britain in the 1980s, and Camilla Parker Bowels, Duchess of Cornwall and current wife of the Prince of Wales (Jones & Perry, 2005). Claire ridicules the bourgeois aesthetics of Margaret Thatcher and Camilla Parker - with tidy hair, out of the hairdresser, wearing a ceremonial coat, neckerchief, and pearl earrings. But a major change in Claire’s appearance occurred in the 2000s when the artist claims to have experienced a certain epiphany, realizing that being a transvestite did not necessarily have to do with being a woman. Perry then creates an icon dress for Claire: a “doll dress” - feminine and childlike (Klein, 2009, p. 102). For the artist, a classic girl dress is definitely the incarnation of a femininity that attracts attention and affection - the absolute antithesis of the male. For the construction of this new appearance of Claire, Perry did a thorough research on the history of cross-dressing in Victorian London, starting with the famous impersonators - theater artists in Victorian London who wore the opposite sex - such as Ernest Boulton (nicknamed “Stella”) and Frederick Parker (nicknamed “Fanny”). Claire seems to indicate a creative process that draws on the history of English transvestism. Therefore, Claire is a performance that uses the constructions of the body and the psyche of the artist around his sexuality, which is structured in a repetition of feminine acts, that, when they 401 8.1 Grayson Perry as Claire: a fashion iconic at the art world stop a historicity, they become devices of contestation (Butler, 2015, p. 44). Currently, Claire appears regularly, in baby doll outfits and Bo Peep sets. In the work The Artful Dresser, Claire poses on the porch of the British Museum, after performing the exhibition The Tumb of Unknown Craftsmam - the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman - in February 2011, which we see to the right. The Tumb ... is a memorial to craftsmen, in which Crayson has juxtaposed 30 objects he has created to 170 pieces of the British Museum’s historic collections. Since Perry’s artisans are artists at the service of his religion, his master, his tribe, and his cultural tradition. We realize that two perspectives come together in Claire’s construction. The first, we notice that he refers to the construction of an alterego of the artist, who, from the use of his dressing-up, through the streets of London, seems to mock binarism of gender, calling attention to the multiplicity of uses of the body. So some British art critics have seen Claire as a work of art in and of itself (Thornton, 2014, p. 34). The second perspective, Claire, at the entrance gate of the Tate Gallery, the artist ridicules the world of art, dressing as one of the English suffragists of the 1910s, raising the flag, “No More Art “- art no more. Grayson Perryy, through Claire, ironizes art with capital A, seeming to expose to ridicule the art produced by groups of hegemonic artists. Claire is an expression of the politician, while simultaneously criticizing the artistic canons and oppressive social mechanisms. We believe that these two perspectives become elements that make of Grayson Perry a transgressor, controversial artist, who arouses divergences and dissensions, in portions of the art world, that still accuse him of being “a pseudo intellectual facing a world that is very busy to look at, and too distracted to feel: an artist for people who cannot be bothered with true art”, as the critic Jonhatha Jones put it in the English newspaper The Guardian on 10 October, in 2009. Despite the criticisms, Grayson Perry and Claire are loved by the public: Grayson is currently considered a “national treasure” which means national consecration, pride of the British people. By way of conclusion, we understand that the works of Grayson Perry and his alter-ego Claire are loved by the masses, according to artist Tracey Emin, because they are artistic expressions that transgress and denounce the norms established by the world of art and the social universe, pointing to new paradigms of art, as Nathalie Heinich calls attention, when he says: “Postmodernism”, “post-vanguard”, “plastic arts” instead of “arts”, “plasticiens” instead of “artists” are new names that emerge to designate not only new styles or artistic movements, but a new period of art or a new way of practicing it. They indicate a paradigmatic change” (Heinich, 2014, p. 34). Thus, the ironic critiques and smiles against art and the person of Grayson Perry by certain critics and artists seem to point to a fierce contest of power in the field of contemporary English art. Finally, as a work and as an expression of the artist’s alter-ego, Claire is not only a hybrid identity, but a gestural artistic object, which has been detached from the frame and launched into social contexts, breaking with static categories and suggesting new artistic expressions. 402 References Butler, J. (2015). Problemas de gênero. Feminismo e Subversão da Identidade. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. De Lauretis, T. (1987). Technologies of Gender. Indiana: Indiana University Press. Foucault, M. (1999) História da Sexualidade 1: a vontade do saber. Rio de Janeiro: Edições Graal. Heinich, N. (2008). A sociologia da arte. Bauru: EDUSC. Jones, A. (2006). El Cuerpo del artista. London: Phaidon Press. Jones, W & Perry, G. (2005). Grayson Perry. Portrait of the artist as a young Girl. London: Chatto. & Windus. Klein, J. (2009). Grayson Perry. London: Thames and Hudson. Thornton, S. (2014). O que é um artista? Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editora. 403 8.2 Women’s haute couture and the modernization of fashion. Art, marketing and visual culture in the early twentieth century Maria Lucia Bueno 193 A b s t r a c t Drawing on a tactic of rapprochement with art, French couture, presenting itself as a new type of avant-garde, promoted a transformation of women’s fashion in the early twentieth century, which affected the dressing of users in different parts of the world. This relationship between fashion, art and clothing renewal was successfully operated by the women of the haute couture, who obtained great professional recognition at the time. The purpose of this reflection is to discuss aspects of this change, having as reference some exemplary cases, of male stylists and female stylists, who had a remarkable performance in this period. Keywords: Women’s Haute Couture, modernization of fashion, art and fashion, marketing and visual culture, gender. 193 Juiz de Fora Federal University - Postgraduate Program in Arts, Culture and Languages. Juiz de Fora, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 404 1. French haute couture Until the middle of the 19th Century, the influence of French high fashion was very slight and restricted and mainly disseminated by its customers, and standardized pictures in sales catalogues or fashion magazines which until then were of a literary nature (Mallarme and Wilde, 1997). However, at the beginning of the 20th Century, with the modernization of transport systems and means of communication, there was a considerable expansion of channels for spreading fashion which was accompanied by the parallel development of the French fashion industry. Following these trends in the field of fashion at the beginning of the 20th Century, a new kind of highly successful entrepreneur and professional emerged – the fashion designer. Distinct from seamstresses and tailors who remain tied to their workshops, they emerged as new arbiters of taste and managers of the fashion industry. While working at the desks of their offices, they made key decisions about style and how to sell the goods which were manufactured by employees who operated in the workshops of their companies. In 1911, the fashion designers were exporting 65% (and taking orders for 15%) of the total volume of French exports (Simon, 1931), and emerged as new capitalist millionaires who enjoyed a social status equivalent to that of bankers and other industrialists. This new type of professional that appeared, achieved an unprecedented position of social and economic prestige among a group of women originating from the petty bourgeoisie and working class at a time, when the condition of women confined them to their home, and they were subject to political and professional restrictions. Unlike the situation in other more established sectors – such as the plastic arts (Trasforini, 2009), politics and the liberal professions – there was a predominance of women at the forefront of the fashion industry in the first decades of the 20th Century since they surpassed their male counterparts in terms of economic and social recognition (Bueno, 2012). In a period characterized by radical social change, the presence of professional fashion designers was linked to the mastery of two new skills: 1) the capacity to understand the nature of the requirements for innovation and the prospects of attracting a new clientele; 2) a talent for finding one´s way in the complex world of the new visual culture and making use of it to design one´s own work and give legitimacy to one´s authority as a creator. 2. Fashion and gender When analyzing haute couture fashion in the first half of the 20th Century, the question of gender emerges as a crucial explanatory factor since the relationship between male and female costume-designers is an essential feature for understanding the changes that took place in that period. The international expansion of French haute couture cannot be separated from the modernization of women´s fashions. Although there were radical changes in male garments at the end of the 18th Century as the middle-classes became increasingly more urbanized, in France women´s clothes remained tied to the conventions of the “ancien regime”. This anachronism was accentuated even further in the second half of the century when the segregation of the genders in the sphere of cultural appearances plunged depths never seen before. (Harvey, 1995, Souza, 1987). 405 8.2Women’shautecoutureandthemodernizationoffashion.Art,marketingandvisualcultureintheearlytwentiethcentury Let us address the question of fashion and gender as a case in point, by following the careers of female haute couture businesswomen. They played a key role in making the necessary adjustments for modernizing the female clothing industry. This consolidation resulted in a partial revolution within the field of fashion and enabled them to achieve an unprecedented position of social and professional prestige in the social sector where operation was controlled. They produced a kind of fashion suited to wealthy, modern women, as was imagined by women from poor backgrounds or self-made women who had achieved economic and social success through their own efforts (Crane, 2000; Picon, 2002; Kirke, 1997; Macrell, 1992; Sirop, 1989). They adapted experiences taken from their personal lives as women and workers, in a process that involved transposing them as a means of renewing the fashion of the elite (Crane, 2000). In doing this, they brought practices and styles to the world of fashion that were inspired by the everyday lives of female employees in general, and the working class in particular. Thus they advocated a new lifestyle in the form of an aesthetic innovation that transformed personal styles and experiences into social experiences. Through the act of wearing clothes, women altered the manner in which they were regarded and the way they were able to shape their own physical identity. They took advantage of the seasonal fluctuations (that are typical of the fashion system and until then had been random) to introduce definitive changes in the culture of appearances that affect both wealthy women and those from the lower classes. What had seemed to be only a trend became a break with convention and a revolution in female clothing. The symbolic importance of fashion and haute couture in particular, in creating new styles that reflected the changes in the role of women in the first decades of the 20th Century, is still an area that has not been explored to any great extent by gender studies, which generally concentrate on negative factors. With the growth of urban patterns of living of an ever-increasing intensity, life-styles have been transformed and made female fashions an aberration that needs to be corrected as a matter of urgency. Several answers to this problem have been made, including those of artists, male fashion designers and women themselves. The suggestion made by the women was the most successful because it addressed three requirements: i) it met the expectations of the customers, ii) it responded to the need to restructure the fashion industry and expand the sector and iii) it was in tune with the readjustments that took place in the domain of the visual arts, architecture and design. The simplification of clothing allowed the public to be broadened in a significant way. The research carried out by the sociologist Philippe Simon, in the archives of the Chambre Syndical [Trade Association for Haute Couture] in 1930, makes clear that it was the simplification of the clothes that allowed them to be reproduced in foreign companies and was responsible for the international expansion of the haute couture business (Simon, 1931). In the 1920s, the most commercially successful fashion houses, such as those run by Jeanne Lavin and Gabrielle Chanel, usually concentrated on two fashion lines in their collection – more sophisticated clothes for private customers and clothes of a simple kind which catered for the needs of foreign purchasers (Garnier, 1987). Let us examine the sector in the period 1900-1939 and trace the evolving pattern of women by mentioning some particular cases: Jeanne Paquin (18691936), Jeanne Lanvin (1866-1946), Gabrielle Chanel (1883-1971) and Madelaine Vionnet (1876-1975). The choice of these people was made in the light of 406 the importance of their practices and companies in establishing a field of international fashion in the first decades of the 20th Century. Paquin paved the way through his first successful attempts to modernize fashion, even during an aristocratic and conservative period, by introducing dresses such as the desabille and First Empire clothes which began to free the female body from the crinoline, bustles and corsets which constrained any possible movement. Chanel and Vionnet were linked to a more radical and avant-garde type of fashion which emerged during the First World War and gave priority to functional features by breaking away from an “ornamental culture”. Lanvin operated somewhere between the two trends but always sought to combine a sophisticated outline with the life-style of the modern woman. 3. Ornaments and ostentation in the haute couture of the 19 th Century Art nouveau fashion was an expression of ornamental culture and the lifestyle of aristocratic women. Thus it was a class fashion supported by a society that was characterized by strictly defined social class barriers both in the physical and social sense. Charles Frederick Worth, a pioneer in the introduction of haute couture, defined the basic principles of female fashion in the latter half of the 19th Century (Marly, 1990). Inspired by the “strategies of distinction” that characterized the royal courts of 17th Century (Elias, 1983), he sought to strengthen the waning power of the dominant French aristocracy by means of “appearance”. However, he made a misogynistic interpretation of aristocratic fashion which, by adopting a number of clichés, satisfied the social whims of the bourgeois ´arrivistes´. He developed a style which was later dubbed Tapissier, [upholstered]. This involved sculpting the female body by draping it with overlapping materials, ornaments, lace and trimmings, brocade and fringes in a way that allowed the fashion to be displayed over the width and height of the torso region in an inspired medley of eclectic designs. Decoration, which until then had been regarded as a feature of appropriateness and propriety (Gombrich, 2004), reached extreme levels of lavishness and explicit ostentation as a means of turning women into ornamental objects for men. At the same time, these female garments, which restricted the movements of those who wore them in an unprecedented way, became the ideal symbolic expression of the idle classes (Veblen, 1899). The haute couture fashion houses catered for the official ceremonial functions of the European courts and salons but their main clients were the wealthy visitors from North and South America. Hence, a change in the lifestyle of the customers from America had direct repercussions on the business of French fashion. 4. The new world of fashion At the end of the first decade of the 20th Century, a new elite entered the international stage, bolstered by economic capital, consumer practices and a taste for innovation. This social class began to occupy the space formerly allotted to the aristocracy, the legitimacy of which was grounded on tradition (Rouvillois, 2008; Davis, 2006). There were increasing numbers of millionaire nouveau riche from different parts of the world who increasingly congregated in Paris, where they boosted the artistic and cultural life, expanded the market 407 8.2Women’shautecoutureandthemodernizationoffashion.Art,marketingandvisualcultureintheearlytwentiethcentury for luxury goods and introduced significant changes to the prevailing patterns of taste. Prominent among the wealthy of the new world were the Americans and in particular, the South Americans. Between 1910 and 1914 a new fashion model for women was found in the Parisian scene which was distinguished by making the body more lively and modeled on sports activities and ballroom dancing. Running counter to the immobility and sense of confinement that characterized the women of the aristocracy, North-American dancers such as Isadora Duncan and Irene Castle, and the interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe, began to reinvent themselves in visual terms and served as an inspiration for many haute couture fashion houses by modernizing female fashion. They broke with the convention of ornamental and ostentatious French fashion and began to be emulated as a benchmark of innovation (Simon, 1931), by dominating the market and industriasl world of fashion until the beginning of the Second World War when Paris was occupied by the Germans. With regard to gender, the social changes in the world of the international elites are caused by analagous alterations in life-style that are linked to changes in those who comprise the elites, through a process of social distinction. Before anything else, stress should be laid on the importance of the role played by the middle-class and the influence of money in forming this group. In the next section, we take note of the changes in the dynamics of the class system with regard to social distinction and trace the evolution of a mundane form of snobbery which was modelled on a particular social group (the aristocracy), and led to a snobbery based on fashion, aesthetic principles and innovative lifestyles (Rouvillois, 2008). There were also changes in the age of the leading figures in this new world scene. While in the aristocratic culture which was dominated by conventions, emphasis was laid on prestige and the respectability of an older generation, in the fashion culture that was established, the driving-force in society was audacity and youth. This change was also reflected in the avant-garde art market and the modernization of female fashion in the French haute couture. At the beginning of the 20th Century, there was already a movement in high fashion to devise strategies to meet the constant demand for renewal and modernization. These strategies can be divided into two key groups: those formulated by men that offerend temporary solutions; and those planned by women which had more longlasting effects on the evolution of female clothing. 5. Female dressmakers and the modernization of fashion From the end of the 19th Century, there began to be strong criticisms of the anachronism of female fashion and its incompatibility with modern life. However, these reactions did not resonate at the time and were not enough to encourage any intervention to be made in the dominant culture of female clothing. In the first place, this was because they emerged as strategies among a group of people who had little influence or decision-making powers – generally upper-middle class women linked to the Suffragette Movement. Added to this, it was because they were outside the fashion system where the changes were centered on change in the way of wearing garments. The modernization of clothing became a feasible proposition in haute couture for three reasons: 1) there arose a demand for it among a large section 408 of the clientele, 2) it became a matter of debate among key sectors of society including doctors, hygienists, architects and avant-garde artists; and 3) within the realm of haute couture, there was a group of professionals who were able to put it into effect - namely the female fahion designers. What ensured the success of their undertaking was not the practice of handicraft (since most of them did not have these skills), but their familiarity with the inner world of luxury goods and their knowledge of what the French sociologist Bourdieu calledthe “habitus” of the clientele and a sophisticated fashion culture (Bourdieu, 1979). Thus an avant-garde innovative movement was introduced which broke down barriers of gender while preserving the distinctions between the classes in this new framework. Among the examples chosen here, it is worth drawing attention to two different action strategies which correspond to two distinct periods in the modernization of fashion. The first which was more of an intuitive and modest undertaking, was carried out by Jeanne Paquin and Jeanne Lanvin in the period 1900-14. Gabrielle Chanel and Madeleine Vionnet played a more striking and calculated role and achieved more radical effects during the more drawn out period of renewal from 1913 to 1939. However, the most extreme radical departures took place between 1913 and 1925. Jeanne Paquin and and Jeanne Lanvin removed the excessive amount of ornaments and gradually dispensed with features that restrict movement such as the corset. They sought some inspiration in the ¨French Empire¨ style, which was responsible for a considerable modernization of French clothing soon after the French Revolution. However, many of the ideas were taken from everyday experiences and observations with regard to the effect of ongoing changes on current life-styles. Paquin took himself as a benchmark when putting the changes into effect, while Lanvin used his daughter as a model. Both were obsessed by the innovative ways of dressing women which could be found in the elegant French salons. The kind of reception accorded to their creations, as well as those of other female costume designers, forced their male counterparts to quickly renew their own collections. 6. Male fashion designers when faced with the modernization of fashion French fashion designers like Paul Poiret (1879-1944) and Jacques Doucet (1853-1929), who had an “ornamental” conception of women and female fashion, believed that designs in clothing were the result of artistic movements. Coming from different generations, although close friends, both were great art collectors and became costume designers because of the failure of their ambition to be artists. Doucet, who was a collector of paintings, furniture and decorative objects from the 18th Century, was guided in his decisions about fashion by the same rococo atmosphere that permeated his collections, in which a romantic style was enhanced by a profusion of lacework and delicate embroidery (Chapon, 1984). His clothes at the turn of the century, were equally successful among those who lived in the demi-monde, actresses from the theatre and socialites. It has been noted that the clothes of Doucet had the power to make respectable women worldly and turn the wives of military officers into glamorous courtesans. In 1912, under the influence of Poiret, he sold his collection of antiques, changed the way his house was decorated and then bought modernist works of art and furniture. However, he kept the same 409 8.2Women’shautecoutureandthemodernizationoffashion.Art,marketingandvisualcultureintheearlytwentiethcentury atmosphere of the 18th Century in his fashion collections. From 1910 onwards, he was compelled to adapt his clothes designs to a more modern outline. Jacques Doucet found a solution to this problem by employing Madelaine Vionnet as a stylist; she was then known for her audacious ideas which had been put into effect in the Maison Callot Souers. Paul Poiret saw himself as an artist who created clothes as works of art (Koda, 2007; Troy, 2002; Palmer White, 1986). From the beginning of the century, he had taken note of the ongoing changes taking place. However, in his interpretation of them, aesthetic questions were given priority – to the detriment of those regarding life-styles. He thought as an artist and not as a stylist. In his view, women should preserve and simply renew the ornamental role they had exercised until then. Innovation was able to replace ostentation though audacity and originality. Poiret´s modern woman was distinguished by the originality and daring of her avant-garde garments. The purpose of her extravagant attempts to break with all the aesthetic conventions in force was to make an impact and scandalize people. Functionality and ordinary women were not of the slightest importance. His main clientele was made up of avant-garde artists and millionaires. Although he managed to capture the interest of the press media he completely lacked a pragmatic approach, and thus failed to spread his ideas about style to the public; in fact he seem liked to be in opposition to current public trends. Denise Poiret, his wife and leading model in 1911 and 1912, had to abandon the walkways of Paris when her baggy trousers and oriental turbans led to passersby attacking her. 7. The successful strategy of women Diametrically opposed to this, each of the stylists mentioned above in her own distinct manner, based her creations on two guiding principles: respect for the body and an awareness of the requirements of the life-style in the modern world. The center of fashion was no longer the garment but the person who wore it. Paquin and Lanvin are also well known for their art collections, particularly their Impressionist paintings. However, the managers of the manufacturing companies supplying goods to the fashion houses were more concerned with following the changes in the life-styles of the women. Those who watched the changes in the streets automatically avoided the kind of extravagant items that could hamper the movements of the customers. In this way they were able to sanction striking forms of modernization in fashion without completely breaking away from conventional styles. In the first decades of the 20th Century, most women over the age of 30 had a body that was deformed as a result of having to wear a corset and for this reason were unable to do without it. Paquin, Lanvin and other innovative stylists in the period 1900-1910, took account of this fact when they gradually introduced changes in the outline of women. A common strategy among them was to replace the traditional corset with more comfortable elastic straps. Paul Poiret on the same occasion eliminated the accessory overnight, creating clothes that could only be worn by slim young women. For this reason, these dresses were criticized and attracted sarcastic comments from middleclass women, and the women´s magazines in France, where they were the targets of caricature. 410 Figure 8.2.1 - Caricature about Paul Poiret’s maison Source: La Grande Revue, may, 1909. 8. Fashion and the War Gabrielle Chanel and Madeleine Vionnet took more radical measures and completely broke away from the conventional patterns of fashion that had existed until then. They shifted away from the “axis of innovation” that sought to provide ornamental designs for a fashionable cut, and as a result managed to bring about a partial revolution within the field of haute couture. From that time onwards, the body and lifestyles began to determine the style of the clothes – the opposite of what had previously been the case. Unlike Paquin and Lanvin, Chanel and Vionnet created their own collections and for this reason were able to make structural changes. Both kept a watchful eye on what occurred in the streets and on social events and then used fashion as a basis to recreate the styles of wealthy women´s dresses. The inspiration of Chanel was men´s fashion which was based on the cut and the quality of the fabric. From the beginning of the first decade of the 20th Century, she built up her own wardrobe by adapting men´s clothes. After 1914 she designed her first collections which were well received and appeared in the North American magazines (Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar) but were deliberately ignored or treated with sarcasm by the French magazines. The First World War buried the life-style of La Belle Époque and paved the way for the development of a new culture of fashion. This was a challenge that Chanel and Vionnet managed to rise to. They blurred the barriers between the sexes and in the advertisements that they produced, they sought to emphasize this fact by combining innovation and gender issues. They created a fashion that was easier to reproduce and was hence more “democratic”. However, by carrying on with the luxury goods sector, they maintained the barriers between the social classes in other areas, although new factors such as the cutting, fabric and finishing’s, made their work more nuanced. 411 8.2Women’shautecoutureandthemodernizationoffashion.Art,marketingandvisualcultureintheearlytwentiethcentury 9. Marketing fashion and visual culture Despite their social origins, all these women experienced economic hardship in their childhood and began to work in activities linked to fashion when they were very young. Almost all of them were given training within the most reputable fashion houses selling luxury goods, where they had the opportunity to acquire a considerable understanding of culture, a refined taste, and a deep knowledge of the processes involved in the creation of fashion, as well as an understanding of the life-styles of the elite. They regarded the relationship between fashion and the arts as a key factor, since it was able to confer prestige on the figure of the costume-designer and give symbolic legitimacy to the fashion industry. They attempted to encourage the more renowned visual artists to plan their ideas and devise advertising strategies that could combine innovation in fashion with innovation in art. The Paquin Fashion House was the first business to make a serious attempt to bring about a renewal of fashion by finding solutions of a modest kind through more pragmatic and peripheral measures. In other words, they reduced the excessive amount of material and ornaments and freed women from the constraints to their movement imposed by corsets. They also sought inspiration in the first empire style, which was responsible for a considerable modernization of female clothing soon after the French Revolution. Jeanne Paquin used herself as a benchmark for the transformations she put into effect. But she was also inspired by the innovative styles that could be found in the elegant French milieu, many worn by North-Americans194. In 1907, when launching her “Empire” dress, Jeanne Paquin published a double-page advertisement in Les Modes magazine which reproduced a painting by Henri Gervex (1852-1929), an academic artist who achieved wide social and institutional recognition and who chose as his subject an afternoon in the salons of the Paquin Fashion House. 194 I should particularly like to mention three who exerted a strong influence on the milieu of Paris between 1906 and 1914. The socialite Rita Lydig (1875-1929), who lived in Paris, designed her own clothes and commissioned them to be carried out in the haute couture houses. Elsie Wolff (1895-1950), a North-American actress, fashion reporter for Harper’s Bazaar and the precursor of interior design in the United States. And finally, Irene Castle (1893-1916), who together Figure 8.2.2 - Henri Gervex, Paquin a cinq heures Source: Les Modes, april, 1907. with her husband Vernon, is considered to be among the people who introduced ballroom dancing into Paris and the United States. 412 The costume-designer featured prominently in the center of the work carrying her new model in the midst of her clientele who were dressed in a more conservative manner. In 1924, Madelaine Vionnet made use of the fashion magazine Gazette Du Bon Ton [Journal of Good Taste] to publicize her summer collection. This had been commissioned by the Italian futurist Ernest Thayah (1893-1959) who was at that time responsible for the visual programming of the brand. This was a step towards showing a fashion parade of her collection in her fashion house in Biarritz. Figure 8.2.3 - Ernest Thayath. A Biarritz chez Madeleine Vionnet Source: Gazette du Bon du Ton, 1924. Between 1911 and 1912 Paul Nadar revamped the photography of fashion in the pages of Les Modes, with more spontaneous images and narratives which were especially created for Jeanne Lanvin. This was so that she could publicize a line of fashion for children and teenagers, inspired by her daughter. In 1916, the graphic artist, Paul Iribe (1883-1935), designed the logo of the Fashion House which included a photo taken in 1907 of Madame Lanvin and her daughter wearing ball gowns. After 1914, several cartoons highlighting the innovative style of Chanel and signed by Sem (Georges Goursat, 1863-1934), a French artist renowned as a caricaturist in La Belle Epoque, appeared in the French press. This was a positive payback for the business of the stylist who contracted the cartoonist in 1923 to produce images to advertise her first perfume, Chanel No.5. Figure 8.2.4 - Paul Iribe, Advertising Maison Lanvin, Source: Vogue Paris 1923. 413 8.2Women’shautecoutureandthemodernizationoffashion.Art,marketingandvisualcultureintheearlytwentiethcentury Figure 8.2.5 - Sem, advertising Chanel No. 5 Source: De La Haye, Tobin, 1994. In the years between the two World Wars there was an even greater expansion of French haute couture in which female stylists predominated much more than in the previous period. The case of female costume designers is an example of upward mobility in every social sphere which began by establishing fashion as a new cultural and aesthetic field and which from the beginning of the 20th Century, brought France considerable financial dividends. The changes in haute couture rapidly took place through a process of modernity and reflexivity (Giddens, 1999). First of all, some designers introduced a number of innovations inspired by a wide range of sources such as the arts, history and also the streets. The successful strategies in the fashion market were soon being emulated by other costume designers who then went out in the streets where they became popular. As the German sociologist Georg Simmel pointed out, the basis for fashion dynamics is the imitation-distinction relationship. As a result, new styles quickly emerged in the next collections that replaced the previous ones. These quickly became popular but were shortly afterwards overtaken by others – in other words, they were soon out of fashion. Funding: This work was supported by the CAPES - Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination and Graduate Program in Arts, Culture and Languages, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil. 414 References Alexandre, A. (1902). Les reines des l’aiguille. Modistes et couturières (Etudes Parisienne). Paris: Théophile Belin, Librairie. Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction. Paris: Minuit. Bourdieu, P. (1975). Le couturier et sa grife: contribution à une théorie de la magie. Actes de la recherche en Sciences Sociales, 1(1), pp. 7-36. Bueno, M. L. (2011). Alta-Costura e Alta Cultura. As revistas de luxo e a internacionalização da moda (1901-1930). In Moda em Ziguezague. Interfaces e expansões. São Paulo: Estação das Letras e Cores. Bueno, M. L. (2012). Les femmes de la Haute Couture. Mode et genre au début du XXe siècle. In M. Buscatto; M. Leontsini; M. 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Fashion Magazines Gazette du Bon-Ton (1912-1925) La grande revue (1909) Les Modes (1901- 1919) Vogues Paris (1920-1939) 416 8.3 The portraits of the couturier: Dener Pamplona Abreu and the uses of photography Maria Claudia Bonadio 195 A b s t r a c t This article analyzes the uses of photography in the image construction from and by Dener Pamplona Abreu as a “couturier” through his portraits published in the Brazilian press between 1957 and 1968, that is, from the moment he opens his first Maison in São Paulo, until his breakup with his first wife - when his career begins to decline. I am going to observe how such photographs are used by him to aggregate and spread prestige to the couturier and to his products, especially because of their connection with luxury and elements associated with the past, such as clothing, antique furniture, and art objects. But, on the other hand, they raise questions about his gender and sexual identity, since on these photographs his image approaches what in contemporary gender studies is denominate as “queer”. I am also going to note how those images collaborate to create a mythical image on couturier in Barthesian meaning. Keywords: Dener Pamplona Abreu, photography, couturier, Brazilian Fashion, queer. 195 Juiz de Fora Federal University - Postgraduate Program in Arts, Culture and Languages. Juiz de Fora, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 417 8.3 The portraits of the couturier: Dener Pamplona Abreu and the uses of photography 1. Dener Pamplona Abreu and his portraits In the late 1950s and in the early 1960s, a new kind of professional emerged in Brazil, made up largely of men who were about to act as fashion designers and opened new fashion houses under their own names These fact soon attracted the attention of the press – in most cases because they began to be patronized by the most important women in Brazilian society. However, at least two of the designers became well known not only for the clothes that they produced for high-class socialites but also for their extravagant well-publicized claims and their appearances. These are Dener Pamplona Abreu (1937-1978) and Clodovil Hernandes (1937-2009), who were also the main protagonists of what was conventionally called the “Needles Wars”, since it was very common for one of them to “stab the other with a needle” in their comments to the press. There are a large number of articles about Clodovil and Dener in the national press, which has given rise to serious reflections about establishing the identity of this new professional category and, as a result, questions of gender have been raised. This is because the designers habitually crossed the border-line of what was considered the correct way of dressing and broke taboos on the masculine appearance, especially in the first half of the 1960s. However, I have decided to set out by focusing on the “performances” of Dener Pamplona Abreu, who made use of clothes as icons in a performative manner. This is defined by Judith Butler as “the various ways in which a body shows or produces its cultural signification” (2003, p. 201). The choice is made especially because, from the information that can be found in the press, it is also possible to consult his autobiography which was first published in 1972 (Abreu, 2007) and became “the ideology of his own life where certain significant events are selected with a global purpose”. (Bourdieu, 2006, p. 184) This fact draws one’s attention to the construction of the fashion designers’ image (or images) propagated by Dener (which went against the standards of masculinity than in vogue). But how can one explain that this effeminate fashion-designer was married and had two children? And to make things worse, when this same character posed for photos beside his family, he often cast aside his more outrageous clothes and appeared in a suit and in poses that blended with a belief in heteronormativity. In other words, in “a social world that tends to identify normality with identity as a constancy of oneself” (Bourdieu, 2006, p. 186), Dener lacked the constancy and was multifarious in his representations of himself. In this article I analyze the uses of photography in the image construction “of” and “by” Dener Pamplona Abreu (1937-1978) as a “couturier” through his portraits published in the Brazilian press between 1957 and 1968, that is, from the moment he opens his first Maison in São Paulo, until his breakup with his first wife - when his career begins to decline. I am also going to observe how such photographs are used by him to aggregate and spread prestige to him and to his products, especially because of their connection with luxury and elements associated with the past, such as clothing, antique furniture, and art objects. But, on the other hand, they raise questions about his gender and sexual identity, since on these photographs his image approaches what in contemporary gender studies is denominate as “queer”. That is, as Dener used the photographs published in the press to “(...) put oneself in a certain relationship with the world” (Sontag, 2004, p. 14). Although he was not the photographer himself, but the photographed, he used the clothes, the poses and the scenarios to propagate an image of himself 418 associated with the luxury, the tradition, and the extravagance, associations often established from the “patina” that made of himself by wearing clothes from the past and posing in scenarios that were unsettled by the decoration then in vogue196. Furthermore, I analyze how Dener’s photographs can also to some extent be considered performative in an artistic sense since the couturier seems to use portraits to construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct self-images such as “fully conceived and interpreted scenarios” (Rouillé, 2009, p. 376). 2. The clothes of couturier At a time when the profession of fashion design was relatively unknown in Brazil, Dener seems to have had an unrivaled business acumen because he was aware that it was not enough just to display the models, he had produced but that it was also necessary to show himself alongside his collections. In this way, he gradually became the ‘poster boy’ of his brand and the products that he licensed. The first example of this practice is the publication of the Rhodia Textile advertising, called The fashion personality of 1961 (1961, April 04), photographed by Otto Stupakoff and published in Manchete magazine, where among other illustrious figures – such as Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes (songwriters and singers of Bossa Nova), the designer was invited to pose alongside the models of Rhodia Textile, and was the only one character of the fashion editorial which photo occupied two pages197. However, what distinguished him from the other personalities of the advertising was the fact that he was the first person who had a photograph that extended across a double page. The photo in question appeared beside the models who were wearing garments that he had designed. Dener was thus a young 24-year-old fashion designer with collections on display at the 1958 Fashion Festival (Festival da Moda) and in National Fair of Textile Industry (Feira Nacional da Indústria Têxtil - Fenit) in 1959, but even while creating some models for the Rhodia - a French multinational company -which at that time sought to promote its synthetic fibers in Brazil, he still posed as a star198. Photography followed a common pattern in international fashion, which showed the full extent of the fashion designer’s collection since the clothes worn by the models ranged from everyday clothes to full evening dress. The setting was the Maison of the fashion designer, which was also a common practice in the photography of international fashion. The main novelty was the inclusion of the designer within the photograph, since by his striking contrast with the models, his image featured prominently, even if it did not necessarily occupy the central position. Although much of the picture was filled with sumptuous garments and the grace of his models, it was Dener who attracted most attention. The designer appeared seated in a lavish chair with a leather covering and carved in dark wood of a Brazilian rosewood style. Dener looked tiny when compared with the models and left a space in his seat to be shared with a Siamese cat. Another cat of the same race was reclined on a cushion in front of him and the designer himself was dressed in a shirt, tie, dinner jacket and breeches! His ankles and the lower part of his legs were also on display and the breeches chosen for the photo reminded one of those worn by men at the beginning of the 19th Century. 196 I use here the expression in the sense given by Grant McCracken (2003), for whom the patina, that is, the impression that an object carries marks of the past, would be a way of authenticating the status. Thus, in presenting himself in photographs in clothes that, even new ones, refer to the past, in scenarios composed mostly of pieces of antiquary, and also with pets that, to a certain extent, evoke works of art from other times, for elaborating in his images a kind of “patina” of himself and his universe. 197 Otto Stupakoff (1935-2009) was the first internationally renowned Brazilian fashion photographer and took photos for several foreign magazines such as Elle, Vogue, Life, Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar. In 1969, a series of 43 photographs was included in the Moma collection – Modern Art Museum, New York. Currently, the Moreira Salles Institute (Brazil) has 16 thousand negatives of the work of the photographer. 198On the advertising campaigns of Rhodia Têxtil in Brazil in the 1960s, see (Bonadio, 2014). 419 8.3 The portraits of the couturier: Dener Pamplona Abreu and the uses of photography Apparently, it was based on this picture that Dener went on creating models for other photographs which he would going on to make throughout his career. This image included clothes that were out of fashion or that belonged to the fashion of another time; and the lavish furniture which recalled the past, together with the animals – such as that found in the portraits of monarchs and illustrious figures who since the Renaissance had appeared in paintings beside noble animals, especially dogs. However, since the designer was creating a new tradition, he replaced them with cats – and there was also the cigarette which was a feature that appeared in most of Dener’s photos – in the 1960s the act of smoking was considered a form of sophistication. All those elements were a way to suggest that the designer belonged to a prestigious and traditional group. In the photograph that appeared in Manchete magazine on 18th July 1964, with the caption A Brazilian Style Collection: towards Japan, Dener appeared alongside the model Mailu – who posed in a dress created by the designer – and wore a suit with a lapel which was larger than the acceptable standard size at that time. The photo was taken in 1964, and Dener has flowing hair that is long for the period. The chair where Dener is seated on, is in the style of the throne of Louis XV which makes the image even more resplendent and the whole effect is exactly the image Dener wished to present of himself – that of a haughty and splendid fashion designer. Again, Dener is not in the middle of the picture, but as in the photo of 1961, it is he who faces the camera in a way that again makes his presence the central feature. The caption below the picture strengthens this idea by proclaiming that “Dener, with his strong sense of responsibility and indisputable talent, was one of the creators chosen to form the extensive collection (...)”. The photograph is on the opening page of a report with several pages in which other creators appear beside their clothes, but none of them stand out to the same extent as Dener – who seems to be understandable in the midst of a “chaotic mass” of fabrics and designs scattered all over the place. The impression made by the photos of Dener that appeared in the press from the beginning of the 1960s (when he began to become well known in the printed media) to 1968, the years of his separation from his first wife, Maria Stela Splendore (when the news of his collections began to turn into gossip) makes clear the following: Although his collections may not always be governed by a guiding theme, with regard to his personal image, Dener knew exactly what he was seeking to achieve199. Through his clothes which were extravagant and out of the fashion, he sought to build an image of a designer-artist or artist-artisan200. However, this was not the only image propagated by Dener, who also allowed himself to be photographed in a suit and tie or shirt and dinner jacket, especially when he appeared alongside his family or with the First Lady Thereza Goulart (1940 - ) 201 , who was one of his clients. Dener had a very clear awareness of his personal image importance, as well as, the fact that this image should not be easy to decipher, simply because of uncertainties about his identity, this led to an even greater interest in his work. In this way, perhaps he was a pioneer in Brazil as he made use of a changeable and performative appearance and spent a part of his time displaying a sexually ambivalent image, and a part of his time as a perfect member of the family and businessman. 199 In the autumn collection which appeared in O Cruzeiro magazine published on 18th August 1962, for example, which resorted to several kinds of inspiration such as Turquoise, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Safari, Chanson Blue, Between the flower and time, Aphrodite of the Pantheon. 200 Diana Crane (2006) classified a costume-designer as an artist-artisan who “laid emphasis on continuity, predictability and elegance” and “made a considerable effort to distinguish his activities from those of his predecessors, emphasizing his autonomy as a creator and the quality of his art” (p. 303). 201 Maria Tereza Goulart was married with João Goulart (19191976), who was President of Brazil between 1961-1964. João Goulart was deposed of Brazilian Presidency by military coup in 1964 April. 420 3. A man in suit When in May 1965, Dener officially announced that he was going to marry Maria Stela Splendore (1949- ), the press quickly turned its eyes to the new couple. At that time, Dener was already a well-known personality and his mannerisms, and way of dressing or the fact that he was a designer by profession, left little doubt about his sexuality. Dener, to use the term of that time was a “queer”. Thus, on May 15th, Manchete magazine announced his marriage in the following article which had the heading Denner (sic): the costume designers can love too, which said: Denner who is the most controversial personality of Brazilian haute-couture has announced his marriage to a young girl with a stormy temperament. When the television and radio broadcast the news, there was a malicious smile on the lips of the newscasters and presenters If the news of the marriage caused a furor in the press, it very likely had the same effect on the public. In August of that year, when the wedding took place, the couple was the subject of at least three reports in Manchete magazine and one of them (1965, August 14th) showed Dener beside his future bride on the cover of the magazine, just one week before the wedding! The tradition of keeping the wedding-dress hidden from the groom was not a problem since he had designed it himself. As it was made clear by an article in Manchete magazine on 28th August 1965, the wedding had five thousand guests and was the most widely commented in São Paulo that year. After the wedding reception, the couple stated that they would take refuge in the countryside: During their honeymoon, they seemed like two kids on holiday, laughing and playing around. They went riding, ran about and played with the green and red macaws that were fluttering outside their chalet. And they took even more delight in a waterfall which they dipped their toes into and splashed around in the fresh water. In the photos which show this occasion, Dener and Maria Stela were fondling each other without looking at the camera as if they only want to be absorbed in their love. But in all this “casual behavior”, there is one factor that catches one’s attention. Contrary to what the time and place seem to require, Dener does not wear sports clothes but formal shoes and a suit with or without a waistcoat and tie, which formed the ‘uniform’ of the designer when he appeared with his wife and children. When the photos show Dener, or at least, when he appears together with his family, he knew how to separate the father from the designer. It is as if the designer made use of clothes and poses as a technical means to produce himself (Lauretis, 1994). The uses that Dener made of clothes, appearances and gestures allow one to ascribe to Dener what David Le Breton referred to in his discussion of transsexuals Far from being evidence with regard to the world, femininity and masculinity are the object of a permanent production for an appropriate use of signs, of a redefinition of oneself that conforms to physical design, and thus become a vast experimental field (2003, p. 32). 421 8.3 The portraits of the couturier: Dener Pamplona Abreu and the uses of photography In other words, Dener was always involved in a “deliberate staging of himself” (Le Breton, 2003, p. 31), in which clothes and appearances played an essential part. Thus in 1965, most of the photographs in the press projected an image of him as father and husband. Dener’s marriage was indirectly exploited even for advertising purposes, because there was news about the marriage of the designer in all August editions of Manchete magazine. In the same magazine issue in which the report about his honeymoon was spread, Dener also appeared in an advertisement for stockings manufactured by Titânia and signed by him, in which posed seated on a wooden chair – which looked like a royal throne – holding a packet of stockings in one hand and a cigarette in the other – in which one could also see the wedding ring of the bridegroom202. That is, the photograph may have been taken before the wedding, but the company probably expected that the “best fashion designer in Brazil” – as the advertisement described him, would be married and would soon be around to spread the advertisement of the stockings. In the advertisement, the designer appears dressed in an ash grey suit although with blond streaks in his hair. This meant that although he was dressed in the most traditional form possible, he challenged the norms of heterosexuality since having streaks in one’s hair was not socially accepted in Brazil in the mid-1960s. Moreover, these streaks provided grounds for mockery in the Intervalo magazine on 22nd February 1964, when Dudu D’Almeida in his TV Society column expressed disapproval of the designer’s appearance and stated the following: “Dener – was a guest at the Municipal Ball in Recife, with golden streaks in his hair. Does not our fashion icon know that no one uses golden streaks any longer? (...)”. As well as the marriage, the pregnancy of Maria Stela and the birth of her children Maria Leopoldina and Frederico Augusto – whose names referred to those of past royal figures, also attracted considerable attention and left no doubt about the ambitions of their father and were the object of numerous reports. It was as if being a father was once more challenging the expectations of the public and soon the paternity of Dener was a reason for a headline! The report in O Cruzeiro called Dener that was published on 21st July 1967 included the following statements: Father for the second time; Frederico Augusto at seven months old; Leading actor in the TV soap opera. Looking at these can help us understand that far from being the father of an ordinary family, Dener wished to project a very complex identity and that an ambivalent gender would only be one of the factors of this complexity. The article provided the following information: Dener, who did ballet dancing from the age of 14 to 17 and was a collector of silverware and records of famous operas (he knew 36 by heart), is currently regarded as the principal costume designer in Brazil (...). His dream which he intends to carry out, is to set up a national ballet on as grandiose a scale as that of Marques Cuevas (...). He lives in a welldecorated house (designed by himself) surrounded by precious works of art (...). At the moment, he is devoted to buying old Chinese articles (...). He 202 In many of his photographs, Dener employs a cigarette for advertising since he is often seen clutching a cigarette. It is as if the cigarette formed an indissoluble link with his body and was also a sign of his success. 422 loves reading biographies of famous celebrities (...) He has dressed about 100 elegant people throughout Brazil. His main passion is Maria Callas. (...) (p. 196, January 21). In the photographs illustrating the report, Dener appears in a dinner jacket, pants and shirt. He does not flirt with the camera because his son Frederico Augusto was the center of attention. Even when he appears in one of the photos seated on one the chairs shaped like a throne, (with Frederico Augusto in his lap), these photographs lack the same lavishness and oddity which associate Dener with the image of a great creator. This is because the clothes chosen are simple and sober – the suit which has been worn since the 19th Century, can be characterized as something suitable for a businessman, and there are no lingering doubts about sexuality (Breward, 2016; Souza, 1987). There remains the task of showing the sui generis character of the costume designer who divided his time between needles, antique collections, and opera records. All this is without ignoring a more popular aspect of his character which is revealed when he welcomes the chance to become a television actor (Manchete, 1967, January 21). As has been seen, the costume designer seemed to understand that it is possible to form magazine covers of cultural significance through clothes and that these can seem natural when they are close fitting to the body (Entwistle, 2002). However, what is Dener striving to achieve by forming images so disparate as the father and husband devoted to a suit and tie with brilliantine hair or that of the designer omnipresent among his creations and wearing clothes that obliterate the boundaries of gender and often make references to earlier periods of history? Following the procedure already adopted by other costume designers such as Charles Worth (1825-1895), Jacques Doucet, who often (or at least in some of their most well-known photographs) decided to be photographed in exotic clothes of another period or place203, it is possible that Dener seeks to show that he is someone with a sensitive eye who does not let himself be carried along with fashion trends and for this reason is in a position to advise his clientele about what to wear for each situation204 . This concern to break away from his time seems also to appear in his statements to the press when he says: “I make extremely outmoded costumes [...] I am someone who belongs to the year 1888. In fact, I feel I belong to another century. I have the sophisticated character of Oscar Wilde” (Bianco, Borges & Carrascosa, 2003, p. 188). At that point is possible to ask: Was Dener really a man of 1888? I will return to this question in the conclusion. 203 Some fashion designers still adopt this procedure today. One example is Karl Lagerfeld, a German designer responsible for the Chanel brand, who practically only appears in public wearing black and white clothes with white hair bunched in the form of a pony tail – in a clear reference to the hairstyles for men in the second half of the 18th Century. 204 The setting up of a personal style in contrast with fashionable clothes is a common practice not only among costume designers but also among fashion journalists and formers of public opinion. These reports are written in the “fashion weeks “often by famous journalists and formers of public opinion who go to fashion parades wearing clothes that are neutral and have little connection with fashion, in particular black clothes. The practice seems to have been established for at least 60 years, ever since 4. A man of 1968 There seems to be a convention in the fashion field regarding fashion designer clothing, which suggests that the professionals who design new lines of garments should not follow the fashion but create and propagate a striking personal style. It is as if when noting the wishes of society and putting forward new fashions, the costume designer cannot allow himself to be contaminated by this. By renouncing the use of the seasonal novelties, the designer can observe society with greater precision with a view to understanding its desires the film Funny Face, directed by Stanley Donen, in 1956, which was set against a backcloth of fashion, and Miss Prescot (Kay Thomas), the editor of the fictitious magazine called Quality. In one of the musical scenes of the film, it is decided that ‘pink’ should be the color of fashion and all her assistants are seen using this color although she herself refuses to give up her black suit 423 8.3 The portraits of the couturier: Dener Pamplona Abreu and the uses of photography and anxieties, as well as strengthen his image of being a “high-class artist”. As early as the 19th Century, Charles Worth, had rejected the suit and top hat (at least in his most popular portraits), which characterized the elegant men of the period, and appeared in public wearing a cap and dressed in a smock. This created an image that was not only detached from the fashion then in vogue and corresponded with the image of Rembrandt in some of his self-portraits. Moreover, it underlined the idea that a “consecrated artist” is someone from another age or else someone living in different times. It is this model created by Worth, which Dener adopted when he displayed himself in breeches, laced cuffs, jabot, slippers, buckled shoes and a series of other features from different historical epochs, such as the furniture and the Maison. However, despite being surrounded by and dressed in features from the “past” – even a past that was invented – Dener was a man of his own time – since some of the clothes worn by the designer, did not really belong to a particular time because they blended styles from different periods. Dener perhaps gradually came to understand not only the ways of imposing himself on the world of fashion and high society, but also learnt how it is possible to experience the changes that occurred in the aftermath of the Second World War in what Hobsbawm described as a “Cultural Revolution”. This broke with the traditional patterns of family life and gender identities to seek a more personal realization and a sense of individuality (1995). And as James Green points out, despite being an effeminate figure who personified “an opposition to the signs of normative behavior with regard to the masculine virility expected of Brazilian males” (1999, p. 26), Dener was fully accepted by the public and was able to move freely in high society. As already stated, Dener was called a “queer” by his rival Clodovil, and probably was a homosexual, despite being married and having two children. In the photos in which he appears beside Maria Stela, he seems to be entirely absorbed in the relationship. The same applies to the photos with his wife and children where he seems to be a fond father. The devotion to his wife and children did not prevent that in other situations he had effeminate attitudes. But, together with his first wife (since he married again in the 1970s), he often appeared dressed in a suit and tie and showed himself to be a traditional man, at least in some situations. In summary, Dener was not a person whom it is easy to define, but I venture to say that at least one label can be attached to the costume-designer – through the use of clothes and appearances, his handling of gestures, his attitudes and his statements to the press. Dener not only knew how to turn himself into a great Brazilian designer and possibly had the greatest success of any of his competitors in the 1960s, but also made himself into a celebrity, and why not, a myth205. As Barthes states “(...) myth is a type of speech chosen by history that cannot in any way arise from the nature of things.” It is something that is constituted through representations “but also photography, film, reporting, sport, shows, publicity, all these can serve as a support to mythical speech” (Barthes, 1982, p.132). Last, but not least, it may be possible also, to point out that Dener, from his design of self, might suspect that, as W.J.T. Mitchell points out, the images have desires and desire “to change places with the spectator, to fix him in his place, to paralyze him” (Mitchell, 2015, p. 174), in a kind of “Medusa”, since many of his photographs have the potential to generate this effect. The couturier, who sought throughout his life to constitute an artistic image through himself, also 205 A research study of newspaper archives at the Biblioteca Nacional [National Library], and more precisely of the examples of the Cruzeiro magazine published in the period 1960-1969, obtained 175 results for the names Dener and Denner (this was carried out at a conference where everyone mentioned the costume designer), while the same research for the name Clodovil yielded 79 results 424 endeavored to be seen not only as “creative genius,” but as a star; in this sense, he seemed to be aware that the light that made him shine was par excellence photography, which, according to André Rouillé, works at the same time as “an optical machine and a machine for illumination, more precisely a machine to produce visibilities (Roillé, 2009, p. 150). Acknowledgments: The author thanks Internationalization Laboratory International Relations Directorate – UFJF for the review of this article and especially Nilcileia Peixto. Funding: This work was supported by the CAPES - Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination and Graduate Program in Arts, Culture and Languages, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil. References Abreu, D. P. (2007). Dener: o luxo. 3rd ed. São Paulo: Cosac Naif. Barthes, R. (1987). Mitologias. São Paulo: Bertrand Brasil. Bianco, G.; Borges, P. & Carrascosa, J. (2003). O Brasil na moda. São Paulo: Caras. Bonadio, M. C. (2014). Moda e publicidade no Brasil nos anos 1960. São Paulo: Nversos Bourdieu, P. (2006) A ilusão biográfica. In J. Amado. & M. de M. Ferreira (Ed.), Usos & abusos da história oral. Rio de Janeiro, FGV, 2006. Buttler, J. (2006). Problemas de gênero. Feminismo e subversão da identidade. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. Breward, C. (2016). The suit: Form, function, style. London: Reaktion Books. D’almeida, D. (1964, February 22) TV Society. Intervalo. N/A (1965, August 28). DENER encontra o paraíso. Manchete. Entwistle, J. (2002). El cuerpo y la moda: Una visión sociológica. Barcelona/Buenos Aires: Paidós. Gabaglia, M. R. (1978, April 27). Dener: a moda no planalto. Manchete. Green, J. N. (1999). Além do carnaval: a homossexualidade masculina no Brasil do século XX. São Paulo: Unesp. Hobsbawm, E. (1995). Era dos extremos: o breve século XX. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. Lauretis, T. D. (1994). A tecnologia do gênero. In H. Hollanda (Ed.), Tendências e impasses: o feminismo como crítica da cultura. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco. le Breton, D. (2003). Adeus ao corpo: Antropologia e sociedade. Campinas: Papirus. McCracken, G. (2003). Cultura & Consumo: novas abordagens ao caráter simbólico dos bens e das atividades de consumo. Rio de Janeiro: Mauad. Morais, R. (1967, July 21). Dener. O Cruzeiro. Netto, A. (1962, August 18). Denner apresenta moda brasileira, em cores: A coleção de outono. O Cruzeiro. N/A (1967, April 21). PAI pela segunda vez; Frederico Augusto aos sete meses; Galã de novela na TV. O Cruzeiro. N/A (1961, April 29) A PERSONALIDADE DA MODA DE 1961. Manchete. Rouillé, A (2009). A fotografia: entre o documento e a arte contemporânea. São Paulo: Senac. Sontag, S. (2004). Sobre fotografia. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. Souza, G.de M. (1987). O espírito das roupas: a moda no século XIX. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. 