Mixing It up Bent and Twisted

Home , Hard trance, Rat Parties, Space Bound, Superclub

The sociality of dance events and health implications

Kate Ireland

A thesis submitted in fulfilment

of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Interdisciplinary studies in sexuality, health and culture

University of New South Wales

Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia

August, 2002

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the sociality – shared rituals and rules - of dance events and implications for health. I consider how forms of belongings, selves and practices of music, dance and drug use are produced, regulated and understood in the space of local dance events with ‗mixed‘ crowds and the everyday lives of participants. Social networks approaches, while offering an understanding of drug use as a social practice, focus on belonging as a basis for risk-reduction, to the exclusion of the role played by pleasure in producing and maintaining belonging. Contemporary cultural studies literature features an understanding of dance through the power of the ecstatic moment to produce new forms of embodied selves and belongings, but does not offer a means to think through how dance is regulated via techniques of self-care – except in the work of

Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c), where pleasure, belonging and self-care are brought together.

Using Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work as a point of departure, I provide an interdisciplinary account of local ‗mixed‘ dance events, via analysis of qualitative data from ethnographic fieldwork, review of media texts and interviews with partygoers. I situate the local spaces, everyday practices and stories of events in the context of broader social processes, through setting them in relation to Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) work on self-care as a social practice and Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on collective rituals of neo-tribal sociality, in a wider context of restrictive regulation of self- formation. Events featured temporary crowd belongings and ecstatic, ‗balanced‘ embodied selves produced through techniques of self-care, enmeshed in and intensifying the belongings of small friendship networks, and regulating the pleasures of drug use, music and dancing. Self-formation was guided through the principle of

‗balance‘, tied into the discourse of New Age spirituality, held in tension with

i legislative and commercial regulation of events as sites of dangerous drug use and participants as ‗at risk‘. Understanding the forms of pleasure, belonging, embodied selves, techniques of self-care and wider context of ‗mixed‘ events is crucial to informing appropriate strategies to promote health.

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the contribution of local health service providers, Disc Jockeys

(DJs) and partygoers who participated in this research. Without the substantial time and energy that participants put into talking and being with me during fieldwork and interviews this project would not have been possible. This project was also made possible through funding provided by a National Health and Medical Research Council

HIV/AIDS Research Scholarship (987425). I thank Ann Daniel and Susan Kippax for supervising the project and providing valuable advice and support. For supervising the first year of the project at Macquarie University I thank Anna Yeatman and John

Howard, and for generous support during the move to the University of New South

Wales, I thank Erica Southgate. Finally, for reading drafts of the thesis, I thank

Catherine Robinson, Cath Reynolds, Philip Shelper, Justine Curnow, Steve Ireland and

Margaret Ireland.

iii

Table of contents

Abstract ...... i

Acknowledgements ...... iii

Table of contents ...... iv

Introduction ...... 1

The aim of the study ...... 1 Thinking through pleasure, belonging and self-care ...... 1 Social practices of self-care and collective rituals of neo-tribal sociality ...... 3

Chapter One – Drug use, dance and social relations ...... 9

Social networks, drug use and HIV transmission ...... 13 Contemporary cultural studies and social dance events ...... 23 Conclusions ...... 43

Chapter two – Regulating the ecstatic self ...... 47

Governmentality, bio-power and modified pastoral power relations...... 51 Subjugated knowledges and genealogy ...... 55 Techniques for care of self ...... 58 Contemporary neo-tribal sociality...... 68 Conclusions ...... 80

Chapter Three – Methodology ...... 86

Ethnography ...... 89 Analysis of texts ...... 97 Interviews ...... 100 Summary ...... 109

Chapter Four – Atmospheric spaces and practices of dancing and lounging ...... 113

iv Dance zones ...... 116 Dance practices ...... 120 Lounge zones ...... 124 Lounging practices ...... 125 Conclusions ...... 126

Chapter Five – DJs guides to events ...... 129

DJs guides to events in specialist columns ...... 131 Discourses on outdoor, free, one-off and doof events – Going underground ...... 133 Discourses on queer underground events – Sexuality freed up and irrelevant ...... 141 Discourses on doof and queer underground convergence events - Mixing it up bent and twisted ...... 148 Conclusions ...... 159

Chapter Six - Networks and crowd belongings ...... 163

Part One - Networks of crowd belongings ...... 164 Part Two - Not belongings ...... 187 Conclusions ...... 201

Chapter Seven – Ecstatic belongings ...... 206

Part One - Negotiating belongings and not belongings ...... 207 Part Two - Ecstatic belongings ...... 215 Part Three - New sexualities ...... 223 Conclusions ...... 234

Chapter Eight – Regulatory techniques for drug use ...... 237

Pleasure and fear ...... 238 Shamanism and spirit ...... 241 Enhancing release and responsiveness ...... 242 Balance ...... 245 Rituals of sharing - Pleasure, self-care and social relations ...... 247 Coming down/Recovery...... 251 Sex and drugs - Negotiating heightened sensations and dangers ...... 257 Injecting and networks ...... 263 Conclusions ...... 268

Balancing ecstatic and everyday pleasures: Social collectivity and self- regulation ...... 271

Summary of findings ...... 272

v Dance events and concepts of social practices of self-care and collective rituals of neo-tribal sociality ...... 279 New forms of embodied self and belonging ...... 289 New forms of embodied self and belonging - Implications for health ...... 290 Future directions...... 301 Conclusions ...... 302

References ...... 306

Appendix One – In depth interview schedule ...... 324

Appendix Two – Invitation to participate in the research ...... 327

Appendix Three – A brief chronology of events in the dance scene as reported in 3D World Magazine 1989-1999 ...... 328

Introduction

The aim of the study

This thesis is about the social practices, relations and embodied selves associated with dance events with ‗mixed‘ crowds, and implications for health in relation to drug use and HIV transmission. This study aims to develop an account of the sociality - techniques, rituals, discourses and rules - of local ‗mixed‘ dance events, and to situate events within the everyday lives of participants and broader social processes, in order to inform appropriate initiatives to promote health in relation to drug use and blood borne virus transmission. In particular, I examine the relationship between shared pleasures, the production of belongings and embodied selves, and the capacity to enact social practices of self-care and collective rituals of sociality, regulating safer drug use. I consider the question of how particular forms of belongings, embodied selves, music, dance and drug use practices are produced through specific techniques within the relations of power, knowledge and discourse of the spaces of events and the everyday lives of participants.

Thinking through pleasure, belonging and self-care

The question of how belongings, embodied selves and practices of music, dance and drug use are produced in the space of dance events and the everyday lives of participants is an important one in the context of social network literature on drug use and contemporary cultural studies literature on dance events. Social networks and cultural studies literature features an emerging relationship between pleasure, belonging and the capacity to enact techniques of self-care, regulating safer drug use. However,

1 there are two significant gaps in the literature. Firstly, there is a gap on pleasure in literature on social networks. Secondly, there is a gap on self-care in contemporary cultural studies work on dance events. Where self-care is considered, it is in terms of an illusory diffusion of individual into collective responsibility (Malbon 1999). It is only in the work of Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c) where the concepts of pleasure, belonging, the embodied self and techniques of self-care are usefully examined in relation to one another.

This study builds on and extends Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work on women‘s experiences of rave, understood in terms of Foucault‘s (1988b) ‗technologies of the self‘, as well as Malbon‘s (1999) work on the belongings of clubbing, understood through Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) neo-tribal networks. I develop a theoretical framework through a close reading of Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) key text on care of the self as a social practice and related work on bio-power, governmental and modified pastoral power relations (Foucault 1978/1990a, 1978/1991a, 1983a), and Maffesoli‘s

(1988/1996) work on the sociality of contemporary neo-tribal networks. Foucault‘s

(1986/1990b, 1978/1991a, 1983a) work on self-care as a social practice and Maffesoli‘s

(1988/1996) work on neo-tribal sociality offers an understanding of interrelated modes of regulation of self-formation. Self-formation is regulated through situational and flexible enactment of techniques of self-care as a social practice and collective rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality. The flexibility of self-formation through social practices of self-care and shared rituals of neo-tribal sociality is understood as situated within a broader context, characterised by stricter regulation of self-formation. Foucault

(1983a) refers to these tensions and restrictions on self-formation as the ‗government of individualisation‘, that is characterised by the operation of individualising discourses

2 and totalising procedures of bio-power, governmental and modified pastoral power relations, in the management of the health of free individuals and populations.

Social practices of self-care and collective rituals of neo-tribal sociality

The theoretical framework that I develop through Foucault‘s work on self-care as a social practice and Maffesoli‘s work on collective rituals of neo-tribal sociality, offers a way to address questions of pleasure and self-care raised by a reading of social network and contemporary cultural studies literature. In particular, concepts of self-care and sociality offer a means to re-examine the relation between pleasure, the production of belonging and the embodied self and the capacity to enact techniques of self-care identified in social network and contemporary cultural studies literature. From this perspective, the space of the dance event offers a site for convergence and interplay of interrelated forms of power relations involving particular techniques regulating self- formation. Participation in events can be read as producing an instant of vitality and freedom, through situational and flexible application of specific discourses, that can be understood as more or less ‗internal texts‘ of events (Pini 1993). ‗Internal texts‘ (Pini

1993) include discourses such as New Age spirituality, nature, holism, embodied pleasure and vitality. These texts guide social practices of self-care and collective rituals of neo-tribal sociality, regulating new forms of embodied, emotional, sensual and proxemic pleasures. Events can at the same time be understood as subject to more or less external and stricter regulation of self-formation, through the ‗government of individualisation‘ (1983a) involving universal application of individualising discourses associated with bio-power, governmental and modified pastoral power relations that regulate the health of free individuals and populations. For example, individualising discourses on drugs of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance produce

3 understandings of dance events as sites of dangerous drug use and participants as ‗at risk‘ individuals and populations, in need of state intervention.

Playing out of these broader social processes - of different modes of flexible and situational and restrictive regulation of self-formation, associated with particular forms of power relations - occurs within the specific example of local ‗mixed‘ dance events.

Offering an account of the ‗internal‘ texts (Pini 1993) of events and situating events in relation to broader social processes is of especial importance in informing appropriate health initiatives in relation to drug use and blood borne virus transmission. The playing out of these broader social processes in the example of local ‗mixed‘ dance events offers a way of thinking through the implications for how health is managed by the state, institutions, communities and individuals. Crucially, thinking through events in terms of social practices of self-care and collective rituals of sociality, within a broader context of governmental power relations, brings together concerns with pleasure, belonging, the embodied self and techniques of self-care regulating safer drug use that are absent in current literature.

There is, however, a limitation to the applicability of the findings of the current study to dance events and drug use more generally, in so far as the research focused on the specific example of local ‗mixed‘ dance events, rather than a broader range of dance events and drug use networks. The category of ‗mixed‘ events was identified and contact with key participants, facilitating access to events, identification of media texts and referral of participants for interviews, was established through preliminary, or

‗beginning‘ (Silverman 1999) ethnographic fieldwork. Analysis of the preliminary fieldwork data indicated that in the accounts of health service providers, Disc Jockeys

4 (DJs) and participants in local dance events, ‗mixed‘ events were understood as being characterised by crowds ‗mixed‘, or heterogeneous, in terms of sexualities and musical tastes. Accounts of ‗mixed‘ events converged on events associated with the local neighbourhood space and heterogeneous networks of inner west Sydney suburbs. The study focuses on these events with ‗mixed‘ crowds and the smaller social networks associated with ‗mixed‘ events. However, it is important to acknowledge that participants attended and moved, more or less comfortably, among multiple, interrelated styles of dance events, featuring distinctive crowd compositions. Added to this, ‗mixed‘ events were mobile and temporary, not held exclusively in the inner west neighbourhood, but in multiple inner city and regional locations, to which participants travelled. The qualitative data collected from fieldwork at events, review of media texts and interviews with participants in events are thus a product of the particular research process, time frame of the study and the particular local, social and historical context.

Informed by ‗beginning work‘ (Silverman 1999), the research came to focus on three key areas. Firstly, the study involved ethnographic fieldwork that focused on how connecting atmosphere was produced in the space of events. Secondly, the research featured analysis of media texts that considered how exchanges of advice in these texts guided production of ecstatic and self-regulated selves. Thirdly, the project involved analysis of interviews that allowed for consideration of participants‘ accounts of production of belongings, embodied selves and ways of using the pleasures of music, dance and drug use, through situational and flexible application of discourses, guiding enactment of techniques of self-formation in the space of ‗mixed events‘.

Participants‘ accounts of events in interviews and media texts and my account of fieldwork at events, are set in relation to the theoretical work of Foucault (1986/1990b)

5 on self-care and Maffesoli (1988/1996) on sociality. This interdisciplinary approach enabled development of an account of the local spaces, practices and ‗internal‘ texts

(Pini 1993), or stories, of events in the form of pleasure, belonging and self-care, and situation of these in relation to broader social processes. Examining the multiple discourses intersecting in events demonstrated, through a particular everyday example, the practical aspects of these in some ways abstract and metaphoric theoretical concepts.

The focus of the research, on the atmosphere, exchanges of advice in media texts and the production of belongings, embodied selves and ways of using the pleasures of music, dance and drug use associated with ‗mixed‘ events, means that the account of dance events presented here is specific to this particular example. However, the qualitative approach offered a close-focus account of ‗mixed‘ events that situated events in relation to a broader context. Examining events through Foucault (1986/1990b,

1978/1991a, 1983a) and Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) concepts of pleasure, belonging, the embodied self, social practices of self-care and collective rituals of neo-tribal sociality, within a broader context of governmentality, offers an understanding of events that is largely missing from the literature, where there are gaps in understandings of pleasure and self-care.

The thesis is divided into eight chapters. Chapter One, provides a review of social network literature on drug use and contemporary cultural studies literature on dance events, and identifies gaps in the literature on pleasure and self-care. I indicate a means of addressing these gaps on pleasure and self-care, through building on Pini‘s (1993,

1997a, b, c) work, where Foucault‘s (1988b) theory of ‗technologies of the self‘ is used to think through events. In Chapter Two I develop a theoretical framework through a close reading of Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) later work on self-care as a social practice and

6 the further development of this theme of social collectivity in Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on collective rituals of neo-tribal sociality. Reading Foucault and Maffesoli‘s work allows me to develop an understanding of situational and flexible modes of self- formation through social practices of self-care and collective rituals of sociality. From this perspective, self-care can be understood as enmeshed in a wider context of restrictive regulation of self-formation through universal application of individualising discourses of governmental and modified pastoral power relations (Foucault

1978/1991a, 1983a). In Chapter Three I provide an account of the research process, detailing how the qualitative method, featuring techniques of ethnography, textual analysis and interviews, was appropriate to consider the multiple stories, or discourses, local spaces and embodied practices of events. This allowed for consideration of

‗internal‘ texts (Pini 1993) of pleasure, belonging and self-care and situation of these in relation to broader social processes through theoretical texts, thus addressing gaps on pleasure and self-care in the literature.

The next five chapters present the analysis of qualitative data from ethnographic fieldwork, a review of media texts and interviews. Chapter Four, provides my account of fieldwork at events as researcher, and unpacks how atmosphere was produced through embodied practices of dancing and ‗lounging‘. Chapter Five offers analysis of media texts and indicates the important role of the Disc Jockey (DJ) in guiding production of ecstatic and self-regulated selves in the specialist column. DJs‘ specialist columns advocated techniques of self-care such as moderation and featured discourses of harm reduction and alternative spirituality held in tension with a background of texts of commercial and legislative regulation of events as sites of dangerous drug use.

Chapters Six, Seven and Eight present the analysis of participants‘ accounts from

7 interview data. Chapter Six fleshes out, how particular forms of belongings were produced. Chapter Seven draws out the implications of the ecstatic moment of belonging to everything, at the heart of the large crowd belongings of events. Chapter

Eight provides a discussion of the techniques of self-care through which drug use was regulated. In the final chapter, Balancing ecstatic and everyday pleasures: Social collectivity and self-regulation, I draw together key themes from analysis of ethnographic, textual and interview data on local ‗mixed‘ dance events and health, in relation to Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) work on self-care as a social practice and

Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on neo-tribal sociality.

Chapter One – Drug use, dance and social relations

Introduction

This study aimed to develop an understanding of the sociality of local dance events with

‗mixed‘ crowds, that would situate events within the everyday lives of participants and broader social processes, in order to inform health initiatives in relation to drug use and blood borne virus transmission. There were two interrelated starting points for this project – social network literature on drug use, and accounts of dance events in contemporary cultural studies literature. Social network and cultural studies literature features common themes of production of forms of belonging and embodied selves through techniques regulating the pleasures of dancing and drug use within small social groups. These literatures rewrite understandings of resistant subculture as a ‗whole way of life‘ and ‗identity‘, indicating how dance and drug use occur within diffuse, multiple and interconnected networks enmeshed in dynamic interrelations of multiple discourses, producing mobile, temporary, strategically negotiated belongings and selves.

Social network approaches Social network approaches were characterised by an understanding of drug use as a social practice enmeshed within social relationships, networks and spaces, in contrast to a focus on individual pathology, pharmacology, risk and deviance in public health literature on drugs. Social network literature indicates that people may have different forms of ties with multiple and interrelated networks that change over time. In this literature, networks of drug users were characterised by a norm and ritual of sharing the

9 pleasures of drugs, producing a sense of bonding that formed the basis for regulating safer drug use and risk-reduction. Rituals and rules of sharing drugs were interrelated with broader processes of everyday sharing. They were characterised by ‗co-operation‘ and ‗reciprocity‘ (Neaigus et al. 1994), ensured ‗personal safety and street survival‘

(Maher 1997), were governed by rules, or ‗respect‘ (Williams & Johnson 1993), a value of ‗share what you have‘ (Grund 1993), ‗hedonism‘ and ‗pleasure‘ (Grund 1993;

Henderson 1993), and produced ‗bonding‘ and ‗control‘ facilitated through key people in networks (Sharp et al. 1991, Ireland et al. 1999, Southgate & Hopwood 1999). The forms of belonging involved were not necessarily linked with oppositional or politically resistant values and identities (Sharp et al. 1991). The production of selves and forms of drug use and sexual practice occurred through social relations within networks enmeshed in broader social contexts (Richters, Bergin, French, Lubowitz & Prestage

1999). Identities were not simply fixed, or characterised by unproblematic fluidity, and did not always correspond with drug use, or sexual practice (Richters et al. 1999, Hillier et al. 1998). This means that health strategies informed by assumptions of homogenous networks and direct correspondence between identity, sexual and drug use practice remain limited - unable to reach those who do not, or cannot, identify themselves according to conventional classifications, or whose practice and identification do not correspond.

Understandings of drug use as a social practice, emerging themes of multiple and interrelated networks, the relationship between pleasure, bonding and techniques regulating safer use and the distinction between identity and practice informed my approach to ‗mixed‘ dance events and health. However, there are no studies that have specifically considered local ‗mixed‘ dance events and implications for health. The

10 focus of studies on networks of drug users has been on street based injecting drug use and gay men‘s networks, with networks surrounding dance events only recently considered, and in some cases in an exploratory, or largely quantitative manner. The discourse of pleasure, although present, is for the most part secondary to a focus on issues of regulation and risk. In highlighting the central place of drug sharing and limitations of assuming network homogeneity and direct correspondence between identity and practice, network approaches begin to indicate the need for further thinking through the question of the relation of regulated pleasure to the production of new forms of belongings and selves and the health implications of this.

Contemporary cultural studies and social dance events Contemporary cultural studies literature on dance, including work on subculture, rave, clubcultures, popular music and social dance, offers another starting point for thinking through regulated pleasure, belonging, selves and health in relation to the particular context of contemporary dance events. Contemporary cultural studies accounts of dance indicate how events constitute spaces for production of distinctive forms of selves and belongings via techniques regulating the pleasures of music, dancing, drug use and crowds. The self is transformed and reconstituted through the ecstatic moment, although the form and context of this moment vary and have particular implications in terms of power. Partial temporary belongings to a whole may be characterised by tensions and limited by particular spaces, broader discursive contexts, networks, crowd composition and competencies in enactment of techniques producing belonging.

Ecstatic, pleasured, self-regulated and safe selves may be produced through enactment of techniques of self-care (Foucault 1988b) guided through discourses of excitement, fear, control, positivity, cynicism and New Age spirituality utilised by women in rave

11 events (Pini 1993, 1997a, b, c). Further, neo-tribal identifications and belongings

(Maffesoli 1988/1996) may be produced through sharing space and sentiment (Malbon

1998, 1999; Bennett 1999, 2000). Rather than the dualism between power and resistance, the ecstatic moment is re-worked as constituting instants for the freeing up of the production of the embodied self (Pini 1993, 1997a, b, c) and of ‗vitality‘ (Malbon

1999).

The new types of belongings and selves associated with dance events were produced through experimentation with new forms of pleasures and the careful regulation of these that was bound up with the existing social relations and broader discursive contexts in which they were enmeshed. The regulation of drug use was understood as an indication of practices of self-management and self-care forming the basis for reducing risks in relation to drugs (Pini 1997c). Techniques of regulation, tied into the production of bonding in friendship networks, were understood as governing drug use, but at the same time posing dangers of an illusory diffusion of ‗individual‘ into collective responsibility

(Malbon 1999). However, except where explored in the work of Pini (1993, 1997c), the issue of self-care becomes secondary to concerns with meanings and power in relation to consumption of dance events as leisure, and freeing up of sexualities. Work on dance events opens the question of how to develop critical understandings of pleasure and of regulation in relation to the production of belongings and selves and the health implications of this within dance events and the everyday lives of participants. Pini

(1993, 1997a, b, c) and Malbon‘s (1998, 1999) work suggests theoretical directions that

I take up through a reading of Foucault (1986/1990b) on the production of the self in particular ways through enactment of techniques of self-care and Maffesoli‘s

(1988/1996) work on the production of neo-tribal belongings. In doing so, I develop a

12 theoretical framework which links pleasures, regulatory techniques, belongings, selves and health.

Social networks, drug use and HIV transmission

Social networks, sharing and risk-reduction Literature on social networks of drug users in relation to HIV transmission (Williams &

Johnson 1993; Friedman 1995; McKeganey, Friedman & Mesquita 1998; Southgate &

Hopwood 1999), functional, safe and self-regulated patterns of use (Sharp et al. 1991;

Grund 1993) and street based informal economy (Maher 1997) has indicated the importance of the norm and ritual of sharing drugs, including the pleasurable effects, or

‗high‘. Drug sharing is interrelated with wider processes of cultural sharing and helping, producing bonding, forming a basis for self-regulation, safer use and harm reduction (Williams & Johnson 1993: 81-83, 87; Grund 1993; Neaigus et al. 1994: 73,

76; Sharp et al. 1991: 82-83; Southgate & Hopwood 1999c: 4-5). Social network literature considers drug use as a social practice enmeshed within sets of social relations, structures and institutions. These include: drug policy, policing, drug use, social and risk networks, subcultures, communities, spaces, rules, rituals and roles governing use, drug availability, everyday lives of users and forms of power and inequalities enabling and constraining drug use, HIV transmission and everyday practices (Sharp et al. 1991: 23-24, 37-41, 60-61; Grund 1993: 1-2, 219, 244, 246, 248;

Maher 1997: 1; Friedman 1995: 206, 213; Neaigus et al. 1994: 67-68, 76).

Discourses on drugs In resonance with Becker (1963) and Young‘s (1971), symbolic interactionist subcultural work, network approaches to drug use as a social practice avoid the limitations of a tight focus on individual psychology or behaviour (Neaigus et al. 1994:

13 67-68; Sharp et al. 1991: 23) and quantifiable risk of transmission variables such as

‗needle sharing‘ (Grund 1993: 219-220), bound up with individualising discourses.

Individualising discourses included texts of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance, that produced understandings of drug use as a ‗problem‘ and people who used drugs as victims, deviants and vectors of disease, incapable of changing their behaviour and in need of state intervention (Grund 1993: 1, 219-220; Maher 1997: 1, 9, 55-57,

195; Henderson 1993: 126-128; Pini 1997c: 165). In contrast, social network studies have involved research on small personal micro, or dyadic, networks of friends and lovers (Neaigus et al. 1995; Williams & Johnson 1993) and larger neighbourhood and community and anonymous spatial networks, featuring ‗core‘ and ‗peripheral networks‘, ‗cliques‘ and ‗subgroups‘ (Curtis et al. 1995; Maher 1997; Grund 1993;

Sharp et al. 1991; Richters et al. 1999; Ireland et al. 1999; Southgate & Hopwood 1999) utilising quantitative, historical and ethnographic methods (Friedman 1995: 201-202).

Multiple, interrelated and changing networks and ties Social network literature indicated that drug users have different types of ties with multiple and interrelated networks (McKeganey et al. 1998: 27). There were ties among multi-racial, although predominantly male, ‗core risk networks‘ and ‗peripheral‘,

‗personal‘ and ‗anonymous risk networks‘, ‗women-centred‘ drug use networks and non-drug using social networks in Bushwick (Neaigus et al. 1994: 75; Maher 1997: 35-

36). There were ties between networks of self-regulated users and non-users in the

Netherlands and Australia (Grund 1993; Sharp et al. 1991). Ecstasy users in the

Netherlands were enmeshed in broader heterogeneous networks drawn together through music, fashion, niche media, record and clothing stores and dance events, within which drug use was one among other concerns, and had ties to ‗non-drug dominated networks,

14 activities and interests, such as work or study‘ (Grund 1993: 265-266). Multiple ties among ‗core networks‘ with high levels of HIV seroprevalence and risk practice and

‗peripheral risk networks‘ and ties among ‗women centred networks‘ in Bushwick were produced, in part, through practices of drug sharing, and equipment selling and sharing

(Curtis et al. 1995: 239-241, 245; Maher 1997: 36). Gay men‘s drug use networks in

Australia and gay/bisexual men‘s networks in America were interrelated with ‗straight‘ injecting networks and networks of lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual women and in regional areas were ‗mixed‘ or heterogeneous, including transgender people, lesbian, heterosexual and bisexual women and heterosexual men (Southgate & Hopwood 1999a:

1-2; 1999c: 4-5; Richters et al. 1999: 26, 28; Neaigus et al. 1994: 68).

Networks changed over time, with variations in turnover and forms of ties in relation to social, historical and biographical factors of urban desertification, policing, changes in drug markets and seroprevalence, drug career, income generation, life course in relation to HIV infection and entry into treatment or incarceration (Neaigus et al. 1994: 76;

Curtis et al. 1995: 234-235). High turnover in networks and formation of short-term weak ties was associated with increased risk of HIV transmission in Bushwick (Neaigus et al. 1995: 23, 36) and Houston (Williams & Johnson 1993). Lack of clean injecting equipment, lack of stable availability of drugs related to policies of prohibition and zero tolerance and intensive policing, and the demands of street life, took priority over harm reduction and were associated with increased risk of HIV transmission in New York and the Netherlands (Curtis et al. 1995; McKeganey et al. 1998: 23-24, 29; Maher 1997:

219; Grund 1993: 222). Increased frequency of injecting and prolongation of sexual activity associated with cocaine use was related to increased HIV risk practice

(McKeganey et al. 1998: 34-35; Maher 1997: 144).

Co-operation and reciprocity, personal safety and street survival Practices of drug sharing among networks of injectors in Bushwick were characterised by ‗co-operation‘ and ‗reciprocity‘ in ‗providing economic necessities and emotional support‘ and ‗multiplex ties‘, such as sexual relationships, friendships and kinships, with injectors and non-injectors, that may form a basis for development of a ‗risk reduction subculture‘ (Neaigus et al. 1994: 73-74, 76). ‗Women centred networks‘ in

Bushwick featured practices of helping and sharing drugs, injecting equipment, food, clothing, shelter and support that produced ‗bonds‘ ‗ensuring personal safety and street survival‘ within a context characterised by violence in relations with the male dominated ‗core network‘ (Maher 1997: 36-38, 53).

Respect Networks of injectors in Houston featured practices of sharing the pleasures of the drug

‗high‘ governed by rules and hierarchies of roles, or ‗respect‘. Rules governed the order of injecting in relation to money contributed and risks taken in purchasing drugs that determined hierarchies of roles with high status ‗housemen‘ and ‗runners‘ and low status ‗hangers on‘ (Williams & Johnson 1993: 81-83). Sharing the pleasures of the

‗high‘ was regulated through restriction only to those who could be trusted not to ruin pleasures, due to getting out of control, having a bad reaction to drugs, or behaving violently (Williams & Johnson 1993: 82). Sharing the pleasures of the ‗high‘ occurred within networks with close and affective ties, such as between friends and lovers characterised by trust and sharing of drugs, money, information, support and risk- reduction techniques (Williams & Johnson 1993: 81-83). These included, communication about the drug market, other users and police, keeping one another from getting out of control, avoiding disturbance of close network ties and provision of

16 comfort, first aid and safe spaces to inject and clean equipment by ‗housemen‘

(Williams & Johnson 1993: 71, 73, 81-83).

Share what you have Networks of injectors in the Netherlands were characterised by rituals of maximising and sharing in the pleasures and avoiding the dangers of drug use, producing a ‗bond‘, or sense of ‗community‘, and forms of socially and culturally learned drug knowledges, or rules and techniques regulating safer use (Grund 1993: 90, 123-125, 154, 164, 246).

Drug sharing rituals maximised pleasurable effects through pooling network resources to buy larger quantities of drugs and prevented withdrawal through provision of small ameliorating doses (Grund 1993: 118-199). Techniques for safe use included planning ensuring access to clean injecting equipment (Grund 1993: 164). Drug sharing was governed by rules of sharing within ‗intense and multiplex‘ relationships, such as sexual partners, family, people sharing living arrangements and ‗running mates‘ or ‗dyads‘, within which everyday and drug use practices were shared (Grund 1993: 153-154).

Reciprocity, involved in exchanging drugs guaranteeing help later, or services such as a safe place to inject, constituted another rule (Grund 1993: 119-122). Sharing drug pleasures was interrelated with broader processes of sharing and helping governed by the ‗universal subcultural code of share what you have‘ that included sharing ‗food, clothing and money‘ and helping with ‗daily problems‘ (Grund 1993: 123). Sharing injecting equipment and associated HIV related risk practices were bound up with rituals of drug sharing and broader processes of sharing governed by the rule of ‗share what you have‘ (Grund 1993: 148, 154). Sharing injecting equipment was associated with ‗situational factors‘ including unplanned ‗unexpected situations‘ or ‗unanticipated change‘ (Grund 1993: 163-164).

Revitalisation, hedonism, pleasure Ecstasy use among house music fans in the Netherlands was regulated through situation within dance events that were occasional, ‗recreational‘ rituals of ‗revitalisation‘ for

‗hedonistic pursuit of pleasure and social identity‘, and circulation of harm reduction information in niche media, record and clothing stores (Grund 1993: 265-266). Work on networks of women who used Ecstasy in Manchester indicated the production of new forms of social relations and sexuality on the dance floor where the sensual pleasures of dancing, music and collectivity enhanced by drug use were emphasised

(Henderson 1993: 124-125). Sexual practice during ‗coming down‘ after events was regulated through harm reduction techniques of ‗high awareness of sex-related risk‘ and

‗high use of condoms or experimentation with non-penetrative sex‘ (Henderson 1993:

126).

Bonding and control Subcultures of injectors with ‗functional‘ or sustainable and non-problematic patterns of use in Australia were composed of loose and fluid intersections of multiple smaller friendship networks (Sharp et al. 1999: 114-115). Subcultures featured distinctive values although these were not necessarily oppositional, subterranean or drug centred

(Sharp et al. 1991: 60-61). Rather, drug use changed over time in relation to contextual factors and was integrated with other activities and focal concerns of lifestyle and subculture, such as recreation, work and friendships (Sharp et al. 1991: 53-56, 37-41,

60-61). Functionality in everyday life and drug use was tied into the capacity to

‗negotiate‘ ‗structural contradictions‘ and produce ‗self sustaining lifestyles and patterns of integration‘ (Sharp et al. 1991: 39-40). Functionality was produced through shared symbolic rituals and rules, or norms, such as preparation and planning applied to drug

18 use and everyday life so as to maintain ‗safety‘ and ‗control‘ over use, learned through interaction with more experienced users (Sharp et al. 1991: 88-89). Cultural sharing was a norm and ritual applied to drug use and everyday life, involving sharing of economic resources, drugs and ‗bonding‘ of friendship networks produced through sharing the drug ‗high‘, held in tension with ‗disapproval‘ of drug use in the ‗straight world‘ (Sharp et al. 1991: 66-69, 82-83). Norms of ‗responsibility to self and to others‘ promoting safe use, and the risk of sharing injecting equipment, were bound up with the meanings of cultural sharing as a form of ‗bonding‘ among users that in some cases ‗cut across‘ ‗divisions of class, gender and ethnicity etc‘ (Sharp et al. 1991: 82-83).

Techniques of preparation and planning regulating safe use were disrupted by situational factors including large groups of injectors, ‗serial and multiple injections‘, polydrug use and sex on drugs (Sharp et al. 1991: 63-65).

Control and network nannies Gay men‘s drug use networks in Australia featured ‗norms‘ governing ‗normal‘ and

‗pathological‘ patterns of use, with controlled use understood as acceptable, and uncontrolled or ‗messy‘ use as unacceptable and dangerous (Ireland et al. 1999: 31-32,

57-58). Patterns of use were further regulated, or ‗choreographed‘, through a complex

‗folk pharmacology‘ consisting of drug knowledges and practices in relation to the drug market, spaces, networks, duration and phases of drug use events including effects of types and combinations of drugs, preferred patterns of use, techniques of dosing, sequencing, pacing and modes of administration (Ireland et al. 1999: 37). ‗Messy‘ use was avoided and controlled and safer use produced through techniques of pacing, dosing, sequencing, monitoring and support provided by friendship networks and

‗rituals‘ of injecting that incorporated harm reduction strategies (Ireland et al. 1999: 57-

19 58, 82-83). Lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual women played a ‗significant role‘ in gay men‘s drug use, initiating men into injecting and providing harm reduction information and techniques - acting as ‗network nannies‘, or key people circulating drug and harm reduction knowledges in networks (Southgate & Hopwood 1999a: 1-3; 1999b; 4; 1999c;

4-5). Gay men who injected had ties with multiple gay and queer networks and

‗straight‘ street based networks of injectors, with some indicating that there was greater acceptance of injecting within ‗straight‘ networks (Southgate & Hopwood 1999b: 2).

Regional gay men‘s networks were ‗mixed‘, featuring ties with transgender people, lesbians, heterosexual and bisexual women and heterosexual men and heterosexual injecting networks (Southgate & Hopwood 1999c: 4-5). However, same sex attracted women who shared in injecting and sexual practices with gay men may have increased risk of HIV transmission despite often assumed low risk status (Richters et al. 1999: 26,

28).

Identity, drug use and sexual practice and social networks Work on injecting drug users (Neaigus et al. 1994: 68), women in contact with gay community (Richters et al. 1999: 26-28) and same sex attracted young people (Hillier et al. 1998: 23-31) argued that in order to inform effective health initiatives it is crucial to avoid the limitations of assumptions of direct correspondence of individual sexual behaviour and identity, or of sexual identity as simply ‗fixed‘, or unproblematically

‗fluid‘. Within this approach, understandings are developed of sex and injecting as social practices and sexual identity as distinct from, although interrelated with, sexual practice, and produced within the social relations of networks enmeshed within broader social contexts (Richters et al. 1999: 26; Hiller et al. 1998: 23-31).

20 Same sex attracted young people self identified in multiple ways - as ‗gay‘, ‗lesbian‘,

‗bisexual‘, ‗heterosexual‘, ‗queer‘, or ‗alternatively‘ - although how comfortable they were with identifications was interrelated with social support in friendship, family and community networks and the broader social context (Hillier et al. 1998: 75, 25, 29-31).

Older youth identified as ‗gay‘ and ‗lesbian‘, while younger and female participants identified as ‗bisexual‘, ‗queer‘, or ‗alternatively‘ (Hillier et al. 1998: 26-27). Some who were from ‗well-educated, socially progressive families and environments‘ were comfortable with fluidity (Hillier et al. 1998: 30). For others, it was a source of

‗confusion‘, ‗fear and uncertainty‘, related to lack of support in social networks, a sense of isolation and broader stigma associated with same sex attraction generally and with bisexuality in gay community (Hillier et al. 1998: 29-31, 75). Patterns of ‗recreational‘

‗party drug‘ use were associated with having a ‗supportive family and friendship network‘ and linked to ‗club culture‘, while patterns of use to ‗cope‘ with the ‗pain‘ of feelings of ‗marginalisation‘ were associated with stigmatisation of same sex attraction

(Hillier et al. 1998: 53-4, 72).

Social networks, ‘mixed’ dance events and health Social network literature opens important questions and offers useful starting points for ways of re-thinking subculture, identity and patterns of drug use practice regulated through shared rules, rituals and roles. There are however, certain limitations in the applicability of social network approaches to dance events with ‗mixed‘ crowds and health. Social network literature has focused on networks of street based injecting drug users, gay men‘s networks and the spaces of the commercial gay ‗scene‘ and networks of same sex attracted young people. While ‗mixed‘ events occur within the space of clubs or other specially transformed temporary venues that may not be situated within

21 the commercial gay ‗scene‘ or part of everyday life on the street. The indications of heterogeneity and multiple ties of gay men‘s and injector‘s networks and the presence of fixed and fluid forms of identifications that may both correspond with and diverge from sexual practice among same sex attracted youth and women in contact with gay community raise important questions for future research. In particular, social network literature opens the question of how future work will develop understandings of the production of belonging and emerging forms of embodied selves and the interrelation of multiple networks, to inform health initiatives.

The questions of functionality, self-regulation, risk, safety, risk-reduction and inequalities forming the backdrop for participation in the informal economy and street life and documenting the needs of same sex attracted youth that form the focal concerns of social network literature offer useful starting points for developing an understanding of dance events and health. In particular, social network literature offered a useful understanding of drug use as a social practice enmeshed in everyday life and broader social processes. However, in reviewing social network literature, I found that the theme of pleasure was of secondary importance to questions of regulation and risk.

These questions then diverge from my own concerns with the regulation of pleasures and the production of belongings and provide only emerging indications of the importance of these themes for health. In social network literature, subculture becomes risk reducing, or conducive to safer use, rather than deviant, or resistant, although the relation between belonging and regulation of pleasures is largely not considered. The exception is Becker‘s (1963) work on marijuana use where he considers how the meaning of use as pleasurable is produced through interaction, and the work of Grund

(1993), Henderson (1993) and Williams and Johnson (1993) where pleasure has an

22 explicit place in the production of belonging and in techniques of regulation. The place of drug use in the production and regulation of the pleasures and belongings of dance events is explored in more recent social network studies, although these focus on broadly documenting the needs of same sex attracted youth through largely quantitative methods, or focus on the spaces of the commercial gay ‗scene‘. I develop from social network approaches through considering the role of pleasure in producing and maintaining belonging and examining how this is related to the capacity to enact techniques regulating safer drug use. I approach this question through the example of local ‗mixed‘ dance events, situating these events in relation to everyday life and broader social processes, in order to respond to limitations in health initiatives based on assumptions of homogeneity of networks and direct correspondence between identity and practice identified in social network literature.

Contemporary cultural studies and social dance events

From subcultures to club, dance music and Do it Yourself cultures There is a history of ‗neglect‘ of social dance, and more specifically women‘s participation in dance, within cultural studies, as attention has focused on resistant identity and style of male working class youth subcultures and music production, rather than consumption (Pini 1993: 17-20; Pini 1997a: 152-155; Pini 1997b: 113-114; Dyer

1979/1990: 413). There is also little work on participation of same sex attracted young people in subculture (Valentine, Skelton & Chambers 1998: 17, 24-25). Interest in the pleasures of social dance, gender and sexualities has only become a relatively recent concern in cultural studies. However, there is an important exception, in the form of early feminist work on women‘s participation in social dance and mod and punk subcultural dancing (McRobbie 1984, 1997, McRobbie & Garber 1977, Frith &

23 McRobbie 1978/1990, Roman 1988) and work in popular music on gay men‘s participation in disco (Dyer 1979/1990). Despite this neglect of social dance, there is a growing body of recent work on social dance events, within what is the interdisciplinary field of contemporary cultural studies. There is work in popular music on house music events (Rietveld 1998a, b) and in feminist cultural studies on women‘s participation in early and post-rave events (Pini 1993, 1997a, b, c). There is work on clubbing, contemporary club and dance music cultures in cultural and media studies (Thornton

1995), cultural studies and popular music (Bennett 1999, 2000; Gilbert & Pearson

1999), and performance studies, where gay dance events are considered (Bollen 1996), and human geography (Malbon 1998, 1999) where social dance more generally is also considered (Thrift 1997). Work on Do it Yourself politics and culture in cultural studies, popular music and sociology, considers underground, free and festival events

(McKay 1996, 1998, Wright 1998, Rietveld 1998b, Gilbert & Pearson 1999, Purdue,

Durrschmidt, Jowers & O‘Doherty 1998).

Forms, contexts and techniques for the production of belongings and selves Contemporary cultural studies literature on dance events indicated the importance of production of temporary, mobile belongings and selves through techniques enmeshed within broader social contexts (Rietveld 1998a, b; Thornton 1995; Pini 1993, 1997a, b, c; Thrift 1997; Bennett 1999, 2000; Malbon 1998, 1999). These techniques regulate the space of events, crowds, music, dancing and ways of using drugs, producing particular forms of selves and belongings. Contemporary cultural studies literature on dance reworks early subcultural theory ideas of subcultural resistant style and identity (see for example, Willis 1977; Hebdige 1977, 1979). Rather than the unity of homological style, fixed forms of resistant identity, and unified group belongings through a shared

24 whole way of life, the specially configured spaces of dance events produce distinctive forms of temporary mobile selves and belongings enmeshed within everyday life in particular ways. Events enmeshed in broader contexts thus constitute particular spaces for the production of distinctive forms of belongings and selves through the ecstatic moment in which the self is transformed and reconstituted. However, as Gilbert and

Pearson (1999: 95-96) argue, the ‗politics of the ecstatic experience is always dependent on its specific modes and contexts‘. These may be in the form of a complete merging into unity of sameness of a whole with fascistic and homosocial qualities as in gabba house (Gilbert & Pearson 1999: 95-96), or ‗nostalgia‘ for lost ‗gay and lesbian‘ community‘ without ‗straight‘ partygoers that shuts down possibilities of ‗excess‘ in

‗community‘ associated with Sydney‘s large scale gay events (Bollen 1996: 51-53). In contrast, within punk, disco, rave, house, clubbing and festivals, partial and temporary belongings to a whole are characterised by tensions and limited by the particular spaces

(McRobbie 1984; Roman 1988; Dyer 1979/1990; Pini 1997c), contexts and networks

(Rietveld 1998a), crowd compositions and competencies in enactment of techniques

(Malbon 1999) through which belongings are produced. In some cases, as in the work of Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c), this is understood as involving the production of ecstatic, pleasured, self-regulated and safe selves via the enactment of, in Foucault‘s (1988b) terms, techniques of self-care, guided by discourses such as rave‘s texts of excitement and New Age spirituality. In others, such as in the work of Malbon (1998, 1999) and

Bennett (1999, 2000) it is understood through Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on the temporary belongings and identifications of neo-tribes produced through sharing space and sentiment. Here, the idea of resistance is refashioned as a moment of ‗vitality‘

(Malbon 1999).

25 Mod, punk, and disco - Dance, intertextuality and new modes of self and belonging

Literature on women‘s participation in mod and punk dancing and gay men‘s disco dancing has re-fashioned resistant subcultural style, arguing for what Gilbert & Pearson

(1999: 100-107) understand as the ‗deconstructive‘ power of the ecstatic moment to work in-between multiple discourses, holding open moments of ambiguity and contradiction, through which new modes of eroticism, embodied selves and belongings are produced. Dance constitutes a temporary ‗utopian space‘ for ‗everyday resistance‘, rather than political resistance, through working the space in-between multiple discourses or ‗intertextualities‘ via pleasures of ‗displaced, shared and nebulous eroticism‘ and ‗fantasy of change, escape and of achievement‘ (McRobbie 1984: 134,

136, 139-140; McRobbie 1997: 210, 230). Mod, although predominantly a male working class subculture, featured an emphasis on pleasures of dancing and display of mod style rather than on sexual pick up, inviting ambiguous new forms of belonging, masculinity and femininity on the dance floor (McRobbie & Garber 1977: 217-218;

Frith & McRobbie 1978/1990: 383-384, 387-388). Punk also was characterised by an emphasis on friendship, music, dancing and style rather than on sexual pick up, temporarily dissolving boundaries of class, race and sexuality and inviting new forms of social relations and femininity on the dance floor, such that these were ‗at once there and not there‘ (McRobbie 1984: 146-149). Punk dancing in America featured the production of temporary ‗safe spaces‘ and moments of ‗transcendence‘ for middle and working class women, although characterised by tensions between multiple discourses on class and gender, producing forms of ‗contradictory‘, rather than straightforwardly resistant subjectivity (Roman 1988: 178).

26 Expanding on the holding open of ambiguity and contradiction through dance, Dyer

(1979/1990: 415-417) argues that disco dancing featured pleasurable ecstatic moments of whole body eroticism, for men, women, gay and straight, that worked in-between and momentarily destabilised everyday discourses of phallocentric eroticism, patriarchy and capitalism, within the utopian space of the dance floor. Dyer (1979/1990: 415) writes that the rhythmic complexity and variation in disco ‗restores eroticism to the whole of the body and for both sexes, not just confining it to the penis…[and] leads to the expressive, sinuous movement of disco dancing‘. The ecstatic moment of disco dancing, rather than being straightforwardly resistant or reproductive of dominant culture, held open ‗the experience of contradiction‘, ‗between banality and something

‗other‘‘, both producing a sense of revivification in commercial leisure contexts enabling continued participation in work, and, importantly, creating forms of temporary

‗gay community‘ and identity, when ‗used‘ ‗subversively‘ within non-commercial small-scale club spaces (Dyer 1979/1990: 415-417). Dyer‘s (1979/1990) understanding of the whole body eroticism and ‗polymorphous‘ pleasures of disco has usefully been read as destabilising ‗gender terms‘, ‗deconstructing‘ the ‗discursive systems which fix sex and gender according to the binary oppositions man/woman, masculine/feminine, gay/straight‘ (Gilbert & Pearson 1999: 100-102). Dyer‘s (1979/1990) work on disco thus importantly draws out how new forms of selves and belongings and eroticism, may be produced through the pleasures of particular forms of dance and music practice that are enmeshed within and work in-between points of tension and contradiction of multiple and interrelated discourses. Crucially, Dyer (1979/1990) is not claiming that dance completely overthrows discourses defining ‗normal‘ sexuality, but rather that through the artful ‗use‘ of pleasures of dance and music in particular contexts, a

27 momentary destabilisation occurs in dualisms through which sexuality is usually understood, allowing the possibility of something more.

House – Technologies and contexts of belonging House music events were characterised by regulation of space, music, dancing, drugs and crowds through ‗dance club‘ and ‗body technologies‘ enmeshed within discursive and power, knowledge relations (Rietveld 1998a: 163-165, 4-6). ‗Dance club technologies‘ of amplifying music through the whole body and use of ‗special effects‘ produced ‗tactile space‘ and bodily awareness (Rietveld 1998a: 166). In contrast to the use of ‗style‘ or ‗niche‘ press generating clubbing crowds (Thornton 1995),

‗underground‘ events utilised local ‗micro‘ and low cost, ‗underground‘ media, such as

‗word of mouth‘ to draw crowds with a ‗small social circle‘ core, or wider networks linked through technology (Rietveld 1998a: 173-174, 1998b: 247, 250; McKay 1996: 9;

1998: 11). Door policies involved ‗social filtering‘ based on categories of ‗attitude‘, dress, gender, sexuality, class and race (Rietveld 1998a: 175). DJs‘ techniques of selecting, sequencing and ‗mixing‘ of records produced a continuous, changing ‗sound track‘, ‗framed‘ by the beat (Rietveld 1998a: 144-150). Dancers embodied ‗readings‘ of music fed back into playing music involving ‗radical intertextuality‘ and ‗ecstatic‘ loss of self (Rietveld 1998a: 144-150). The ‗body-technology‘ of drugs such as Ecstasy enhanced a ‗feeling of ‗otherworldliness‘ and escape from daily reality‘ and tactile, sensuous bodily awareness (Rietveld 1998a: 176, 180).

The ecstatic moment produces different forms of resistant or structural power, belonging and selves, depending on the contexts, networks and techniques involved

(Rietveld 1998a: 199). ‗Alienation‘ of capitalism, patriarchy, homophobia, racism and

28 intensive legislation and policing of leisure dancing was destabilised through ecstatic selves and new forms of community produced via dancing within the context of

‗grassroots‘, ‗underground‘ gay, early house, free or festival events (Rietveld 1998a:

196, 198, 201-203). These events produced non-commercial social micro-contexts geared to ‗strengthen the bonding of an alternative community‘ and employed discreet organising techniques, using ‗word-of-mouth‘ and email, avoiding surveillance by popular press or police (Rietveld 1998a: 200, 203). Temporary, anonymous community was characterised by momentary ‗disappearance‘ of ‗social differences‘ of gender, sexuality, race, class and ‗subculture‘ (Rietveld 1998a: 166, 192-193, 201). However, discreet organising techniques of Do it Yourself (DiY) networks in some cases produced ‗inverse snobbery‘, excluding those not already connected with networks

(Wright 1998: 237).

Rave and post-rave events – Regulation of ecstatic selves In an ethnographic study, Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c) provides a feminist cultural studies approach to women‘s experiences of rave. Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work offers a useful way of understanding dance and drug use practice, as regulated through the application of multiple texts or discourses and, through drawing on Foucault (1988b), the operation of techniques of self-care, that work to produce the self as ecstatic, pleasured, self-controlled and safe. Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c) argues that through this work on the embodied self to regulate the pleasures of dance and drug use and especially the ecstatic moment, new modes of ‗auto-erotic‘ sexuality and mobile belonging were produced. Importantly, this approach to rave through multiple texts allowed room for a consideration of pleasures, ‗thrill‘ or ‗excitement‘ of dancing and

29 drug taking and women‘s involvement in these practices, neglected in subcultural theory where emphasis was placed on resistant identity and style (Pini 1993:17-20).

Intertextuality For Pini (1993: 1; 1997a: 155), women‘s experiences of rave were produced, regulated and understood through ‗intertextuality‘ and ‗tectonics‘, or the dynamic interrelation of multiple discourses or texts. Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c) details how rave acts as a site of intersection of ‗internal‘ texts of excitement and fear, sameness, positivity, control, cynicism, intertextuality with more broadly circulating discourse on New Age spirituality and more or less ‗external‘ discourses on the dangers of drugs. Pini (1993:

46-49) argues that the self was produced as ecstatic, pleasured, free, self-regulated and safe, through enactment of techniques of self-care, guided through discourses of excitement, control and New Age spirituality. Rave featured the regulation of ‗space‘,

‗time‘ and ‗bodies‘ through a ‗material and discursive assemblage‘, involving the operation of organising and self-regulatory techniques and discourses, such as rave‘s key texts of excitement and fear, producing a particular ‗set up‘, featuring darkness, crowds of dancers, disorienting visual effects, bodily ‗rushes‘‘ of Ecstasy use,

‗anticipation‘ of drug effects, nervousness and anxiety (Pini 1997a: 155-159; 1997b:

120-122).

Techniques of self-regulation

Pini (1997b: 123) argues that rave emphasised the embodied pleasures of social dance and in particular the ecstatic moment. The dancing body and the ‗holistic self‘ produced through practices of dance become the focal point for techniques that work on transforming the embodied self (Pini 1997a: 163-165). The experience of rave was

‗governed‘, or ‗regulated‘, through ‗self techniques (such as working towards a blissful

30 absorption of the self into the dancing crowd) which encourages a certain manner of textual engagement‘, forming an ‗ethics of pleasure‘ (Pini 1997a: 162). Rave featured production of a positive attitude, maintenance of self-control in relation to drug use and events to maximise pleasure, avoid dangers and negotiate fears and anxieties, intertextualities with New Age spirituality and later ‗cynicism‘ in relation to contradictions between New Age discourses and commercialisation. Having the ‗right attitude‘ entailed being positive and avoiding ‗negative vibes‘ (Pini 1997a: 162).

Maintaining ‗control‘ over ‗fears‘ and anxieties was key to the production of pleasures

(Pini 1997a: 159-160).

Drug use was regulated through techniques that worked the embodied self to a ‗peak‘ ecstatic state and sense of ‗belonging‘ to the dancing crowd, enabled though maintenance of ‗control‘ via maximising pleasures through consuming particular types of music, regulating combination and dosage and avoiding unpleasant effects such as dehydration and paranoia, through ‗self-monitoring‘, ‗classifying‘ and ‗management‘

(Pini 1997c: 163-165). Regulatory techniques that managed safer drug use were interrelated with the production of ecstatic embodied selves understood in terms of rave‘s key text of excitement and intertextuality with the New Age discourse of

‗holistic‘ ‗mind/body/spirit‘ self. Pini (1993: 50-51; 1997b: 121-122) argues that the interrelation of this regulated form of drug use that was integrated smoothly with everyday life, with New Age discourse, is apparent in the idea that E, or after E had been experienced, music or atmosphere could take you to a ‗higher plane‘. Pini (1997c:

165) elaborates that techniques of self-transformation featuring the regulation of pleasure stand in tension with accounts of young people as ‗either the victims or the perpetrators of social ‗problems‘‘:

―Hence what is obvious is the extent to which these young people regulate and manage themselves. This clearly carries implications for traditional perceptions of the young as simply ‗victims‘ in need of interventionist ‗care‘. For those working with the young, this highlights the extent to which these young people develop their own strategies of ‗care‘ and self- management. Hence, these young people, far from being in need of external control and regulation, devise their own means of managing themselves, assessing and limiting potential risks.‖ (Pini 1997c: 165).

Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) approach thus offers a useful starting point for understanding how pleasures of dance and drug use are regulated and Pini (1993) indicates that given the lack of understandings of drug use that consider both pleasure and regulation, this is an important question for future research.

‘Being ecstatic’ – New forms of autoerotic sexuality and mobile belonging

In Pini‘s (1997a: 163-165; 1997b: 111-112, 121, 124) analysis the intertextualities between rave‘s texts of ‗sameness‘ and ‗positivity‘ and New Age ‗holistic‘

‗mind/body/spirit‘ self are evident in rave‘s reconfiguration of the self, involving destabilisation of dualisms of ‗mind/body, self/other, physicality/machine‘. Emphasis is placed on ‗spirit‘, ‗touch‘ ‗non-verbal communication‘ and pleasurable dissolving of bodily boundaries in the ‗connectedness‘ of the ecstatic moment of dancing when the self falls into relation with technologies of music, lighting, drugs and crowd producing a sense of belonging, as dancers become part of the ‗something bigger‘ of rave‘s

‗‗ecstatic‘ mind/body/spirit/technology assemblage‘ (Pini 1997a: 163-165; 1997b: 121,

124-125). For Pini (1997a: 164-165), in resonance with Foucault (1988b), the ecstatic

32 ‗assemblage‘ involved ‗sought-after states‘ and ‗techniques‘ for self-transformation that worked the dancing, drugged body.

The pleasures of the ecstatic moment or ‗jouissance‘ of dance and drug use are characterised by production of a form of ‗non-phallocentric‘ and ‗autoerotic‘ sexuality that does not ‗‗fit‘ standard, patriarchal definitions of sexuality and eroticism‘ (Pini

1997a: 166-167; 1997b: 122-123, 125). For example, Pini recounts that one woman she interviewed understood rave dancing as ‗not sexual‘ but ‗orgasmic‘ (Pini 1997a: 167).

The social relations of the dance floor were characterised by intensification of pleasure, through mutual exchange of ecstatic ‗looks‘ between dancers and dissolving of bodily, individual, social and sexual boundaries between self and other, audience and performer, in a moment of belonging to the ‗whole‘ or ‗something bigger‘, of the ecstatic ‗assemblage‘ (Pini 1997a: 165-166; 1997b: 122). This ecstatic looking was just as likely to be at women as men, and Pini (1997b: 122) describes how, as one participant indicated, ‗it doesn‘t have to go anywhere‘, with the pleasure being in the look itself and the ecstatic state. The dissolving of boundaries and reconstitution of the self into a ‗collective self‘ marked a ‗shift‘ away from the restrictiveness of sexual pick up usually associated with dancing and ‗drugged-up‘ bodies of women and momentary freedom from the ‗professional‘ presentation of self in everyday contexts such as work

(Pini 1997a: 165-166, 168; 1997b: 125). Within the context of the HIV epidemic rave‘s autoerotic sexuality offered ‗a ‗safe‘ yet thrilling alternative mode of physical and social interaction‘ within the space of events (Pini 1993: 49-50; also see Pini 1997c: 163;

McRobbie 1993: 419-420). However, Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c) does not consider the production of new modes of masculinities and identifies this as an area for further research.

The belongings produced through rave‘s ecstatic ‗assemblage‘ were ‗anonymous‘ and

‗temporary‘, involving the dissolving of bodily, individual, social, sexual and identity classifications (Pini 1997b: 126). Rather than a subcultural resistant politics of identity, rave involves a ‗politics of space‘, concerned with ‗defence‘ of the space of events and the self-transformation invited by practices of music, dance, drug use and friendliness

(Pini 1997b: 126, 118-119). Belongings were characterised by tensions and limitations.

Pini (1997a: 161-162; 1997b: 120) argues that rave was characterised by tension between texts of sameness and difference - offering a space in which ‗social boundaries‘ were dissolved through ‗equal‘ participation in the collective pleasures of dance, held in tension with the predominantly ‗white working-class‘ culture of rave, glossing of difference involved in sameness and later fragmentation on the basis of ‗race, gender, age, sexuality and other differences‘. Pini (1997b: 123-124) details how participants drew on a text of ‗cynicism‘ in understandings of the tensions between New Age discourse of ‗love‘ and increasing commercialism, in the form of expensive drugs of indeterminable quality and entry to events. Pini (1997b: 123-127) recounts how although rave afforded the production of an ‗alternative world‘ participants acknowledged the tensions and limits of this world characterised by new forms of belongings that were not based on identity:

―…rave can be seen as providing a space for alternative kinds of connections to be made, connections based upon a certain unfixing of identity categories…it can be read as being organised around a kind of ‗non- identity‘. However, it still offers a sense of belonging within a whole. What we see within rave…is an unlikely combination between holism and partiality…women can temporarily engage within a kind of New-Age notion

34 of a ‗whole‘, whilst recognising the context-specificity of this and the contradictions inherent within it.‖ (Pini 1997b: 126-127).

Rather than being fixed, total and resistant, the belongings and forms of selves produced through the ecstatic moment are described by Pini (1997b: 127) as mobile, temporary, partial and strategic. The freedom produced through practices of dancing is momentary, limited to the space of events, and held in tension with increasing commercial and state legislative regulation of raves as sites of dangerous drug use. At the same time, the pleasures of the sense of freedom and belonging produced through the regulatory techniques, or text of ‗control‘, that characterised rave were interrelated with broadly circulating New Age discourses, guiding production of selves as ecstatic, pleasured, self-regulated and safe.

This approach is extremely useful, providing a fine-grained analysis of women‘s experiences of rave that has room for pleasure and regulation. However, the issues of drug use and masculinities left aside in a focus on new modes of femininity are important to my interest in drug use in the context of local dance events with ‗mixed‘ crowds and health. While not abandoning a consideration of the participation of women in dance events and production of new forms of femininity, I open up issues of drug use, health and new modes of embodied selves and belongings, including new forms of masculinities. Rather than placing emphasis on female subjectivity, I consider the social networks, relationships and practices of participants in local ‗mixed‘ dance events.

Clubbing and festivals - Neo-tribal belongings, ecstasy and vitality Malbon (1998, 1999), Bennett (1999, 2000), Gilbert and Pearson (1999) and Purdue et al. (1997) provide ethnographic accounts of the ‗spacings‘, music and dance practices of

35 contemporary clubbing and festivals. Clubbing involves the production of belongings and not belongings that hinge on identification of the self and other people through ideas of ‗distinction‘, or ‗cool‘, and temporary belongings produced through the dissolving, or fragmentation, of identities and identifications in the ecstatic moment.

Malbon (1999: 56-57, 102-103) understands the ecstatic moment through Maffesoli‘s

(1988/1996) work on the movement in-between individual identity and the multiple, temporary, fluid and mobile identifications or belongings of ‗neo-tribal‘ networks produced through the ephemeral, tactile, sensual and emotional pleasures of sharing of space and sentiment as is involved in the collective consumption of music and atmosphere through dancing. Subcultural homologies of politically resistant style and identity are reworked through understandings of belongings and selves as temporary, fluid and situationally negotiated. The form of belonging and its implications in terms of power, depends on the clubbing and everyday context, the composition of crowds, forms of identity and competency in enactment of techniques regulating the pleasures of music, dance and drug use through which belonging is produced.

Distinctive forms of crowd and ecstatic belongings in clubbing were produced through

‗second nature‘ rules, rituals, customs, techniques, skills and competencies, or

‗sociality‘, that governed spaces, crowds and ‗spacings‘ (‗spatial orderings‘), or modes of spatial ‗inhabitation‘ (Malbon 1999: 24-25, 60-62, 90-103, 106, 185). Rules governed acceptable modes of social interaction with emphasis placed on music and collective dancing. However, Malbon (1999: 42-46) argues that in contrast to Pini‘s

(1997a, b) discussion of the ‗sexual liberation‘ of rave, in clubbing, sexual seeking was seen as secondary but not ruled out and sexual display through ‗flirting‘ was one of the pleasures of events as an end in itself. Access to events was governed by techniques of

36 self-selection and negotiation of door and dress policies, interrelated with broader

‗distinctions‘, or hierarchies of status of race, class, gender and sexuality, through which crowd composition was regulated (Malbon 1999: 60-68). Bodily techniques regulated modes of engagement with crowds and music, through monitoring of dancing, dress, gaze, touch, gesture, emotion and movement through the atmospheric, temporal and spatial zones of clubs, mediated by music and lighting (Malbon 1999: 95-104). The ecstatic moment, and dance in particular, involved learned and practised techniques, that negotiated a sense of relinquishing and gaining ‗control‘, over the dancing body, submitting the self to music and crowd, creative interpretation through movement and interaction, and a ‗flux‘ between moments of ‗community‘ and ‗isolation‘, losing the self and self-consciousness (Malbon 1999: 91-92, 100-101, 112-116, 128).

Use of drugs such as Ecstasy acted as ‗triggers‘, or sustainers, for ecstatic moments produced through music and collective dancing (Malbon 1999: 109, 128). Skills, techniques, rituals and competencies regulated ways of using drugs to produce the

‗ecstatic‘ moment, including availability, preparation, administration and negotiation of effects and integration of drugs into the musical, dancing and crowd-based spacings and timings of clubbing, its ‗afterglow‘ and everyday life (Malbon 1999: 119-133, 172-

173). Regulatory techniques were centred within and enhanced the bonding of friendship networks, negotiating tensions between ‗excitement‘ and ‗worry‘ associated with the pleasures and dangers of using drugs, that due to their ‗illicit‘ status, were of indeterminable quality (Malbon 1999: 120-121). Malbon (1999) elaborates that:

―For most clubbers, decisions about whether to take drugs, where to get them, how much to take and when to take them are indeed made as a group.

37 This form of decision-making appears popular because it gives the illusion of taking the responsibility for choices about taking drugs away from individual clubbers. Of course, ultimately these choices remain individual ones. This early group involvement engenders sensations of ‗not being alone‘ in both the anticipated risks and the excitements that await during the night ahead, and thus before the night has even begun, notions of group trust and bonding may be developing, particularly if (as is usual) previously successful nights are being evoked and used as a foundation, framework or rationale for the night to come.‖ (Malbon 1999: 121).

The ecstatic, or ‗oceanic‘, moment was characterised by a pleasurable sense of entering a space ‗in-between‘ work/play, reality/fantasy, characterised by ‗loss (of differences between self and others, of time and space, of words, images and the senses), as well as notions of gain (of unity, of timelessness and eternity, of control, joy, contact and ineffability)‘ (Malbon 1999: 108-109). Malbon (1999: 111-112) distinguishes between interrelated ecstasies of ‗intensity‘ and ‗withdrawal‘, characterised by ‗effervescence‘ and ‗introspection‘. Malbon (1999: 134, 139, 142) understands the ecstatic moment as a form of pleasurable ‗play‘, characterised by a particular mode of power, or ‗vitality‘, that features a sense of ‗flow‘, produced through competent enactment of skills and techniques managing ‗challenges‘ of particular social situations. Belongings produced through pleasures of the ‗flow‘ involve the constant negotiation of moments of not belonging, or ‗anxiety‘ (Malbon 1999: 142-144).

Malbon (1999: 146-148) rethinks the power/resistance of dance, that rather than offering confrontational political resistance to structural power, building on Pini (1997b:

118) and Thrift (1997: 147), and in resonance with Pini (1996), constitutes an embodied form of play producing a sense of ‗vitality‘, or possibility of ‗something more‘, creating

38 spaces for self-transformation. For Thrift (1997: 149-150), the body techniques of dance, rather than offering a full confrontation with power, following Radley (1995: 5-

9), constitute a form of ‗elusory power‘. Malbon (1999: 148-149) reworks the ‗elusory power‘ (Radley 1995; Thrift 1997) of the dance, arguing that as playful vitality, dance is

‗immanent‘, ‗inhabited‘ and ‗autotelic‘, or an end in itself, a form of ‗micro-power‘, or in Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) terms, ‗puissance‘. Playful vitality offsets aspects of everyday life, work, identities and identifications, producing temporary and communal

‗sentiments of inclusivity‘ and ‗utopia‘ (Malbon 1999: 150-158). Malbon (1999) argues that inclusiveness and openness to diversity produced in the ecstatic moment may be held in tension with, or contextually limited, by homogeneous, or internally

‗differentiated‘ crowds (Malbon 1999: 157-161, 185-187). Bennett (1999: 599-600,

608, 614; 2000: 78-84, 87) details that temporary crowd belongings of clubbers in

Newcastle upon Tyne were characterised by ‗eclecticism‘, ‗musical and visual style mixing‘ and ‗fluid‘ identities and musical tastes that he conceptualises as forms of

Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) ‗neo-tribal‘ belongings produced through sharing space and emotion of collective music and dance practices that are enmeshed in and ‗negotiate‘

‗negative or oppressive‘ local settings. Festival events were characterised by internal differentiation, mixing and ‗alterity‘, involving multiple dance spaces, musical genres, workshops, stalls, environmental and DiY discourses guiding production of ‗neo-tribal identities‘ and drawing together multiple networks producing a ‗network of networks‘,

‗temporary community or ‗world‘‘ (Gilbert & Pearson 1999: 31-33; Purdue et al. 1997:

647, 661-662).