425 8.4 From defining what elegance is to a youthful appearance: transformations in women’s culture and fashion in the 70’s Elisabeth Murilho da Silva 206 A b s t r a c t This study analyzes the opinions given by specialists on elegance and good taste who featured in the social gossip columns of the daily newspapers in Brazil during the 1960s. In particular, there is an examination of Ibrahim Sued, the most well-known Brazilian columnist, and his contributions to the O Globo newspaper and the Manchete magazine. The purpose of this is to show how an appraisal of elegance and vulgarity (or poor taste) in reality plays a dual role by both adulating and propagating the lifestyle of the upper classes while at the same time, confining women to fulfilling their traditional roles of mother and housewife. These roles will be questioned later on through an examination of the cultural changes that accompany youth and the relations of young people with fashion and correct behavior. Keywords: Female behavior, Brazilian fashion, feminine elegance. 206 Juiz de Fora Federal University - Postgraduate Program in Arts, Culture and Languages. Juiz de Fora, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 426 1. Introduction Elegance is difficult to define, and it is exactly for this reason that it is manipulated by the well-known conventions of fashion and etiquette. As fashion is ephemeral, the standards of elegance tend to be constantly shifting and as a result, the need to be constantly up-to-date increases the importance of specialists and fashion stylists who are now becoming real arbiters of good taste. For at least three decades in Brazil, this place was occupied by Ibrahim Sued, who wrote a daily column in the O Globo207 newspaper from 1954 until shortly before his death in 1995. As well as featuring in the paper, Sued also appeared in other media outlets such as the radio and television, as well as taking part every week in the popular Sunday documentary program called Fantástico. This column was aimed at the gente bem [well-off people] an expression attributed to Jacinto de Thormes208 who employed it to refer to the elite of the 1950s who went to parties, organized lavish dinners, spent their weekends at Petrópolis or Correias, were seen beside the swimming – pool of Copacabana Palace Hotel or went on trips to Paris. Sued dominated the grand monde [high society] as he liked to call it and expressed his opinion about the art of receiving guests, and etiquette, as well as the elegance of the most important people of his time. However, the time most anticipated by his readers, was the month of December when the journalist published a list of the ten most elegant women of the year in both his O Globo column and the Revista Manchete209 magazine, complete with colored photos. The purpose of analyzing the social chronicles of the period here is to explore a possibility that can reveal the behavior of the Brazilian elite of that period, because it can be presumed that these were used as models for other social classes to imitate. Analyzing the handbooks on etiquette and good manners is a means of following the ideas of Norbert Elias (1994), who adopted them with the purpose of exploring the changes in sensibility with regard to the particular customs and habits of society and thus result in a civilize process. To this extent, the observations made in the handbooks can reveal the most radical social changes that can be found in Brazilian society in that period. What is noticeable is a lack of investigative inquiries into the inner daily lives of the young people, women and families in this recent historical period, which seem to be described in a somewhat artificial way in the social chronicles. However, they are illuminating when regarded as a kind of behavior that is being propagated to set an example. Back to that time can be seen in the attempts to capture the first signs of social change when young people became increasingly significant in numerical terms and of economic as consumers. Thus, this research seeks to reflect the mood of the time and describe the place of women and young people in society, as well as the role attributed to families. These three key players – women, young people and the family – will be the target of extreme changes in terms of the roles and behavior witnessed in the youth rebellion of the 1960s. The questions of changes still remained in the following decades and led to more significant social changes in the 1980s when women and young people finally began to play a more prominent role in the job market, even at the expense of other age groups (Silva, 2011). It may seem impossible to portray any event of the 1960s without referring to the impact that youth culture had on society as a whole. However, when the social gossip columns of the 1950s and 1960s are examined, there are number 207 O Globo is one of the newspapers in Brazil that has the widest circulation and forms a part of a conglomerate with the same name, which also includes the Rede Globo [Globo Network] the largest broadcaster and radio transmitter in Brazil, as well as being a publisher of books and magazines. 208 Pseudonym of Manuel Antonio Bernardez Muller, or Maneco Muller, the pioneer of the art of writing social columns in Brazil. 209 It was the question of a varied weekly magazine which circulated in the country between 1952 and 2000, only to disappear when its editor went into decline. It was characterized by a large format that was full of colored photographs of political celebrities or the artistic milieu. 427 8.4Fromdefiningwhateleganceistoayouthfulappearance:transformationsinwomen’scultureandfashioninthe70’s of nuances that separate the generations at that time, in particular the signs of conservatism among the Brazilian elite that reflect a French culture similar to that of the ancien régime. 2. Everything is known in society 210 It has often been said that during the colonial period in Brazil, the Court and the elite that lived here, followed European fashions, principally French which they found in Rua do Ouvidor [Ouvidor Street] in Rio de Janeiro, or purchased directly in Paris. Much later on, in the 20th Century, women who belonged to the elite were well-known clients of the most renowned French costumedesigners such as Eufrásia Teixeira Leite, Tarsila do Amaral, who dressed with Poiret or Jean Patou or Yolanda Penteado (Bivar, 2004), who describes her visits to Madame Grès in her biography. In fact, the French influence on the culture of the Brazilian elite was not a particular national feature because since the 18th Century, France has influenced other European countries in questions of fashion, etiquette and lifestyle (Elias, 2001). Thus, the inhabitants of the tropics who dressed in accordance with the restrictive dictates of European fashion in the 19th Century, were not simply imitating a frivolous kind of elegance but conforming to the required standards of decency and civility. As well as this, they were strengthening their marks of social distinction, and openly differentiating themselves from the negro slaves or former slaves and indigenous. By the 20th Century, the elite which had profited from coffee farming, was spending long periods of time in Europe, particularly in Paris, which led to the continuity of this influence, as well as items being brought back to Brazil, such as clothes, household objects, works of art, habits, new words and expressions, and cooking recipes. In reality, the French fashion industry remained supreme throughout the world during the first half of the 20th Century but the cosmopolitanism of the city in this period also helped to give Paris a higher. After the First World War, with the presence of demobilized American negro soldiers who remained in Europe, some of the Bohemian districts witnessed the appearance of jazz music. During the 1920s other Americans arrived: writers, aspiring writers, intellectuals and other artists who were attracted to the festive life-style of the city and could live a comfortable life owing to the difference in the exchange rate between the dollar and the French franc which had depreciated after the war. It became common for these people to make transatlantic voyages211. However, although this small wealthy elite that travelled and enjoyed the pleasures of cosmopolitan Paris, behaved in a more liberal and bohemian way, this was restricted to their visits to the old continent. In their own country they remained inhibited by moral questions and traditional customs, especially with regard to women. The period from 1950 to 1960 was generally one of affluence in which industrial progress gave the middle-classes access to the kind of consumer goods that had previously been reserved for the upper classes. This was the case in Western Europe and the United States but also in Brazil for a restricted section of society who lived in the urban areas of the south and south-east of the country. It was because the new middle-classes were becoming affluent that it was important for them to pay heed to the traditional forms of social distinction. The strict adherence to etiquette and the definitions of elegance 210 The title of the book compiled by Isabel Sued, daughter of Ibrahim, who brought together extracts from his chronicles and books. Published by Editora Rocco in 2001, the book is divided into different decades and within each of these, deals with general subjects like, politics, important people, fashion, etc. However, the work has limited value as a source of research because it isolates the extracts that are regarded as interesting from the context of the chronicle and fails to provide specific dates. 211 Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway (2012) were among the American writers who lived in Paris at that time and they portrayed the life-style of the Americans and other intellectuals and foreign artists who lived in the city 428 would have to be remembered so as to separate newly acquired wealth from the old. Moreover, luxury would have to find new kinds of expression, usually through the exclusive world reserved for members of the group. The gossip columns of the O Globo newspaper show a period in which even when Rio de Janeiro ceased to be the capital of the Republic212, it retained its influence and was a place of great political and economic importance, as well as being the first (and often the only) destination of the stars and other international celebrities who visited Brazil. As seen from today, the world of this elite seems like the meeting of a small and select group in the same places. Everybody knew each other and had the impression that everything of importance in the country took place in Rio de Janeiro, because the economic expression of São Paulo had still not superseded the “wonderful city” in terms of social prestige. 2.1. The world of the social columnist and Ibrahim Sued The underlying prescriptive tone that mixed behavior and clothing making them the ideal combination of elegance (or inelegance) can be seen in several texts about fashion: newspaper and magazine editorials, reader’s letter sections, and articles, among others. Appearing in a social column; however, seemed to be the most prestigious form of judgement since it created a hierarchy between the “elegant” ones and the “social column material.” Ibrahim Sued came from a poor family of Arab immigrants and did not have enough cultural or financial capital to enter the world of journalism of what was then the capital of the country. However, he managed to acquire fame, wealth and respectability as an arbiter of good taste and good living. One peculiar feature of the journalist was that he was notorious for his errors of grammatical agreement and other blunders in Portuguese. However, his grammatical difficulties were turned into a personal style and he was authorized to publish the chronicles without any revision by the O Globo newspaper with the slogan “Please forget Camões. It´s forbidden to mix him up with my style. Thanks” (Sued, 2001). Although the style of the kind of chronicle invented by Ibrahim Sued aroused considerable interest in the communication field, this was not the main objective of his work213. The columns of the journalist are taken here as a particular kind of reporting on the social life of the period in which the behavior and life-style of the Brazilian elite can be identified. In addition, the list of ten most elegant women drawn up by Ibrahim can provide a clear picture of the patterns of self-control in the society of that period, which was about to undergo radical changes. Hence, they serve here as a daily memory of appearances because they convey the ideas and images of a public performance of himself. In the representative newspapers of the two important capitals of that time (Folha de São Paulo and O Globo), the social gossip column was something addressed to a small group of readers – basically speaking, those who took part in the events described. Thus, birthdays, baptisms, engagements, weddings, dinner parties and other ceremonial occasions are narrated and portrayed so that they can be shared by other people in the same social milieu. The fact that, in the course of time, the paper had acquired a larger readership than what was being portrayed, did not alter the content of the gossip columns. It still recounted in minute detail like the news story devoted to the 15th birthday of the daughter of an industrial magnate, while also giving a lengthy 212 Rio de Janeiro was the capital of Brazil until 1960, when the building of Brasília was completed, and the capital was transferred to the center of the country. 213 This same factor is addressed in the work of Isabel Travancas. 429 8.4Fromdefiningwhateleganceistoayouthfulappearance:transformationsinwomen’scultureandfashioninthe70’s description of the clothes worn by the hostess and most illustrious guests, often accompanied by photographs. The purpose of this kind of news seems, at that time, to have been to praise the social distinction of those who featured in these columns. The new phenomenon introduced by Ibrahim Sued was that he did not appear in the events as an observer or as the reporter he often was, but as an actor and as someone who took part in the activities and gave an account of his own adventures. In contrast with other journalist of his milieu, who made a point of extolling those whom they portrayed, Ibrahim, in the course of time, established his own prestige and featured alongside the personalities from the world of politics, economics, and the artistic and high society. By appearing beside personalities like Queen Elizaberth of England, his position was consolidated as an arbiter of elegance and of unquestionable good taste. Ibrahim Sued regarded himself as a member of a group who narrated his everyday life to the readers. In the period under study, for those who belonged to the international Jet set to be in the right condition to “frequent” the gossip columns because the same people could be found on both sides of the Atlantic and travel to Europe, in particular Paris. It should be borne in mind that at this time, there was a mismatch between the large cities and small towns in the world. Thus, a news in terms of fashion, music and cinema occurred in London, Paris or New York, was only known in other parts of the world after a delay of several months or even years. This meant that the members of the Jet set were the people who were most up-to-date in terms of setting international trends. The Jet set basically consisted of the heirs of Americans, Europeans and some LatinAmericans, as well as artists from the cinema or music, some businessmen and other celebrities and its members circulated between the most important European cities, New York and at times, Rio de Janeiro. As well as trips to Paris, other practices of this life-style included summer holidays on the Côte d’Azur or in Capri, cruises in the Mediterranean and winters skiing in Switzerland. As a result, the members of the group spoke several languages at the same time and mixed up French, English and Italian. (Dorléans, 2009). This mixture of languages and expressions which never knew any connection to Portuguese, was not an exclusive feature of Ibrahim Sued. All the social chronicles are written in a style that abuses terms in French. Being aware that his scope went well beyond of this group, Ibrahim sometimes translated these expressions or explained the meaning of particular things, the names of wines or French dishes served at the dinners in which he took part. This fact also betrayed him, being regarded as an outside member and made his readers more aware of the exclusive nature of this life-style. 2.2. The elegance of Brazilian women in the golden years The women who appeared in the lists prepared by Ibrahim Sued of the most elegant of the year, followed a definite pattern or as the journalist stated, “criterion of elegance”. According to Sued, this criterion is simplicity. “Elegance cannot be purchased”, as the author also said with regard to the lists in question. However, all the women selected dressed in full-length French gowns, paid visits to Paris and many belonged to the Jet set. Naturally, there were more than ten wealthy women, dressed in European fashions who frequented the high society of that time, and some only remained out of the list because they 430 failed to follow the requirement of “simple elegance”. In the 1960s, young and single women began to feature in the list, which had not been the case before, when it only featured married women. Since Rio de Janeiro was the capital of the Republic, naturally politics carried a good deal of weight in the social life of the city and the wives of diplomats, ambassadors and deputies were given prominence because they had a greater opportunity to shine on the formal occasions in which they took part. These were followed by the wives of leading businessmen: bankers, industrialists, lawyers, and the other traditional heirs of Rio. Some names appeared regularly in that period and were mentioned several times not only for this column, their names appear in the lists that were drawn up for the various social columns. These included Lourdes Catão, Teresa de Souza Campos, Carmen Mayrink Veiga and Elisinha Moreira Salles, who also achieved international fame in terms of elegance. Elisinha Moreira Salles, who was also known as a leading hostess, was the wife of the banker Walter Moreira Salles, and organized numerous receptions at her house in Gávea, where she invited both the Brazilian and international elite. In the publication of the list, one page which includes some names and photographs provides details of their personal life, tastes in terms of fashion and the reasons for their elegance. With regard to fashion, the preferences of those chosen for 1968 are as follows: Balmain, Dior, Grès and Valentino (O Globo, 1968, p. 2). If it is remembered that the famous designers of that age were André Courrèges, Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Cardin, it can be seen that a traditional style remained in the kind of elegance celebrated in these columns. What still appears here as a model of elegance is a kind of conformity to a role that was already being openly questioned by the new generations: The ‘67 woman’. First and foremost, the ‘67 woman’ [in reference to the year] must please men. Pleasing other women or friends is a waste of time…. It is stupid. Be discreet, that is, feminine: no reference to masculinity, such as those ludicrous pantsuits, which look good on women not interested in men. Speaking loudly and laughing uncontrollably are among the things men hate the most. I, for example, absolutely loathe it... Women wearing a lot of perfume are also awful! If a woman wants to be elegant, I’m talking about ‘the 67 woman’, she has to be what we – men – expect her to be: classy. And you don’t need a date to be classy… That’s what I think. (Sued, 2001, p. 139). It is clear from this extract that there was a need for elegant women to conform to a determined role and place: that of a discreet and docile housewife 431 8.4Fromdefiningwhateleganceistoayouthfulappearance:transformationsinwomen’scultureandfashioninthe70’s who does not draw attention to herself. In her traditional task of alluring men, she must seek to cater to his wishes. Even the latest fashion which already included slacks and female suits, symbols of independence and the new roles of women, are rejected by Sued, who stresses the need for women to be “feminine” and praises the social roles of different genders through clothing (Crane, 2006). On another occasion, also in the 1960s, his criticism is more direct, and he makes obvious the ¨macho¨ cultural influences that prevailed in the Brazilian society of that time: To husbands – If you arrive home, and your wife is having a tantrum, don´t attach any importance to it. Remember that the poor thing has spent the entire day gossiping with her friends. If you wife is wearing a mini-skirt contrary to your wishes, forgive her because she needs to show off her legs. If your wife doesn´t want to go to the cinema, don´t argue with her because she has certainly been out with her friends all afternoon. If the food isn´t up to your taste, don´t get angry with your poor little wife because of course she has spent the day chatting with her friends and hasn´t had time to give the servants any orders. When your wife is annoyed, don´t blame her: remember that you have spent the entire day working like a slave to support your family. If she complains that you only give her a little money, raid a bank because your wife is the ‘most ...’ (Sued, 2001, p. 97). The extract above makes clear the difficulties of recognizing a woman as an individual who does not only live to please her husband, and this explains the sarcastic tone which praises her supposed idleness and carefree nonchalance. Brazil, which in the second half of the 1960s lived under a military dictatorship, attempted to champion family values and marriage through various spokesmen. At the same time, it was impossible to stem the tide of cultural changes which followed in the wake of the Second World War, through a cultural industry involving the cinema, music and television, even though many works were subject to censorship. It was undeniable that young people and women enjoyed more freedom in several Western countries. To some extent, Brazilian society had contact with these changes, either through travelling overseas or through the films that arrived here. Thus, the adulation of the role of the housewife confined to the home and eager to serve the interests of her husband, was in complete conflict what was taking place in the outside world at that time. At the same time, the praise for elegance and good taste through a predilection for the kinds of clothes sold in the shops of the French designers, together with the snobbery of the Brazilian elite who asserted the distinction of their social class (Bourdieu, 2004), also prevented a Brazilian fashion industry from making headway. As already mentioned, at the end of the 19th Century, the country already had a trade in luxury goods which supplied the middle and upper classes with imported products and a few items of high quality 432 manufactured in Brazil (Bonadio, 2007). The textile industry was thriving in several Brazilian towns but did not produce fabrics of a sufficiently high quality to compete with the imported goods and the companies thus concentrated on manufacturing cheaper garments for the poorest sections of society. For this reason, the manufacturers earned a reputation for providing clothes of a poor quality and these were marketed at a price that could be afforded for the working classes. (Maleronka, 2007). Those who had more money to spend on clothes turned to the fashion designers or stores for made-to-measure clothes, which in most cases were copies of European designs. Bonadio (2014) states that around 1960, the textile industry began to depend on an expansion of local manufacturers to leverage a greater volume of products. As a result, it was necessary for the fashionable goods produced nationally, to break the class barrier and also begin to cater for the needs of the middle and upper classes. The industry invested a good deal of money in advertising to achieve this, as well as inviting recognized artists to create clothes that could highlight the national character of the production. Although these campaigns were very successful in terms of publicity, the prejudices with regard to national fashion products were not so easy to overcome. 2.3. The fashion of youth, the world of youth The Cultural Revolution among the young at the end of the 1960s, is sufficiently well known as to need no explanation here. However, in Brazil, it coincided with the years of greatest resistance to the military government, after the issuing of the decree “Ato Institucional nº 5”214, [Institutional Act Number Five], when there was a demonstration of students and young people in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as some groups who were involved in clandestine and armed action to combat the regime. Although some people in Brazilian society welcomed the sudden changes in the country which rapidly became industrialized and urbanized, albeit in a haphazard and incomplete manner, the student resistance movement suffered violent repression at the hands of the military government and many people were imprisoned, tortured or sent into exile. For this reason, the 1970s were a time of appeasement and selfish individualism on account of the prevailing climate of fear, with more localized forms of resistance in the fields of “symbolic production” such as art and poetry. It was also at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s, that a more identifiable national fashion began to emerge through the activities of small businessmen who were established in the district of Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro. Whether because of the political climate or not, most of these people were young and produced clothes for other young people like themselves. At the same time, European fashion which always served as a benchmark for the Brazilian elite, had undergone significant changes in the post-war period. It now gave limited space to haute couture and concentrated more on ready-towear garments which made them more accessible to the middle-classes who wanted clothes of a higher quality and more sophisticated design. According to Lipovetsky (1999), elegance is ceasing to be a sign that one belongs to a particular social class and becoming an expression of freedom in itself, more individualistic and hedonistic styles and the outcome of youth culture being able to penetrate Western societies. Moreover, this new fashion glorify youth itself and encouraging the principle of endowing beauty and 214 Known as AI-5, this presidential decree was issued in December, 1968 and suspended the constitutional rights, as well as the parliamentary seats of all those who were opposed to the military regime. The forms of persecution inflicted on the opposition became harsher and included the torture of political prisoners as an institutional means of obtaining information and quelling resistance. 433 8.4Fromdefiningwhateleganceistoayouthfulappearance:transformationsinwomen’scultureandfashioninthe70’s elegance with the spirit of youth. As Rainho (2014) makes clear, youth fashion treats the young body as the model to be followed. This means that elegance shifts from the garment to the body and can be judged in the same way for all age groups. Thus, it can be seen that it was only at the end of the 1960s when elegance was transferred from the quality of garments and dressing, to the behavior of the young, that Brazilian fashion began to make inroads into the middle and upper classes. This was because this fashion also evolved by laying emphasis on a lifestyle that had previously been regarded as undesirable: the sunburnt and healthy body being displayed on the beach or in a natural setting. The benchmarks for elegance had previously been linked to standards that could be described as anti-modern and ignored the autonomy of women in a Western urban society. 3. Final considerations By conducting an analysis of women´s features in the press which associates fashion with patterns of behavior, it is possible to follow a path which shows the strict conventions that require women to conform to certain roles: those of the virtuous and discreet housewife, the impeccable hostess, and someone devoted to her husband´s career. Hence, fashion and the ideas of elegance celebrated in the social gossip columns, convey a model of womanhood that is passive and traditional with a number of female attributes (waist, bust and hips) that are well defined. This stylistic feminine construction was already being widely challenged in the creations of the fashion designers of that time. On the other hand, it can be shown that this is a world that agonizes even when it is experiencing its last moments of glory. The economic and cultural changes that broadened the consumerism of the middle-classes during the 1950s (Hobsbawm, 1995), also had serious implications for the culture and life-style of the elite, including with regard to the increasing influence that North-American culture began to exert on Western societies. And even Paris was undergoing a change, although it had retained its prestige in terms of haute couture. New productive centers began to compete with it, together with the proliferation of life-styles that were characterized by a greater degree of hedonism. Fashion and elegance remained for a long time as the means of determining the place of women and imprisoning her by confining her role to someone expected to adorn a patriarchal society. The existence of “arbiters of elegance”, beauty contests and other types of competition based on appearance, are thus in reality only attempts to obtain social control over women. Funding: This work was supported by the CAPES - Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination and Graduate Program in Arts, Culture and Languages, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil. 434 References Bivar, A. (2004). Yolanda. São Paulo: A Girafa. Bonadio, M. C. (2007). Moda e sociabilidade – Mulheres e consumo na São Paulo dos anos 1920. São Paulo: Senac. Bonadio, M. C. (2014). Moda e publicidade no Brasil nos anos 1960. São Paulo: NVersos. Bourdieu, P. (2004). A economia das trocas simbólicas. São Paulo: Perspectiva. Crane,D. (2007). A moda e seu papel social. Gênero, classe e identidade das roupas São Paulo: Senac. Dorléans, F. (2009). The Snob Society. Paris: Flammarion. Elias, N. (1994). O processo civilizador. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar. Elias, N. (1997). Os Alemães. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar. Hemingway, E. (2012). Paris é uma festa. São Paulo: Bertrand Brasil. Hobsbawm, E. (1995). A era dos extremos – o breve século XX (1914-1991). São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. Lipovetsky, G. (1999). O império do efêmero. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. Maleronka, W. (2007). Fazer roupa virou moda. Um figurino de ocupação da mulher (São Paulo 1920-1950). São Paulo: Senac. Silva, E. M. (2011). É possível falar de tribos urbanas hoje? A moda e a cultura juvenil contemporânea. Iara Revista de Moda, Cultura e Arte, 4, pp. 47-64. Sued, I. (2001). Em sociedade tudo se sabe. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco. Travancas, I (2000). Ibrahim Sued´s column: a journalistic genre. Retrieved from: http://bocc.ubi.pt/pag/travancas-isabel-coluna-ibrahim-sued.html 435 8.5. The Soho Scene and the aesthetic transformation in British fashion in early 90s Henrique Grimaldi Figueredo 215 A b s t r a c t The 1990s were marked by a profound change of capitalism in its neoliberal format, which instigated a visible retraction of public policies and a simultaneous expansion of markets. In England, these changes will have a strong impact on the working-class youth who are deprived of personal and professional perspectives. Thus, counterbalancing the moneyed generation of the university Yuppies, the children of the working class see in the arts a possible exit from their fixed social coordinates. In this context, Soho, which is made up large warehouses and abandoned studios, and a unusual economy (sex shops, BDSM houses, gay nightclubs and saunas, etc.), begins to welcome young designers and artists - mostly f rom the working class - who will start a new countercultural aesthetic revolution. Keywords: Soho, British Alexander McQueen. fashion, nightclubs, Leigh Bowery, 215 Juiz de Fora Federal University - Postgraduate Program in Arts, Culture and Languages. Juiz de Fora, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 436 1. To go ahead is necessary to come back: England in the 1980s The 1980s in the UK were characterized by consolidation and crisis in their administrative policy. Margaret Thatcher’s government, initiated in 1979, strongly opposed the set of public policies previously adopted and focused on a neoliberal economic approach, responsible for collapsing social realities primarily for working-class youth. The mythology supported by British government marketing of the late 1970s (lasting throughout the 1980s), celebrated a neoliberal economic policy capable of self-regulation, a more just society freed from the old chains of state paternalism and a youth that grow under this new banner, would be able to create themselves through entrepreneurship. There is a kind of belief proliferated by the television media and radio that was certainly a quick economic recovery, so in the name of the neoliberal myth many sacrifices were made: this accreditation in a magical energy of youthful entrepreneurship that would change the scenario only simulated the lack of government support in public policies, the existence of a large group of young people who were deceived and lived without any job prospects (Beckett, 2010). British historian Andy Beckett, reflecting on the British political scene in the 1970s will describe the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher216 as a crudely disguised as utopia. Thatcher was conservative in opposition to trade unionism. In her government she worked to reduce inflation and improve the price of the pound, increasing imports, since the national sector - devoid of interventions to depreciate the exchange rate and make the import products artificially more expensive - had lost its position of competition in the world market. As a result, the UK experiences a retraction of its industrial production and an increase in unemployment rates, which has been steadily increasing in the post-war period, and has tripled throughout the 1980s. The recession was marked by the bankruptcy of large companies and banks, a process that Beckett points out as necessary to the economic reorganization of the English state machine, which maintained directly (subsidies, import tariffs and market reserves) or indirectly (exchange depreciation), a series of companies under its guardianship (Beckett, 2010). Faced with the policy of budget cuts, Thatcher developed a program to reverse the English economic crisis by reducing state intervention and an extensive privatization plan, whose central postulate was Neoliberalism and Monetarism. Thatcher’s policy leads to the deep social conflicts of 1984, of which we highlight the miners’ strike, marking the growing discontent with her government and culminating in her resignation in 1990 (Beckett, 2010). In general, the two decades of Thatcherism provide the ideal ground for the social and economic revolution that would begin in the late 1980s and which was marked in the field of the arts by a movement of revival of poetic practice under innovative and thematic support in philosophical (death) and social (economic crisis) subjects. For McRobbie it will also be the moment of awareness on the part of the political Left in Britain, The Left had to reinvent itself by looking at what the population really wanted and what made Mrs Thatcher’s initial popularity. More specifically, there was the perception that British society had become more fluid. It seemed that distinct social 216 The Iron Lady, an anecdotal nickname worthy of the harshness of her government, was British Prime Minister from May 4, 1979 to November 28, 1990, the date of her resignation; being replaced by the also conservative John Major (Beckett, 2010). 437 8.5. The Soho Scene and the aesthetic transformation in British fashion in early 90s groups began to break the anchors that bound them to the old class structure. Of course, classes continued to provide a whole map of opportunities, expectations, and outcomes, yet they continued to operate as a macrostructure, but now as a mobile macrostructure, cooling down in the face of new generational, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality configurations (McRobbie, 1998, p. 3-4). Therefore, the intense social crisis of the last years of the Thatcher Age can be read from three perspectives; politically stimulated the English Left in its struggle for a demolition of the stratified and low-mobility class system, culminating in the election of leftist candidate Tony Blair in 1997 and a consequent change in the treatment of public policies; aesthetically, the second half of the 1980s is associated with what Baudrillard argues as a resizing of consumption from the new ways in which the media and culture began to focus on the subjects and how they lived, at a turnaround in which suddenly everything happened, be considered more cultural (Baudrillard,1988); economically, culminates in the creation of a new type of economy that McRobbie claims to be a response to post-Fordist production logic, that is, through “flexible specializations in production that have raised consumption, leading to highly specific conscious consumers” (McRobbie 1998, p. 4). For the sociologist, this new commercial dynamic coupled with the intense social crisis will allow the production of two economic specializations, the first of them, the result of this new mode of consumption that oscillates between culture and the media, is directly associated to the universe of innovations aesthetics and its commercialization, a new economic typology that It directly feeds this new type of society in which we live, where there is a certain predilection to consume images at the expense of the objects or products to which these images refer. The expanded image market created the need for a new workforce of imagery producers (McRobbie, 1998, p. 4). Parallel to the imagetic market, there is another alternative, a market that arises from fear of the unknown, from the lack of prospects of a seemingly futureless youth, is what McRobbie calls “hidden economies”, converging from “street markets at weekends, (...) sale of stolen goods, drug trafficking, and, increasingly, jobs directly associated with the emergency nightclub scene “(McRobbie, 1998, p. 4). This duality between an economy of the visible materialized in the images and a peripheral economy, which lives from subterfuge and contravention, interests us deeply. As we look further into this new generation of creators emerging from the newly structured art schools, we will see a constant convergence between these two universes, so that there is a certain inseparability between them: whether in the underground parties of gay clubs in London’s Soho or in warehouses transformed into workshops in the East End, the creative youth of the 80s and 90s will live between both realities, often using one as an element of inspiration for the other: it will be the aesthetic drag suitable for designers such as Alexander McQueen and John Galliano and transferred to the catwalk, but also constant comments on drugs, sex and death in the works of artists like Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and Damien 438 Hirst; the grunge look of the new rock and the transgressive and addicted attitude of models like Kate Moss and photographers like Corinne Day. This dimension that aligns the economy and culture, organizing them as joint forces, is based on the paradigm shift in which, initially, “culture ceases, (...) it becomes a decorative addendum to the hard world of things and of production, the covering of the cake”, but later becomes apprehended so that “the material world of commodities and technologies becomes deeply cultural” (Hall 1988, p. 128). This comment of Hall indicates a rapprochement between the cultural and economic dynamics, the economy can no longer be understood as a pure state, independent and disconnected from cultural phenomena. McRobbie thinking in English scene will reaffirm this approximate operation by analyzing the work of sociologist Sean Nixon, Nixon argues that economic decisions are, in fact, increasingly present in cultural discourse, and that cultural knowledge wielded by creative professionals commonly produces new economies. The results of this reconnection are fundamental to contemporary society (McRobbie, 1998, p. 5). In England, and specifically in London, we will see two distinct moments in this process, an initial set of experiments in the first half of the 1990s devoid of a substantial insertion in the economic universe, and then, from the second half of the decade, a radical change in this scenario, transmuting some of these marginal experiences into elements of high monetary value. As we shall see, the fashion economy and avant-garde art in London in the early 1990s oscillated between complete informality and submission to creative and / or cultural priorities. In The Field of Cultural Production (1993), Bourdieu will define by anti-economy this modality of initiative, in which integrity and artistic success are used to mask the fragility of the business and the explanation for its failure. The lack of sales would be rationalized as an artistic success (it is not sold because that society is not prepared to receive this type of creation, that’s the chorus of these creators), unfolding in a model of “disinterested” economy. Will be the few labor possibilities added to a scenario of social and economic crisis to produce the effects of this disinterested economy; when confronted with inexistent future perspectives, this generation would commercially serve an urban subculture with creations that were both directed to them and also producing from the movement itself, as McRobbie points out, “many of these creators who fed this market, were, in fact, recruited from within” (McRobbie 1998, p. 8). In Zoot Suits and Second Hand Dresses (1989), a preliminary book on this subject, McRobbie argues that this generation will find ways of survival serving the urban subculture through sales in popular markets, alternative outlets and the economy that comes with the clubs in East London; a phenomenon that McRobbie calls “subcultural entrepreneurialism” (McRobbie, 1989) in which this “self-management of self-employed professionals demonstrates the existence of a growing network of microeconomies within juvenile subcultures, extending beyond them” (McRobbie, 1998, p. 8). 439 8.5. The Soho Scene and the aesthetic transformation in British fashion in early 90s 2. Subcultural youth, subcultural economies In order to elucidate the role and expanded dynamics of this London subculture, we find it necessary to recover some concepts, that is, to point out questions that will be pertinent in the cartography of the transition from a marginal economy to the field of legitimation. In this sense, the study carried out by the London-based Canadian sociologist, Sarah Thornton, becomes pertinent. In a brief essay titled The Social Logic of Subcultural Capital (1995), Thornton proposes a genealogy of the idea of subculture from the rising London night scene, namely that of the underground clubs that emerged in the east of the city and its most representative enclave, the Soho’s neighborhood. This thematic clipping that focuses on the alternative musical scene and its activation spaces, is associated in Thornton’s theory with an understanding that points the nightclubs as central nuclei of an endless number of marginal aesthetic experiences; whether in fashion, in the arts, in avant-garde theater or in music, everyone gathered there. The nightclub equaled such experiences, converging the most distinct cultural agents under a common ideology, these cultures of taste (club cultures are taste cultures), turned the night into a place of meeting, creation, recreation and exchange; creative feedbacks that collaborated with each other without ever losing the axes of their own (sub) identity. Club culture can not be described as a unitary culture but rather as a set of subcultures that share a territorial affiliation and maintains their own dress codes, dance styles, musical genres, and a catalog of authorized and illicit rituals (...) by taking part in the culture of the clubs, we build affinities, where the socialization of its participants within a knowledge (and a belief), (…) allows us to perceive the senses and the values of the culture (Thornton, 1995, p. 200). By sharing these territorialities, different agents jointly compose a series of dismantles in the current culture, peering at alternatives and escape points to a reality that is not at all amiable to them. Subcultures are conceptually located in the thematic field of sociology of the imaginary, that is, in the subjective place of construction of social identities. They correspond to a dubious process of approximation and differentiation, since, in finding their similar and consolidating their ideologies, they affirm themselves as part of another universe, distinct from the totalizing narratives of mass culture. When Thornton describes such processes as “constructing meanings of how youth imagines itself and other social groups, refining their distinctive characteristics and asserting themselves as non-anonymous members of an undifferentiated mass” (Thornton, 1995, p. 201); she is describing exactly these new rising groups in British society in the late 1980s. The theme of this economy of disinterest - the anti-economy in Bourdieu’s terms - which characterizes the cells of counter culture and which characterizes the British scene from the second half of the 1980s to the first half of the 1990s, it becomes a theme to be analyzed. The cultural agents of this artistic renewal in London over the years have been tied to the experiences of restricted monetarization, often depending on state encouragement and support from 440 family members. By the other side, at the aesthetic level, the vanguards of fashion and the arts inscribed the city as a new world creative center, exploring and developing an accurate and critical point of view that gradually became recognized by the legitimized universe. Here we have the question: How does the traditional market absorb the marginal experiences of the subculture? It will be in the attempt to elucidate this questioning that we will come to critically describe the Soho night scene, its agents and capitalization processes. 3. The Soho Scene: from club to catwalk Demographically the population of young Londoners involved in the new cultural practices that would trigger an aesthetic and economic renewal of the British cultural industry were between 22 and 26 years old, mostly Caucasians, many of them homosexual, some born outside of England but with a family history or that favored their migration (John Galliano was Spanish-British but born in Gibraltar, Hussein Chalayan, born in Lebanon, Junya Watanabe born in Fukushima, Japan), and from different social classes although many were located in more vulnerable economic strata, children of the English working class217. This new generation, who needs to enter the labor market early to ensure their livelihood (Alexander McQueen leaves the school as a teenager to become a trainee in one of the traditional suit stores on Saville Row218), that conform a another group, opposite to the moneyed generation of the Yuppies219, when they arrive at their university age they see in the art education a formative possibility more comfortable to their economic realities and personal desires. It is important to point out, however, that it would be reductionist to homogenize this whole generation to a single class perspective, in a romanticized point of view that sees the aesthetic revolution as a process of social redemption. As we saw earlier in our discussion of the formation of a subcultural capital at the heart of these groups, Sarah Thornton will shift the discussion of a given class homology by explaining these subcultures as young groups transitioning into their adult lives and continually negotiating forms of power and status within their own worlds. “They are subcultures since they are in a subaltern or underground position in relation to the dominant culture” (Gelder & Thornton, 1997, p. 4), but also they create power microstructures, and this subcultural capital which is negotiated by its agents is not associated with an idea of class, and can, in the opposite way, erase or obscure class differences (Thornton, 1995) For example, Stella McCartney, who will also study at Central Saint Martins at this time and will be the creative director of Clhoè, is the daughter of the Beatle Paul McCartney, heiress of one of the richest families in England. In addition to their social position, there is something more representative that will be shared by the agents of this generation: the fact that they occupy the same physical spaces in the city, or in their academic formation (Central Saint Martins, for young designers, and Goldsmith’s College, for the new generation of artists), working life (due to low costs and the need for large work spaces, they migrate to East London transforming abandoned warehouses into workshops, shops, galleries and clothing productions) or into their social life (they frequented the same underground scene of nightclubs, mostly in Soho). For McRobbie, such factors associated with government support via EAS will have a strong impact on the city’s urban dynamics, since, “the EAS provided little help to practicing artists during the Thatcher years, which has 217 Data obtained through the analysis, in the context of the research, of our sampling to be analyzed, taking into account complementary material that characterizes in this way these agents. 218 Traditional London Street dedicated to tailoring. It concentrates shops and men’s tailoring workshops with centuries of experience. It was in one of these stores that McQueen began his training and where he learned part of his technique, a characteristic associated with him throughout his career (Knox, 2010). 219 Terminology used to describe the generation of English university students from the late 1980s. The Yuppies, in most of, from more stable family situations, have stylistic characteristics that contrast with working youth and its subcultures (Watt, 2012). 441 8.5. The Soho Scene and the aesthetic transformation in British fashion in early 90s had notable effects, in particular, in revitalizing the city of East End, where most of these artists settled from the 1980s” (McRobbie, 1998, p. 84). Therefore, in order to understand more fully the aesthetic and later commercial dynamics of the alternative scene in London in the 1990s, we must ask ourselves: How did the East End conform and what is the role of culture in its revitalization? The East End, London’s popular and informally defined region, lies to the east of the ancient city and north of the River Thames, which is administratively composed of seven districts (Tower Hamlets; Newham; Waltham Forest; Barking & Dagenham; Redbridge; Havering; the greater part of the Hackney district) (Image 3), extending from the medieval walls to the metropolitan green belt, covering the old area of the counties of Middlesex and Essex, being Aldgate its geographical limit. Its growth dates back to the first decade of the nineteenth century, driven by the policy of enclosing the fields for sheep breeding - whose wool was to be used in the newly inaugurated textile industry - and which triggered an intense rural exodus and the consequent formation of a new urban population group, the working class (Marriot, 2012). Historically associated with the working class, the East End faces, in the 1970s and 1980s, an intense process of decadence, seeing over these two decades, the impoverishment of its population due to the economic crisis originating from the neoliberal and anti-union politics of Thatcher management. It will be the neighborhoods of Shoretich, Hoxton and Haggerston - in the administrative region of Hackney - to present the greatest urban traumas, going through a period of brutal growth of crime rates and territorial evasion, thus becoming a semi-desert region full of abandoned warehouses (Marriot, 2012). This will be the critical scenario in which British aesthetic renewal develops. Born in East London’s residential neighborhoods (McQueen, for example, was born south of London in Lewisham, but was raised in Stepney, Tower Hamlets region), creative working-class youth move to the more centralized regions of New Cross , Kensigton and King’s Cross (Goldsmith’s College, Royal College of Arts and Central Saint Matins, respectively), in search of formation, and once completed the cycle of studies, they impelled to return to the districts of East London due to them financial limitations linked to the indispensability of large work spaces; other young people with more money voluntarily carry out the same movement, aiming at a physical proximity as the new creative enclave of the city. In the words of Sarah Lucas, artist representing the Young British Artists generation, “East London suddenly became the place to be” (Whitley, 2015, p. 171). Zoe Whitley, curator and researcher associated with Tate Modern, a specialist in contemporary British art, will review the importance of this new generation of artists and designers in reactivating the urban vitality of East London, and will delineate the first spasms of avant-garde art and fashion in direction to one, still precocious, monetarization. In his words, Unrecognizable as the current fashionable enclave, the East End was in complete disarray: 193 Grove Road was one of the last rooftop houses of the neighborhoods before being demolished by real estate speculation. That same year, artists Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas opened at Benthal Green Road, the store The Shop, selling both, collaborative and individual works. The Shop was part of Shoreditch’s revolution (Whitley, 2015, p. 171). 442 Soho, strategically located in the transition with the east of the city, has become a meeting point, converging for its streets and nightclubs a large part of this generation of creatives and as many representatives of the London underground scene coming of the most distinct city regions. There was a perceptible pendulum movement, during the day only a few old pubs, small ateliers, swallowed up by the vastness of abandoned houses and decrepit warehouses, few people wandering the streets; At night, however, Soho was transfigured as clubs opened, masses of young people crowded into the bars’ doors awaiting the appropriate time to dance. A region of very low population density in the mornings, Soho became overpopulated in the evenings, especially between Wednesdays and Sundays. Until the early 1980s, the neighborhood was constituted by local bars frequented by older audiences, sex shops and a few private BDSM clubs, the region began to transmute itself from the middle of the decade, Stela Stlin - drag person of Dr. Stephen Brogan - in an interview for historian Judith Watt, argues that It started at Legends on New Burlington Street and lasted until the summer of 1994. With a year of its inauguration it became the most prominent London club, having brought a burst of drag culture to the sound of house and disco music, all of it served in a festive and carnival atmosphere. The mass of regulars were dragging men, drinking freely and warming themselves up for real fun; Kinky Gerlinky also attracted many well-dressed women, both heterosexual and gay, muscle queens, fetishists, skaters, curious heterosexuals - just to name, they were all there (Watt, 2012, pp. 67-68). While these two clubs are crucial in revitalizing Soho’s nightlife, the movement had emerged in the middle of the decade. Legends, inaugurated in the 1990s, and Kinky Gerlinky (Image 1) in 1989 by the former model of Comme des Garçons, Michael Costiff, were only viable experiments due to the foundations made by Taboo party, organized by the important figure of the night scene Leigh Bowery and the subsequent inauguration of the homonymous house in 1985. Standing out as counter-cultural experimentation venues in London, gay clubs in Soho represented a kind of refuge for everyone who somehow felt displaced or disowned by that society, regardless of their identification and sexual orientation. These spaces of resistance became environments of aesthetic exchange where the dimensions of subcultural capital - as defined by Thornton - were continually experienced, reactivated, and symbolized. 443 8.5. The Soho Scene and the aesthetic transformation in British fashion in early 90s Figure 8.5.1 - Kinky Gerlinky, December/1988 Source: farfetch.com. The centrality of Leigh Bowery in the underground scene of Soho eclipses the participation of other culturally important figures such as the antidrag Divine David (a character created by the English performing artist and film director, David Hoyle), and the aforementioned Stela Stlin. Bowery, Australian born but settled in London throughout his adult life, Bowery assumes at the same time role of pioneer in the activation and circulation of this subculture, although also of an iconographic personage, whose plasticity of the clothes and the aggressiveness in the attitudes has great value for the generation of artists and stylists who were inserted in this movement. As promoter he was responsible for the idealization of Taboo, which soon became the place to be: in the drug environment, particularly ecstasy, the regulars lived in an environment that defied sexual conventions, a space celebrated for embracing poly-sexuality. It will also be in Taboo (Image 2) that Bowery will develop some of his most iconic performances and will later spread in film productions such as Wigstock (1995) directed by Barry Shills (Wilson, 2015). As a performance artist, Bowery circulated among the vanguard of his generation. In a vernissage in the gallery of Anthony D’Offey in 1988 (important figure in the commercialization of this new crop of artists), appeared personified like a great lady, presented himself for the visitors of the show and later staged to give birth to a small naked woman, Nicola Bateman, his assistant at that time. He was the inspirational muse of the painter Lucian Freud - grandson of Sigmund Freud - who represented it systematically and relentlessly; and worked as a stylist, having showed fashion collections in Tokyo, New York and London (Wilson, 2015). His horizontality in the London underground scene was not only voluminous during his years of acting, but also perceived sensibly in the creation of young artists and stylists who saw in Bowery a type of visual manifesto: from the prosthetic structures and deformed mannequins of the Jake and Dinos Chapman to the Alexander McQueen and John Galliano catwalks, there is a club-to-catwalk movement 444 that will represent a popularization and entry into the mainstream universe of this underground aesthetic, that fashion journalist and researcher Dana Thomas will call of Clubland Couture (Thomas, 2015). The idea of a Clubland Couture is aligned, in this context, with the perception that we brought at the beginning of this chapter about the territorialities in Stuart Hall, since these spatially shaped cultural identities establishing a sense of community, and creating in consequently, their virtual borders, their languages, their ways of being and also their artistic and aesthetic expressions, differentiating elements, stigmas that allow them to attend and operate within the subculture. The passage from Bowery’s aesthetic to the catwalk can be seen at different moments in the creation of Alexander McQueen: the stamped masks in collections such as Dante (1996), Joan (1998) and The Horn of Plenty (2009); the use of feathers and multi-layered organza for the creation of huge silhouettes is also reworked in Voss (2001), as well as the traditional tartan constantly visible in Bowery and taken up by McQueen in a similar way throughout his career (Image 3). Caroline Evans argues that the transposition of the club aesthetic into English fashion in the 1990s could be felt on different fronts, but mainly through the imaging market that has formed around this industry in the last years of the century - consolidated by a commercialization of the image and no longer the object - a visual policy that coincides with the genesis of the new experimental fashion magazines, the most appropriate vehicle for this dialogue. Figure 8.5.2 - Leigh Bowery (left) in Taboo party (1986) Source: farfetch.com. The mocking gesture of London’s post-punk club culture produced extreme forms of self-stylization that regrouped cultural themes, such as 445 8.5. The Soho Scene and the aesthetic transformation in British fashion in early 90s club culture and magazine poses by Leigh Bowery and Trojan from the mid1980s, creating a certain ephemerality in this model of self-representation, as when Trojan cuts off his ear and uses blood that drips like lipstick, in a clear allusion to Van Gogh. From this same group emerged an urban and tattered visuality, popularized by young stylists who will work in magazines such as i-D and whose aesthetic will recover these cultural debris by recycling them as a new imagery policy for these publications. This aesthetic bricolage that characterized the British culture and subculture in this period also provides a new model of creative process for designers such as Jean-Paul Gaultier in Paris and Westwood and Galliano in London, (...), is the urban subject who finds himself in London from the 1980s, at the same time produced and defined by the streets, and mediated by new fashion magazines such as Blitz, iD, (...), and The Face. To varying degrees, these magazines reconfigure the cultural geography of the city through stories that privileges street aesthetics and club scene innovations rather than traditional editorials (Evans, 2012, p. 25). Figure 8.5.3 - Leigh Bowery in 1986, look from collection The Horn of Plenty (2009) by Alexander McQueen Source: farfetch.com and vogue.uk, respectively. Figure 8.5.4 - Leigh Bowery, 1993 and Dante, 1996, by Alexander McQueen Source: farfetch.com and vogue.uk, respectively. 446 Parallel to the nocturnal revival of the East End, there is also a rediscovery of its daytime potential. It will be other creative businesses - shops, galleries and restaurants - founded and run by this same generation reminiscent of art schools, also frequenters of the Soho night scene. The Shop, Pharmacy, White Cube and Factual Nonsense, just to name a few, become important elements of the cultural and urban revitalization of the region, expression of resistance by a young generation struggling to survive in the midst of the economic crisis. Once a constituent of East London’s urban revitalization, the club scene - its spatialities, its aesthetic irreverence, but mainly its participants - become central in the creation and subsequent consolidation of an alternative economy, which will at the same time be responsible for inflating the first signs of a capitalization in the avant-garde practices of art and fashion at that time, constituting, in perspective, a political scenario of its circulation. Funding: This work was supported by the Minas Gerais State Research Support Foundation under Grant [Bolsas PAPG 2018 - PPG ACL/UFJF]. References Baudrillard. J. (1988). Selected Writing. Cambridge: Polity Press. Beckett, A. (2010). When the Lights Went Out; Britain in the Seventies. London: Faber & Faber. Bourdieu, P. (1993). The Field of Cultural Production. Cambridge: Polity Press. Evans, C. (2012). Fashion At The Edge: Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness. New Haven: Yale University Press. Hall, S. (1988). The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the crisis of the Left. London: Verso. Marriot, J. (2012). Beyond the Tower: a history of East London. New Heaven: Yale University Press. McRobbie, A. (1998). British Fashion Design: Rag Trade or Image Industry? London: Routledge. McRobbie, A. (1989). Zoot Suits and Second Hand Dresses. Basingstoke: McMillam. Thomas, D. (2015). Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. New York: Penguin Books. Thornton, S. (1997). The Social Logic of Subcultural Capital. In K. Gelder & S. Thornton (Eds.), The Subculture Reader (pp.200-209). London: Routledge. Watt, J. (2012). Alexander McQueen, The Life and The Legacy. New York: Harper Design. Whitley, Z. (2015). Wasteland/Wonderland. In C. Wilcox (Ed.), Alexander McQueen. New York: Abrams. Wilson, A. (2015). Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin. London: Simon & Schuste 447 8.5. The Soho Scene and the aesthetic transformation in British fashion in early 90s 448 THEME TUNE 9 ‘YOURS IS MINE’. MALE DOMINATIONS: REPRODUCTIONS AND LEGITIMATIONS © Esgar Aclerado 449 9.1 Hypermasculinity in Los Angeles gangsta rap: An intersectional approach Samuel Lamontagne 220 A b s t r a c t Accused of encouraging crime, misogyny and homophobia, gangsta rap rapidly created a moral panic in the United States. Reducing it to mere criminal narratives of Black youth, mainstream media confined the genre’s reception in a reproving interpretative framework. By contextualizing gangsta rap within African American expressive culture and the socioeconomic conditions of postindustrial Los Angeles inner cities this paper shows how the genre can be understood in relation to systemic inequality and the history of oppression of African Americans in the USA. Focusing on the performance of hypermasculinity in gangsta rap, it studies it in context and differentiates it from hegemonic masculinity. Furthermore, it does so by taking an intersectional approach where hypermasculinity is understood at the intersections of gender with class and race. The paper addresses gangsta rap’s problematic expression of machismo in relation to the negotiation of masculine identities and the challenge to authority. Keywords: Gangsta rap, Los Angeles, intersectionality, hypermasculinity, African American. 220 University of California - Department of Ethnomusicology. Los Angeles, USA.E-mail: [email protected] 450 1. Overview Gangsta rap is a subgenre of rap music that emerged in the middle of the 1980s. Dealing with themes of social criticism and graphic violence, songs from East-coast artists like The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1982) and P.S.K. What does that mean? by Schoolly D (1985) can be viewed as direct influences on the development of gangsta rap. Despite those early influences, gangsta rap mainly remains understood as emerging from predominantly Black South Los Angeles inner cities. This association is mostly due to the tremendous commercial success of N.W.A’s debut album Straight Outta Compton (1988), which was central in promoting the genre to wider audiences. If the impact of this album must be acknowledged, we also have to take into consideration the local development of hip-hop in Los Angeles and the various local worlds (Becker, 1982) that predated gangsta rap and from which the genre arose. In particular, the mobile DJ crew world (Williams, 2015), the electro-rap world of the early 1980s (Jiménez, 2011), and the early gangsta rap artists such as Mix Master Spade, Toddy Tee and Ice-T (Cross, 1993; Diallo, 2010). Because of its popularity and its violent graphic content, gangsta rap rapidly drew harsh criticism from politicians, and diverse organizations such as the Parents Music Center Resource and the National Congress of Black Women (Keyes, 2004). Blamed for advocating violence, drug use, crime, homophobia and misogyny as well as for perverting the youth, a highly mediated moral panic (Thompson, 1998) was launched against gangsta rap, which formatted its mainstream reception within a disapproving framework. This paper aims at discussing hypermasculinity in gangsta rap. It intends to pay particular attention to the intersection of the gender, class and race dimensions at work in gangsta rap’s hypermasculinity. Although the racial dimension often tends to predominate in rap studies, we will be arguing in favor of an intersectional approach of gangsta rap’s hypermasculinity where those three categories are thought of as mutually constituted and constitutive (Browne & Misra, 2003). As a man dominated genre, gangsta rap features narratives of young African American men from Los Angeles inner cities. For this reason, the genre has largely been regarded as providing a window into how these young men articulate their experiences as residents of the inner city (Kelley, 1994). Additionally, we’ll examine how the hypermasculinity found in gangsta rappers’ lyrics, body postures, attitudes, language, and clothing styles can’t be understood as an example of hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1995). Indeed, if they might benefit from their gender as men, they are disadvantaged as young underclass Blacks (Randolph, 2006). The intersectional dimension of the hypermasculinity found in gangsta rap renders necessary its contextualization within African American culture and history as well as in the socio-economic conditions of South Los Angeles of the 1980s. In this text, hypermasculinity in gangsta rap doesn’t only refer to the lyrics, but also to the sonic and visual aspects of the rappers’ performances. 