39 Contemporary cultural studies and social dance, local ‘mixed’ events and health Contemporary cultural studies work on social dance events rethinks resistant subculture through ideas of temporary, mobile, fluid and strategic, and drawing on Maffesoli

(1988/1996) ‗neo-tribal‘, forms of belonging and selves and moments of freedom and

‗vitality‘. This work begins to indicate the importance of regulatory techniques working on the self and space governing pleasures through which belongings and selves are produced. However, the concerns of this work with questions of the meaning and power of consuming music and dance as leisure and moments of freedom for production of new forms of sexed selves both connect with and diverge from my own concerns.

Shifting away from a focus on meaning, consumption and gender I ask how drug use practice is placed and regulated within dance events and the everyday lives of participants in relation to health issues. More specifically, and informed by Pini‘s

(1993, 1997a, b, c) work, I ask how the self may be produced as ecstatic and self- regulated through enactment of techniques of self-care guided via multiple and interrelated discourses.

Malbon (1999) provides useful ways of thinking through the forms of crowd-based collectivity involved in clubbing via notions of temporary identifications and playful vitality of dance. Belonging is understood in terms of a movement in-between the separateness of identity and merger of crowd-based identifications (Malbon 1999: 182).

However, belongings may involve a sense of connectedness that reconstitutes the self through being in relation to the something more of atmosphere, technologies and spirit that are bound up with New Age discourse guiding production of the self as ecstatic, pleasured, self-regulated and safe. Dancing may offer a ‗…means of deliciously slipping through the gaps in preordained identities, into the temporary occupation of

40 new zones of experience which leave the participant revivified and imperceptibly altered.‘ (Gilbert & Pearson 1999: 33). Developing understandings of the context and form of belongings and in particular the idea of an in-between remains an important question for future work. Pini‘s (1997b) work on the intertextualities of rave with New

Age discourse of ‗holistic‘, ‗body/mind/spirit/technology assemblage‘, Dyer‘s

(1979/1990) writing on the holding open of the ‗experience of contradiction‘ involved in disco and Gilbert and Pearson‘s (1999) reading of this as a form of deconstruction of dualisms that produces possibilities of something more is suggestive here. This approach, indicates the importance of the possibility of holding open of contradiction and dynamic interrelation of multiple discourses in thinking through the production of new forms of belongings and selves via particular techniques regulating pleasures of music, dance and drug use.

Pini (1997c) and Malbon (1999) indicate the importance of the pleasures of the use of drugs in the production of the ecstatic moment of dancing and the ways in which these pleasures are regulated via techniques of self-care and sociality. For Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c), enactment of techniques of self-care through which the self is produced as ecstatic, self-regulated and safe are guided through more broadly circulating New Age discourse and indicate the ways in which young people are involved in taking responsibility for managing themselves. For Malbon (1999), the highly ritualised form of drug use involved in clubbing requires competencies, skills and techniques through which pleasures are regulated. However, these techniques are bound up with the production of a form of belonging, or group bonding, through which friendship networks negotiated and regulated the pleasures, dangers and fears involved in taking drugs of indeterminable quality. Malbon (1999) argues that this form of bonding and

41 collective negotiation and regulation constitutes a danger in relation to drug use, as it creates what is only an ‗illusion‘ of collective responsibility, while responsibility for decisions concerning drug use remains ‗individual‘. This raises important questions for future work on drug use in the context of dance events and health. More specifically, literature on dance events indicates an emerging theme of the interrelation of belongings and techniques of regulation of pleasures of drug use. This becomes more significant when set in relation to work on social networks of drug users that details how the belongings of user networks may facilitate processes of regulation and be related to instances of risk that are bound up with broader processes of sharing of the pleasures of drugs and everyday life.

It is through the pleasures of practices of music, dance and drug use, regulated via particular techniques that are tied into broadly circulating guiding discourses and networks of social relations, that new forms of selves and belongings are produced. To provide an understanding of regulated pleasure and belonging developing from the work of Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c) and Malbon (1999), in the following chapter I turn to the work of Foucault (1986/1990b) on the production of the self in particular ways through techniques of self-care as a social practice and Maffesoli (1988/1996) on the production of belongings through rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality. In Foucault‘s

(1986/1990b) work, responsibility is both individual and collective. Self-care is enacted through a primary emphasis on techniques of self-regulation that are nonetheless enmeshed within social relations and bound up with a concern for the self-care and pleasure of other people. In Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work responsibility becomes a personal concern with the collective that is produced through networks, space and atmosphere.

Conclusions

Drug use, dance and HIV transmission as social practices Literature on social networks, drug use and HIV transmission and contemporary cultural studies work on dance events offer useful starting points for research on

‗mixed‘ dance events and health. These contemporary literatures on drugs and dance offer conceptualisations of drug use, HIV transmission and dance as social practices enmeshed within sets of social relations, spaces and the dynamic interrelation of multiple discourses.

Social networks – Bonding as the basis for risk-reduction Work on social networks of drug users has indicated the importance of thinking through the relationship between pleasures and belongings or bonding of networks and techniques regulating drug use so as to maintain control and safety. Social network literature emphasises limitations of approaches assuming homogeneity of networks and correspondence between identities, sexual and drug use practice. However, the theme of pleasure, while emergent in this work, is not adequately thought through – especially given what seems the key role of pleasure in the bonding of networks that was related to the capacity to reduce risks.

Contemporary cultural studies and dance events – The power of the ecstatic moment Contemporary cultural studies work on dance events indicated how events offer specially configured spaces for production of new forms of temporary, mobile and strategic or ‗neo-tribal‘ belongings and selves via techniques regulating the pleasures of music, dancing, drug use and crowd collectivity. While the theme of regulated drug use is explored in contemporary cultural studies work on dance it remains largely secondary

43 to concerns with meaning and power in relation to consumption of dance and leisure and the freeing up of production of sexed selves for women. Where regulation is thought through it is firstly in terms of the dangers of an illusory diffusion of individual into collective responsibility as techniques of regulation are intermeshed in processes of bonding of small friendship networks (Malbon 1999). Regulation is secondly thought through in terms of the production of ecstatic, pleasured, self-regulated and safe selves via the application of guiding discourses of excitement, fear, control, positivity, cynicism and New Age spirituality and enactment of techniques of self-care and transformation in rave (Pini 1993, 1997a, b, c).

Pleasure, belonging and self-regulation – Techniques of self-care as a social practice and collective rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality These starting points offer fragmentary understandings of the interrelationship between pleasure, regulatory techniques, belongings, selves and health, indicating theoretical approaches in Foucault and Maffesoli‘s work. Emerging in literature on drug use and dance is a relationship between belonging produced through sharing pleasures and the capacity for enacting techniques of self-regulation governing safer drug use. This relationship is explained in terms of strong network ties that facilitate the capacity for risk-reduction in literature on drugs, rather than a consideration of the role of shared pleasures in producing belonging. In contrast, in literature on dance explanation has focused on the meaning and power of the pleasures of the ecstatic moment through which temporary belonging and new forms of selves are produced. Leaving a gap in ways to think through how practices of music, dance and drug use are regulated via techniques of self-care and collective rituals and rules that more than being only individual or collective may be understood as social practices and forms of sociality.

Literature on drugs and dance generally fails to develop an adequate understanding of

44 the relation between pleasure, belonging and self-regulation, except in the work of Pini

(1993, 1997a, b, c). In Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work the concepts of pleasure, belonging and self-regulation are explicitly brought together through analysis of accounts of women who participate in the pleasures of rave events producing new forms of belonging and selves acting as the basis for in Foucault‘s (1988b) terms ‗techniques of self-care‘ regulating drug use and dance. However, Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work focuses on developing the argument that new modes of female subjectivity are produced through the ecstatic moment of rave, with questions of how drug use is regulated and implications for health and how new forms of eroticism (including masculinities), are produced, of only secondary importance.

My account is informed by literature on drug use, HIV transmission, social networks and dance and builds, in particular, on the work of Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c), where concepts of pleasure, belonging and self-care, are thought through in relation to one another. However, while I do not abandon the important consideration of women‘s participation in dance events, I open up further the question of how the pleasures of practices of drug use are regulated within the context of the spaces, social networks and relationships of participants in local ‗mixed‘ dance events. I aim to provide an account of the sociality of dance events that situates events in the everyday lives of participants and in relation to broader social processes in order to inform appropriate and effective health strategies in relation to HIV transmission and drug use. This requires the development of an understanding of the relationship between pleasure, belonging and the capacity to enact techniques of self-regulation as a personal and social practice rather than only an individual or collective one. In the next chapter I take up these themes of pleasure, belonging, self-care as a social practice and collective rituals and

45 rules of neo-tribal sociality. I provide an account of Foucault‘s work on multiple

‗technologies of the self‘ (Foucault 1988b) and Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on neo- tribal sociality, offering conceptual background framing the research questions, guiding the research strategy and situating the example of local ‗mixed‘ events within a broader social and historical context.

Chapter two – Regulating the ecstatic self

Introduction

This chapter brings together concepts of pleasure, belonging, the embodied self and techniques of self-regulation identified in reviewing literature on drug use and dance events. An emerging theme in the literature was a relationship between sharing in pleasure, producing particular forms of belongings and embodied selves, and the capacity to enact techniques regulating safer drug use. In social network literature, explanations of this relationship focused on strong network ties as the basis for risk- reduction. This left a gap on the role of pleasure in producing and strengthening network ties. In accounts of dance events in contemporary cultural studies literature dance was understood through the power of the pleasures of the ecstatic moment of dance and drug use in producing new forms of belongings and embodied selves. This left a gap in relation to an understanding of how pleasures were regulated by techniques of self-regulation as a social practice, rather than an individual or collective one. Only in the work of Pini (1993, 1997c), are these concerns with pleasure, belonging, the embodied self and self-care, explicitly brought together. In a feminist cultural studies approach, Pini (1993, 1997c) sets Foucault‘s (1988b) account of self-care in relation with the stories of women participating in contemporary rave events.

My approach, while informed by social network literature on drug use and accounts of dance events in contemporary cultural studies literature, builds on Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) feminist cultural studies account of rave. However, I depart from Pini‘s (1993,

47 1997a, b, c) focus on women‘s accounts of rave to consider the social relations of local

‗mixed‘ dance events as the context of practices of drug use in relation to health issues.

I develop an interdisciplinary account of how drug use is regulated within the spaces and networks of local dance events.

Taking up and extending the theoretical direction suggested by Pini‘s work, I develop a theoretical framework through a close reading of Foucault‘s (1978/1991a, 1978/1990a,

1983a) work on governmentality, bio-power and modified pastoral power relations, his key text on Ancient Imperial Roman self-care as a social practice (Foucault

1986/1990b), and interviews in which he discusses contemporary techniques of self- care (Foucault 1983b, 1988a, 1981/1997a, 1982-1983/1997b, 1984/1997c). Building on

Malbon‘s (1999) work on clubbing, I link Foucault‘s concerns with contemporary self- care with Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) related work on contemporary neo-tribal sociality.

Through reading Foucault and Maffesoli‘s work, I consider how the contemporary context in which local ‗mixed‘ dance events are enmeshed is characterised by tensions in forms of power relations, featuring interrelated modes of regulation of self-formation, or in Foucault‘s (1988b) terms, ‗technologies of the self‘.

These tensions in contemporary modes of regulation of self-formation are evident in particular, in what Foucault (1983a: 211-213, 216) refers to as the ‗government of individualisation‘, involving the operation of constraining individualising and totalising techniques of power relations of governmentality, bio-power and modified pastoral power, concentrated and dispersed through the sate and institutions. However, these techniques of government can be exercised only on free subjects and always entail the possibility of resistance (Foucault 1978/1991a, 1983a). For example, governmentality

48 and modified pastoral power relations involve regulation of the health of free individuals and populations through universal application of institutional, legal, scientific and religious discourses (Foucault 1978/1991a, 1983a). I contrast the tensions and constraints of this mode of regulation of self-formation with examples of Ancient

Roman and contemporary regulation of pleasures via techniques of self-care as a social practice (Foucault 1986/1990b, 1983a, 1981/1997a, 1982-1983/1997b, 1984/1997c), and the shared rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality (Maffesoli 1988/1996), guided through flexible and situational application of discourses. These discourses include the

Ancient Roman principle of ‗balance‘ of the body, and texts of spirituality, nature, holism, embodied pleasure and vitality associated with the ecology, New Age, alternative medicine, gay and SM movements.

For Foucault (1986/1990b), techniques of self-care are a social practice, while for

Maffesoli (1988/1996), collective rituals and rules regulating pleasures are understood as a form of neo-tribal sociality. Foucault (1986/1990b: 50-54) argues that self-care, although involving a primary emphasis on developing a relation of the self with the self of self-control and self-pleasure, at the same time was a ‗social practice‘, with a ‗social base‘ in ‗customary relations of kinship, friendship and obligation‘ and required mutual exchanges of advice and help that increased the ‗warmth‘ of social relations. Maffesoli

(1988/1996) departs from the emphasis on the relation of self with self in Foucault‘s

(1986/1990b) work on Imperial Roman self-care and argues that rituals and rules of contemporary neo-tribal sociality are collective. Neo-tribal sociality features an emphasis on shared emotion, the ‗warmth‘ of the ‗being together‘, an attitude of relationality and rituals of collective ecstasy and vitality.

49 The reading of Foucault and Maffesoli developed here allows me to rework the relationship between concepts of pleasure, belonging, the embodied self and self-care. I develop an approach to dance events as a contemporary example of a point of intersection and tension between constraining and flexible modes of regulation of the production of the self through the operation of specific techniques of particular forms of power relations. This is significant, as literature on social networks and drug use and contemporary cultural studies accounts of dance events has focused on belonging as the basis for risk-reduction and the power of the ecstatic moment, leaving gaps in relation to pleasure and self-care.

Individualising discourses on drugs in the form of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance that produce understandings of dance events as sites of dangerous drug use and participants as ‗at risk‘ individuals and populations in need of state intervention can be understood as bound up with techniques of governmental power relations. In particular, this can be understood as interrelated with management of the health of free individuals and populations through the production of analytical knowledges of individuals via the technique of modified scientific confession and production of totalising knowledges of populations through techniques of observation, statistics, interventions and police. However, through Foucault‘s concept of techniques of self- care as a social practice, and Maffesoli‘s ideas on collective rituals of contemporary neo-tribal sociality, it is possible to develop an understanding of internal regulatory techniques of dance events as personal, beginning with work on the self regulating pleasures, and collective, involving concern with the self-regulation and pleasure of others, working through and increasing the ‗warmth‘ of belonging. Work on the self to regulate pleasures of dance and drug use can be understood as guided by flexible and

50 situational application of discourses, such as spirituality, nature, holism, embodied pleasure and vitality. Belonging is both the basis for and the product of techniques of self-care through which pleasures are regulated and the self is formed in particular ways

- as self-controlled, able to enjoy self-pleasure without disturbance of the balance of the body and soul in Imperial Rome, and as ecstatic, vital and connected in belonging and collective spirit in contemporary neo-tribal sociality. Developing an account of dance events through local and particular spaces and stories situated within the broader social and historical context of intersection and tension between modes of regulation of self- formation would inform effective and appropriate health initiatives in relation to the specific form of sociality of dance events.

Governmentality, bio-power and modified pastoral power relations

Foucault (1983a: 221, 224; 1978/1991a: 102-103) argues that forms of governmental and modified pastoral power relations become concentrated in the state and dispersed through multiple institutions, operating, ‗to structure the possible field of action of others‘. Governmental power relations crystallised through a combination of processes of state ‗centralisation‘ involved in the establishment of territorial, administrative and colonial states, that followed a process of ‗shattering of structures of feudalism‘ and the absorption and modification by the state of forms of pastoral power (Foucault

1978/1991a: 87-88). Foucault elaborates, developing an understanding of government through sixteenth century thinking, where:

―‗Government‘ did not refer only to political structures or to the management of states; rather it designated the way in which the conduct of individuals or of groups might be directed: the government of children, of

51 souls, of communities, of families, of the sick. It did not only cover the legitimately constituted forms of political or economic subjection, but also modes of action, more or less considered and calculated, which were destined to act upon the possibilities of action of other people. To govern, in this sense, is to structure the possible field of action of others.‖ (Foucault 1983a: 221).

Governmentality involved production and regulation of populations through the technology of statistics, political economic knowledges of ‗processes‘ of populations, such as health, in relation to territory and wealth and science of techniques of intervention, as well as apparatuses of security, in the form of police (Foucault

1978/1991a: 99-103). Foucault explains that: ‗Government had as its purpose…the welfare of the population, the improvement of its condition, the increase of its wealth, longevity, health, etc.‘ (Foucault 1978/1991a: 100).

Pastoral power relations were associated with the organisational form of the institution of the Christian church and involved the role of pastor, concerned with ensuring

‗individual salvation in the next life‘, through care of others and, if necessary, sacrificing the self for this (Foucault 1983a: 214; 1988a: 4-5; 1983b: 251). Pastoral power relations were individualising and tied into the production of ‗truth‘ concerning individuals through knowing and directing the internal ‗mind‘, ‗soul‘ and ‗conscience‘

(Foucault 1983a: 214). The principal technique of pastoral power relations was the ritual of discourse of the confession (Foucault 1978/1990a: 58-61). Following the eighteenth century decline of the institution of the church, there was a ‗new distribution and organization‘ of individualising pastoral power that was concentrated and dispersed through the ‗modern state‘ linking previously separate forms of ‗pastoral‘ and ‗political‘

52 power (Foucault 1983a: 215). The religious ritual of the confession was modified and extended, becoming integrated with education, the family and medicine and combined with scientific discourse, concerned with ‗bodies and life processes‘ (Foucault

1978/1990a: 63-65).

The modified form of pastoral power featured a shift from salvation in the next life to salvation in the form of ‗health, well-being (that is, sufficient wealth, standard of living), security, protection against accidents‘ in this world (Foucault 1983a: 215).

Foucault (1978/1990a: 139-140) elsewhere conceptualises this mode of ‗power over life‘ as ‗bio-power‘, concerned with the ‗disciplines of the body‘ and the ‗regulations of the population‘. The state became the ‗modern matrix of individualisation‘, that was dispersed into the ‗whole social body‘ through multiple public and private institutions including police, welfare agencies, benefactors, philanthropists, families, education, employers and ‗complex structures‘, such as medicine, involving ‗sale of services on market economy principles‘ and public institutions of hospitals (Foucault 1983a: 215).

Modified individualising pastoral power produced particular forms of knowledges of populations, that were ‗globalising and quantitative‘, and of individuals, that were

‗analytical‘ (Foucault 1983a: 215).

The analytical, globalising quantifying, totalising processes associated with populations and analytical individualising discourses, techniques and tactics characterising governmentality, bio-power and modified pastoral power relations concerned with maintaining health and wellbeing in this life, worked through regulation of individuals and populations in relation to forms of institutionalised, legal, religious, and in particular, scientific knowledges (Foucault 1983a: 213, 215-216; 1978/1991a: 100).

53 However, the exercise of governmental power relations requires freedom and entails the possibility of resistance, in so far as it involves ‗individual or collective subjects who are faced with a field of possibilities in which several ways of behaving, several reactions and diverse comportments may be realized‘ (Foucault 1983a: 221, 225-226).

These forms of institutionalised, legal, religious and scientific knowledges were bound up with struggles for, or games of ‗truth‘:

―This form of power applies itself to immediate everyday life which categorizes the individual, marks him by his own individuality, attaches him to his own identity, imposes a law of truth on him which he must recognize and which others have to recognize in him.‖ (Foucault 1983a: 212).

For example, Foucault (1978/1990a: 30-34, 63-65) argues that in the nineteenth century a science of sex or scientia sexualis emerged that featured the modified technique of scientific confession and was associated with classification of the ‗truth‘ of sexual pleasures through multiple scientific discourses such as demography, biology, medicine, psychology, psychiatry and pedagogy. There was a concern with defining a ‗norm‘ of heterosexual monogamy and especial attention was paid to classifying all deviations from this norm, producing multiple ‗peripheral sexualities‘ and ‗sexual heterogeneities‘

(Foucault 1978/1990a: 17-18, 36-39). Through the particular form of constraining and individualising power and knowledge of the ritual of the confession combined with scientific discourse, the historically specific discourse of ‗sexuality‘ came to be produced as the ‗truth‘ of the subject, defining individual identity (Foucault

1978/1990a: 58-61, 68-70, 146). The more or less ‗external‘ (Pini 1993) individualising medical and legal discourses of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance that produce understandings of dance events as sites of dangerous drug use and participants

54 as ‗at risk‘ individuals and populations in need of state intervention, can be understood as bound up with governmentality, bio-power and modified pastoral power relations.

Subjugated knowledges and genealogy

Other local and particular knowledges, such as ‗internal‘ texts (Pini 1993) of dance events, that do not feature universal application of globalising, unitary scientific discourses in claims for ‗truth‘, have been ‗disqualified‘, or ‗subjugated‘, marginalised, within what can be understood as a ‗hierarchy of knowledges‘ (Foucault 1977/1980a:

81-85). ‗Internal‘ texts of dance events of techniques of self-regulation governing the embodied pleasures of drug use and dance in production of the ecstatic moment can be understood as ‗subjugated‘, or marginalised (Pini 1993). Foucault argues that ‗…power relations have been progressively governmentalized, that is to say, elaborated, rationalized, and centralized in the form of, or under the auspices of, state institutions‘

(1983a: 224; 1978/1991a: 102-103). Contemporary power relations are characterised by ‗struggles‘ over the way in which the self is produced and, in particular, a ‗refusal‘ of, or tension around, what Foucault (1983a: 211-213, 216) understands as the

‗technique of power‘ of the ‗government of individualisation‘, that entails a constraining mode of regulation of self-formation through individualising discourses and totalising procedures. Foucault writes:

―They are struggles which question the status of the individual: on the one hand, they assert the right to be different and they underline everything which makes individuals truly individual. On the other hand, they attack everything which separates the individual, breaks his links with others, splits up community life, forces the individual back on himself and ties him to his own identity in a constraining way. These struggles are not exactly for or

55 against the ‗individual‘, but rather they are struggles against the ‗government of individualisation‘…They are a refusal of…a scientific or administrative inquisition which determines who one is.‖ (Foucault 1983a: 211-212).

Foucault (1977/1980a: 80-85) argues that through ‗genealogy‘, or development of understandings of shifts in the field of discourse involved in histories of struggles for truth and the subjugation of knowledges, critical understandings of the present may be produced. Foucault (1983b: 231, 236) elaborates that his genealogy of Greco-Roman self-care offers such a critical conceptual ‗tool‘ for understanding the modes of regulation of production of different forms of embodied selves. This work indicates how the self could be formed in a different way that did not involve regulation through strict adherence to globalising legal, religious, or scientific institutional knowledges. In particular, Ancient Greek and Roman techniques of self-care featured a mode of voluntary self-regulation of sexual pleasures where the truth of sex was produced through the experience of embodied pleasure transmitted via practices of pedagogy where a master guides and teaches the initiate the techniques of the erotic art, or ars erotica, that further intensifies pleasures (Foucault 1978/1990a: 57-62). Foucault

(1978/1990a: 57-58) contrasts the production of truth of sex through the scientia sexualis characterising the nineteenth century, where emphasis is placed on scientific knowledge and the interpretation and deciphering of a deep inner self in rituals of discourse of confession, with the form of truth of sex produced through bodily pleasures and practices of pedagogy in the ars erotica. Rather than a smooth transition to the scientia sexualis, remnants of the ars erotica exist in tension with the scientia sexualis

(Foucault 1978/1990a: 70-71). For example, states of ecstasy and possession, while integrated with techniques of ‗Christian confession…and direction and examination of

56 conscience, in the search for spiritual union and the love of God‘, share with the ars erotica, practices of initiation by a master and intensification of pleasures through discourse (Foucault 1978/1990a: 70-71).

The space of contemporary dance events offers an example of such a point of tension and intersection of different modes of production of ‗truth‘. ‗External‘ medical, legal and scientific discourses produce understandings of events as sites of dangerous drug use and participants as ‗at risk‘ and in need of state intervention. These are held in tension with ‗internal‘ modes of self-regulation of collective embodied pleasures.

Rather than producing ‗sex‘ or ‗drug use‘ as the truth of the subject through scientific discourse, the pleasures of the ecstatic moment of dance and drug use regulated through personal and collective techniques reconstitute the self in particular ways – experimenting with the art of production of new modes of eroticism and connectedness to community and spirit.

However, Foucault (1983b: 231-233, 236) cautions that he is not promoting the Greco-

Roman form of self-care as a ‗solution‘ to contemporary problems; it featured its own

‗dangers‘, in the form of non-reciprocity of pleasure in sexual relationships and

‗dissymmetry‘ in power relations, with an emphasis on penetration and active male virility. Rather, genealogy opens a space for conceptualising the ‗problem‘ of how the self is produced in particular ways, ‗in relation to truth through which we constitute ourselves as subjects of knowledge‘, ‗a field of power through which we constitute ourselves as subjects acting on others‘ and ‗ethics through which we constitute ourselves as moral agents‘ (Foucault 1983b: 231-233, 236-238). The genealogy of

Greco-Roman forms of self-care is concerned with ethics, which Foucault (1983b: 238)

57 defines as ‗the kind of relationship you ought to have with yourself…and which determines how the individual is supposed to constitute himself as a moral subject of his own actions‘.

Techniques for care of self

Classical Greek care of self – The right use of pleasures This process of self-formation involved particular emphases on four aspects: 1) the part of the self or behaviour, or the ethical substance to be worked on, 2) the mode of subjection, or the attitude or relation of self to self and of self to moral code, 3) the particular techniques of elaboration or ethical work on the self, and 4) the goal or telos of the mode of being of the ethical subject (Foucault 1983b: 238-240; 1985/1992: 26-

28). Foucault (1985/1992) contrasts the juridical disciplinary form of morality, such as is involved in pastoral power relations, and ‗ethics-oriented moralities‘, such as Greco-

Roman care of self. Rather than production of the self through strict adherence to a

‗universal‘ and ‗compulsory‘ moral code, ‗ethics-oriented moralities‘ emphasised ‗the forms of relations with the self‘, or ‗attitude‘, that engendered respect for the moral code, and the ‗techniques‘ of self-transformation, with self-care undertaken by choice, although restricted to a select group of adult ‗free men‘ that excluded women and slaves

(Foucault 1985/1992: 21-22, 30-31). Deleuze (1988/1999: 100-101, 105-106) argues that it is this flexibility in the ‗relation with oneself‘ involved in application of discourses guiding work on the self that distinguishes Foucault‘s (1985/1992,

1986/1990b) understanding of techniques of self-care from other modes of more restrictive regulation of self-formation. Self-care was ‗situational‘, dependent on time, activities, age and status and dispersed in ‗scattered centres‘ (Foucault 1985/1992: 21,

58 62, 106). This was an ethics of control that had room for pleasure, featuring a sense of self-regulation and openness (Foucault 1985/1992: 57; 1986/1990b: 65).

In the Classical Greek era the potent ‗force‘ of sexual pleasures constituted the ethical substance (Foucault 1985/1992: 37). The concept of the ‗right use‘ of sexual pleasures offered a mode of ‗stylisation‘ of the use of pleasures, that in conjunction with a general principle of moderation, and a specifically enacted attitude of active self-mastery, guided the regulation of the force of pleasures so as to avoid the dangers of excess

(Foucault 1985/1992: 50-54, 64). Rather than strict adherence to a universal law, the stylisation of the use of pleasure was ‗situational‘ and ‗circumstantial‘, dependent on evaluation of need, timeliness and personal status (Foucault 1985/1992: 54-62).

Techniques of self-care included preparation through training such as meditation, tests and dietary regimens concerned with the relation of the self with the body (Foucault

1985/1992: 36, 72-74, 36, 93). The stylisation of conduct, attitude of self-mastery and enactment of techniques of self-care were pre-conditions for self-transformation to a state of moderation that formed the mode of being of the ethical subject, characterised by freedom from the ‗authority‘ of pleasures and ‗enslavement by the self to oneself‘

(Foucault 1985/1992: 78-79). Moderation and freedom achieved through mastery over the self were pre-requisites for mastery over others, through the exercise of political power in participation in the city and of government of the household (Foucault

1985/1992: 80-82). As ‗mastery‘ was understood as ‗active freedom‘, and care of self was a form of male ethics, moderation was characterised as ‗virile‘, with a ‗masculine structure‘, while ‗immoderation‘ was understood as passive and feminine (Foucault

1985/1992: 82-84).

59 Imperial Roman care of self – Self-care as a social practice

The primacy of the relation of self with self

In the Imperial Roman era the principle of care of the self broadened in ‗scope‘, becoming a ‗social practice‘, linked with particular forms of ‗relationships‘, ‗exchanges and communications‘, ‗institutions‘, knowledges and science, including philosophy and medicine (Foucault 1986/1990b: 44-45). In contrast to the Classical emphasis on self- mastery as a pre-condition of mastery over others, during the Imperial era, changes in the form of marital relations and politics were related to greater emphasis being placed on techniques for the cultivation of self, characterised by increased equality, reciprocity and symmetry in power relations (Foucault 1986/1990b: 94-95). Imperial Roman care of self shared with the Classical era the form of an ‗ethics of control‘ that had room for pleasure – involving a focus on the relation of the self with the self, ‗escaping all the dependences and enslavements‘ of the self then to ‗rejoin‘ the self, transformed to a state of ‗self-mastery‘, and in the Imperial era, self-pleasure that constituted the mode of being of the ethical subject (Foucault 1986/1990b: 65-66). Self-pleasure was produced through the relation of the self with the self, rather than the result of forces external to the self thus out of the control of the self, and involved no disturbance of the body or soul (Foucault 1986/1990b: 66).

Primary emphasis was placed on the relation of self with self as the ‗final goal‘ of work on the self in the Imperial era, encouraging increased attention to the self, austerity or self-control, to ensure independent self-pleasure (Foucault 1986/1990b: 41, 64-67). The emphasis on primacy of the relation of self with self was to be maintained in the midst of the activities of everyday life and relations with others and in moments of solitude when one returned to oneself (Foucault 1986/1990b: 64-67). However, self-care was

60 not a form of ‗individualism‘ and did not involve ‗an attitude of laxity and self- satisfaction in practices of social withdrawal‘, or an absolute focus on the self to the exclusion of relations with other activities and people (Foucault 1986/1990b: 42-43, 48,

60, 64-65). Rather, the social practice of cultivation of the self was a feature of the

‗culture‘ of groups such as the Stoics who stressed the importance of ‗austerity‘ and the need to fulfil ‗obligations‘ of participation in the life of the family, the city and

‗relations of patronage and friendship‘ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 42-45, 48, 60).

The ‘social base’ for care of self and others – Mutuality and social warmth Foucault (1986/1990b: 50-51) argues, that the practice of self-care required the setting aside of time, for work on the self through particular techniques that were enmeshed within social relations of friendships, communities and small social groups and practices of communication with others, through speaking, reading and writing:

―Taking care of oneself is not a rest cure. There is the care of the body to consider, health regimens, physical exercises without overexertion, the carefully measured satisfaction of needs. There are the meditations, the readings, the notes that one takes on books or on the conversations one has heard, notes that one reads again later, the recollection of truths that one knows already but that need to be more fully adapted to one‘s own life…the talks that one has with a confidant, with friends, with a guide or director. Add to this the correspondence in which one reveals the state of one‘s soul, solicits advice, gives advice to anyone who needs it—which for that matter constitutes a beneficial exercise for the giver, who is called the preceptor, because he thereby reactualizes it for himself. Around the care of the self, there developed an entire activity of speaking and writing in which the work of oneself on oneself and communication with others were linked together.‖ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 51).

61 The ‗social practice‘ of self-care involved a relation of the self with the self and of the self with others, occurring within ‗more or less institutionalised structures‘ of communities and small social groups, schools, lectures and the guidance of

‗professionals of spiritual direction‘, such as philosophers, as well as ‗customary relations of kinship, friendship, and obligation‘ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 51-53). Foucault writes:

―But all this attention to the self did not depend solely on the existence of schools, lectures, and professionals of spiritual direction for its social base; it found a ready support in the whole bundle of customary relations of kinship, friendship and obligation.‖ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 52-53).

Relations of ‗kinship, friendship and obligation‘ acted as the ‗social base‘ for self-care, through providing a space for practices of giving, receiving and seeking advice

(Foucault 1986/1990b: 52-53). Advice is thought of in terms of an exchange of rights, in seeking advice, and duties of giving and receiving advice, that is characterised by ‗the possibility of a round of exchanges with the other and a system of reciprocal obligations‘ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 53-54). Taking care of the self and developing a relation of self with self, although of primary concern, was nonetheless closely interwoven with practices of mutual exchanges of advice that involved a particular form of care for and attention to others, with its basis in networks of social relations, in turn intensified through this flow of advice. Foucault elaborates that:

―When, in the practice of the care of the self, one appealed to another person in whom one recognized an aptitude for guidance and counselling, one was exercising a right. And it was a duty that one was performing when one lavished one‘s assistance on another, or when one gratefully received the 62 lessons the other might give…he [Galen, a physician writing on ‗curing the passions‘] advises anyone who wishes to take proper care of himself to seek the aid of another; he does not, however, recommend a technician known for his competency and learning, but simply a man of good reputation whose uncompromising frankness one can have the opportunity of experiencing. But it is sometimes the case, too, that the interplay of the care of the self and the help of the other blends into preexisting relations, giving them a new coloration and a greater warmth. The care of the self—or the attention one devotes to the care that others should take of themselves—appears then as an intensification of social relations.‖ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 53).