2. Hypermasculinity, gangsta rap and African American culture Understood as gendered social constructs, masculinities are a whole of social roles, behaviors and meanings associated with men (Whitehead, 2002). Hypermasculinity refers to an exaggerated adherence to a stereotypic masculine gender role (Murnen et al., 2015). Hypermasculinity 451 9.1 Hypermasculinity in Los Angeles gangsta rap: An intersectional approach has been characterized as the exaltation of “virility in speech, action, dress, [as] virility expressed by bravado, courage, ruthlessness” (Horowitz, 1967, p. 9). Further, it was described by a “conception of violence as manly”, a “view of danger as exciting”, and “calloused sex attitudes toward women” (Mosher and Sirkin, 1984, p. 151). The irreverence, misogyny, homophobia, violence and nihilism found in gangsta rappers’ lyrics, attitudes, body postures, clothing styles, and facial expressions can be said to be characteristic of hypermasculinity. The diverse hypermasculine elements in gangsta rap served as a basis for the mainstream moral panic to develop. However, rather than condemn the hypermasculine dimension of gangsta rap, it seems necessary to understand it within African American history and culture. Indeed, hypermasculinity has been part of African American expressive culture for over a century. We can find examples of this in trickster and badman tales (Roberts, 1989), in vernacular practices such as toasting and signifying, in diverse musical styles such as jazz and blues, as well as in Blaxploitation cinema and pimp narratives of the 1970s (Kelley, 1994). As many scholars have shown, the irreverence, misogyny, violence and other elements that we have identified as participating to hypermasculinity are an essential part of those expressive forms and practices, and are directly concerned with power. Such figures as the trickster, the badman, the pimp, and the gangsta “embody a challenge to virtually all authority (which makes sense to people for whom justice is a rare thing), creates an imaginary upsidedown world where the oppressed are the powerful” (Kelley, 1994, p. 187). We can therefore understand hypermasculinity in African American culture as a strategic way to reclaim a sense of power by negotiating systemic oppression and its various manifestations across history. Although gangsta rap’s hypermasculinity can be understood within a long history of hypermasculinity in African American culture and its relation to systemic oppression, it has to be contextualized within the specific conditions of postindustrial Los Angeles. 3. Macro social forces in South Los Angeles In the 1980s, living conditions in South Los Angeles tremendously worsened. A lot of it can be attributed to the neo-liberal policies passed by the Reagan administration, which intended to reinvigorate the economy by reducing the involvement of the government in regulating industries and private enterprise (Vargas, 2006), and by tax cuts for the rich (Johnson, 2013). Such policies were supposed to encourage investment, which in turn would create opportunities for the working-class (Johnson, 2013). Instead, they reinforced systemic inequality and division along lines of race and class. More policies were directly targeting welfare and affirmative action programs as well as civil right laws, which caused an increase in poverty rates (Vargas, 2006). Behind the assault on social programs was a reasoning that linked them to poverty by assuming that, as Secretary Richard Schweiker of Health and Human Services put it, “[they] ha[d] been rewarding dependency instead of self-reliance” (N/A, 1981). The most affected by this shift in policymaking were working-class African Americans in the inner city. Such policies reflect the mainstream discourse, which rather than identifying the system and its discriminative patterns as the root of poverty, held African American inner city dwellers as responsible for it (Vargas, 2006). Furthermore, it denies the racial 452 dimension of this systemic inequality and ignores the historical patterns of oppression from which the “ghetto” results. Hitting Los Angeles in the late 1970s and 1980s, deindustrialization resulted in the closure of most factories in the automobile, rubber, steel and aircraft industry – a steady source of jobs for African American men in South Los Angeles. The deindustrialization process caused unemployment to reach its peak. 50 percent of African American youth was unemployed in South L.A. (Kelley, 1994). It is important to note that the rise of poverty in South L.A. was taking place at the same time as an overall economic growth for the city of L.A., in particular thanks to the development of high-tech firms whose high-skilled jobs excluded residents of the inner city (Kelley, 1994). Economic restructuring and deindustrialization increased suburban capital flight and the systemic pauperization of the inner city. The arrival of crack cocaine and the formation of an informal economic market around it happened during the same period and was linked to street gangs in the inner city (Davis, 1990). This would lead to Reagan’s War on Drugs and the passing of a series of punitive policies and laws. By coining the phrase “drug crisis”, Clarence Lusane (1991) intends to distance his analysis from the political rhetoric of the War on Drugs and the sensationalistic use of the phrase “crack epidemic” in the media. Instead he perceives the “crack epidemic” as a set of “state-sponsored and moral panic-driven” discourses unfolded to rationalize the War on Drugs (Murch, 2015, p. 162). The outcome of such a political campaign against crack cocaine was the criminalization of African American youth and the militarization of the inner city. The deployment of elite police units, tank-like vehicle known as the batteram, the creation of the Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking system, a computerized list with the names of 47% of African American men in L.A. county between the age of twenty-one and twenty-four are common examples of the over-policing of young Black men and of the reduction of the drug problem to a gang problem (Murch, 2015). The War on Drugs is directly linked to the phenomenon of mass incarceration, understood by Donna Murch as the “largest state-building enterprises of the late twentieth century” (2015, p. 163). “Starting in the 1980s, the incarceration rate of drug offenders increased by an astonishing 1,100% over the next two decades, resulting in just under a half million drug-war inmates by 2003” (Tucker et al., 2010, p. 171). Acknowledging the macro social forces that produce the inner city and its living conditions is a first step to understanding how they shape the experiences of young African American men along modes of marginalization and criminalization. Among the diverse macro social forces that I have introduced, the following should also be considered: “residential segregation, employment discrimination, educational inequality, police brutality, environmental racism, and the disproportionate effects of economic restructuring and deindustrialization” (Vargas, 1996, p. 35). Because they have directly addressed those issues in a critical way, gangsta rappers have been understood by many scholars as politically commenting on those realities, their systemic production, and the mainstream discourse perception of them (Cross, 1993; Kelley, 1994; Chang, 2005). This explicit political dimension of gangsta rap is resonating with hypermasculinity and its implicit political meaning that we discussed above. However, essentially focusing on the diverse hypermasculine elements of gangsta rap, the attention of mainstream media and the moral panic that it triggered, failed to recognize the 453 9.1 Hypermasculinity in Los Angeles gangsta rap: An intersectional approach genre’s political dimensions. In line with this mainstream perception, gangsta rap served as an argument for claims that poverty and living conditions in the inner city had roots in African American culture rather than in systemic inequality (Queeley, 2003). 4. Hypermasculinity and Hegemonic masculinity It is necessary to distinguish hypermasculinity from the concept of hegemonic masculinity. Theorized by Raewyn Connell, the concept refers to practices among men that legitimize patriarchy and perpetuate the domination of men over women as well as subordinate men, who, because of their race, class, sexuality or social role are unable to conform to hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1995). Largely criticized by scholars over the years, the concept of hegemonic masculinity has become understood as a “culturally idealized form” (Donaldson, 1993, p. 645) thought of as dynamic, constantly evolving, and to some extent, must be considered as situational. Therefore, hypermasculinty is not necessarily an example of hegemonic masculinity. If they appear to be directly linked, neither one of them can be equated to the other. In addition, an intersectional approach can’t afford to take this association for granted and requires contextualizing hypermasculinity in its intersections with class and race. The intersectional approach we have chosen here allows us to take a careful look at gangsta rap’s hypermasculinity. In the particular case of gangsta rap, hypermasculinity should be understood in relation to young African American men’s lack of political and economic power and specific conditions of marginalization in the inner city. Here, although hypermasculinity appears as a way to negotiate subordinate masculinities by reinstating a sense of legitimacy and power, it does so by adopting patriarchal values (Hall, 1997). Therefore, we can’t afford to ignore its subordinating qualities that reproduce domination over women, other masculinities and gender non-conforming people (Crenshaw, 1991). 5. Conclusion and openings This paper has tried to study hypermasculinity in gangsta rap by locating the conditions of its production within the systemic inequality of postindustrial of South L.A. and the historical oppression of African Americans in the United States. It has done so by taking an intersectional approach where hypermasculinity is understood at the intersections of gender with class and race. It hopes to participate to a more complex treatment of social hierarchy. As it has focused in particular on men, it carries an obvious flaw: not taking enough into account women’s agency in the production of masculinities (Connell, 2005). Additionally, by focusing on hypermasculinity, it contributes to take it for granted in gangsta rap and fails to discuss less visible/audible aspects of the genre and its diversity, which sometimes can be in opposition with hypermasculinity (Oware, 2011). Furthermore, by focusing on the conditions of production of hypermasculinity it neglects to study the representations in which Black underclass masculinities are involved and how gangsta rappers negotiate them. As representations of African American men have been an essential part of popular American culture for centuries, it should be placed at 454 the center of the reflection. Especially given the huge investment of the music industry in gangsta rap and the majority of its consumers being white middle-class teenagers (Keyes, 2004). Then, we should ask, how does gangsta rap carry reductive and objectified representations of African American inner-city men? How these representations play along the criminalization of young African American men by mediating their bodies as sites of fear (White, 2011)? How representations of Black hypermasculinity, appropriated by young white suburban men serve as a way to shape their own masculinities? How these representations play with age-old stereotypes of Black men as brutes? As noted by Stuart Hall, “the problem is that Blacks are trapped by the binary structure of the stereotype, which is split between two extreme opposites” (Hall, 1997, p. 262). With that in mind it is crucial to see how such representations and their performance in a genre such as gangsta rap are rooted in American white hegemony and patriarchy. This emphasis reveals the importance of taking a relational approach to race and racial representations. Acknowledgements: I want to thank Robin D. G. Kelley and Timothy D. Taylor for their insightful comments and critiques. Many thanks to the KISMIF team and participants. Funding: This work was supported by the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. References Becker, H. S. (1982). Art worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press. Browne, I. & Misra, J. (2003). The intersection of gender and race in the labor market. Annual Review of Sociology, 29, 487–513. Chang, J. (2005). Can’t stop won’t stop: A history of the hiphop generation. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press. Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic masculinity rethinking the concept. Gender and Society, 19(6), pp. 829–859. Crenshaw, K. (1991). Beyond racism and misogyny: Black feminism and 2 Live Crew. Boston Review. Retrieved from: http://bostonreview.net/archives/BR16.6/crenshaw.html Cross, B. (1993). It’s not about a salary: Rap, race and resistance in Los Angeles. New York: Verso. Davis, M. (1990). City of quartz: Excavating the future in Los Angeles. New York: Verso. Diallo, D. (2010). From electro-rap to g-funk: A social history of rap music in Los Angeles and Compton, California. In M. Hess (Ed.), Hip-hop in America: A regional guide (pp. 225–255). Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press. Donaldson, M. (1993). What is hegemonic masculinity?. Theory and Society, 22(5), pp. 643–657. Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. New York: Sage Publications. Horowitz, I. L. (1967). Cuban communism. Trans-action, 4, pp. 7–15. Jiménez, G. (2011). “Something 2 dance 2”: Electro hop in 1980s Los Angeles and its afrofuturist link. Black Music Research Journal, 31(1), pp. 131–144. Johnson, G. T. (2013). Spaces of conflict, sounds of solidarity: Music, race, and spatial entitlement in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kelley, R. D. G. (1994). Race rebels: Culture, politics, and the Black working class. New York: The Free Press. 455 9.1 Hypermasculinity in Los Angeles gangsta rap: An intersectional approach Keyes, C. L. (2004). Rap music and street consciousness. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Lusane, C. (1991). Pipe dreams blues: Racism and the war on drugs. Boston: South End Press. Mosher, D. L., & Sirkin, M. (1984). Measuring the macho personality constellations. 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Los Angeles: The Lonzo Infotainment Company. 456 9.2 Punk, gender and politics in Croatia Vanja Dergić 221 A b s t r a c t This paper will introduce key findings of the ethnographic case study ´Anti-fascist punk activism´ conducted as part of the MYPLACE project. Through 21 in-depth interviews, the most common topics that arose were related to gender issues and perceptions of politics. One of the main findings is related to the specific perception of gender roles among members of the punk scene. Except for the activist scene, in which women are still heavily involved, the ratio of men to women is uneven in other areas. This raises the question of the similarity between the perception of gender roles in the punk scene and that among the general and more mainstream culture. This issue can also be discussed in relation to the fragmentation of the punk scene. Most of the respondents expressed critical views towards contemporary politics and the wish to subvert the dominant discourse; however, when discussing specific undertakings to change this discourse, a certain gap is apparent between specific principles and practices. Keywords: Politics, anti-fascism, gender, apolitical. 221 Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences. Zagreb, Croatia. E-mail: [email protected] 457 9.2 Punk, gender and politics in Croatia 1. Introduction World War II is a topic that still divides people in Croatia, either through their opinions on politics or indirectly through the experiences of their families. On the one hand, World War II is associated with communist crimes and the discovery of mass graves, and with fascist crimes, racial laws, and concentration camps on the other. Because Croatia has experienced both fascist and socialist regimes within a relatively short period of time, young people today have an indirect relationship with these times through their grandparents and their experiences. In the 20th century, Croatia underwent many political changes accompanied by violent conflicts222 . After the collapse of Yugoslavia, the early 1990s were marked by the Croatian War of Independence, which resulted in direct population losses and material damage (Živić and Pokos, 2004). This war impacted political discourse and social life enormously, as did the Croatian transition process, which unfolded simultaneously (Rogić, 2000, 2009). The following years brought the retraditionalisation of society (Županov, 1995) and the strengthening of the role and influence of the Catholic Church, along with right-wing political ideas. Nevertheless, the democratization of political system brought the development of civil society and the establishment of non-governmental human rights organizations. One of the most famous anti-nationalist and anti-war initiatives of the time was the Croatia Anti-War Campaign (Antiratna Kampanja Hrvatske, AWC). This initiative made alternative political participation possible during a time in which nationalist discourse prevailed (Janković and Mokrović, 2011). In the second half of the 1990s, the punk scene was one of the crucial ‘places’ that brought together actors and activists engaged in anti-war and antinationalist movements and initiatives. It can thus be said that this was the political environment in which the punk scene evolved in those years, laying the foundation for the further political engagement of members of the punk scene. 1.1. Theoretical framework Research findings on the political participation of youth in Croatia in recent years has shown disinterest in politics, mistrust in politicians, and a lack of understanding and knowledge of political processes, all of which leads to the non-participation of youth in formal politics (Franc et al., 2013; Ilišin et al., 2013). Because of recent trends regarding youth and their political activities, the current research attempts to compare these research findings with the perception of political engagement among youth active in the punk scene. Just as McKay (1996) discusses punk as an example of political activity among youth, punk is often understood as being closer to the left-wing in the context of formal political discourse (Hebdige, 1980; Perasović, 2001). Some other authors see this connection to anti-racist and left-wing politics as over-rated in the context of punk subculture (Pilkington, 2014; Gololobov, Pilkington & Steinholt, 2014). Although research of the punk scene in Croatia has identified strong political attitudes, at least in one part of the scene (Perasović, 2013), post-subcultural theory considers identity, style, musical preferences, and other characteristics fluid, hedonistically-motivated behaviour, resulting in a lack of political involvement (Krnić and Perasović, 2013). This post-subcultural point of view is apparent in research on the Russian punk scene and its political indifference by Gololobov, Pilkington & Steinholt (2014) and Pilkingto (2014); however, this does not hold for the punk scene in Croatia. This is 222 As Živić and Pokos (2004) have shown, only in the last decade of 20th century total demographic losses in Croatia were 450.276 inhabitants, from which around 93% were migration population losses. 458 particularly applicable to the punk scene in Pula,223 which displays a “left-wing, pronouncedly anti-nationalist and anti-fascist orientation, with fierce critics of local government and the entire political scene” (Perasović, 2013, p. 497). Generally, the punk subculture is marked by explicit attitudes towards politics, as well as fragmentation grounded in political attitudes and perceptions of political behaviour (Perasović, 2013; Dergić, 2014). Gender relations in the punk scene coincide with the paradox discussed by Leblanc (2006) in the context of punk subculture; regardless of the extent to which this subculture provides space and opportunities to oppose different forms of limitations, this same subculture places limitations on women that are identical to the mainstream. In other words, “punk failed to significantly disrupt gender regimes” (Pilkington, 2014, p. 29). Often seen as “invisible” in subcultural theory and subcultures, McRobbie and Gerber (1976) discuss young women and how their roles reflect the general norms and positions they hold in broader society. They also describe female invisibility in youth subcultures as a “self-fulfilling prophecy” and as a double bind for young women in a working-class parental value system. Leblanc (2006) believes that young women participating in the punk scene are viewed as constructing different “strategies of resistance”, just as some authors (Križanić, 2013) draw an interesting connection between gender roles in subcultures and examples of Japanese female subculture as a resistance to tradition and patriarchy. Križanić (2013) analyses how traditional roles for young males in Japan are constructed to be more focused on their education and working ethics in order to prepare them for the role of providers and breadwinners for their future families. This is the why, unlike young women, they do not have time between childhood and adulthood to express individuality and creativity, which are perceived as “non-masculine” and “weak”. Through this example, Križanić (2013) shows how young women in Japan are at the forefront of youth subcultures. Unlike the punk subculture, which perpetuates established gender norms, Krnić and Perasović (2013) mention rave subculture as another example of a subculture that redefines gender relations and eliminates traditional gender roles. 1.2. The Croatian punk scene After the collapse of Yugoslavia and at the beginning of the war in Croatia, some individuals who had been active in the Svarun224 initiative in the 1980s became involved in the Croatia Anti-War Campaign (Antiratna Kampanja Hrvatske). This group actively advocated conscientious objection and civil service in the army, organising workshops, peace-building projects, and issuing the fanzine ARKzine, among other activities. During a time of prevalent nationalist discourse, an antiwar and anti-nationalist initiative such as AWC politically mobilised youth by providing them with alternative ways to participate in the political events of the time (Janković and Mokrović, 2011; Komnenović, 2014). Since the majority of actors in AWC and the anti-war scene were also active in subcultural groups, the punk scene in Croatia itself evolved to link music with anti-war and antinationalist politics (Perasović, 2001; 2013). This connection between civil society and subcultural groups created an environment for the opening of autonomous cultural spaces that fulfilled the need for political activity that diverged from mainstream politics and existing political options. One of these groups was the autonomous cultural centre Attack!, founded in 1997 in Zagreb; it was conceived as a platform that would bring together politically engaged groups involved 223 Pula is highlighted because of its long-standing active punk scene, involving the Monte Paradiso hardcore punk festival, which has been held yearly since 1990. An Antifa festival is also held every year, where participants have the opportunity to discuss various topics related to contemporary anti-fascism and historical heritage, as well as to participate in workshops, movie projections, and punk concerts. 224 Svarun was a working group for ecological, feminist, peace, and spiritual initiatives founded in Zagreb in 1986. One of the first campaigns this group organised was against nuclear power plants (Perasović, 2001; Dergić, 2011). 459 9.2 Punk, gender and politics in Croatia in feminist, anti-war, anarchist, human rights, and LGBT initiatives (Cvek et al. 2014; Janković and Mokrović, 2011). Because of the political and social context, the 1990s punk scene in Croatia accepted the ‘Crass paradigm’ (McKay, 1996); members of the scene were involved in peace, ecological, and feminist activists and movements. At the time, political opinions were expressed in many different forms – fanzines, alternative theatre, and music festivals, to name a few (Janković and Mokrović, 2011; Cvek et al., 2014; Perasović, 2001). In addition to Attack! - autonomous cultural centre in Zagreb, the Monteparadiso crew225, based in the former Karlo Rojc Barracks in Pula, formed a crucial binding factor for the punk scene in the 1990s. Discussing punk and new wave in the 1980s (especially in the late 1980s during the beginnings of Yugoslavia’s collapse) Perasović (2001:233) emphasises that it began to appear as ´a heretofore unknown form of political engagement, one that openly criticisied the system and discussed concrete, everyday problems´. 2. Methodology This paper is based on an ethnographic case study entitled “Anti-fascist punk activism” undertaken as a part of the MYPLACE226 project. The main goal of the project was to research how the social participation of youth is formed by the shadows (past, present and future) of totalitarian systems and populism in Europe. This study was conducted through participative observation following the writing of a research diary, semi-structured interviews, and observation and analysis of social networks (for example Facebook sites of bands, festivals, and individuals) and local punk internet forums. Fieldwork took place from January 2012 until February 2014, resulting in 46 field diary entries, while interviews were conducted from October 2013 until February 2014. Twentyone in-depth interviews were held with members of a local anti-fascist organisation, members of a non-profit collective that organises punk concerts, and members of local punk bands (29 hours of recorded conversation in total, of which the duration of interviews ranges from 52 to 154 minutes). In addition to topics such as personal relations, perceptions of the punk and anti-fascist scene in general, and opinions on the punk scene, politics and violence, another important and frequently-mentioned topic was that of gender issues. The overall gender distribution is quite balanced among the respondents – out of a total of 21 respondents, 11 were female, nine were male, and one was transgender. Even though the gender distribution among the respondents was quite balanced, it was noted during fieldwork that there are usually twice as many men than women at concerts or festivals. Gender issues appeared to be an important topic for 17 of our respondents, who discussed their opinions and perceptions of gender issues. All interviews were coded using NVivo 9.2, in which the Level 1 node was entitled “Gender issues”, with eight Level 2 nodes,227 17 sources, and 431 references. There were three Level 1 nodes entitled “Engagement, apoliticism and anti-politicism”, “Anti-fascism, its definition, and personal relations”, and “Politics”, with a total of 24 Level 2 nodes, 21 sources, and 662 references. 225 The continuity of the punk scene in Pula is best seen in their Monte Paradiso hardcore punk festival, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2017. Along with some younger members of the collective, most of the people who created and organised first Monte Paradiso festivals are still active in the punk scene in Pula. 226 MYPLACE is an acronym for Memory, Youth, Political Legacy, and Civic Engagement. The project began in June 2011 and lasted until May 2015. 227 This node was composed of eight Level 2 nodes: Anfema, Cultural influence on the ratio on the women and men in the scene and in general, Mutual support among women, Relations between males and females in general, Silenced chauvinism, Women’s presence in the scene , Sexuality in general, Women and playing in bands. The last two nodes, Women’s presence in the scene and Women and playing in bands had the most sources and references coded in this Level 1 node. 460 3. ‘I think that things would have turned out differently if I were a man in the punk scene’: gender issues in the punk scene In the late 1990s and early 2000s, an anarcho-feminist group called Anfema was active in Zagreb. Although Anfema was primarily concerned with the position of women within the anarchist movement, the closeness and overlap between the anarchist and punk scenes in Zagreb at the time meant the vast majority of the group was active and present in the punk scene. Aside from opening a space for discussions of gender relations and issues in the anarchist and punk scenes, the group was organised street actions, published a fanzine entitled WOMB, translated and published a DIY gynaecological handbook, and organised workshops and the AnFemA festival (Strpić, 2011). Some of the respondents interviewed in this case study were active members of Anfema, who discussed why women on the scene228 in the late 1990s formed this group. These reasons were mainly focused on the need to gather and discuss the existence of sexism in the scene, as well as relating their personal experiences and problems and planning gatherings and festivals. One of the respondents, Sonja, describes the need that arose among young women: “(…) they clearly felt the need for that, and there was that enormous energy there. We simply recognised that we all had the same problems, and that we had never discussed them before” (Sonja). Another important topic respondents talked about was the “visibility” of women in the punk scene, noting that women are often more involved in organising concerts or events than in playing in bands and being directly present on the stage. This “visibility” was only mentioned in terms of being visible on the stage, but not in the scene and in other activities in general. Some respondents saw this as something that should be changed: “The reason I started playing was stupid; it was important for me to play as a girl on the scene, so I could be visible and so I could stimulate someone or… let´s say recruit them, get them involved” (Sonja). Another respondent saw this as being “less important”, saying “it’s harder to organise a concert or work at a bar than to play in a band” (Max) and that “the punk scene exists because of the people behind the stage. The stage is a circus; everything else is what is important” (Max). Sexuality on the scene, and especially the absence of discussion about it, is discussed as a general problem for members of the scene. This particularly applies to heteronormativity, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity, as well as sexual abuse. Some respondents talked about their experiences with how accepting the scene was when discussing gender identity and/or gender expression and experiences of sexual abuse, even within the scene. One respondent voiced reactions she experienced from members of the scene when she wrote in her fanzine about being sexually abused. She said that, after this text, she felt as if people on the scene “talked to me only because it was politically correct” (Sabina). She concluded that insensitivity towards such issues from people on the scene was one of the main problems, as was the punk scene not being a “safe place” in which to discuss this kind of topic. After writing about her experience in the fanzine, Sabina also organised a discussion of sexuality and sexual abuse in anarchist communities, at which some active punk scene members expressed dissatisfaction with idea that this topic should be discussed publicly. Another respondent remembered this discussion: 228 The “scene” here refers to the punk scene. 461 I clearly remember there was a moment during the discussion when I wanted to scream ´What the fuck is wrong with all of you?!´ Firstly, who among you was raped? It is my right to talk about it, I believe it should be discussed! (…) it was terrible… it was terrible because I had the same experience, and it was even worse seeing how, when someone approached that subject… (silence)… people were really terrible (Kiša). Even though all respondents who discussed experiencing negative reactions from the people on the scene were critical of this, they stressed that they were not sure what kind of reaction they would get today. However, these experiences show that, even though punk scene (and anarchist scene) should be a “safe place for people with different experiences, especially those who were abused, it is still a part of a much broader set of values, values that are traditional and patriarchal – especially when it comes to sexuality” (Dergić, 2014, p. 19). Although there were respondents who emphasised that they never encountered any form of discrimination in the punk scene, the majority of respondents believe gender issues are present and experienced through different forms of discrimination. As Kejt, Dita, and Dora said when discussing how they were perceived as women on the punk scene, what is common to the respondents is that they all believe they are seen as unequal to their male friends not only by male members of the scene, but female members as well: “I think some things would have turned out differently if I were a man on the punk scene” (Kejt). This led some respondents to criticise the apparent sexualisation of women who play in bands: It was never my goal to promote myself in this band, as if I was some kind of female object trying to attract men, but I guarantee you that other girls start from that… I am the girl, the ‘chick’ in the band. I play the role of femme fatale on the guitar... I don´t like that sexual connotation that comes with the band, that´s what pop stars are for! (Dora). Another question arising from this study is whether activism is a “women’s thing”, or whether women overcome or enact traditional gender roles through activism. This question is raised because of the presumption that being actively involved in the punk scene (regardless of being active in bands, organising gigs, festivals, or other types of activism), women circumvent traditional social patterns that are imposed in order to them to keep them in the “private” rather than the “public” sphere of the society. In the context of the punk scene in Zagreb, it is apparent that, even though there are more men than women present and “visible” (referring here to stage presence) in the scene, there are more women who are directly involved in activism, organising various events regarding political issues, and making political statements. One respondent concluded that “there are more women in activism than men, and activism is something harder, much more responsible and realistic than playing in bands” (Max). 9.2 Punk, gender and politics in Croatia 462 He also questioned the activity of women on the scene as being evidence of the absence of traditional gender roles, explaining how he sees women´s “work in the backstage” on the scene: I think it’s a cultural thing, a patriarchal thing – why are they willing to put their careers and obligations aside for some higher goal, which in conservative families means ´babies and prams´, but which is activism and all that stuff in our context… It is interesting to see how traditional relations influence people, because men often crave that celebrity moment on stage. They like to drink free beer because they are considered a celebrity, they like that identity of the guy on the scene… And women are the ones willing to work in the background, to be anonymous activists (…) why aren´t men willing to stand behind something they don´t benefit from? Because if you´re an activist, you’re considered a cry-baby, and that often goes better with women than with men… Like, what the fuck? (Max). 4. Punk and politics: the fragmentation of the punk scene A perception of the punk scene as more focused on politics than music and entertainment proved widespread among our respondents. However, this should be considered in the context of an ethnography focused directly on the anti-fascist punk scene in Zagreb, and only few respondents were considered part of “another” scene. When mentioning “another scene”, respondents usually discussed those (in the punk scene) who do not want to declare themselves politically or declare themselves a political punk band and/or individual. To have more general views on perceptions of politics, forms of political behaviour, activities, and practices, as well as meanings attached to different forms of political engagement in the punk scene, it would be necessary to conduct research that would involve these other groups. The greatest fragmentation in the punk scene most often arises from whether or not someone believes it is important to politically declare oneself. This study shows that the vast majority of the respondents declared themselves as anti-fascist. Respondents often discussed anti-fascism not just as a political idea, but also as a “human attitude” (Purger), “a normal state of mind” (Murphy), or “a contemporary response to various forms of oppression and discrimination” (Max). There is disagreement about what different terms (such as anti-fascist, apolitical, or anti-political) should represent in the context of the punk scene. For the respondents, this refers more to individuals or bands that declare themselves “apolitical” than those that declare themselves “anti-political”. This is so because no bands that are openly declared right-wing or neo-Nazi in the punk scene in Croatia229. Those that declare themselves apolitical are often seen as “suspicious” by members of the scene. Although these bands do not declare themselves right-wing, their position is often perceived as 229 In the past, there were several bands that would more or less publicly declare themselves RAC (Rock against Communism) or right-wing bands, such as H8, Strong Survive, and Treće poluvrijeme [Third Halftime]. 463 9.2 Punk, gender and politics in Croatia “flirting” with right-wing politics. This term often has a negative connotation, as it is perceived as a “grey zone” (Brko, Max), and the people who represent it are considered a “suspicious crew” (Dora, Dita, Krasti) that is “not ready to take sides” (Max). Respondents often criticised this attitude, saying that “the problem in Europe in general is that apoliticism isn´t apoliticism, but rather tolerance for fascism” (Kova). Seeing the apolitical attitude as “conformism” (Purger) is the most common argument, especially among people who are politically active. Even though all of the respondents declared themselves anti-fascist, some of them play in bands that are either declared apolitical, or simply keep their distance from politics. Some of those respondents think that punk should not interfere with political views, and some even listen to neo-Nazi punk bands: “I can say that sometimes I listen to Skrewdriver229 (…) but it was never because of their political views” (Johnny). Most of the respondents strongly disagree with this “no mixing music and politics” attitude, saying that “Punk bands that can´t say they´re anti-fascist are suspicious to me” (Kejt). One respondent criticised this opinion, saying: “If you´re punk, it is important to be anti-fascist. I don´t see any other perspective on that, simply because of the entire social, historical, and musical context from which punk emerged” (Max). However, some respondents were critical of what is expected of them as a part of the scene, saying that political declaration is, in a way, a limitation: “The point of punk is that you can´t put something in a box” (Johnny). Regarding this fragmentation on the punk scene, the apparent division between anti-fascist and apolitical/anti-political members of the scene was often mentioned. When answering a question, one respondent even said “It depends on which punk scene you are talking about” (Johnny), emphasising differences among audiences at different concerts, or even differences between places where concerts were held, saying “you can see a big difference. You can see exactly the profile of people that go to those concerts” (Dora). Some respondents discussed differences between groups on the scene based on the subgenre of punk music they listen to. In accordance with post-subcultural theory, Purger calls those punks “hybrids”: There are lots of hybrids of all kinds here. You have those negative hybrids, neo-Nazi punks, next to those who are into modern tattoo, hardcore, hipsters, and then you have some serious anti-fascism. The opinions are so open that we have all those hybrid versions of everything (Purger). Even though disagreement exists among members of these groups on the punk scene (those who believe punk should be politically active and those who think music and politics should not mix), there is no open tension or conflict between members of the punk scene in Zagreb. However, even though respondents criticise (and question) taking a neutral position on the topic of politics among members of the scene, when asked about politics in general, almost all of them described it as being “rotten”, “hypocritical”, 230 Skrewdriver was a neo-Nazi skinhead punk band from the UK, among otherthings, known for their frontman Ian Stuart, co-founder of the Blood and Honour network. 464 and “corrupt”. This is related to the perception of politics in everyday discourse, which led Kova to say “it is idiotic to say anti-political and apolitical, because those are both political attitudes (…) I think that when they say anti-political, they don´t see politics as a discourse of action; they’re thinking of HDZ and SDP231 instead” (Kova). 5. Conclusion While the prevalent political discourse in Croatia in the 1990s was nationalist, actors such as the Croatia Anti-War Campaign (Antiratna Kampanja Hrvatske) gave people the ability to mobilise politically in anti-war and anti-nationalist campaigns. Because of the intertwining and similarity in discourse between activists in the AWC and punk scene in Croatia, these two scenes (activism and punk) continued to evolve, linking music and anti-war and anti-nationalist politics (Perasović, 2001, 2012), thus resulting in the vast majority of the members of the punk scene accepting “the Crass paradigm” (MyKay, 1996). The research findings show disunity and fragmentation in the punk scene based on different perceptions of the importance of and need to politically declare oneself as individual or as a band. There is also dissent regarding whether punk should mix with politics. This could be linked to the fact that there are no active right-wing or neo-Nazi bands in the punk scene in Croatia; for this reason, the lack of a need to declare oneself politically, or declaring as “apolitical” or even “anti-political”, is often perceived as suspicious. Regarding gender relations on the punk scene in Zagreb, women are not as present or “visible” on the scene as men. This refers more to being active “on the stage”, in bands, or even audience members than being engaged in activism and event organisation. This confirms the paradox discussed by Leblanc (2006) and Pilkington (2014) also confirms this, concluding that, even though the punk scene often represents political ideas that oppose different forms of limitations, when it comes to gender roles, it has failed to significantly oppose traditional gender regimes. References Cvek, S., Koroman, B., Remenar, S., & Burlović, S. (2014). Naša priča: 15 godina Attack!-a. Zagreb: Autonomni Kulturni centar. Dergić, V. (2011). Razvoj civilnog društva u osamdesetim godinama u Zagrebu. Amalgam: časopis studenata sociologije, 5(6), 29-39. Retrieved from: https://hrcak.srce.hr/76498 Dergić, V. (2014). Anti-fascist punk activism (Deliverable 7.1.). Retrieved from: https://hrcak.srce.hr/76498 Franc, R., Perasović, B., Mustapić, M., Mijić, I., Međugorac, V., Šimleša, D., Dergić, V., & Derado, A. (2013). Country-based reports on interviews findings (Deliverable 5.3.). Retrieved from: http://www.fp7-myplace.eu/documents/D5.3%20Croatia.pdf Gololobov, I., Pilkington, H., & Steinholt Y. B. (2014). Punk in Russia: Cultural mutation from the ´useless´ to the ´moronic´. London: Routledge. Hebdige, D. (1980). Potkultura: značenje stila. Beograd: Rad. Ilišin, V., Bouillet, D., Gvozdanović, A., & Potočnik, D. (2013). Mladi u vremenu krize. Prvo istraživanje IDIZ-a i Zaklade Friedrich Ebert o mladima. Zagreb: Institut za društvena istraživanja u Zagrebu i Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. 231 These are the two largest political parties in Croatia. HDZ (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica [Croatian Democratic Union] is the political party that is currently in power in Croatian Parliament, and SDP (Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske [Social Democratic Party of Croatia] is the largest opposition party. 465 Janković, V., Mokrović, N. (2011). Antiratna kampanja 19912011. Neispričana povijest. Zagreb: Documenta. Komnenović, D. (2014). (Out)living the War: Anti-War Activism in Croatia in the Early 1990s and Beyond. Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, 13(4), pp. 111-128. Retrieved from: https://www.ecmi.de/ fileadmin/downloads/publications/JEMIE/2014/Komnenovic.pdf Križanić, M. (2013). Slatko lice pobune: ženstvenost, infantilnost I konzumerizam japanske Harajuku culture kao izraz otpora prema tradiciji I patrijarhatu. Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski I Turk. Krnić, R., Perasović, B. (2013). Sociologija i party scena. Zagreb: Naklada Ljevak. McRobbie, A., & Garber, J. (1976). Girls and Subcultures. In S. Hall & T. Jefferson (Eds.), Resistance through Rituals: Youth subcultures in post-war Britain (pp. 209-222). London: Unwin Hyman Ltd. Perasović, B. (2001). Urbana plemena. Sociologija supkultura u Hrvatskoj. Zagreb: Hrvatska sveučilišna naklada. Perasović, B. (2013). Teorijske implikacije empirijskog istraživanja punkscene u Hrvatskoj. Društvena istraživanja: časopis za opća društvena pitanja, 22(3), 497-516. Retrieved from: https://hrcak.srce.hr/110156 Pilkington, H. (2014). ´If you want to live, you better know how to fight´: fighting masculinity on the Russian punk scene. In The Subcultural Network (Ed.), Fight Back. Punk, politics and Resistance (pp. 13-33). Manchester: Manchester University Press. Rogić, I. (2000). Tehnika i samostalnost: Okvir za sliku treće hrvatske modernizacije. Zagreb: Hrvatska sveučilišna naklada. Rogić, I. (2009). Pet tvrdnja o dvoziđu. Kratak osvrt na hrvatske prilike 20 godina nakon rušenja Berlinskog zida. Bogoslovska smotra, 79(4), 703-719. Retrieved from: https://hrcak.srce.hr/45133 Strpić, M. (2011). Anarhizam u Hrvatskoj u drugoj polovici 20. stoljeća. In D. Šimleša (Ed.), Snaga utopije: anarhističke ideje i prakse u drugoj polovici 20. stoljeća [online] (pp. 202-222). Retrieved from: https://elektronickeknjige.com/download/snaga-utopije/pdf/ Živić, D., Pokos, N. (2004). Demografski gubitci tijekom domovinskog rata kao odrednica depopulacije Hrvatske (1991-2001). Društvena istraživanja, 13(4-5), pp. 727-750. Retrieved from: https://hrcak.srce.hr/16235 Županov, J. (1995). Poslije potopa. Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Globus. 9.2 Punk, gender and politics in Croatia 466 9.3. Being a mother, a wife and a female MC: strategies of production and gender constraints Guilherme Libardi 232 and Luiz Henrique Castro 233 A b s t r a c t In this study, we observed how gender influences Brazilian funk music production strategies based on interviews with two female MCs and a funk music producer. The research is qualitative and exploratory and the gathered data is analyzed in the light of gender concepts established by Butler, McRobbie and Garber; and production strategies by Martín-Barbero. This analyse indicate that gender articulates consolidated roles such as “being a mother” and “being a wife”, that constrain the work of these women as MCs. We also focus on the appropriation of this very theme by the singers themselves who insert these speeches into their songs. We point out that this movement is not entirely political, as it is also mobilized by the possibility of their songs being marketable. Keywords: Brazilian funk, women, gender, performativity, strategies of production. 232 Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 233 Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 467 9.3. Being a mother, a wife and a female MC: strategies of production and gender constraints 1. Context of research and methodology This study contemplates the production strategy behind Brazilian funk music sung by women in Porto Alegre/Brazil. We intend to find an answer to this research problem: what are the dynamics established in the relationship between gender and strategy production for funk music sung by women?234 Thus, the goal is to analyze in which way gender is imposed, in what conditions and how it permeates the daily life and work of these women, although the lines between these two domains are blurry. For this purpose, we use exploratory and qualitative research applied through semi-structured interviews with two female MCs: MC Helenzinha and MC Paty. We also interviewed a male funk music producer named Markinhos JK. The interpretations were articulated by two concepts that are central to this piece: gender and strategies of production. Content analysis was the method chosen for data interpretation in this study. From this theoretical-methodological design, we point out the results in the following structure: firstly, from a bibliographical research, we synthesize a theoretical framework that orientates epistemologically the analytical path in this study. Following up, we describe the historical timeline of Brazilian funk music scene in Porto Alegre. We then present the data gathered from the interviews that bring up pieces of evidence and clues to answer the research problem. Lastly, from this set of empirical data, we interpret the resulting content in the light of the theoretical framework previously elaborated with the purpose of conforming possibilities to comprehend the relations among gender, funk music and strategies of production. 2. Strategies of production, gender and performativity In this chapter, we briefly outline two key-concepts for the paper: strategies of production and gender. Both are found under the Cultural Studies epistemological perspective in which we circumscribe this study. By referring to the strategies of production, we are essentially bond to Jesús MartínBarbero (2001) ideas. This author speaks from a perspective that confronts the dichotomies between “high” and “low” culture, hegemony and counterhegemony, mass culture and popular culture. For him, strategies of production are about the main institutionalized logics in the range of capitalist industries. It concerns the capacity of producing and communicating media/cultural goods to a certain public/audience. We move this discussion in the direction of strategies of productions articulated inside the funk music scene. Just like for corporations, the strategies for funk music are basically the same: identifying the audience’s interest; materializing it through music, music videos, ads, etc.; and disseminating these products and its representations. We are, however, talking about a cultural production made within a precarious context and by a gender historically marginalized inside the funk music scene: female MCs from favelas. Because of that, we need to briefly look at the relationship formed between gender and popular culture. We comprehend gender as part of a complex structure made of other categories and markers such as class, generation, sexuality, etc. Although we recognize its analytical and political importance, in this study we will not evoke an intersectional perspective235. Instead, we approach the subject of gender 234 This article was produced based on data and discussions presented at the Master thesis entitled How they do and hear funk: media self-promotion strategies and consumer practices (Libardi, 2016). However, the goal now is not to merely reproduce a part of this bigger research, but to look at the data from others theoretical approaches in the search of new interpretative possibilities. 235 For a discussion in this perspective, see Libardi (2016). 468 through the perspective of performativity (Butler, 2003), considering that it is socially constructed in the body through actions, creating meaning effects and locating the subject in “man” or “woman”. Binding ourselves to the perspective of Cultural Studies, we understand gender as a particularly structuring instance of social relations in popular culture. This is because, according to McRobbie and Garber, “[t]he position of the girls may be, not marginally, but structurally different” (1993, p. 211). Writing in the 1970s, the authors saw the female presence in the subculture scene being pushed to the margins so that they actually served other centralities, these being guided by the male audience of these scenes. Over the decades, we’ve had a series of shifts in the relationship between women’s roles and popular culture. Contemporaneously, in the mainstream funk scene, we have identified a glorious celebration of these female singers. This study departs from the common sense that “things are resolved for women” to think about how gender relations in a music scene of popular culture have been updated by funk music produced outside the major commercial circuits of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. From this theoretical framework, we later analyse the intrinsic relationships in the production strategies for the MCs interviewed based on their experiences and gender sociabilities. First though, we present a characterization of the funk scene in Porto Alegre, “locus” of the empirical research. 3. The recent history of the funk music scene in Porto Alegre The history of funk in Porto Alegre began to be outlined in the mid-1990s by two important personalities: ex-DJ, former radio and youth secretary of the City of Porto Alegre Jesus Cassiá, better known as DJ Cassiá; and the music producer and DJ Marcos Barbosa, known as Markinhos JK. Cassiá believed it was an excellent idea to play black music and funk music from Rio de Janeiro in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, precisely because he was convinced that Rio de Janeiro’s funk, known as “funk carioca” was in many ways similar to the lifestyle that the people who lived in the periphery of Porto Alegre led. At that time, the musical genre did not have the same national media visibility that it would in future have in the 2000s and so on, which was expressed as an obstacle to the dissemination of the funk carioca in the nightlife of Porto Alegre and on its radio stations. The funk music scene in the early years in Porto Alegre were not easy, since no radio or nightclub showed interest in playing the new musical rhythm. This music genre only began to have some visibility when, in 1994, Cassiá left his job in “Princess Radio” to work at the, now late, “Universal FM”, where he had more autonomy. It was at this moment that, gradually, funk began to be played in the radio, creating opportunities for it to be played in some celebrations in the capital. Meanwhile, inspired by DJ Cassiá, Markinhos JK decided to leave his job in a car-wash to invest in his career as a music producer and funk DJ, beginning to commercialize his music mainly in the festivities that took place in the outskirts. Shortly thereafter, he and Cassiá met and began to organize parties cooperatively. Among the most played artists at these parties were Cidinho and Doca, MC Marcinho, Rap Brasil and Racionais MC’s. In short time, this rise of funk as a business allowed Markinhos and many other artists and producers to conquer their first home and car, symbolizing they had achieved success in life. In the early years of the turn of the century, ascending socially, funk 469 9.3. Being a mother, a wife and a female MC: strategies of production and gender constraints emerged as a media product in the mainstream media outlets. If funk parties previously had only one DJ in charge of choosing and mixing the songs that would be played, in the early 2000s the role of the MC singing live appears in the venues and nightclubs of the capital. Up to 2009 approximately, the MCs who were played on radio stations and hired for concerts were all from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. This scenario changed when some professionals realized that hiring MCs from these cities was unprofitable, although they always guaranteed the success of the event. At that time, there were some MCs in Porto Alegre, however, none had good preparation or musical quality. One of the ways to create a legitimate “gaúcho”236 funk of good quality was to seek new talents in the parties and “manipulate” the market, mainly through the radio. This “manipulation” occurred either by paying certain monthly fees to the stations or by offering free concerts, in an attempt to guarantee some visibility to local MCs. Thus, with the support of radio professionals, some music producers worked hard to develop these young MCs. In 2009, when funk was at its peak in Porto Alegre, Cassiá, at that time occupying the position of councilman in the city of Porto Alegre by the political party PTB, was responsible for creating bill 231/09 that recognized funk as a cultural movement. The bill was received positively and was sanctioned in December 2010. In fact, the funk scene in Porto Alegre had accomplished several achievements in a short span of time: from regional media projection to legislative successes. Meanwhile, around 2012, the funk market in the capital had begun to show some signs of it wearing off. The number of male MCs increased exponentially and they all sang about the very same themes: sex and drug vindication. Realizing this, Markinhos JK decided to innovate by “introducing” a female MC into the city’s funk scene. The chosen one to occupy the position was his wife Patrícia, baptized with the stage name MC Paty. All aspects of MC Paty’s career were planned taking into account what worked out for female singers in Rio de Janeiro, the birthplace of funk in Brazil: what kind of songs she would sing, what places to go, what to wear, etc. The formula worked perfectly and the success was great. Nevertheless, for personal reasons, Patrícia decided to leave her career as an MC behind. Since then, other female MCs have emerged in the local funk scene. With the stagnation of the funk market in the capital, music producers no longer made as much money as they did before, to the point where the amount of money invested in getting an MC’s song to play on the radios was not being recovered back at concerts. To dribble this scenario, Markinhos JK started to negotiate a new form of payment for the radios: the music producers would offer a free funk music gig of one of their MCs monthly. According to Markinhos, this is how the market works to this day. Concerning the funk in Porto Alegre, nowadays, we noticed that it has lost space in the music scene of the State. It is a consensus that the economic crisis that has hit Brazil since the second half of 2014 has had an impact in several segments, including the funk market. In addition to the economic crisis, another factor contributing to the decline of “root” funk is the preference for other musical genres that have gained prominence in radios, such as “sertanejo universitário”. For Markinhos, a third contributing factor to the decline of funk in the capital is related to the lack of diversity of MCs. He considers that part of the blame for its fall lies within the producers themselves who do not focus on career planning for their MCs, reproducing more of the same old mistakes. On the other hand, Cassiá is 236 The word gaúcho refers to something or someone who is from the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, in this case, gaúcho funk means that the songs were made in that state. 470 optimistic, considering that some MCs that developed in Porto Alegre are very good, being responsible for carrying a positive message to the society. 4. Experiencing gender between the lines of the everyday life 4.1 Gender and the daily life: the centrality of the ‘mom’ and ‘wife’ roles The information collected regarding the daily life of the MCs was brought up spontaneously by the women interviewed together with themes related to the practices of funk music. This means that, in advance, we may consider that the activities they perform in the music scene are not isolated from their private lives. When we deal with gender, these issues are even more evident, as we see in the description of the relationship between gender and daily life of the MCs as follows. MC Helenzinha considers that her daily practices are divided into three parts: being a mother, being a wife and being an MC. In this triad, the fact she plays both the roles of wife and mother crosses some of her professional practices in her career as an MC: “he [her husband] never forbade me to sing, he never wanted me to stop, maybe, deep down, that’s what he wants, but I think it’s a natural jealousy he has” (MC Helenzinha, personal communication, February 20, 2016). As she mulls over her sexy onstage performances - available on YouTube237 - and some songs lyrics filled with explicit sexual content, the MC says: “I think that because I worry about what she [her daughter] would think or how she would deal with it in her teens that I ... I changed my style a little bit” (MC Helenzinha, personal communication, February 20, 2016). In summary, we note that some roles historically defined as “played by women” constrain, to some extent Helenzinha’s performances in the funk scene. In addition to the issues of “roles”, the singer has expanded the senses of female rivalry within funk to a natural competition in their daily lives: The thing is that woman compete with other woman from the moment she wakes up in the morning, gets up from bed and it’s already competing with another woman. When she takes a shower, gets dressed up and thinks about the clothes she’s going to wear, she’s thinking she wants to be better than other women (MC Helenzinha, personal communication, February 20, 2016). Therefore, we can synthesize gender by evoking certain MC creative practices based on the elements of wifehood, maternity and the relationship of rivalry with other women. All these instances end up reflecting or being continuities of their practices as MC. For MC Paty, her artistic career at the time she worked as an MC was also conditioned by the roles of being a mother and a wife. Even the end of her short trajectory in the funk scene was due precisely to the conflict between this duality. At one point, she realized that Markinhos JK, her husband, was hampering her career development. “Whatever I could do to fly more, he would ... Block me. (...) Kinda like, putting me aside without showing me what he was doing, but I realized what was going on, and ended up leaving and 237 See https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=oRLNspP6Yzo 471 9.3. Being a mother, a wife and a female MC: strategies of production and gender constraints making myself believe that I couldn’t continue, get it? “(MC Paty, personal communication, February 18, 2016). In the name of the stability of her marriage, MC Paty decided to return to her life as just Patrícia, which did not, however, guarantee the security of the relationship. The fact that she was a mother also directly influenced the style of music she sang, MC Paty, out of concern for this role, decided, along with her ex-husband, that she would not invest in the “dirty funk” type of music. “Imagine your son showing his classmate what you sing?” (MC Paty, personal communication, February 18, 2016). Her ex-husband, the music producer Markinhos JK, also commented on the “roles” played by his wife: (...) if she’s going to come up with a response to a dirty song, she’s going to automatically go down a notch with her words too, get it? And she’s the mother of a family, my wife, who has two children. How am I going to let my daughter, who’s a young girl, listen to her mother singing ... sometimes even talking about ‘pussy’, like, it’s not okay. Get it? (Markinhos JK, personal communication, February 24, 2016). We highlight here, in Markinhos’ speech, the way the producer refers to MC Paty: “mother of a family” and “my wife”. Well, so if Paty was not a mother nor his wife, then there would be no problem for her to sing songs in which she had to “go down a notch”. In his perspective, from the moment that Paty takes the role of his wife and mother of his daughter, her identity as an MC is no longer suitable for “dirty funk”. Summing up, roles historically defined as “performed by women”, such as being a wife and a mom, not only directly guided MC Paty’s artistic performance in the funk scene, but also culminated with the end of her career. 4.2 Gender and strategies of production: producing the female MC role Funk songs are permeated by lyrics that relate to the point of view of young people from the periphery, expressing their lives in different situations: recreation, violence, consumption, sexuality. These guidelines are experienced in different ways by different MCs, especially when taken into account gender cuts. Therefore, this mediation becomes central to delimiting or boosting production strategies in the funk scene. MC Helenzinha considers that her position within funk music originates in a perspective that seeks to legitimize the different possibilities of practices of the female audience: So I say this ... That the woman can be beautiful, she can be intelligent, she can be independent, I think that this independence, the woman’s power to work, the woman’s power, as I’ll tell you, to behave the way they want or live the way they want, without depending on someone (MC Helenzinha, personal communication, February 20, 2016). The notion of “independence” guides most of Helenzinha’s speeches when 472 mentioning the concept behind her songs and performances. This notion comes mainly built in a framework of independence through consumption: (...) I had a song called ‘Luxury Doll’, and it really did portray all that, the luxurious life of a woman, right, what the woman wants, the bag she wears, the perfume she wants, the perfume she wears, you know? This ostentation thing (MC Helenzinha, personal communication, February 20, 2016). The possibility of consuming autonomously, that is, without needing the financial help of another man, presents itself as the apex of the feminine independence. It is important to emphasize that this is not about any possibility of consumption. MC Helenzinha portrays a way of life in which there are no barriers – neither financial nor symbolic – to spend her money. Another issue, within the gender spectrum, that orbits some MC practices in the scene is the production of “response funks”: “For example, the male MC goes there and makes a song talking, for example, like, that, ah, that he dumped the girl, whatever, he does not want the girl anymore, then I go there and show the other side of this story, I give him an answer” (MC Helenzinha, personal communication, February 20, 2016). In short, what is at stake in her statement as an MC is: “I do not want to diminish or say that I am better than men, (...) I think that’s it, to be equal” (MC Helenzinha, personal communication, February 20, 2016). MC defends her point of view from the conception that “we [men and women] are in the same world, we live the same things” (MC Helenzinha, personal communication, February 20, 2016). This matter of the quest for equality between men and women, not necessarily through a funk response, is also a strategy adopted by MC Paty: “I always made it clear that I wanted to go on mocking men, get it? That it was something that defended women that was my trademark” (MC Paty, personal communication, February 18, 2016). However, the idea of working with the theme did not come from her, but from her producer (and husband, at the time), and the lyrics were composed by third parties. The f irst lyric was f rom [DJ and songwriter] Martin, so when I listened to it he said ‘we’re going to defend women and mock men’. That was something sensational to me. He was the one who came up with that idea though, then I only continued on this path (MC Paty, personal communication, February 18, 2016). MC Paty’s trajectory was artistically shaped by her ex-husband Markinhos JK, who launched her into the funk scene of Porto Alegre as the city’s first female MC, as it was seen in chapter 3. Though others existed, such as Helenzinha, none of them had achieved visibility and gained as much space on the stage and in the media as MC Paty. That is, Paty’s entire identity as an MC, especially the speech of feminist inspiration present in her media products, was regulated by men, including her “presentation” in everyday life: (...) [she had to be] always flauting a little, you know? Always looking good, that whole thing, because there’s always someone to take a picture, right? She already had to have her makeup done, had 473 9.3. Being a mother, a wife and a female MC: strategies of production and gender constraints to dress like an MC, get it? (Markinhos JK, personal communication, February 22, 2016). These demands on the MC, coming from her producer and ex-husband, to always be presentable when it comes to dressing up and having makeup on are reflected in the media representations of female MCs238 , we observe here that, the sexualization of the female body reverberates directly in its production within the funk music scene. 5. Strategies of production as an MC and gender performativy: the challenges between clashing interests From the interviews presented, we can weave some interpretations that connect their daily and professional lives as MCs in the same cosmos of interpretations. For this purpose, the category “gender” presents itself as a delineator of such relationships, permeating practices in a way that is complementary, sometimes contradictory, but always structuring. Mother, wife and MC. These three attributes were evidenced as roles among the MCs, which leads us to consider the performance character of each of them. That is, in a normative imaginary framework, the simple act of saying “mother”, “wife” and “MC” triggers a series of cognitive processes that lead us to materialize concrete (images and acts) and abstract senses (adjectives, emotions, values) to each of these words: children, breastfeeding, care; husband, stability, discretion; stage, sensual dances, erotic speech - to name a few. On the side of motherhood and marriage, we have values related to a woman’s private domain. On the other, as an MC, there is a body exposed by the technologies of a musical scene in the public domain that triggers a sexuality that “inexists” in the other roles. This set of questions and differentiations (mother / wife x MC) would not be problematic if the acts performed in each of these roles were not, also, performative (Butler, 1993). That is, more than a series of reproduction of neutral roles, such acts communicate ways of being and delimit expectations that curtail freedoms and forms of expression. Based on the reports of MCs interviewed, being a mother and wife conditions, at different levels, their activities as MCs. MC Helenzinha cannot leave aside her embarrassment when she remembers there are videos available on the internet of her doing sensual dances denoting positions of the sexual act. In addition to the dances, the lyrics also refer to the so-called “dirty funk”, that themes sex. Thinking of her daughter – that is, in her role as mother – Helenzinha confesses a certain degree of embarrassment to think of the possibility that, one day, her child could watch these videos. That is why Helenzinha says she changed her way performing in the funk scene. MC Paty currently leads her life as a businesswoman and a single mother, away from the stage. However, in her MC era, her condition of wife and mom of two children already triggered morals in relation to her presentations as an MC. In Paty’s case, there is still the factor of the ubiquity of her husband-producer regulating Paty’s identity as an MC. As we have seen, this set of relationships was so structuring and contradictory to her MC role that she had to give up a promising career in the funk scene in the name of another set of expectations. Gender presents itself, therefore, updating, shaping, and imprisoning their MC roles to the detriment of what it means to be a mother and a wife, roles valued as more worthy and “deserving of respect”. 238 For more information about media representation of female MCs, see Libardi (2016). 474 However, gender issues are also used in favor of these MCs when we analyze their production strategies in isolation. MC Helenzinha uses irony and debauchery with a male “other” through her compositions, trying to exalt the woman’s positioning in a specific situation (usually a love relationship and / or consumption practice), depreciating the man by attacking his hegemonically consolidated gender roles, such as their virility and autonomy. In the song “Luxury Doll”, for example, she sings: “My intention is this / To make you spend” (MC Helenzinha, 2015). MC Paty also appropriates genre experiences to perform her songs in a very similar way to MC Helenzinha. In “The girls are worse”, MC sings: “And the girls of Porto Alegre here only have angry mouth / their consumption dream / And terrorize the jealous girls / If the guys are bad / the girls are worse” (Mc Paty, 2014). Although her songs signal a possible emancipation, we find that her productions do not always necessarily reflect a complex political consciousness about the gender problems placed in her songs. Although MCs sing songs in which they represent themselves as selfsufficient women, this practice takes place on a more imaginary than concrete level, as we can perceive by their own attitudes towards men in their daily concrete experiences. MC Helenzinha is embarrassed in relation to her sexually oriented performance freedom on stage in the name of maintaining her good image as a mother. But it is MC Paty who represents this analysis very well when we remember that, in fact, who is behind the MC’s songs is her husband. These issues do not diminish the service that these MCs provide in talking about “women’s empowerment” primarily in a subculture context such as the funk scene, whose history was built mostly by men. However, as we look at the layers of this process, we find that such speeches are sometimes contradictory to their expectations of themselves as female-mothers or femalewives. Still, we must consider what Martín-Barbero (2001) points out about the way of operation on production strategies, while recalling their insertion in a capitalist circuit. The “salable” character of the songs is central to the MCs (and their producers). As noted by Markinhos JK, Paty’s husband, enhancing the female image in funk would be the key to success. In the brim of this strategy, the producer allowed his wife to sing about it. Although Paty recognized and identified with this discursive idea, we cannot ignore the fact that it was first constructed in the name of a commercial cause. The case of MC Paty is still interesting when we take into account the relationship between her role of wife and MC. Within this role-playing game, Paty ended up deciding to preserve the health of her marriage, leaving behind a career that seemed to be promising within the funk scene. We emphasize that she made this decision because her husband, who had nurtured her dream of being a great MC, could not handle her exposure on the scene. In this relation, we perceive the establishment of power relations in two roles: the producer and the husband. When the same person absorbs both powers, the professional and affective choices become tangled. In this case, it culminated with the woman-mother-wife-MC Paty choosing to give up her artistic life in search of the stability of her married life. MC Paty, now separated and owner of her own business, shows regret that she has not continued on with her dream of becoming a big MC. Therefore, we emphasize that these gender roles directly affect the production strategies of these MCs. The phenomenon observed in this study leads us to agree with McRobbie and Garber (1993) when the authors are thinking about the reason for the 475 9.3. Being a mother, a wife and a female MC: strategies of production and gender constraints absence of women in subcultural scenes. Although the female audience has gained a legitimate space within these scenes, as is the case of the funk scene through various exponents at the national level, we still show how the career structure of some MCs is delimited by the roles played in the private domain. Their careers follow different directions and they can undergo drastic transformations from day to night by the fact they became mothers or wives. We did not observe the same said phenomenon with male MCs, such as Mr. Catra, who died in 2018, leaving three wives and thirty-two children. This MC is known for some controversial compositions, such as, “Hot Truck Driver”, in which he sings: “Now it is with you love, you can decide / Take iron up to Juá / Take wood up to Tupi” (Mr. Catra, 2017). Through wordplay and puns that rhyme in Portuguese Mr. Catra adds explicit sexual innuendos in his lyrics and no moral judgement is made because of his condition of husband or father. 6. Conclusions This study aimed to analyse the relations of two MCs with their strategies of funk music production from their gendered socialities. We have found out that this marker is central to the MC experiences in their daily and artistic lives. The gender, performatively, guides expectations around their roles of mothers and wives, which constrains and repositions the performance of these women as MCs. It is because they are mothers that they will stop talking about certain subjects in their songs; and it is because they are wives that they will even abandon their dreams of being great MCs. In another instance, we can consider the impossibility of full coexistence between these different roles as a dispute of moralities. In this game, being an MC does not fit in with what is required of other female roles as mother and wife. These roles function as straitjackets and act even on the psychic level, nullifying the spontaneity of these MCs in the exercise of their creative drives whether on stage or in the studio. In this construction, not only the maintenance of the female hegemonic roles is overvalued, but the role of MC becomes a problem. This is what the dichotomous logic imposes us: the impossibility of contradictory existence. Therefore, the image of MC is transformed into the enemy of the other versions of the same woman. The consequences of this are, as we have seen throughout the study, the impossibility of exercising a full artistic life in the name of a compulsory commitment with gender attributions. It is important to emphasize that, even though this research presents gender as a sociological category of greater evidence, this overlap is justified by the cut of our object: the funk produced by “them”, women. However, we cannot fail to highlight the relevance assumed by class conditioning, which also manifests itself in their speeches and practices as a background that structures the experiences (Munt, 2000) on which these women commented throughout the interviews. Finally, we consider that this article opens up the possibility of new studies to come from the perspective of different feminisms, especially in the contemporary rhetoric of “post-feminism” that, for authors such as McRobbie (2009) and Faludi (1991), it’s a discursive construction, especially in the media, that women have finally achieved “feminist success”. According to our analysis, the conception that female emancipation has been achieved in the funk scene simply because “they are there” is something that scratches only the surface of the problem. It is by observing the other layers of production strategies in relation to their daily lives that we capture the contradictions still present in their gender performativity. 476 Acknowledgments: A special “thank you” to MC Helenzinha, MC Paty and Markinhos JK for being available to collaborate in this study. Funding: This study was supported by CAPES Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination under grant for Master Course. References Bama, DJ. (2014). As menina são pior [Recorded by Mc Paty]. In As Meninas São Pior - Música Nova 2014 (Dj Bama) Lançamento 2014 [Mp3 File]. Porto Alegre: Independent Production. Butler, J. (2003). Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. Faludi, S. (1991). Backlash: The undeclared war against American women. New York: Crown. Helenzinha, MC. (2015). Boneca de Luxo [Recorded by MC Helenzinha]. In Boneca de Luxo – música nova [Mp3 File]. Porto Alegre: Independent Production. Libardi, G. B. (2016). Como elas fazem e ouvem Funk em Porto Alegre: estratégias de autopromoção midiática e práticas de consumo. (Master’s Thesis). Porto Alegre: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Martín-Barbero, J. (2001). Dos meios às mediações: Comunicação, cultura e hegemonia. Rio de Janeiro: Editora UFRJ. McRobbie, A. (2009). The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. London: Sage Publications. McRobbie, A.; Garber, J. (1993). Girls and subcultures. In S. Hall & T. Jefferson (Eds.), Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain (pp.209-222). London: Routledge. Munt, S. (2000). Introduction. In S. Munt. Cultural Studies and the working-class. London: Casse. Muzik, L. (2017). Caminhoneira gostosa [Recorded by Mr. Catra]. In Caminhoneira Gostosa - Single – Digital [Mp3 File]. Rio de Janeiro: Som Livre. 477 9.4 Rock in high heels: A look through the women’s role in Portuguese rock music Ana Martins 239 and Paula Guerra 240 A b s t r a c t Traditionally rock music universe in our societies has been linked to men. In other words, many people still think about rock musicians, journalists, music critics, and many other music professionals as men. Some individuals even though a woman making rock music for a living was something weird or even disrespectful. This scenario still happens today all over the world and Portugal is no exception to that. However, we can’t talk about the history of rock’n’roll music without mention the contribution of women. Although just a few, in the beginning, women have been leaving a growing mark in world’s rock music and are becoming more independent musically. Because of all this, it’s very important to think over and discuss the gender issues in Portuguese rock music and look at women’s role in this sphere. Keywords: Gender, rock music, Portuguese music, sensation-seeking, substance abuse. 239 For more information about media representation of female MCs, see Libardi (2016). 240 University of Porto – Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Institute of Sociology – University of Porto. CEGOT and CITCEM - Transdisciplinary Research Centre «Culture, Space and Memory». Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. KISMIF Convenor. E-mail: [email protected]. 478 1. Starter As we may know, one of the most exciting social developments that took place almost all over the world at the end of the 1950s/beginning of the 1960s, with more evidence in The Anglo-Saxon world was the emergence of rock music as a (sub)culture. And, according to Whiteley (1997, p. xiii) “the genesis of popular music as a field of study has curious parallels with the emergence of rock itself”. At that time this emergence occurred, almost every young man particularly in the United States and in The United Kingdom became fascinated with the rock’n’roll’s rhythm, instruments and lifestyle, maybe because “(...) rock and roll music were performed exclusively by men” (Harding & Nett, 1984, p. 63). Following this idea, Frith (1981) and McRobbie (1981) assumed that rock’n’roll (sub)culture wasn’t the right spot to look for female participants, particularly in the rock’s production field. According to Simon Frith (1981), one of the reasons that justify this female exclusion from the rock music scene was its bohemian culture, more suitable for men in those years than for women. “Rock was a place for male friendship in a resistive, unregulated life-style, where woman represented unwelcome demands for ‘routine living’, for the provision of money, for food and rent” (Gottlieb & Wald, 1994, p. 257). Moreover, rock music as a (sub)culture has developed itself within some male features, as McRobbie (1981) told us, while she talked about motorbikes or big and heavy musical equipment. “For example, in rock performances, musicians are aggressive, dominating, boastful and in control; the music is loud and rhythmically insistent; and the lyrics are assertive and arrogant” (Larsen, 2007, p. 6). Still, on this topic, we can refer to the typical social interaction which occurs between rock’s stakeholders is predominantly dominated by male’s language, such as “(…) referring to each other by nicknames; using technical and in-house jargon; and sharing the jokes, myths, and hype that surround the bands on the scene (Larsen, 2007, p. 6). So, considering these situations, we can say that women suffered brutal social restrictions, which put them directly linked to housework, to male domination and to restricted independence. (…) because of patriarchal restrictions, the youth cultures of girls historically have been defined by very different parameters from those of boys. As a result of this second circumstance, girls may have different access to the expression of, or different ways of expressing, nascent teenage sexuality and rebellion against parental (that is, patriarchal) control (…) (Gottlieb, 1994, p. 252). Besides the social restrictions on girls and the fact that male adolescence and deviance are often perceived to go hand-in-hand (Griffin, 1985; Reddington, 2007), the women’s strong domestic role or their conditioned access to the places where rock as a (sub)culture acts, such as clubs, bars or in the street, make it exclusive for men participation. According to Gottlieb (1994), the street unfolds itself in a dangerous threat to girls and women, because they can easily be subject of male heckling, harassment or assault. In this discussion, it’s important to remember that women have historically been on the street playing as prostitutes. So, the first female participation’s steps in the rock (sub) culture took in their personal spaces, often in their bedrooms. So, as stated by Bayton (1997), women in rock (sub)culture has been consumers, rather than producers, which means that they have been treated specially as fans. Added to this, women in rock beyond being fans, they were seen as musician’s girlfriends, groupies or playing some secondary role, such as backup singers as well. And in some circumstances when we could find only a few of them as musicians were instrumentalists, they often played keyboards. “Whilst women 479 9.4 Rock in high heels: A look through the women’s role in Portuguese rock music folk singer-songwriters have played the acoustic guitar, the electric guitar (surely the instrument which most epitomizes ‘rock’) has been left in the hands of the boys” (Bayton, 1997, p. 37). Yet, about women as groupies, Larsen (2007) says that this kind of labeling reduces the women’s experience in rock (sub)culture to a singular sex interest and drives away the idea of women as a prolific participant. “This is in large part because creativity, creative work and creative identities are constructed in such a way that women are marginalized or even excluded” (Larsen, 2007, p. 398). Thus, men have always been in charge in this scene and they have been seen as rock consumers more than women, who often have been seen as mainstream pop consumers. Harding & Nett (1984) in their debate about the women’s role in the rock music industry and literature claimed that rock music’s enterprise is almost mastered exclusively by men and that it covers different professional departments like the recording industry, broadcasting industry or the rock audience itself. As expected in this scenario, few women hold executive positions and even less work as producers. “In the other positions too, including managers/financiers, recording engineers, scouts, mixers and roadies, men hold sway almost without exception” (Harding & Nett, 1984, p. 62). So, we can say that men are responsible for what has been played on the radio. Thus, as Frith & McRobbie (2005) say, the creative roles are still held by men and this happens not just in the music or rock music sphere, that matters to us in this paper, but also in the production of mass culture as a whole (Huyssen, 1986). “Even the creative and cultural products that are produced and/or consumed by females are valued less and placed further down the cultural hierarchy than those of their male counterparts (…)” (Larsen, 2007, p. 401). Therefore, we can say that men are the rule and women are the exception. About the female presence in the subcultures field, Weller (2005) assumed that, in the academic literature production that exists - both in the work on youth and in the feminist studies – there is a gap regarding the participation of women in subcultures. Much of the analysis on clothing, music preferences or body aesthetics was mostly developed from, observations, surveys, and interviews with men (Guerra, Gelain & Moreira, 2017, p. 16). Similarly, Harding & Nett (1984) & Reddington (2007) advocated that the women’s place in popular music has been declined in the literature and the documentation available about the few female rock protagonists are very poor and stereotyped. Very little seems to have been written about the role of girls in youth cultural groupings. They are absent from the classic subcultural ethnographic studies, the pop histories, the personal accounts and the journalistic surveys of the field. ... The objective and popular image of a subculture is likely to be one which emphasises male membership, male focal concerns and masculine values (McRobbie, 2000, p. 12). 480 The same ‘women-excluded’ situation happened in Portugal, a small country where every sign of freshness arrived much time later than in the Anglo-Saxon countries and the conservatism mentalities were much bigger. So, in this paper, we tried to look briefly to the main transformations that happened in the international rock music scene in favor of women active participation and how they reverberated at the Portuguese rock as well. In terms of methodology, to write this paper we used documentary analysis and secondary data. 2. The Portuguese scene Portuguese political democracy is just 45 years old, which means that we lived in a dictatorship until 1974. “In the case of the dictatorship in Portugal, there was a policy of government until the 1960s to remain in a certain isolation, (...)” (Fiuza, 2015, p. 59). During this prevalence of isolation, the Portuguese dictator, António Salazar, appealed to patriotism using verbal expressions, such as calling our isolation as “proudly alone” or appealing to values as “God, homeland and family” and doing contests about the most Portuguese village in Portugal to intensify our patriotism. So, looking at that period, we can say that “Portugal is always thought of as a country deeply linked to the traditional forms and manifestations of its culture” (Monteiro, 2008, p. 2). Clearly, despite Portugal was a secular state, during the dictatorship this country was and still is very devoted to the Christian religion, the main religion in the Portuguese territory till today241. Therefore, during the authoritarian period, when something in the Portuguese individuals’ everyday lives escaped the political regime assumptions or the Christian’s premises, it was hardly accepted by the public power or even not accepted at all in some cases. All this obviously removed the country from the explosion of rock (sub) culture and from any other cultural products or foreign artistic expressions. The fascist youths, such as the Mocidade Portuguesa, so resistant to new customs in the 1960s, were equally untouched by the language and behavior inherent in rock music (Fiuza, 2015, p. 59). According to Fiuza (2015) since rock as a (sub)culture was highly connected to a big change in the conservative consuetudes, and had a close relationship with the hippie movement, took the authoritarian regime trying to fight these new cultural and social practices in Portugal. However, rock music was able to little by little penetrate the Portuguese society or, rather, the young men’s society at first. Just like it happened at the beginning of rock music in the Anglo-Saxon world, in Portugal women were also placed on the sidelines of this (sub)culture in the beginning. “(...) the concern with women’s moral behavior may have contributed to a relative female absence in rock and roll and Portuguese rock from the 1960s and 1970s” (Fiuza, 2015, p. 60). The reasons for this female exclusion from the Portuguese rock scene were basically the same lived from the Anglo-Saxon’s women. As we lived in a dictatorship, both women and man had no freedom of thought or expression and our society was strictly conservative and sexist, particularly in what concerned the women’s role. Women should follow their domestic path and most of them weren’t allowed to study more than the elementary school. The news and other types of information from abroad arrived long after Portugal. And, sometimes they didn’t arrive at all and contact with other countries cultural lifestyles was highly limited. “It was part of the cultural policy of this time, the affirmation 241 Bullivant, S. (2018). Europe’s Young Adults and Religion: Findings from the European Social Survey (2014-16) to inform the 2018 Synod of Bishops. London: Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society. 481 9.4 Rock in high heels: A look through the women’s role in Portuguese rock music of a supposed ‘Portuguese identity’ that should reinforce the singularity of Portugal over the other nations” (Monteiro, 2008, p. 5). The censorship was very severe with the information spread by the national media, which led some people to basically seek to listen to foreign radios in secret. Thus, the blocking of information flow developed by the Salazarist regime and the absence of effective communication channels only contributed to these hidden practices (Monteiro, 2008). Moreover, as Andrade (2015) concluded, access to rock music was predominantly made through the importation of foreign records, the listening of radio programs and radio stations devoted to the issuance of this music, and the purchase of local recordings. In short, besides the socio-historical restrictions of the country, the distance of women from the rock (sub)culture was also due to her devotion to love and marriage, as the Christian religion ordered, instead of the idea of occasional sex and flirting from men, who were more open to this kind of behaviors. “(...) women (‘girls’, that is) are reminded that if life on earth is to continue they must love their man and gently (…)” (Harding & Nett, 1984, p. 66). Also, women was thought to be physically weak and not strong enough to carry the musical equipment and the violence and aggressive of men during the performances were not thought to be suitable for female performers. It is difficult to stay ‘feminine’ in a rock band precisely because ‘femininity’ is an artifice: it is assumed that women do not sweat, that their noses do not go red and shiny, and that their hair stays in place. (…) In contrast, for young men playing guitar in a band directly enhances their masculinity (Bayton, 1997, p. 40). This all-men scenario in rock (sub)culture did not last long because there were some national and international transformations, which helped open the door to women in rock music. 2.1. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Besides the great significance of 1960s rock artists’ such as Janis Joplin, Joan Baez or Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane), the real acceptance of women in rock (sub)culture just took place with the emergence of punk rock and its association between love/romance and popular music. “Women punk rockers emerged out of a decade of male rock experiments with gender, such as those of Gary Glitter or David Bowie” (Gottlieb, & Wald, 1994, p. 258). As we may know, the 1970s were a decade strongly marked by the growing of androgyny and gender ambiguity in rock’s performers and performances. In this sense, at that time we started talking about “(…) transvestism a[s] ‘sign’ that ‘sociallyconstructed gender roles may be reshuffled, and that no one with the divine spark need be relegated forever to single sex’”(Whiteley, 2007, p. xvi). So, in the musical subgenre called glam-rock, the male musicians used to wear makeup, glitter, sequins, high heels, and peculiar clothes. The male gender bending of seventies glam-rock forms an important node in this history: breaking with the heterosexual romance paradigm of Elvis or the early Beatles, the glam-rocker elevated the erotics of performance to a high narcissism (...) This moment celebrated sexual deviance and connected it to the rock ’n’ roll values of teenage rebellion and transcendent experience (Gottlieb & Wald, 1994, p. 258). 482 In the glam-rock form of heavy metal, particularly, the male musicians used to have long volumes hair as well as very theatrical performances on stage. “Cross-dressing, in contrast to understated dressing on stage, has become ‘a transcendent expression of human potentiality” (Whiteley, 2007, p. xvi). Another significant change in rock music that helped to shape de (sub) culture and open it to female participants relates to the erotic performances of some male rock artists. “Two touchstones of white, male, rock performance, Elvis Presley and Mick Jagger, both created excitement in their performances by making sexuality explicit, in hip and lip movements which were uncomfortably unmasculine” (Gottlieb & Wald, 1994, p. 259). In fact, according to Whiteley (2007), the performing styles of stars like Mick Jagger have really opened up new approaches on sexuality by that time. “Jagger’s role as singer thus provides an interface between sexual difference (his ‘real’ maleness, the androgynous performer) and the content of the song”(Ibidem, p. xxi). And last but not least, the establishment of music videos with MTV was crucial to women rockers, once it provided a great space for a well-cared image and a truly emotive performance, commonly associated with females. If MTV provided multiple images of women rockers (...) punk’s staging of defiance and impropriety allowed female punk performers to negotiate the paradox of femininity on the rock stage by enacting transgressive forms of femininity, for instance, in frighteningly unconventional hair, clothing styles and stage activities (Gottlieb & Wald, 1994, p. 260). So, the development of punk rock and the spreading of its concepts were very significant for the acceptance of women, because it made the apology of gender equality and fought social patterns, conservatism, and unfair social rules. “During the Pistols era, women were out there playing with the men, taking us on in equal terms ... It wasn’t combative, but compatible” (Lydon, 1995, p. 378). Thus, these transformations happened gradually in the international scene, and they took a while to arrive in Portugal. 2.2. Portuguese rock boom After the collapse of the dictatorship in 1974, the Portuguese people took a while to assimilate all the outcomes that it brought to the country. The main outcomes were related to the establishment of a democracy and to the freedom that came with it. So, this new kind of society was totally new for the Portuguese individuals, and there followed a period in which the: (…) political crisis is almost permanent, by instability, by a high degree of conflict, by the ‘normalization’ of the democracy and the market by gradually undoing revolutionary constitutional arrangements and even consequences of recessions and external economic crises (Barreto, 1996, p. 39). Thus, just after this adjustment period, we were able to see repercussions in people’s everyday life and leisure. The cultural experiences and the musical experiences, in particular, suffered a boom soon at the beginning of the 1980s. The beginning of the 1980s marked the ‘boom of Portuguese rock’, as a whole series of profound transformations within this cultural industry 483 9.4 Rock in high heels: A look through the women’s role in Portuguese rock music occurred, enhancing its viability and substantiating pop-rock industry as a complex constellation of labels, media, products (LPs, tapes, magazines, newspapers) and social agents (musicians, producers, journalists, critics, radio announcers, DJs, record shops, etc.) (Guerra, 2015, p. 619). In general, only in the 1980s, it was created a real Portuguese music industry with a structure able of dealing with this boom of rock bands and artists, full of talent, energy, and things to say. According to Guerra (2015), this decade approached Portugal to the European standards (with the accession to the European Community in 1985), and also to the whole world once we started to have access to new technical innovations, better musical instruments and equipment, a growing recording market, and a greater media interest in music and cultural activities in general. All these improvements allowed not only an incentive to the professionalization of artists and bands, but also to the admission and acknowledgment of women in the Portuguese rock scene since they became more independent, educated and confident with the end of the dictatorship. “The portrait of the young woman shifts from insecurity to exuberance (…)” (Schmidt, 1985, p. 1063). In addition female workers have progressively entered the labor market, the feminist movements and the second feminist wave, in particular, have also obviously contributed to these changes in woman’s life and in their search for equality. “(…) this clear division of the space defined by the gender found a contradiction in the emergent capitalist structure of the country brought by the Revolution and the democracy” (Rodrigues, 1997, p. 84). At this time, Portuguese woman changed the way they saw the traditional family, dating or marriage, and started to have their own leisure time to fill it with cultural activities such as music, cinema or women’s magazines. As stated by Rodrigues (1983) some of these women didn’t even care about future marriage or chastity before the marriage of their daughters. (…) a new path of development was adopted in which women were to play a fundamental role. As a result, women entered the labor market began to participate in political and social life and have enjoyed a growing presence in educational systems that have been extended and restructured in order to overcome the shortcomings that continue to hamper the skills of the overall Portuguese population (Conde et al, 2003, p. 262). It was in this auspicious period for the music industry as a whole that we start to see women assuming leadership roles in rock bands and as solo artists. To Clawson, this latest scenario helped to “provide [women] with new opportunities and help legitimate their presence in a male-dominated site of artistic production” (Clawson, 1999, p. 151). As a rock band member, the female participants weren’t just instrumentalists, but vocalists as well. For examples, we had the Portuguese band Roquivários formed in 1981 with a girl doing vocals and playing bass; another band called Rádio Macau and formed in 1983 had a girl as a frontwoman named Xana. “[Xana] wanted to be a scientist and an astronaut, but at the age of 18 she recorded her first record and became a 484 true rock star.” (Mendonça et al, 2016, n/p). As solo artists, we should mention Lena d’Água, a great singer who started her career in the 1970s doing back vocals in a rock band and finished being one of the most important women in Portuguese rock history; “[Lena d’Água] was one of the biggest stars of the Portuguese rock boom, a sex symbol of a pop generation that in the 80s tuned in with our language and our audience” (Abreu, 2017, n/p); and Adelaide Ferreira who was a big name in Portuguese rock when she released the album Amantes e Mortais that was later considered the best Portuguese hard rock album best ever. A very significant event still in this decade was the emergence of one of the first girl group in Europe called Doce. Four young ladies composed this pop/rock group and they were very successful not just in Portugal, but also in Spain, France, EUA or Philippines. They even had some songs in the English language. Their particularity was due, in essence, to their extravagant clothing and appealing choreography on stage. The Doce were women with an aggressive posture. They were not lyrics that I could write to other singers. It had to have a sensual load because the group lived on it in terms of image and music. The Doce was a very special project, for me the most successful pop project in Portugal (Brito, 2014, n/p). At the same time, Portuguese women began to value their own professional careers and to have more active and creative roles in the business market. “Signs of such change include marked feminization processes in the artistic and teaching worlds (including areas of serious music), with more women present in the cultural labor markets “(Conde, et al, 2003, p. 318). In rock music subculture, in particular, the number of female participants as musicians or as fans have been growing little by little, and also the attitudes expressed in their music is changing. As claimed by Gottlieb & Wald (1994) the recognition of the growing explosion of all-women bands or individual women artists were due to media interest and cover, the proliferation of female instrumentalists or women singing about “girl’s stuff”. Thus, since the 1980s that the participation of women in the rock music industry has been growing meaningly and we expect to see a gender balance in the near future. 3. Some final remarks Portugal lived 40 years of a dictatorship and it was very significant for the posterior development of the country in all social fields, both for men and women. All the individuals were subjects to a strong political police and censorship action, who punish anyone who did not follow the State’s rules. There was an atmosphere of fear, and since some man could found some ways to escape this pressure, for women, in particular, it was a very hard time, once they were more limited in their actions due to their domestic duties. So, when the authoritarian regime collapsed, Portugal became almost a new country, because the ulterior outcomes of that event were very violent for the Portuguese conservative society of the time. In the first half of the 1980s during the called “Portuguese rock boom”, the cultural, artistic and musical scenario changed drastically. At that time, 485 9.4 Rock in high heels: A look through the women’s role in Portuguese rock music we started to have a support structure for different kinds of artists and art fans, meaning public spaces for exhibitions or concerts, better electric infrastructures, new clubs and pubs with modern music and ornamentation, more varied clothing stores, more music stores, etc. When it comes to music and rock, in particular, there was an explosion of bands who tried to follow what happened and was still happening abroad, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. And, as it occurred in those countries, the Portuguese rock (sub)culture welcomed female participants both to be fans and protagonists as well, after a long time of exclusion. But, this happened very gradually as Portuguese society itself was evolving. However, despite this open space given to women and the growing number of female artists in rock music, this is still a male-dominated field. First, women are still underrepresented in certain spheres of the art world as a hole and they are still often the men who occupy the positions of leadership in most cases. So, women keep facing more obstacles to achieve professional high roles than men. When we look at our music industry, we still see male faces leading the bigger companies. Second, some innate features of women related to building a family, such as pregnancy, motherhood or breastfeed may break their professional career at some level and make it unfeasible some projects or roles. And third, the Portuguese society is still conservative, devoted to the Christian religion and keep glorifying the femininity on women. We still face many stereotypes related to everything that goes against the norms, especially in suburban areas. It’s true that female participation in Portuguese rock music as a whole is growing and we expect it will keep growing, but in general women face more obstacles than men to keep a job in the rock music industry. Even when we look at rock artists or musical groups with long careers in Portugal, very few women are able to stay active for decades. And, this is a reality that still happens not just in Portugal, but a little by many other countries, because changing mindsets is something that is done over time. It is, therefore, necessary to change not only male but also female mentalities, because it is often the woman herself who has stereotypes about her own social role. Still, some elements of Portuguese society still continue to have conservative and retrograde thinking in relation to the role of women and the reputation of rock music, which also makes it difficult for women to stay in this sector. Funding: This article is part of the author’s and supervisor’s PhD thesis in Sociology (SFRH/BD/117027/2016), that has been developed in the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto: Faculty of Arts. References Abreu, R. M. (2017, November 17). Lena d’Água: a bomba do boom. Blitz. Retrieved from: https://blitz.sapo.pt/principal/update/2017-11-04-Lena-dAgua-a-bomba-do-boom. Andrade, R. (2015). Mistérios e maravilhas: O rock sinfónico/progressivo em Portugal na década de 1970. Portuguese Journal of Musicology, 2(2), pp. 239-270. Barreto, A. (1996). A situação social em Portugal, 19601995. Lisboa: Instituto de Ciências Sociais. Bayton, M. (1997). Women and the elecric guitar. In S. Whiteley (Eds.), Sexing the groove: Popular music and gender (pp. 37-49). London: Routledge. 486 Brito, T. (2014, January 14). Tozé Brito. ‘As Doce foram o projecto pop mais bem conseguido em Portugal’. Jornal I. Retrieved from: https://ionline.sapo.pt/377124. Clawson, M. A. (1999). When women play the bass: Instrument specialization and gender interpretation in alternative rock music. Gender & Society. 13, pp. 193-210. Conde, I. et al (2003). Making distinctions: Conditions for women working in serious music and in the (new) media arts in Portugal. In A. Wiesand et al. (Eds.), Culture-Gates: Exposing professional ‘gate-keeping’ processes in music and new media arts (pp. 255-323.) Colonge: ARCultMedia. Fiuza, A. F. (2015). Nas margens do rock: A censura estatal e a canção popular portuguesa. ArtCultura, 17(31), pp. 57-72. Frith, S. & McRobbie, A. (2005). Rock and sexuality. In S. Frith & A. Goodwin (Eds.), On the record: rock, pop and the written word. New York: Taylor & Francis e-Library. Frith, S. (1981). Sound effects: Youth, leisure and the politics of rock ‘n’ roll. New York: Pantheon. Gottlieb, J. & Wald, G. (1994). Smells Like Teen Spirit: Riot Grrrls, Revolution and Women in Independent Rock. In A. Ross & T. Rose (Eds.), Microphone fiends: youth music and youth culture (pp. 250-274). London: Routledge. Griffin, C. (1985). Typical girls? Young women from school to the job market. London: Routledge. Guerra, P. (2015). Keep it rocking: The social space of Portuguese alternative rock (1980–2010). Journal of Sociology, 52(4), pp. 615-630. Guerra, P.; Gelain, G. & Moreira, T. (2017). Collants, correntes e batons: Género e diferença na cultura punk em Portugal e no Brasil. Lectora, 23(2), pp. 13-34. Harding, D. & Nett, E, (1984). Women and rock music. Atlantis, 10(1), pp. 60-76. Huyssen, A. (1986). After the great divide: Modernism, mass culture, postmodernism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Larsen, G. (2007). ‘It’s a man’s man’s man’s world’: Music groupies and the othering of women in the world of rock. Organization, 24(3), 1-35. Lydon, J. (1995). No Irish, No blacks, No dogs. London: Coronet. McRobbie, A. (1981). Feminism and youth culture. London: Macmillan. Mendonça, B. et al (2016 July 16). Duas limonadas e uma conversa íntima com Xana, a musa do rock português. Expresso. Retrieved from: https://expresso. sapo.pt/podcasts/a-beleza-das-pequenas-coisas/2016-07-22-Duas-limonadas-euma-conversa-intima-com-Xana-a-musa-do-rock-portugues#gs.ZVCDjzk. Monteiro, T. J. L. (2008, September). Muito além da ‘casa portuguesa’: Uma análise dos intercâmbios musicais populares massivos entre Brasil e Portugal. Paper presented at the meeting XXXI Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, Natal, RN. Reddington, H. (2007). The lost women of rock music: female musicians of the punk era. London: Routledge. Rodrigues, J. A. (1977). A mulher portuguesa urbana: Que mito, que realidade?. In S. Chicó (Eds.), Artistas portuguesas, (pp. 29-31). Lisboa: SNBA. Rodrigues, J. A. (1983). Continuidade e mudança nos papéis das mulheres urbanas portuguesas: Emergência de novas estruturas familiares. Análise Social, 19(2), pp. 909-938. Schmidt, M. L. (1985). A evolução da imagem pública da juventude portuguesa: 1974-84. Análise Social, 21(3), pp. 1053-1066. Torres, A. (2018) . Igualdade de género ao longo da vida. Lisbon: Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos. Weller, V. (2005). A presença feminina nas (sub)culturas juvenis: A arte de se tornar visível. Revista Estudos Feministas, 13(1), pp. 107-126. Whiteley, S. (1997). Sexing the groove: Popular music and gender. London: Routledge. 487 9.4 Rock in high heels: A look through the women’s role in Portuguese rock music 488 THEME TUNE 10 ‘CONTAMINATIONAL DEMO(N)CRATS’. FOR A NEW PRACTICE OF (DIVERSE) TASTE © Esgar Aclerado 489 10.1 German punk feminist festivals’ gender politics and social space: between identity and anti-identity politics Louise Barrière 242 A b s t r a c t : Growing out of diverse influences, including for example the Riot Grrrl scene, intersectional feminism and queer movements, punk-feminist festivals associate theory, activism and art, and act as platforms and forums for a multidisciplinary subcultural feminism. This article draws on the study of archives and on participant observation to analyze the ambivalent approach of gender that develops within the punk-feminist festivals network in Germany. I will more precisely demonstrate that, while it is true that there are specific connexions between punk-feminism, queer-feminism and anti-identity politics, it doesn’t necessarily mean that material feminist analyzes and identity politics have completely been forgotten by the new feminist movements of the 2000s. Keywords: Festivals, subculture, feminism, gender policy, identity. 242 University of Lorraine - Le 2L2S - Laboratoire Lorrain de Sciences Sociales. Nancy, France. E-mail: [email protected] 490 1. Introduction As I arrive on the Sunday morning at the Böse & Gemein festival’s networking brunch, that Helen recommended me to attend regarding the fact that I could meet people interested by my research there, and take the line to the food, someone –that I recognize as a member of the organizing team– approaches and gives me a pen and a roll of tape. The person speaks German very fast, maybe too fast for me who just woke up, but I can catch that they propose me to write my name and pronoun on the tape and stick it on my jacket. ‘It’s no mandatory’, they say, ‘Only if you want’. I look at their sweater, the tape says ‘Ulle - Sie*Er’. I take the tools and write ‘Louise – Sie’. Later in the morning, I notice Christina that I already met a few months ago in Berlin, she also has that tape sticked on. I will keep my tape on the whole day, announcing to everyone who would want to know, within the festival space, how to refer to me. (…) As we go back to Helen’s flat at night, after the gigs, it’s raining outside. Even though our way isn’t that long, the text on the tape is washed away the more we go back into the ‘real world’ and walk away of the festival space and its special norms (Field notes, 25th June 2018). Growing out of diverse influences, including for example intersectional feminism and queer movements –as that abstract of my field notes should indicate it– punk-feminist festivals associate theory, activism and art, and develop platforms and forums for a multidisciplinary subcultural feminism. They notably draw on the first Ladyfest that took place in Olympia, Washington (USA) in 2000, itself inspired by the Riot Grrrl Movement that was born at the same place a decade before and whose history has been chronicled by Marion Leonard (2007) or Sara Marcus (2010). No more than three years later, in 2003, three Ladyfests are held in Germany: in Berlin, the capital, Hamburg and Leipzig. At the end of 2018, around 97 punk-feminist festivals had been organized far and wide in the country; 74 of them named “Ladyfest”243. The others nonetheless are still drawing on the same model, with workshops on the daytime, and movie screenings, performances and most of all concerts and parties during the evenings and nights. The topics of the workshops and debates, the subjects of the movies, alongside with the lyrics sung or screamed by some bands on the stage all make gender issues the political guideline of these cultural events, which happen to be intermixed with et enhanced by discussions, analyzes and debates on topics as diverse as racism, ecology, veganism and animal liberation, etc. From now on, most of the academic studies around punk-feminism have focused on fanzines (Rosenberg & Garofalo, 1998; Dunn & Farnsworth, 2015) and people (Wald, 1998; Downes, 2012; Griffin, 2012; Sharp & Nilan, 2015), and it happened just recently that a few scholars showed interest in Ladyfests and punk-feminist festivals (Zobl, 2005; O’Shea, 2014; Ommert, 2016). Most of these works though connect punk-feminism with queer-feminism (for example: Ommert, 2016). This article draws on the study of around 200 archives from the festivals (flyers, programs booklets, manifestos, websites, etc.) and on participant observation during five events (in Mannheim, Saarbrücken, Berlin, Dresden and Karlsruhe) this year. It aims to rethink this association and demonstrate that while it is true that there are specific connection between punk-feminism and queer-feminism, it doesn’t mean that material feminist analyzes and identity politics have completely been forgotten by the new feminist movements of the 2000s. Then, how do these German punk-feminist festivals build their gender policy? How do they try to create spaces with their own social and gender rules, 243 These numbers stem from my own PhD studies. With the help of Ladyfest online database (http:// ladyfest.org), the ladyfest wiki, the website Grassrootsfeminism (http:// www.grassrootsfeminism.net), online social medias (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), fanzines and archives (found at the Youthculture Archives – Archiv der Jugendkulturen in Berlin), I have collected in a database the names and main characteristics (dates, place, programs, price of the entrance) of the punk-feminist or punk-inspired feminist festivals that occurred in Germany since 2003. 491 10.1Germanpunkfeministfestivals’genderpoliticsandsocialspace:betweenidentityandanti-identitypolitics considering both gender identity politics based on a materialist understanding, and anti-identity politics influenced by queer theories? In the first part of this article, I will develop the difference and breaking points between materialist feminism -that grew in the 1970s- and queer feminism -of the 1990s. Following the definition of queer given by Kathy Rudy (2000), alongside with the works of Butler and Sedgwick, I will then analyze in a second part the strong development of a queer-feminist basis within punkfeminist festivals, drawing on their refusal of gender binary and their advocacy for sex positivity. Finally, in a third part I will consider the long-term influence of materialist feminism in contemporary punk-feminist movements. I will therefore first regard it in perspective with the concept of subcultural capital developed by Sarah Thornton (1995) and then look at the cultural transfers of women’s defense methods against abuses (See Guerra, 2015). The whole point of the article is to show that punk-feminist festivals aim to become counterpower territories, fighting against both gender and sexual binaries and the specific oppression of women, within the punk scene and beyond. 2. The materialist feminism vs. queer feminism quarrel: Elements of feminism historical and generational context Feminism is often considered divided and covering different political beliefs: its different so-called “waves” are distinguishing generations of activists, each expected to embrace a different theory alongside with a different kind of activism. On the contrary, this presentation aims to show that punk feminist movements borrow elements to both the second wave and materialist feminism, as we call it in France especially, and to queer feminism (which is more likely to spread around the third wave). The terms and theories I employ in this article in their academic sense are not really used in punkfeminist festivals and networks. The activists of this scene never quote Judith Butler nor Christine Dephy, or Colette Guillaumin, et al. But in a certain way, they embrace their thoughts and use them on their own terms, avoiding most of the time the academic jargon. Thus, academic theories are adapted to a subcultural context. Their knowledge spreads in the scene, through zines or through events such as festivals, from activist to activist and is not necessarily linked to an academic context. 2.1. Materialist feminism: reading gender as a social class Before engaging in this article’s main case-study, it is important to define the principal concepts I will be using here. Materialist feminism is an expression that is mostly used in the French context and that first developed in the 1970s, around theorists such as Monique Wittig, Christine Delphy, Colette Guillaumin, Nicole Claude-Mathieu. It refers to a kind of feminism that considers gender as a system defining two classes, creating thus inequalities and opposing men who benefit from the system to women who don’t. Inside of this system men and women constitute two interrelated categories. One cannot exist without the other. These classes of gender are, of course, socially and economically constructed and do not come from “nature”, distinguishing thus materialist feminists from essentialist feminists. While striving against male dominance, 492 materialist feminist have to politically invest the “women” social category to demonstrate their mobilization as an oppressed group and fight for equality, which connects them with “identity politics”. Their final goal nonetheless is beyond identity politics, because they fight for a total abolishment of gender, as a structure that generates patriarchy, and social, economic and physical oppression of women. Materialist theorists mostly criticize queer theorists for their lack of consideration for the concrete, economic and social gender hierarchy (Noyé, 2014). 2.2. Queer feminism: moving on from society to the self While materialist feminism can be perceived as a broadened form of “identity politics”, queer movements are more into “anti-identity politics”, and aim to blur frontiers between genders, between masculinity and femininity, between hetero- and homosexuality. They grew in the 1990s, as American scholars such as Judith Butler got to read the French poststructuralists of the 1970s, such as Kristeva, Derrida and Foucault (Delphy, 1995). While materialist feminism focuses on society as a whole, post-structuralists and thus queer theorists rather focus concentrate on the self. They aim to study and deconstruct the structures of power at an individual scale. This paper mostly draws on Kathy Rudy’s (2000) definition of “queer”. According to her work “queer movements” are mainly characterized by four facts and thoughts. First, according to queer theorists, interpretation plays a big role in understanding the aspects of our lives. In fact, no events nor gesture are self-evident or self-interpreting. They are encoded by social norms and conventions. Following Butler’s theories (1990, 2004), our actions (behaviors, gestures, speeches) define our (individual or collective) identity, which is also to be constantly remodeled and redefined. Being queer is thus not about being gay but about challenging, resisting these norms. Then, gender and sexuality are also socially and historically constructed. Gender as much as sexual preferences or sexuality only exists because of a consensual idea of what “women” and “men” are or should be. It is therefore the same regarding homosexual and heterosexual categories. They are “produced” by social events, strategies and fantasies. We “code” ourselves as man or woman by performing things associated with our gender. Queer theory therefore leads to a strong critique of gender and sexual binary. Queer theorists compel us to deconstruct these binaries and to “look for places where this normality breaks down, where it is shown to be inadequate” (Rudy, 2000). Sedgwick (2003) therefore advocates for a “queer performativity” that has to define, deconstruct or break identity boundaries. Furthermore, queer activists engage in radical, aggressive and confrontational activism: contrary to the institutional gay and lesbian movement, queer is “anti-assimilationist”. And finally, queer is a sex positive movement. Plus, Rudy writes: Moving beyond the male/female binary will free us from unnecessary gender discrimination currently present in many aspects of social life. We also need feminism, however, to help us consciously focus on and recover ‘women’s work’ as a central concern in the new queer discourse (Rudy, 2000, p. 214). 493 10.1Germanpunkfeministfestivals’genderpoliticsandsocialspace:betweenidentityandanti-identitypolitics The point of this article is to show that, following Rudy’s assertion, the German network of punk-feminist festivals aim to create spaces, connected to each other, that are “free from unnecessary gender discrimination”, and therefore go beyond the “male/female binary”. Nonetheless, they also claim being feminist and “focus on ‘women’s work’ as a central concern”, meaning that they have to draw on older analyzes and methodologies of feminist movements and to build their thoughts on materialism, identity politics and the so-called “second wave of feminism” (a term that I will be discussing in the conclusion of this article). 3. ‘Ein Raum schaffen’ 244 : Punk-feminist festivals and the construction of their anti-identity social space Festivals are enclaves in the everyday life. They build immersive strategies in order to cut themselves from the regular social norms and define their own. Bennett and Peterson (2004) described festivals as “large multiday events that periodically bring together scene devotees from far and wide in one place, where they can enjoy their kind of music and briefly live the lifestyle associated with it with little concern for the expectations of others”. The lifestyle associated with punk-feminist culture takes of course music into its concerns but also gender politics. German punk feminist collectives often say or write that they want to “build a space” – not physically but rather socially, and the point of this part of my article is to show how this is to be done. 3.1. Beyond the gender binary Punk feminist spaces, such as festivals, thus, develop their own codes, norms, rules and identities. Following the queer dynamics toward the deconstruction of gender binary, people even invent or reclaim neutral pronouns. In German, people sometimes use “sie*er” which is a mix between the feminine pronoun (sie) and the masculine one (er). The small star refers to some kind of “continuity” between masculinity and femininity, pointing that they are not strictly opposed to each other and that people can identify and reclaim identities that are in between or beyond. Alongside comes an important rule in these spaces: never assume you know what pronouns someone wants to use unless you have asked before. In fact, organizers and audiences develop strategies such as (during workshops) names and pronouns rounds (where the attendees are expected to introduce themselves with the name and pronoun of their choice), or name and pronouns labels or pins (the attendees stick on their clothes a label that mention the name and pronoun they want the others to use to designate them). These rules of course don’t exist in everyday life public spaces because, queer theorists say, people are constantly assigned a gender regarding what they are performing. By developing such practices, punk-feminist festivals allow new identities to exist regardless of these “rules of performativity” (Rudy, 2000). Moreover, the festivals also propose their attendees workshops dealing with non-binary identities, such as a workshop named “Gender(ed-)borders – a theoretical and practical approach to the multiplicity of possible identities”245. Its description says that the workshop is divided in two parts: the first one will address various theories about gender, gender identity and gender expression. 244 “To build a space” in German. 245 Unless specified, all translations are mine. 494 The second, which I’m particularly interested in here, “will consist in ‘trying’ new identities following the real meaning of the term (…) it will deal with (…) testing genderbending, genderqueer, no gender, etc.” That will be possible, according to the organizers, through the use of various accessories that will make the participants to perform other gender identities. On the stage, the attendees might also see bands, whose members perform femininity (as queer theorists say) but make music under male names. This is for example the case of Jason & Theodor, a dream pop band, formed by two women. In fact, their band name is a word play with their real names: Jason is Sonja and Theodor is Dorothee. By playing with their names, they play with gender binary and performing under male names therefore contributes to blurring frontiers between masculinity and femininity because it disrupts the audience expectations. Eve K. Sedgwick (2003) links the affects of shame with identity: we feel ashamed for what we are (while, on the contrary, we feel guilty for what we do, connecting thus the affect of guilt with actions). She further argues that queerness and shame are strongly correlated in the sense that shame has a specific impact of the construction of a queer identity, and writes: Yet many of the performative identity vernaculars that seem most recognizably ‘flushed’ (…) with shame consciousness and shame creativity do cluster intimately around lesbian and gay worldly spaces. To name only a few: butch abjection, femmitude, leather, pride, SM, drag, musicality, fisting, attitude, zines, histrionicism, asceticism, Snap! Culture, diva worship, florid religiosity; in a word, flaming. And activism. (Sedgwick, 2003, 63-64) Surely punk-feminists festivals, as places where “new” identities, deconstructing gender binary, aim to be designed both on stage by creative acts and out of stage, in the common spaces of the event, as places where people can “try” new identities, defying thus their assignation to a specific gender, have to deal for these two reasons with “shame creativity” in Sedgwick sense, flaming and activism. 3.2. ‘Sex is nice’: sex-positivity and alternative sex education Another characteristic of queer movements, said Kathy Rudy, as aforementioned, is “sex positivity”. In fact, a lot of festivals propose various talks or workshops about pornography, BDSM, sextoys, etc. The Ladyfest Hamburg for example offered in 2014 a workshop called “Last uniporn” whose description said: “The answer to bad porn (aka mainstream porn) isn’t ‘no porn’ rather ‘good porn’. Let us emphasize and discuss pornography out of a (queer-)feminist perspective, develop the concept, and have visual experiences”. Rather than completely rejecting pornography on the basis that it produces a “bad”, “mainstream” porn that carries strongly wrong images of women, the festival seeks to develop forms of “good porn” based on what its audience would like it to become. This leads to the emphasis of a pornography production by and for queer people. The attendees to the workshop are likely to become both consumers and producers of a (queer-)feminist pornography. 495 10.1Germanpunkfeministfestivals’genderpoliticsandsocialspace:betweenidentityandanti-identitypolitics Besides pornography, one must also note that one of the most popular workshops programed within the whole range of festivals I studied is about creating DIY sex toys. The attendees are taught how to create harnesses, floggers (connecting them also with the BDSM scene) or dildos out of scratch, using for example used bike parts. There, the DIY ethos of punk is adapted to sexual practices, in a complete sense of queer-feminist punk. Yet, sex positivity is not just about having sex or having a lot of sex. Rather it is mostly about having safe(r) and consented sex: two topics that are also addressed in punk-feminist festivals. The Ladyfest Berlin therefore displayed in 2006 a “Safer Sex Workshop” that was advertised as such: “Sex is astonishing. Infections aren’t. Pleasure alone or by two, three... (…) This workshop should display information about STIs and tips for free medication”. The aim is to offer to the participants an “open-minded” and alternative sex education that takes into account non-heterosexual and non-conventional relationships. Once again, the notion of “pleasure” is central to the description and therefore, to the idea of sex and sexual relation carried through the event, no matter the type of the sexual encounter. Rather than judging the audience for their potential practices, the organizers of the workshop also emphasize the importance of being well informed of what sould be considered as safe and unsafe. Risk (of STIs, especially) isn’t hidden but it is contextualized in an open-minded atmosphere, free of LGBTQ-phobia and of what feminists call “slutshaming”. As I explained in a previous publication (Barrière, 2018), punk-feminism thereby leads to a slide from a paradigm of sex education based on risk and fear to one drawing on pleasure and prevention, allowing in the same time the development of queer body techniques. In Undoing Gender, Butler wrote: Try to imagine a world in which those who live at some distance from gender norms, who live in the confusion of gender norms, might still understand themselves not only as living livable lives, but as deserving a certain kind of recognition (2004, p. 207). Maybe, punk-feminist festivals are, if not a world246 at least a network of different spaces, where this happens to be possible. The activists I met are also aware that non-binary identities are not recognized by the society, in their everyday lives. While creating spaces for these identities to exist and therefore allow people to embody them, punk-feminist collectives do not neglect to fight against the oppression of women, mostly because some of them might be seen as such, out of the festival space. 4. Subcultural materialism and identity politics According to the French materialist feminist Colette Guillaumin (1995), men, as a class, benefit from their position in a hierarchy induced by gender as a social power system. Women, as a class, are thus kept in the dominated position through different means, among which work market and economy (women statistically earn less money than men), space dynamics (women statistically are confined in smaller spaces), physical, verbal, psychological and sexual abuses (for example rape, street or sexual harassment, etc.). In this part, 246 They might nonetheless be considered as such in the sense of Howard Becker’s Art Worlds (1982). 496 I aim to consider the impact of the aforementioned gendered social system in the realm of the punk scene. 4.1. Subcultural work, subcultural capital and the politics of space within the punk scene First, when it comes to work, there is nothing about earning money in the underground punk scene from which punk-feminist movements stem from. Speaking of gender roles inside of the scene, it is thus rather about earning visibility and recognition, which serves as a parallel of salary in the work market. Developed by Sarah Thornton (1995), the concept of “subcultural capital” could, in that case, be considered as an equivalent to the (economic) capital mentioned by Guillaumin. Straw summarizes it as what “brings together the interpretive skills and hip credibility which people acquire through their involvement in particular subcultures” (2004, p. 414). Jensen later develops “Following Thornton, I use the term subcultural capital (...) to refer to characteristics, styles, knowledge and forms practice that are rewarded with recognition, admiration, status or prestige within a subculture” (2006, p. 263). He, furthermore, advocates for a better accountability of gender and race issues within the study of subcultural capital dynamics, that had merely been associated with class. Therefore, following Jensen’s work, this article particularly aims to look at the gendered repartition of subcultural capital and at punk-feminist festivals as a counter-power. Sara Cohen (1997) also already analyzed a similar phenomenon, while investigating on the indie music scene in Liverpool. She noticed that the networks where technical knowledge was shared were exclusively masculine, and women strongly marginalized. Griffin (2012) states the same after years of autoethnography in the hardcore scene. Those results actually seem not to vary very much from genre to genre within DIY music scenes. And, unsurprisingly, the statement drawn by the Ladyfest Darmstadt organizing-team, in their manifesto is in fact pretty similar to Cohen’s and Griffin’s analysis. They write: When it comes to organizing cultural events, women*247 often cook, build decorations or take care of finances and budgets while men* are standing on stage, booking bands or taking care of sound and lights, etc. Thus, we reclaim our right to occupy these key positions too. When women in subcultural scenes claims they are denied their technical knowledge and assigned to services roles (reception, catering, finances), as this abstract mentions it, they are warning us that they are cut from any possibility to acquire a subcultural capital as consequent as men’s. Plus they are also less likely to express publicly their music tastes, as their positions aren’t in fact directly connected to music practices, contrary to men who are in place to share their tastes through their booking or creative choices. Women are therefore also less likely to acquire the capital that goes along with having “good tastes”, that is: having tastes recognized by the community of their subculture. While being cut from the most visible and valuable functions in a subcultural scene, they are also cut from any possibility to develop a “hip credibility”. Taking part to a punk-feminist festival and “[reclaiming their] right 247 In German queer-feminist networks, the small stars (sternchen) are used to expand gender beyond its usual binary, following the gender dynamics developed in the previous part of this article. But, while it designates a broader range of people, it is the word “women” that is to be representational and embodied hereby, following the aforementioned identity politics and materialist theories. In that case, it might designate women and people read as women (regardless the gender they claim). 