Foucault (1986/1990b: 52-54) provides examples of these mutual exchanges of advice, including particular exercises of self-care ‗that allowed one in the attention he gave to himself, to receive the help of others‘. Personal correspondence intensified the warmth of relations of kinship and friendship through the shared experience of seeking, providing and receiving advice, help and ‗spiritual guidance‘ (Foucault 1986/1990b:

53). The relation of friendship involved mutual exchanges of advice and ‗reciprocal obligations‘ so that ‗each one [friend] will be for the other that constant help‘ (Foucault

1986/1990b: 53-54).

Caring for the self as ‘sick’ – Managing ills of the intersection of body and soul

Foucault (1986/1990b: 56-57) explains, that in the Imperial era there was a focus on the care of the body within philosophy, where the soul was nonetheless still important, and particularly, within the closely related field of medicine, where attention was directed to ills of the intersection of the body and soul. Foucault (1986/1990b: 57) elaborates that the ‗place‘ of ‗concern for the body‘ and its ‗style‘ were characterised by:

63 ―…fear of excess, economy of regimen, being on the alert for disturbances, detailed attention given to dysfunction, the taking into account of all the factors (season, climate, diet, mode of living) that can disturb the body and, through it, the soul.‖ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 57).

Illness was understood as related to a state of ‗passivity‘ that caused ‗disorder‘ in the

‗balance‘ of the body and ‗involuntary movement‘ in the soul (Foucault 1986/1990b:

54). This concern with the ‗weak point of the individual‘ at the ‗crossover point‘ between body and soul involved the development of a particular form of relation of self with self in which one understood the self as ‗imperfect‘, ‗ignorant‘ and needing

‗correction, training and instruction‘ and, importantly, given the emphasis on the body and medicine, as ‗fragile‘, ‗sick‘ and in ‗need‘ of ‗medication and assistance‘ from oneself or others (Foucault 1986/1990b: 56-58).

Regimen for care of the body occurred principally through dietetics, governing consumption of food and drinks, while the lesser concern of sexual practice was managed through the regimen of sexual pleasures, in close relation with the discourse of medicine (Foucault 1986/1990b: 100, 103-104, 140-141). Medicine was a ‗helpful discourse‘ in relation to care of self, offering regimen and ‗health practices‘, that hinged on understandings and management of the health implications of the relation of the self with the body, the environment, time, food and drinks and activities such as baths, exercises and sexual practice (Foucault 1986/1990b: 101-104). The self, and in particular the body, was understood as situated within ‗space and circumstances‘ and as

‗fragile‘ in relation to these (Foucault 1986/1990b: 101). Health was managed through development of a reflective relation of self with self, of the self with the body, space and activities via ‗self-reliance‘ in ‗equipping‘ the self with the discourse of medicine and

64 the enactment of ‗health practices‘ and regimen providing ‗voluntary and rational‘ regulation of conduct (Foucault 1986/1990b: 99-101).

Work on the soul to master desires, reduce images and avoid ‗excess‘ in attachment to pleasures ensured that a ‗reasonable soul‘ was able to assign appropriate regimen according to the ‗natural reason‘ of the body, its ‗own mechanics and elementary needs‘, ‗the condition and circumstances in which it finds itself‘ (Foucault 1986/1990b:

133-140). Care of self came to involve the production of self-knowledge, in the form of

‗precise recipes, specific forms of examination, and codified exercises‘, that were important, as without such attention illnesses of the soul, in particular, could remain

‗undetected‘ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 58). Procedures of self-testing required modes of relation of self with self, including self-mastery in practical tests of abstinence and of

Inspector, Nightwatchman and Assayer (tester of coinage) in self-evaluation and examination of conduct and representations in thought, to ensure these were rational and freely chosen, enabling a final relation of self-mastery and independent self-pleasure

(Foucault 1986/1990b: 58-64).

The regimen of sexual pleasures constituted a form of self-care, involving negotiation of the ‗dangers‘ of sexual practice through preparation of the ‗condition‘ of the body so as to avoid ‗harmful effects‘ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 123). Foucault (1986/1990b: 124-

125) argues that rather than being ‗prescriptive‘ and ‗normative‘, defining ‗natural‘ and

‗legitimate‘ practices and prohibiting others, the regimens of sexual pleasures were

‗concessive‘ and ‗circumstantial‘, geared towards producing, regulating and maintaining the ‗balance‘ of the body and soul:

65 ―These are circumstantial regimens, which demand that one take great care to determine the conditions that will least affect the whole combination of balances.‖ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 124-125).

Medical regimens featured ‗long-term preparation‘ through ‗conditioning‘ of the body as healthy and soul as tranquil and ‗immediate preparation‘ through restraint and a strict diet (Foucault 1986/1990b: 125). Sexual acts are regulated in relation to the rhythms of the cycles and condition or ‗temperament‘ of the body and age, the calendar, as well as integration with timing of activities, such as exercise, singing, dancing, baths, eating and drinking (Foucault 1986/1990b: 125-132). In the Imperial Roman era, sexual practice was understood as dangerous, due to the possibility of ‗excess‘ in pleasures and

‗passivity‘ that could disturb the balance of the body and soul, requiring constant

‗vigilance‘ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 142). Foucault writes that this ‗vigilance‘ does not require of the subject an interrogation of internal processes of desire and motivation, but rather:

―…he needs to recognize the numerous complex conditions that must be jointly present if one is to perform the acts of pleasure in an appropriate manner, without danger or harm. He must address a discourse of ‗truth‘ to himself. But this discourse does not have the function of telling the subject the truth about himself…‖ (Foucault 1986/1990b: 142-143).

Regimen required a particular ‗reflective‘ relation of the self with the self and with guiding discourses, such as medicine and philosophy, that was characterised by the enactment of ‗truth‘ in practices of self-care, balanced through constant attention to the conditions of environment, body and soul, so as to avoid excess (Foucault 1986/1990b:

142-144).

Contemporary ecology, gay and SM movements – Care for truth and embodied pleasure In interviews, Foucault (1988a, 1981/1997a, 1982-1983/1997b, 1984/1997c) discusses forms of contemporary self-care associated with ecology, gay and SM movements. The contemporary self-care of the ecology movement was interrelated with practices of

‗care of truth‘ that involved drawing on guiding discourses of ‗nature‘ and the

‗equilibrium of the processes of living things‘, rather than universal application of scientific discourse (Foucault 1988a: 15). For Foucault, friendships among gay men constituted new forms of relations, produced through pleasures (Foucault 1981/1997a:

135-137; 1984/1997c: 170-171). SM subculture and practice involved another form of contemporary self-care through ‗laboratories of sexual experimentation‘, featuring

‗creation‘ of new pleasures, via ‗eroticization of the body‘, characterised by the

‗desexualization of pleasure‘ producing new forms of relations (Foucault 1984/1997c:

165), that are ‗at the same time regulated and open‘ (Foucault 1982-1983/1997b: 151-

153). Foucault (1984/1997c: 165-166) identifies drug use as another mode of experimentation with bodily pleasures through which culture is created in new ways.

It is through experimentation with new forms of pleasures, such as SM practice, that new forms of relations or ‗community‘ and of ‗identity‘ are produced that may both be

‗useful‘ to and ‗limit‘ the way the self is produced and more broadly accepted (Foucault

1984/1997c: 165-167). Foucault (1983b: 231; 1984/1997c: 163, 166-168) argues that there are limits involved in contemporary liberation movements that may not offer new principles for ethical work on the self, but reproduce restrictive modes of regulation of self-formation. Self-formation is limited through universal application of individualising institutionalised legal, religious, moral, or scientific discourses, such as

67 medicine. This mode of regulation of self-formation focuses on finding the ‗true‘ inner self, articulated in forms of ‗identity‘ as a ‗universal rule‘ that limits the way the self is produced, rather than self-formation as a ‗creative‘ process of ‗becoming‘ (Foucault

1984/1997c: 163, 166-168). Foucault (1984/1997c: 165-168) elaborates that the articulation of SM, or gay, identity and community, while strategically ‗useful‘ in a struggle for rights and acceptance, is at the same time ‗limiting‘, if held to, too tightly, as an ‗ethical universal rule‘. Foucault (1984/1997c: 164-166) argues that the contemporary problem becomes one of creating new pleasures and through these new forms of relationships and selves that involve a flexible relation of the self with the self and with principles guiding the work on the self to produce the self as ethical.

Contemporary neo-tribal sociality

It is these questions of contemporary struggles over the production of the self and social relations in new ways via experimentation with pleasures and care for truth, within a broader context characterised by processes of individualisation and rationalisation bound up with ‗pouvoir‘, or power relations concentrated in political-economic institutions such as the state, that Maffesoli‘s (1985/1993, 1988/1996, 1991) metaphoric conceptual work takes up.

Maffesoli‘s (1985/1993, 1988/1996, 1991) work both connects with and departs from

Foucault‘s (1985/1992, 1986/1990b) work on care of the self. Maffesoli‘s (1985/1993,

1988/1996, 1991) work on collective neo-tribal sociality complements the work of

Foucault (1985/1992, 1986/1990b) on techniques of self-care as a social practice.

However, while Foucault, as philosopher, focuses on the production of different ways of being, or forms of self, Maffesoli, as sociologist, develops further the theme of social

68 collectivity of the neo-tribes through which the self is produced. Through reading across the different disciplinary perspectives afforded by the work of Foucault and

Maffesoli I open up the theme of social collectivity that while introduced in Foucault‘s later work is developed much further through Maffesoli‘s idea of the collectivity of neo- tribal sociality. It is this idea of powerful social collectivity through which the self is produced that I draw out in my reading of Foucault and Maffesoli and that I set to work in my analysis of the social relations of local ‗mixed‘ dance events.

More specifically, Maffesoli‘s work (1988/1996) connects with and develops from the theme of pleasure as ethical substance in Foucault‘s (1985/1992, 1986/1990b,

1981/1997a, 1984/1997c) work on Greco-Roman and contemporary self-care, through an interest in shared emotion or feeling that he calls the ‗aesthetic aura‘, in the formation of the contemporary self. In particular, Maffesoli (1988/1996) explores how the self is produced through sharing in the pleasures of collective states of ecstasy.

Both Foucault‘s (1985/1992, 1986/1990b) work on self-care and Maffesoli‘s

(1988/1996) work on neo-tribal sociality involve a voluntary and flexible relation of self to multiple principles guiding self-formation. However, in Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) account of Imperial Roman self-care the relation of self with self is given primary emphasis, and in this era features self-examination and testing requiring self-mastery, while relations with others and contextual factors become a secondary, although nonetheless important concern. The importance of the relation of the self with others and contextual factors in self-care is evident in themes of mutuality and warmth in exchanges of advice and a concern through the discourse of medicine and the techniques of regimen with development of a reflective relation of self enabling

69 management of the balance of the body in relation to space and circumstances. These themes of mutuality, social warmth, proxemics and relationality introduced by Foucault

(1986/1990b) in his later work on Imperial Rome are developed much further in

Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on neo-tribal sociality, where the principle of self- formation is based on the ‗communal ethic‘ that emphasises the flexible, proxemic and empathetic ‗warmth‘ of ‗the being together‘ and features an attitude of relationality. In contrast to the primacy of the relation of self, neo-tribal techniques of self-formation focus on production of forms of belonging through everyday customs and rituals of mutual aid and shared ecstasy that although collective, operate situationally as with regimen, to regulate drug use, dance and music.

The final goal of Imperial Roman techniques of self-care was a state of self-mastery and independent self-pleasure without disturbance of the body and soul. In contrast, the

‗ethos‘, or mode of being, produced through neo-tribal ‗techniques of belonging‘ that work via sharing of space and sentiment, is communal and proxemic and characterised by a feeling of vitality, aliveness or the collective force of the ‗puissance‘, or ‗will to live‘. The form of belonging of the ‗neo-tribal‘ ‗network of networks‘ is multiple, mobile, temporary and diverse, hinging on the holding open of the relation between attraction and repulsion, balanced in favour of tolerance for others. Imperial Roman self-care is personal involving a primary emphasis on work on the self and in particular the development of a relation of self with self, and collective requiring concern for the self-care and pleasure of others. Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) concept of neo-tribal sociality reworks responsibility as a personal concern with the collective that is proxemic and affective, the product of networks, space and atmosphere, rather than individual, separate and rational. In contrast to the Imperial Roman emphasis on the relation of

70 self, neo-tribal sociality features an emphasis on the collectivity of belongings produced through rituals of mutual aid and shared ecstasy.

Pouvoir – Institutional political-economic power ‗Pouvoir‘ refers to power relations concentrated in political-economic institutions and organisations, such as the modern state, that feature processes of individualisation, rationalisation and universalisation and emphasise the function of individuals within contractual groups and the logic of the project (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 1, 4, 6, 16, 18,

45). The pouvoir associated with the modern era becomes ‗saturated‘ or ‗worn-out‘ in the post-modern era characterised by processes of ‗disindividualisation‘, identification, or belonging, in the form of ‗explosions of vitalism‘, the ‗puissance‘, or collective vital force of the people (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 1, 4, 6, 27, 33). These explosions of vitalism occur in the movement in between the masses or the people and the ‗neo-tribes‘, or mobile and fluid small social groups (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 6).

Aesthetic aura, atmosphere – Social divine, emotional community Maffesoli (1988/1996, 1991) is interested in the way in which emotion or ‗aesthetic aura‘, ‗atmosphere‘ or ‗collective spirit‘ comes to be of key concern in fashioning the contemporary self. The self is fashioned not as an individual ‗separate and self- contained identity‘ but in the form of ‗the persona, the changeable mask which blends into a variety of scenes and situations whose only value resides in the fact that they are played out by the many‘ and that ‗can only find fulfilment in…relations with others‘

(Maffesoli 1988/1996: 10). In this sense, relations with others, and especially the

‗collective emotion‘ (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 10) of relationships, act as the basis for self- formation – the self is produced through relationships with others. Here ‗the individual counts for less than the person who is called upon to play his or her role‘ (Maffesoli

71 1988/1996: 27). Shared emotion, spirit or atmosphere produced via movement through particular spaces and enactment of specific activities forms the basis for production of connectedness, or ‗bonds‘ of ‗emotional community‘, or the ‗social divine‘ involved in contemporary neo-tribal networks that are multiple, temporary and mobile (Maffesoli

1988/1996: 10-11). In relation to these multiple and fluid ‗neo-tribes‘ that ‗go beyond the logic of identity and/or binary logic‘ Maffesoli (1988/1996: 11-12) writes that:

―…we are witnessing the tendency for a rationalized ‗social‘ to be replaced by an empathetic ‗sociality‘, which is expressed by a succession of ambiences, feelings and emotions…the German Romantic idea of Stimmung (atmosphere) is more and more often used on the one hand to describe relations between social micro-groups, and on the other to show the way these groups are situated in spatial terms (ecology, habitat, neighbourhood). The same holds true for the constant use of the term ‗feeling‘ to describe interpersonal relationships.‖ (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 11).

The communal ethic Maffesoli (1988/1996: 16) argues that shared emotion or feeling forms the basis of the

‗communal ethic‘ or ‗different morality‘ of the neo-tribes:

―…community is characterized less by a project (pro-jectum) oriented toward the future than by the execution in actu of the ‗being-together‘…the communal ethic has the simplest of foundations: warmth, companionship – physical contact with one another.‖ (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 16).

The ‗communal ethic‘ is governed not by a principle of active ‗autonomy‘, but by one of ‗allonomy‘ - relation of the self with what is external to the self - such as in the recognition of the self in something external to the self, through rituals of sharing

72 emotion, or atmosphere, associated with particular spaces and activities, that produces a temporary form of emotional community, or belonging (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 27-28;

1991: 17). The ‗being-together‘ of community is temporary, ‗community expends its energy in its own creation‘, and proxemic, involving the sharing of ‗territory (real or symbolic)‘ (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 16-17). There are multiple forms of moral codes or

‗micro-values‘ associated with the multiplicity of neo-tribal networks, and the relation of the self to such codes, or values, is flexible, proxemic and empathetic (1988/1996:

15; 1991: 12, 18).

Sociality – Everyday ritual and custom Sharing of emotion and the communal ethic are enacted through everyday rituals and customs, or habitus that constitute sociality (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 20-21). Maffesoli elaborates that:

―…the divine issues forth from daily realities and develops gradually through the sharing of simple and routine gestures. The habitus or custom thus serves to concretize or actualize the ethical dimension of any sociality…custom, as an expression of the collective sensibility, permits, strictly speaking, an ex-stasis within everyday life. Having a few drinks; chatting with friends; the anodyne conversations punctuating everyday life enable an exteriorization of the self and thus create the specific aura which binds us together in tribalism.‖ (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 25).

Rituals and customs focus on sharing the pleasures of the ecstatic moment involved in play, within large crowd networks and mutual aid, within small friendship networks

(Maffesoli 1988/1996: 23-24). Maffesoli (1988/1996: 20-21) explains that, etymologically, habitus, or everyday custom is related to ‗consuetudo‘, or ‗the

73 collection of common usages that allow a social entity to recognize itself for what it is‘.

In this sense ―Custom…is the unspoken, the ‗residue‘ underlying the ‗being-together‘‖ that Maffesoli (1988/1996: 21, 23) understands as the ‗underground centrality or the social puissance‘, or vitality. Maffesoli (1988/1996: 21-22) argues that everyday customs and rituals of ‗ex-stasis‘, an embodied form of ecstasy, or ‗immanent transcendence‘, occur through being in relation with the atmosphere of particular spaces and activities:

―An integral part of the collective imagination, the neighbourhood is nevertheless only constituted by the intersection of ordinary situations, moments, spaces and individuals; moreover, it is most often expressed by the most common stereotypes. The town square, the street, the corner tobacconist, the bar at the PMU [race-track betting], the newsagent, centres of interest and necessity – just so many trivial examples of sociality. Nevertheless, it is precisely these instances that give rise to the specific aura of a given neighbourhood. I use this term deliberately, as it translates beautifully the complex movement of an atmosphere emitted by places and activities, giving them in return a unique colouring and odour. And so it may be for spiritual materialism.‖ (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 22).

Everyday custom includes communication and forms of contemporary technology that produce community networks through ‗close communication‘ over distance (Maffesoli

1988/1996:25-27).

Elsewhere, Maffesoli (1985/1993: 52-54, 65-66, 119-129) argues that the rituals of ecstasy, or ex-stasis, involved in festival events regulate the place and practices of use of wine and other drugs, sex, dancing and music. Drinking of wine is regulated through situational logics that work to create forms of collectivity through configuring and 74 responding to factors such as ‗company‘, ‗courses‘ of a meal, ‗taste‘ and ‗timing‘

(Maffesoli 1985/1993: 120, 123-124, 128). Excessive drinking and individualising economic logics are unacceptable within such regulated ways of drinking wine as wine acts as the ‗vector‘ for the intensification of embodied feeling, sensuality and sexuality and the ‗amplification‘ of the body-self into the symbolic whole (Maffesoli 1985/1993:

126). Regulated drinking of wine is associated with particular spaces where people come together and mix such as the cabaret and the tavern that act as sites of ‗‗secret‘ sociality‘ and forms of ‗resistance‘ (Maffesoli 1985/1993: 128).

The proxemic or community ethos – Puissance and connaissance Maffesoli (1988/1996: 138, 142-143) argues that the ‗neo-tribes‘ experiment with new ways of being that emphasise the emotional feeling dimensions, forms of ‗hedonistic everyday life‘, that values the moment, or present, rather than being determined by ‗the

‗ought‘ and by work‘. The ‗mode of being of the ethical subject‘, or ethos, that

Foucault (1985/1992) writes of, is for Maffesoli (1988/1996), produced through the ecstatic moment, characterised by a sense of shared proximity and sentiment, collective belonging to a larger social, or divine body, symbolic whole, or matrix, that features a feeling of vitality, or the ‗underground centrality of the puissance‘, or ‗will to live‘

(1988/1996: 17, 27, 31, 33; Maffesoli 1991: 18). The mode of being of ‗immanent transcendence‘ is collective involving sharing of the ‗warmth‘, ‗spirit‘, ‗passion‘,

‗feeling‘ and ‗proximity‘ of ‗the being together‘ produced through ‗taken for granted‘ customs and rituals (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 38, 40-45). Rituals of ecstasy are

‗embodied‘ and ‗delineate a territory‘, or space, constituting ‗techniques‘, or

‗mechanisms‘ of belonging (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 136, 140). Maffesoli (1988/1996) elaborates that the belonging of the ‗neo-tribes‘ is:

―…organised around a mainspring (a guru, an activity, pleasure, space) which binds people together as well as liberates them…the co-efficient of belonging is not absolute, and anyone can participate in a multitude of groups, while investing a not inconsiderable part of him or herself in each.‖ (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 144).

There are different forms of ‗puissance‘. These include the ‗secret‘ ‗puissance‘ of religious cults and the avant-garde, the ‗discreet‘ vitality of the everyday custom, or habitus of communities, networks and tribes and the displays of effervescent aliveness of festivals, revolts and uprisings (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 32). ‗Puissance‘ works through ‗abstention, silence and ruse‘, being ‗the opposite of the politico-economic power‘, or ‗pouvoir‘ (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 4). ‗Puissance‘ is an end in itself and is

‗intrinsic‘, in comparison with the logic of the project and ‗extrinsic‘ form of pouvoir

(Maffesoli 1988/1996: 32). Maffesoli (1988/1996: 33) argues that the belonging of the tribes features a particular form of ‗personal responsibility‘ for ‗collective existence‘.

He writes that there are ‗…multiple explosions of vitalism which are coming from those groups or ‗tribes‘ in constant fermentation. They are taking personal responsibility for multiple aspects of their collective existence: this can truly be called polytheism.‘

(Maffesoli 1988/1996: 33). The form of everyday knowledge, or ‗connaissance‘, produced through rituals and customs enacting the communal ethic is embodied and emotional, emphasising the affective, sensual, proxemic and tactile (1988/1996: 25;

147-148). Maffesoli (1988/1996: 32, 34-35, 128) elaborates that these ‗explosions of vitalism‘ that characterise the post-modern era mark a shift from a ‗critical or rationalist approach‘ to one of ‗spirit‘ and from ‗economy‘ to ‗ecology‘ evident in the form of

76 New Age, ecological and alternative movements such as alternative medicine, that draw on discourses of alternative spirituality, nature and holism.

For Maffesoli (1988/1996: 34), ‗puissance‘, or vitality, forms the ‗social perdurability‘, or ‗ability of the masses to resist‘. Maffesoli (1988/1996: 35-38) understands the force and the conditions of ‗puissance‘ that is characterised by secrecy and intimacy, or

‗underground centrality‘, through metaphors of black holes and of interior, or empty spaces of freedom. Maffesoli (1988/1996: 36, 46-53) argues that the concentrated

‗density‘ of the relationality, ‗feeling‘, or ‗passion‘ of sociality involved in explosions of puissance, or vitalism, that emphasise ‗everyday values‘ and employ tactics of

‗withdrawal‘, ‗aloofness‘, ‗refusal‘, ‗silence‘, ‗ruse‘, ‗play‘ and ‗side-stepping‘, within a context of ‗saturation‘ of ‗pouvoir‘, or institutional political economic power, resonates with the image of black holes as stars, that have, due to their extreme density, died in this space-time, to re-emerge in another space-time where they move freely. Maffesoli

(1988/1996: 50) argues that ‗puissance‘, or collective vitality is the precondition of

‗pouvoir‘, or institutional political economic power, and that puissance, rather than forcing a direct confrontation with power, works by ‗cheating and side-stepping‘.

Interior empty spaces of freedom constitute a precondition of puissance, or vitalism, in so far as the collective practices of ‗puissance‘ may be ‗secret‘ ensuring survival or perdurability of the group (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 37-38). Such nothingness may also be found in the ‗hollow, vacuity‘ of the ‗fickleness of the crowd‘ that ‗may be, either sequentially or concurrently, the everyday crowd or the crowd in revolt, the racist crowd or the generous crowd, the naive crowd or the cunning crowd.‘ (Maffesoli 1988/1996:

38). Maffesoli (1988/1996: 52-53) provides the example of festivals as a form of play that involve a ‗mixture of the ordinary and the exceptional, the morose and the exciting,

77 the effervescent and the relaxing‘ and that may be ‗commercial‘ although at the same time ‗reinforce[s] collective ties‘ through sharing in ‗everyday pleasure‘.

Maffesoli (1988/1996: 144-145) understands the belonging of the multiplicity of diverse

‗neo-tribes‘ through the metaphor of a ‗nebula‘ that does not have a ‗clearly discernible centre‘. Maffesoli (1988/1996: 144-145, 111, 115) elaborates that the nebula of neo- tribal belonging is characterised by both: ‗segregation‘ and ‗tolerance‘, ‗attraction‘ and

‗repulsion‘, sameness and difference - striking a ‗new balance‘ between opposites. This balance involves ‗unicity‘ - ‗the adjustment of diverse elements‘, or ‗the conjunction of opposites‘ that characterises the movement between the masses, or the people, and the smaller social groups, or tribes (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 105, 109, 127). The form of belonging of neo-tribes features ‗attraction‘ and ‗exclusiveness‘, rather than ‗exclusion‘ due to the multiplicity and fluidity of tribes (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 140-141). However, as Shields (1996: xi-xii) and Malbon (1999: 26-27, 58-69) argue, this tension between the diversity and exclusiveness of the tribes that requires both attraction and repulsion may, in some instances, be associated with the movement of the balance away from

‗tolerance‘ of others, as in the case of conservative social movements such as ‗ethnic nationalism‘ and fascism, or contemporary dance clubs that enact forms of exclusion at the door, reproducing inequalities on the basis of classifications such as gender, sexuality and race. For Shields (1996) and Malbon (1999), it is this aspect of

Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) conceptual and metaphorical work that raises important questions for further research.

For Maffesoli (1988/1996) the ‗balance‘ between tensions of attraction-repulsion, belonging-exclusiveness is regulated through particular mechanisms. These include the

78 provision of ‗mutual aid‘ on the basis of the network ‗tie‘ of friendship or kinship and a system of ‗differentiated alliances‘ among the multiple and fluid tribes such that one tribe acts as the ‗stranger‘, or ‗outsider‘ and ‗mediator‘ thus maintaining the balance of the whole and the strangeness of the stranger (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 141-142).

Maffesoli (1988/1996: 111) writes that the sociality of the tribes characterised by a logic of combination, or mixing of opposites thus: ‗…allows us to welcome the stranger while remaining ourselves (or even better, to nourish this self with the stranger)‘.

Elsewhere, he elaborates that ‗experiencing the other is the basis of the community‘

(Maffesoli 1988/1996: 73). Significantly, this mixing of opposites may be produced through the feeling of vitality of the ecstatic moment, working in between the real and the imaginary, fantasy and symbolic (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 118-119). This mixing is concentrated and balanced, in part, through the multiple masks of the persona and roles within networks, the heterogeneity and flexibility of nodal points for the creation of lifestyles and polytheism, or multiplicity of micro-values (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 85, 96,

98, 115).

Maffesoli (1988/1996: 139-141) argues that the production of ‗neo-tribal‘ belongings through sharing of real or symbolic space or territory and sentiment occurs via everyday customs and rituals. These include forms of communication, such as the telling of stories or myths, the circulation of images, information and gossip, that may be technologically mediated. The ‗neo-tribal‘ form of belonging in the ‗polycentric nebula‘, or ‗network of networks‘, features particular flows of information that are shaped and modified by the atmospheric spaces or ‗micro-milieux‘ through which they pass (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 146). Maffesoli (1988/1996: 146-148) argues that there is thus no individual responsibility for the circulation of information, but rather, a

79 ‗structure-effect‘ of the network itself that is based on its proxemics and atmosphere and is ‗non-voluntary‘ and ‗non-active‘: ‗no one is responsible (or answers) for the information or the gossip: they are transmitted through the atmosphere‘.

Conclusions

Foucault‘s work on techniques of governmentality and care for self and Maffesoli‘s work on the sociality of neo-tribal networks provides useful sets of framing concepts with which to situate the example of local ‗mixed‘ dance events in relation to a broader historical and social context. This opens up understandings of the relationship between belonging produced through sharing pleasure and safer self-regulated practices of drug use, addressing gaps in the literature in relation to pleasure and self-care. The accounts of Foucault and Maffesoli converge in the question of how the embodied self is produced in different ways. Foucault and Maffesoli provide accounts of different modes of regulation of self-formation associated with particular forms of power relations.

Foucault (1985/1992) provides a framework for thinking through the production of the self, involving work on particular aspects of the self, or the ethical substance and a mode of relation of the self to the self and to the moral code in enacting the work on the self to produce the self as ethical, or attitude. This requires specific techniques for working on the self and the transformation of the self to an ethical mode of being, or ethos. Different modes of historically specific regulation of self-formation exercised through particular techniques of forms of power relations involve specific possibilities, dangers and limits. They do not offer a solution to contemporary problems but allow a space for thinking how the self may be produced in different ways. 80

Individualising and totalising discourses and procedures of power relations of governmentality, bio-power and modified pastoral power through techniques of confession combined with scientific discourse, observation, statistics, intervention and police operating on individuals and populations offer possibilities of health and wellbeing in this life. However, the operation of these analytic techniques of government pose the danger of producing particular historically specific discourses such as that of sexuality and drug use as the ‗truth‘ of the subject, limiting possibilities of production of the self otherwise.

Circumstantial techniques of regimen of Ancient Greece offer self-mastery and moderation in the use of pleasure while those of Ancient Rome offer a mode of self- mastery and independent self-pleasure without disturbance of the body and soul.

However, Greco-Roman techniques of self-care are characterised by dangers of non- reciprocity and dissymmetry in power relations and an emphasis on active male virility.

Imperial Roman techniques of self-care, whilst constituting a ‗social practice‘ with a

‗social base‘ in relations of ‗friendship, kinship and obligation‘ and through the discourse of medicine a concern for the body in relation to space and circumstance, involve the primacy of emphasis on the relation of self with only secondary emphasis placed on relations with others and contextual factors.

Contemporary techniques of self-care associated with the ecology, gay and SM movements involve ‗care for truth‘ and experimentation with new ways of being and relations through new forms of embodied pleasures. However, there are limitations associated with contemporary techniques of self-care in so far as these draw on

81 universal scientific discourses in the production of the truth of the subject. The adoption of an attitude of relationality and enactment of collective and situational rituals and rules of sharing in the pleasures of ecstasy and mutual aid of contemporary neo- tribal sociality produce a form of neo-tribal belonging and vitality. However, neo-tribal sociality may produce forms of community involving exclusion and repulsion as well as attraction and affinity.

Foucault and Maffesoli‘s work can be used to situate the example of local ‗mixed‘ dance events in the context of broader social processes, indicating the contemporary importance of the body, emotion and, in particular, pleasure, space, atmosphere, friendship, belonging, self-regulation, self-care and discourses of spirituality, nature, holism and embodied pleasure involved in New Age, ecology, alternative medicine, SM and gay movements. The drawing together of ideas of pleasure, belonging and self-care in Foucault and Maffesoli‘s work offers a means to address gaps in the literature.

Literature on social networks and drug use focuses on belonging as the basis for risk- reduction leaving a gap in relation to the role of pleasure in producing belongings.

Contemporary cultural studies accounts of dance events focus on the power of the ecstatic moment to produce new forms of embodied selves and belongings, leaving a gap in relation to the regulation of practices of dance and drug use through techniques of self-care. I use Foucault and Mafffesoli‘s accounts of self-formation through techniques of self-care and rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality to argue that there is a strong relationship between pleasure, belonging, the embodied self and enactment of techniques of self-regulation in a broader context of constraining regulation of self- formation. This means that studies that focus only on questions of belonging and risk- reduction to the exclusion of pleasure, or the transformative power of the ecstatic

82 moment to the exclusion of self-care, risk leaving out important parts of the story.

Framing concepts of processes of self-formation open out a conceptual space for asking different sets of questions, such as how the particular forms of belongings of networks are produced? How drug use is regulated? How the self is produced? Crucially, in this approach, there is room for a consideration of pleasure and self-care and the broader context of dance events.

Foucault and Maffesoli‘s work offers a means to think through dance events as spaces of convergence and tension between different modes of regulation of the production of the embodied self. Dance events can be understood more or less externally as sites of dangerous drug use in need of state intervention and subject to commercial and legislative regulation bound up with the whole complex of individualising discourses on drugs in the form of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance. Dance events can be understood internally as temporary spaces of freedom for the production of the embodied self and belonging in new ways through experimentation with new forms of pleasures regulated via techniques of self-care guided by specific discourses.