497 10.1Germanpunkfeministfestivals’genderpoliticsandsocialspace:betweenidentityandanti-identitypolitics to occupy (…) key positions” in the scene, they also aim to strive for the same possibility to develop a subcultural capital as men. The issue of space that followed economic capital in Guillaumin’s approach can actually, in that case, be analyzed in a really close way. Addressing the question of the space in the punk gig, follows the line of the Riot Grrrl movement who used to criticize the space taken by men in audiences, through the slogan “Girls to the front”. Furthermore, accordingly to the archives quoted, we can easily notice that by being much more on stage, men nonetheless acquire more subcultural capital and “hip credibility” but they also simply do occupy a broader space within the scene. This problem has also already been analyzed by scholar works (Dunn & Farnsworth, 2012; Griffin, 2012; Sharp & Nilan, 2015). While addressing this problem, punk-feminist festivals goal is also to reclaim more space for women and queer punks. It was in fact the case of the first Olympia Ladyfest, and it still is, according for example to the Ladyfest StuttgartEsslingen manifesto: “The Ladyfest Stuttgart-Esslingen aims to open up new possibilities for women to show and develop their political, artistical and organizational skills, in order to encourage them to become self-confident in their personal and social environment”. In fact, if we consider the punk scene as a margin-center organization, punk-feminists argue that the center is mostly occupied by men, while women rather stand at the margins. This scheme is specifically illustrated by the crowd repartition in the venue, as analyzed by Dunn & Farnsworth (2012) who note that women usually stand at the back of the room, away from the pit. Organizing festivals where they can learn and share new skills should lead them to potentially acquire more “hip credibility” and therefore a subcultural capital. Not only should they now know how to take good care of budgets and catering, they also aim to embody the “key positions” of the musician or the local promoter. While drawing on analysis that remind us materialist feminist concerns, punk-feminist collectives do not only settle for an analyze of the punk scene gender dynamics, but they also seek for ways to counter them. 4.2. Punk-feminism going global: Against sexual, physical and emotional abuses Furthermore, punk-feminists do not only strike against gendered scene dynamics, they also lay their claims at the scale of the global society. Their stand against abuses (sexual, physical, verbal, and psychological) follows that dynamics, considering that these encounters might not only occur within the scene but also in the casual women’s life. Punk-feminist festivals offer a lot of workshops that address issues such as street harassment (Ladyfest Heidelberg 2014), rape culture (Ladyfest Berlin 2012, Ladyfest Heidelberg 2014), pick up artists (Ladyfest Mannheim 2016), etc. in order to warn women about these structures but also to find ways, strategies to resist them. They, once again, follow the legacy of self-help groups of the feminist second wave. According to Dackweiler and Schäfer (1999), feminist self-defense methods and groups came to Europe in 1976, when the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women happened in Brussels, gathering at the same time American and European feminist activists. These practices remain nowadays very popular in punk-feminist festivals: more than 40% of the events of my corpus organized a self-defense workshop. The question is also addressed by bands, such as KALK (a punk-hardcore band that 498 played at Ladyfest Saarbrücken in 2018) and their song “Шлюха из Бутово”. Bands also connect abuses to other feminist issues: in this case, the band Anti-Corpos, based between Sao Paulo, Brazil and Berlin, who played Ladyfest Berlin and Noc Walpurgii, uses the fictional but realistic story of a woman (who happens to also be a worker and a single mother) to dispute the questions of being a poor woman and surviving from rape and assault: Work work work work She’s been through hell, she’s been raped, Had an abortion, been aggressed. Fight, fight with your claws and with fury! She’s exploited but will never lower her head! She works, fights, she’s a winner, a warrior The mother of three children, SINGLE MOTHER (Anti-Corpos, 2014). There, the band denounce the economic exploitation (“she’s exploited”) aforementioned – an issue more likely to touch women through gender wage and responsibility gap – alongside with physical and sexual abuses (“she’s been raped (…) been aggressed”). Following the path taken by punk movements since the 1980s, through American hardcore punk and the second wave of British punk (Cogan, 2007), this song is a perfect example of radical political and musical engagement adapted to a more feminist background of activism, by featuring a single mother as main character of the narrative. While a similar situation would put anyone at the margins of society but also of the punk scene, Anti-Corpos made their character become a model of feminist empowerment. Beside the denunciation of living conditions that are far from decent, the song pushes to “fight” and “never lower [one’s] head”. That willingness of a feminist empowerment is also to be found in the whole foundations of punk-feminist festivals (Guerra et al., 2017). 5. Conclusion: Intertwining queer and materialist feminism As a conclusion we can state that German punk feminist festivals have found a way to reconcile two feminist epistemologies that are generally opposed and associated with two different generations of activists. Queer feminism is thus generally expected to mark a break with the materialist approach. But nonetheless do punk feminist festivals conciliate them theoretically, they also achieve to conciliate them practically: on the one hand through a wide programs of workshops that blend together both approaches, and on the other hand through their musical programs, with both artists singing about social hierarchy of gender as it makes women to be a socially and economically dominated class and artists who embody queer identities on stage. While working on feminist collectives in Göttingen, Germany, Emeline Fourment (2017) explains that while the opposition between materialist and queer perspectives is evident to the theorists of feminism in France, her fieldwork showed her that despite a generational gap it is possible to conciliate them. It is true that one type of feminist analyzes is generally more likely to be associated with one historical context (the materialist approach 499 10.1Germanpunkfeministfestivals’genderpoliticsandsocialspace:betweenidentityandanti-identitypolitics goes for example well along with the early 1970s and their movements against capitalism) and therefore a generation of activists. Yet, the term “generation” might be more appropriate than “waves” because it allows us better to think in terms of practices, methodologies and analyzes passing down from generation to generation. I nonetheless disagree with Fourment when she concludes that contemporary feminist movements in Germany develop an “adapted materialist feminism” that also takes into account queer issues. I think that the blending is rooted as deep in both materialist feminism and queer movements and I thus prefer the expression “queer materialism” proposed by Sophie Noyé (2014), that clearly reflects both of the influences. Further investigations on that topic could also have led us exploring the claim and treatment of “intersectionality” or “intersectional feminism” within punk-feminist festivals. Intersectionality is a more third-wave-of-feminism kind of identity politics that not only takes into account gender issues but also class and race. Developed by Kimberley Crenshaw (1989), it recently appeared as a central notion of punk-feminist networks, despite these remaining particularly white and middle-class. References Anti-Corpos (2014). Mãe Solteira, In Contra-Ataque. Emancypunx Records. Barrière L. (2018). Incarner de nouvelles identités et développer une éducation sexuelle déviante : techniques du corps queer dans les festivals punk-féministes. En Marges!, 1. Retrieved from: https://enmarges.fr/2018/11/20/incarner-denouvelles-identites-et-developper-une-education-sexuelle-deviante-techniquesdu-corps-queer-dans-les-festivals-punk-feministes-louise-barriere/– Becker, H. S. (1982). Art Worlds. LA Berkeley: University of California Press. Bennett A. & Peterson R. A. (Eds) (2004). Music Scenes: Local, Translocal, Virtual. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. Butler J. (1990). Gender Trouble. Feminism and the subversion of identity. London & New York: Routledge. Butler J. (2004). Undoing Gender. London & New York: Routledge. Cogan B. (2007). ‘Do They Owe Us a Living? Of Course They Do!’ Crass, Throbbing Gristle, and Anarchy and Radicalism in Early English Punk Rock. Journal for the Study of Radicalism, 1(2), pp. 77-90. Cohen S. (1997). Men Making a Scene: Rock Music and the Production of Gender. In S. Whiteley (Ed.), Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender (pp.17-36). New York & London: Routledge. Crenshaw K. (1989). Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 140, 139-167. Dackweiler R. & Schäfer R. (1999). Lokal- national- international Frauenbewegungspolitik im Ruck- und Ausblick. In A. Klein; H.-J. Legrand & T. Leif (Eds.), Neue Sozial Bewegungen: Impulse, Bilanzen und Perspektiven. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag. Delphy C. (1995). The Invention of French Feminism: An Essential Move. Nouvelles Questions Féministes: FRANCE, AMÉRIQUE: Regards croisés sur le féminisme, 17(1), pp. 15-58. Downes J. (2012). The Expansion of Punk Rock: Riot Grrrl Challenges to Gender Power Relations in British Indie Music Subcultures. Women’s Studies, 41(2), pp. 204-237. Dunn K. & Farnsworth M. S. (2012). ‘We ARE the revolution’: Riot Grrrl Press, Girl Empowerment, and DIY Self-Publishing. Women’s studies, 41(2), pp. 136-157. Fourment E. (2017). Au-delà du conflit générationnel: la conciliation des approches matérialistes et queer dans le militantisme féministe de 500 Göttingen. Nouvelles Questions Féministes, 36(1), pp. 48-65. Guerra, P. (2015). Keep it rocking: The social space of Portuguese alternative rock (1980–2010). Journal of Sociology, 52(4), pp. 615-630. Guerra, P.; Gelain, G. & Moreira, T. (2017). Collants, correntes e batons: Género e diferença na cultura punk em Portugal e no Brasil. Lectora, 23(2), pp. 13-34. Griffin N. (2012), Gendered Performance Performing Gender in the DIY Punk and Hardcore Music Scene. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 13(2), pp. 66-81. Guillaumin C. (1995), Racism, Sexism, Power and Ideology. London & New York: Routledge. Jensen S. Q. (2006). Rethinking subcultural capital, Young, 14(3), pp. 257-276. Leonard M. (2007). Gender in the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power. Aldershot: Ashgate. Marcus S. (2010). Girls to the Front: The true story of the Riot Grrsls. New York: Harper Perennial Noyé S. (2014). Pour un féminisme matérialiste et queer. Contretemps. Retrieved from: https://www.contretemps.eu/pour-un-feminisme-materialiste-et-queer/ O’Shea S. (2014). The Art Worlds of Punk-Inspired Feminist Networks: A social Network analysis of the Ladyfest feminist music and cultural movement in the UK (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), University of Manchester (Faculty of Humanities – School of Social Sciences), Manchester. Ommert, A. (2016). Ladyfest-Aktivismus: Queer-feministische Kämpfe um Freiräume und Kategorien. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. Rosenberg J. & Garofalo G. (1998). Riot Grrrl : Revolutions from Within. Signs, 23(3), pp. 809-841. Rudy K. (2000). Queer Theory and Feminism. Women’s Studies, 29(2), pp. 195-216. Sedgwick E. K. (2003). Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham: Duke University Press. Sharp M. & Nilan P. (2015). Queer Punx: Young Women in the Newcastle Hardcore Space. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(4), pp. 451-467. Straw W. (2004). Cultural Scenes. Loisir et Société / Society and Leisure, 27(2), pp. 411-422. Thornton, S. (1995). Club cultures: Music, media and subcultural capital. London: Verso. Wald G. (1998). Just a Girl ? Rock music, feminism and the cultural construction of female youth. Signs, 23(3), pp. 585-610. Zobl E. (2005). Revolution Grrrl and Lady Style, Now!. Peace Review, 16(4), p. 4 501 10.2 The expression of diversity through art Emanuele Stochino 248 A b s t r a c t This paper will examine Marcia Tucker’s first three exhibitions which were held at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York during the 80’s. These exhibitions dealt with the themes of AIDS and gender in art in a way which was both organic and in-depth. Tucker was the first to present then-current social issues through art. These three exhibitions were: - 1982 “Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual Presence in Contemporary Art”, which was the first exhibition to consider the aesthetics of artists identifying themselves as Gay or Lesbian. 1984 “Difference: On Representation and Sexuality”, which focused on the subjective construction of language and the chauvinistic stereotyping which was at times resorted to by the Media when portraying sexuality. 1987 “Let the Record Show”, which concentrated on the highly sensitive issue of AIDS in a bid to sensibilize the public to its spread. The second part of this analysis, closely-linked to the first, is the format which Marcia Tucker employed for her exhibitions: 1) The exhibition itself; 2) Topic-specific lectures; 3) Films, live shows and musical performances inherent to a specific theme. Keywords: Exhibition, gender, Marcia Tucker. 248 Università degli Studi di Brescia. Brescia, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] 502 1. Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual presence in contemporary art This exhibition was organized by guest curator Daniel J. Cameron in 1982. As every year, Marcia Tucker wished to present an exhibition arranged by an individual from outside the museum establishment. Cameron was selected as the project which he submitted sparked lively debate among Tucker’s staff due to the theme the curator decided upon. As Tucker observed: It is the first museum exhibition in the United States to address an important question: in what way and to what extent has some of the most interesting contemporary art addressed and reflected the concerns of the homosexual community, which has substantially increased its visibility in the past few years. (Marcia Tucker, 1986, IV) In the introduction to the exhibition catalogue, Cameron laid down his personal vision and three differing forms of “Homosexual Content”: 1) Homosexual Subject Matter; 2) Ghetto Content; 3) Sensibility Content. 1.1. Homosexual Subject Matter According to Cameron, in the early 1980’s, the creators of mass-produced goods targeted specifically the heterosexual consumer while at the same time attempting to endow their products with features which would appeal to other typologies of consumer. For what concerned the Art World, the gender of art exhibition visitors and those who bought artworks bore no relevance. Given that the sexual identity of those who visited art exhibitions and those who purchased artworks was of no relevance to the artist, Cameron deduced that mass producers should not consider the gender of their consumers. 1.2. Ghetto content Cameron believed that the fulcrum of this categorization was once again the consumer but with the difference that both the producer/artist and the consumer/public were homosexual. “Ghetto Content” implies mass produced goods and fine art works targeted at social minorities. Ghetto Content can be been seen in art, the Media and in goods produced by homosexuals for Gay and Lesbian consumers and Gay and Lesbian members of the art public. Ghetto Content was produced and marketed by homosexuals for homosexuals and products were recognizably homosexual. According to Cameron, the Gay and Lesbian community in that period did not accept that goods of this nature were sold to make profit. Even though Ghetto Content often failed commercially, a lot of artistic production, in particular published material which was not marketed with the aim of making a profit, did enjoy great success. 1.3. Sensibility content The third category, “Sensibility Content”, was conceived as the sum of the previous two approaches. The concept of “Sensibility” was characterized by its not having a specific public and by its being born from personal sensibility and academic study, from the experiences of an artist inherent to the idea of 503 homosexuality seen as a concept. Knowledge of the concept did not imply sexual orientation; without being explicit, artists manipulated images and material to create a concrete representation of the concept of gender using homosexual overtones. Cameron believed that the importance of this theoretical passage towards “Sensibility Content” represented a key turning point in the introduction of thematics linked to the Gay and Lesbian world; this was due to the fact that artistic works, often produced by heterosexual artists, did not make direct reference to the homosexual community yet suggested a representation of sensibility regarding the theme of gender. Within this category one may include the female portraits by Romaine Brooks (1874-1970) and the photographs of George Platt (1907-1955). 2. Difference: On representation and sexuality This exhibition was handled by the guest curator Kate Linker and by two cocurators who dealt with the choice of film projections shown at the film forum set up alongside the exhibition. Speaking about the “Difference: On Representation and Sexuality”, Marcia Tucker said: The point of view of this exhibition is specific, since gender itself is not the subject of the show; it is instead an intellectual as well as visual exploration of how gender distorts ‘reality’, as seen through the work of thirty-one artists, both male and female (Marcia Tucker, 1984, p. 4). This reality is the fruit of artistic thinking and so it is a subjective way to look upon a determined reality. The aim of this exhibition is to highlight how every artist interprets reality through bias, that which Marcia Tucker in her introduction in the exhibition catalogue defines as “a visual exploration of how gender distorts reality”. Tucker believed that what an artist experienced moulded his sensibility towards certain thematic, opinions and points of view and these biases or cognitive distortions were to form the basis of this exhibition. Making reference to Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, the modalities employed in the analysis of these biases were principally psychoanalytical. 2.1. Sexuality: culture vs biological ‘truth’ In the exhibition catalogue, the curator Kate Linker wrote: Over the past ten years, a significant body of work has explored a complex terrain triangulated by the terms sexuality, meaning, and language. In literature, the visual arts, criticism, and ideological analysis, attention has focused on sexuality as a cultural construction, opposing a perspective based on a natural or biological ‘truth’. This exhibition charts this territory in the visual arts. Its thesis; the continuous production of sexual difference offers possibilities for change, for it suggests that this need not entail reproduction, but rather revision of our conventional categories of opposition (Kate Linker, 1984, p. 5). The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan was pivotal in the formation of this. Lacan sustained that an individual is never an isolated being but is one who relates to 10.2 The expression of diversity through art 504 the social context which surrounds him in particular to cultural formations of patriarchy. In Lacan’s vision, awareness of how gender incorporates a series of social rules in a child is implicit. (Lacan, 1977) Craig Owens, who handled the section of the exhibition catalogue entitled “Posing”, put forward this idea: In contemporary art and contemporary theory are rich in parody (…), dissimulation (…) that is, in strategies of mimetic rivalry. The mimic appropriates official discourse-the discourse of the Other-but in such a way that its authority, its power to function as a model, is cast into doubt. Perhaps because of our culture’s long-standing identification of femininity with masquerade-as Barbara Kruger proposes in an often-quoted statement, ‘We loiter outside of trade and speech and are obliged to steal language. We are very good mimics. We replicate certain words and pictures and watch them stray from or coincide with your notions of fact and fiction (Craig Owens, 1984, p. 7). Taking as an example the works of artists such as Barbara Kruger, Victor Burgin and Mary Kelly, sexuality is considered as a pose. The term “pose” is used not with its most common meaning of “posture”, but is used to indicate “imposture”. According to the aforementioned artists, posing in art is an imposition; it reflects a sexuality imposed upon an individual by social norms. The artists present at the exhibition committed themselves to “codifying, decodifying, recodifying” images inherent to the concept of sexual representation. For instance, the works of Barbara Kruger tackle the transformation of action into gesture; works which deconstruct “pose” through images which recall well-known and shared meanings (codifying) and the texts which appeared in her work. By decodifying both the iconic and written messages, the person observing the work perceives the artist’s message which is a deconstruction of the original iconic message by means of the text which she added. 2.2. The two theoretical approaches to posture: social and psychoanalytical • With regards to concept of posing, critics of the early 1980’s were of two differing points of view: • The Social Approach: this can be defined as a tendency to see “posing” as the result of surveillance by Government Agencies. Homi Bhabha said: “The process by which the look of surveillance returns as the displacing gaze of the disciplined, where the observer becomes the observed” (Homi Bhabha, 1984). This approach considers posing as a defensive manoeuvre against the increasing penetration of the public into the private sphere. The Psychoanalytical Approach: this approach aims to tackle the question of “posing” from the psychoanalytical angle, that is, considering “wish” which was neglected by the social approach. 505 2.3. Victor Burgin ‘Zoo 78’ In Victor Burgin’s work, “Zoo 78”, a work made up of 16 images, the social and psychoanalytical overlap. In one of the “Zoo 78” images Burgin juxtaposes a photograph of a naked model posing during a peep show and a passage from “Discipline and Punishment” by Michel Foucault. The text describes an architectonic plan of the Panopticon by Jeremy Benthos. In the 1700’s, the Panopticon was considered as the architectural epitome of a prison and later, as a metaphor to express the concept of surveillance in contemporary society: The plan is circular: at the periphery, an annular building; at the centre, a tower; this tower is pierced with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring; the peripheric building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole width of the building; they have two windows, one on the inside, corresponding to the windows of the tower; the other, on the outside, allows the light to cross the cell from one end to the other. All that is needed then, is to place a supervisor in a central tower (…). By the effect of backlighting, one can observe from the tower, standing out precisely against the light, the small captive shadows in the cells of the periphery. They are like so many cages, so many small theatres, in which each actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible (Michel Foucault, 1995, p. 200). 2.4. Mary Kelly’s ‘Post-Partum’ (1972-1979) Mary Kelly was one of the most representative artists of the feminist movement and feminist thinking of the times. Through her work “PostPartum”, Kelly succeeded in gathering together many themes held dear by other female artists present at exhibition: The Post-Partum Document is located within the theoretical and political practice of the women’s movement, a practice which foregrounds the issues of subjectivity and ideological oppression. More specifically, the Document is identified with the tendency that bases the notion of ideological oppression on a psychoanalytic theory of subjectivity, that is, the unconscious. The ideological refers not only to systems of representation but also to a non unitary complex of social practices which have political consequences. Moreover, these consequences are not given as the direct effect of the means of signification employed in a practice. They depend on a political analysis of what is signified. (Kelly Linker, 1977, p. 11) Developed between 1972 and 1979, “Post-Partum” takes inspiration from daily life and depicts various objects taken from the everyday life of her son: 10.2 The expression of diversity through art 506 clothes, his scribblings and nappies. For a long period, the work was reputed as an outstanding artistic work on the subject of motherhood. The attention paid by the artist to the psychoanalytical and documentative aspect allows one to discover the mutable nature of the mother-child relationship, varying between the objective and the subjective. Kelly’s vision of the subdivision of society is expressed from a psychoanalytical standpoint: In patriarchy, the phallus becomes the privileged signifier of this symbolic dimension. Although the subject is constituted in a relation of ‘lack’ at the moment of his/her entry into language, it is possible to speak specifically of the woman’s ‘negative place’ in the general process of significations or social practices that reproduce patriarchal relations within a given social formation. (Kelly Linker, 1977, p. 12) With childbirth, the artist sees the negative collocation of women; not having the male genital organ, they reproduce in their relationship with their child a compensation between what they lack physically and the figure of the child itself, the child assuming the position of the natural lack of a phallus. This imaginary substitution is lived, both at the level of ideology and social practice as a castration which relegates women, due to only their having the natural capacity to bear children, to childcare. This gives rise to the conception of the sexual subdivision of differing typologies of work carried out by women and men. Kelly makes reference to the reflection of Freud in “The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex,” according to which women can symbolize their recognition of lack (castration). As Freud said: “in a sense she has the phallus. So the loss of the child is the loss of that symbolic plenitude more exactly, the ability to represent lack” (Kelly Linker, 1985, p. 9). 3. Let the record show In 1987, within The Window Series exhibitions which the New Museum dedicated to installations dealing with social and political issues of the times, the external curator William Olander organized “Let the Record Show”. Olander brought in activists from the Coalition to Unleash Power ACT UP to create an installation inherent to the issue of AIDS. During the 1980’s, New York bore witness to the deaths of approximately 75,000 people owing to this disease, accounting for almost 20% of those Americans dying from AIDS (New York Times, 2001).The installation created by the ACT UP activists was entitled “SILENCE=DEATH”. 3.1. ‘SILENCE=DEATH’ Accompanying these words, sited on a black background, was a pink triangle-the symbol of homosexual persecution during the Nazi period and, since the 1960s, the emblem of gay liberation (…). Finally, the installation is more pointedly directed to those national figures who have used the AIDS epidemic to promote their own political or religious 507 10.2 The expression of diversity through art agendas. It is intended to serve as a reminder that their actions or inactions will soon be a matter of historical record. In discussions about this project, inevitably the question, ‘But is it art?’ arises. Though my own response is, ‘not that again, it’s a question that can be put to positive effect. That is, throughout history, all periods of intense crisis have inspired works of art whose functions were often extra-artistic (William Olander, 1987, p. 1). The title of the installation, “SILENCE=DEATH”, was a provocation towards State and Federal Healthcare Institutions as well as other public figures who, according to ACT UP249, in an attempt to meet their own interests, were those responsible for the institutional silence and manipulation shown in the face of AIDS. The installation was exhibited in the main museum window located at street-level. This was done so that passers-by would interpret the work as a public demonstration. The neon installation consisted a pink triangle with SILENCE=DEATH written below it. The installation backdrop of was a gigantic photograph taken during the Nuremberg War Trials along the bottom of which the photographs of the faces of six individuals250 who ACT UP reputed irresponsible in their treatment of AIDS were positioned. 4. Format employed by Marcia Tucker for her exhibitions In 1977 Marcia Tucker founded the New Museum as she reputed: Tucker focused her museum’s mission on the promotion of lesser known artists and work being done outside the artistic mainstream, on the margins and edges of the art world. She wanted to explore interdisciplinary and community-based projects. She felt that involving artists in the way the museum functioned was a critical component of working with living artists on the cutting edge of contemporary art (Cyndy Coon, 2010, p. 42). 249 “ACT UP is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis.” (http://www.actupny.org) 250 Jerry Falwell, televangelist— “AIDS is God’s judgment of a society that does not live by His rules”. William F. Buckley, columnist— “Everyone detected with AIDS should be tattooed in the upper forearm, to protect common needle users, and on the buttocks to In 1979, the New Museum inaugurated its The Window Series. Artists were invited to exhibit their installations in the museum’s street-level windows. These artworks were linked to then-current social issues and given that they were positioned at pavement-level, they could be seen by large numbers of people as they walked past. This allowed for the amplification of reflection on the themes inspiring the works which at times were neglected and went unpublicized. During the 1980’s, the museum began a series of monographic exhibitions to show the works of up-and-coming artists handling social and political themes. Exhibitions of this genre led to the museum’s achieving fame for cultural debate and post-modern criticism. I would like to emphasize again that dealing with contemporary art requires a different kind of inquiry prevent the victimization of other homosexuals”. Jesse Helms, US Senator— “The logical outcome of testing is a quarantine of those infected”. Cory SerVaas, Presidential AIDS Commission— “It is patriotic to have the AIDS test and be negative.” Anonymous surgeon— “We used to hate faggots on an emotional basis. Now we have a good reason”. The sixth accused is President Ronald Reagan, and before him is placed a blank slab of concrete, referencing his notorious seven-year public silence on the epidemic” (Robert Sember, David Gere, 2006). 508 and practice than traditional art history does. Moreover, the criteria of uniqueness, authenticity, or originality were dismantled by postmodernist theory, and to continue applying them to works of art in general – contemporary or historical – no longer holds water. Thus an inquiry based on a multidisciplinary and nuanced set of critical ideas could provide access and understanding for very difficult works of art we dealt with in the Museum (Marcia Tucker, 2006, p. 116). In the very same period, the New Museum published the first book in its series entitled Documentary Sources In Contemporary Art. In 1980, the museum undertook its High School Art Program (HSAP), which was an initiative to have problematic adolescents involved in formation programs at the museum. This program, which was one of the first programs of its type in the United States, was characterized by its interdisciplinary and intercultural methods which were employed so that youngsters would gain awareness of the socio-cultural questions surrounding them in their daily lives. I tried to show the close relationship between contemporary artistic practices and popular culture. Besides works of fine art, the exhibition included music, television, cartoons and comic books, and the work of local school children. This was certainly not a unique curatorial experiment for me because many other shows I did at the New Museum also focused on removing the barriers between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture or ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ art, as well as the isolation of art from quotidian life (Marcia Tucker, 2006, p. 116). As well as through the exhibitions themselves, these events involved the public by means of a series of debates built around the exhibitions’ central themes. Debates, which sometimes included film projections, were conceived as open dialogues between academics or social representatives and the general public, all of whom had the opportunity to put questions and voice personal opinions. 5. Conclusions During the 1980’s, the Gay and Lesbian community underlined its request to be recognized not as a minority but as an integral part of civil society. Marcia Tucker’s New Museum was the first to take on board what was then such a complex and controversial issue. This was not done by chance; Tucker had conceived her museum as an exhibition space for artists handling social and political themes of the times. The artists whose works were exhibited participated in public debates inherent to the theme of their works and publications, such as Documentary Sources In Contemporary Art, ensued. With time, the New Museum acquired both relevance and reputation; it was as a museum worthy of the trust of artists, feminists and other minority social groups. 509 Owing to this consensus, eminent main-players from the world of culture and civil society took part in museum debates in ever growing numbers. Very often, themes were dealt with either in a way which was psychoanalytical, making reference to authors such as Freud a Lacan, or in a way which was sociological, with reference to authors such as Foucault and Derrida. The Difference: On Representation and Sexuality exhibition is a perfect example as besides there being the exhibition curator who was in charge of organizing debates, there were also two curators who were responsible for film projections which were held in a nearby theatre. The artists who participated in this exhibition made use of both psychoanalytical literature, as can be seen in Mary Kelly’s “Post-Partum”, and a sum of the socio-psychoanalytical vision, visible for example, in Victor Burgin’s “Zoo 78”. Marcia Tucker was able to unite both popular with intellectual demand and she was also able to establish one of the first educational projects for youngsters within a museum. Tucker’s museum space redefined itself according to the type of public it attracted at any given time. Her museum space did not serve just one single purpose; it adapted itself to the demands of visitors who attributed it with varying valence according to their necessities. This was rendered possible thanks also to Tucker’s belief that an exhibition visitor should not be present merely to obtain information, but should be active rather than passive. References Barbara, K. (1982). Statement for Documenta VII Catalogue. Kassel. Bentham, J. (2017). Panopticon: The Inspection House. London: createspace independent publishing platform. Burgin, V. (1982). Photography, phantasy, function. London: Macmillian Publisher Limited. Cameron, J., C. (1982). Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual presence in contemporary art. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art. Coon, C. (2010). Nerve Endings: Betty Parsons, Marcia Tucker, and Aanna Heiss (Unpublished master’s thesis), Skidmore College, Saratoga, New York. Burgin, V. (1980). US 77/Zoo 78. Cameron, J., C. (1982). Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual presence in contemporary art. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art. Derrida, J. (1979). Living On: Border Lines. In H. Bloom et al, Deconstruction and criticism (pp. 75-126). New York: Sebury Press. Freud, S.(1962). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. London: Hogarth Press. Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and punish. The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Book. Lacan, J, (1977). The Mirror-Stage as formative of the i as revealed in psychoanalytic experience. In Écrits: A Selection. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Linker, K. (1977). Psychoanalysis and feminism. Control Magazine, 10, pp. 10–12. Linker, K. (1984). Difference: On representation and sexuality. New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art. Olander, W. (1987). The Window on Brodway by ACT UP. On Viev at New Museum, p. 1. Owens, C. (1984). In K. Linker, Difference: On representation and sexuality (p. 7). New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art. Pachmanová, M. (2006). Feminism, history and visuality feminism, history and visuality. London: KT press. 10.2 The expression of diversity through art 510 Steinhauer, J. (2001). A New York Vastly Altered by AIDS. New York Times. Retrived from: https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/04/nyregion/a-new-york-vastly-altered-by-aids.html Tucker, M. (1986). In D. J. Cameron, Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual presence in contemporary art (p. IV). New York: The New Museum. Tucker, M. (1984). In K. Linker, Difference: On representation and sexuality (p. 4). New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art. Tucker, M. (2010). In C. Coon, Nerve Endings: Betty Parsons, Marcia Tucker, and Aanna Heiss (Unpublished master’s thesis), Skidmore College, Saratoga, New York. 511 10.3 Contemporary patriarchy: Discussing gender in a creative process Andrea Copeliovitch 251 and Thaiana Rodrigues da Silva 252 A b s t r a c t This work addresses conditions for women through a scenic creative process called “Ithaca revisited”. “Ithaca revisited” is a theatrical work-in-progress based on an episode in the Odyssey where Ulysses returns to Ithaca, but it is told from Penelope’s point of view. If Homer showed Penelope as the abandoned female, here we meet her anger and resentfulness. “Ithaca revisited” invites other powerful, vengeful women to share the stage with Penelope: Fausto Fawcett’s Katia Flavia and Oscar Wilde’s Salome. We question the idea of Ulysses being a hero in comparison to Penelope from a contemporary viewpoint, bringing up a feminist discussion of claiming space and rights, especially for women. Do we read in the Odyssey that a woman should passively wait for her man? Is he her saviour, the great hero? What is a hero? In which ways does this story, among others, reinforce the existing patriarchy in our society and the lack of female solidarity that often legitimizes male abuse and irrational female actions? Keywords: Gender, creative process, Greek mythology, powerful women. 251 Fluminense Federal University - Department of Arts. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]. 252 State University of Rio de Janeiro- Department of Sociology. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 512 1. Overview Ithaca Revisited is a performance created by Andrea Copeliovitch, based on Oscar Wilde’s play “Salome” and in Fausto Fawcett’s song, “Kátia Flávia, Godiva do Irajá”, to present the myth of Penelope. The myth shows the world not as a unique possibility, the Greeks understood the world through the myth. Acording to JAA Torrano: Mythos is one of many words that the language of Homer and Hesiod has to designate the act of speech. In this vocabular richness, myth corresponded to the astonishing accuracy with which the man in the great time of the world perceives and realizes the various nuances of concreteness and plurality, a sense of reality is discovered, whose privileged mode of knowledge is the instantaneous intuition of the totalizing sense of being in beings immediately given in each case (Torrano, 1996, p. 25). There are so many questions involving the inexplicable, the mystery; the myth may be an interpretation of a light on the mystery, or perhaps it is the reality that allows us to glimpse a light on the mystery, or perhaps it is still the mystery itself imposing upon our daily interpretation of reality. Our tendency is to have a unilateral and reductionist interpretation of the world, the myth, poetry, art allow us to open our minds to the possibilities Life presents. Language or speech is not direct and clear, because life is not direct nor clear, a day is composed by night, and truth is composed by mystery. If we are too affirmative, we generate prejudice: there is no exception in affirmative thought nor in direct speech. Poetical language allows us to think in different directions at the same time, accepting different views of a world we have been interpreting through language. Narrating the world through myth presents life and its innumerous possibilities, so here we go back to Penelope´s myth to try to present different possibilities of interpretation. 2. Kátia Flávia The song, composed in 1987 by Fausto Fawcett and Carlos Laufer, was the first inspiration for this work. It tells the story of a woman that kills her husband, someone important in contravention world and runs away in a stolen police car. She sends a radio from the car: “Hello, police, I am wearing an Exocet: panties!” (Extract from the lyrics by Fausto Fawcett). According to the zine, GauchaZH, the song was released in a moment when Brazil got rid of a “suffocating Dictatorship” (GauchaZH, 2018). The song, a partnership between Fawcett and bass player Carlos Laufer, was launched in times of political openness, a time when the country freed itself from the suffocating censorship of the military dictatorship. Turning on the TV and seeing some talk about sex, as well as having erotic magazines in newsstands, began to become something common. At the same time, the press reported wars dealing with missiles, fighter planes and other armaments almost as protagonists of the conflicts. With a watchful eye to this process and facing journalism as a contemporary mythology, Fawcett mixes these and 513 10.3 Contemporary patriarchy: Discussing gender in a creative process other elements in Kátia Flávia. The song ended up becoming a good chronicle about the moment the country was crossing. Kátia Flávia is free, she rides a motorcycle naked, like a contemporary Godiva, from Irajá, that is in Rio de Janeiro’s suburb. Irajá until the sixteenth century was occupied by the Tupinambás Indians. In the Tupi-Guarani language, Irajá, comes from the term “yra-Tá”, meaning “land where honey sprouts”. It was originally a place where sugar cane was cultivated, being its sweetness was compared to honey, which was one of the justifications given to the name of the neighbourhood. Today it is a suburb neighbourhood, cut by one of Rio de Janeiro’s main avenue, Avenida Brasil, which was even a soap opera’s theme. The highway gives access to the Amarelinho community. There is a sign in the entrance: “it’s forbidden to use marijuana, cocaine too.” The Blondie Beelzebub, one of the nicknames Fawcett calls Katia Flavia in the song, has appeared in a political moment in which the Brazilian economy was chaotic, inflation level was extremely high. There was a movement called “the painted faces”, in which students and members of the organized civil society went to the streets to claim for re-democratization and for the end of military dictatorship. The so called “Citizen Constitution” appears in 1988 with the guarantee of equality of all citizens, in article 5, Incise I: “men and women are equal in rights and obligations” We ask ourselves whether this political period did provoke the freedom of the feminine role in Kátia Flávia... At the same time Katia Flavia might point a liberation from a suffocating censorship, she also points for a women’s liberation, she gets rid of her husband and provokes the police with the comparison between an Exocet and panties. In our imaginary, the police are mainly a masculine force (we are not excluding the existence of police women), and she claims her female underwear to be this hugely powerful weapon, and it is not in an erotic sense. She has just killed her husband, the masculine force and she is free, she runs away, she shows a wild power that resides in ancient femininity (Estés, 1994). The search for that powerful and wild femininity was the starting point for this dramaturgical construction. Katia Flavia is also a “malandra” (malandra indicates feminine gender whereas malandro indicates male gender), a world that comes from the French term “malin”, someone that is a little malicious, that comes from the underworld, and that makes her living by taking advantage of the situations, of others; also she will not be monogamous neither honest about this. There is some kind of liberation in being a Malandra, it is also in Brazilian imaginary. Malandros are amoral heroes, recognized in the world of art, for instances the antihero, “Macunaíma”, title of the play written by Oswald de Andrade in 1928; and long before there were the servants in Commedia Dell´Arte who were Malandros, tricky and luxurious. The powerful Malandra Katia Flavia here might be seem as a Candomblé entity, a Pomba Gira. 3. Pomba gira Pomba gira is a very popular character in Brazilian culture. It arises through the religious practice Candomblé, which originates the Afro-Brazilian religions. This entity is an important reference in Brazilian culture, which is associated with a woman who would have been a prostitute or courtesan. She is also associated with a person with low moral principles, being able to dominate 514 men for their sexual prowess, associated with being a lover of luxury, money and all sorts of pleasures. Candomblé is a polytheist afro-religion, the gods are called Orixas, and those entities called Exus and Pomba giras could be compared to Mercury in Greek mythology. They intermediate the communication between realms, in a way that they are able to grant earth desires, usually related to sexuality. This entity is sought by believers with amorous problems and related to sexuality, they bring the desired person or make the believer become a more desirable person; they can also grant punishment to a rival or material wealth. Exu is the male entity and Pomba gira is the female Exu. In some Brazilian Candomblé houses those entities incorporate (in more traditional houses those entities are cultivated without incorporation). There are written thesis about this entity, which associate it with the goddess Lilith, of Sumerian mythology. There are also associations with Maria Padilha de Castilla, a Spanish queen with Gypsy origins. In summary, this mythical character is claiming the feminine place and the woman’s right to sexual freedom, the same freedom that masculine gender have lived for many generations. However, control by the female gender is exercised and re-signified in different forms in Brazilian society. The thought of Simone de Beauvoir that argument about the following axiom “One is not born but rather becomes a woman” (Beauvoir, 1949), will reflect the challenge of living within this genre in different generations. Beauvoir subverts the myth of the nice girl opposed to the naughty one. Our performance shows Penelope´s naughty side. Penelope loses her role as a perfect woman model in order to incorporate a Pomba gira. Exu and Pomba gira are entities that talk when incorporated, so in “Ithaka Revisited”, Katia Flavia is a Pomba gira as well as the narrator of the story. As an opposition to the woman who is patiently waiting for her man. The performance aims to show Penelope´s anger towards this man, Ulysses that had her wait for so many years while living such an adventurous life, then he returns as if he still had rights over the land and the woman, so he kills her suiters. How should this be an act of heroism? We dare to judge this act as an act of barbarian. 4. Penelope The feminine place of submission can be observed in the myth of Penelope. The mythical heroine who had in her character and conduct her greatest virtue, rather than her beauty. The Odyssey was written by Homer in the VIII century B.C., and we can see how the patriarchal system works: as a daughter, Penelope is a property of her father, Icarious, and becomes a property of her husband, Ulysses. Penelope’s father made a competition to marry his daughter but did not want to give her to the winner, for he did not want to separate from her. Ulysses left the decision in charge of Penelope, who followed her husband. The one that a year later departed to fight in the Trojan War. During the period that Ulysses was in the war, which was not a short time, Icarius proposed to remarry her, for there was no information if Ulysses still remained alive. However, Penelope was devoted to her “love”, or to the moral role defined by society as being a woman. Penelope to circumvent the masculine desires, who insisted on becoming her husband, used countless artifices, among them to weave a canvas for 515 10.3 Contemporary patriarchy: Discussing gender in a creative process funerary canopy for Laertes, father of her husband. She would weave during the day, in the eyes of society, and unfold the tapestry at night, transforming this unending task and remaining in devotion to her love of Ulysses. 5. Ithaka revisited This artistic construction proposes to reflect on the myths as a cultural construct of our machismo or the patriarchal system. The scene allows us to break and resignify this place of feminine submission pointing out other interpretive possibilities. We can think of Salome, “Young one”, who seduces her stepfather as a subversion of the possibility of sexual abuse or harassment. As a stepfather he should orient her formation as an ethical construction of the feminine being by not allowing this aspect of incestuous seduction. She dances for a deadly seduction, he accepts the conditions of the game. The mother incidentally represses her daughter, but in understanding the vengefulness purpose of this seduction supports and stimulates the decapitation of the bet, John the Baptist. What is the meaning of an incestuous and abusive relationship between stepdaughter and stepfather in a patriarchal and traditional society? Oscar Wilde subverts this practice by empowering young Salome, who instead of abused becomes abusive. The Pomba gira rescues Penelope from her position of submissive woman towards another morality, towards a release not only of the woman but of the female power, in dialogue with the current moment of expansion and assurance of women’s rights, where the seductive woman is no more to be seen as a possible provocative of a rape or as an amoral being in a society like the Brazilian, in which 13 women are murdered per day, which represents almost a woman being murdered every 2 hours (Ipea, 2018). The most common site is the victim’s residences as points (Ipea, 2018). In this way, the discourse of guilty of the victim woman is still heard, her form of dressing that is seen as seductive, possible attitudes such as conjugal betrayal that in our Brazilian society is often seen as a plausible cause for a Murder, even by law, empowering the feminine is a priority; not to judge the feminine seductive aspect is something we should aim. The seduction of the feminine used as a weapon (Exocet) puts the moral of the Patriarchate at stake. 6. The play The Pomba gira Narrator: When Ulysses gets back to the Ithaca after long years at sea, after countless adventures, he finds his palace surrounded by bearded men, trying to usurp his throne, steal his money, fuck his wife... Taken with Fury, Ulysses draws his sword... Penelope, the abandoned wife, who was weaving upstairs hears this noise, she descends the stairs and finds her hall bathed with blood, her suitor’s degolated, her furniture Ruined, and she is taken by Fury. 516 She invokes the Pomba gira: Laroiê! The first Pomba gira coming is me: Katia Flavia, Big Blond Beelzebub, Godiva Of Irajá. I have killed a contravention bigshot: My husband and I ran away in a police car, Ha, Ha, Ha. The second Pomba gira is Salome, mini slut from Judea; she shook her ass in the face of his stepfather, Herod, in exchange for the head of the Apostle John, the Baptist, also known as Iokanaan. Salome (original text by Oscar Wilde): “But, wherefore dost thou not look at me, Iokanaan? Thine eyes that were so terrible, so full of rage and scorn, are shut now. Wherefore are they shut? Open thine eyes! Lift up thine eyelids, Iokanaan! Wherefore dost thou not look at me? Art thou afraid of me, Iokanaan, that thou wilt not look at me?... And thy tongue, that was like a red snake darting poison, it moves no more, it says nothing now, Iokanaan, that scarlet viper that spat its venom upon me. It is strange, is it not? How is it that the red viper stirs no longer?... Thou wouldst have none of me, Iokanaan. Thou didst reject me. Thou didst speak evil words against me. Thou didst treat me as a harlot, as a wanton, me, Salomé, daughter of Herodias, Princess of Judæa! Well, Iokanaan, I still live, but thou, thou art dead, and thy head belongs to me. I can do with it what I will. I can throw it to the dogs and to the birds of the air. That which the dogs leave, the birds of the air shall devour.... Ah, Iokanaan, Iokanaan, thou wert the only man that I have loved. All other men are hateful to me. But thou, thou wert beautiful! Thy body was a column of ivory set on a silver socket. It was a garden full of doves and of silver lilies. It was a tower of silver decked with shields of ivory. There was nothing in the world so white as thy body. There was nothing in the world so black as thy hair. In the whole world there was nothing so red as thy mouth. (..) Ah! Wherefore didst thou not look at me, Iokanaan? (…) 517 10.3 Contemporary patriarchy: Discussing gender in a creative process If thou hadst seen me thou wouldst have loved me. (…) I was a princess, and thou didst scorn me. I was a virgin, and thou didst take my virginity from me. I was chaste, and thou didst fill my veins with fire.... Ah! ah! Wherefore didst thou not look at me, Iokanaan? If thou hadst looked at me thou hadst loved me. Well I know that thou wouldst have loved me, and the mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death. Love only should one consider.” KÁTIA FLÁVIA: Penelope looks at Ulysses. His body is old, it’s like a plaster wall where the Snakes have passed, it’s like a plaster wall where The Scorpions made their nest. His hair is hideous, it is covered with mud and dust. It would be said that a crown of Thorns was inn over his face. Shh…. Salome will kiss the Mouth of Yohan the Baptist: Salome sings The first time ever I saw your face253: The first time ever I kissed your mouth, I felt the earth shake in my hand, like the trembling heart of a captive bird, that was there at my command, my love. SALOME: I Kissed Your Mouth, Iokanaan! KÁTIA: Penelope also Kisses the mouth of Ulysses. His lips have a bitter taste. Is this the taste of Love? ANDREA: Some say love has a bitter taste. References Belzebu, L. (2015, February 18). Leia a letra comentada de “Katia Flavia”. Gauchazh. Retrieved from: https://gauchazh.clicrbs.com.br/cultura-e-lazer/ noticia/2015/02/leia-a-letra-comentada-de-katia-flavia-4701931.html Cerqueira et al. (2018). ATLAS da Violência, 2018. Brasília: Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (Ipea). de Beauvoir, S, (1949). Le deuxième sexe. Vol 2. Paris: Gallimard. de Beauvoir, S. (1949). Le deuxième sexe. Vol. 1. Paris: Gallimard. Estés, C. P. (1994). Mulheres que correm com os lobos. Rio de Janeiro: Roco. Prandi, R. (1996). Herdeiras do Axé. São Paulo: Hucitec. Wilde, O. (2011). Salome. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. 253 Song written by Ewan MacColl in 1957. 518 10.4. Punk’s not Dead, towards forensics of iconography: Transgression and resistance in intersecting countercultures’ identities Lynn Osman 254 A b s t r a c t The research examines the role of iconography, visual, performance and sound, as means or resistance and transgression. Control, coercion, manipulation as means of power to maintain hegemony, to fabricate political, cultural or social truths, have been subverted historically through subcultures. I aim to deconstruct layers, through studying the mechanism of representation of specific subcultures. The paper focuses first on transgression in the formation of Punk subculture, and by comparing and juxtaposing it to Christianity at its advent, as subculture, to study the role of iconography, through mutual associations. The constant mutation of visual representation as means of subversion, historically, to claim or to reclaim agency or voice, towards a dominant mainstream culture, which was relatively local concerning Punk subculture, will lead me then to examine contemporary issues in gender and resistance, in other forms of play in visual iconography, in representation within the “Other”, where different identities intersect: gender, political resistance, black identity, and heroism. Moving from more local forms of transgressions, from the underground Punk, towards more global or ‘postcolonial’ issues, the paper moves into more hybrid case studies, to study visual iconography and transgression; from Laila Khaled, Palestinian militant, her rejection of the idealization of her image into a female icon, as form of resistance towards media representation of heroism and terrorism. Jean Genet’s hybrid identity, subversion of the notion of iconography by idealizing “anti-heroes” in his works, the dual struggle in gender as a homosexual and politics, and writing and activism as forms of resistance. The last case is Mohammad Ali, boxer, and the role of performance in “black resistance”, and heroism. By examining the different representation means of different cases of the “other”, and their mutation, I aim to question the continuity of resistance, and the role of subculture in claiming territory and agency in cultural production, Punk’s role today, and its immediacy and territory, to raise questions about the most powerful tools of active, peaceful resistance. Keywords: Underground subcultures, identity boundaries, historical comparison, iconography. 254 Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, Beirut, Lebanon. 519 10.4.Punk’snotDead,towardsforensicsoficonography:Transgressionandresistanceinintersectingcounter-cultures’identities 1. Introduction 255 The research proposes a perspective on the limits of historically framing punk subculture, through a comparative study between punk subculture and Christianity at its advent, two variably iconographic and iconoclastic subcultures distant in time, that have yet transgressed towards their histories as underground subcultures. The research suggests a deconstruction and reconfiguration of historical frameworks, a comparison through association and overlapping of the intersecting layers of both, to raise questions about borders’ definition, and visual production of meaning, and to break the linear historical narrative, and binary comparison methods of historical layers. The overlapping and juxtaposition of fragments of history, subculture theory, reception and interpretation of the selected material, and the method of interpretation breaches canonical and theoretical frameworks, as an analogy of punk gesture that cuts through reality and preexisting constructs, and unfolds questions, subversions, draws openings of texts, collages, cutting and pasting reality into ransom note writing of new meanings and perspectives, disrupting the boundaries and labels upon which subculture theory is constructed. The method of analysis is similar to a punk subversion, a writing breaching and operating on preexisting texts (as representation), iconography, and fragments of historical narratives, and perceived reality. The proposed method is a catalyst to explore the grey zone that emerges through the distance and transition from linearity and binary methods, and through the rupture into transgression. Departing from the premises that subculture productions are texts, we deconstruct the notion of difference by proximity, crossing the borders of subculture definition. This dialogue proposes that ‘punk subculture’ surpasses then its initial framework, and is redefined outside its initial history and boundaries through an alternative reading across the visual production, iconography (visual and sonic), performance, footage, rituals, sound, and space. Elements of both countercultures echo each other, and intersect; I will approach the layers of transgression, underground space, iconoclastic gestures and destruction, ritual resistance, anti-establishment, text and signs as catalysts of social change, iconographic formation, catharsis, darkness and light, flesh, violence, prophecy of the iconography, the hero and anti-hero central figures, subversion, binary oppositions, heresy of faith, the linearity of history and No Future, sacrifice, the body, codification, the ‘Other’ and the mainstream. The paper will then examine contemporary issues of gender, identities and transgression, in the contemporary Palestinian cause specifically, taking case studies of iconography and resistance, in the formation of ‘other’ identities. 255 Note from the Author: All the figures are from my zine’s pages (The Gospel According to Lucifer, 2013) based on my research, and is at Marguerite Duras Public Library Fanzines! And Tokyo Art Book Fair (2013). Techniques: collage, photo-transfer, etching, lettraset. 520 Source: The Gospel According to Lucifer, 2013 by Lynn Osman. 2. Another Shadow Christianity at its advent and punk subculture were, against history, moved by gravity. What is left by the erased and cancelled iconography of subcultures throughout history, are gray areas. For when icons are not erased, they self-destruct only. And a shadow has leaked, and has haunted the written history to me. Some text was left raw. There are meanings that could be revealed by proximity. Images from both subcultures would lead to a lost place of reminiscence, and an unrecorded vision. Between violence and certainty of pain, there are proofs of rituals, explicit yet unspoken, a prophecy of an iconography encoded with its own destruction. From the unformed, a transgression started with energy as raw as the spoken word, a broken chord, and an assault with gesture. It was where salvation was through flesh, a surrender to lust. Images saturate, reach the dangerous state of proximity to truth, displacing blood to the deranged state, to get nothing, or failure under the sun. From history, an interpretation becomes a bad shade. Subversion was given a bad name. Then, we are no longer searching for the in-between gray. It is where punk was accepted, betrayal testified, a bad shade of grace over a once oral history, being written. There is a common, unspoken, hidden text in-between the lines of history of Punk subculture, and Christianity at its birth, as subculture. As if there is a space for another shadow connecting those, distant in time, yet very iconographic and sparking in their transgression towards their histories. The place that disclosed is where a concert becomes judgment day, where sacrifice for filth or purity becomes life-threatening, a dark path to the underground literal, profaning as a counter-history to catacombs, nontransmitted antecedents. Oppositions are vertical, with a fallen angel in limbo, diffused by gravity, unaware of a catalyst. History is linear, and “No Future” is as close and scaled down to fear as an apocalypse. Absent authors are relegated Source: The Gospel According to Lucifer, 2013 by Lynn Osman. 521 10.4.Punk’snotDead,towardsforensicsoficonography:Transgressionandresistanceinintersectingcounter-cultures’identities to vacuum. Anticipated vision and fate in the certainty of the sacred and of antiestablishment chaos, are anchored in a performative state. Pain is a residue, ritual, a transgression, work, a punishment. Figures oscillate between saviors and anti-heroes, flirting with redemption and remaining at the liminal. The heresy is that of faith, and healing is through catharsis. It is a call for destruction. Truth, is a disillusion from a secret buried in codes, themselves destroyed and left in the dark. Light is a revelation, light a disillusion, burning eyes until they become as pure and blind as faith. Source: The Gospel According to Lucifer, 2013 by Lynn Osman. From the places rewritten through proximity and comparison, questions start to unfold, about iconography as departure to study the limits of representation, the power of the image as means to draw a subculture territory; thus opens a space to cross borders of history and visual representation in the transgressive stage of writing history. The presence or absence of a shadow to the iconographic text determines the ambiguity of representation. The gradual associations reveal as well the dangerous stage of iconography where it self-destructs, by defining itself in binary opposition to a dominant center. The comparison suggests therefore an alternative reading and experience of Punk subculture, outside its initiating definition, to question historical labels, which proposes a definition of Punk that is not a univocal manifestation. Source: The Gospel According to Lucifer, 2013 by Lynn Osman. 522 3. Punk and Early Christianity as Subcultures Punk and Christianity emerged as subcultures towards their histories, by relativity to a dominant preexisting mainstream. Punk was retrospectively coined as subculture by sociologists, while retaining the initial drive of subverting establishments, not proposing a fixed alternative, rather a chaotic gesture towards a non-place, a subculture that was recognized by its image, iconoclasm, its forming iconography and fluctuating identity. Christianity spawned and spread with a gradual codification of iconography and started as underground subculture from the unformed to become an establishment itself. There could be something beyond the Antichrist disclaimer at their respective transgressive stages, outside history. They both present a rupture towards the mainstream, recognized as subcultures resisting the dominant power at the historical moments. This moment recalls Lacan’s mirror stage: the subcultures recognize their image in the mirror as “Other” and as a cohesive identity yet were still fragmented (Lacan, 2001). They oscillate between the symbolic dimension of their identity, formation of meaning and representation that starts to cut through the real and to breach constructs by creating borders by exclusion, preceding the stage of self-referential identity, thus reinforcing or inducing difference, gray zones holding detectable frames of representation. They become a transgressive “Other”, threatening hegemony. 4. Sacrilege to the Mainstream Sanctuary Transgression acts as the moving gravity of both subcultures, and discloses overlapping layers. Bataille notion of the transgressive and the informe is the “anti-rationalist, anti-idealizing embrace of the shapeless, detritus of being human, of excrement, filth, and decomposition” (Bataille, 1929). Through this reading, the redefined subcultures become tangential to their historical narratives. A mayhem resistance deconstructs the preexisting authority’s forms of representation. Christianity called for the physical destruction of paganism, while catacombs became the sanctuaries where raw iconography started to form, iconoclastic in gesture towards the present time. Punk iconography appropriated, subverted or disfigured the established icons of values deemed as sacred (the Queen, the Church etc.). In Punk subculture, with its diversity, there is a riot subversion of existing signs and icons. Punk practices subvert everything that is “sacred” to the mainstream. Source: The Gospel According to Lucifer, 2013 by Lynn Osman. 523 10.4.Punk’snotDead,towardsforensicsoficonography:Transgressionandresistanceinintersectingcounter-cultures’identities There is a constant profanation of what is consented as “sacred” givens: political, social, religious, cultural, and aesthetic… For instance, Crass’s symbolic and iconographic references reclaim authority through negation, which is anchored as well in the D.I.Y ethics. The sacred is displaced, and acquires permanence through transgression. In Christianity, iconography holds the sacred. The sacred and the divine inhabit the image, is present in it. The referent and the image are equal in icons. Through iconoclastic gesture, the sacred is present in the destruction, absence of the image or figural representation. Punk becomes iconoclastic in presenting the icons, always present but deformed into the level of the “informe” (Bataille’s term). Punk’s mechanism of representation is to using preexisting images and icons and the profanation of those images, to create a new iconography, emptying the sacred. The Christian mechanism of representation is through idealizing religious figures to the level of icon, to conjure the divine. While codes of representation were recognizable, sparking from the shapeless, they were still in the dark underground, secret and recognizable by the subculture or cult. It is a point where the deliverance from the dominant culture arises. It is also the place where the dangerous state of identification of subculture as ‘Other’ materializes, that “Punk” is predisposed to death and to be desecrated in its turn, because of its own mechanism of representation, while Christian iconography was consolidated, and the saturation of iconography led to iconoclasm. Your god is your chains reject your god reject your system Do you really want your freedom Amebix (1986). No Gods, No Masters. 5. Risen transgression The subculture’s transgression resonates across the historical gap. The definition of underground space corresponds to the codification of the images and creating borders and claiming power. Transcendent, transgression through ritual resistance and repetition is rootless and is a rupture, a text written yet not deciphered. The moment of the subculture in negation creates a stimulus and a non-place, escaping identity definition. The space is transgressed through the body, in Punk subculture through performance, violence, riots, Pogo dance, mutilation, explicit anti-authoritarianism, danger, as G.G. Allin embodies it. The icon is self-sufficient, explicit and saturated with the sacred: the divine is autonomous. It leaves only a space for an afterimage. The shadow is then separate as “Other”. The presence of sacred iconography and rituals transgress the profane space. Fire, blood, noise, sacrificial blood, light and darkness, violence and rawness prolong iconography. 524 Source: The Gospel According to Lucifer, 2013 by Lynn Osman. G.G. Allin’s physical transgression recalls sacrifice, for filth or purity, and transforms the body in a judgment day, saved and sentenced to revolt and to surrender of the body. Salvation through flesh, violence, rhythm, noise, in a cathartic performance resonate Christian rituals and the passage of the body. Embodied with faith anchored in the certainty of the sacred or of antiestablishment and anarchy, ritual is heretic. Transgression is anticipated by absent authors from the void, from the rootless, spawned with the seeds of text. Both subcultures are resolved into the notion of savior, central figure, or the cancellation of heroes, remaining at the threshold of the subculture. Pain through rituals becomes a residue, in the linear history fixed into an apocalypse, maintained at the scale of fear or a “No Future”. Truth is abbreviated and ambiguous. Oppositions are vertical, gravity of the real absent. Darkness and light reveal the disillusion of truth. 525 10.4.Punk’snotDead,towardsforensicsoficonography:Transgressionandresistanceinintersectingcounter-cultures’identities Source: The Gospel According to Lucifer, 2013 by Lynn Osman. The subcultures are rooted in their transgression, gesture, and negation, escaping a fixed identity, more than in their forms of iconographic representation; representation has decided the turning point of decline or surrender. The hegemonic system absorbed again the subculture, appropriated it as mainstream symbols, to decide of its survival and death. The excess to mainstream lead to the appropriation and cancellation the initial subculture, as such iconoclasm erased iconographic representation. Yes that’s right, punk is dead, It’s just another cheap product for the consumers head. Bubblegum rock on plastic transistors, Schoolboy sedition backed by big time promoters. Cbs promote the Clash, But it ain’t for revolution, it’s just for cash. Punk became a fashion just like hippy used to be And it ain’t got a thing to do with you or me. Movements are systems and systems kill. Movements are expressions of the public will. Punk became a movement cos we all felt lost, But the leaders sold out and now we all pay the cost. Punk narcissism was social napalm, Steve Jones started doing real harm. Preaching revolution, anarchy and change As he sucked from the system that had given him his name. Well I’m tired of staring through shit stained glass, Tired of staring up a superstars arse, I’ve got an arse and crap and a name, I’m just waiting for my fifteen minutes fame. Steve Jones you’re napalm, If you’re so pretty (vacant) why do you swarm? Patti Smith you’re napalm, You write with your hand but it’s Rimbaud’s arm. And me, yes I, do I want to burn? Is there something I can learn? Do I need a business man to promote my angle? Can I resist the carrots that fame and fortune dangle? I see the velvet zippies in their bondage gear, The social elite with safety-pins in their ear, I watch and understand that it don’t mean a thing, The scorpions might attack, but the systems stole the sting. Punk is dead. Punk is dead. Punk is dead (,.). Crass (1978). Punk is Dead. 526 Source: The Gospel According to Lucifer, 2013 by Lynn Osman. The subculture has written its own history and alienation and raised the questions about the limits of representation. Its juxtaposition to early Christianity as negation suggests that transgressive acts are a-historical and rooted in repetition. Representation reaches a time where the image frame and its mechanisms of representation are destroyed through an iconoclastic gesture, emptied from its transgression, anarchy and rebellion and removed from its historical context. Punk subculture’s, signs and images circulate and the transgression prolongs outside its initial culture, it is present in other histories, that of Christianity. Therefore the same cultural drive can have different forms of representation, in different histories, with similar acts of transgression. 6. Discontinuity from conformity, answers almost known Another gap discloses, amid the saturation of Punk subculture: from the negation into positive values we will examine the case of Amebix, and of Hardcore Punk. Amebix exemplifies the escape from labeling (Crust Punk term in this case), the band that emerged during the condemning of Punk through the saturation of the scene. The sonic texture and drive of the band disrupt the subculture labeling RB: You are cited as creating crust punk. How does it feel like to have made such an impact? Rob: I don’t feel comfortable being tagged with that label. I think Amebix was always a band that stood apart from our contemporaries, in our approach, attitude and unwillingness to conform to ‘scene’ parameters. I think the term ‘crust punk’ is not something that we consider ourselves to be part of. Crusty was a term used in Bristol to denote the punks who were really living on the street- not the studs and leather guys who would spike their hair 527 10.4.Punk’snotDead,towardsforensicsoficonography:Transgressionandresistanceinintersectingcounter-cultures’identities up on the weekends, but that is all. People seem too ready to adopt a packaged lifestyle complete with uniform and prescribed political belief structures that I personally find very claustrophobic. We are not interested in being defined by a genre. If anything, we are in our own selves complete and don’t need to be labeled. We rose from the original punk scene to define our own music in our own way. Motorhead are just Motorhead, Killing Joke are Killing Joke, and Amebix are just Amebix. We don’t need to feel secure in our nest (in Butler, 2009). While Punk as subculture was based on transgression, negation and on the absence of permanence, and iconography, the rupture was continued into a positive gesture through ‘Hardcore Punk’, strongly relying on rawness, social change, positive attitude, creation, activism, new signifiers of social change. Rawness and return to the reclaiming voice and power, proposes a sociological change and action beyond transgression. Issues such as animal rights (band Antisect), social justice, environmentalism, DIY ethics are foreshadowed in the messages of the bands. I am an animal with wires in my head Sometimes I think that I would be better off dead Humanity is allowed to kill me or damage my brain Why am I subjected to this unbearable pain Why..........Why must I die (Antisect -Tortured And Abused) Well we’ve all heard the sermon seen The preachers or worshipped the stage Heard the new manifesto? It’s all questions no solutions at all Well, you’re out on your own now, always have been Just look at your friends Break the surface to daylight Strength will flow through our unity. There is a traitor in our midst And when we rise we will be betrayed They are the wolves in sheep’s clothing Take the place at the back of the fold All this talk about freedom Will be tainted with blood (it’s your life) Put this cross on your back child Tread the long weary trail to the top of the hill ARISE! GET OFF YOUR KNEES! There’s some hard times coming down There’s the smell of revolution on the wind Well, we’re grinding down our axes Telling tales round the bonfire at night We will set out with a fire in our hearts 528 When this darkness gives way to the dawn In the light we’re united as one For the kingdom of heaven must be taken by storm! ARISE! GET OFF YOUR KNEES! STAND UP! Amebix (1985). Arise! 7. Contemporary issues on identities, gender and resistance The research examined the role of iconography, visual, performance and sound, as means or resistance and transgression, by deconstructing layers, through studying the mechanism of representation of subcultures. Control, coercion, manipulation as means of power to maintain hegemony, to fabricate political, cultural or social truths, have been subverted historically through subcultures. Transgression played a role in the formation of Punk subculture. And by comparing and juxtaposing it to Christianity at its advent, as subculture we can study the role of iconography, through mutual associations. The constant mutation of visual representation as means of subversion, historically, to claim or to reclaim agency or voice, towards a dominant mainstream culture, which was relatively local concerning Punk subculture, will lead us then to examine contemporary issues in gender and resistance, in other forms of play in visual iconography, in representation within the “Other”, where different identities intersect: gender, political resistance, black identity, and heroism. Moving from more local forms of transgressions, from the underground Punk, towards more global or ‘post-colonial’ issues, we move to more hybrid case studies, in visual iconography and transgression. Laila Khaled, Palestinian militant, undertook high jacking operations, and had a rejection of the idealization of her image into a female icon. This was a form of resistance towards media representation of heroism and terrorism. She had plastic surgeries to not be recognizable in the next high jacking operations. Jean Genet’s had a hybrid identity, and subverted the notion of iconography by idealizing ‘anti-heroes’ in his works, the dual struggle in gender as a homosexual and politics, and writing and activism as forms of resistance. His affinity to Black Panthers and the Palestinian resistance added layers of complexity to his identity. The last case is Mohammad Ali, boxer, he portrays the role of performance in “black resistance”, and heroism, and his affinity to Palestinian cause through actions. By examining the different representation means of different cases of the “other”, and their mutation, I aim to question the continuity of resistance, and the role of subculture in claiming territory and agency in cultural production, Punk’s role today, and its immediacy and territory, to raise questions about the most powerful tools of active, peaceful resistance. References Bataille, G. [1929] (1970). Informe. In Oeuvres Complètes I. Paris: Gallimard. Butler, R. (2009, June 9). Amebix-Interview. Racket Magazine. Retrieved from: http://racketmag.com/interviews/amebix-interview/ Genet, J. (1992). Genet à Chatila. Paris : Babel. 529 10.4.Punk’snotDead,towardsforensicsoficonography:Transgressionandresistanceinintersectingcounter-cultures’identities Gottdiener, M. (1985). Hegemony and Mass Culture: A Semiotic Approach. American Journal of Sociology, 90(5), pp. 979-1001. Haaretz (June 4, 2016). Muhammad Ali’s Complicated Relationship woth the Jews Haaretz. Retreived from https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/MAGAZINEmuhammad-ali-s-complicated-relationship-with-the-jews-1.5391231 Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture: The meaning of style. London: Routledge. Lacan, J. (2001). The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience. In V. B. Leitch et al. (Eds.). The Norton Anthology of theory and criticism. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Marcshall, C. (2016) Avant-Garde From Below: Transgressive performance from Iggy Pop to Joe Coleman and GG Allin. New York: Rokko’s Adventures Marcus, G. (2009). Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century. Cambridge: Belknap Press. McNeil, L. & McCain, G. (2006). Please Kill Me: The uncensored oral history of punk. New York: Grove Press. N/A (1984). Amebix Interview. Maximum RocknRoll, (13). Retrieved from: http://www.pusfan.com/amebix3.htm 530 10.5. The ethics of aesthetics Marta Nogueira 256 A b s t r a c t Some authors claim cinema missed the boat concerning the recasting of dialogue with its audiences, particularly with respect to violence. But we need to define our object of study, making a distinction between art and entertainment as well as fiction and documentary. Both have different content presentation attributes, according to the kinds of impact intended. Artistic cinema is wrongfully blamed for the sins of entertainment cinema. Real life themes addressed by documentary, demand a special care with certain topics. This paper claims that artistic and fictional film works should not be assessed according to ethics, for the latter is very flexible and not fit to judge a form of expression that should be free from such constraints. The two main clusters of problems arising from an ethic evaluation of an artistic piece of film work, are discussed here – form and content. At stake is the concept of freedom of expression. Keywords: Ethics, aesthetics, movies, content, form. 256 New University of Lisbon. Lisbon, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected] 531 1. Entertainment versus art Cinema, as philosopher Carroll claims (2010) is a mass art form, intended to command large audiences, in order to make substantial profits (Carroll, 2010). But it seems to me that Carroll paints everything with the same brush, widening his definition to every kind of cinema, instead of narrowing it to the cinema industry, especially the North-American one. The so called European “auteur” cinema or even the American independent cinema, for instance, do not comply with some of these attributes – they not always have mass distribution and, for that reason, are not always destined to large audiences and, therefore, their main goal will not be to make substantial profits, but to offer the audience alternative and personal visions, as is common in any art form. On the other hand, and because it is an art form that uses media to be broadcasted, cinema generates different kinds of audiences, or different kinds of expectations in its audiences. There are people who go to the movies to get entertained, to escape the reality of their daily (and monotonous) lives, to plunge for a couple of hours in a sort of virtual alternative reality. These people, who might also be perfectly capable of understanding and appreciating art in other circumstances, occasionally go to the movies not to see “the misery of everyday existence”, as Michael Haneke puts it (Haneke, 2010, p. 574), but precisely to escape it. And because it is a mediatized art, cinema suffers from a kind of confusing “bipolarity” that leads to unjustified judgements, much more so than with what concerns other art forms, such as literature, for instance. It is relatively easy to distinguish an artistic literary piece from a so called “airport literature” novel. Even a less educated audience may recognize that J. K. Rowling belongs in a very different box than James Joyce or Fernando Pessoa, for example. These distinctions become harder when we are talking about cinema, precisely because “the eye- and ear-occupying intensity of the film medium, the monumental size of its images, the speed at which its images demand to be viewed”, as Haneke describes it (Haneke, 2010, p. 575-576), make the cinematographic experience so intense, that it becomes difficult to distinguish between pure entertainment and real art, and the viewer takes the former for the latter more often than vice versa. Many of the criticism pointed towards cinema art is in reality criticism towards entertainment movies, part of an industry which has as its final purpose pure profit and is not concerned about its content or the form used to present it or, in other words, it is concerned in turning content appropriate to consumption and formatting it to the needs and desires of a demanding audience, just as a marketable product or service. But that is not art, it’s just entertainment. And there are a number of allegations which lose their meaning if we consider cinema in those terms, because in that case we will have to point our finger to media and not cinema. And if we do so, we will have to consider many more factors and actors involved in this issue – television, the general media, social network, mass performances, etc. But that discussion belongs to another scope entirely and this paper will only be concerned with cinema as art. 2. Fiction versus documentary The distinction between fictional (and also fiction based on documented real facts) and documental works of cinematic art seems to be quite relevant, 10.5. The ethics of aesthetics 532 in as much as it specifically concerns to the content, affecting in turn the form. In fiction there are actors who represent people and unreal scenarios, imaginary “ifs”, possibilities, assumptions which the author can explore with absolute freedom, even disregarding tangible conventions, such as the laws of physics or temporal linearity. But in what concerns documentary, on the other hand, real people and situations are portrayed, and that forces us to deal with very practical restrictions: image rights, the exposure of real people and their real problems, respect for the memory and the family of deceased ones, coherence of facts and narrative, and so on. Thus, a documental piece does not enjoy the same liberties as a fictional work of art, since it is designed as a combination of an informative and artistic piece. Unlike fiction, documentary is a depiction which does not intend to “delude” the viewer through a simulation of reality. It is a recorded document, for example, of the life of a real person. But because that document may be edited in numerous ways, it is possible that the viewer may not be able to distinguish the “small print” left in between the lines of this editing and plunges as he would when viewing a fictional piece. For that reason, I think that in the specific case of documentary, there should be extra care concerning the form of presentation of content and, in certain cases, even in the choice of content itself. Thus, the documentary genre will also not be considered for this paper and I will limit my analysis to exclusively fictional cinematic pieces of art. 3. The ethics of aesthetics Of all the theories that examine the relationship between aesthetics and ethics, Radical Autonomism seems to me the one which makes more sense, by claiming that moral nature must be completely irrelevant to the intrinsic artistic value of a work of art (Schellekens, 2007). None the less, I go a little bit further by slightly rephrasing this definition, replacing the adjective “irrelevant” for a much more assertive claim – that ethics cannot and should not affect or impact in any way, shape or form our aesthetic judgement. Thus, in the previous claim presented, ethics becomes relevant for the only reason that it should be ruled out at all cost. By principle, and despite there being no definitive definition of art, we can say that in general terms it is a form of expressing emotions, feelings, thoughts and perceptions of an artist’s personal view of the external world and/or his inner world. Unlike in other areas of human knowledge, such as science or technology, art is not required to follow protocols or rules to accomplish that expression, other than the ones directly related to the artistic genre, for instance. The latter are just tools designed to help confine the genre in certain categories with the purpose of distinguishing it from other genres and help the artist materialize that expression into means perceptible by the audience. Artistic “equations” are always, unlike scientific ones, unique and singular, adapted by each author. For the scientist, two plus two will always be four, but two poets using the same metric rules may produce two structurally pleasant poems regarding their rhythm, but each poem will be completely different from the other because it is the expression of the exclusive and unique individuality of each of the authors. It follows that the elements used to judge a work of art will only make sense if their purpose is the structural evaluation, its skeleton, its constituent diagram. Beyond such skeleton lie content and form or, in other words, substance and 533 its presentation. I will illustrate with an example: “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” will be judged fairly regarding its conceptional structure – the type of brush, the technique, the colour combination, the study of light. In contrast, there is no sense in judging the painting for the choice of its content, for the subject the author chose in order to display his technique – five prostitutes. In this example, judging the content would be an ethical judgement, if we would rather Picasso had chosen five nuns and we were criticizing the quality of the painting because of the ladies’ trade. As I will show, also if Picasso had used cubism form to motivate the approval of the painting’s subject, he himself would be formatting his own work in an ethical way, such as I believe Haneke does in “Funny Games”257 for example, in order to make the audience conscious of its own reaction to the violence it is witnessing. What then is an ethical judgement? It is a kind of evaluation done to determine if something is good or bad, right or wrong, according to a set of established patterns. These patterns originate from two sources: internal and external, of which our internal patterns are very much influenced by the environment and culture that surround us. Some external patterns, in turn, were established since the beginning of mankind for practical and utilitarian reasons, so that groups of previous nomads could later live together in sedentary societies, stable enough to thrive and prosper. It is more productive to condemn murder in the midst of a fixed community of humans, for instance, than it is in a group constantly moving from one place to another. In the former case, killing may be extremely disruptive to the functioning of the group, breaking ties of trust and making each individual feel insecure, whereas in the latter, murder may help the survival of the entire group, by getting rid of a hostile individual who is jeopardizing the group with his reckless behaviour towards other rival groups, for example. Thus, moral patterns not always observed human natural features for practical reasons and even more so, were also very much shaped by rigid religious systems which helped to enhance that gap. In reality, morality has undergone evolution through time, just as our emotions, adapting itself to the changing environment. The Roman Empire cheered human carnage, nowadays we condemn even bullfighting. In Ancient Greece rich and prestigious lords established intimate relationships with young protégés, nowadays we call that behaviour paedophilia and punish it harshly. But the reverse also happens – in ancient times homosexuality was punishable by death, today it is perfectly tolerated and accepted in many parts of the world. This means that ethics is not static, but flexible, moving forward or retreating according to societies’ changing environment. And if ethics is flexible, shifting even from individual to individual (or even within the same person), how can it determine the value of a work of art or the aesthetic choices of its author? Furthermore, if it is not part of the structural rules to judge the skeleton of a piece, how can it shape even the judgement of its content or form? I will use some examples to illustrate this idea: In 2001 we may be bothered with the short movie “September 11” directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, part of the collected work produced in 2002 about the 9/11 tragedy titled “11’09’01”. He used real images of people jumping from the World Trade Center towers in flames, after the planes hit them, stylizing these images by adding sound effects, slow motion and dark images (Iñárritu, 2002). But a few decades before, in the same city, men would line up near the Empire State Building construction site, waiting for workers to fall 10.5. The ethics of aesthetics 257 A movie in which a family is made hostage and terrorized with acts of extreme violence by a couple of psychopaths. 534 so that they could take their place and escape unemployment and hunger (Andrew, 2011). What separates these two opposite reactions? In one case we are horrified with the mere presentation of images of an event that happened in another time and place. In the other case, similar human beings do not hesitate to watch a tragedy unfold before their eyes because they are worried about their own survival. Another example is the outrageous objection of French cinematographic reviewer Serge Daney to the presentation of death in works that depict the Holocaust, which the author considers to be obscene, namely Gillo Pontecorvo’s “Kapo” (1960) (Daney, 1992). The film recounts the hardships suffered by a group of women in a Nazi concentration camp and Daney focused particularly on a certain suicide scene. He criticized what he considered to be an exaggerated stylization and unnecessarily reinforced scene of the death of the young woman who throws herself against electrified barbed wire, with a tracking shot that plunges the camera over her dead body. If Daney was right when he pointed his finger to the stylization of motivation strategies for the purpose of awakening compassion and social aid (when he talked about the musical video “We Are The World”), he loses ground when he considered the stylization of fictional death an obscenity. If in the former case we are talking about stylization of ethics, in the latter the exact opposite happens and Daney moralizes an aesthetic issue. Furthermore, it seems to me that Daney’s problem is not so much an ethical concern but more a political or religious one. If after the Holocaust poetry is not possible, as Adorno claimed, then what can we say of the overwhelming representation of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion? If Daney was right, then we would be forced to condemn centuries of religious art whose main theme is the exploitation of the torturing and death of a man on a cross. Ethics fluctuate over time, according to different needs and circumstances. How can we then consider such a volatile and flexible tool legitimate enough to judge an artistic work? The dangers of ethical evaluations can be grouped in two major clusters: 3.1. The content problem As Schelleken claims “one of the most fruitful things that a good artwork can do is to get us to assent (albeit temporarily and fictionally) to perspectives that we find morally reprehensible” (Schellekens, 2007, p. 67). The author gives the example of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita”, considered a great novel precisely because it “introduces us to the manner in which the unquestionably culpable paedophile protagonist views his relationship with a 12-year-old girl” (Schellekens, 2007, p. 67). Schelleken continues claiming that (…) what matters in relation to the appreciation and assessment of art is whether the moral perspective a work conveys is rendered intelligible or psychologically credible, and not whether the moral perspective of a work is what we take to be the right one. Rather, what is important is if the artist can get us to see, feel and respond to the world as represented as she intends us to and how, in doing so we come to fully understand and appreciate things we might not otherwise have done (Schellekens, 2007, p. 79). 535 This because “they enable us to increase our understanding of moral views that we do not personally endorse” (Schellekens, 2007, p. 85). By condemning art as immoral we are engaging in a sort of counterproductive self-censorship for the reasons presented before. On the other hand, by presenting immoral content such as violence in a way that is consciously concerned about its moral effect on the audience, as Haneke tries to do in “Funny Games”, for example, the filmmaker is self-censoring his own content and censoring the point of view he wishes to provoke in his audience. But, worse still, he will be constraining his own work from a formal point of view, using ethics as a guideline, something he might not have done were it the case that the scene in which the character Paul plays a macabre game with Ann, were comical instead of dramatic, for instance. After talking to Ann, Paul looks directly to the camera and asks the viewer: “Do you think it’s enough? I mean, you want a real ending, right? With a plausible plot development. Don’t you?” Immediately afterwards, catching Paul off-guard, Ann grabs the psychopath’s rifle and shoots his partner Peter. At that moment, Paul starts searching frantically for the TV remote control and rewinds the entire scene, so that when Ann starts for the gun this time, he is prepared and stops her. We might guess that if the movie was a comedy instead of a horrific drama, Haneke would not have used this moral tool and would have worked with his other tools, without any concerns about the scene’s ethical point of view. As in the above-mentioned example of Picasso, it would be as if the painter had chosen cubism exclusively because of the supposedly immoral presence of the prostitutes in his painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. In “Kapo”s case, on the other hand, Daney could be wrongly interpreting the intentions of the director Pontecorvo, whose purpose using the tracking shot could very well have been the enhancement of the tragedy of the character’s suicide, against the indifference/impotence of the rest of the female prisoners. But there is also another issue which is important to mention. The effect of an extremely violent scene is as bad in a child, for example, as is the effect of the idea of “prince charming” explored by many movies, in the minds of millions of girls and even grown women around the world. Indeed, the formatting of certain character behaviours in largely distributed American movies is adapted to the way the American people live and feel, but it is not adjusted to the European mindset, for instance. The fact that we have been continuously fed for decades with another country’s cultural patterns which do not resemble in any way our own, leads to unrealistic expectations carried into real life and which then produce internal disparities and almost cartoonish conflicts in the way that we sometimes expect certain reactions in others, that can’t happen because they are not inscribed into the cultural codes of our fellow countryman. Furthermore, an even worse phenomenon occurs – the adoption of these behaviours by the younger generations but in an artificial, acquired way, only external, that doesn’t originate from the inner self and which thus results in shallow, unjustifiable, implausible attitudes. 3.2. The form problem But if, as Haneke claims (2010), the problem is not content, but the way that content is presented (Haneke, 2010), in that case by judging form we are considering it solely in the light of the content it presents. If the content is troublesome, then form is automatically probed in a microscopic way. But if 10.5. The ethics of aesthetics 536 content is not considered dangerous, then form goes completely unnoticed. Obviously, it seems to me that this type of analysis is dangerously partial, besides being subjectively selective. If content is violent, then we question form. But if content is a completely unrealistic love story, that seems not to worry Haneke at all, although the latter can be as dangerous as the former precisely because it works in much more subtle ways and therefore it can do much more harm, as I tried to show in the previous topic, concerning the example of the “charming prince”. On the other hand, if we need to be careful with form, then the neutrality that Haneke supports, is lost in so much as by taking a conscious and specific attitude towards the way in which a content must be formatted to cause a set of desired behaviours and thoughts in the audience, we will be using the same kind of prefocusing mentioned by Carroll (2010) as used in the American cinema industry’s mainstream movies (Carroll, 2010), the ones which are not considered for this paper precisely because they are thought to belong in the entertainment category. That prefocusing is not only partial, as it leads the viewer in the direction desired by the author, with the intent of awakening him to an issue that matters to the author, but it is also patronising, for it considers itself a guideline to the supposedly correct way of watching the movie, automatically erasing the neutrality initially intended. When neutrality really happens, as in the case described by Haneke (2010) of filmmaker Robert Bresson in the movie “Au hasard Balthasar” (Haneke, 2010), the audience feels difficulty in understanding, which leads us to another problem felt not only by cinema, but by art in general, and which is the widespread lack of artistic education amongst the general population. The issue should then be solved at the source and not at the endpoint. Much more dangerous than the anaesthetization of the audience, is its ignorance of the process of falling under its spell. And that problem cannot be dealt at the end of the process, inside a movie theater. Artistic education since childhood is where the problem might have some hope of resolution, not when those young people have already become adults full of bad habits hard to break. However, the cinematic features that help the almost full plunge of the viewer into what’s happening on the screen make me sceptic about the possibility of success even there. It might also be useful to understand why people prefer virtual realities (such as those which are increasingly happening in the social media) to reality itself and if that is a problem. If by any chance a new form of art would appear that simulated reality in a much better way than movies, cinema would most probably be thrown into the obsolete shelf, labelled as a past relic and would magically stop being considered a danger to fragile, uninformed young people. But in that case, we are again talking about mediatization. The dangers of ethical evaluations lead me to the conclusion that cinema cannot be held liable or engaged either in the problem or the search for its solution. Because cinema is art, it is not news, or politics, or social security. And the main function of art is not to educate people but to make them feel and reflect about the world in ways different from what they are used to. Especially because, as Haneke himself claims: “even the morally conscious and responsible depiction of acts of violence is bound to move into controversy.” (Haneke, 2010, p. 576) Which means the problem does not reside on the content or its form, but on the idea, we build about those contents and forms and how we are taught to deal with them. Violence, as many other emotions and behaviours is an integral part of the human design, whether we like it 537 or not. When we create a work of art we cannot avoid talking about them or formatting its presentation in any way that has as its master brush ethics. Going back to Schellekens (2007), she exemplifies with Dostoievsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, claiming that if the author had failed by arousing in the reader shame and disgust for the attitudes of the protagonist Raskolnikov towards the old lady he murders, in that case we could say his work presented an aesthetic and thus artistic failure, because those were the feelings he wanted to convey (Schellekens, 2007). I add that if instead, had the author wanted to convey sympathy and understanding for the protagonist and the reader condemned the novel for its immoral content, then it would not have been Dostoievsky’s failure but our own, since we would be judging his work formally in accordance to its content. Schellekens adds that (…) there is an important distinction to be drawn between the claim that art can have a negative moral effect at times, and the idea that there is something intrinsic to art with a morally reprehensible character that necessarily leads it to have a negative effect on its audience (Schellekens, 2007, p. 88). It doesn’t seem to me that the independent directors (such as Scorsese or Tarantino, for instance) to which Haneke refers to when he describes those who “saw through and despised the rules of the game (...) found themselves forced to subscribe to them” (Haneke, 2010, p. 572), those who are in the border between the artistic and the entertaining, want to promote violence per se. These types of directors communicate to presupposed intelligent audiences, delegating moralistic concerns to the hubs of society where they should be addressed – schools, families, mass media content regulating agencies. And cinema, some cinema, artistic cinema, as I think is clear by now, is not a part of those mass media. 4. Conclusion The reflection over the issue of the relationship between aesthetics and ethics in movies cannot be initiated without first defining the object of study and its features in a clear and accurate way. It seems to me that the problems highlighted for cinema-art are in reality attributable to cinema-entertainment. On the other hand, ethics is a human tool and thus flexible and volatile, varying according to the eras, geography, politics, social circumstances and even individuals. For that reason, we cannot depend on it when we judge a human form of expression who has as its main feature freedom and absence of constraints or restrictions – art. Two fundamental problems arise, if that happens: being totally constrained by content, which leads to a more serious issue, that of censorship; and judging or deciding form according to content, which eliminates the goal of neutrality that raised that concern in the beginning, creating a paradox. Art can be an escape to institutionalized morality, for it is a kind of isolated box where all experiments are possible, because they are protected of their own consequences. Thus, instead of being considered negative, it can on the 10.5. The ethics of aesthetics 538 contrary be a form of liberation, a safe playing box where people can glimpse brief sparkles of understanding about lifestyles, attitudes and behaviours to which they would normally not have access and about which they may wonder. Cinema allows us to establish contact with different realities and points of view, with distinct cultures, with opposing personalities in a much more intense and close way than other forms of art. As Aristotle claimed (talking about poetry), it can be a purge to emotions such as rage or fear which, if left untouched, will express themselves in a socially disruptive way. Instead of being considered a dangerous and disguised representation of reality, cinema may be viewed as a microscope of reality, focussing our attention in details we would normally miss amidst the big picture of our daily lives. Cinema aims its camera to details of life and of our own reactions, allowing us to get a detached perspective of situations in which most of the times we are too engrossed in to manage some kind of impartiality, or framing details of life to which we would be completely blind, lost in the inherent distraction of the hustle of our own lives. Filming death, for example, can make it less of a taboo, helping us to look it straight in the eyes. The problem is not in enjoying this or that form or behaviour, but in knowing how to distinguish them. We may like romantic comedies produced by Hollywood’s cinema industry and, at the same time, be able to understand in Bresson the omission of “happiness, because its depiction would desecrate suffering and pain.”, as Haneke puts it (Haneke, 2010, p. 574). The problem begins when we don’t know that romantic comedies belong in the entertainment basket and Bresson’s films in the artistic basket, wrongly assuming that everything is grown out of the same tree. But the learning of such an ability will be accountable by other forums, not by cinema. The danger of formatting content of any kind, even if for absolutely legitimate and noble reasons, is of bringing us closer to the censorship we so much condemn in other cultures. References Carroll, N. (2010). Movies, the moral emotions, and sympathy. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 34(1), pp. 1-19. Daney, S. (1992). Serge Daney: The tracking shot in Kapo. Trafic, Nr. 4. Retrieved from http://sensesofcinema.com/2004/feature-articles/kapo_daney/ Haneke, M. (2010a). Terror and utopia of form – Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthasar. In R. Grundmann (Ed.). A companion to Michael Haneke (pp. 565-574). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Haneke, M. (2010b). Violence and the media. In R. Grundmann (Ed.), A companion to Michael Haneke (pp. 575-579). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Iñárritu, A. G. (Director). (2002). Segment “Mexico”. In A. Brigand (Producer), 11’9”01 September 11. United Kingdom, France, Egypt, Japan, Mexico, United States, Iran. Schelleken, E. (2007). Aesthetics & morality. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. Thomas, A. (Director). (2011). Empire. National Geographic Channel. 539 10.5. The ethics of aesthetics 540 THEME TUNE 11 ‘LIVING FOR A CHANGE’. CITIES, SPACES, PLACES OF ARTISTIC RENEGOTIATION © Esgar Aclerado 541 11.1 Nomadic singularities, experimentalism and musical post-genre Nilton F. de Carvalho 258 A b s t r a c t The experimentalism in art, since the vanguards, overcomes semantic regimes. From this idea, this article aims to understand the confronts of the experimentalism in pop music, analyzing artists as DJ Tudo, Mashrou’ Leila, Tetine and Aíla, which propose communicational experiences different from the semantic stability of phonographic genres and also inscribe emerging debates, surpassing the regimes that capture social life in western societies. The theoretical and methodological approach uses semiotic analysis to study the dynamics of cultural texts (Lotman, 2004), considering the music materialities, and concepts of nomadism (Deleuze & Guattari, 1995) to understand an experimental praxis that claims differences beyond the western logos, which may indicate a post-genre moment in pop music. Keywords: Hybridity, identity, subjectivities, difference, post-genre. 258 Methodist University of São Paulo - Post Graduate Program in Communication. São Paulo, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]. 542 1. Introduction The experimentalism in artistic languages is generally associated with disruptions in the old ways of designing works. The aesthetic limits are exceeded from time to time when artists put into question the discourse of certain standard, a move that generates strangeness and shock since these frames are linked to the much needed – and effective – stability to the current order. It is especially in the communication field that sensory aspects are tested and challenged, whereas in media environment the hegemonic texts relate themselves to the way of life that it is intended to preserve. Agencements259 in the musical language of these experiments, therefore, inscribe difference. Marcel Duchamp’s urinal, taken to a museum and renamed in 1917 with the title The source, is an example of a breakup with the crystallized models in the imaginary of a time. The confrontations with the past proposed by the vanguards of the twentieth century – in art, music, literature etc. – are examples of language which departs from schemes of a certain time. And, if the artist confronts a discursive frame, he also puts in crisis the moral and the tradition of a historical period. Thus, the experimental artist defines language field as a struggle space – since aesthetic standards sediment the stability aligned to the power structures. Pop music is a mediatic product whose meanings are articulated in the field of mediations, it is able to reinforce hegemonic texts and to allow negotiations of new forms of representation – in several decoding possibilities (Hall, 1992). Even linked to the logic of consumption, music is able to bear in its materiality (aesthetic sound elements, poetic and visual) communicational experiences more diverse. The possibilities opened up in the digital age stimulated new singularities, such as the bedroom that now can house a recording studio and the organization of marginal singularities in networks, becomings of the emerging differences in global flows – the dialectic amid homogenizing effect and hybridizations, in other words, the “global closing of the West – the apotheosis of its global universalizing mission – is simultaneously the moment of uncertain decentralization, slow and prolonged of the West” (Hall, 2003, p. 62). This moment of change in the social sphere has connections with more experimental music productions, and demands a response to the following question: which aspects characterize the experimentalism in current pop music and their positions on social issues of the contemporary world? This article analyzes, therefore, the musical language produced by the artists DJ Tudo, Mashrou’ Leila, Tetine and Aila, born in the socalled Third World countries. 2. Experimentalism: A stir in the language and in the moral values On the experimentalism in music, Umberto Eco (1970) identified an artistic ethics concerned in discussing, from the musical pieces, also the social context. According to the author, in this attempt to overcome the tonal music – and its consequent expansion towards the experimental electronic sounds – there was a desire to deal with matters related to that historical period, precisely the early twentieth century. However, the break with the tonal system and certain hierarchical order of the notes has exceeded the field of art. It was notably from the work of Schoenberg that the dodecaphonic style proposed series made up of twelve notes of the chromatic scale without a center based on a tonic note260. To give up of privileging one note to the detriment of others, 259 I decided to use agencement in reference to Deleuze and Guattari’s (1995) concept. 260 According to José Miguel Wisnik (1989, p. 79), “the circularity of scale [pentatonic] revolves around a fundamental note, which functions as inlet and outlet of the melodies, or, in a word, as tonic, point foundational reference for other notes”. 543 11.1 Nomadic singularities, experimentalism and musical post-genre putting them on an equal ground, breaks up with a historical period that had been experiencing the first crisis of the capitalist model – the Great Depression that occurred in 1929. The tonalism corresponded to tradition in music and fixed aesthetic schemes, and indirectly contributed to the necessary harmony in the political and economic system of its time. Thus, disruptions and shocks in the standardization of language are generally preceded by a social practice that, beyond producing differences and facing the canons arts, points to sociopolitical aspects. The experimentalism in current pop music is characterized by cultural agencements, as with the technological appropriation by marginal producers that sampled cultural diversity or simply when there is an unwillingness to comply with the protocol of a specific musical genre. Rather, this artistic profile transits through different territories of sound signification and puts otherness policies in acknowledgement. The dissemination of cultural products in the mediatic environment represents a complex gear, which changed in the post-industrial world and its global digitalization, but still is constituted by relations of power. We live in a networked world the amidst paradox between democracy and new mechanisms of social control. The multiplication of screens in social life (computers, tablets and smartphones) accelerated the production and consumption of images, nowadays the spectacle is decentralized from the traditional media’s hands, especially TV, and in social networks anyone can be “followed, admired and liked”, there is a multitude of citizen celebrities, now everyone can experience the becomingavatar. However, similar to the cultural form that characterized the mass media in the last century, it is noted that “desires tend to resemble each other, but not all desires have the same conditions to be fulfilled” (Sarlo, 1997, p. 107). In pop music, musical styles offer sociabilities, organized in phonographic genres261, historically constituted in the media. Necessarily, it is not a negative observation about genres but consider them as territorialities262, areas of signification, and any territory that has borders defines its interior from the elements that are exterior from it. This circulation and consumption model is consolidated with the phonography and now extends itself to streaming platforms, reinventing the music industry to contain the crisis caused by downloads. Clicking certain song on Youtube or on Spotify generates information that is intended to capture the personal taste and to suggest to the web consumer a list of possibly adhering songs to his profile, which places these stored datas as a form of mechanic maintenance of musical identities. Biopower operates on the networks with algorithms. The content propounded institutionalizes texts, placing any other aesthetic forms out of this great pop narrative. Subjectivities that escape this framework are generally enclosed under the label world music263. The effectiveness of the algorithms occurs at the historical time of immaterialities, in which the social body is monitored by the “tracking of consumer habits through passwords, barcodes, clues left on the Internet, cell phones” (Bentes, 2007, p. 7) and the circulation of songs of that socio-technical context is not different. On streaming sites, genres centralize music production in Western culture, keeping in some respects, the circulation model inherited from the mass media. According to Douglas Kellner (2001), the way how pop music and other cultural products are articulated shows “what is happening in societies and contemporary cultures” (2001, p. 14). Thus, the objective of analyzing more experimental works in the pop scope will present an artist’s profile that confronts issues related to movements in the present-day-world by putting otherness in 261 With the advent of phonography, music genres started offering to the phonographic industry the possibility of categorizing the songs recorded on the audio supports (like the shellac disc, which precedes the LP). These labels are important in the logic of selling music as a mediatic product. 262 The concept of territoriality, in this paper, suggests a semiotic space of meaning, although later this investigation will also show that sometimes these both concepts (space of signification and geographical areas of our relationships with the world and its things) operate agencements in the musical language production. 263 The term world music categorizes all productions that are outside the aesthetic standards of western phonographic genres. The British group Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, for example, even launching their albums by the label Hellcat Records, founded by Tim Armstrong (Rancid), that promotes punk and ska bands, is often labeled in the mediatic environment as a group that makes “world music”. Such imposition happens because of the band’s experimentalism, whose sound proposes mixing different genres and rhythms, especially musical features born in the so-called Third World countries. 544 circulation. There are plenty of carefree artists that do not belong to a specific musical style, a subjectivity that, when created places the aesthetic experience in an indeterminate meaning field and from diverse territorialities, that here, at the end of this paper, I will sketch to be something close to a post-gender moment. These artists are nomads of the musical language. The institutional model of language articulated in the musical genres is undermined when the artist puts his work beyond the semantic boundaries, like the nomadic people who do not claim nationality with its own language and thus cancel the state power264. There are some differences between the nomadic organization and the state apparatus. According to Deleuze and Guattari (2008), the nomadic groups, usually associated with banditry, were “metamorphoses of a war machine, which formally differs from any state apparatus, or equivalent, which on the contrary, structure the centralized societies” (Deleuze & Guattari, 2008, p. 16). The experimentalism in pop music does not deny the existence of genres, but crosses them as if, physically, also crosses its territories of signification. On this constant move, nomadic subjectivities incorporate sounds to create deterritorialized works and the criteria that would determine a meaning in the musical language are therefore canceled. The artist, when overcoming language regimes, produces differences in the communication process of pop music, its practice escapes from the imaginary of post-industrial societies, organized under a number of disciplinary measures, such as working hours marked by the clock operation, normative sexuality rules, national identities, etc. Even in the emergence of technologies such as the internet, there is always realignments to stabilize semantic standards, whose canons emerge from an economic and political center located in the West265 – and the subjects are invited to assume artistic identities linked to this center. Yet in light of Semiotics of Culture, it is possible to consider semiotic marginal regions, away from the rigidity of the center, in which the textual changes are more frequent. Experimental artists put themselves in this space rich in cultural encounters. For Yuri Lotman (1982), “an artistic text is a complex structure of meaning. All its elements are elements of meaning” (1982, p. 23). And indeed, for the Russian author, some texts movements break previous senses in moments of “semantic explosion” (Lotman, 2004, p. 23). Therefore, there will always be explosions of meaning, provoked by this dynamism proper to culture. There are also political agencements, based on cultural flows that are significant in the songs analyzed in this paper. The artist’s confrontation with the musical language triggers issues that go beyond the sounds, such as cultural syncretisms, queer politics, feminisms, cyborg aesthetics (bodies and machines), diasporas, among others. While the hegemonic legitimacy always at stake in mediatic products takes advantage of a logos historically constructed to define territorialities, the semantic uncertainty – more experimental – fights the logocentrism to produce difference. Derrida (2013, p. 23), in reference to writing, defended the need to “liberate the signifier from its dependence or its derivation with reference to the logos and the concept of truth or first meaning” and although the philosopher made reference to writing, it is possible to observe in experimentalism a similar role, since its meaning escapes from the frames. Not to say that there’s a lack of creativity in phonographic genres, the idea of territory aims to demonstrate certain dependency and maintenance of these formats and their effects in the context of communication and aesthetic experiences, leading to closed behavioral models, such as the sambista that does not dialogue with the rock fan and vice versa. 264 According to Giorgio Agamben (2015), the secret slang of gypsies, the argot, shifts the concept of people-language, used in the game of national identities as a founding aspect of modern states. Always on the fringes of the political imaginary, the gypsies – historically considered “outlaw nomadic groups” – when use the argot put “radically in question this correspondence [people-language]” (Agamben, 2015, p. 66) because they rework it under a new concept: gang-slang. 265 Greco-Roman civilization heritage, rearticulated and expanded by the influence of movements as Illuminism, Renaissance, and Colonization. The concept [Western] was also used to separate the non-European cultures but became complex after the formation of the United States, Canada and countries located in Oceania and the Americas. However, the globalization process, its discourses and hegemonic narratives, structures an economic and cultural centrality in the axis United States/Europe, an aspect which also involves pop music. For example, the song Despacito, by Puerto Ricans Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, repeats aesthetic forms set by the American pop and is framed as “Latin pop”. Hence, I opted for the term West in reference to the existence of this frame. 545 11.1 Nomadic singularities, experimentalism and musical post-genre Breaking away from this immediate reading, or first meaning – the slide of the significant (Derrida, 2013) –, changes the aforementioned kind of sociability and intensifies otherness. Another perspective which is also involved in semantic disruptions is that the artist’s attitude towards the language also criticizes moral values of his time, emphasized Umberto Eco (1970), in a study on the experimentalism of the musical vanguard. The author considered that the tonal music, for example, was associated with the sociopolitical moment of that period, and this art “helped to maintain a certain system of social conventions” (Eco, 1970, p. 237). Works that escape from a stability represent a creative path that will put in evidence underground signs, different from the ones that are generally articulated to manage subjectivities in a specific period. This text, therefore, will be thought as the exteriorities that escape from the institutionalization – similar to deleuze-guattarian assert about nomadic war machine (Deleuze & Guattari, 2008) – to understand DJ Tudo, Mashrou’ Leila, Tetine and Aila’s works. These artists place their productions in the space of indeterminacy, outside the pop music regimes. Genres establish certain aesthetic demarcation, consolidated by its historical relationship with the mass media, from this context came the term massive popular music, characterized by its “production conditions and recognition inscribed in [and by the] cultural industries” (Cardoso Filho & Janotti Jr, 2006, p. 3). Rock, soul and country music, for example, have symbolic effects, as a pre-territory of signification, and they precede the music to be produced, the performance expected of the artist and the type of clothing that the consumer of these genres will use. To deal with this phenomenon, this paper adds to the concern about musical language some issues inherent of the materialities that complement the meaning of the songs production process. The artist and their work will be understood as a symbiosis that offers in media other communication experiences because they produce differences. There is a suggestion of otherness in these works that precedes the production of meaning. The mere mention to a particular artist would not be the enunciation that marks, in advance, some different? In this respect, it is worth to mention Hans Gumbrecht (2010, p. 38), in an attempt to demonstrate a “production of presence”. The Lebanese group Mashrou’ Leila blend Western pop elements with Arabic music and some of their lyrics are about LGBTI thematic, an artistic proposal that made the band being banned from playing in Egypt. The group’s mobility in the Arab world or in the Western context demands new perceptions, thus “the body will therefore become an important element of ‘materiality’ in the reflection on the communicational acts” (Felinto, 2001, p. 6). It is understood that the genres’ readings are marked by rhythms, instrumental arrangement and performances, all institutionalized criteria. The marketing strategy that uses these aesthetic elements to manage the phonograms works as discourses that define social life, and the Foucaultian theoretical and methodological path tried to dismember them and thus identified many of the spaces whereby the discourse is articulated. As noted by Judith Butler (2015, p. 17), our “ability to discern and name the ‘being’ of the subject depends on regulations that facilitate this recognition”. The communicational phenomenon in more experimental works proposes rearticulations in pop music that authorize new recognitions. They are subjectivities that create from sonic nomadisms and thus change the territoriality of the genres. 546 3. Nomadic singularities, the threshold of the post-genre in pop music The act of forcing the aesthetic limits in diverse artistic languages expanded creative possibilities. The academicism and communication linearity suffered successive shocks since the vanguards. Just visit a Bienal internacional de arte de São Paulo266 to interact with works, installations that literally affect the public, in complex sensory relationship situations. In music is no different, and the festival Música estranha267 demonstrates that this field of sliding meanings, indefinites, including what this paper call post-gender – I’ll discuss this term in pop music later –, today is recurrent in musical productions. Although it has been rearticulated constantly in successive art movements, from the last century to the contemporaneity, experimental art always arises as a generator of tension, its presence in the global media environment causes strangeness and, depending on the social context and the socio-historical phenomenon, also awakes ancient moralisms268. Pop music is usually read as of the hegemonic narratives that organize a spontaneous thought that brings up some aesthetic profiles in the musical language: certain timbres and instrumental formations, rhythms, lyric structures and forms of singing. Mentioning the term pop music is to consider a myriad of genres, artists and audiences, each one within its territory of signification. The consolidation of such limits is based on the rhythmic specificity of a rock or a tango, for example, and their subsequent circulation in media. Added to this “act of narrate the song in the media” the selectivity of an approach that, from the boom of the phonography in the LP times to the contemporary platforms of streaming, gradually will celebrate the musical styles born in the Western World. Establishing the meaning of any genre in the popular imaginary requires media exposure and commercial boost, especially to relate the work of a particular artist to a label. But the point that perhaps shows that this is also a creative historical process is that the sound structure of a musical genre is composed of mixtures from different matrices, a work isn’t born pure and without reference to other productions. Blues and samba, for example, are children of the Af rican diaspora, arising amid syncretic processes that took place in the whole continent of the Americas. It can be considered, in the light of Semiotics of Culture, that culture operates in several semiospheres and different texts inevitably will be in each other’s boundaries. The route to dismember these roots of genres is lengthy and is beyond the scope of this article, but it proves that there is no purity in musical genres – only founder discourses –, they are just a definition of “how to deal” with certain sonic elements (tones, rhythms, instrumentation). The West, by arising in modernity as an economic and political center (result of a historic process), had its artistic productions valorized in the flows accelerated by globalization and the pop music readings became more centralized. This hegemonic configuration reflects on the circulation of songs, silences some sonic fields and, because of that factor, productions that can’t be framed into these western categories are considered “world music”. Another proposal of representation is noted in the hybrid music, in which the language forming elements are highlighted and related as the concept of difference. The hybridization process is not harmonized by an institutional effect, similar to the phonographic genres. Rather, in these languages, there are tensions caused by different sound aspects in dialogue, moreover it 266 The organization published on the web recently its historical archives that gather data from 32 biennial already done. Retrieved from: http://www. bienal.org.br/post.php?i=4299. 267 The festival reached its fifth edition last year. Retrieved from: https://www.musicaestranha.me/. 268 La Bête performance, by choreographer Wagner Schwartz, displayed at MAM (São Paulo Museum of Modern Art) in 2017, inspired by the sculptures series titled Animais, by Lygia Clark, was under attack of reactionary groups in Brazil. The repression against the work, however, does not only involved hate speech in the social networks, but mobilized all a political and legal apparatus against the artist and the museum in a clearly authoritarian moment. 