Individualising discourses of pharmacology, individual pathology, risk and deviance in relation to drug use are present, but are tempered through the possibility of a different and flexible, situational relation of self in elaboration of ethical work and with a dynamic interrelation of guiding principles. These include New Age spirituality, holistic health and ecological discourse of nature, valuing of embodied pleasures and vitality. Through the reading of Foucault and Maffesoli developed here I argue that the enactment of self-care both requires and at the same time heightens the warmth of social relations produced through sharing pleasures. Responsibility in this view may be both

83 personal and collective, intimately bound up with space, time, activities, the condition of the body and social relationships.

The current study aims to inform health initiatives through developing an account of the sociality of dance events - the rituals or techniques of self-care, multiple guiding discourses or rules through which the particular forms of belongings, embodied selves and practices of dance and drug use are produced, regulated and understood. The understanding of dance events developed here is one of spaces both of external state regulation as sites of dangerous drug use and self-regulation through techniques of self- care guided through ‗internal‘ and more broadly ‗disqualified‘ texts. In this view, events would feature techniques of self-care and discourses, stories or texts guiding the regulation of atmospheric, emotional, embodied and proxemic pleasures of practices of friendship, music, dancing and drug use through which the embodied self and forms of belonging would be produced. A qualitative method would allow for a close focus account of the local and particular knowledges and multiple discourses through which events are produced, regulated and understood. The research strategy is discussed in more detail and an account of the research process is provided in the next chapter.

Ethnographic work would allow for consideration of the spaces and practices of events.

Textual analysis of accounts of events in local media and in-depth interviews with partygoers would allow for consideration of the multiple stories or discourses through which events were produced, regulated and understood.

The space of local ‗mixed‘ dance events provides a particular example in which broader social processes of multiple modes of regulation of the production of particular forms of embodied selves and belongings are played out. Situating contemporary dance events

84 in terms of broader social processes involves a way of understanding events that has room for pleasure and self-care, rather than absence of these concepts due to a tighter focus on issues of risk and power characterising literature on drug use and dance events.

Foucault‘s understanding of self-care as a social practice and Maffesoli‘s concept of the collective rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality offer a means to bring together previously fragmentary explanations of dance events - through an understanding of the way in which regulating pleasures via techniques of self-care increases the warmth of social relations, or belonging. Developing an account of dance events through local and particular stories and spaces situated within the context of broader social processes is crucial to informing appropriate and effective initiatives to promote health in relation to the particular form of sociality of events.

Chapter Three – Methodology

Introduction

This study aimed to critically investigate the sociality of local ‗mixed‘ dance events and to situate this in the everyday lives of participants and broader social processes in order to inform health strategies in relation to drug use and blood borne viruses. Few studies have focused specifically on the social aspects of health, in terms of drug use and HIV transmission, in relation to the spaces and practices of dance events. Studies of drug use are predominantly large-scale quantitative surveys enumerating risk behaviour and populations, while those that include dance, are concerned primarily with de-limiting and classifying the homological politically resistant subcultural style and deviant identity of young working class men. My approach builds on recent work on drug use and contemporary dance events. This includes work on the social aspects of drug use, that has focused predominantly on street based injecting drug use and the social networks of gay men (Maher 1997, Grund 1993, Neaigus et al. 1994, Sharp et al. 1991,

Ireland et al. 1999, Southgate & Hopwood 1999, Richters et al. 1999) and on women‘s experiences of rave (Pini 1993, 1997a, b, c) and the consumption of nightclub spaces

(Malbon 1998, 1999). However, I shift away from a focus on questions of street based contexts of drug use and the spaces of the commercial gay scene, gender and consumption. I consider how the belonging of networks, crowds and ecstatic embodied selves are produced through techniques of self-care regulating music, dancing and drug use within the space of ‗mixed‘ dance events and everyday lives of participants. The theoretical approach was developed through a reading of Foucault‘s (1978/1991a,

86 1983a, 1986/1990b) and Maffesoli‘s (1985/1993, 1988/1996) related work on the production of the embodied self via multiple discourses, or relations of power and knowledge, in this sense offering a relational approach to the study of practices, spaces and embodied selves.

To find out how the forms of belonging or connectedness were produced and how drug use was regulated in the space of dance events and the everyday lives of participants I comparatively analysed multiple stories of events. The methodological approach was qualitative, involving a process of analytic induction. The research design involved the integration of three research techniques – ethnography, text review and interviews - through a ‗grounded theory‘ (Glaser & Strauss 1967) approach involving a process of ongoing comparative analysis and ‗theoretical sampling‘ of emerging themes. The flexibility of a comparative design allowed for moving with issues and questions as they emerged throughout the research process. This was an advantage given the temporary, mobile, and fast changing spaces of events. Consultation with health service providers,

DJs and partygoers informed development of an appropriate research design and refined the focus of the research, facilitating negotiation of issues of access, ethics, selection of texts, interview schedule design and sampling. Observations of the spaces of events provided background material on the regulation of spaces and embodied practices of dance events. I focus on the emerging question of how atmosphere was produced within the space of events and in particular, the role of techniques for the organisation of events as in-between spaces, with internal zones featuring practices of dancing and

‗lounging‘. Reviewing local DJs guides to events in free street press over ten years opened the discursive field of dance events to analysis over time. I became interested in the emerging question of how forms of belonging and ecstatic, self-regulated and safe

87 selves were produced through processes of writing and reading media texts. Interviews with partygoers provided accounts of the production of the belonging, connected and ecstatic embodied self via techniques of self-care and regulation of pleasures, including those of drug use. I became concerned with the question of how forms of network, crowd and ecstatic belonging were produced through techniques of self-care regulating the pleasures of practices of friendship, music, dancing and drug use, bound up with the self-care and pleasure of other people. This comparative qualitative approach enabled consideration of the ‗tectonics‘ (Pini 1993; Curt 1994), or dynamic interrelationships, coherences and contradictions, between multiple stories and different ‗positions‘ within these texts or discourses, through which experiences of dance events were produced, regulated and understood.

Analysis of the stories of participants in dance events and members of their social networks was crucial in offering an effective approach to informing health initiatives in relation to drug use and blood borne viruses within the space of dance events. It allowed for consideration of the forms of ‗subjugated knowledge‘ (Foucault

1977/1980a), or ‗internal texts‘ (Pini 1993), associated with dance events, in particular opening space for consideration of texts of regulated pleasure. These knowledges, texts or discourses have most often been discounted or ‗disqualified‘ (Foucault 1977/1980a) due to understandings of dance events as sites only of dangerous drug use and participants as individuals of ‗at risk‘ populations in need of state intervention, bound up with the whole complex of discourses associated with drug use - pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance. Through a reflexive process of reading and re-writing or analysis I bring ‗internal texts‘ (Pini 1993), or ‗subjugated knowledges‘ (Foucault

1977/1980a), within the ‗partial‘ stories of participants in dance events, into relation

88 with theoretical texts (Pini 1997a: 155; Clifford 1986: 6-7). In particular, I draw on

Foucault (1986/1990b, 1983a, 1978/1991a) and Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) related work on the history and contemporary production of the embodied self through techniques of self-care in contrast to the individualising discourses and totalising procedures of

‗governmental‘ power relations. Rather than writing the ‗truth‘ of dance events, the partial account I provide aims to open up for further reading the processes of dynamic interrelation of multiple texts or discourses, relations of power and knowledge through which the embodied self is produced and regulated within the space of dance events and the everyday lives of participants (Pini 1997a: 155; Foucault 1977/1980a: 83-84;

Foucault 1976/1991b: 75-78, 82).

Ethnography

Method and design The ethnographic approach featured open and flexible ‗beginning work‘ (Silverman

1999), and more focused observations of the spaces of events and interaction with participants. ‗Beginning work‘ (Silverman 1999) consisted of consultation with health service providers, DJs and partygoers and informed the research design and enabled starting points for development of ongoing research relationships. In using this approach, I built on previous studies of drug use in which collaborative research relationships played an important role in facilitating access for ethnographic fieldwork and negotiating ethical issues involved in research with young people through consultation informing the research design and inviting participation in interviews via development of rapport and trust (Valentine, Skelton & Chambers 1998: 22-23; Maher

1997: 214; Miller & Glassner 1997: 106; Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 21-22).

Interviews and everyday conversations recorded as field notes allowed for flexibility

89 and wide scope in this preliminary fieldwork. The interviews and conversations, although open-ended, were loosely structured through a list of broad topic areas derived from the review of literature. These included: history of Sydney dance events, social networks, spaces and practices of drug use and dance events. This initially open approach allowed for consideration of the range of social processes, practices and contexts of drug use and dance events and refining the focus of the research questions

(Silverman 1999: 33-37).

Observations of the spaces of events allowed for consideration of how the spaces of events and the embodied selves of participants were produced and regulated via particular techniques. I built on work that used ethnographic methods of observation featuring a participatory mode of involvement in studying the techniques governing production of particular musical and dancing bodies through movement and spatial practices. These included: studies of performance dance (Foster 1992), ballroom dancing (Thomas & Miller 1997: 93), contact improvisation (Novack 1990: 19-21), rave

(Pini 1993: 26-28), house events (Rietveld 1998a: 5, 149-150) and clubbing (Malbon

1998: 270-271, 1999: 92; Bennett 2000: 92-95; Coffey 1999: 60, 72-73). In contrast to the formal processes of dance education employed in performance and ballroom dance, contemporary dance events teach bodily techniques through processes of participation and interaction within friendship and larger crowd networks. I was not concerned with the observation of ‗serious offences‘ in relation to drug use, such as ‗dealing‘ (selling

‗illicit‘ drugs). Rather, I was concerned with the context and social practices of events, the production of space and self in particular ways. This approach had the advantage, ethically, of maintaining participants‘ anonymity. Building on Malbon‘s (1998, 1999) use of Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) concept of atmosphere to think through the belonging of

90 clubbing crowds, I came to focus on how the ‗atmosphere‘ of events was produced. In particular, I developed an understanding of the organisation of space into multiple atmospheric zones interrelated with external everyday spaces through techniques of spatial organisation and self-care and transformation. These included: use of architecture, design, music, performances, lighting, timing and techniques governing bodily practices of movement, proximity and touch. A method of observation built in opportunities for comparative analysis with media texts and interviews (Glaser &

Strauss 1967).

Beginning work The sample for consultation The sample for beginning consultation work was ‗snowballed‘ from starting points with youth health service providers in the inner city and inner west and DJs contacted via the

Internet, with participants referring colleagues or friends. I consulted with 15 health service providers from 11 agencies in the inner city and inner west, 4 DJs and 5 partygoers.

Doing the consultation One to two hour interviews with health service providers and DJs were arranged by phone, mail or e-mail and conducted at health services or cafes. Everyday conversations with partygoers who offered me advice or information, as they knew I was researching dance events, occurred within the space of events where I was doing fieldwork, or everyday contexts. Interviews and informal conversations were recorded as field notes written up as soon as possible afterwards.

91 Analysis Field notes of interviews and conversations were analysed as accounts or stories through processes of repeated close reading for words, terms, concepts, themes and gaps. Analysis of field notes from consultation informed the research design. This included the process of refining the research questions, selection of media texts, analytic categories for ethnographic fieldwork, negotiating ethical issues and access, in depth interview schedule design and sampling.

Fieldwork The sample of dance events The sample of dance events was developed through a process of ‗theoretical sampling‘ of emerging themes through ongoing comparative analysis (Glaser & Strauss 1967: 45,

48-9, 61-2; Hammersley & Atkinson 1983: 44-53). Given the discreet and low-key organising techniques of events, the flexibility of this approach and the invitations, advice and guides to events provided by health service providers, DJs and partygoers through consultation were crucial in facilitating access and negotiating ethical issues involved in researching the spaces of dance events. The sample included a range of styles of dance events such as regular intimate club events, larger one off outdoor and indoor and party/protest events. My focus was on ‗mixed‘ events, although I attended a smaller number of other dance events to allow for comparison. Further variation was built into the sample through attending events at multiple times, locations and venues, with different sized crowds and moving through distinctive internal spatial and atmospheric zones.

‘Surrendering-to’ the dance Consideration of the relations between researcher and researched through which fieldwork is mediated allows for a reflexive approach to analysis that acknowledges the

92 ‗clues‘ provided by ‗tensions‘ and processes of ‗collaboration‘ between researchers and researched (Pini 1993: 7-9; Coffey 1999: 24-25, 34-36). Such processes of interaction may ‗produce‘ or ‗transform‘ the embodied selves of researchers and researched in particular ways (Coffey 1999: 60-61, 66, 72-3; Maher 1997: 213). I had, prior to this research, attended a small number of dance events with friends. These included: one off warehouse, party-protest and fundraising events, more commercial parties for special occasions such as New Year‘s Eve, and house parties. I was acutely aware that attending events as a researcher was different from attending them as a novice participant invited by friends. In particular, I was aware that there was a difference between the complete immersion and dissolving of self in the ecstatic moment that was at the heart of events and the effort of participating in events in order to carry out the intellectual work of developing an understanding of the sociality of events and implications of this for health. The total immersion and dissolving of self in the ecstatic moment of the dance can be understood as a mode of, in Wolff‘s (1976: 20-23) terms,

‗surrender‘, defined as ‗cognitive love‘ and characterised by ‗total involvement, suspension of received notions, pertinence of everything, identification, and risk of being hurt‘. For Wolff (1976: 20), the ‗catch‘ is the ‗result, yield, harvest…of surrender‘, involving a new way of ‗conceptualising‘ and ‗being-in-the-world‘. Wolff‘s

(1976: 26) work allows me to think through the commitment to participate in events in order to understand as a ‗method‘ of ‗surrender-to‘ that shares the characteristics of

‗surrender‘ but differs in so far as these are ‗consciously aimed at‘. Wolff (1976: 74-80) argues that through the effort of ‗surrender-to‘ and ‗catch‘ it is possible to ‗do justice to‘ the complexity of lived experience through a mode of engagement that balances involvement and detachment. Wolff (1976: 194-197) elaborates that this effort at balancing involvement and distance in ‗surrender-to‘ is not present in ‗surrender‘ where

93 there is ‗total involvement‘, ‗letting go‘ or ‗oneness‘ that just happens or ‗befalls‘, as with a swimmer in water, or in the current example an ecstatic dancer. It is this balancing of involvement and distance in ‗surrender-to‘ that enables the particular

‗catch‘ or new conceptualisation of experience (Wolff 1976: 197).

Given the loud noise levels, concerns of partygoers and organisers over police and tabloid media surveillance and the non-verbal qualities of the movement and spacings of dance, practices of note taking, sound recording or a role of observer as complete

‗outsider‘ or ‗stranger‘ were not appropriate to this setting. The total immersion and dissolving of the self in the surrender of the ecstatic moment of the dance was also different to the effort of involvement and conceptual work to understand the sociality of events and health implications of this in a new way. Rather than taking a position completely ‗outside‘ or ‗inside‘ events, I ‗surrendered-to‘ (Wolff 1976) the dance, adopting a participatory mode of involvement as dancer and listener mediated through my relationships with partygoers and organisers who invited me to attend events with them, looked after me and provided me with advice, that allowed me to ‗fit into‘ this setting. Permission for access to the public, although discrete spaces of events, was arranged through contacts made during consultation with partygoers, DJs and health service providers who acted as ‗gatekeepers‘ inviting me to attend events with them. I dressed appropriately to dance events either in jeans and t-shirts or more elaborately for themes. This approach had the advantage of utilising key participants‘ input to develop an appropriate research design, ensuring key participants‘ permission for access, and avoiding undue disruption to the context and practices of events. However, the study is limited to consideration of those events accessed through ‗gatekeepers‘ and the conversations volunteered by participants in these settings in some cases focused on

94 aspects of events that participants felt would be useful to me as a researcher interested in how people at events were connected.

My interaction with participants at events was broadly of two types – more or less public and anonymous, although sometimes warm, interactions with crowds, and more durable and intimate relationships with small friendship circles. I interacted with the crowd as one among many more or less anonymous dancers-listeners within the space of events, where there were some people I didn‘t know, others I recognised from previous events, or regulars, and contacts or friends who invited me to go out with them. Bodily interaction through listening-dancing and exchanging of ‗looks‘ was important as a means to ‗surrender-to‘ (Wolff 1976) the dance and connect with participants in this setting, as was ‗lounging‘ or relaxing and socialising. In resonance with Bennett‘s (2000: 5-6) account of clubbing, everyday conversations at events were an important source of information and advice concerning previous and upcoming events, the ‗set up‘ of events and different modes of appreciating music through dancing and ‗lounging‘. The space of events offered distinctive conversational contexts characterised by particular codes and rituals (Game & Metcalfe 1996: 82) different from those of the tape-recorded interviews. The high volume of music on the dance floor meant conversation was generally short, intimate and involved gesture and touch between small numbers of speakers who cupped their hands to direct their voices right into the ear of the listener whose attention was attracted by a look or tapping on the shoulder. In the space of relaxing, ‗lounging‘ or ‗chill‘ zones where the volume was lower or music of a more ambient style, longer conversations were possible.

95 Observations were written up as field notes providing detailed descriptions of the regulation and inhabitation of the spaces of events as soon as possible afterwards.

Writing field notes after events fitted with the special occasion ‗time‘ of events, as periods of quiet reflection were common after events.

Analysis Field notes were treated as my accounts of the practices and spaces of events as researcher that were informed by a process of interaction or dialogue in the form of stories told in everyday conversations and interviews with participants through which they understood their experiences of events (Geertz 1973: 13; 1979: 228; Clifford 1988:

40-41; Maher 1997: 213). Field notes were analysed via processes of repeated close reading for themes and gaps. Each note was coded and indexed using broad emerging categories. These included: techniques for the organisation of space (music, lighting, decorations) and forms of interaction (dancing, ‗lounging‘). This analysis provided background material on the regulation of space and embodied movement and was comparatively analysed with accounts in media texts and interviews. Rather, than presenting the ‗truth‘ of dance events, the resulting ‗thick description‘ provided a partial, incomplete and ‗fictional‘ account produced through imaginative analysis of the organisation of space and practices of participants in relation to the stories they drew on in their understandings of events in everyday conversations and interviews and relevant theoretical texts (Geertz 1973: 14-15; 1979: 226-228; Pini 1997a: 155). I worked with an idea of culture as ‗process‘ within which participants‘ understandings of their experiences of events rather than ‗being basic to the activities involved‘ were seen as

‗bound up‘ with multiple and interrelated discourses or texts in relations of tension and coherence with one another (Pini 1993: 1, 6-7; Pini 1997a: 155; Curt 1994). The

96 particular forms of embodied selves associated with dance events and the everyday lives of participants were produced through the ‗tectonics‘, or dynamic interrelationships of intertextualities, or multiple stories, discourses, relations of power and knowledge (Pini

1993: 6-7; Pini 1997a: 155; Curt 1994: 54; Foucault 1977/1980a: 83-84; Foucault

1980/1991b: 76-78, 82). Pini (1993: 6-7) argues that understanding culture through metaphors of intertextuality and tectonics, in contrast to notions of culture as ‗unity‘, allow for a sense of ‗dynamism‘. Here culture is ‗an ongoing series of struggles and contestations‘ in which ‗movement of one part can cause change in many others‘ and the meaning of texts is produced in relation with the ‗tectonic ‗background‘‘ (Pini 1993:

7).

Analysis of texts

Method and design A review of media texts opened the discursive field of dance events to historical analysis. Media texts may act as sites for the interrelation of ‗specialist‘ and ‗non- specialist‘, or local and popular knowledges (Bunton 1997: 231-233), or in Foucault‘s

(1977/1980a: 81-85) terms ‗subjugated knowledges‘. These written documents, as with other forms of writing, are ‗transformative‘, involving a process of ‗cultural production‘, or ‗fiction‘, rather than a transparent ‗representation‘ of the world ‗outside‘

(Game & Metcalfe 1996: 90-91; Lee 2000:199; Clifford & Marcus 1986).

Transformation occurs through the ‗poesis (creation, making poem)‘ of writing – involving metaphor, metonymy, synedoche and interrelation with other texts (Game &

Metcalfe 1996: 44, 47-9, 131). Processes of reading involve an active bodily and emotional relation between reader and text (Game and Metcalfe 1996: 134, 140-141).

This involves a ‗cultural‘ and ‗particular‘ process of being moved by texts in relation to

97 specific ‗knowledge of the world‘, ‗bodies‘, ‗memories‘ and ‗dreams‘ and cultural rules or conventions of reading (Game & Metcalfe 1996: 134, 140-141).

This historical reading of the field of discourse had the advantage of avoiding a

‗snapshot‘ approach in which social groups such as ‗subcultures‘ are assumed to be fully formed ‗homologies‘ able to be delimited and decoded by the analyst (Thornton

1995: 152). It allowed for a consideration of the transformative qualities of media texts involved in constituting conditions for the production of belonging and guiding the regulation of the self. Rather than constructing a unitary, linear, causal history this approach focuses on analysis of ‗multiple processes‘ – shifts, ‗discontinuities‘ in the discursive field (Foucault 1980/1991b: 75-78), or ‗ruptural effects of conflict and struggle‘ that enable a critical understanding of the contingencies of the present

(Foucault 1977/1980a: 82; Kendall & Wickham 1999: 4). I built on work documenting how local micro and low cost media provided conditions for the production of connectedness of organising and crowd networks and spaces of dance and festival events (Thornton 1995: 120-121, 116-117, 141; McKay 1996: 9; McKay 1998: 11;

Rietveld 1998a: 173-4; Rietveld 1998b: 247, 250; Straw 1991: 373, 381). Secondly, I built on work arguing that media texts constituted sites for the circulation of discourses of safe drug use and sex (McRobbie 1993: 416-417, 1999: 55; Henderson 1993: 128) and healthiness (Bunton 1997: 238-243), inviting modes of self-regulation producing the self as safe and healthy.

The sample of texts The primary texts I selected were local DJs‘ specialist columns in one free street press magazine 3D World appearing over a ten-year period. These were supplemented with a

98 limited number of related profiles, listings and interviews from 3D and articles appearing in Tharunka student newspaper, the specialist listings and club guide in the

Sydney Morning Herald Metro and the Freaky Loops community radio fundraising event CD fly notes. Location and access to media texts was facilitated through consultation with health service providers, local DJs and partygoers. These texts constituted a particular form of personal account or story of the self, at the same time produced for a wider collective audience of readers as guiding texts providing advice on which events to attend and how to enjoy and regulate pleasures of dancing and drug use.

Analysis Media texts were analysed as ‗accounts‘ or ‗stories‘ through a process of ongoing comparative analysis involving repeated close reading of the texts for emerging themes, concepts, terms, metaphors and the form or structure of stories and changes in these over time. This enabled analysis of the history of struggles and critical shifts in the field of discourses, subjugated knowledges and power relations (Foucault 1977/1980a: 81-

85) through which the spaces of dance events and the embodied selves of participants were produced, regulated and understood. Analysis of media texts provided background material building in opportunity for comparison with fieldwork and interviews (Hodder 1994: 395; Glaser & Strauss 1967: 167-168, 171-172, 65-69;

Hammersley & Atkinson 1983: 131-133). I understand these processes of analysis as a reflexive form of ‗reading-writing‘ (Game & Metcalfe 1996: 144) or ‗re-writing‘ (Lee

2000: 199-200) of these texts through setting them in relation to the stories in interview and fieldwork materials and Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) key theoretical text on care of the self.

99 Interviews

Method A method of qualitative interviewing allowed for consideration of the multiple and interrelated texts, discourses or stories through which participants‘ experiences of dance events and forms of embodied selves were produced, regulated, transformed and understood (Pini 1993: 1-2, 1997a: 155; Curt 1994: 36, 54; Game & Metcalfe 1996: 75-

76, 82). This approach built on previous work utilising stories of participants to consider their ‗personal meanings‘, embodied selves and social worlds through a method of qualitative interviewing in relation to women‘s experiences of rave (Pini

1993: 1-2, 1997a: 155), practices of drug use (Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 33-37) and gang membership (Miller & Glassner 1997: 99-102). In depth interviews with open- ended questions invited participants to tell their stories of events in their own terms.

Considering the ‗personal meanings‘, ‗internal texts‘ (Pini 1993: 17-21) or ‗subjugated knowledges‘ (Foucault 1977/1980a: 81-85) of participants in dance events concerning the regulation of the pleasures and dangers of dancing and drug use was important given that these stories have often been discounted or disqualified, although crucial to the ways in which drugs are used and understood in relation to health. I became interested in how the belonging of friendship networks and crowds and moments of ecstatic belonging were produced and how drug use was regulated within the spaces of events and the everyday lives of participants.

Interviews, as a particular form of conversation, afford special conditions for the production of spoken stories, characterised by distinctive codes and rituals (McCracken

1998: 12; Miller & Glassner 1997: 110-111, 101-102; Game & Metcalfe 1996: 82).

These conventions may affect the forms of stories and meanings produced and it is thus

100 important to provide a reflexive account of the research process. This is not to suggest that interviews are a ‗mirror reflection of the social world‘, but rather that multiple forms of stories are implicated in how we make sense of the world, ourselves, our practices and experiences both within the context of interviews and everyday life

(Miller & Glassner 1997: 99-100; Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 33-37; Pini 1997a: 155;

1993: 1). Stories are multiple, ‗partial‘, ‗fractured‘ in their telling, featuring references and resonances with other stories (Miller & Glassner 1997: 101-102; Game & Metcalfe

1996: 131, 77-78). The dynamic interrelations between texts, discourses or stories can usefully be understood through metaphors of intertextuality and tectonics (Pini 1993;

Curt 1994). Accounts in interviews built in opportunity for comparative analysis with ethnographic and textual material (Glaser & Strauss 1967: 65-69).

Design The interview schedule design and selection of language for interview questions and

Project Information Sheet were developed through review of the literature and comparative analysis of field notes from consultation and fieldwork, thus ensuring that the project built on previous research and allowing participants‘ input into development of a suitable research design (McCracken 1988: 30-32; Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 22-

24; Valentine et al. 1998: 22-23). The design was tested for appropriateness through consultation with a participant in events and the order of the questions subsequently modified. After preliminary analysis of the first two interviews a new question was added to the schedule concerning what participants imagined they would do if there were no more events. Preliminary fieldwork allowed for development of ‗rapport‘ with

‗gatekeepers‘ who later invited members of their friendship circles to participate in the research (Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 22-24).

101

Key focus areas for the interview (see Appendix One) included: the ‗placing‘ of drugs, music, crowds and sexualities in events, friendship networks and everyday life. ‗Open- ended‘ questions were asked inviting participants to ‗define‘ or tell their own stories concerning what were potentially ‗sensitive issues‘, such as ‗illicit‘ drug use, ‗in their own terms‘ (McCracken 1988: 24-25, 34-37; Brannen 1988: 552-553). Use of open- ended questions combined with situational prompts allowed for multiple approaches, ease and flexibility in clarification and expansion of particular issues (McCracken 1988:

34-37, 39-40; Brannen 1988: 553-554, 556). The interview began by requesting detailed descriptions of enjoyable and not so enjoyable events. These broad opening questions provided space for participants to tell their stories in their own terms and create a sense of ‗rapport‘ (McCracken 1988: 24-5; Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 22-24,

35-36; Brannen 1988: 552-556). Later questions focused more closely on the place of music, drugs, crowds and sexualities in events for participants, and for others and participants‘ social networks. Potentially more ‗sensitive‘ items such as the place of sexualities in events for participants and others, sex and drugs and injecting practice were asked later. A sense of closure was invited by concluding the interview with questions on sources of useful information on events and health, what participants imagined they would do if there were no more events, and biographical details.

Questions on ‗serious offences‘ such as ‗dealing‘ were not asked. The research focused on the context of dance events and related personal use of drugs and health issues.

Ethically, this protected participants‘ anonymity, as the research did not focus on

‗serious offences‘ subject to the reporting requirements of the Crimes Act 1900 (as amended in 1990).

102

The interview sample Nineteen participants in dance events with ‗mixed‘ crowds took part in interviews for this project. Participants in dance events with ‗mixed‘ crowds were contacted through circulation of an invitation to participate in the research. The design of the invitation was tested for appropriateness and modified through consultation with a participant (see

Appendix Two). The sample was ‗snowballed‘ from multiple starting points. As with other research on drug use, establishing rapport and trust with key participants who acted as ‗gatekeepers‘ contacted during consultation was crucial in negotiating sampling for interviews (Maher 1997: 214; Lee 1993: 113; Miller & Glassner 1997: 106;

Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 21-22). Key participants circulated the invitation, printed on small cards and flyers, within their friendship networks and the spaces of events, referring members of their friendship circles to the project. The invitation appeared on the project website and in the classifieds sections of two free street press magazines and two internet sites that carried stories and listings on dance events. Fourteen of the nineteen interview participants were referred to the project through three key participants. Two responded to the invitation posted in free street press and three to that posted on the Internet.

The interview sample was generated through a flexible process of ‗theoretical sampling‘

(Glaser & Strauss 1967). This involved ongoing comparative analysis of multiple

‗groups‘ and ‗subgroups‘ selected for their ‗relevance‘ to ‗emerging‘ theoretical

‗categories‘ in order to ‗maximise‘ ‗differences‘ in groups and ‗variety‘ in ‗data‘ to achieve analytic ‗saturation‘ (Glaser & Strauss 1967: 48-9, 61-2; McCracken 1988: 16-

17, 37). The sample aimed for heterogeneity in terms of sexualities, ages, musical

103 tastes, friendship circles and participation in events. Preliminary analysis for emerging themes after completion of the first five interviews informed later sampling. The interview sample of nineteen participants, some of whom were organisers, DJs and health professionals, included seven women and twelve men.

This approach had the advantage of being open and flexible to sampling the multiple stories through which experiences and forms of selves associated with events were produced, regulated and understood, and avoided some limitations of previous research focused on sampling on the basis of criteria of identities and ‗captive‘ populations. A process of ‗theoretical sampling‘ and ‗snowballing‘ through key participants‘ referring members of their friendship networks allowed for a consideration of the processes and forms of social relations of these networks and avoided the limitations of individualising procedures of sampling on the basis of criteria of individual sexual identity, sexual or drug use behaviour (Richters et al. 1999: 26). Contacting participants through consultation and fieldwork in the ‗natural setting‘ of dance events allowed for a consideration of the context of these social networks and practices and avoided reliance on ‗captive‘ populations of ‗in-treatment‘ or incarcerated drug users more likely to have problematic patterns of drug use (Grund 1993: 1-2; Sharp et al. 1991: 15-16, 18).

Sampling through the multiple networks, spaces and stories of events marked a shift away from the de-limitation of the ‗whole way of life‘ of predominantly working class male youth subcultures characterised by ‗homological‘ resistant style and identity. This allowed for a consideration of what has until recently been the neglected area of social relations of small social groups characterised by heterogeneity, tensions and ambiguities, in relation to gender, sexualities and musical tastes, produced through the popular pleasures of music, dancing and drug use within the spaces of dance events

104 enmeshed within everyday life (Pini 1993: 6-7, 12-19; Pini 1997b: 118, 126-127;

Malbon 1998: 280; Bennett 1999: 599-600; Gilbert & Pearson 1999: 28-29, 31-33;

Valentine et al. 1998: 17, 24; Roman 1988: 145; Dyer 1979/1990: 411-413, 416-417;

McRobbie 1993: 412-413).

Doing the interviews Interviews were arranged by telephone and conducted in comfortable locations chosen through discussion with participants. Locations allowing for privacy, such as cafes or parks, were selected. Tape-recorded interviews lasted from one to two hours.

Participants were not paid for their participation in the research. The cost of coffee and cake or other food and drink shared during the interview was covered. The interviews were conducted in two phases with preliminary analysis after the first five interviews.

Interviewing during the unusual holiday time of the Olympics (September, 2001), compared with ‗party times‘ of New Year or festivals, allowed for easier fit of the interview into everyday life as people had more free time.

I had two forms of relationships with interview participants. Firstly, I was an anonymous although sympathetic ‗stranger‘ to the small number of participants who responded to the research invitation. The anonymity and ‗one off‘ nature of interviews where the researcher and participant are ‗strangers‘ may have the advantage of providing ease of interaction and increased sense of safety and confidentiality in disclosure of ‗sensitive issues‘ or difficult questions (Brannen 1988: 558-559;

McCracken 1988: 26-28). Secondly, my relationship as ‗stranger‘ was mediated through development of trust, familiarity and ‗rapport‘ with key participants met during consultation and fieldwork - with the majority of participants introduced to me by

105 trusted members of their friendship networks. Interviews with participants who are introduced to the researcher through a trusted friend or contact may have the advantage of an increased sense of ‗rapport‘ creating a safe space for discussing potentially

‗sensitive issues‘ (Lee 1993: 113-114; Maher 1997: 208, 214; Miller & Glassner 1997:

106; Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 21-22). The use of suitable language in the interview and Project Information Sheet and an interview schedule tested for appropriateness and modified through consultation and analysis of early fieldwork was important in establishing the willingness and ‗credibility‘ of the researcher as a sympathetic listener

(Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 21-22).

The project received approval from the University of New South Wales Ethics

Committee (Human Subjects (Approval Number: 98220)). Informed consent was obtained prior to tape recording interviews through distribution of the Project

Information Sheet containing a clear description of the research process and discussion with participants. The Information Sheet included key focus areas for the interviews and detailed the right of participants to withdraw from the research at any time. I assured participants that their responses would be confidential and anonymous and that the information transcribed from the interview tapes would be ‗de-identified‘ so that no place names or other details that may be identifying would be ‗written-up‘, and that the tapes would be destroyed at the completion of the research. I assured participants that they were welcome at any time to stop the tape recording, take a break, or end the interview and that I was interested in any stories they may wish to tell. Relevant referral information on health and youth services was available if needed. One interview was submitted as a written account although I discussed the interview both before and afterwards and informed consent was obtained. Acknowledging the special

106 contribution of stories to research and providing clear information concerning confidentiality and how stories were to be used in the research process had the advantage of further developing ‗rapport‘ (Miller & Glassner 1997: 104-106).