547 11.1 Nomadic singularities, experimentalism and musical post-genre operates on a sharing semiotic surface which constitutes in the language a radical otherness. Similar to Giorgio Agamben’s idea (2015, p. 32) that claims to overcome the nation state towards extraterritoriality, whose position of citizens would be movement, a “being-in-exodus” to “rediscover a political sense, counteracting decidedly the one of the nation”, experimentalism is always external, because it does not claim membership in a territory of signification, but it is exodus, it is fugacity in language. The tune Sid Moussa Iemanjá269, from DJ Tudo’s album Gaia music: Brazil/ Marrocos vol. 2 (2017), evokes distinct religiousness in its syncretic proposal, citing the sea god Sid Moussa and goddess Yemanja. The African origin of the Brazilian Candomblé and Umbanda, its percussive instruments (zabumba, congas), is mixed in the language with the Gnawa tradition270, popular in Moroccan regions. Traditional culture elements, however, are translated to the context of pop music by an artist that calls himself “DJ” and who uses guitars, wind instrument and editing software that usually characterize contemporary works. The nomadism goes beyond the institutionalization of an aesthetic form, assuming sonic aspects from religious and mixing materialities from different cultures271. Like a nomadic machine, DJ Tudo uses Candomblé percussion and Gnawa, recording with musicians from various European cities, North Africa and Brazil, and the result of this practice is a hybrid language that breaks with the territorialities of pop music, and, at the same, assumes its modes of production. There is also a territoriality that comes from the physical field – geographical – which in many ways can be considered generator of meanings because sound aspects are born in specific locations and cultural contexts and thus have a strong influence on language production. Therefore, the move by certain places changes rhythms, identities, arrangements and new sound experiences. The Brazilian singer Aila, on Em cada verso um contra-ataque (2016) album, explores references from her state (Pará), as tecnobrega, and mixes it with punk, reggae and funk. Felipe Trotta (2008) noted that changes in the stiffness of the genres are associated with the artists’ creativity and it represents a “movement of individuals, groups, values, thoughts and visions of world” (Trotta, 2008, p. 11). Added the issue of hybrid language of Aíla’s work, there are also thematic policies inherent in today’s world, worked with the sonic experimentalism – LGBTI issues, feminism and Anti-racism. This rebellion against the frameworks and taxonomies (Vargas, 2007, p. 21), typical of the hybridization processes, is driven by the social life. This aspect can be seen in songs such as Lesbigay, Escola de Luta and Melanina, works that generate rhythmic mixtures and that claim minorities policies. Aila, when crossing the pop music territories of signification, also questions the current society and its emerging demands. There’s a regime of identification in the phonographic genres that embraces song, artist and audience, a territory of signification. Depending on the level of affection in this communicational experience, coercive actions arise against non-adherent meanings. Examples seen in festivals demonstrate the strength of a semantic regime, such as when the Bahian musician Carlinhos Brown was targeted by objects thrown by the public during the Rock in Rio 2001, in which the headliners were the rock bands Guns N ‘Roses and Oasis. So, the percussionist, and his image linked to local sounds, was unauthorized to show his work on the same stage that would guest rockers. This effect that closes the territoriality of a genre is similar to the regime of signs concept in Deleuze and Guattari (1995). According to the 269 Retrieved from: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=x0Xy736M0LI. 270 Muslim confraternity of sub-Saharan origin, characterized by the use that its members make of songs, dances and rituals. 271 The teaser of the tune shows images of the musicians, from different locations, who took part of the record sessions. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=IOxxphCrR4M. 548 authors, “it [the regime] must ensure incessantly the expansion of the circles or the spiral, supply the center again with the signifier to overcome the entropy inherent to the system (Deleuze & Guattari, 1995, p. 53). The logocentric circularity of the significant (Derrida, 2013) is overcome by the praxis over the language, as the duo Tetine (Bruno Verner and Eliete Mejorado) does with their electro-punk hybridized with funk. The lyrics explore sexuality, alternating between the blasé attitude of European indie and body shake similar to Rio de Janeiro dancers, there is, as well, queer attitudes and cyborg aesthetics – synthesizers and the Verner and Mejorado bodies. The Brazilian duo who currently lives in London takes the funk to the English electronic scene, as in the track L.I.C.K my favela272, in which the simulated sound wall on the equipment refers to German digital punk group Atari Teenage Riot. The phrases sung do not claim a linear narrative, they sound as funk carioca inviting the audience to the dance. The strategy of mixing confuses the harmony of genres, systems configured in the social scope. And the chaos of meaning operates as a semiotic offensive, as the singer MIA does, according to Fabricio Silveira (2017, p. 80), when she uses “urban art, street culture, the critical incorporation of brand visuality, addressing and political deconstruction of media spectacle”. If Rock in Rio setting was unfavorable to Carlinhos Brown, these contemporary hybrid configurations use digital platforms to enhance the difference, a new artistic ethics from the so-called Third World. Tetine’s song Zero zero five five (se vende) mixes dispersed elements of the funk and post-punk to question the aesthetic boundaries of pop music, it is a profile that demonstrates, through experimentation, the presence of singularities not institutionalized that reconstruct the mediatic memory of pop music (Carvalho, 2017). There is a world narrated in the mediatic environment filled with stereotypes that centralizes readings, even not being an invincible ideology, this configuration suggests frames unable to handle the diversity of the global scenario. And this hegemonic logic prioritizes Western representations, as in the concept of world music, which can classify any rhythm that is out of phonographic genres rules. The Lebanese group Mashrou’ Leila pushes the maintenance of the stereotypes by showing Arab world aspects that usually go unnoticed. Nonetheless, the band does not claim a traditional place in Arabic music, but just expresses some elements, such as tone of voice, combined them to Western pop. The members of the group, for example, dress up as indie rock hipsters. Openly related to LGBTI theme, the corporeality of the band’s performances273 reveals the sensuality of a gay scene from the Arab world, often hidden from mainstream media. The instrumentation similar to the pop (electric guitar, drums and keyboard) is accompanied by lyrics sung in Arabic which crosses the territorialities of western pop. On one hand, the group strengthens its ties with pop, but on the other puts together a number of aesthetic and visual elements from the so-called Middle East – as in the video Roman274. The group moves its work as the dynamic of artistic texts, that according to Lotman (1982, p. 69) are historically formed and “corresponds to the sphere of extratextual relations”, transiting between from one culture to another, a relational praxis that is always inner and outer. Phonographic genres fixate ways of recognition that embrace certain expectations, such as the tamborim presence in samba, the electric guitar riffs in rock and so on. Artists related to these styles belong to a territory of significance, it is not just a strategy of the market, but ways to play and make 272 Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AG7qf0m2gLM. 273 During the European tour to promote the latest group’s album Ibn el leil - deluxe edition (2017), Mashrou’ Leila performed in places like the Barbican. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=yGEX_Wbq5EE. 274 Retrieved from: https://www. youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=NF__cpsDmZk. 549 11.1 Nomadic singularities, experimentalism and musical post-genre music that were established in the culture by artists and after organized by culture industries. At the moment that these aesthetic frames are brought to the media flow a sonic structure is fixed, similar to the rules set in an encyclopedia, the “logocentrism against the disruption of writing” observed by Jacques Derrida (2013, p. 22). For that reason, the experimental creation is a dialectical movement that acts on the sonic material and subsequently changes the communication process of music in the media. The Muslim woman’s body in Mashrou’ Leila videos blurs eastern and western meanings in a difficult configuration, outside the stereotypes. DJ Tudo puts candomblé percussion and gnawa music together in a transnationalized syncretic sound. Aíla mixes punk and tecnobrega meanings, connecting São Paulo and state of Pará, and adding political lyrics of feminist claims. And the duo Tetine subverts the technology discourse of neutrality to express a high-tech-sexuality: guitars, synthesizers and stylish shaking of funk. There is in these experimental settings an ethos that does not fit the hegemonic artistic standards discourse of identity and behavior, but there are presences and materialities that tangent new insights, a production of difference. For Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (2010, p. 38), the idea of presence production – what exclusive preoccupations with the meaning do not account for – would be “the tangibility effect that arises with the materialities of communication”. A look toward the experimentalism in pop music, this creative force that pushes the significant to the indeterminate field, reveals artists who overcome the semantic regimes of phonografic genres and claim policies inherent to current demands. The subjectivities in these media products demonstrate that media culture is an environment that, according to Douglas Kellner (2001, p. 34), represents a “land of dispute that plays at the cultural level the fundamental conflicts of society”. Thus, this research has identified works not linked to a territory of signification, but a nomadic praxis artistic who embraces differences, cultures, places, policies of representation, and is a radical suggestion to legitimate other voices. These artists put their works in a space “between” phonografic genres, what here may be thought as postgenre field, it would not be a new category of pop music, but a radical freedom for the creativity. The various agencements offered by the meetings of the global scenario tends to show texts that are born apart from the semantic regimes, the post-gender, thus, would host the diversities that the aesthetic frames popularized in the media can’t bear, a constant artistic move through the pop music territories. 4. Ending considerations The understanding of experimental songs within pop music is a theoretical and methodological effort which aims to deal with a diverse communication. The fact that the artists put an unexpected sonic element – one sample, guitar phrasing or percussion – changes the harmony of a particular genre set in the culture. It doesn’t mean to observe the phonographic genres as something negative, since all of them are the result of creative processes and at some point went through a laborious organization, such as the ways to play an instrument and so on, but to consider that western genres can’t encompass all the differences that are originated, especially in world peripheries – because West is not the whole world but just a part of it (Mbembe, 2018, p. 265). This forgotten music invites us to more diverse communicational experiences. Overcoming 550 the institutionalization of readings is to recognize that there are other artistic settings possible, singularities produced and alternatives to discourses that try to capture social life. The mode of being of culture and its mobility characterizes the state of constant change, therefore there will be circulation of texts and inevitable mixtures of different matrices. Nomadic artists search references in this cultural wealth, embracing different territories without fixing a home in one of them. The experimentation shows the threshold of a post-gender becoming, something that overcomes semantic regimes, and, on another front, launches political issues facing moral values, adhering to the demands from this historic time – in which plural representations claim more space. Funding: This work is supported by the Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination – CAPES, Brazil. References Agamben, G. (2015). Meios sem fim. Notas sobre política. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica. Bentes, I. (2007). O devir estético do capitalismo cognitivo. Paper presented at the meeting of XVI Encontro Anual da Compós, Curitiba. Butler, J. (2015). Quadros de Guerra. Quando a vida é passível de luto? Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. Cardoso Filho, J.; Janotti Jr, J. (2006). A música popular massiva, o mainstream e o underground: trajetórias e caminhos da música na cultura midiática. Paper presented at the meeting of XXIX Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, Brasília. Carvalho, N. F. (2017). Música no exílio: a linguagem musical do grupo Songhoy Blues como alteridade na memória da música pop nas mídias. Paper presented at the meeting of XXXX Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, Curitiba. Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. (1995). Mil Platôs – Capitalismo e esquizofrenia, vol.2. São Paulo: Editora 34. Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. (2008). Mil platôs – Capitalismo e esquizofrenia, vol. 5. São Paulo: Editora 34. Derrida, J. (2013). Gramatologia. São Paulo: Perspectiva. Eco, U. (1970). La definición del arte. Barcelona: Martínez Roca. Felinto, E. (2001). Materialidades da comunicação: por um novo lugar da matéria na teoria da comunicação. Ciberlegenda, 5, 1-16. Retrieved from: http://www.ciberlegenda.uff.br/index.php/revista/article/view/308. Gumbrecht, H. U. (2010). Produção de presença: o que o sentido não consegue transmitir. Rio de Janeiro: Contraponto. Hall, S. (2003). Da diáspora: identidades e mediações culturais. Belo Horizonte: UFMG. Hall, S. (1992). Ecoding/decoding. In S. Hall et al. (Eds.), Culture, media, language (pp. 128-138). Oxfordshire: Routledge. Kellner, D. (2001). A cultura da mídia. Bauru (SP): Edusc. Lotman, I. M. (2004). Culture and explosion. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Lotman, I. M. (1982). Estructura del texto artístico. Colección Madrid: Fundamentos. Mbembe, A. (2017). Crítica da razão negra. Lisbon: Antígona. Sarlo, B. (1997). Cenas da vida pós-moderna: intelectuais, arte e videocultura na Argentina. Rio de Janeiro: UFRJ. Silveira, F. (2017). Música pop e guerra aérea. In J. G. Mello; M. B. Conter (Eds.), A(na)rqueologias das mídias (pp. 77-92). Curitiba, Appris. 551 Trotta, F. (2008). Gêneros musicais e sonoridade: construindo uma ferramenta de análise. Revista Ícone, 10(2), pp. 1-12. Retrieved from: https://periodicos.ufpe.br/revistas/icone/article/view/230128. Vargas, H. (2007). Hibridismos musicais de Chico Science & Nação Zumbi. Cotia (SP): Ateliê Editorial. Wisnik, J. M. S. (1989). O som e o sentido. Uma outra história das músicas. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. 11.1 Nomadic singularities, experimentalism and musical post-genre 552 11.2. Why the doors are not open for us? Finnish Romani Music, Gender (Masculinity) & Difference Kai Viljami Åberg 275 A b s t r a c t The society of the Finnish Kaale (Roma) is essentially patriarchal, but the position of men within it – and thus the construction and expression of masculinity – varied depending on age, marital status, family bloodline, name and reputation and set of values (e.g. religious, secularism). Thereby there are many meanings in Romani music and the construction of gender in music depend the multiple contexts of Romani music (which comprises musical genres beyond mainstream culture). In this paper – based on my intensive fieldwork among the Roma more than 25 years - I will demonstrate how musical identities are regard as continuously changing and adapting phenomena. Thereby also for Roma, identity has always been constructed in relation to hegemonic powers such as nationalism, regionalism, patrons of the arts, socialist ideologies and European Union officials (Silverman, 2012, p. 55). Identities vary according to the opportunities of the situation and areas of culture concerned, and they are bound to the contexts within which they constructed. The earliest documentation of Finnish Romani music emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries in both scholarships and the arts. Anyway, through the Romani history, Finnish region has been a crossroad between the East (Russia) and the West (Europe). Different musical cultures and styles have flow together. Because the new ethnic landscape and migration from Eastern Europe (mainly from Romania and Bulgaria), the new trend is kind of hybrid style of Romani music mixing different styles together. Thereby the role of Romani music from different origin is important for the “global Romani identity” process. In this paper, I question some of the “taken-for-granted” conceptions and consider an alternative to the existence and practices of Romani music (Finnish, Russian, migrants from Southeastern Europe, like Romania and Bulgaria) in Finland. I ask, what kind of musical and music cultural communication the Roma from different countries have with the Finnish Roma (in historical, cultural and social contexts). Keywords: Finnish Roma, Romani music, masculinity and identity. 275 University of Eastern Finland. Laskut, Finland. E-mail: [email protected] 553 11.2. Why the doors are not open for us? Finnish Romani Music, Gender (Masculinity) & Difference 1. Introduction The music of the Finnish Roma has always been marginalized and this oral tradition has lived only among the Romani people. Nowadays this music – mainly traditional songs – carry belief systems, norms and values that can be view as a political movement by the underground artists as their way to counter against to the hegemonic culture of popular music. In generic sense, hegemonic - also in a musical sense – is the way in which a ruling group establishes and try to maintain their rules as a part of larger project to dominate others. The society of the Finnish Kaale (Roma or Gypsy) is essentially patriarchal, but the position of men within it – and thus the construction and expression of masculinity – varied depending on age, marital status, family bloodline, name and reputation and set of values (e.g. religious, secularism). Thereby there are many meanings in Romani music and the construction of gender in music depend the multiple contexts of Romani music. Thereby in this paper – based on my intensive fieldwork among the Roma more than 25 years - I will demonstrate how musical identities are regard as continuously changing and adapting phenomena. Hence also for Roma, identity has always been constructed in relation to hegemonic powers such as nationalism, regionalism, and patrons of the arts, socialist ideologies and European Union officials (Silverman 2012: 55). Identities vary according to the opportunities of the situation and areas of culture concerned, and they are bound to the contexts within which they constructed. The approach of my paper is ethnographic, which based on intensive field work during the long period 1994 – 2018 among the Roma. What comes to the gender identity, and especially masculinity, analyses also draw upon my own experiences as a male musician performing different genres of Roma music, like traditional songs, global Gypsy music, religious music, such as Pentecostalism and popular music performance by the Roma. 2. A brief history of the Finnish Kaale (Roma) Finland has perhaps the most homogeneous Romani population in Europe, with the Kaale population comprising groups of the Roma who arrived through Sweden as early as the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, this group was strengthened by Russian Romani immigrants who have since merged with the Finnish Kaale (Pulma, 2006, p. 215; 2012; Åberg, 2015). The Finnish Roma, nowadays about 10,000—12,000 in all, led a traditional way of life; there are also 3,000 Finnish Roma who live in Sweden, mainly in the Stockholm area (Markkanen, 2003, p. 262; Åberg, 2015). The process of estimating the numbers of Roma in Finland is a problematic one. These problems are rooted in the general difficulties associated with counting socalled “ethnic minority groups, and mobile communities” (Clark, 2006, p. 19). During the 1990s, Finland became more multicultural than ever before. The growing number of foreigners coming to the country raised discussion about human rights, tolerance and discrimination. However, there is still very little information about the old minorities, such as the Roma, in the teaching materials of the comprehensive school, in materials for different occupational groups, or even in teacher training (Markkanen, 2003, p. 264–265; Åberg, 2015). 554 3. Fieldwork and the Influence of Masculinity on the Material Over the past few years, I have from time to time alternately distanced my subject of research and brought it closer to myself. In other words, I have taken new positions as a researcher in order to see the material in a new light. The notion of masculinity has been one of the positions that has guided interpretations. There are many reasons for this issue. Historically, ethnomusicological fieldwork often focused on the musical contributions of men, in line with the underlying assumption that male-dominated musical practices were reflective of musical systems of a society as a whole. Despite the historical trend of overlooking gender, modern ethnomusicologists believe that studying gender can provide a useful lens to understand the musical practices of a society. Considering the divisions of gender roles in society, ethnomusicologist Ellen Koskoff writes (2014, p. 19): “Many societies similarly divide musical activity into two spheres that are consistent with other symbolic dualisms”, including such culture-specific, gender-based dualisms as private/public, feelings/actions, and sordid (provocative)/holy. In some cultures, music comes to reflect those divisions in such a way that women’s music and instrumentation is viewed as “non-music” as opposed to men’s “music”. These and other dualities of musical behavior can help demonstrate societal views of gender, whether the musical behavior support or subvert gender roles. During my academic studies, gender was discussed to only a small degree, if at all, in textbooks and courses on fieldwork. Most of our written guides to field research – Hood, Nettl, Merriam, Goldstein - did not mention gender at all (Babiracki, 1997, p. 123). In some of my courses, the gender of the researcher was discussed in terms of access, rapport, and role expectations. Anyway, the identity I chose for myself in the field and the identities of others that I thought I had chosen were not always the same (or so I think now). I also want to underline that gender was only one of many factors that shaped my experiences. Age, status, “race”, education, physical appearance, political ideology, concepts of the individual and the group, and many other factors contributed, all of them interconnected. Interpretations of the culture of Finnish Roma have addressed masculinity mostly with focuses marked by feminism: men are regarded as ranking high in the hierarchy of the community, with women placed lower than the male, their head. Despite attempts to deconstruct the notions of gender in Romani culture through the concept of identity, interpretations have often led to the repetition of traits and features associated with gender at an earlier stage. Masculinity is defined as how things should and need to be, with considerations of how men meet the culturally specific norm of masculinity. Taken to its extremes, masculinity is defined as something that most men cannot fulfil. Interestingly, though research has sought, in particular, the experience and voice of women through the writing subject (the researcher). In the light of present knowledge, especially when provided ethnographically this alterity of women can also be regarded as produced by the researchers themselves. Unlike femininity, masculinity presents itself, from the perspective of gender identity, as a stable, indivisible and given property that has lost its grip and “reins” in the increasingly faster pace of modernization. The fault of these perspectives and arguments is that the defining of gender has not been considered in relation to other systems of distinction and power, such as ethnicity (Butler, 1990). Owing to the small amount of research concerning Finnish Romani music 555 11.2. Why the doors are not open for us? Finnish Romani Music, Gender (Masculinity) & Difference or musical culture, the domain of culture has only been given the focus of gender issues. The aim of research and interpretations of Romani music appears throughout to have been to show that gender does not reach beyond the range of influence of cultural identity. Present writings on Romani music have dispelled gender to be part of the marginality of the Romani community. On the other hand, elderly people have been the main interest of folkloristically oriented musicology. In the old situation of gender relations, for example, women were regarded as having maintained the culture of verbal expression. Elderly women, in particular, are markedly present in compilations of folklore material (Vakimo, 2001, p. 34), although the majority element in the basic activities of Finnish Romani musical culture often consisted of young people. Previously, the relicts of an ancient and disappearing culture were sought among the so-called ageing population in the case of Finnish Romani songs. Present studies show that people adept and versed in heritage do not have to be sought among the elderly. The strong orientation of young people towards singing points to the presence of a living musical heritage. Nonetheless, everyday beliefs concerning gender have an indistinguishable effect on our everyday actions and, by extension, on fieldwork. In my own fieldwork among Finnish Roma, roles attached to age and gender were at first sight relatively fixed and created through mutual definitions: the interviewer or recorder was a middle-aged male of the Finnish majority, or as the interviewees often noted among themselves a “kaaje” or “gaajo”, Romani for a “white man” [i.e. of the majority population]. These definitions of the identity show how gender is always associated with other factors of identity, such as age, personal appearance or cultural background. Age and gender are thus grounds of classification that are associated with each inseparably but in a transforming way. Maintaining my assigned male identity while documenting and participating in Romani communal song events proved more difficult. At times their expectations of me and my behaviour conflicted with my need to be a researcher. Singing occasions are highly gendered events. The roles of men and women are clearly defined in the singing situations. In a fieldwork situation where there are both men and women, singing is mainly a form of men’s entertainment, although women and children can be present at the event. This remains the situation in storytelling in Hungary where Romani men’s storytelling is a community event. In singing situations men take seats at the front and women either stand behind hem or sit down in separate groups. If there are many men in a singing situation, the singing is rarely a “solo performance”. I was expected to join the men’s gatherings. Even though it was a role I gladly accepted and thoroughly enjoyed, it also precluded documentation of the event and conversation with others – particularity women – in attendance. I decided to alternate male and female roles in these situations: singing and playing the guitar with the men on some occasions, and talking with the women at other times. It occurs to me now that my crossing of gender boundaries, mixing of gender roles, and creation of new roles (the ungendered researcher) may have contributed to my perceptions of the equality of men and women in the Romani communal singing situations. Some of the trips I made alone, and some with my family, friends or colleagues. The differences between the journeys I made alone and those with my family are of interest methodologically. When I was alone, I was included in the young unmarried groups, and was expected to take part in their activities, 556 especially their away-from-home activities. It was on those occasions that I learned a lot about Romani attitudes towards sex and honour. In general, I was expected to behave not unlike the Romani males of my generation. When my family was with me, we were considered to be more of the parent generation, which involved my being with other married Romani men, talking, and my wife being with the women, participating in the general household chores in which the females normally engage in households, whether they are of the family or are just visiting. Normally in the fieldwork situations, such as other social gatherings, i.e. funerals, birthdays etc. men and women will always split into their separate gender groups. Roma on the whole do not expect non-Roma to know about their culture and their cultural norms and values, and as these are very complex and multitudinous it is inevitable that a non-Roma breaks the norms many times daily. Usually Roma do not mind that at all, as they are very aware of and understanding about the enormity of the differences between their culture and the general Finnish culture, and do not expect that a non-Roma should follow their normative way of life. This is interesting in itself, and in line with observations which have been made about other minorities, namely that they are more able to see the point of view of the majority than the majority can tolerate the view of the minority (Grönfors, 1977, p. 169). It is sometimes easier as an outsider to approach a particular topic because one is not assailed with divided loyalties, socially and culturally conditioned assumptions, or ingrained expectations. And because of my position not simply as an outsider, but as a foreigner, it was possible for me to ask the most basic and direct questions without causing offence or seeming to challenge elements of a belief system. This study, therefore, is also in many ways my study and inevitably with coloured interpretations (as many scholars in both the humanities and social sciences now recognize). I have, however, tried to balance this outsider’ s view with an insider’s perceptions, particularly in relation to musical experience, most importantly through the inclusion, in the members’ own words, of their interpretations of particular phenomena. The significance of my own gender for the way in which the materials were compiled mainly depended on who were present at the interviews. On the other hand, the choice of locale was also pertinent to my research theme. In some situations, interviews and the playing of music were more called for in places suited to group interviews, while on other occasions a less disturbed and “more neutral” setting proved to be more suitable. The categories of age associated with my gender involved highly varying meanings depending on the situation. It was often the case in group interviews that the oldest men behaved as if they had all the power and as a male researcher, I found it hard to gain a grasp of the singing culture of young people, especially young women. A similar phenomenon has been observed to function in the opposite order: women researchers have found it hard to approach male interviewees. In traditional Romani research, grounds for this would most likely be sought from normative structures associated with respect and shame, with repeated reminders of how the lives of young people in Romani culture are regulated by a complex network of prohibitions, regulations and silence (Markkanen, 2003; Viljanen, 2012). On the other hand, as a male fieldworker I maintained the traditional gender division in the research situations, with males actively taking the initiative and women as passive recipients. In other works, I first went to talk with the males in the interviews. These eldest persons, however, 557 11.2. Why the doors are not open for us? Finnish Romani Music, Gender (Masculinity) & Difference often proved also to be the most active interlocutors. I thus applied genderassociated norms, just like other participants in the situation, in order to establish an everyday order of things. A noteworthy aspect of fieldwork is associated with orientation and the world of experience at the individual level. A joint conversation always requires to some degree experience shared by the speaker and the listener, in order for the parties to understand each other in general. I naturally had more shared experience with the men than the women. It has been suggested that shared memories make people born around same time a social generation, bound not only by similar age but above all by shared experiences. Music and different musical practices, such as playing instruments, singing and dancing were present in many ways in my ethnographic study. The various contexts of music and their ethnographic analysis show that masculinity is not a stable analytical category but instead becomes signified and provides significations in different ways in musical context, in different situations of time and place. Alternating in this way, masculinity readily avoids signification. By considering the male category in various musical contexts, we can see the major differences between different persons defined as males and how masculinity is merged with other categories of identity and alterities. 4. Early studies of the Roma and the impact of masculinity First, I have to ask why we non–Roma are so interested about the Roma - this is not only question about the Roma but any minorities as well. We know that majority cultures have in fact influences the development and expression in all of cultural identity of minority in Finland as well as elsewhere, sometimes more than the minority themselves and members of the majority have wished to believe; either this has not been recognized or it has been ignored (Kopsa-Schön, 1996, p. 251). What comes to Finnish Romani music tradition the reason has partly also been research tradition. Roma, like other “alien cultures” and communities have been studies from the perspective of divergence. Definitions and categories are repeatedly created by which ethnic communities and minority cultures can be distinguished from one another. Not so often has been examined the influences by which various communities mold one another. For me one explanation is Roma exoticism or as I sometimes want to call it “orientalism inside the Europe”. The research tradition of the Finnish Romani music has always hidden the message of gender – or earlier sex – that Romani music communicates. General Finnish Folklore including music research was the property of old men: women were absolutely outsiders in this tradition. That is one reason why the earliest archive material of Romani songs, is totally male-dominated and the songs of the women were neglected. This comes very near to the ideology of musical creativity: It seems that the conceptualization of creativity as fundamentally masculine brings it reduction of women the role of muse. In 1970, Pauline Oliveros, a composer of experimental music, published a brief article in New York Times addressing the question, why there have been no great women composers: she replies that women historically have been taught to despise activity outside of the domestic real as unfeminine. It is understandably, because the conceptualization of creativity as a truly masculine phenomenon was widespread in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century; musicians 558 as well as other artists, scholars, critics and scientists all sought to explain how a creator could only ever be a man. In addition, we must keep in mind that culture of the Finnish Roma is strongly masculinity. 5. Romani exotism We know that the image of the Roma has gradually spread via literature to other genres, the visual arts and music in nineteenth century. In music, Romani stereotypes were applied to a major degree in both stage music and in entertainment for courts and the bourgeois middle classes. A connection with the world was actualized especially in Romani music and dance as allencompassing freedom and as the authentic, natural, fiery and colourful characteristics of stereotypical “Gypsiness” as the Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt (1811–1886) described the Romani music that he heard and its manner of performance as deeply emotional, with its free chains of modulation, large intervals, oriental ornamentations and rhythms that gain pace. The virtuoso, artistic and colourful (emotional and fiery) character of Andalusian flamenco made the Romani entertainers of Southern Spain representatives of Spanish culture as a whole (Lindroos & Böök, 1999, p. 37). Romani entertainers quickly became popular all over Europe. It is interesting in these historical contexts of research of Romani music is that in that time, nationally focused Finnish musicologists faced a difficult question with regard to the Roma of whether or not their musical traditions belonged to Finnish folk music. Material in the folk poetry archive of the Finnish Literature Society suggests that the definition primarily concerned the language of the songs. Rhyming stanzaic folk songs known in Finnish as “sleigh songs” (rekilaulu) and sung in Finnish by the Roma were included among Finnish folk music, while songs in the Romani language were not considered to be folk music (Blomster, 2012, p. 292). In the 1960s the democratization of society was reflected in the first attempts to organize among Finnish Roma, although national unity in politics did not initially give Romani actors room in which to operate. In these political processes, representatives of minorities and the political system jointly formulated definitions of the ethnic and cultural nature of minorities (Pulma 2012). In the study of Romani music, this was evident at the national and international levels as various projects for collecting traditional music (Jalkanen & Laaksonen, 1972). When the existence of the Romani language and Romani music was recognized at the political level and their significance began to be given more and more publicity, research began to focus national forms of “Gypsy music”. Political and especially cultural “leftism” defined the study of minority and Romani music, the purpose being to study things previously unexplored, and the disenfranchised. 6. The cultural contexts of the Romani music as a catalysator for ‘otherness’ The music have heavily connect with the codes of moral of human being and the environment. Also, the Finnish Romani songs tells the story about morality, often asking or searching the meaning and purpose of human being life, seeking for authenticity, suggesting the social order, and seek to challenge 559 11.2. Why the doors are not open for us? Finnish Romani Music, Gender (Masculinity) & Difference the ways in which we interact with the problems of present through sharing the peoples experience in the past. Known as conservative, the Finnish Roma try to keep the special characteristic of their culture as pure as possible; the strict behavior rules – norms and values – seems to be more authentic and ideal among the Finnish Roma than elsewhere in Europe. We can look this ideal model of behavior in next table, or as I call it “Table: the rules of the game”: The “rules of the game” can be grouped under next seven prohibitions and obligations: Prohibition Obligation 1. Young versus old respect for elders 2. Men versus woman respect for men 3. Woman, mother and children ritual cleanliness – women’s body 4. Utensils, clean places, clothes ritual cleanliness – woman’s body 5. Control and movements of the body ritual cleanliness – woman’s body 6. Illness and death ritual cleanliness – unclean 7. Roma and non-Roma maintain ethnicity Table 11.2.1 Romani’ seven prohibitions and obligations As mentioned before, all ritual cleanliness rules or we can talk also about taboo rules, are to be considered in relation to the traditional social structure and with the respective of religion. The belief in the uncleanliness of the female body is based on a patriarchal order of society (prohibitions 1 -5). The Finnish Kaale use much stricter Mahrime –rules than the Kalderas’ do, a little bit same kind as the Sinti or Manouche Roma have. You have to respect always and everywhere older people, especially man. Ritual cleanliness means in musical contexts, that there is no dancing, because the body movement may refer to sexuality, no sexual lyrics – except using methafors – no sexual dressing or musical styles connecting sexuality, like rock or pop genres. That is one reason why the popular music performance by the Roma is very conventional, like old dance music, tango and walz. All rules are manifest in practise as avoidance, silence, respect and shame; rules are based the main symbolic classes in Roma society, respect for elders and ritual cleanliness. Also, the Romani language is good example of strength of ethnic identity. 7. Musical influences Romani music researcher Bálint Sárosi (1980, p. 864 - 865) represents a modern approach to Romani music, although most of his work is based on Hungarian material. Sárosi recognized that even in Hungary there is no single Romani style and that a universal definition of Romani music is not relevant (Pettan, 2002). Sárosi claims that, in a limited sense, the concept of “Gypsy music” refers to Romani folk music but in a broader sense to all genres of music performed and produced by Romani artists (Pettan, 1996, p. 43). Despite some criticism (Radulescu, 2003, p. 79), I agree that Sárosi’s latter definition is useful in the sense that it moves the focus of examination of the music from around the narrow theme of originality to processes of identification, making us ask what music the Romani consider their own and why. This definition also 560 points in the right direction in the sense that researchers have observed that the Roma tend to co-opt the melodic language of the local majority wherever they live (in Finland e.g. Jalkanen, 1972; 1976; 1996; Blomster, 2012; Åberg & Blomster, 2006; Novak-Rosengren, 2012; Åberg, 2015). The musical models for the widespread layers of rekilaulu (“sleigh song”) and romantic songs in traditional Romani tunes in Finland come from Finland and surrounding areas. The melodic models for the reki songs favoured by the Roma have mainly been two and four-lined songs from the Finnish folk repertoire, so-called reki metre songs. initial couplet final couplet Not any more | not any more | will summer berries | help My dearest’s | love is | rusted like |iron276 Figure 11.2.1 - Reki (Rhyming song) Rhythm Like Finnish reki metre folk songs, Romani reki songs also combine seven beats in the sung text with eight beats in the melody, creating the reki song form. The most important single criterion for identifying reki metre is the end of the second and fourth lines, which conclude with an accented poetic foot preceded by an unaccented beat. This also obtains in the reki style songs of the Romani as a rule. The following song provides an example of a reki metre verse: Figure 11.2.2 – ‘Ruuna se juosta roikuttellee’ (‘The Gelding Trots Along’) 1. The gelding trots along And the runners under the sleigh creak Run, run, God’s creature 276 The provided translations emphasize the literal meaning of the song lyrics. 561 11.2. Why the doors are not open for us? Finnish Romani Music, Gender (Masculinity) & Difference Without any cares. 2. I will put the finest reins On that skittish little gelding So he could pass for sale Even to the gentlefolk. Although no one knows the origin of reki metre singing with any certainty, foreign counterparts do exist, such as the erotic/satiric schnaderhupfel dance songs present in the German language area in the early Middle Ages, the Swedish enstrofing, and the Russian chastúshka, which were initially especially popular among young people. Essentially no differences exist in the phrase structure and basic tonality of the Roma and general Finnish reki songs. Almost without exception, reki songs in the Roma repertoire are in the so-called natural minor scale, progression cycles based on the repetition of couplets, which begin and end with the tonic of the scale. A pentatonic scale (Sarosi, 1971, p. 27) functions as the melodic deep structure of the tunes, which arises from the pentatonic movement of the motif thirds of the melodic frame due to the tension of the tonic and minor seventh interval (Blomster, 2006, pp. 105 - 106). 8. Russian romances The models for the romances favoured by the Finnish Roma are also to be found in Finnish folk music. While the models for reki metre Romani songs are old Finnish folk melodies, the influences on the romances come from the East, from Russia (Blomster, 2006, p. 114). The first professional Romani choir in Russia was founded by Count Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov in 1774, and the “Gypsy choir institution” came into being as an outgrowth of Romani exoticism of the Romantic Period in the mid-nineteenth century, later becoming a nationally significant phenomenon (Kutenkov, 2003, p. 72 – 75; Sarosi, 1971, p. 43). Political and cultural interests were operating in the background. Russian military operations in Crimea and the war with England and France that resulted created an atmosphere in which Slavophile nostalgia rose to its high point. Disdain for foreign nations, especially France, received additional impetus from traditional soirées in which Slavophilia was emphasized in both dress and art. This nationalistic shunning also extended to music, with one counterweight being the domesticated, court-approved Gypsy choirs. The popularity of Gypsy choirs permeated all of Russian society from the restaurants and cabarets to the court in St. Petersburg (Blomster, 2006, p. 114). After the outbreak of the First World War, the repertoire of Russian restaurants, cabarets, and variety shows became even more Russian. All German, Hungarian, and Austrian performers were cut and replaced with Russian performers and groups. A central factor for the spread of romances was also the Bolshevik Revolution, as a result of which Russian romances momentarily became an international phenomenon (Hirn, 1997, p. 281285). Although individual tunes spread from ear to ear through formal and informal contacts, sheet music publishing in the twentieth century also had a significant impact on the adoption of the romance repertoire as part of Finnish light music. The recording and sheet music publishing house Fazer began publishing a series of some one hundred romances translated into Finnish and Swedish in 1919, based on the St. Petersburg Davinghoff Gypsy romance series (Blomster, 2006, p. 115–116). 562 When one investigates the interfaces between Finnish Romani traditional songs and the melodies of the Russian romances, the use of a sixth interval is the most apparent feature (so-mi and do-la intervals). Thus, the models for the two main melody types of the Romani repertoire, the modal reki style and the tonal romance style are found in both the Finnish reki metre folk repertoire and a tradition of romance singing that is a fusion of disparate elements (Blomster, 2006, p. 116 - 118). It is interesting that the archaic special characteristics of Romani song, such as glissando-rubato (cBelisova, 2002, p. 13), the use of a vibrato based on slow, broad intonation, and trilling embellishments have been preserved to this day. Mechanical rhythmicness based on metric accompaniment has diluted the ornamental features of traditional music but has not erased them. Because the ethnic landscape and migration from Eastern Europe (mainly from Romania and Bulgaria), the new trend is kind of hybrid style of Romani music, like Romani hip hop, Balkan Beat, Sinti or Manuouche jazz or flamenco mixing different styles together. Anyway, the role of Romani music from different origin is important for the “global Romani identity” process. 9. Conclusions The earliest documentation of Finnish Romani music emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in both scholarships and the arts. Anyway, through the Romani history, Finnish region has been a crossroad between the East (Russia) and the West (Europe). Different musical cultures and styles have flow together. The traditional Finnish Romani music consist many elements from multiple space of different music styles, like Finnish folk music, Swedish folk music, Russian folk music and romances etc. Looking the historical context, the role of the music has always been important to the Roma for many reasons, but vice versa at the same time, also the Roma gave part of their tradition to the main population. Even the Roma’s music-culture seems to be a land of men’s world, I reject, like Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie (1990, p. 328) the commonplace idea that there is some sort of ‘natural’ sexuality which music expresses, arguing instead that “the most important ideological work done by music is the construction of sexuality depending the musical genre, and the context where music is performance”. I also argue that analysis of lyrics is inadequate to show how music constructs sexuality, and that a full account must also discuss musical sound. Like Frith and McRobbie, I also argue that music participates in the social construction of gender, in part by creating vivid, gendered musical images of sexual experience. Thereby changes in musical style and form have generally been reflections of changes in society and also gender (Blacking, 1995, p. 49). Singing the songs, playing the music, or discussing their contents is not just a reproduction of traditional way of life however, for the songs tend to acquire different meanings in the musical practices of very varied everyday contexts. They are a means of maintaining the sense of community, of underlining gender identity or of drawing a boundary with the dominant population. In this way, Roma songs have served as a forum for Roma to discuss the values and the norms, such like gender roles, of importance to them. Many descriptions concerning traditional music performance are usually described in masculine terms, but these performances have a culturally respected 563 11.2. Why the doors are not open for us? Finnish Romani Music, Gender (Masculinity) & Difference place also for women. These songs carry all kinds of meanings, according to the context in which they are sung. Changes in gender identity are possible because the community boundaries are sufficiently elastic to take in cultural innovations that do not necessarily support the traditional cultural foundations of the community. Society is heterogeneous to permit changes brought about through the shift in gender identity. Thirdly, I argue that as in traditional Roma music, women singer escapes patriarchal definition. In the same time, they threaten in some ways to break out of definitions of femininity by challenging women’s alienation from Roma’s musical practises. References Åberg, K. & Blomster, R. (2006). Suomen romanimusiikki. Helsinki: SKS. Åberg, K. (2015). These Songs Tell About Our Life, You see” - Music, Identity and Gender in Finnish Romani music. Frankfurt am Main/ Bern/Bruxelles/New York/Oxford/Warszawa/Wien: Peter Lang. Babiracki, C. (1997). What’s the Difference? Reflection on Gender and Research in Village India. In G. Barz & T. Cooley (Eds.), Shadows in the Field. New Perspectives for Fieldwork in ethnomusicology (pp. 167-182). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Belisova, J. (2002). Phurigane gila. Starodavne romske piesne. Slovakia: Obcianske zdruzenie Zudro v spolupraci s Obcianskym zdruzenim Medias. Blacking, J. (1973). How Musical is Man? Washington: University of Washington Press. Blomster, R. (2006). Suomen romanien perinnelaulujen melodiikka. In K. Åberg & R. Blomster (Ed.), Suomen romanimusiikki (pp. 97-132). Helsinki: SKS. Blomster, R. (2004). Suomen mustalaislaulujen tyylit. Mustalaismusiikki mielikuvissa, estradeilla ja omissa joukoissa. Tampere: Tampereen yliopisto. Blomster, R. (2012). Romanimusiikki rajojen vetäjänä ja yhteyksien luojana. In P. Pulma (Ed.), Suomen romanien historia (pp. 290-374). Helsinki: SKS. Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York/London: Routledge. Clark, C. (2006). Who are the Gypsies and Travellers in Britain?. In C. Clark & M. Greenfields (Eds.), Here to Stay. The Gypsies and travellers of Britain (pp. 10-27). Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire. Frith, S., & McRobbie, A. (1990). Rock and sexuality. In S. Frith & A. Goodwin (Eds.). On Record. Rock, pop and the written word (pp. 317-332). London: Routledge. Grönfors, M. (1977). Blood Feuding among Finnish Gypsies. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. Hirn, S. (1997). Sävelten tahtiin. Populaarimusiikki Suomessa ennen itsenäisyyttämme. Kansanmusiikki-Instituutin julkaisuja 44. Kaustinen. Kansanmusiikki-Instituutti. Jalkanen, P. & Laaksonen, P. (1972). Kaale Dzambena – levyn esipuhe. Helsinki: SKS. Jalkanen, P. (1976). Suomen mustalaisten musiikista. In H. Laitinen & S. Westerholm (Ed.), Paimensoittimista kisällilauluun. Tutkielmia kansanmusiikista 1. Kaustinen: Kansanmusiikki-instituutti. Jalkanen, P. (1996). Mustalaiset, mustalaisuus ja musiikki. In R. Blomster & R. Pekka Pennanen (Eds.), Musiikin suunta 1/1996 (pp. 6-9). Suomen etnomusikologinen seura. Jalkanen, P. & Laaksonen, P. (1972). Kaale Dzambena – levyn esipuhe. Helsinki: SKS. Kopsa-Schön, T. (1996). Kulttuuri-identiteetin jäljillä. Suomen romanien kulttuuri-identiteetistä 1980-luvun alussa. Helsinki: SKS. Koskoff, E. (2014). A feminist ethnomusicology. Writings on music and gender. Illinois: University of Illinois Press. Kutenkov, V. (2003). Genesis of the Romany Musical Folk Art. In Z. Jurkova (Ed.), 564 Romani Music at the Turn of Millennium. Proceedings of the Ethnomusicologist Conference (pp. 72-78). Praha: Humanitnich studii Univerzity Karlovy v Praze. Lindroos, K. & Böök, O. (1999). Flamencon historia. In K. Lindroos; M. Helariutta; O. Böök; M. Huotari; A. Niinimäki (Ed.), Flamenco. Tampere: Like- Kustannus. Markkanen, A. (2003). Luonnollisesti: Etnografinen tutkimus romaninaisten elämänkulusta. Joensuu: Joensuun yliopiston julkaisuja. Novak-Rosengren, R. (2012). Visornas miljöer och sammanhang. In R. NovakRosengren & M. L. Persson (Eds.), Romanifolkets visor. 500 år I Norden. Muntlig sang- och vistradition (pp. 11-23). Svenskt visarkiv 34. Pettan, S. (1996). Feminiinistä maskuliiniksi – maskuliinista – feminiiniksi. Sosiaalinen sukupuoli Kosovon mustalaisten musiikissa. In R. Blomster & R. P. Pennanen (Ed.), Musiikin suunta, 1/1996, pp. 41–52. Pulma, P. (2006). Suljetut ovet. Pohjoismaiden romanipolitiikka 1500-luvulta EU-aikaan (Closed Doors – Nordic Romany Policy from the 16th century to the EU era). Helsinki: SKS. Pulma, P. (2012). Suomen romanien historia. Helsinki: SKS. Radulescu, S. (2003). What is Gypsy Music? (on belonging, identification, attribution, the assumption of attribution). In Z. Jurkova (Ed.), Romani Music at the Turn of Millennium. Proceedings of the Ethnomusicologist Conference (pp. 79-84). Praha: Humanitnich studii Univerzity Karlovy v Praze. Sárosi, B. (1980). Gypsy Music. In S. Sadie (Ed.), The New Growe Dictionary of Music and Musicians 7 (pp. 864-870). London: Macmillan Press. Silverman, C. (2012). Romani Routes. Cultural Politics & Balkan Music in Diaspora. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vakimo, S. (2001). Paljon kokeva, vähän näkyvä. Tutkimus vanhaa naista koskevista kulttuurisista käsityksistä ja vanhan naisen elämänkäytännöistä. Helsinki: SKS. Viljanen, A. M. (2012). Romanikulttuurin muuttuvat muodot ja pysyvät rakenteet. In P. Pulma (Ed.), Suomen romanien historia (pp. 375-425). SKS: Helsinki. 565 11.3. Making ‘Musical Asylum’ and opening paths of imagination of migration in transit Emilie Da Lage 277 A b s t r a c t This article is an account of an action research conducted during 2016 and 2017 in the Grande-Synthe camp for migrants near Dunkerque (France). DIY movement is about taking cultural production into one’s own hand. I will show how, whereas the camp is a place where all forms of control on your own life seem to vanish, choosing the music you can listen to is something. It is a way of acting on your environment. Secondly, I will try to specify the kind of cultural production women could control in the gendered context of the camp. I will defend that, with the Kurdish women I worked with, we tried to produce cultural and fragile “asylums” (Tia De Nora, 2013), through listening activities. These cultural asylums take place in a situation where political asylum for these migrant women is a perspective and not a reality yet and is performed in the gendered context of camp. Keywords: Music, gender, migration camp, cultural imagination, diaspora. 277 University of Lille - Culture Department. Lille, France. E-mail: [email protected]. 566 1. Introduction Real chronotopes of our contemporary globalization, objects of contradictory narratives, “jungles” “migration camps” and “centers” are also the places of production of a culture of life in transition. In these places, people settle precariously for a while. In these places of transition, exiles as well as volunteers and employees are engaged in the organization of very specific forms of hospitality that combine extremely strong and intense commitments to precarious presences. It appears that music is one of the ways - there are others - through which exiles deploy forms of subjectivation that allow the building of more or less cosmopolitan collectives. By creating a range of space and time it gives them the possibility to commit in various ways. Music has a “potential” of creating collective commitment. Exploring the conditions of realization of this potential is also an opportunity to explore some political dimensions of migration camps. DIY movement is about taking cultural production into one’s own hand, I will show how whereas the camp is a place where all forms of control on your own life seem to vanish, choosing the music you can listen to is something and it is a way of acting on your environment. Secondly, I will try to specify what kind of cultural production are we talking about: I will defend that, with the Kurdish women I worked with, we tried to produce cultural and fragile asylums, through listening activities, when the political one, even the possibility of asking for one, is denied to them. 2. Grande Synthe: Considering migration of transit as an art of dwelling temporary Grande Synthe is a city on the outskirts of Dunkirk, one of the biggest French harbors. It is an industrialised city, affected by the crisis, and since the closure of the humanitarian reception center of Sangatte, it is a stage for the exiles, mainly Kurds, who seek to join England. The story of the Linière camp in Grande Synthe is linked to the commitment of the mayor of the town in search for dignified solutions for exiles passing through his city, and the implication of the ONG “Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)”. In the summer of 2015, the number of exiles literally exploded, overwhelming the local historical associations that provided humanitarian aid. The living conditions became extremely hard in the main camp of the city. In association with M.S.F. and various associations, particularly English such as “Aid Box Community” or “The Refugee Community Kitchen”, and against the will of the French government, the municipal team decided to build an atypical camp. It was made of wooden huts and then during the first months of installation, various buildings, also in wood, housing a recreation center, various collective kitchens, and the place of my inquiries: a women center, around a rehabilitated farmhouse. The camp was more than 95% Iraqi Kurdish en route to England and taking advantage of the nearby highway area. The management of the camp was entrusted to a young humanitarian association, “Utopia 56”, involved in the waste management in Calais and Barosch camp and sharing with the municipal team the will to make the camp Linière a place open to associative and citizen initiatives. One the characteristic of the “humanitarian actors” of la Linière where their formal involvement into musical worlds: the leaders of Utopia and many volunteers came from a big French festival: les Vieilles Charrues and had experiences in the management 567 11.3. Making ‘Musical Asylum’ and opening paths of imagination of migration in transit of camping festival and Aid Box convoy was linked to the English movement of free party and knew how to build autonomous places, the logistician of M.S.F. had been a stage manager in one of the music venue of Lille, and praised the sense of improvisation of the “cultural world”. Aid Box Community is an organization from Bristol also linked to the local musical scene and the free party culture. Besides, Bristol is a city where the Kurdish cause supported by the anarcho punk scene is important. ABC built most of the installations and the camp landscape was a mix between the humanitarian architectural culture of M.S.F. and the art of temporary dwelling of festival and free party culture. The DIY culture was also perceivable in the way they tried to make the camp installations tools for the autonomy of the exiles. “Utopia 56” did the job the first months of the camp installation, mobilizing a large number of volunteers, organizing logistics and trying to coordinate the initiatives of associations that came from all over Europe and did not necessarily share the same way of doing things, nor the same ethical objectives. Financially choked, the city of Grande Synthe finally obtained the financial support of the French government. “Utopia 56 “gave way to another managing association, the AFEJI. This change had a lot of consequences on the camp: whereas the association as Aid Box community and Utopia came from the cultural world, the Afeji was from the social and humanitarian worlds and accepted the accentuation of control and the “encampement dynamic” (Agier & Lecadet, 2014) Tensions in the camp increased over the months, linked to the gradual degradation of the camp (humid shelters, large puddles in the camp). Historical associations such as MSF, Utopia, withdrew totally. The reinforcement of control didn’t help to reduce the violence suffered by the exiles on the camp from different groups of smugglers. Finally, the complete destruction of the camp of Calais, made the situation worse with the overpopulation and the difficult cohabitation between exiles. Ultimately a fire destroyed the camp of la Linière completely on 11 April 2017. Despite efforts to humanize the living conditions on the la Linière camp, violence, precariousness and uncertainty constituted the “daily life” of the exiles. La Linière story is completely linked to the problematic of transit migration in Europe and of the grey area the European migration policies created. People who were in Grande-Synthe were not “supposed” to exist. They couldn’t be expelled because they mostly came from countries in war, but they were not asking for asylum there. The ethnographic works led in the camps in the north of France questioned this transitory situation and its consequences278. The solutions imagined are though imagined just for transit, with the minimum humanitarian support and trying to organize the invisibility of these “people undesired but stuck in the border”. Camps in this situation appeared to be the “only” solution possible. This “border situation” and the question of the crossing of the border shaped the camp, organized by a network of multiple surveillances activities (from the police, the smugglers, the humanitarian association), and the kind of life in transit it was possible to live there. The musical experiences on the camp cannot be understood without taking into account this reality, known and experienced in a different way by those who have been there. In these conditions, musical activities, listening or playing were part of a special form of dweeling in transit in a border situation. 278 Since the pioneer work of Smain Laacher in 2002. 568 3. Gendered soundscapes The sensible order (Rancière, 2000) of the camp was not only visible, even though process of racialization were obvious and common to other humanitarian camps, it was also perceivable in the soundscapes of the camp. In these soundscapes, music played a major role, musicalisation of the places through the use of smartphones, or little soundsystems shaped the camp and organized “threshold effect” protecting a group from being heard, marking a form of appropriation of a collective equipment. The soundscapes of the camp tell us a lot of what Jacques Rancière calls a political aesthetic distributing the perceptible/the parts we take to the collective life/and the possibilities of recognition. In the musical and audible regime of the camps, women voices, and women listening activities were completely absent. No women on stages, no women in the public of the concerts, no women in the places of collective music listening. This partition crossed another one: the attention to musical activities by the volunteers, but also by the few researchers (ethnomusicologists mainly) engaged in inquiries in the camp was an attention toward the musicians who could play music, listening to music wasn’t at all considered. Women represented 10% of the exiles on the camp. Considering this, I decided to make a focus on their practices. This demanded to pay more attention to the listening activities and to look how they could be considered as forms of cultural productions. The opening of a women’s and children’s center (called the Women Center), by British volunteers who had feminist concerns and who were used to create “all women” environment, enabled women to break out of the relative isolation of the shelters. This closed place, without window, sheltered feminine sociability, and subtracted them a little to the surveillance system. Often under criticisms. It was later attacked by fire. In the Women Center, speakers allowed to amplify mobile phones. To find my place there, I simply came in once or twice a week, from the end of August to the end of November 2016. I spent each time two or three hours at the Women Center, with my mobile phone connected to a mobile speaker, and I brought a snack. I invited the women present to browse YouTube or Deezer and “play the DJ”, either from my own phone or from theirs connected to the speaker. This simple presence allowed me to put into practice a form of “care ethics”, guided by the following questions: “how to do, in such a situation, to preserve and maintain the human relations that are at stake? And, how can it be done without reinforcing the inequalities of gender, class and race? “ (Laugier, 2010). It was not just a matter of looking at the musical practices and experiences of the women in the camp, but finding a way to investigate and return the work that guarantees respect for their singularity and capabilities. This work ethic had to take into account the actual conditions of life on the camp in other words, the situation. And it would require, as Gilligan pointed out, “a more contextual and narrative way of thinking than formal and abstract” (Laugier, 2010, p.5 ndlr.). Finally, it corresponded to an attempt buit a point of view situated, in the situation from a concrete and engaged, connected, involved projects as emphasized by Donna Haraway (Haraway, 2007). 569 11.3. Making ‘Musical Asylum’ and opening paths of imagination of migration in transit 4. Musical Asylums 30 September 2016, Women Center, Camp de la Linière Grande-Synthe. Adar wants to talk today, she wants to know how a French girl like me knows Tara Jaff a folk Kurdish harpist player. Today I had chosen this track to begin the session. She looks at my phone, and browse YouTube to find a Kurdish singer who sang with her, Adnan Karim, and after the song, she said to me in a smile: ‘but you know, I also like Beyonce!’, I smile back and we put Who run the World, singing and dancing, and laughing. What did I discover? Nothing very new in fact: that listening collectively to music, can be described as a form of game, a double performance: a musical performance, and a performance of oneself. Following Tia DeNora’s proposals (DeNora, 2016), music in this situation could be considered as a form of asylum. That is to say a place and a time in which one feels safe, a place open to creativity, a place of recognition of one’s existence as someone. In this perspective, asylum is not the total institution described by Goffman which lack as he pointed out of real “asylums”, but a place of “rehabilitation” which, for DeNora, functions via the possibility of engaging in common activities, including, for example, listening to music together. Musical asylum opens up the possibility of selfrealization, through negotiation and adaptation with others. The way Adar escape to forms of cultural assignation, make links between us and the way we shared the Beyoncé song about being powerful women there on this camp, shows how listening is a cultural production opening paths to imagination in the context of camp and a form of performance. Tia DeNora distinguishes two forms of asylum, those that operate on the principle of retirement, and those that operate on the principle of the rearrangement of a world of relationships and possibilities, which she calls “refurnishing”: to give back skills and to act on the design of space to open catches to action. These two forms of asylum can be combined: the “rehabilitating” asylum is also a place of withdrawal from the “ordinary” social world. Of course, it has also to do with the construction of shared value: to choose a piece of music is to share something that is valued, that is good in the present situation, is to engage in the production of the moment to live in common. When we collectively managed to musicalise the Women Center so that the majority of women would engage in the session and we could influence the atmosphere of the place, we demonstrated an ability to act on our environment. Such an ability is allowed in few situations on the camp, and in the course of exile in general. 5. Doing with the technology The mobile phone and its connection to the internet and streaming platforms have played a vital role in making music a medium for articulating the multiple dimensions of the world lived by exiles, particularly because it allowed alternating musical choices from the personal libraries contained on the phones (mine and those of some of the women) with choices from the 570 musical offer formatted via YouTube mainly. The availability of titles searched on YouTube validated the existence of a community of taste beyond the camp. Fans of the singers we wanted to listen to, the singers themselves, had taken the trouble to post these contents on the platform, to put them in shape, to comment on them, to make covers, to add images and translations etc ... The women of Grande-Synthe mobilized and relied on the creative activity of YouTube users to invent ways of being women, Kurds, exiled in this place of the Women’s Center. The combination of these resources available online and through phones allowed them to connect their worlds, and to experience their reality: that of their life in their home country, their diaspora belonging, their life here on the camp, their desired life in Europe. Most singers we listened to are members of the large Kurdish diaspora and have themselves experienced camps in Iraq or Iran. This omnipresence of exile in the mediascapes of the women of the camp helped to situate their adventure in an aesthetic and cultural history. The pieces we listened to were often clips of Kurdish variety shows from various Kurdish Kurdistan television channels or Kurdish transnational channels available on YouTube. The history of the Kurdish media is linked to the struggles for the independence of Kurdistan, and to the ideological and political ones that animate the different Kurdish regions. During the sessions, the women present alternated excerpts of NRT2 and extracts of Kurdistan TV broadcasts with very different positioning and history. This does not mean that the recontextualization of program extracts in the organized stream from YouTube’s indexing criteria completely eliminates the program and the sender, or even completely breaks the ideological charge carried by the channel. The very style of the programs, up to the quality of the sound, the colors of the stage, the clothes of the presenters and the public often shown, remain elements organized from the perspective of the channel; but, listened-watched as part of our meetings, with as a first request the name of the interpreter, the fact that we can identify these videos first as extracts of variety shows, with their codes, and at last the way we listened to them as ”variety music” shows the way the perspective of the continuity of an ideological work can’t be totally maintained. It was held remotely, via the reassembly of titles, for the musical experience. Finally, this ideological framework of the Kurdish media is part of the life of exiles and Kurds in general and the way women used YouTube and its possibilities of rearrangement indicates how they “do with” and “in” this particular media context for, in fine, listen to music. This does not mean that the politico-ideological load of the source broadcasts is destroyed by the interpretation, nor, conversely, that the ideology continues to work masked, without the knowledge of these women. It is here all the sensible richness, all the potential power - (inter) subjective - of music and the circulation of cultural productions that open interpretative possibilities whose seizure remains partly unpredictable and, in any case, irreducible. The musical landscapes were constituted through a relocation of the available musical resources and this activity has consequences that must be assumed: comforting one of the participants who starts to cry listening to one of the selected music for example. These gestures of comfort were part of the “rehabilitation” work that the musical experience opened up. Finally, the choices could also be the occasion of the manifestation of disagreements. Often these disagreements were more alive between the children present or between the children and the adults. The negotiations, and sometimes the impossibility of reaching an agreement other than that of the distribution 571 11.3. Making ‘Musical Asylum’ and opening paths of imagination of migration in transit of time between the different protagonists (we listen to your song and then we will listen to yours), opened at least the possibility of thinking about the hospitality of this “Musical asylum” not only as a hospitality based on the ability to recognize and produce points of agreement, but also as a hospitality of cohabitation, sometimes even a hospitality of “confrontation” as Isaac Joseph puts it (Joseph,1997). 6. Paying attention to vulnerability. Giving room to engagement and disengagement Moreover, engaging in the proposed musical experience forced to accept a piece of play and it required a form of availability sometimes impossible in the conditions of encampment. The fact that the music is “available for the ears of others” and the lightness of the device, however, allowed to create “minimal openings” i.e. forms of recognition of the presence without obligation of a commitment that would go up to prevent the withdrawal (Joseph, 1997). In my opinion, it is precisely in this variety of forms of disengagement authorized by the fragility of certain “catches” that the hospitality of the Women’s Center during the listening sessions was best guaranteed. If the ethics of care involves paying attention to vulnerability, if it requires a particular look, it might be said, it also implies attention to commitment provisions. An ethics from a care perspective could imply a right to disengagement. 7. Conclusion: Hey, M. policeman The degradation of the women center, open to drafts, the growing difficulty of maintaining the unmixed character of the place, the exacerbated tensions between exiles and the difficulty of maintaining a dialogue with the volunteers who tried to make it work every day, themselves under heavy pressure, led me to put an end to the experiment. Shortly after, in January 2017, the Women’s Center was the target of a fire. Rebuilt, it was again destroyed in the camp fire. Since the exiles are back in the woods, and subject to police harassment. The work of the Women Center continues though, in the informal camp, they equipped a van to be mobile. I came back in June 2018, the girls wanted to listen to Zumba, because they danced Zumba all over Europe with their mothers, they said. On the screen of my computer connected to YouTube, they rapidly remarked a Zumba clip on the song “Hey Mister Policeman” from Eva Simons. During the two days I stayed, they kept asking me to play the song again and again, and imitated the choreography, playing the “Zumba policeman”. Here are the lyrics: Hey, mister policeman/I don’t want no trouble/I just wanna drop my jiggelin’ down to the floor/Hey, mister policeman/Why you wanna holla at me?/I just wanna drop my jiggelin’ down to the floor/ No arrest badman mind ya bizz(bis)/ No arrest baddaman mind ya business - Down to the floor. 572 Acknowledgments: M.S.F., Attacafa, The Women Center, The P.S.M., Fragiles les Bulles, Beshwar Hassan, and all the women who participated to the sessions. References Abdulkarim, A. (1998). Les kurdes irakiens en Europe, Nouveaux boat people. Revue européenne des migrations internationales, 14(1), pp. 263-276. Agier, M. et al. (2014). Un monde de camps. Paris: La Découverte. Agier, M., (2008). Gérer les indésirables. Des camps de réfugiés au gouvernement humanitaire. Paris: Flammarion. Akpinar, Z. (2007). L’État turc face aux télévisions transfrontières kurdes. In T. Mattelart (Ed.), Médias, migrations et cultures transnationales (pp. 89-102). Bruxelles: De Boeck Supérieur. Appaduraï, A. (2015). Après le colonialisme, les conséquences culturelles de la mondialisation. Paris: Payot. Boe, C. ; Fischer, N. (2010). L’ethnographe en milieu fermé. Deux enquêtes sur les étrangers en prison et en rétention administrative face à l’expertise associative et aux enjeux de la publication. In S. Laurens ; F. Neyrat (Ed.). Enquêter: de quel droit? Menaces sur l’enquête en sciences sociales (pp. 117-138). Bellecombe-en-Bauges: Éditions du Croquant. Bouillon, F., Fresia, M., Tallio, Virginie (Ed.) (2006). Terrains sensibles. Expériences actuelles de l’anthropologie. Paris: Éditions de l’EHESS. Breviglieri, M., Stavo-Debauge, J. (2006). Sous les conventions. Accompagnement social à l’insertion: entre sollicitude et sollicitation. In F. Eymard-Duvernay (Ed.), L’économie des conventions. Méthodes et résultats. Tome II. Développements (pp. 129-144). Paris: La Découverte. Da Lage, É.; Debruyne, F. (2015). Les refrains de la mondialisation. Variations critiques, dissonances et consonances de l’économie politique de la communication et des cultural studies. Réseaux, 192(4), pp. 115-142. Da Lage, É. (2016). La musique, le temps, le camp. In S. Lequette; D. Levergos (Ed.), Décamper! (pp. 143-147). Paris: La Découverte. De Nora, T. (2014). Making sense of reality, culture and perception in everyday life. London: Sage. De Nora, T. (2016). Music Assylum, Wellbing through music in Everyday Life. New York: Routledge. Debruyne, F. (2015). Faire et de (dé)faire d’une expérience publique de l’écoute. Culture et Musées, 25, pp. 69-93. Gayet-Viaud, C., (2010). La critique du concept de culture, Ethnographies féministes et subalternes. In D. Cefaï (Ed.), L’engagement ethnographique (pp. 399-415). Paris: EHESS éditions. Haraway, D. (2007). Manifeste cyborg et autres essais. Paris: Exils Editeurs. Hennion, A. (2001). Music lovers taste as performance. Theory culture and society, 18(5), pp. 1-22. Isaac J. (1997). Prises, Réserves, Epreuves. Communications, 65(1), pp. 131-142. Laacher, S. (2002). Après Sangatte. Nouvelles immigrations. Nouveaux enjeux. Paris: La Dispute. Laugier, S. (2010). L’éthique du care en trois subversions. Multitudes, 42(3), pp. 112-125. Makaremi, C. (2009). Zone d’attente pour personne en instance. Une ethnographie de la détention frontalière en France (Unpublished doctoral dissertation) Montréal: Université de Montréal. Makaremi, C. (2008). Participer en observant. Étudier et assister les étrangers aux frontières. In D. B. A. Fassin (Ed.), Les politiques de l’enquête. Épreuves ethnographiques (pp. 165-183), Paris: La Découverte. 573 11.3. Making ‘Musical Asylum’ and opening paths of imagination of migration in transit Mbembe, A., (2016). Politiques de l’inimitié. Paris: La Découverte. Pecqueux, A. (2012). Politiques des ambiances - Que faire du fond inextricablement politique des ambiances? Paper presented at the meeting of the International Ambiances Network, Montreal. Pecqueux, A., Roueff, O. (Ed.) (2009). Ecologie sociale de l’oreille. Paris: EHESS. Puig N., (2008). Entre villes et camps: musiciens palestiniens au Liban. Autrepart, 1(45), pp. 59-72. Rancière, J., (2000). Le partage du sensible. Paris: La Fabrique. Roussel, C. (2013). Circulations à la frontière entre Kurdes d’Irak et Kurdes d’Iran. EchoGéo, 25, pp. 1-20. 574 11.4. Lido Pimienta, the postmuse of contemporary Canada Nadja Vladi Gumes 279 A b s t r a c t This article reflects on certain issues such as globalization and its aspects of internationalization, cosmopolitanism, hegemony, contributing to a debate in diverse contexts of cultural studies and, consequently, expanding studies in the field of music and communication, from an analysis of the positions occupied by the Colombian singer living in Canada, Lido Pimienta, as an artist, activist and immigrant. This article is part of the postdoctoral research done at McGil University, which is based on thinking about pop music produced by immigrant artists in territories that are called multicultural. Keywords: Pop music, activism, transcultural. 279 Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia - Center for Culture, Languages and Applied Technologies. Bahia, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]. 575 11.4. Lido Pimienta, the post-muse of contemporary Canada 1. Introduction Canada is thought of as a nation of cultural diversity worldwide. However, there are tensions and conflicts about this concept within Canada. Sheenagh Pietrobruno, author of the book Salsa and its transnational moves (2006), the result of her doctoral thesis at McGill University, makes an analysis with several points of reflection on salsa and the relationship of Latino immigrants with the city of Montreal. One of its findings is, while there is an official (and unofficial) promotion of multiculturalism, it is a myth to believe that these “ethnic” cultures would occupy the same place as the dominant cultures of the two founding nations (United Kingdom and France): In reality, ‘other’ cultures have little power to affect and influence the prevailing cultures. Official multiculturalism policy is under fire for being a containment policy that keeps ethnic groups in ‘their place’ and renders them unable to significantly influence Canadian society (Paquet, 1994, p. 6364). The multiculturalism policy remains merely decorative because it neither grants immigrants any ‘real ethnic rights’, nor requires them to fulfill with ‘multicultural obligations’. The promotion of multiculturalism values without actual resources to support diversity can only create a split between what is expected from the official policy and what it can actually put into place in concrete circumstances (Pietrobruno, 2006, p.97). Pietrobruno notes that, despite the strength of multiculturalism policy as a discourse, places of power are rarely occupied by this multicultural population, and the state gives little space to immigrants in decisions that shape what Canadian society is. Salsa, for example, works as a commodity in this great market of Canadian multiculturalism. Canadian researcher Afef Benessaieh attempts to explain the meanings of Canadian multiculturalism in the book Trancultural Americas (2010): In the Canadian context, multiculturalism has been in use since the 1970s, both as a descriptive term to qualify cultural diversity in the population and as a set of programmatic measures conducted by the State to support and encourage such diversity in a non-assimilationist view (mosaïque or the melting-pot sense of the term multiculturalism). These measures concern immigration, labor market, education, public media policies, and regulations as well as support for the arts and culture, sustaining the general view that respect for cultural pluralism is central to Canadian culture (see Heritage Canada’s annual reports on Canadian multiculturalism; and Houle 1999 for a historiography of the policy) (Benessaieh, 2010, p. 18). 576 Studying the subject in Canada, Benessaieh considers cultures as flowing relational webs and with active interaction. She believes that the term “transculturalism” is better suited to describe the cultures that originate from migratory flows and ethnic miscegenations because “ transculturality here refers to an embodied situation of cultural plurality lived by many individuals and communities of mixed heritage and/or experience whose multifaceted situation is rendered more visible under globalization” (2010, p. 15). The two authors bring contributions to understand the environment that singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lido Pimienta, who was born in Colombia, but built her career in the independent pop scene of Canada, is inserted. Designed nationally after her album La Papessa in 2017, winning Canada’s top musical award, the Polaris Music Prize, the artist made a very emphatic speech on the day of the awards ratifying her no place in the country. “Not in English, not in French. But we’re here. And again I denounce white supremacy in Canada”. Identifying herself as an Afro-Colombian of indigenous origin, Lido Pimienta is part of the Canadian DIY scene, and the feminist, black, indigenous and immigrant speech permeates her performance. In La Papessa, she presents songs about love in a patriarchal and heteronormative society. She sings neither English nor French, but in Spanish and presents a musicality sewn by accounts of femininity, personal and political pain, in which her voice establishes a leading role over experimental electronics and minimalist melodies mixed with her Latin and Indian roots. For the past three years, she has become one of the most important voices in Canada, acting politically so that the stages are occupied by black women, indigenous women and trans-people. In this text, we want to reflect on the contemporary culture carried out by artists such as Lido Pimienta (feminist, black, and immigrant) from the perspective of cultural studies. We are interested in thinking about pop music from a gender perspective, from migrations, from displacements to observe the transformations that occur in the process of urbanity (Straw, 1991) and from the relations between peoples. We want to understand how new social and artistic practices are being formatted from discourses such as feminism, immigration and transculturalism, intermediated by music. A transcultural territory that allows us to have a contemporary understanding of the social, ethnic and generational tensions that emerge in certain urban spaces to think of urban pop music as a cultural device to understand affective alliances, cultural connections, media expressions, socioeconomic aspects and to perceive the networks that are formed around geographic, sonorous, affective, social and economic territorializations. 2. Activist and artsy Lido Pimienta, 32, was born in Colombia but lives in Canada since the age of ten, currently residing in the city of Toronto, in the province of Ontario, whose language is English. Singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, she presents herself in a circuit of cultural globalization (Regev, 2013) which, according to the author, produces aesthetic cosmopolitanism that “consists of quests for recognition, for a sense of parity, for participation and membership in what collective and individual actors around the world believe to be the innovative frontiers of creativity and artistic expressions in modern culture” (Regev, 2013, p.19). What Regev calls aesthetic cosmopolitanism are cultures generated in 577 11.4. Lido Pimienta, the post-muse of contemporary Canada the flow of the West to other parts of the world, but also from Asia, Africa, Latin America, empowered by a networked society that creates a new dynamic of information exchange, especially from the use of new technologies. These actors who present themselves in this global cultural circuit also do so as a form of resistance to a hegemonic West. In Lido’s case, she sings in Spanish (in an English-speaking and French-speaking country), brings indigenous, black and Latin stylistic elements to her music in dialogue with electronic bases, genres with Colombian percussion and rap, and puts her feminist activism, immigrant, ethnic as part of speech and her lyrics. When moving to Canada, Lido Pimienta moves to another reconfiguration in which she strengthens her national culture and goes through a process in which her body integrates a new territoriality expressing questions about sexualities, ethnicities. It brings its territory of origin and occupies another, an ideological and aesthetic reterritorialization, creating new forms of political subjectivity (Rancière, 2011). Lido positions herself as an artist with a racialized body (Latin, black, indigenous), whose art encompasses marginalized collectives (women, trans, blacks, immigrants). Indie rock in Canada as white, masculine, cis, so she reaffirms herself as the only woman, black and indigenous within this circuit in a country that officially positions itself as multicultural. Her position in current Canadian music is that of tensing the relations of a white hegemonic power, and she does not accepts her place as a black and Latin pop artist. Lido always positions herself as “the other” with dissent. As an immigrant, as an Afro-Indigenous person, an intersectional feminist, as a mother and all other signifiers that qualify me as ‘other’. I understand what it is like to see yourself in the media, to not see yourself in institutions and do not see yourself represented or reflected in a music show, because the ‘artist of color’ (and I put that in quotation marks because even that term is extremely problematic), we do not get to see each other at that level (Brad Wheeler, 2017). She refuses to be a commodity (Latin American) in this broad spectrum of multicultural consumption that is part of Canadian culture. Along with tension and conflict, there is a fluidity between local and global that makes us think of cultural globalization as a space of creation of new cultures that are related in networks of enormous interaction that we call transculturalism, a concept that, as Benessaieh puts it, “captures highly diversified cultural changes in a contemporary society that has become globalized” (2010, p. 11). While observing the album, La Papessa, we realize that the work crosses several geographic, cultural and ideological territories: the Indian desert of Wayuu, the mountains in Colombia, the city of Toronto. Musically it is possible to perceive the strong Afro-Colombian percussive tradition in a dialogue with avant-garde electronic sounds. From the political and ideological point of view, the artist makes the listeners deal with the complexities of their experiences as an immigrant, woman, afro-latin. This tension with her music, her political and artistic activism, is part of the way that she confronts the labels that she receives from critics and producers, such as being seen as world music, a generic term to cover music produced outside the United States, Canada and Europe. Her 578 music is driven by activism, be it in sonorities or in statements to the press. She attempts to break away from the male, white, heteronormative narrative of those who occupy the entertainment spaces in Canada. Adriana Amaral (2015), in an article on fan activism, reflects how pop culture consumption practices are important tools for learning political activism. Amaral’s studies are focused on the fans, but the author brings important contributions to the understanding of activism in the pop culture environment and serves to reflect the role of artists as activists, complicating “the relationship between the entertainment industry, political participation, pop culture and social mobilization”. (Amaral et al., 2014, p. 152). From the reading of Amaral, Simone de Sá notes the importance of “overcoming the dichotomy between the worlds of consumption and entertainment on one side and citizenship and politics on the other.” (Sa, 2016, p. 57). Lido Pimienta is an activist artist for her complete adherence to causes such as feminism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia. Her political participation is in her artistic performance, in her speeches, in her body. There is no division between her art and her activism, the two issues are bogged down, and, as Amaral puts it, “forms of political activism have been made visible through learning with consumption practices of popular culture” (Amaral et al., 2014). 3. Local, global, cross-cultural For Regev, the standard imposed on products in the cultural globalization circuit does not eliminate diversity, but fosters the emergence of new cultures within the framework of a hegemonic West, that is, these subaltern, nonhegemonic cultures propose resistance, appropriations and subversions and “new aesthetic languages” (Regev, 2013). We do not pretend to use the terms cosmopolitanism and globalization without questioning, Regev himself draws attention to the complexities of this forged world culture and must be seen as distinctive cultural units (Regev, 2013). We live in a world in which cultures are interconnected, but what we perceive is that these same cultures seek to surround this globalization with their singularities, a way of legitimizing themselves based on their nationality, ethnicity, gender. Post-colonialist studies present globalization as part of a hegemony of the so-called Global North, of a western system that is oppressive and imperialist. The globalized culture has been, from the great navigations, the preponderance of tastes, standards and values of Europe and, more recently, North America. This northern -centric hegemony (Prystron, 2001) has to be observed in a critical and complex way in order to understand the global flows (Parry, 1991) in order to avoid falling into a fight of the Global North X Global South and think of the complexities that surround an increasingly globalized culture, but permeated by local issues. Regev (2013) argues that aesthetic cosmopolitanism emerges from a combined action between the global and national cultural fields, because it places social actors in both positions simultaneously. For Regev the influence of pop in this cosmopolitan aesthetic inspires artists of the most diverse musical practices in a kind of symbolic resistance to the peripheral place that these cultural practices would be submitted in the field of cultural production. In the book The Convenience of Culture (2013), George Yúdice analyzes at various levels the impacts of globalization in the field of culture. Even if several pessimistic visions of critics of globalization are exposed, Yudice realizes that 579 11.4. Lido Pimienta, the post-muse of contemporary Canada “globalization has facilitated new progressive strategies that conceive the cultural as a preferred area of negotiation and struggle” (Yúdice, 2013, p. 144). Lido Pimienta on her upcoming album, Miss Colombia, brings her relationship with Latin American music and Canada, but she always reinforces the speech that she does not feel like a Colombian anymore: ‘But I know that I’m definitely not Canadian, either’. We know that we live in a world in which cultures are interconnected, but what we perceive is that these same cultures seek to surround this globalization with their singularities, a way of legitimizing themselves based on their nationality, ethnicity, gender. Simone Pereira de Sá updates the discussion of Regev by stating that aesthetic cosmopolitanism materializes from the circulation of music culture in digital networks (2016). It analyzes the connections that are made between global and local actors and, especially, in the means that these contexts cross to change influences. Thus, by complexifying the global and local relationship, Pereira de Sá brings reflections on the importance of mediators between these two places, and the mobilization power of the network. 4. Final considerations The Colombian researcher Omar Rincón, when he brings us the term Culturas Bastardas, from the reading of other researchers like MartínBarbero, Canclini and Bhabha, reflects that “popular cultures are bastards because in our time we know who our cultural mother is, but not who are our parents. Our cultural mother is the place, the own, the one. But we will have many possible parents (and few of us are aware) (Rincón, 2016, p. 34). The list of “parents” formulated by Rincon is extensive to account for our most diverse cultural references: the authentic, the colonized, the artistic, the mainstream, the technological, among others that would give rise to what he calls bastard cultures. Both Regev, Rincon, and Yúdice complement Hall’s (2003) thought that cultural forms are not entirely corrupted or entirely authentic, but contradictory. As Hall puts it, “(...) the meaning of a cultural symbol is attributed in part by the social field to which it is embodied, by the practices which it articulates” (Hall, 2003, p. 258). The questions brought by these authors help us to reflect in analyzing certain cultural objects that, from the consumption of musical practices, construct meaning, identities and subjectivities, and share social, economic, ideological and cultural values and even in a nordocentric environment we construct new “aesthetic languages”. The construction of social groups around music takes place through the necessity of belonging, through the recognition of the sensitive and ideological sharing of aesthetic and social aspects, at the same time as it serves to connect them to a network of “like souls” (Janotti, 2014). For Frith (1996), from the twenty-century pop music became one of the most important tools for understanding “ourselves in a historical, ethnic, social class, genre and national theme” (Frith, 1996, p. 276). 580 References Amaral, A.; Souza, R.; Monteiro, C. (2014). De Westeros no #vemprarua a shippagem do beijo gay na TV brasileira. Ativismo de fãs: conceitos, resistências e práticas na cultura digital brasileira. XXXVII Congresso da Intercom, Foz do Iguaçu. Retrieved from: http://www.intercom.org.br/papers/nacionais/2014/resumos/R9-2644-1.pdf. Benessaieh, A. (2010). Transcultural Americas/Amériques Transculturelles. Ottawa: Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa. Frith, S. (2004). Popular Music: music and identity. New York/London: Routledge. Hall, S. (2003). Da diáspora: Identidade e Mediações Culturais. Belo Horizonte: Humanitas. Hazel, C. (2017, January 11). Musician Lido Pimienta responds to critiscism after asking women of color to move to the front at festival. Jezebel. Retrieved from: https:// jezebel.com/musician-lido-pimienta-responds-to-criticism-after-aski-1820039186 Janotti Júnior, J. (2014). Rock me like the devil: a assinatura das cenas musicais e das identidades metálicas. Recife: Laboratório de Papel Finíssimo Editora. Parry, B. (1991) The Contraditions of Cultural Studies. Transition, (53), pp. 37- 45. Physton, A. (2001). Mapeando o Pós-Colonialismo e os Estudos Culturais na América Latina. Revista da Anpoll, 1(10), pp. 23-43. Pietrobruno, S. (2006). Salsa and its Transnational Moves. Oxford: Lexington Books. Pimienta, L. (2016. January 27) Lido Pimienta: Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist. Now Toronto. Retrieved from: https://nowtoronto.com/music/lido-pimienta_1/. Rancière, J. (2011). The politics of aesthetics. The distribution of the sensible. New York: Continuum. Regev, M. (2013). Pop-rock Music. Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism in Late Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. Rincón, O. (2016). O popular na comunicação: culturas bastardas + cidadanias celebrities. Revista ECO-Pós, 19(3), pp 27-49. Sá, S. (2016) Somos Todos Fãs e Haters? Cultura Pop, Afetos e Performance de Gosto nos Sites de Redes Sociais. Revista ECO-Pós, 19(3), pp. 50-67. Straw, W. (1991). Systems of articulation, logics of change: Communities and scenes in popular music. Cultural Studies, v. 5, n. 3, pp. 368-388. Wheller, B. (2018, September 17) Polaris Prize winner Lido Pimienta’s life changing moment. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/ arts/music/article-polaris-prize-winner-lido-pimientas-life-changing-moment/ 581 11.5. Laura Costa, biographical fragmentary 1910-1993 contributions to a visual Portuguese feeric imagery for children during the Estado Novo and Beyond280 Sérgio Costa Araújo 281 A b s t r a c t The vast work of Laura Costa (1910-1993) represents today for Portugal an unparalleled historical document to reconstruct the visual system during Estado Novo, the period of the Portuguese dictatorship: 1933-1974. It also has the elements that will shape the deepest understanding of childhood throughout the Portuguese twentieth century and a mythological visuality developed by itself that marks till today the Portuguese feeric imagination. This communicationessay results from the first biographical approach ever made to this mysterious artist documented by the exhibition with the same name presented in the “Centro de Estudos Mário Cláudio” (Paredes de Coura, Portugal) between 17 of December 2016 – 1 July 2017). Keywords: Laura Costa, Estado Novo, Portugal. 280 This work is na english version of the Portuguese original text “Laura Costa, Fragmentário Biográfico 1910-1993 – contributos para um imaginário feérico português” edited by Centro Mário Cláudio in Paredes de Coura in 2017. 281 Polytechnic Institute of Porto - School of Education. Porto, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected]. 582 Ten years separate two fairies from Laura Costa (LC). The first, in the fifties, represents one of its most iconic graphic interpretations. The fairy is presented to us with the contours of a French edeldame of the mid-fifteenth century. This fairy seems to echo, directly from the founding memories of the earliest fairies, almost as far back as the prehistory of humanity. The figure protrudes farewell of wings, will be because they are the exclusive equipment of the angels? The realism of the figure facilitates the identification of the observer with this character still half fairy, half princess, which the artist turns into an aristocratic fairy. She wears it in pink silk dress with a round skirt. On the body stand ermine shots and large openings on the sleeves muslin that also cover the veil that fits the cone-shaped hat. A bead of pearls surrounds the hat from the base to the top. A jewel at the neckline, armed with metal and gems, certainly points to the mysterious matter of the protective objects possessed by these enigmatic figures. Despite the seemingly realistic figure does not lose the ethereal character that a true fairy should possess. From France comes this edeldame, a country from which also comes one of the most influential texts that presents the evidence of its existence and its contours. Coincidences? The anonymous author, in this Arthurian text in prose of the thirteenth century, describes them in Lancelot du Lac. Nimue is the queen of the lake of Diana, Queen of Sicily, who ruled in the time of Virgil, and no woman like her loved the pleasures of the woods.... The lady who leads Lancelot to the lake is a fairy of the time when the maidens who possessed spells were called fairies. Maidens, nevertheless, whom the author equates to mature, manipulative and independent women, faithful custodians of the enchanting mysteries of herbs, metals and stones. This is the first of the LC fairies. In his right hand, the instrument par excellence of his labor, a magic wand crowned with a sevenpointed star. Let us fix our eyes on this star. The star, because it is septenary, intentionally exposes its properties as a magical source of enlightenment which, certainly for the believers of the abstruse formulas, will also include in itself the whole symbology of the number seven, the demands of the harmony of the world to the search of being in its entirety. The other fairy emerges in full space age, is a creation of the sixties, the graphic line follows the elegance of an Audrey Hepburn wearing pants. The accessory on the head is directly interpreted by the lenses of the cosmic fashion of the sixties. This helmet, an obligatory accessory in road safety and, of course, also for the entire celestial highway, seems to have been poured directly from the sketches of the colorful stylist Emilio Pucci to the on-board staff of the Braniff airline in 1965. This fairy from the sixties also enveloped in ethereal matter, but wrapped up, even more than its predecessor, in the figure of an independent woman, a probable fruit of the then strengthening of the feminist movement, based on freedom and gender equality. Its creator, or appealing already to the materialization of the forms and the way the artist was referenced in the press of the time - the designer is Laura Olinda Alves Costa. In the year of the implantation of the republic in Portugal she was born in the city of Oporto on December 15, 1910. The republic is feminine. It is not surprising, therefore, that the bust that represents her is that of a woman represented in a Phrygian cap on her head and bare-breasted. This emblematic representation marks the start of a contemporary look at women and, specifically, their place in the Portuguese Republic, which the illustration of the time helped to establish. With the republic, Oporto is renewed. It begins Figure 11.5.1 – Publication cover detail “Laura Costa, Biographical Fragmentary 1910-1993 - Contributions to a Portuguese Fairy Imaginary” by Manuel Granja in 2017 http://cemarioclaudio. blogspot.com/2017/06/ laura-costa-cerimonia-deencerramento.html 583 11.5Laura . Costa,biographicalfragmentary1910-1993-contributionstoavisualPortuguesefeericimageryforchildrenduringtheEstadoNovoandBeyond280 the opening of Avenida dos Aliados and begins the construction of the new Paços do Concelho. Oporto breathes and LC is born in the district of Vitória at this unsubdued momentum. Granddaughter of António Bernardino Alves Costa (1845-1912), founder of the Sociedade Nova Euterpe and the emblematic Ateneu Comercial do Porto, grew up in an important family of the Portuguese bourgeoisie, republican and secular. LC is not baptized and thus remains until the age of 80. It grows in the city of Oporto where it develops its initial studies. Early awakens to the drawing and dates from 1920 the first. They stand out by the high number of colored drawings with crayon of girls from their circle of friends. The family is described as being very sober and LC, already grown, as being very frugal. She did not wear jewelry. The first exhibition takes place at the 13th Salon of the Humorists of Porto in 1923. It takes place at the Retreat of the Helpless Girls, at Easter 1924. The President of the Organizing Committee, Licínio P. Perdigão, presenting the participating artists, gives an account of LC’s artistic precocity: “The youngest of us all! 13 chirping springs! No masters, no outside drawing lessons, draws, paints, all ... all ... the devil! In the midst of dolls, rags, and study books, among the school friends, puppets, doll dresses, and microscopic dinners, appear natural and simple drawings, spontaneous and unpretentious sarrabiscos ... These are the ones she presents, with the indulgence that his age can demand.”282 This exhibition includes nine works, entitled suggestively: the Mascotte; the ancient Love; Honny soit qui mal y pense; o In School ... of Bitch; o Una la Goya ... bada; o Cupid Games; the first enlêvo; the Passenger, and, finally, Ao Serão. Four years later, in 1927, she began to formalize his vocation, enrolling in higher studies in the Painting course of the Superior School of Fine Arts of Porto. Years later, she interrupted the course to join again later. It concludes in 1939 with a thesis based on a religious theme: the adoration of the Magi. The academic course is marked by the restlessness of the visionary. She becomes a student who practices a certain revolutionary militancy in the context of the fine arts of Porto where academic and naturalistic education still predominated. In 1929, together with his colleagues Domingos Alvarez, Augusto Gomes, Guilherme Camarinha, Reis Teixeira and Ventura Porfírio who will later leave their mark on the Portuguese plastic arts, he formed the “+ além” a protest group that attacks the way teaching was commanded in the Fine Arts of Porto, which they consider dated, and which pronounced the arrival of modernism. That same year, in November, she exhibited with this group in the Salão Silva Porto. Caricaturist Adalberto Sampaio, a member of the “+ além” group and participant in this exhibition, signs the catalog of Laura Costa, dedicating her colleague a compliment to her “revolutionary” character, synonymous with her words “Maria da Fonte”. Signs “of fellow cartoonist A. Sampaio”. Add the design of his monogram with the indication of the year: 1929”. They were all agitators. The group is presented by the organizing committee of the exhibition, composed by Joaquim Areal; Fernando Leão; Fortunato Cabral and Ventura Porfírio and called “some students of Fine Arts exhibit at Silva Porto”, as “The artists who present themselves today are still students of Fine Arts. But their work has nothing to do with the School or with academism. They are executed by force, and therefore without excuses, absolutely freed from superior influences (...)”283 LC continues to draw attention to her restlessness: she is the first woman, at the Superior School of Fine Arts in Porto, to voluntarily attend optional lectures on male model drawing. Between 1929 and 1932, she attended classes at the 282 Source: Catalog I SALON dos HUMORISTAS (1924), Porto. 283 Source: Some Fine Arts students exhibit at Silva Porto (1929), Porto. 584 Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto of General Mathematics, Applied Drawing to Biological Sciences, Descriptive Geometry, Rigorous Drawing and Typographical Design. On January 28, 1931, she participated in the Second Exhibition of the Students of the Fine Arts of Porto, inaugurated in the noble hall of the Ateneu Comercial do Porto. The thirties are the first decade of great personal, academic and professional expansion. Even in the first half of this decade, invitations to illustrate short stories edited by “Lello & Irmão - Editores” (Oporto) emerge. During the second half of this decade, orders increase and date back to that time, for example, illustrations for the publishing house “Irmãos Bertrand” (Lisbon). Henrique Alves Costa (1910-1988) and his wife, Maria Helena Vieira Pinto Alves Costa (19141977), the filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira (1908-2015) and with the friend, an employee of the company “A Confidente”, José Ataíde, the group “5 pimpões”, that on the weekend travels the country in excursions, with cultural objectives, that arrive us today documented exhaustively by the photographic equipment, already at the time in the technological vanguard, of Manoel de Oliveira. In her travels she observes both the regional heritage and the local monumental dimension, in an already ethnographic record, which includes great interest, for example, for sacred art, and which was trained by attending the course of Painting in Fine Arts. These incursions that she will cultivate throughout his life will have contributed, certainly, to the conceptualization of elements that later incorporates in his work and whose product is one of the most significant marks that left us. Still in the thirties, in July 1938, she participated in the “Exhibition of Students of the School of Fine Arts of Porto” with the painting “Heart of Jesus” that the edition of January 1st of July 31, describes as a canvas of “decorative composition, with well-treated figures, vivid colors, faded longs”. Painting that the edition of the Commerce of Porto of the same day also reproduces and that worth a medal of second classified to her, immediately after the medal of first classified attributed to Guilherme Camarinha by the work “Ascent of the Cross”. Beginning in the 1930s and in the 1940s and 1950s, she develops regular and permanent teaching activities, mainly in the areas of drawing and painting. Of particular note are the collaborations at the Colégio Nossa Senhora do Rosário in Porto (the longest - 41 years, 1935 to 1977); the Colégio da Boa Nova das Irmãs de Nossa Senhora da Consolação of Matosinhos, from the forties; in an extension of the Rectory of the University of Porto (classes of painting of optional frequency for students of the University of Porto), already in the fifties and in the Obra das Mães pela Educação Nacional in the city of Oporto during the sixties. From the 1950s onwards, practically until the end of his life in the early nineties, which had been reformed, she promoted individual painting, drawing and watercolor lessons from home. Parallel to teaching practice, popularity grows and orders increase exponentially. The great publishers look for the artist at a dizzying pace. From the thirties and throughout the following decades she edits his illustrations, adding to the two already mentioned, in volumes of the “Livraria Latina Editora”; of the “Livraria Figueirinhas”; of Livraria Guimarães “; of the “Universal Literary Enterprise”; of the “Livraria Cruz”; of the “Bookstore Apostolate of the Press”; of “Porto Editora”; of the “Civilization Bookstore”; of “Editorial Infantil Majora” and in numerous editions of author, among others. Probably, due to the numerous re-editions, the volumes illustrated by the artist for several collections of short stories edited by “Majora”, mainly between the fifties and 585 11.5Laura . Costa,biographicalfragmentary1910-1993-contributionstoavisualPortuguesefeericimageryforchildrenduringtheEstadoNovoandBeyond280 sixties, are those that have contributed most to her durability in the Portuguese imagery of childhood and also, in the imaginary that the illustration of tales is concerned. Let’s go back to the two fairies. In both, the passage of time is evident. The conceptibility, the way, the meaning behind the choices had changed. LC invariably ages, but she does not refuse to capture her zeitgeist in detail, contributing to her illustration, to molding it and also to anticipating it. What apparently remains is the movement of the illustrated figures and their theatrical effect. The artist scrupulously obeys to these two principles, will it be intentional? These two graphic interpretations of a fairy are part of a visual system of their own and reinforce a certain idea of fairy as a “smart maiden” who sometimes does not understand if she is still a young girl, child, or even a young adolescent. This duplicity, or rather, this game of ambiguities, marks a mark in the visual treatment that makes of the fairy tales in which simultaneously it raises and feminizes the personages. Everything is movement. The characters are female and composed in the manner of woman-child / teenage woman, woman-woman? Quantitatively superior, they take the lead and act on the reality: they take care of their hair, play with the children, discover precious treasures, sew, spin and embroider, serve wine, take care of the homemade arrangements. Out of this universe, unusual women like the beautiful Samba who lives in an Angolan forest and who dedicate themselves to housework ... not infrequently another type: the princess-woman who sleeps and sleeps. Afterwards, the children: they guard the cattle, they tend the gardens, they study, they look for wood, they play to the top and the Rapa, they serve as messengers. The male figure is the rarest. Often wrapped in contours of apparition appears almost like a small footnote to these visual narratives in which women and children reign. Praying with a sword, sometimes deprived of any “apparatus” object, he often appears simply mounted on a beautiful hisser. It is still an inescapable figure. It appears at the end of the story, almost in a gesture of indulgent redemption of the artist of the then unjust and unfortunate course of the characters. Yet it does not fail to represent a tendentially immobile figure who at the last moment of history ends up being responsible for sealing a union that guarantees eternal happiness. Figure 11.5.2 – Exhibition catalog of illustrator Laura Costa in 2017 Source: http://cemarioclaudio.blogspot.com/2017/01/encontro-e-degustacao-com-o-chefhelio.html 586 In the fairy-tale illustrations, these ethereal sides of her characters situate her in a way of illustrating in a register already distant from the Malthusian interpretation of this universe common to the Portuguese illustrators and illustrators who preceded it. On the contrary, the hyperbole that persecutes is the one of the minimalism, of the hygiene of the image that instrumentalizes in benefit of its narrative. It is through this that she traces the road which for the characters represents the way of all the temptations by which they advance in search of a meaning, perhaps coordinated for the dream, the final happy, crystalline final which these tales acquired mainly from the eighteenth century. And the fairies always return, in other formats, often disguised as old beggars assuming themselves as the right coordinate for the fulfillment of all desires. In this aspect, LC departs from visual interpretations of the horrific or burlesque fairy tales to stop in a dramatic approach in which often the rural poor or the urban poor receive a wand that they use to fulfill the desire for food and preference of a sumptuous banquet. Still, they are figures of fragile beauty, as if, as in some stories, they were made of material hardly resistant to the wilder conditions, such as sugar. In these compositions, it is notable that the ornament is reduced to the essential. Still, it does not cease to resort to vegetal, zoomorphic, anthropomorphic motifs to which it sometimes adds fanciful or marvelous details. Fundamental cultural material to analyze the creative product of Laura Costa are the noble and royal figures who alternately dress Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, empire, baroque, rococo and romantic costumes, and sometimes even composed in a mix that assimilates elements from different times and that attributes to the characters composed by LC, and consequently to their work, a historical dimension. Unlike the higher social classes, the members of the people always dress in exquisite fashion, but almost always wear traditional Portuguese costumes. A subliminal message? Perhaps. Laura Costa continues. It distributes the elements in order to favor a certain visual argumentation of what is or is not elegant. Catapult the visual discourse for the high moral level and what will or will not be a moral action that the gesture drawn signals. Everything in these compositions is harmony. And in a similar process to which the texts compiled by the Grimm brothers were previously submitted, the graphic translation also obeys an obvious facelift, which, even without this process being conscious, the artist pushes the visual treatment of the tale to an elite taste, bourgeois. But you do not stop here. It questions a social condition through the way it dresses the character, thereby transforming the body into a fundamental element in itself to decode its universe. They are images reproduced massively, multiplied first in hardcover or soft cover editions, then through inevitable reprints directed, depending on the format and the collection, to a more or less well-to-do audience, thereby causing the same stories to circulate throughout the social scale. The more imaginative or poetic visual details also sharpen the mind of the child who lives in a house with poor living conditions to that of the child residing in a bourgeois, Portuguese apartment. In the gestural of faces, always the same coherent line and a revelation: expressions, potentially, of dormancy after ecstasy probably anchored in elements of the baroque movement, or even rococo, in which François Boucher’s own expression of La dormeuse will be a seriously. LC is an educated illustrator with a background in painting. In the framing, LC again turns around and serves again the artistic zeitgeist to reverse the viewer’s previously formatted look: the scene, far from being baroque, is first and foremost a product of minimalism that interests him then emerging 587 11.5Laura . Costa,biographicalfragmentary1910-1993-contributionstoavisualPortuguesefeericimageryforchildrenduringtheEstadoNovoandBeyond280 in the visual arts. The surrounding elements, as we have already mentioned, are reduced to the absolute minimum, transforming it into one of the elements that best configure the singularity of his work, one of its marks. And again, in these scenarios the human figure, feminine, continues to predominate, and even when accompanied by a male character, the center of the image is its stage. She is recognized as a remarkable illustrator. It works even more, now night in and at dawn it is common to see from the exterior of the house the lights of the interior still light. She rents a house near the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, in Tenões, Braga. She spends vacations and weekends there when she does not have painting, drawing, watercolor classes to develop. And also, the Easter period. Single till the end of life and she enchants all children, particularly those in the family. She made designs for them to paint and tracery paper. She took cousins and friends on cultural tours. She introduced conversation with everyone, it is said. She shared her immense knowledge about painting and it was rare the exhibition that they did not visit at the Soares dos Reis Museum. She made cheetah dresses for the children’s doll dresses. She visited antique shops and bought pieces to restore. Took them to the movies. They saw “Quo Vadis” (1951). One of the cousins tells that he loved it, but LC with his enormous culture and way of communicating with the children deconstructed during the trip back, by tram, each of the falsities of the film. She came from a family of moviegoers, and particularly enjoyed the cinema of Visconti and Fellini and the French cinema very much in vogue at that time. Read Stendhal, the Brontë Sisters and so many others. But back to the figures that mark her faerie legacy. It is clear that the first fairy, superimposed substantially on the second in the recent imaginary. It is the most classic vision and therefore the most deeply rooted in us. That is why this composition marks up to contemporaneity. Until the eighties of the twentieth century it was still common for girls to masquerade as fairy following this composition spread by LC. This is also evidence of the visual influence of LC illustration on Portuguese carnivalesque body culture and practice that derives directly from fairy tales. In this way it reinforces its role of maga of customs with the gift of inculcating habits without the consumer of this imaginary being aware. LC embodies this idea of the overwhelming power of design and illustration in the shaping of consumer trends. It materializes within us the appearance of these mysterious beings inhabiting tales that the observer unconsciously incorporates into the popular act of disguise. And the artist draws tirelessly, to be mass-printed and distributed profusely by mainland Portugal, islands and overseas territories. These images still circulate today in the thousands, especially those that illustrate collections of fairy tales, novels, toys, calendars, vinyl covers, catechisms, magazines, newspapers, almanacs, baby albums, holy cards, parchment leaves, school drawings, school books, advertising, postcards, catalogs, tinplate objects. The collections of children’s books edited by “Editorial Infantil Majora”: “Pinto Calçudo”, “Princesinha”, “Varinha Mágica” contributed remarkably to support this almost cannibalistic idea of imposing a graphic that imposes a concrete image of what should be a” fairy “, a “ princess “, a “ prince “. And she makes the visual translation of these figures in an excellent way. A recurring observation of the former LC students is that they were seen for a long time, and soon after they passed as a teacher, having great competence for the drawing and for doing it in a unique way what would be reported as the “Laura Costa brand”. The cousins and godchildren, further emphasize the great culture of LC, 588 mention that she introduced them also in classical music, particularly in Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin. And in good manners, in the plastic arts and again the reference to film criticism. In the Salon of the Orfeão Clube they attended numerous concerts. It was of a great generosity to everyone. It is problematic to encapsulate in a given discursive matrix a certain way of figuring. However, the whole discursive matrix is seconded by social changes that incite artistic creation. The ideological contamination of the illustrator’s work during the period of the Estado Novo assumes contours that eventually sharpen the official narrative, by the graphic extension of a narrative-text that finds in the visual representation its mainstay of penetration in the less literate, quantitatively more expressive sectors. The contamination of the child universe with the discursive matrix of the Estado Novo eventually comes first with the construction of the propagandist “Portugal dos Pequenitos”, first built between 1938 and 1940 which includes regional houses typical of each Portuguese region. Until the end of the fifties, the representations of Overseas Portugal from Africa to Macao, from Brazil to Timor, to the Portuguese State of India were added. In this way children are initiated into the idea of homeland and imperial nation. The iconography of the Estado Novo had its graphic treatment in the publications directed to the affiliated ones in the Portuguese youth almost always impregnated of subliminal messages of moral and religious inspiration. Laura Costa’s more direct contribution to a visual culture of the Estado Novo will eventually be the recurrent feature of the traditional dress and regional folkloric traditions, notably from the north of the country, embodied in the playful choices in the families portrayed and in the ultra-sentimental mode as coexist in their numerous illustrations. In these boards, the graphic treatment that LC presents, even more profoundly than in the illustration of the fairy tales, two obvious dispositions: obliteration of the male figure and actions that take place in an outer space, even if next to the house. The presence of religious iconography is limited to the orders that require the approval of the ecclesiastical authority and which include for Majora Editions, illustrations for booklets that tell the story of Fátima, which mainly illustrate prayers such as the “Our Father”, “Hail Mary “Or the “Salve Regina”. Even in these publications the male figure remains non-existent (in the “Our Father” is represented by the crucified Christ in a small crucifix) and in the scenes, his favorite mise-en-scene is the open space adorned with vegetal elements. Her brand is consistently repeated. In the initiatives favored by the regime, the artist participates in 1939, already in the final stretch of the Fine Arts Painting course, in an esthetic vacation mission in Alcobaça, directed by Prof. Luís Varela Aldemira, part of a program promoted by the Estado Novo, for the indoctrination of the artistic elites. In the forties, fifties and sixties does not fail to expose. She participates in the “independent exhibition”, held in the Salão do Coliseu do Porto and in the “O Primeiro de Janeiro” Exhibition Hall in Coimbra, between 1944 and 1945. She also participates in the exhibition “The Arts at the Service of the Nation” at the Museum of Art Popular in the city of Lisbon in 1966. Despite the undeniable artistic and individual contribution of LC to the visual culture and to the imagery of the Estado Novo epoch, we know that it manifested its opposition to the regime permanently. During the 1940s, she was about to enter the Communist Party under the influence of a communist cousin, and two friends of Fine Arts, then sympathizers: Augusto Gomes and António Figueiredo. The most obvious connection of his circle of friends to the regime was that of Guilherme Duarte Camarinha, also a member 589 11.5Laura . Costa,biographicalfragmentary1910-1993-contributionstoavisualPortuguesefeericimageryforchildrenduringtheEstadoNovoandBeyond280 of the “+ além”. LC cannot be designated as a political activist although she is also surrounded by people linked to the Movimento Unidade Democrática (MUD) and family and friends linked to the Cineclube, a bastion in Oporto against the regime. Her relations with the church may be paradigmatic of the particular way in which she related to the organizations, then powerful, and highly influential of the daily action of the citizens. Despite this contribution, the artist has always remained far from the church. She remains without being baptized, despite living with religious in various colleges where she teaches and that have never conditioned their popularity. The testimonies show a very strong connection between LC and the sisters, perhaps most of all their natural sympathy, their willingness to help, their great sense of humor and their curious intelligence. It will not be surprising, therefore, to take orders to illustrate catechisms which, according to the testimony of a parish priest, fascinated by the “feminine and maternal” traces of the illustrations. In the words of the same parish priest, from the Parish of the Santo Sacramento (Guerra Junqueiro Street, Porto), well before the age of 80, when she finally decided to baptize in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Vitória, she was already a person with “good feelings, deeply human and Christian”, whom he regularly visited and whom Laura Costa offered illustrations to illuminate the Catechesis Sheets284. Popularity that, he says, had a lot of expression among booksellers and publishers. LC was his friend. One of LC’s cousins assumes he does not understand the option for late baptism. He ventured that it might have been the influence of a highly religious inner maid and also of very religious friends and even of the nuns her friends. He justifies in her cousin’s words, and also the godmother, who had repeatedly heard throughout her education “to be against the church, does not mean that we do not go to see churches, at least churches as if they were works of art”. Family tradition that qualifies as radical republicanism and anti-clerical. And adds even more words from LC “We will not see the saints to worship them”285. Listening to the testimonies and feeling the tenderness with which they talk about the “Laurinha”, as it was known, the images that surrounded the visual universe of the child of that time were passed on and passed not only by the books, but also by the special color covers, the editions for the Saint John’s day, a very important celebration in Oporto, and Christmas by Laura Costa for the “Primeiro de Janeiro” newspaper, which began to be printed in the early 1950s and continued until 1976, two years after the April revolution. They were also the magazines and schoolbooks and the postcards illustrated by LC for the Portuguese posts, highly collectible. Other outstanding objects of this universe are the illustrations of the boxes and the pieces of board games and that with them reaches its zenith of popularity between children and young people. The child immersed in the visual culture of the Estado Novo, was invariably immersed in the universe created by LC. The artist’s dedication to the knowledge of national idiosyncrasies and what folklore / popular culture is all about astonishes. And the product of this are the well-informed representations of the characters in typical costumes. From the estate of the artist comes the evidence: heaps of photographs of lace, albums filled with lace samples made with thread of thickness and different colors, which follow the dozens, motives and various formats; magazine clippings, artist’s notebooks filled in with pencil drawings of traditional models - the whole body, in parts or only in the small detail, accompanied by numerous notes 284 Interview with Monsenhor José Pereira Soares Jorge conducted by the author in 2017. 285 Interview with Alexandre Alves Costa conducted by the author in 2016. 590 about the details of the city of Maia’s traditional costumes, to Minho region.... LC made weekend excursions in the north of the country in search of the reasons she had researched and took a photographer with her to register them. She visited the most remote villages, knocked at the people’s door, and asked them to open the chests to record what they still preserved. The photographer immortalized the play. There is a breathtaking work, in monograph format, by Laura Costa herself, on all this. Benjamin Ferreira highlights the great quality of this work from the methodological point of view that puts her at the level of an academic work. It is still waiting to be published. Is this the moment, with the renewed popularization of boyfriends’ handkerchiefs from Minho? The growing interest in the work of this remarkable Portuguese artist? Ethnographic work gains prominence in the life of LC. In a committed way, she is dedicated to an intentional, serious and committed ethnographic work that leads to informed visual choices. In the late sixties, unrest in the country with an impact on family life. Her cousin, Isabel Alves Costa, marries José Mário Branco and they both flee to Paris. LC watches them leave with sadness. She visited them a few times in Paris between 1969 and 1972. At Christmas, the political emigrants met and the cousin of LC and brother of Isabel Alves Costa, Alexandre Alves Costa, accompanies her on these trips. “It was the Louvre all day,” he says longingly. They both enjoyed traveling. In 1980, at age 70, she retired. Receive a very low pension and have some difficulties. Intensifies the lessons from home. It never ceases to practice its already institutionalized, realistic, delicate, traditional illustration where domesticity is emphasized together with a traditional family idea where adults and the elderly engage in craft activities and children of traditional games. In the Christmas illustrations, the manger and the tree take precedence. Father Christmas is always absent. The fairies disappear. At the doors of the nineties LC accepts his latest order: dozens of drawings to decorate a large luxury hotel on Avenida da Boavista in Oporto. Produces with difficulty. Weakened health conditions because of the incessant exercise of creating that have always cultivated. Complete the order in the style that made her popular. Baptized only in the final stretch of her life, she builds an accomplice friendship with the priest of the Parish of the Sagrado Coração. Always available and generous, she reciprocates the priest’s friendship by illuminating catechesis sheets with his timeless children-characters, who delight the catechumens and the parish community. This priest looks back and exclaims about this “formidable” figure: “she left us his example and his remarkable work!”286 On October 16, 1993, Laura Costa, already without mobility, dies at her residence in Rua Padre Alexandre. It is paradoxical that Laura Costa, 24 years after her disappearance, remains so little or nothing studied and, strangely, so scarcely mentioned in the official narrative of texts that propose to tell the history of design and illustration in Portugal of the twentieth century. It seems obvious to us that as long as Laura Costa’s contribution is not included, this story will be fatally lacunar. In the opposite direction, the work remains still recognizable for an important part of the population and for all those with whom Laura Costa worked, was a relative, friend or teacher. The objects she illustrated remain abundantly in the commercial circuit of historical objects and, surprisingly, still in the personal estate of countless families. They are bought in potters, antique fairs and in the diverse online stores. Her work is represented in the collections of the José 286 Interview with Monsenhor José Pereira Soares Jorge in 2017. 591 11.5Laura . Costa,biographicalfragmentary1910-1993-contributionstoavisualPortuguesefeericimageryforchildrenduringtheEstadoNovoandBeyond280 Malhoa Museum in Caldas da Rainha, in the Municipal Museum Dr. Santos Rocha in Figueira da Foz, and in the Guerra Junqueiro House Museum in the city of Porto. The vast work of Laura Costa today represents for Portugal an unparalleled historical document to reconstruct the visual system of the Estado Novo. It also has the elements that will shape the deepest understanding of childhood throughout the Portuguese twentieth century and a mythological visuality developed by her that marks today the Portuguese feeric imagination. References Melo, A (2007). Arte e artistas em Portugal [Art and artists in Portugal]. Lisboa: Instituto Camões. Rosas, F. (1994). História de Portugal - Vol. VII - O Estado Novo [History of Portugal - Vol. VII - The New State]. Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores. Rosas, F. (2012). Salazar e o Poder - A Arte de Saber Durar [Salazar and the Power - The Art of Knowing How to Last]. Lisboa: Tinta-da-China. Torgal, L. R. (2009). Estados Novos, Estado Novo [New States, New State]. Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra. VVAA (2017). Laura Costa, Fragmentário Biográfico 1910-1993 – contributos para um imaginário feérico português [Laura Costa, Biographical Fragmentary 1910-1993 - Contributions to a Portuguese Fairy Imaginary]. Paredes de Coura: Centro Cultural Mário Cláudio. 592 593 11.5Laura . Costa,biographicalfragmentary1910-1993-contributionstoavisualPortuguesefeericimageryforchildrenduringtheEstadoNovoandBeyond280 Special thanks to Esgar Acelerado for the illustrations of this book. His work can be found at: www.behance.net/esgar https://illustratorslounge.com/editorial/esgar-acelerado/ www.http://www.mr-esgar.com/ www.chaputa.com/author/esgar/?v=35357b9c8fe 594 595 11.5Laura . Costa,biographicalfragmentary1910-1993-contributionstoavisualPortuguesefeericimageryforchildrenduringtheEstadoNovoandBeyond280