Establishing ‗rapport‘ via use of suitable language, a clear explanation of the research process and assurance of anonymity in the University approved Project Information

Sheet, use of an appropriate interview design and mediation of relationships with participants through trusted friends helped to achieve a ‗balance‘ between the researcher as a professional, non-judgemental and sympathetic listener (Miller & Glassner 1997:

104-106; McCracken 1988: 26). This had the advantage of producing the interview as a

‗safe‘, confidential and professional although comfortable and sympathetic space for telling multiple forms of stories including ‗stock‘ or stereotypical and ‗personal‘ stories

(McCracken 1988: 26; Miller & Glassner 104-106). This sense of ‗balance‘ in presentation of self has been thought through as a form of ‗critical distance‘

(McCracken 1988: 22-24), or the ‗holding‘ of moments of ‗proximity‘ and ‗distance‘ that allows space for a sense of wonder at the strangeness of the everyday within stories

(Game & Metcalfe 1996: 153, 85-86). Interaction within the interviews involved moments of ‗careful‘, ‗imaginative‘, ‗intuitive‘ listening (McCracken 1988: 20, 38-41), and openness to ‗surprise‘ or ‗wonder‘ (McCracken 1988: 22-24; Game & Metcalfe

1996: 85-86, 153). Moments of surprise or wonder provided valuable ‗clues‘ or

‗hunches‘ such as my developing appreciation of the importance of the pleasures of

‗lounging‘, or relaxing, as well as dancing.

Participants felt comfortable to provide multiple, rich and detailed stories of dance events. In some cases the interview provided a space for talking about issues or as one

107 participant put it ‗secrets‘ that may not have been able to be talked about in other contexts, such as work, constituting a pleasurable or ‗therapeutic‘ release or reflection, in resonance with other interview work on potentially ‗sensitive issues‘ (Miller &

Glassner 1997: 104-106; Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 35-36; McCracken 1988: 26-28;

Brannen 1988: 558-559). There were instances where participants ‗redirected‘ the interview, interwove the telling of stereotypical with ‗personal‘ stories and tried out meanings, selves and social worlds (Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 34-36; Miller &

Glassner 1997: 100-103). One participant redirected the interview from talk of

‗dancing‘ towards stories of relaxing. Another spoke of how he hoped the interview would make a difference in counteracting negative stereotypes of dance events and drug use. Others told stories in which themes of pleasure and fear in relation to drug use were held in tension and techniques to avoid dangers were described. There were resonances with ‗sacred stories‘ of rituals of ‗ecstasy‘ within the everyday stories told in interviews (Game & Metcalfe 1996) such as in accounts of the pleasures of Ecstasy use where the air was turned into velvet and the self plugged directly into music. Others recounted the special although ordinary pleasures of relaxing in a ‗hammock chill‘ and being a ‗couch socialite‘. In resonance with Glassner and Loughlin‘s (1987) study of meanings of drug use where participants invited interviewers ‗to meet their friends or attend social gatherings‘, in setting up interviews and afterwards, participants invited me to meet their friends, ‗hang out‘ with them and go to events. This highlights the advantage of ethnographic work in developing rapport. Individual interviews were an appropriate method to ensure a confidential and safe space to discuss dance events in relation to health issues. However, the organisation of individual interviews was in some cases at odds with the collective organisation of small friendship groups who socialised and attended dance events together.

108

Analysis The interview tapes were transcribed and anonymity and confidentiality of participants was ensured through ‗de-identification‘ of the transcripts via removal of place names and other information that may have been identifying. The transcription process aimed to be alive to the qualities of the interviews as talk, such as pauses, silences and laughter that allowed for analysis of aspects of the emotional tone and position of talk within the

‗conversational context‘ of the interview (Game & Metcalfe 1996: 119-120, 82;

Glassner & Loughlin 1987: 28; Brannen 1988: 554; McCracken 1988: 24-5). Analysis was comparative and ongoing, occurring throughout the research process (Glaser &

Strauss 1967: 102, 104; McCracken 1988: 48). Preliminary analysis of the first five interviews guided further interviews and allowed comparison with the media review and field notes from consultation and fieldwork. The transcripts were analysed as

‗accounts‘ or ‗stories‘ through processes of repeated close reading for words, terms, concepts, metaphors, themes, gaps, silences, contradictions, ambiguities, structure or form, such as plot, and interrelation with other stories (Game & Metcalfe 1996;

McCracken 1988; Glassner & Loughlin 1987; Miller & Glassner 1997). Stories in interviews were set in relation to Foucault (1986/1990b) and Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) theoretical texts on production of the embodied self through techniques of self-care in a reflexive process of ‗reading-writing‘ (Game & Metcalfe 1996: 144), or ‗re-writing‘

(Lee 2000: 199-200).

Summary

I aimed to develop a critical understanding of the sociality of local ‗mixed‘ dance events and to situate events in the everyday lives of participants and broader social processes in

109 order to inform health strategies in relation to drug use and blood borne viruses.

Drawing on Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) work on the production of the embodied self through relations of power and knowledge involving multiple discourses or texts I asked how the embodied self was produced in events and the everyday lives of participants through particular techniques of self-care. To develop an understanding of the production of the embodied self in the spaces of events and everyday life I used three research techniques – ethnography, textual analysis and interviews – that allowed access to multiple forms of storying practices associated with events. These techniques were integrated through a process of ongoing comparative analysis of multiple stories through which experiences and practices of events and the embodied selves of participants were produced, regulated and understood set in relation to Foucault‘s

(1986/1990b) work on ‗care of the self‘ and Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on ‗neo- tribal sociality‘.

‗Beginning work‘ in the form of consultation with health service providers, DJs and partygoers refined the research questions and informed development of an appropriate research design. The development of rapport with key participants in this phase of the research facilitated negotiation of issues of access, ethics, design of the interview schedule and Information Sheet and sampling. Analysis of field notes from observations of events and participants‘ stories in interviews and everyday conversations provided background material on the regulation of spaces and embodied practices of events. This highlighted the importance of the organisation of events as in- between spaces characterised by atmospheres produced through the techniques regulating internal zones and practices of dancing and ‗lounging‘. Textual analysis of local DJs guides to events in free street press was set in relation to Foucault‘s

110 (1986/1990b) work on care of self, opening the discursive field of dance events to analysis. Practices of writing and reading these guiding texts were bound up with techniques of self-care through which the self was produced as ecstatic self-regulated and safe. Interviews with participants in events allowed for analysis of the multiple storying practices, through which the experiences and embodied selves of participants were produced, regulated and understood. In particular, interviews allowed analysis of

‗personal accounts‘ of participants or ‗internal texts‘ of events (Pini 1993). Through these accounts emerged questions of how forms of network, crowd and ecstatic belongings were produced via being in relation with the atmosphere of events through techniques of self-care regulating practices of friendship, music, dancing and drug use that were bound up with the self-care and pleasure of other people.

Research techniques of ethnography, textual analysis and interviews allowed for a consideration of the popular or ‗subjugated knowledges‘ (Foucault 1977/1980a),

‗internal texts‘ or ‗personal accounts‘ (Pini 1993) of participants in dance events concerning the production of the self through regulation of the pleasures of friendship, music, dancing and drug use. These knowledges of the ecstatic, self-regulated and safe self have most often been disqualified as ‗other to the ‗real‘‘ (Pini 1993: 20-21) due to what is understood as their production through the potent pharmacology of drugs, despite their significance in the ways in which drugs are used and understood in relation to health. Analysis of these multiple stories to produce a partial account opens them up for further reading, rather than presenting the ‗truth‘ of dance events (Pini 1997a: 155;

Foucault 1977/1980a: 83-84; Foucault 1980/1991b: 75-78, 82). Developing a critical understanding of stories of self-care and regulation that negotiate pleasures and dangers and produce the self in particular ways that slip momentarily in-between the

111 individualising discourses and totalising procedures of governmentality would inform appropriate and effective health initiatives in relation to drug use and blood borne viruses. This would avoid the limitations of previous approaches based on fixed individual identities and deviant or ‗at risk‘ populations and groups. In the chapters that follow I unpack my analysis of themes emerging in ethnographic fieldwork, media texts and interviews with partygoers.

112

Chapter Four – Atmospheric spaces and practices of

dancing and lounging

“…the German Romantic idea of Stimmung (atmosphere) is more and more often used on the one hand to describe relations between social micro- groups, and on the other to show the way these groups are situated in spatial terms (ecology, habitat, neighbourhood).” (Maffesoli 1988/1996: 11).

Introduction

In this chapter I provide an account of dance events from an analysis of field notes from fieldwork at events and everyday conversations with participants, set in relation to literature on dance, music and the production of the embodied self. I was interested in how the atmosphere of dance events was produced. The question of atmosphere offered an initial approach to fleshing out how the belongings of events were produced. The dance events and conversations with partygoers that formed the basis of fieldwork for this study were characterised by particular sets of spatial and embodied practices through which distinctive forms of atmosphere were produced and consumed. There were two broad forms of atmospheric zones and embodied practices - of dancing, and, of relaxing, ‗chilling‘, or ‗lounging‘.

The arrangement, or ‗set up‘, of dance events involved organising techniques that governed transformation of everyday, or regulated club spaces, through configuration of decorations, lighting, music, live performances and crowds. These organising

113 techniques created temporary and unique aesthetic and emotional effects that both bounded and connected the spaces of dance events with other spaces of fantasy and play. Techniques for generating crowds were characterised by discourses of diversity that were held in tension with discreet publicity practices that were mediated through existing friendship networks. The situation of dance events within regulated, or secret spaces was bound up with broader processes of regulation of the spaces of dance events.

Events constituted temporary spaces of freedom for the momentary production of collective ecstatic dancing and ‗lounging‘ bodies. These ecstatic, pleasured bodies contrast with the individual, separate selves produced through the individualising discourses and totalising procedures of the ‗government of individualisation‘ (Foucault

1983a). The production of an atmosphere of diversity and friendliness occurred, in part, through the coming together of multiple organising ‗crews‘ and friendship networks in events, practices of ‗dressing up‘ and ‗mixing‘ of multiple styles of music.

Practices of music, dancing and ‗lounging‘ were key to the production and consumption of distinctive atmospheres within the multiple zones of events. Music demarcated the atmospheric spatial zones, and set the mood, rhythm and pace for the dancing and

‗lounging‘ of the crowd. The forms of belonging, or community, produced through sharing in the atmosphere of events were mediated and extended through existing friendship networks. It was these friendship networks that formed a pre-condition to the playful dancing and social ‗lounging‘ that characterised events. This mediation and extension of connectedness through existing networks to create new forms of belonging that centred on the production of an ecstatic self were bound up with the discreet organising practices, hidden nature of events and processes of regulation of events and embodied selves through individualising discourses and totalising procedures of

114 governmentality. The techniques involved in the organization of the spaces of events as

‗‗elsewheres‘ which are here‘ (Thrift 1997; Pini 1996) of fantasy and freedom did invite the production of new forms of embodied selves through the ecstatic moment of dancing and ‗lounging‘ and new forms of connectedness. However, the extent to which events remained hidden spaces was both a pre-condition to the opening of a space of freedom and a limitation on discourses of diversity in so far as discreet organising practices limited inclusion to those already linked with existing friendship networks.

Nonetheless, events did act as sites for the coming together and interconnection of multiple small friendship networks and organising ‗crews‘, that were as Maffesoli

(1988/1996) argues, held in ‗balance‘ through the adoption of an attitude of friendliness and openness.

Regulatory techniques focused on space, emotion and the body and were enmeshed in small friendship networks. Practices of ‗self-care‘ (Foucault 1986/1990b) and the provision of ‗mutual aid‘ (Maffesoli 1988/1996) were mediated through the ‗ties‘ of existing friendship and organising networks. However, sharing in the pleasures of music and dance and provision of help and support came to be extended to anonymous members of the crowd. Techniques of ‗self-care‘ and ‗mutual aid‘ included practices of organisation of ‗chill‘ or ‗lounging‘ zones with cool water and first aid tents and sharing of information and support among existing and extended friendship networks. This sharing of pleasure and concern with the self-care of others is evident in the orientation of dancers so as to face one another on the dance floor and in the intensified sociability of ‗lounging‘ through which small friendship circles were extended and water and information shared.

115 The techniques regulating the ‗set up‘ of spaces and the production of the embodied self through practices of collective dancing and ‗lounging‘ I explore in this section occurred within different types of events and conversations with partygoers that formed the basis of fieldwork for the current study. They are not presented as a whole or complete picture of events. Rather, they are discussed here as emerging points of convergence and interrelation that provide background on atmospheric space and forms of embodied movement for comparison with analysis of accounts of events in media texts and interviews.

Dance zones

Working in-between everyday and virtual space The dance zones of events featured a working of a sense of spaciousness and intimacy and the everyday and otherworldliness or fantasy to produce warm and inviting spaces for collective dancing via particular techniques that regulated space and the embodied self. Warm and inviting spaces for collective dancing were produced through organising techniques that both bounded and connected the space of events from everyday space and virtual space of fantasy and play. The space of events was discreet, secret and intimate and at the same time open, infinite and empty. This form of bounded and open space was produced through organising techniques that regulated the situation of events within discreet, secret or regulated club venues, or transformed everyday locations. Bounded and open space was demarcated through music, decorations, lighting, visuals, performances and crowds. Music was played through large sound systems loudly enough that it was felt through the whole body, producing a tangible atmosphere that could be felt on arrival and even prior to entering an event.

Both music and the small friendship networks composing crowds circulated in everyday

116 spaces of the neighbourhood and home outside of events. Dark dance spaces featured lighting effects of strobes, smoke machines, mirror balls, coloured lights, lasers, visuals and decorations that marked and suggested imaginative movement in boundaries.

Everyday spaces such as streets, bushland, public buildings and club spaces were transformed through use of decorations, lighting, visual and audio effects.

Dance events, as with Thrift‘s (1997: 146-147, 149-150) and Pini‘s (1996: 412-413,

420; 1997a: 167; 1997b: 126-127) accounts of dance, were situated in real spaces, but involved the production of ‗virtual‘, ‗as-if‘ worlds, or ‗‗elsewheres‘ which are here‘ through the practice of dance. Dance events situated in secret or discreet spaces resonate with Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996: 36-38) understanding of ‗underground centrality‘ of the ‗puissance‘ or moments of collective ‗vitality‘ produced through rituals of ecstasy, that have as a precondition, interior, or empty spaces, of freedom, discreet practices of small social groups, or the nothingness of the crowd. Aspects of dance spaces, such as adequate crowd capacity, ventilation, availability of cool water and spaces for cooling off and resting, have implications for health, reducing harms such as overheating, dehydration and ‗freaking out‘.

Techniques for drawing crowds Dance events featured the coming together of crowds composed of multiple organising

‗crews‘ and small friendship networks. These organising and friendship networks were heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, sexualities and musical taste. Techniques for generating crowds were discreet, relying on established networks of friends and organisers, private invitations, flyers and free street press. Events were hidden and secret, and in this sense as with Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) neo-tribes ‗exclusive‘.

117 However, door and dress policies were flexible and entry prices were cheap or free.

Invitations to attend events featured discourses of diversity and inclusiveness. These discourses of diversity and inclusiveness were held in tension with discreet and low-key publicity that limited the circulation of information on events to existing organising and friendship networks. Despite being secret, events acted as spaces for the ‗mixing‘ of multiple small friendship networks and organising ‗crews‘, held in ‗balance‘ (Maffesoli

1988/1996) through the adoption of an attitude of friendliness and openness.

Some events were held at secret outdoor locations for which participants had to call a recorded telephone message in order to obtain directions. Others were held in regulated club spaces, or transformed public spaces, such as streets and large public buildings.

The situation of events in secret or highly regulated locations and use of discreet techniques for generating crowds is interrelated with processes of legislative and commercial regulation of dance events as sites of dangerous drug use. This regulation is bound up with struggles for spaces and practices of freedom from the production of the embodied self through the individualising discourses and totalising procedures of governmentality (Foucault 1983a). Dance events offered temporary spaces of safety and freedom for the production of collective ecstatic dancing and drug bodies that contrast with individual and bounded selves.

The look and feel of crowds Crowds featured multiple and interrelated styles of dress or ‗looks‘ that were sometimes unisex. These included: feral, Goth, club, queer and SM/leather looks as well as special character costumes. The emphasis was placed on comfort, or fun ‗dressing up‘, rather than on being glamorous or expensively fashionable. An atmosphere of diversity - or as

118 one participant put it - ‗freakiness‘ and friendliness or acceptance was produced in part through these practices of ‗dressing up‘. These ‗looks‘ incorporated elements such as dreds, shaved or sculpted hairstyles, body art in the form of piercings, stretchings and tattoos, feathers, long skirts, face paints, glitter, furry ears and tails and masks, as well as retro dresses, jeans with slips over them and headscarves. Goth and SM/leather looks incorporated fetish and underwear, leather, elaborate black clothing with lace, corsets, long skirts and dark eye make up. Club wear included tight t-shirts and three quarter shorts with trainers.

Music and atmosphere Specific events or zones featured different atmospheres produced through music and live performances. Events involved ‗mixing‘ of different forms of music within the performances or ‗sets‘ of DJs or via the inclusion of multiple rooms and stages. For instance, at one large event, trance was played in one room and drum‘n‘bass and electro in another. DJs performances or ‗sets‘ featured continuous blends or ‗mixes‘ of records or CDs of different styles of music, such as, ambient, African, Latin and other beats, atmospheric ‗samples‘, or recordings of everyday or electronically generated sounds, and pop music. The performances of DJs were combined with live musical or theatrical performances. For example, live ‗electronica‘ featured the blending of electronic percussion, ‗samples‘ and live drumming and instrumentation. Music produced different moods or feelings. Participants spoke of the ‗spiritual‘ aspects of trance music, the ‗dark‘ feel of psychedelic techno, the ‗beautiful‘ sounds of ambient, or the fun and instant recognisability of ‗samples‘ and old pop songs.

119 Dance practices

Interaction in ‗mixed‘ events, through practices of collective dancing, momentarily dissolved everyday classifications of gender, sexualities, age and musical tastes. Dance events constituted ‗safe‘ spaces for collective dancing for women and same sex attracted people, as well as men and heterosexual people. This dissolving of everyday classifications through collective dancing resonates with the ‗progressive sexual politics‘ and participation of women in rave (Pini 1993; 1997a, b, c) and club events

(Bennett 2000), and sense of ‗freedom‘ and gay ‗community‘ produced through house

(Rietveld 1998a) and disco events (Dyer 1979/1990).

The style of dancing favoured within the space of „mixed‟ events involved each dancer‘s personal interpretations of music through movement that was at once intensely collective, as people danced as part of the dancing crowd within the shared atmospheric, proxemic and kinaesthetic space of the dance floor. The discipline of such seemingly free form dancing is apparent in the holding of a sense of allowing the body to be moved by music and moving at once that requires both a release and ‗engagement‘ of self (Pini 1997b: 126-127). In resonance with Rietveld (1998a: 144-150), such dancing can be understood as re-writing musical feeling through movement, or as Gilbert and

Pearson (1999: 106-7), argue an enhancing of the bodily pleasures of music through movement.

As Bennett (2000: 92-95) and Malbon (1999: 92, 94) have suggested, the proxemics of the dance floor require etiquette or particular spacings governing flowing collective crowd movement. The spacings of ‗mixed‘ events featured a form of dancing characterised by an orientation of dancers on the floor so as to face one another. In this

120 form of dance everyone danced with everyone else. There was a sense of playfulness, fun, and exchange of looks and smiles that was produced and enhanced through an engagement with music and performances and play with children‘s toys, fans or costumes. There was a particular form of proxemics of the dance floor characterised by a movement in between separateness and connectedness. A space around each dancer was held open enabling freestyle dance movements that were at the same time connected with the movement of other dancers in the crowd, music and performances.

Moving through the crowd was accomplished through carefully dancing in between these spaces or through gently touching dancers whose backs were turned to warn them and enable a space to open momentarily, avoiding bumping into them. The organic and fluid movement of dancers on the floor whose orientation was towards one another or special performances occurring in the midst of the crowd, was produced through the adoption of an attitude of friendliness and openness to other people on the dance floor via which the self was released and the body attuned to music and the movement of the dancing crowd. This discipline of releasing and attuning the self enabled a holding open of space for movement that was both personal and collective.

Music was important in connecting the crowd through shared feeling and rhythm. Live musical or theatrical performances, and the performances or ‗sets‘ of particular DJs entailing selection and blending or ‗mixing‘ of songs or ‗tracks‘ on records or CDs, invited and marked collective ecstatic ‗peaks‘ of the dance floor. DJs ‗built music up‘ through techniques such as selection of contrasting or faster music or special effects to increase the energy on the dance floor over time. At one club event, the DJs started off the evening with ambient style, slower atmospheric music, followed by faster world

121 music beats interspersed with pop music and ‗samples‘ before a live musical or theatrical performance in the midst of the crowd.

The rhythm and spacing of the dance floor involved the floor being empty or sparsely covered at the start of the night and then gradually filling with small groups of friends of two or three, four or five, who danced together, but who began to interact with anonymous members of the crowd. Small groups of friends exchanged looks, smiles, chatted, hugged, kissed, touched and shared water, sweets, children‘s toys or parts of costumes such as masks and fans. However, practices of sharing in the pleasures of dancing and music and of provision of help and support to negotiate the effects of drugs, in the form of looks, smiles and sharing water, came to be extended to other dancers in the crowd. The focus of interaction on the dance floor was the pleasures of playfulness, dancing and friendliness rather than overt sexual ‗pick up‘. The sharing of pleasures of dance and music and negotiation of dangers of drug use was enabled in part through the adoption of an attitude of friendliness and openness to other people on the dance floor.

The feelings of bonding produced through practices of everyone dancing with everyone else were momentarily intensified through small group and couple dances, performances or costume dances in the midst of the crowd that then integrated other anonymous dancers in the crowd. At one club event, small groups of dancers chased and mimicked one another or incorporated children‘s toys into their dances, sometimes coinciding with musical ‗peaks‘ such as blending or ‗cutting in‘ of old pop songs or

‗samples‘, while the rest of the dancing crowd fluidly made space and interacted with their dances. At other events live theatrical and musical performances were enacted in

122 the midst of the crowd, drawing people together. One large event featured a series of live acrobatic, theatrical, dance and musical performances in the midst of the crowd, creating a sense of shared excitement and a festival style atmosphere, utilising trapeze, cloud swing, stilt walkers, jugglers and elaborate costume dancers who interacted with the crowd. This momentary ‗building up‘ of the feeling and energy of the crowd through music and dance indicates the particular form of time or rhythm involved in events that places emphasis on moments of ecstatic dancing and friendliness.

This style of collective dancing contrasted with forms of collective dancing at ‗straight‘ club events, where dancers all faced the front towards the DJ, whose selection and blending or ‗mixing‘ of music was cheered at key moments. Here dancing was collective, although equally spaced, separate, individual and involved the orientation of dancers to face the DJ. As Pini (1993: 26-28; 1997b: 126-127), Rietveld (19998a: 144-

150) and Malbon (1999: 92) have argued, dancing collectively destabilises notions of strict divisions between performers and an audience who look, or observe, – in the dancing crowd everyone is performing and looking, and moments of intense pleasure are produced and consumed through the exchange of looks and performances.

However, the form of collective dancing of ‗mixed‘ events was distinctive in so far as it was mediated through existing friendship circles and extended through integration of anonymous members of the crowd producing a specific form of temporary connectedness, community or belonging among these smaller circles. The movement, rhythm and spacing of the dancing crowd was itself key to the production and consumption of connecting atmosphere, evident in the emphasis on orientation of dancers so as to face one another while dancing.

123 Lounge zones

Dance events featured multiple zones or spaces, including spaces for relaxing, referred to by participants as ‗chilling out‘, or ‗lounging‘. Some events were turned over almost entirely to ‗lounging‘, with small dance spaces or dancing occurring for short periods of time. Other events had times for ‗lounging‘ early in the event. Cosy comfortable spaces for relaxing, sitting, talking, listening to music, eating and drinking and massage involved the production of intimate lounge, café or movie theatre style spaces.

‗Lounge‘ or ‗chill out‘ zones featured food and drinks, couches, tables and chairs, cushions, children‘s toys (such as teddy bears and musical instruments), films, visuals and decorations, subdued lighting and incense.

Music was important in creating the atmosphere of relaxing, ‗chill‘ or ‗lounge‘ spaces via contrasting music from that played in main dance zones. Drum‘n‘bass and electro

‗chill‘ zones were a feature of trance events while slower ambient styles of atmospheric music involving ‗samples‘ such as ocean sounds or bird calls were played earlier in the night at intimate club events where the relaxing or ‗chill‘ space surrounded the edges of the dance floor. Listening to music while relaxing and chatting offered a different mode of feeling music compared with dancing. However, as Gilbert and Pearson (1999: 93-

95) argue, the consumption of ambient music may be embodied and emotional. This is evident in practices of moving to music while sitting down, talking about music and absorbing sounds while relaxing. Some few events did not have space for relaxing, featuring dance zones only. These spaces became hot and crowded over the course of the event and participants went outside into the space of the street to cool off or relax.

‗Chill‘ events that were turned over almost entirely to practices of ‗lounging‘ or relaxing combined film, such as old horror movies, video activist documentaries or

124 visual imagery, with DJ produced soundtracks that were consumed through sitting, chatting and watching as well as dancing. Some events featured information stalls raising awareness about environmental and other issues or workshops in yoga, drumming or art. Outdoor events involved careful organisation of rubbish collection and facilities, incorporating information and first aid tents, market and food stalls and toilets. These features of outdoor events resonate with Purdue et al.‘s (1998) account of the production of a ‗microcosm‘ in festivals.

Lounging practices

Practices of ‗lounging‘ involved sharing the pleasures of music, relaxing and socialising within small friendship groups that were extended to include anonymous members of the crowd, linked to other friendship groups. Small friendship groups established special meeting spots where they could find one another to rest or chat after dancing or moving through the different spaces of an event. At one outdoor event at about three in the morning there were small groups of people ‗chilling‘ or relaxing as they waited for the rest of the crowd, including some DJs who had got lost on the way to the secret location, to arrive. People were sitting on the ground or on cushions chatting, eating and drinking in and around a café space that was ‗set up‘ with UV lights and canopied areas between trees for sleeping. At another outdoor event the tents of a small friendship group pitched on a hillside out of hearing range from the main dance floors were used for relaxing or ‗lounging‘, sleeping, exchange of information and advice and techniques of preparation. A partygoer not previously connected with this small friendship group rode his bicycle through the campsite, advising people to avoid a particular type of bad quality Ecstasy ‗pill‘. Techniques of preparation included making

‗party packs‘, that contained rescue remedy (a natural remedy for reducing stress),

125 condoms, glitter and friendship bracelets. At a club event people sat on large black satin cushions bordering the intimate dance floor space giving one another massages and chatting. Some ‗chill‘ or relaxing events where ambient slower styles of atmospheric music were played involved slower and gentler forms of dancing or shorter times of dancing.

The intensified socialising and intimacy of ‗lounging‘ were mediated through existing friendship networks that were extended through integration of anonymous members of the crowd. Practices of relaxing, ‗lounging‘ or ‗chilling‘ were as important as practices of dancing in producing connectedness, belonging or community. The enactment of both organising techniques producing the particular ‗set up‘ of spaces, and self- regulated practices of relaxing or ‗lounging‘, invited slowing down, calming down, cooling off, resting and chatting and offered breaks and opportunities for the provision of help and support, reducing the possibility of drug related harms of ‗over dose‘, overheating, dehydration and ‗freaking out‘. The enactment of practices of relaxing,

‗chilling‘ or ‗lounging‘ constituted a different placing of practices of dancing and drug use with emphasis on chatting, socialising, and other activities such as yoga or drumming and exchange of information and support to negotiate the effects of drugs and avoid dangers.

Conclusions

Analysis of field notes from fieldwork at dance events and conversations with partygoers featured themes of atmospheric spaces and embodied practices of dancing and relaxing or ‗lounging‘. These spatial and embodied practices were regulated through particular techniques of organisation and self-care. They raise important 126 implications for health. The friendship networks through which practices of dancing and ‗lounging‘ were mediated were extended through integration of anonymous members of the crowd. The mediation and extension of practices of dancing and

‗lounging‘ through friendship networks is evident in the rhythm and spacing of the dance floor that involved interaction within small friendship networks, later extended to anonymous members of the crowd, through the emphasis on the orientation of dancers so as to face one another while dancing and the intensified sociability of ‗lounging‘.

Anonymous members of the crowd were included in the collective practice of small friendship groups in sharing the pleasures of dancing and ‗lounging‘ and in practices of provision of help and support reducing dangers in relation to drug use. Techniques of self-care that were mediated through and extended existing social relations were enabled through the adoption of an attitude of friendliness and openness to members of the crowd.

The sociality of events in the form of sets of disciplines or techniques of self- transformation and self-care regulating the ‗set up‘ of events and the embodied selves of participants provide a framework or holding open of space for spontaneity, improvisation and transformation of the self through their enactment (Game & Metcalfe

1996: 52-61). As Foucault (1986/1990b) and Maffesoli (1988/1996) argue, techniques of self-care and transformation are bound up with the self-care and pleasure of other people, increasing the ‗warmth‘ of social relations. In Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) terms this increased warmth can be understood as constituting moments of ‗amplification‘ of the self through the pleasures of ‗ex-stasis‘ via sharing of space and sentiment or atmosphere in practices of music, dancing, drug use and friendship. As with Foucault‘s

(1986/1990b) care of self, and Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) neo-tribal ethics of aesthetics,

127 practices of dancing and ‗lounging‘, focus on negotiation of space and atmosphere and on care of the body. The emerging issues identified here in the form of a history of struggles for spaces of safety and freedom for the production of the embodied self, the role of friendship networks in mediating and extending forms of connectedness through music, dancing, ‗lounging‘, and the regulation of drug use will be opened up further in the analysis of media texts and interviews in the chapters that follow.

128

Chapter Five – DJs guides to events

“Around the care of the self, there developed an entire activity of speaking and writing in which the work of oneself on oneself and communication with others were linked together…this activity devoted to oneself…constituted, not an exercise in solitude, but a true social practice.” (Foucault 1986/1990b: 51).

Introduction

In this chapter I present analysis of stories or accounts of ‗mixed‘ dance events in local media texts. Analysis of media texts over a ten year period allowed for consideration of the history of events via the discourses through which events were produced, regulated and understood and enabled comparison with ethnography and interviews. In this chapter I focus on the discourses, or stories, on three forms of dance events – underground, queer and convergence events – that emerged through analysis of media texts via repeated close reading for themes. Stories on events were drawn predominantly from DJs‘ specialist columns appearing in one local free street press magazine, 3D-World, and a smaller number of listings, profiles, interviews and CD fly notes appearing elsewhere.

I situate stories of events in local media texts within the context of broader social processes through analysing them in relation to Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) historical account of care of self. Rather than presenting a linear causal history of events, this approach opens up processes and shifts in the discursive field of dance events. Texts

129 were approached as transformative rather than only representative. This avoided the limitations of snapshot approaches to subculture as a fully formed homology and allowed consideration of how practices of reading and writing figured in processes of production of belongings and embodied selves and the regulation of practices of music, dance and drug use.

In resonance with Foucault‘s (1986/1990b: 51) account of the importance of practices of writing and reading in caring for self and concern with the self-care of others, the advice in DJs‘ specialist columns appearing in local free street press constitutes an instance of care of self as a ‗social practice‘, involving communication through broader networks of readers, friends and organisers. DJs columns in free street press act as guides to events advising partygoers on which events to attend, and how to best enjoy them and produce the self as ecstatic, pleasured, self-regulated and safe. They offer a personal and more than this, a collectively shared account of the discourses through which events were produced, understood and regulated. These guiding texts articulate a history of

‗struggles‘ for spaces of freedom and alternative forms of self-formation within a broader context characterised by the ‗government of individualisation‘ (Foucault 1983a:

211-213, 216). The ‗government of individualisation‘, while working on free subjects and always entailing the possibility of resistance, restricts modes of self-formation through the operation of individualising discourses and totalising procedures of governmental power relations (Foucault 1983a: 211-213, 216, 221).

DJs guides to events offer accounts of the placing of drugs, music and sexualities within events and attitudes to the regulation of the pleasures and dangers of these practices,

130 advising partygoers on appropriate techniques for the production of the self as ecstatic, self-regulated and safe. The role of DJs in creating these personal and collective guiding texts that circulate within broader organising and friendship networks is thus key to the ways in which drug use, music and sexualities are understood, regulated and produced within the spaces of dance events and the everyday lives of participants.

DJs guides to events in specialist columns

The key texts analysed here are drawn predominantly from 3D-World Magazine, a free street press magazine focused on dance events. Supplementary texts are drawn from

Tharunka, a university student newspaper, the CD fly notes from community radio fundraiser event Freaky Loops and the specialist listings and guide to events in the

Sydney Morning Herald Metro. The texts were selected through consultation with health service providers, local DJs and partygoers. Although I analysed specialist columns appearing in 3D over a ten year period from 1989 to 1999, the account offered in this chapter focuses on stories or discourses on three forms of dance events – 1) underground, 2) queer and 3) current convergence events. Stories on these three forms of events were identified through a process of ongoing comparative analysis involving repeated close reading of texts for themes, concepts, terms, metaphors and structure of stories. The stories selected offered relevant background material on current events that coincided with the appearance and crystallisation of multiple regular specialist columns in the magazine. Free street press is free to the reader and in this sense is similar to low cost ‗underground‘ or local ‗micro‘ forms of media involved in organisation of crowds for dance events including free, ‗underground‘ events, in contrast to the ‗style‘ or

‗niche‘ press governing the organisation of more commercial spaces of nightclub

131 ‗scenes‘ and ‗subcultures‘ and ‗tabloids‘ concerned with the classification and labelling of ‗youth movements‘ (Rietveld 1998a, b; McKay 1996, 1998, Thornton 1995).

3D has changed over time. 3D first appeared in February 1989 as a fortnightly publication, at the time of large special event parties held at the Hordern Pavilion, a large capacity inner city venue. The early issues focused on the crowds who attended the Hordern parties and related club nights. 3D ran listings and a venue guide as well as publishing photographs of partygoers with a single review column and regular specialist club column. In the early nineties the range of dance and electronic music venues, events and musical genres in the content of the magazine increased. Profiles of organising crews and DJs were combined with an ongoing listings format providing updates on event organisation as they occurred. Several regular specialist columns and sections of the magazine were devoted to different musical genres, such as jazz, funk, soul, reggae, hip hop, drum‘n‘bass, jungle, trance and house, or particular styles of events, such as ‗raves‘ or ‗Under 18s‘. Multiple event reviews, submitted by different writers, were published each week.

Through analysis involving repeated close reading of the texts for themes, I unpack clusters of discourses on three forms of interrelated dance events - 1) underground, 2) queer, and 3) convergence events - that constitute key shifts in the discursive field of dance events evident in specialist columns and supporting materials. I do not attempt to provide a complete, linear or causal history of dance events. I set the ‗internal texts‘

(Pini 1993), or ‗subjugated knowledges‘ (Foucault 1977/1980a: 81-85), of dance events in relation to Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) account of the production of the self through techniques of self-care. In some cases the discourses on forms of events I analyse occur

132 concurrently, although presented here in three parts. (For a brief chronology of reports of key events in the dance scene in 3D, see Appendix Three.)

Discourses on outdoor, free, one-off and doof events – Going underground

Dangerous drugs, scene and musical divergences ―…1990 to 1992 were years of divergence with a cultural and generational split emerging between the older party-goers who remembered the refined, days of the Hordern parties, and a new breed who were intent on taking the music (and the drugs) further. Alongside the dressed-up Hordern parties sprang more rough and ready underground events…the Vibe Tribe, Sydney‘s first proper free party organization sprang up…During the latter half of 1993 and 1994 Sydney hosted massive events alongside smaller specialist free parties and chill events to cater for the huge range of sounds flooding into the import stores…By 1994 people were beginning to burn out on the high tempos and weekly drug intake, and in early 1995 the police had refined their methods of pre-empting party promoters enough to have several major events closed down. In mid-1995 riot police violently closed the Vibe Tribe‘s Freequency party viciously beating dancers; their actions later to be condemned by an Ombudsman‘s report; whilst late 1995 saw the death of teenager Anna Wood at a dance party. The media went into a feeding frenzy, the police were given instructions to close every event they could, and the entire scene ground almost to a halt. Into this void stepped ‗professional‘ party promoters whose interests lay more in the money they could make from putting on police-approved ‗legal‘ parties than the music. The clubs which had become nearly deserted between 1992 and 1994 sprang back to life replacing Ecstasy, LSD and speed with the legal drug alcohol…in the year to follow the musical divergences that had begun to emerge throughout 1994 and 1995 would break irreversibly in the same way that the scene had split in 1991. The schmaltzy hi-nrg [sic] pop of happy hardcore had brought younger and younger teenagers, like Anna Wood, into

133 the parties in droves throughout 1995. This was much to the disdain of older punters who began to separate their own ‗sensible‘ drug use from the ‗irresponsible‘ drug use of the youngsters.‖ (Yellow Peril 1998).

Yellow Peril (1998) details a ‗split‘ of older ‗mixed‘ crowds of lavish Hordern parties and younger partygoers and emergence of ‗underground‘ events, marking a generational shift and a break in organising techniques and styles of events bound up with intensified legal, media and commercial regulation of events as sites of dangerous drug use. This account features a divergence between events that were on one hand professional and large-scale, and discreet, mobile, small-scale ‗underground‘ events on the other.

Fragmentation into smaller scenes evident in differentiation into free parties, ambient/chill and large-scale commercial events is understood as interrelated with processes of ‗musical divergence‘, or fragmentation and diversification (Yellow Peril

1998, May 18a: 26). Intensified regulation of dance events involved police closure of parties and a further ‗split‘ in scenes between older and younger partygoers,

‗underground‘ and ‗professional‘, for profit, or regulated nightclub events, and

‗sensible‘ and ‗irresponsible‘ ways of using drugs. Sally Sound (1995, April 17: 25) and Yellow Peril (1997, September 1: 49) argued that police closure of a Vibe Tribe free party was interrelated with broader processes of regulation of dance events as spaces of dangerous drug use, of public space and of young people. In these accounts the discreet organising techniques, low cost media and drawing of ‗diverse‘ crowds through local neighbourhood and friendship networks of free parties provided a temporary space for transformation of the self and new forms of ‗community‘ in contrast to the homogeneity of commercial rave events and a broader context in which young people were excluded from public space and community. Regulation of ‗dance parties‘ intensified particularly in relation to ‗underground‘ events from 1994-5, and 134 especially following the Ecstasy related death of Anna Wood in 1995 (Yellow Peril

1998).

―Dance parties, or more specifically ‗raves‘, have since the death of Anna Wood, become a major ‗youth problem‘ for the NSW Government and this draft code is seen as an attempt to legitimate, legislate and regulate them…For any regulatory body, especially a bureaucratic one such as local and state government, diversity is an anathema. In their terms it is easier to deal with one person than one hundred…The aim of most government regulations is to ensure that a society runs relatively harmoniously and its citizens are not unduly harmed or put at risk. On the whole this is the aim of the Draft Code when it brings together the vast array of existing Environmental Planning and Local Government regulations into one coherent section…If applied to big commercial raves and dance parties, say those upward of 500 patrons with ticket prices greater than $20 per person, it would do much to increase the safety and well-being of patrons, as well as remove much of the criminal element behind the ‗dodgy promoters‘. The major problem with the Draft Code is that it intends to apply to ALL parties whether they cost $5 or $50, and whether they draw 50 or 5000 people. The implementation of the regulations set down is not only extremely time- consuming (the Code itself suggests planning at least 60 days in advance) but also extremely expensive to implement for the promoter of small-scale events. Indeed it would be unlikely that events could be put on for less than $20 per ticket under the Code. By regulating the dance party-rave scene in this manner the large promoters will doubtless survive and profit under a climate of increased council and police cooperation. On the other hand their smaller-scale, amateur ‗underground‘ counterparts will have their parties closed-down and the promoters themselves will be left facing hefty fines and possible incarceration. What will happen to the music?‖ (Yellow Peril 1997, June 23: 37).

135 Yellow Peril (1997, June 23: 37; 1995, October 9: 30) argues in the article from which the excerpt above is taken that whilst state regulatory techniques, such as the Draft

Dance Party Code of Practice 1997, are concerned with ‗health and safety‘, including

‗progressive‘ measures relating to the provision of water and adequate fire escapes, they at the same time produce a uniform reading of all dance events as sites of danger and risk in need of state intervention, requiring strict conformity of all events to particular regulatory codes. This regulation of events as with Foucault‘s (1983a: 215-216) account of ‗governmentality‘ is concerned with regulation of the ‗health‘ and ‗wellbeing‘ of individuals and populations through individualising discourses and totalising procedures. Yellow Peril argues that such an approach to all events as ‗dangerous‘ is unable to work with the ‗diversity‘ of multiple styles of events or the forms of internal regulation of space, embodied selves and drug use that are already in place. For Yellow

Peril, state regulatory techniques have forced events into the controlled spaces of nightclubs or ‗outside‘ the law if they could not or would not conform to these requirements. Small scale ‗underground‘ events he argues are less likely to have the financial resources to negotiate the organisation of ‗legal‘ venues or local council

‗permits‘ than professional for profit party organisers and are classified as ‗illegal‘, targeted for closure by police, despite featuring more ‗diverse‘ crowds including older and experienced partygoers and regulated, or as he puts it, ‗sensible‘ forms of drug use

(Yellow Peril 1995, October 9: 30; 1997, June 23: 37; 1997, September 1: 49; 1998;

Cavenett et al. 1995, October 30: 35).

―It‘s up to the individual to experiment with their body in any way they choose. However, I believe people should make educated and informed decisions about what they are doing. Personally, I think it [drug use] loses

136 its specialness if you‘re doing it every week – you‘re bound to burn out after a while.‖ (Jay in Craine 1993, May 24: 18).

―Drugs ARE dangerous, but they would certainly be far less dangerous if young people had access to information about how to use safely, how to tell the good from the bad, and how to assess potential risks like dehydration. (Very) young people will continue to drop trips, E‘s and do Speed whilst there is little else provided for them to do (what there is provided is more often than not without any consultation).‖ (Yellow Peril 1995, October 5: 30).

―…drug reform has been put squarely on the backburner. The press coverage has not once mentioned the European government-run Ecstasy testing stations at large raves; instead Ecstasy has been demonised as a killer drug and destroyer of youth. The central problem with such actions is that as far as drug education is concerned, such portrayals are not only inaccurate, run against the Federal Government‘s harm-reduction policies, but also ineffective. For example try telling an 18-year-old who has had a trip, or Ecstasy that such drugs are bad, and that they not only feel bad, but kill you after but one singular dose…surely the 18-year-old will laugh at such a statement, but worst of all, remain ignorant to the real dangers of illegal drugs, and still have no ideas of what to do when they see one of their friends dying…The smaller parties are already feeling the pinch of the hysteria with at least three underground events unable to go ahead as their venues have since backed down on prior bookings. Clan Analogue‘s Electronic has been evicted from the Goodbar on the grounds of ‗noise complaints‘, yet these are the parties that are LEAST likely to attract 15- year—olds. They are also the future of the wider scene, cultivating musical talent and developing the commercial styles of the future.‖ (Yellow Peril 1995, November 6: 42).

These excerpts from an early interview with promoter Mike Jay and later regular

Yellow Peril columns that occur directly before and after the death of Anna Wood 137 indicate the tensions between different understandings of dance events as sites of dangerous drug use and as spaces in which participants, and in the case of drug testing, governments, regulate drug use in particular ways so as to minimise dangers. These tensions in part constitute struggles over young people‘s access to inner city spaces and the production of feelings of belonging or community in events that are interrelated with shared practices of music, dancing and drug use. The advice to partygoers provided in these columns is that moderation in use, being informed as to the dangers of drugs, including dehydration, and techniques to manage these, such as looking after your friends, are preferable to a lack of such ‗information‘ or techniques. Further, Yellow

Peril calls for processes of ‗consultation‘ with young people to support and extend spaces and practices for the production of belonging or community and provision of

‗harm-reduction‘ information – especially to the very young. The provision of advice extends beyond a simple listing of events, including reflection and discussion of organising and self-care techniques for the production of self and regulation of spaces of events understood through discourses of diversity, community, safety and ‗harm reduction‘ that are set in tense interrelation with the uniform reading of dance events and participants as out of control, ‗dangerous‘ and ‗at risk‘. In this sense DJs are concerned with the place of drugs and attitudes towards the regulation of the pleasures of drugs within events. Drug use that is regulated, described as ‗sensible‘, informed concerning dangers is acceptable, while overly frequent or uninformed use of drugs especially by inexperienced users is positioned as ‗irresponsible‘ and dangerous.

Organising collectives or crews Sydney‘s first free party/protest collective, the Vibe Tribe sought to establish a ‗mobile festy-politico-techno sound system road show‘ (Vibe Tribe 1994, May 16: 8). Profiles

138 and listings for Vibe Tribe events described a sense of freedom, collectivity, community and politics at events with diverse musical sounds and styles, seeking to bring different people together.

―The dance scene is getting pushed by the actions of the ‗powers that be‘ such as councils and cops who continue to limit community access to affordable alternative spaces. Basically, clubs aren‘t our thing because they generally exist to sell alcohol, make loads of money for people who‘ve already got enough, enforce ‗style‘ and ‗scene‘ conformity, and they are generally pretty inaccessible for lots of people…we‘re most worried about the very idea that there‘s something called the ‗scene‘. We‘re into creating free spaces where people can come together, party, dance, talk, whatever, without (in)security and loads of money, just people celebrating…What advice would you give to somebody starting out in the industry? Forget the ‗industry‘, start a small collective or group of friends, use your imagination and make your own culture…What do you hope to do in the future? More music, more parties. Evolve into a sustainable self- supporting mobile-festy sound-sight system. Further, mutate into a new generation of the species with universal earth-friendly consciousness.‖ (Vibe Tribe 1995, January 9: 28).

―…starting off as a small alternative to the commercial rave scene, we are now in the position of overflowing our warehouses/beaches etc. with a totally awesome array of rave/freak, hybrid-geek humanoids – who have come to expect nothing less than a wild frolic–non-alcoholic– razzamatazzical glitter infested cabaret, from sequins to sequencers, queer- friendly safe spaces, with a focus on freedom to express, and a hard line commitment to our dance politics, which in recent times, have come under a fair amount of heavy-duty criticism. Our main policy and biggest bone of contention is our ‗no personal profit‘ motto, which means nobody in the setting up, running, and cleaning up of a Vibe Tribe event has ever been paid a ‗wage‘, neither has any DJ, performer, or technician. As a collective 139 we have agreed on a ‗shared resources‘ approach, a donated coming together of energies‘ and mind/body participation…we…choose to create our ‗party‘ atmospheres away from the thousand disjointed ‗hierarchies‘ usually associated with major rave promotions. Community is unity…we will continue in ‘95 to challenge ‗patriarchal values‘ and endorse the politics of desire, fulfilment, and self-liberation…‖ (Vibe Tribe 1995, March 6: 15).

These excerpts from two profiles articulate concern with access to inner city spaces to hold events and the increased regulation of these spaces via police and local councils.

They feature an understanding of events in terms of discourses of anti-commercialism, environmentalism and queer, as ‗mobile‘ ‗queer friendly spaces‘ producing feelings of

‗freedom to express‘, ‗spontaneity‘ and ‗community‘ or belonging through diversity via the coming together of different people to share in music, dancing and socialising. The theme of diversity is articulated in terms of a description of the crowd as ‗a totally awesome array of rave/freak, hybrid-geek humanoids‘ and the space of the event itself as ‗queer friendly‘. These spaces of freedom and Do it Yourself ‗culture‘ produced through friendship networks and organising crews are contrasted with the regulated, commercial spaces of clubs featuring alcohol use and restrictive and rigidly enforced stylistic and scene codes, the ‗hierarchies‘ of ‗major rave promotions‘ and commercial dance music ‗industry‘. The idea of classification of a ‗scene‘ is rejected in favour of the production of mobile and temporary ‗spaces‘ and ‗party atmospheres‘ of ‗freedom‘.

The discourses of Do it Yourself and ‗grassroots community politics‘ (Yellow Peril

1998, May 18b: 64) and production of mobile events with festival or circus-like atmospheres articulated in these excerpts were shared by other early and later related free, ‗underground‘ and doof organising crews. Profiles and listings in 3D articulate how ‗underground‘, free and doof events have aimed to raise awareness about lack of

140 access to inner city space, environmental issues including uranium mining, Aboriginal issues, as well as gender and sexuality with inclusion of female DJs and creation of

‗queer-friendly safe spaces‘ (Amazed 1993, May 10: 32; Newtown raver 1993, May 10:

32; Vibe Tribe 1994, May 16: 8; Vibe Tribe 1995, March 6: 15; Craine 1993, May 24:

18; Morphism in Corvini 1997, July 21: 22; Oms not bombs 1998, March 4: 12).

Discourses on queer underground events – Sexuality freed up and irrelevant

HIV epidemic, scene split ―Musically the gay community went quiet around 1990. HIV ravaged the community, and elsewhere heterosexual youngsters colonised the dance party scene with the early raves introducing newer, fresher music. Seymour: ‗Around 1990 there was a real crisis in the form of HIV that was almost like a genocide of a whole generation of party-goers, especially in New South Wales, with a concentrated gay community. Venues were closed down, venues that once had packed dancefloors seven nights a week were lucky to have it go off one night a week, and a lot of people stopped going out because they had lost all inspiration…losing a lot of people to the virus, and sadly, a lot of really creative people behind the events, there was a lull. Now, finally, people seem ready to go back out and experience new sounds.‘‖ (Yellow Peril & Special K 1996, September 10: 34-5)

―…for years, scenes split. People in the know always had good parties to go to. The gay scene simply died, musically. Sure there were always lots of boys dancing with their shirts off to the same old Kylie and Danniii and there‘s always a new Madonna tune but the passion and innovation disappeared. Every club on Oxford St. sounded the same, often with the same DJs playing the same tracks, night in, night out.‖ (Visceral 1998, November 9: 24).

141 These excerpts from Yellow Peril and Special Ks‘ interview with Kooky DJs Seymour

Butz and Gemma and DJ Visceral‘s regular column recount shifts in the gay scene related to the HIV epidemic, with venue closures, depleted crowds, DJs and organisers around 1990. They argue that there was a split between the early scenes around the

Hordern and warehouse events where people had partied together, into a separate commercial gay scene that quietened in relation to HIV and increasing predominantly heterosexual ‗rave‘ events characterised by musical innovation (Yellow Peril & Special

K 1996, September 10: 34-35; Visceral 1998, November 9: 24). The crystallisation of a

‗queer underground‘ scene followed the split of the early dance party scenes in 1991-

1992, ongoing processes of musical divergence, increased legal and local government regulation and was closely related to the further musical innovation and movement into club spaces of 1994-1995 (Yellow Peril & Special K 1996, September 10: 34-35). DJ

Visceral (1998, November 9: 24), Yellow Peril and Special K (1996, September 10) and

Trimboli (1999, July 16-22) in their interviews with Seymour and Gemma all detail this shift in the gay scenes as entailing a period of low energy and creativity and lack of musical ‗diversity‘ with a focus on commercially marketed ‗gay‘ music such as

Madonna, Kylie and Danniii Minogue (Visceral 1998, November 9: 24; Trimboli 1999,

July 16-22: 21, Yellow Peril & Special K 1996, September 10: 34-35). Yellow Peril,

DJ Visceral, DJs Gemma and Seymour go on to recount how the ‗queer underground‘ converged around ‗fresh‘ musical styles, excluded by the ‗conservative musical policies‘ or ‗agendas‘ of ‗mainstream‘ or ‗commercial‘ ‗gay and lesbian‘ and ‗straight‘ clubs and parties, including trance, techno, world music and local releases (Visceral

1998, August 17: 25; Visceral 1998, November 9: 24; Yellow Peril & Special K 1996,

September 10: 34-35).

142 ‘Conservative musical agendas’ and musical and crowd ‘diversity’ ―Gemma: ‗Soul music is very important but it‘s been turned into screaming ugly vocals and really fast non-funky music – a sped up cliché…musically what I‘ve witnessed is that there is a lot of fear of connecting [with anyone who isn‘t gay or lesbian] so the mainstream music can become very insidious. When you start playing music in mainstream gay places which does force a connection, music from around the world, and you get slammed for it, that‘s where the racism starts creeping in…a lot of people in the community, just like any other community have been completely sucked in by the mass media and there is the particular idea of what it is like to be gay…I don‘t find that very healthy for me and musically, I like music from all over the planet and that automatically opens me up to all sorts of people…there‘s a definite mainstream gay community which gives me the impression that it wants to become a part of mainstream middle Australia, it‘s something I find very scary and I don‘t think they realise just how much of a product they have become…who wants to fit into the society the way it has been presented? I think that you have to question everything, and I also feel that the mainstream gay community doesn‘t question those things that are close to it.‘ This has had other effects including a creeping class bias, a hatred of poverty, and, as Gemma says, ‗a desire to be clean.‘‖ (Yellow Peril & Special K 1996, September 10: 34-35)

―Seymour Butz: ‗sexuality and dancing have been put together by the record companies and the powers-that-be quite successfully because it revolves on marketing an ‗underground‘ sound which makes it attractive but what is so offensive about it is that the music is completely manufactured and there is no funk or soul in it…There has always been a wide mixture of sounds in gay culture but once people could put a name to it, market it and sell it, it would always be limited and now you get these one-dimensional tracks coming out of Italy with the record companies calling it ‗gay music‘ and the consumer, unfortunately, being sucked in…Personally as a gay man, that kind of music doesn‘t arouse me sexually, and I‘m not alone in that but because of the conservatism of venues your average gay punter who has

143 been weaned on Oxford St. sounds has not had a lot of opportunity to hear anything else. Similarly the Mardi Gras parties of the last ten years have remained extremely conservative playing only the sounds that they deem appropriate to a gay audience.‘‖ (Yellow Peril & Special K 1996, September 10: 34-35)

These excerpts from Yellow Peril and Special Ks‘ interview with DJs Gemma and

Seymour from Club Kooky detail what they understand as the ‗conservative‘ musical policy of gay clubs and parties that has room for styles of music classified and commercially marketed as ‗gay‘ but that excludes world music and re-works disco such that its close resonances with early sounds of Black soul and funk music are as Yellow

Peril writes, ‗cleansed and stripped away‘ (Yellow Peril & Special K 1996, September

10: 34-35). For Gemma, Seymour and Yellow Peril the ‗conservative‘ musical policies of gay venues and large-scale parties are bound up with the production of hierarchies of status or as Gemma explains, a ‗particular idea of what it is like to be gay‘ characterised as white, middle class and ‗clean‘ or as Yellow Peril writes, production of a restrictive

‗monocultural homosexuality‘ that has little room for ‗diversity‘ (Yellow Peril &

Special K 1996, September 10: 34-35). The conservative musical policy of the gay scene is understood in part through discourses of the ‗mainstream‘, ‗commercial‘ and

‗homogenous‘ that are held in tense and unstable interrelation with notions of the

‗underground‘ and ‗diversity‘. As Seymour indicates, part of the marketing or commercial appeal of ‗gay music‘ is related to the understanding of this music as

‗underground‘. For Gemma, the production of a ‗particular idea of what it is like to be gay‘ as white, middle class and ‗clean‘ buys into broader hierarchies of social classification understood through the idea of ‗mainstream middle Australia‘. Playing world music for Gemma produces ‗connectedness‘ among different people and disrupts

144 the production and regulation of restrictive and fixed forms of ‗gay‘ identity. Gemma and Seymour‘s accounts both detail what they understand as the restrictiveness of the production and regulation of self within the spaces of the commercial gay scene.

―Seymour wanted a place where ‗queens could hear something different to the same old thing‘. For Gemma, ‗a space where people could explore sounds they may never get a chance to hear.‘ It‘s about giving artists a vehicle to express their passions, whether it be live electronica, or performance art. It‘s about taking people outside the confines of dance or Western music and into the realms of the traditional and the percussive South American, African or Arabic. Seymour will tell you how he loves the fact that they were playing wild, experimental techno and how ‗this really freaked the queens out‘. And Gemma simply gets off on sending people through the roof with her rhythms. But you can‘t trust this woman to keep the musical status quo. Just when you thought tribal beats couldn‘t get any faster she drops Kate Bush‘s Cloudbusting into the middle of a set, leaving the crowd scratching their heads. ‗I love bringing it right down and letting people explore something really weird,‘ she says.‖ (Trimboli 1999, July 16- 22: 21)

This excerpt from Andrew Trimboli‘s interview with Gemma and Seymour indicates how the ‗space‘ of Kooky was understood as offering ‗different‘ sounds to those of the commercial gay scene or that may not otherwise be heard. Trimboli writes that the music played is not easily classified in terms of one style or genre such as ‗Western‘ or

‗dance‘ as it moves in-between classifications blending live electronica, world music such as African, South American or Arabic rhythms, ‗wild, experimental techno‘ and rock (Trimboli 1999, July 16-22: 21).

145 Diverse crowds ―Gemma…‗There‘s a lot of new attitudes coming out and it feels a bit like the best of the energy that was around ten years ago…so many different elements are coming together and barriers are breaking down. We‘ve gone through a period of separatism and now all types of people are meeting up and coming together.‘‖ (Yellow Peril & Special K 1996, September 10: 34- 35)

―...there‘s definitely no uniformity in the crowd, with 40-year-old leather men dancing in harmony with 18-year-old ferals and sporty boys and Mooks girls slumped carelessly on the lounges. Or the gaggle of kids with texta hair, nattering franticly in the corner, elated to be part of this bubbling-over, bent culture.‖ (Trimboli 1999, July 16-22: 21)

Gemma and Trimboli‘s accounts of the crowd at Kooky indicate understandings of this in terms of a discourse of belonging through diversity. For Gemma, Kooky offers a space where ‗different elements are coming together‘ and ‗all types of people are meeting up and coming together‘ that contrasts starkly with the ‗separatism‘ of the split of the early Hordern and warehouse scenes into ‗straight‘ rave and commercial ‗gay‘ scenes. There is a renewal of energy in the scene that resonates with the partying together of early events. Trimboli understands the feeling of vitality, or as he puts it

‗harmony‘, of the Kooky crowd in terms of a discourse of ‗uniformity‘ that he contrasts with discourses of ‗queer‘ and of ‗underground‘ evident in his description of the diversity of the ‗bubbling-over bent culture‘ and composition of the ‗mixed‘ dancing and ‗lounging‘ crowd.

‘Collective spirit’ – ‘I don’t think sexuality even comes into it’ ―Seymour: ‗The beauty of 1996 is the slow deterioration of that bangin‘ high-energy aerobic vibe that was really strong in the late Eighties. It was

146 totally linked to the consumerism of the time – go to the gym, consume, spend all your money on yourself – and that ended up being reflected in a lot of people‘s musical tastes. Those aerobic beats became like a soundtrack for their lives and I saw gym culture become synonymous with club culture and everyone was going out in $100 lycra dancing outfits and listening to monotonous 4/4 sped up vocals. Fortunately people have tired of that and it has allowed a greater exploration of sounds on dancefloors…With anything fresh and dynamic you will get a host of people with open minds who will want to learn, share and experience, and at these times I don‘t think sexuality even comes into it because when you get a group of people who are sharing a collective spirit and that‘s what‘s important. When you‘ve got a group of people dancing to really wild rhythms, not chart hits, you have this tremendous energy which isn‘t a sexual thing at all...my main concern it to make people happy and with my music I want to take people on some sort of journey. You can transport someone along with beats hopefully to a better place than the song they heard on 2Day-FM in the traffic jam on their way to work that morning.‘‖ (Yellow Peril & Special K 1996, September 10: 34-35)

In this excerpt Seymour details the production and regulation of a particular form of gay identity through ‗monotonous 4/4 sped up vocals‘ of late 80‘s bangin‘ high-energy vibe‘ of music played in the spaces of the commercial gay scene and its linkages with gym culture, consumerism and expensive club wear. He contrasts this emphasis on the production gay identity and lifestyle with the ‗fresh and dynamic‘ sounds of 1996 that bring together diverse ‗open minded‘ people to share in ‗collective spirit‘ produced through music and dancing. For Seymour the production of ‗collective spirit‘ or

‗tremendous energy‘ of dancing that ‗can transport someone…to a better place‘ or a state of happiness ‗isn‘t a sexual thing‘. The feeling of collectivity of belonging to something bigger in the form of the connectedness and ‗energy‘ of the dancing crowd

147 and to ‗spirit‘ in this account goes beyond and unsettles notions of fixed forms of identity. As with Foucault‘s (1986/1990b: 51) account of care of self, this writing provides advice to party-goers on how to produce the self in a different way that constitutes not a ‗solitary‘ but a ‗social practice‘. It allows for different ways of being that are elsewhere restricted within the spaces of the commercial ‗gay‘ and ‗straight‘ rave scenes and everyday life. In this account Seymour articulates a particular placing of sexualities in events. Paradoxically, in this account there is a concern with the freeing up of the production of the embodied self in terms of alternative sexualities within the ecstatic moment of dancing but the sense of an individual sexed self or classifications of sexual identity is at the same time briefly stepped outside of or transcended. The freeing up of sexuality in this sense is positioned as both important and irrelevant at the same time. It is through holding loosely to modes of stylisation of self that freedom in the production of the embodied self, including the production of alternative sexualities is possible.

Discourses on doof and queer underground convergence events -

Mixing it up bent and twisted

Convergences ―…this year, 1998, Freaky Loops reached its ultimate goal with over 4000 people cramming Sydney University‘s Wentworth Building which had never before been used for dance events. In a city low on venues and high on unfulfilled promoter promises, Freaky Loops 98 was perhaps the biggest single underground dance event in many years. Again with a huge team of 2SER volunteers and all acts and DJs donating their time and services, the sterile venue was transformed into a throbbing mass of sound and sweat. Utilising an even larger venue allowed for bigger and better rooms with a reggae stage…alongside the drum‘n‘bass area…[and] techno arena, and

148 numerous political and left-enviro/community information stalls lining the hallways.‖ (Sub Bass Snarl 1998).

In this excerpt and elsewhere Yellow Peril of Sub Bass Snarl details recent

‗convergences‘, beginning in 1996 and continuing through 1997 and 1998, between diverse scenes and crowds at events with multiple stages and rooms featuring a range of different styles of music, including new local releases and information stalls (Yellow

Peril 1997, December 27: 30; Yellow Peril 1998; Sub Bass Snarl 1998). The understanding of this convergence in part in terms of discourses of DiY, environmentalism, anti-commercialism and community, or what Yellow Peril elsewhere describes as an ideal of ‗no personal profit‘ in resonance with the Vibe Tribe collective, is evident in the donation of services of DJs, performers and volunteers, channelling of funds to community radio and presence of ‗political and left-enviro/community information stalls‘. Access to a large venue is crucial in this account to the coming together of scenes on a large scale in one location and marks a turning point in struggles for space bound up with legal and local council regulation and policing. Yellow Peril elsewhere argues that compared with the scenes in Europe, Sydney scenes are characterised by ‗diversity‘ and ‗cross scene tolerance‘ evident in these ‗convergences‘ and movement of partygoers among multiple scenes (Yellow Peril 1998, December 26:

42).

In resonance with Yellow Peril, DJ Visceral writes in her regular column of recent convergences in 1997 and 1998 between the music, crews and crowds of queer underground, outdoor trance and one off feral doof events (Visceral 1998, August 17:

25). Yellow Peril and Visceral both emphasise the importance of the multiple stages

149 and rooms of large and small-scale fundraising events for local community radio and

‗issue-based‘ party protest events in local neighbourhood spaces such as parks and streets in facilitating convergences between scenes, crews and crowds (Yellow Peril

1998, May 25: 20; Yellow Peril 1998; Visceral 1999, February 15: 26).

Getting bent and twisted ―Welcome to this new column about things trancey and bent. Where trance doesn‘t only mean aliens and flying saucers and bent is an open category...That‘s what this column is about. The DJ‘s [sic], club nights and parties which mesmerise their audience. People feeling free to be entranced in an environment which is emotionally (and literally) safe. Not mere weekend escapism…Shifting boundaries and bringing together audiences that haven‘t traditionally partied together...Events like the old Sex and Subculture events, Forbidden Fruits and Cornucopia, the Filthy parties, Fanny Palace, Salon Douche, Voluptuous last weekend and of course Club Kooky show that it‘s possible to be twisted but not intimidating. To appeal to queers of all persuasions. To be more inclusive than mainstream parties - straight, gay and lesbian, whatever - with conservative music policies.‖ (Visceral 1998, August 17: 25).

This excerpt from the first of DJ Visceral‘s regular columns Ohmegheddon: Bent and

Trancey details the understanding of recent convergences of music, crews and crowds at events in terms of the diversity of ‗inclusive‘ discourses of ‗bent‘ as ‗an open category‘,

‗queer‘ and ‗twisted‘. For Visceral, it is these ‗inclusive‘ discourses that enable the production of events as ‗free‘ and ‗safe‘ spaces involving the configuration of ‗mixed‘ crowds in terms of sexualities and musical creativity or as she writes: ‗Shifting boundaries and bringing together audiences that haven‘t traditionally partied together‘.

The sense of ‗shifting boundaries‘ applies to both the bringing together of diverse crowds and processes of musical experimentation and creativity evident in Visceral‘s 150 statement, ‗Where trance doesn‘t only mean aliens and flying saucers‘. The diversity of

‗inclusive‘ discourses of ‗bent‘, ‗twisted‘ and ‗queer‘ is set in tension with a discourse of ‗mainstream‘ through which ‗straight, gay and lesbian, whatever‘ parties with

‗conservative music policies‘ are understood. The discourse of ‗bent‘ as ‗an open category‘ produces understandings of alternative sexualities, as well as the diversity and creativity of music, crews and crowds. Significantly, Club Kooky is mentioned as one of the spaces for such convergences and there are close resonances in Visceral‘s and

Gemma and Seymour‘s accounts of events as producing spaces for hearing different music to that of ‗mainstream‘ dance events.

―Something very exciting is happening in Sydney partyland. Remember when lots of people tried to get tickets to the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras because – no matter what their sexual identification – they were the best parties. Or when the old Rat parties and Bacchanalias at the Hordern brought together diverse crowds, good music and a full-on party environment? Then for years, scenes split…At Mazatech, Nick Taylor mesmerised a room full of about 500 people while others danced or lounged on the other floors. I remember going with a gay friend. His stimulants took a turn for the worse and he left. There were almost no people I recognised from gay and lesbian events. I was there alone, having had nothing but a bottle of water (honest) but the music was so good, the crowd so easy, I stayed till 7am. Keys in hand I kept getting trapped by Nick Spacetree‘s bass washing out of the excellent sound system. I kept thinking ‗I wish more poofs and dykes would come to these events‘. Vortex deliberately tried to bring doof and gay and lesbian audiences together, to showcase excellent queer DJ‘s [sic] like Lanny K, Thao and Miss Yetti outside g&l underground party scenes (Gemma and Seymour being well known already) and to show queers how straight (well…) doofers party. So queer clubbers, get the message trance/feral/doof parties are safe and

151 friendly and musically way more interesting than many ‗gay and/or lesbian‘ things.‖ (Visceral 1998, November 9: 24).

In this excerpt Visceral describes her excitement at recent convergences between the

‗queer underground‘ and ‗trance/feral/doof parties‘ that for her, resonate closely with the partying together of the early Hordern events including Mardi Gras that ‗brought together diverse crowds, good music and a full-on party environment‘ momentarily transcending classifications in terms of ‗sexual identification‘. These moments of being together of diverse crowds are contrasted with the fragmentation and separation of

‗straight‘ rave and ‗gay and lesbian‘ parties or ‗split‘ of the early scenes and the subsequent quietness in the musical creativity and ‗imagination‘ of the ‗gay‘ scene and development of exclusive and restrictive scene stylisations. Visceral recounts how on attending her first ever ‗trance/feral/doof‘ event, despite being alone as her gay friend went home early and there were few regulars from gay and lesbian events in the crowd, and not taking drugs, she felt welcome in the friendly crowd of strangers and inspired by the music, or as she puts it ‗the music was so good the crowds so easy, I stayed till

7am‘. When Visceral writes ‗I kept thinking ‗I wish more poofs and dykes would come to these events.‘‘ she is, through the writing of what is a personal account and more than this, a guiding text, offering advice to a wider audience of ‗queer‘ and other readers that the spaces of these events provide a mode of producing the self through experimentation with music, dancing and being together. It was this experimentation and creativity that was at the heart of the early ‗mixed‘ crowds of gay and lesbian and other Hordern events and that transcended classifications in terms of ‗sexual identification‘ and rigid musical stylisations allowing for the momentary freeing up of something more. She elsewhere understands this excess through the discourses of ‗bent‘ and ‗twisted‘. The,

152 as Visceral puts it, ‗deliberate‘ organisation of convergences between doof and queer underground DJs and their crowds at Vortex to ‗showcase excellent queer DJ‘s [sic]‘ and ‗to show queers how straight (well…) doofers party‘ highlights both the coming together of diverse crowds in terms of sexualities and indicates the shared passions within the ‗trance/feral doof‘ and ‗queer underground‘ scenes for experimentation with music and ways of being that move in-between classifications. Visceral understands the space of ‗trance/feral/doof‘, ‗queer underground‘ events and events where these crowds and crews convergence as ―safe and friendly and musically way more interesting than many ‗gay and/or lesbian‘ things‖. The writing of such personal accounts of events in regular specialist columns for wider audiences of readers as with Foucault‘s

(1986/1990b: 51) account of care of self is a ‗social practice‘ at once tracing and shaping the fast shifting configurations of events, music, spaces, crews and crowds. In later columns Visceral writes of increases in the numbers of ‗dykes‘ and ‗poofs‘ attending one off trance/feral doof events that she calls the ‗straight (well bent straight) quality doof scene‘ (Visceral 1998, December 26: 40). The understanding of these convergences in terms of the ‗open category‘ of ‗bent‘ resonates with Seymour‘s account of sexuality not being an issue or being transcended through connectedness to

‗collective spirit‘ or ‗tremendous energy‘ of crowds sharing in music and dancing.

‘Transporting’ the self ―I feel that music in the cutting edge clubs and parties will be less commercially ‗dance‘ focused (in the sense of consistent 4/4 beats, predictable patterns, safe and unchallenging) and more about people hearing and interpreting music with their hearts, souls and bodies. Music to live by. Also music to move by, music that takes people on a journey, letting us experience and respond to sound trajectories and subtleties. There‘ll be strong, hard funky, beats and sequences but there will also be a lot more

153 space which will allow peaks to be experienced more fully. DJs will be more confident to create magic soundscapes. For example not sticking to any one genre…Expect crossovers between trance and drum & bass, up tempo and ambient interludes, rocky basslines and industrial noyzes. Clubs will cater to this new hybrid soundscape by combining dance spaces with places to sit and listen, or lounge and listen. This doesn‘t mean tempos will be ‗loungey‘ or slow, but it‘s likely that there will be more variety in tempo, key and mood than people are used to…As DJs (and everyone else) get more access to recording and remixing technologies, music heard out will increasingly reflect DJs‘ visions rather than being off-the-shelf versions of tracks. As music becomes more sophisticated, more centred and more sure of its own power there will (hopefully) be less reliance on the need for drugs to transport people and more emphasis on healthy living, natural stimulants (like sex and other forms of communication) and meditative states as a way of staying out and staying up…the music of the Millennium will be diverse but complementary…‖ (Visceral 1999, July 5: 16).

In this excerpt Visceral describes her predictions for the music of the new millennium arguing that music will in the future be less bound by the restrictions of the classification of commercial ‗dance‘ music. She advises participants in events including partygoers, organisers, DJs and performers, that the relationship with music will become concentrated with emphasis placed on music that ‗moves‘ us through emotion and motion. It is music or ‗sound‘ that as she puts it we ‗interpret‘ with our

‗hearts, souls and bodies‘ and which we ‗respond‘ to, taking the form of ‗magic soundscapes‘ that move between musical classifications ‗not sticking to any one genre‘.

Visceral predicts ‗crossovers between trance and drum & bass‘ that will feature in the creation of ‗hybrid soundscapes‘ and the transformation of club spaces to include an emphasis on ‗lounge‘ zones that are understood in terms of discourses of musical diversity and innovation. As with Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) account of care of self the

154 advice in this article concerns modes of production of the embodied self through particular technologies including music, dancing, ‗lounging‘, drugs, ‗healthy living, natural stimulants‘, communication, sex and meditation. Visceral advises participants that in the future she is ‗hopeful‘ that it will be possible to transform, or as she writes

‗transport‘, the self through the ‗power‘ of music and alternative or as she understands them, ‗natural‘ techniques rather than the use of drugs. The listing of sex as an alternative technique produces a tension in this account, in so far as sex may be both a practice ‗transporting‘ the self and associated with risk in relation to HIV (tensions and silences in understandings of sexualities and sexual practice are discussed in more detail in the chapters on ecstatic belonging and regulatory techniques for drug use).

Nonetheless, the inclusion of multiple techniques for the transformation or

‗transportation‘ of self indicates how drugs have a particular place within events as one among a range of techniques for transforming the self, rather than as the primary or sole technology for producing the self. This placing of drugs shifts emphasis away from the predominant understanding of dance events only in terms of discourses of pharmacology, pathology and risk that centre on the dangers of drug use rather indicating the pleasures or as Visceral writes the ‗power‘ of music, dancing and

‗lounging‘ in and of themselves.

Safe free spaces – Community ―While the tradition of promoter against promoter continues in some scenes, the doof/trance crowd seems remarkably blessed by cooperation with DJs and promoters going to each others parties, getting into the vibe and all coming together to celebrate the magic and power of the music and each others efforts to make it happen. It was heartwarming, for example, to see a number of crews handing out fliers at X-Dream - that they were allowed to and that they asked. This spirit of cooperation obviously works well for

155 everyone, especially the partygoers. Events like Freaky Loops and Reclaim the Streets parties, with their various rooms or stages bringing a range of DJs and acts together, have obviously had a lot to do with making people colleagues rather than rivals. The latest Ohms not Bombs newsletter is a case in point of a genuine commitment to cooperation and communication, extending to local communities, Councils and police. The point of all this is to say that it‘s no surprise that the number of dykes and poofs at these sort of parties continues to improve. The increasing appearance of DJs identified with queer scenes on these bills no doubts contributes to their appeal, but the genuine openness, non-judgemental feel and sense of shared joy justifies the ‗safe place‘ logo appearing publicly for events like the Electric Universe parties like Universal Love last week. While there isn‘t much publicity around at the moment for doofs over the Mardi Gras weekend, there are sure to be some good ones, so keep an eye out for fliers. For alternative Mardi Gras parties with a techno/trance flavour in a sea of house check out Forbidden Fruits, and Homo Eclectus - over both levels at the Palladium. Homo Eclectus is being put on by a collective of queer DJs and party organisers…Whatever you do over Mardi Gras - keep safe and allow the joy in.‖ (Visceral 1999, February 15: 26).

In this excerpt Visceral details the organising techniques of trance and feral doof events and convergences with the queer underground that are characterised by ‗a spirit of cooperation‘ among organisers who converge ‗all coming together to celebrate the magic and power of the music and each others efforts to make it happen‘. She contrasts this with the history of promoter rivalry in the scene. Visceral details how this ‗spirit of cooperation‘ is evident in the practice of allowing fliers for other events to be handed out and in the ‗commitment‘ of party/protest organisations to working with local communities, Councils and police in putting on events. The ‗genuine openness, non- judgemental feel and sense of shared joy‘ for Visceral indicates that these events are

‗safe spaces‘ and explains the increased attendance of ‗dykes and poofs‘. In this 156 account it is the organising techniques of crews and cooperation with one another and local community, councils and police that facilitates production of ‗safe‘ spaces for the coming together of diverse crowds. Visceral provides her guide to events over the

Mardi Gras weekend advising readers to watch out for fliers for upcoming doofs and indicating the range of ‗alternative‘ parties that are on, their crews, DJs, performers, prices, locations and histories. Visceral‘s advice extends beyond listings for upcoming events to recommend that partygoers ‗keep safe and allow the joy in‘ as they party – being safe (and joyous) is thus integral to the competent inhabitation of the spaces of events. Caring for self is thus bound up with a concern with the self-care and pleasure of others and the exchange of advice in this writing that is both personal and produced for a wider collective audience.

―‗…to create MORE of those special moments when we forget the social/cultural fears that normally limit our freedom to express ourselves…I discovered that there was a world out there that wasn‘t like school; there wasn‘t this limitation put on me…paranoid games, power games and tough guy attitudes. Suddenly I saw…it was OK just to be me. I guess that changed my life…Things were getting bigger, but the music was getting more limited. Constant promotion of soap opera values that were very limiting and increased the paranoia level in me and around me. There was music was coming out that was so nice and freedom oriented. I just wanted to hear it out more often…I like imagery…things that help me feel in a certain way that I like to feel at parties. Being a fairly self-conscious person out on the dance floor it does help me a lot, if the sounds and things happening in the music keep shifting and keep exciting. It helps me to lose myself a bit. Forget the little fears and paranoias so I just have those ‗little moments‘, forgetting myself and have fun…I can‘t really help but tend towards that sort of trance, acid doof noise but I don‘t want to narrow anything too exclusive, like with DJing. I find category names too

157 limiting…there‘s certain types of feels and imagery that get me and they aren‘t exclusive to psychedelic trance.‘‖ (Michael MD in Connolly 1997, August 18: 27)

―…what made those early Vibe Tribe events so good was the freedom you get when you get a diverse mix of friendly people together with the ‗intention‘ of allowing them to have a bit of FREEDOM...where they feel free to express themselves and have fun without so much fear of being ‗judged‘ by others around them. ‗doof (as a word describing a ‗scene‘) will eventually go the way of words like ‗rave‘ or ‗dance party‘ and the events for the real freedom seekers will eventually have a new name which further down the track will probably suffer the same fate…just as the music continues to evolve. And by the way the fashion police DON‘T have the answer :-). The evolution continues…and the evolution is fun…EXCEPT when people hold it back with stupid promoter vs promoter or DJ vs DJ politics…‖ (Michael MD 1997, October 20: 12).

In these excerpts DJ Michael MD discusses his understanding of events in terms of a discourse of diversity and ecstatic moments of losing the self. For Michael events are spaces of freedom characterised by suspension of judgement, friendliness, self- expression and fun. The ecstatic moment of dancing to interesting or exciting music for

Michael allows for an instant of losing or forgetting of self that at the same time is paradoxically when he feels most himself – ‗it was OK just to be me‘. In the space of events Michael argues ‗social/cultural fears that normally limit our freedom to express ourselves‘ are momentarily dissolved. Significantly Michael doesn‘t understand the space of events as closed or fixed in terms of rigid adherence to codes of classification such as ‗scene‘, ‗rave‘, ‗dance party‘ or ‗doof‘. Rather, it is the mobility of ‗evolution‘ that for Michael is useful in understanding the constant changing of events. The rivalry of promoters and DJs, or as he puts it ‗politics‘, constitute disputes over who belongs

158 and who does not, that feature restrictive codes of classification in terms of identity and strict adherence to these that spell the demise and fracturing of the sense of community produced through events. In this account Michael values and emphasises the sense of freedom of ecstatic moments of dancing, friendliness, suspension of judgement, self- expression and fun of events. The overly rigid labelling or classification of events, crews and crowds disrupts the possibility of such freedom.

Conclusions

The guiding texts of DJs‘ specialist columns, as with Foucault‘s (1986/1990b: 51) account of care of self, involve self regulation as a ‗social practice‘ constituting what are personal accounts and more than this guiding texts that provide advice to wider networks of participants in events. These guides produce and maintain particular understandings of events tracing and shaping the sociality of events. Understandings are produced through the articulation of discourses of fears and pleasures of drug use, diversity, queer, bent and twisted, feelings of freedom and ecstasy, DiY, environmentalism, anti-commercialism and alternative spirituality. These texts guide participants, in the production and transformation of the embodied self via particular techniques including responsiveness to music through dancing, regulated practices of drug use such as awareness of dangers, moderation and looking after your friends, and alternate techniques such as communication, sex and meditation. They tell the otherwise ‗unwritten‘ history of dance events as sites woven through with struggles over spaces of freedom for the production of the embodied self in alternate ways within a broader context in which the self is produced through the individualising discourses and totalising procedures of ‗governmentality‘ (Foucault 1983a). DJs guides to events and their advice on the production of dancing-feeling bodies stand in contrast to

159 predominant understandings of dance events as sites of dangerous drug use that are bound up with discourses of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance.

These guiding texts recount a history of regulation of dance events as spaces of dangerous drug use and of discreet and mobile ‗underground‘ organisational responses of party organising institutions and crews. Recounting the fragmentation and split, musical diversification and movement into regulated and commercial club spaces of the early scenes related to processes of continuing media, police and local council scrutiny and event closures. They chart the musical ‗lull‘ of the gay scene related to the HIV epidemic and intensified regulation following the death of Anna Wood and the introduction of the Dance Party Code of Practice. The discreet and mobile organisational responses of ‗underground‘ events have drawn on variations of a discourse of belonging through diversity and an attitude of flexibility, mobility and change. Early free, one off, outdoor and doof events featured discourses of Do it

Yourself, anti-commercialism and environmentalism. These texts called on partygoers to exercise techniques of regulation in relation to drug use in the form of moderation, awareness of dangers and looking after friends and an emphasis on music. Accounts of queer underground events such as Kooky articulated discourses of musical and crowd diversity, global ‗connectedness‘ through world music and the ‗transportation‘ of the self to ‗a better place‘ through communion in ‗collective spirit‘ of dancing crowds that transcended classifications in terms of sexuality such that sexuality was at the same time freed up and irrelevant. Accounts of recent events involving convergences between queer underground and doof scenes have drawn on discourses of musical and crowd diversity including notions of queer as well as broader ideas of bent and twisted music, looks and sexualities coming together in the belonging or community of the safe and

160 free spaces of events. DJs columns on convergence events advised partygoers that the ecstatic, self-regulated and safe self may be produced through alternative techniques for transporting the self such as meditation, communication, sex (tensions around this are discussed in more detail in Chapter Eight) and responsiveness to music through dancing, rather than an emphasis on drug use.

These recurring understandings of events in terms of belonging through diversity and advice on the alternate production of the embodied self through music, dancing, regulated drug use, and other techniques such as meditation, have in common their concern with moving in between restrictive codes of classification or labelling and strict adherence to these. The production of the embodied self recommended in these guiding texts has implications for health in so far as such texts are bound up with the production, regulation and understanding of events and are significant to the drawing together of crowds and sociality of events. DJs in this sense form key people in the networks associated with events and may be pivotal in the attitude toward drug use or placing of drugs within scenes and the circulation of information and practical advice on how to use drugs so as to minimise dangers. DJs guides to events thus write of the particular placing of drugs, music and sexualities and attitudes toward the regulation of the pleasures of these practices within events. The tangible feelings of freedom and intense pleasures of events articulated in these accounts are made possible through the competent enactment of particular regulatory techniques that organise the space of events and the embodied selves of participants and that form the key concern of these guiding texts. It is to these techniques of regulation of space and self-care of embodied selves through which forms of belonging and self-regulated drug use are produced that I turn in the following chapters that focus on the stories of partygoers told in interviews.

161 162

Chapter Six - Networks and crowd belongings

“They are struggles which question the status of the individual: on the one hand, they assert the right to be different and they underline everything which makes individuals truly individual. On the other hand, they attack everything which separates the individual, breaks his links with others, splits up community life, forces the individual back on himself and ties him to his own identity in a constraining way. These are struggles not exactly for or against the „individual‟, but rather they are struggles against the „government of individualisation‟.” (Foucault 1983a: 211-212).

“The struggle for a modern subjectivity passes through a resistance to the two present forms of subjection, the one consisting of individualizing ourselves on the basis of constraints of power, the other of attracting each individual to a known and recognized identity, fixed once and for all. The struggle for subjectivity presents itself, therefore, as the right to difference, variation and metamorphosis.” (Deleuze 1988/1999: 105-106).

Introduction

This chapter considers accounts of dance events in interviews with partygoers that featured stories of belonging and not belonging of friendship networks and crowds, practices of ecstatic dancing and ‗lounging‘ and regulated drug use. In this chapter I focus on how the particular forms of belonging and not belonging of friendship networks and crowds were produced. Developing from social network approaches to drug use and contemporary cultural studies work on dance events, I explore how local

‗mixed‘ events were characterised by a form of large temporary crowd belonging or community (Maffesoli 1988/1996) produced through the ecstatic moment and

163 associated with a discourse of diversity. However, I flesh out how this belonging was fragile, unstable, characterised by tensions and negotiated through sociality, consisting of rituals, techniques, discourses or rules. Firstly, I unpack how crowd belongings were highly internally differentiated and mediated through the belonging of existing small friendship networks produced through sharing everyday pleasures of music and local neighbourhood space. I then briefly explore the tensions between the ecstatic moment and activist projects for long-term change. Finally, I examine how crowd belongings were held in tension with not belongings in instances of exclusion and segregation elsewhere, in the space of other events and everyday life, and moments of disruption of the sociality - rituals, techniques, rules and discourses - of ‗mixed‘ events. I develop an understanding of these instances of not belonging in relation to Foucault‘s (1983a,

1988b) work on the tension between strict modes of regulation of self-formation associated with governmental power relations and flexible self-formation through techniques of self-care. I argue that belongings were enabled through adoption of a flexible relation of the self with guiding discourses.

Part One - Networks of crowd belongings

From subculture to neo-tribes ‘Crews’ ―…people…have their little groups…their sectors…there‘s many different groups and I won‘t even say categories because everyone is so choppy changey in the culture…I chose…to enjoy it but I don‘t really…get involved in the bitching, I find it really stupid and a waste of time…so I try and avoid that, there‘s a lot of it. It happens subtly but often subtleties create extremes…OK it‘s a subculture but within that subculture there‘s many different little harems and groups…a lot of the time based around sexuality and the state of consciousness that people are in…there might be the drunks…there‘s the junkies…often the drunks are people that have…come 164 out of drugs and…chose to use alcohol as an escape from…destroying themselves with other drugs…it gets very orientated about body signals…the way people dance…the amount of popularity that someone has, the look someone has, whether you‘re cool or not…whether you‘re deep or not, there‘s so many different…consciousness, like conscious people…a lot of the time very self-conscious…it can be warm and fuzzy, it can be really beautiful…but I mean I‘d be bullshitting if I said…that there wasn‘t heaps of crap and wasteless idiots that…chose to fuck people over…A lot of the time it‘s because the people in the scene…know each other…there‘s like crews of people that…mingle with each other all the time and…rub off on each other…I like to surround myself around good energy…because I consider myself to be…a pretty trustworthy person…even when I‘m going to do something silly which I only do in small amounts…I at least acknowledge that I‘ve done something instead of just lying through my teeth like a lot of people do, heaps of lying goes on, but I mean a lot of the world there‘s that. I mean compared to the rest of the world – it‘s not that bad, like it is good…there‘s lots of conscientious people…the crowd itself if you look at the whole spectrum, and you‘re just a newcomer, it‘s quite wicked – if you‘re there just for a good time, it‘s really awesome…even despite whether you‘re a new comer or not…and the whole point in going…is to escape the…circle of reality and be around thinkers and…have a really good time, and the music often takes you away from a lot of the shit…[So like how do you think that crowds are mixed, like if they‘re mixed?]…if I look at my friends…I‘ve got bisexual friends…I‘m straight myself, I think um, most of the time…I tend to hang around people…that are into techno…military…anarchy…I‘m a bloody mixed personality myself…I‘m a bloody cocktail (laughs)…there‘s straight, square people that are just newcomers…a few Goths…a couple of punks…a group of the psi trance…crew…more of the political activist sort of people that go…then there‘s the doofers…the doofers are…a conglomeration of the psi trance people and the…techno crowd…‖ [Paul]

165 Paul indicates how there is a sense of subculture. However, in contrast to accounts of subculture as homological or unified in terms of style and political resistance, this subculture is fragmented internally. There are multiple smaller ‗groups‘, ‗harems‘ and organising ‗crews‘, differentiated in terms of sexualities (straight, bisexual), drug use

(alcohol, other drugs, junkies) and taste and experience in music, party and protest events (Goth, punk, psi-trance, doof, techno, straight square people, new comers, political activists, anarchists). Paul details how ‗body signals‘ including forms of dancing, ‗look‘ or dress as well as ‗popularity‘ differentiate individual and smaller groups of dancers in the crowd in terms of being ‗cool‘ or ‗not‘, ‗deep‘ or ‗not‘. Paul describes his own networks and sense of self with some difficulty, as being both

‗straight‘ and ‗mixed‘, or a ‗cocktail‘, including both ‗straight‘ and ‗bisexual‘ friends.

There is tension in this account surrounding the negotiation of belonging and not belonging. Organising crews develop tight knit networks and the differentiation of crowds is ‗subtle‘, although at the same time ‗extreme‘, difficult to negotiate, ‗political‘ and ‗bitchy‘. Paul indicates that feeling belonging in events involves exploring alternate states of consciousness through drugs, music and dancing in a crowd that may be ‗warm and fuzzy‘ and create a feeling of ‗escape from the circle of reality‘, especially for ‗new comers‘. Being a ‗new comer‘ or ‗straight‘, ‗square‘ person thus cut both ways in terms of belonging - allowing for ease in entering into the ‗being together‘

(Maffesoli 1988/1996) of the crowd due to being ignorant of scene ‗politics‘, while at the same time perhaps unwittingly subject to ‗subtle‘ processes of being left ‗outside‘ smaller groups. Others, such as John and Nina spoke of how the strangeness of the anonymous crowd was mediated through the presence of ‗regulars‘. However, for Paul, the possibility of belonging is held in constant tension with the sense of ‗self-

166 consciousness‘ and concern over fitting in and being recognised as ‗cool‘ and ‗deep‘, or a ‗thinker‘, that pervades interactions between crews.

For Paul, despite the sense of ‗subculture‘ the mixing of different internally differentiated groups within events is a source of tension in belonging as much as it may allow for a sense of liveliness in the togetherness of the crowd, or as he elsewhere puts it, something different to ‗bounce‘ the self off. Following Malbon (1999: 53-57), this can be understood as forms of ‗stylisation‘, ‗cool‘, or ‗distinctions‘ (Thornton 1995), involving hierarchies of status in belongings that, in resonance with Maffesoli

(1988/1996), are paradoxically produced through ecstatic and boundary dissolving moments. In Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996: 141-144) terms, this speaks to the momentary attractions and repulsions among a multiplicity of small social networks or ‗neo-tribes‘.

Tensions between attractions and repulsions mean that temporary belongings are unstable and fragile. For a moment there is a feeling of ‗escape from the circle of reality‘ via the ecstatic experience of shared emotion, altered consciousness of music, crowd, dancing and drugs within the space of the event. This allows for a connectedness to the dancing crowd, to body and spirit, briefly dissolving the tensions in mixing of smaller groups, and sense of ‗self-consciousness‘. ‗Self-consciousness‘ in part seems for Paul to relate to his own ‗mixed‘ sense of self as ‗straight‘ and ‗cocktail‘, but is also bound up with his negotiation of belonging in the dancing crowd and his sense of not wanting or being unable to fit into everyday classifications. It is this sense of belonging and the identification that he feels with other dancers who are ‗thinkers‘,

‗deep‘, ‗conscientious people‘ with ‗good energy‘, and a certain ‗look‘, that Paul elsewhere contrasts with the negative views of ‗conformed society‘ concerning the spirituality and ‗hedonism‘ of drug use and bisexuality. The moments of mobile

167 belonging that Paul speaks of are not unproblematically fluid or simply fixed but are constantly negotiated depending on the particular circumstances, spaces and relationships. This is evident in the tension between Paul‘s uncomfortableness with his sense of self as ‗straight‘ and ‗cocktail‘ in the everyday and the feeling of tangible and shared vitality involved in moments of dancing in events.

‘Tribes’ and ‘alternative’ music ‘movement’ Nina discussed her preference for ‗alternative‘ rather than ‗commercial‘ music, although she indicated that convergence events as spaces for the intersection of highly differentiated musical styles were interrelated with processes both of innovation and of commercialisation and marketing of music. Musical taste was thus important in connecting and differentiating people. Nina elaborated that:

―…you can find connections to people anywhere…like I have this thing it doesn‘t usually take me very long to identify someone a few of their likes or interests…some kind of commonality or common ground…there‘s something special that draws…a whole group of people together without even having to ask questions…it could be something thematic…a combination of the drugs and the type of music maybe it only needs these two factors…I guess for people that don‘t take drugs maybe it‘s just the fashion and the sound…or maybe it‘s the venue that draws people together…to know that they‘re guaranteed to enjoy whatever experience they‘re going to have there…word of mouth plays a big part usually groups of people will go…also the way that the social life is changing…say ten or fifteen years ago…couples dating would have been much more a done thing than groups of friends going out…group dynamics…evolving and people have developed…their own little tribes…because most of the things that I go to I hear about via friends…definitely there‘s some kind of movement out there and usually…depending on who‘s told me…I can…guess what

168 other kind of people will be there…people are interconnected…the music I guess has a part to do with that as well because…that is the common link between people who are there.‖ [Nina]

Nina discusses how she can find ‗connections‘ or ‗identify‘ ‗common ground‘ with friends and people she meets. She details how identification is at play in drawing crowds for events. This is one aspect of the ‗sociality‘ or taken for granted rules and rituals of events (Malbon 1999: 60-62, 24-25), or as Nina puts it - ‗there‘s something special that draws…a whole group of people together without even having to ask questions‘. The basis of these identifications includes the themes of events, the space or venue that may ‗guarantee‘ an enjoyable experience, combinations of drugs and music, fashion and invitations from friends. However, as in Paul‘s account above, there is a sense of differentiation involved as well for Nina in terms of drug use, with the

‗fashion‘ and ‗sound‘ more important to those who don‘t take drugs, and in relation to a distinction between ‗commercial‘ and ‗alternative‘ styles of music. For Nina, small friendship groups, or ‗tribes‘ as she calls them, are very important in the process of selecting events to attend and provide important cues concerning the likely composition of the crowd – ‗depending on who‘s told me…I can…guess what other kind of people will be there‘. Nina explains that people usually attend events or are offered invitations to events via ‗word of mouth‘ by groups of friends or ‗tribes‘.

Crowds are in one sense the coming together of these smaller ‗tribes‘ that are for Nina

‗interconnected‘ in a wider ‗movement‘ via the ‗common link‘ of music. As with

Mafesoli‘s (1988/1996: 144) ‗neo-tribes‘ bonded through a ‗mainspring…activity, pleasure, space‘ Nina describes small friendship groups or ‗tribes‘ that make up crowds and a wider ‗movement‘ connected through music that constitutes a ‗common link

169 between people‘ concentrated within the space of events and circulating within everyday spaces. Emphasis is placed on the pleasures of friendliness, music, dancing and drug use rather than romance and sexual pick up and small friendship groups or

‗tribes‘ going out together and linked through music play a key role in mediating larger crowd belongings.

Scenes, music and sexuality – Commercial and progressive, experimental music ―…when you hear about an event that‘s on, whether you get the flyer or by word of mouth or see it in street press…sure the name of the party, the concept, the theme, where it‘s at plays a part, but you…look at the DJs…you look at who‘s playing cause you know what type of music it is and…myself and friends…usually judge it by who‘s playing or sometimes you can bypass looking at the DJs and look at the party production company like D____ R___ [production crew] parties or T___ W___ like T___ W___ everybody knows…what sort of music, what sort of party it‘s going to be…I guess music would have to be…probably the most important aspect…it‘s one that indicates…your own preference in music…whether aesthetic or whatever but you have your own personal style but also along with that music…there are going to be like minded people there…who…are willing to listen to this music because usually it‘s not commercial it‘s quite progressive and experimental and usually if people are willing to give that a go they‘re usually more open minded…more progressive minded…[Yeah, so um what sort of thing are you into at the moment?]…I‘ve noticed a bit of a change (laughs)…it‘s pretty much lots of different things… psychedelic trance and doof…that‘s a bit tribally and harsh…but…the scene got flooded with psi-trance…it just started to sound all the same, so I started to…require less doses of it (laughs)…then I started getting into deep house…more that trancey element cause I used to like that sort of stuff but was a bit wary of the parties like the people there not so much they were nice people and that but I just didn‘t think it was as diverse…I like the freaky crowd like happens at doofs…but…friends that were into that scene…would go to parties with

170 them so I‘ve noticed with the last eight, ten months I‘ve…been going more to different types of parties not…staying with…H____ St. and the doofs and sometimes go out to bush doofs and the ones in the city…so probably it‘s expanding a bit now…I love anything trance orientated whether from deep house or trancey like, psi-trance, oh I‘ve heard a bit of…jelly step…which is a bit eclectic…they‘re…trying to…not to be too labelled in but it has got…trance and drum‘n‘bass elements in it…I like that sort of mix of, stuff that‘s a bit drum‘n‘bassy but has got this sort of ethereal…trancey quality over it all…I can go to any different type of party as long as there‘s that trancey element, cause J____‘s…even though it‘s hi-energy and it was smoother downstairs it had that trance element, doofs have got psi-trance and tribally stuff that could be trance and even…the deep house scene like bits of the deep house are reminiscent of a lot of early trance and…even V___, V___‘s got everything from trance to…God knows what they play…[So do you think the music would have a similar place for other people as what it does for you or?]…Yeah not everyone though…it…depends on what scene it is as well, cause…the…doof, psi- trance scene is…they‘re more obsessed with music and also the deep house like friends I‘ve got from there. But other places like J___ and say V____, I think it‘s more of a, oh I‘m not sure about J____, I‘ve only been to a couple of the last ones just recently and I know people liked that music, but cause it‘s a bit more gay I think there could be more of a…‗Oh what‘s happening at M___ [gay venue] - we may get lucky?‘ type of deal (laughs)…that‘s the difference - I‘d rather be in a place there to do with the music rather than…picking up…V___‘s a bit of everything from people obsessed with the music, picking up, socialising, expressing yourself…you couldn‘t safely say V___ was just about one thing I think with the people that go there…with doofs I think music is largely similar so maybe lots of people are similar to me…I can see the similarities between the V___ crowd and doofs…that self expressive element…lounging around talking which happens at V___…‖ [Michael]

171 In this account Michael indicates the process involved in selecting events to attend with friends that features close attention to the DJs and styles of music as well as production companies. Other issues include the venue and the theme of the event but these are not so important as the style of music that acts as a cue to crowd composition. In particular, styles of music are associated with personal tastes and stylisation and offer points of connection between ‗like minded‘ and ‗open minded‘ people. Michael enjoys music that is ‗progressive‘ and ‗experimental‘ rather than ‗commercial‘. Michael then draws a series of comparisons between scenes around trance, doof, warehouse, deep house and queer underground events and regular club night V___, drawing out the different places of music and sexualities for these distinctive, interrelated crowds. The striking thing about this account is Michael‘s movement through or ‗inhabitation‘ (Malbon 1999) of these quite different styles of events and crowds. Michael tracks the mobility of his inhabitation of events and that of interrelated crowds indicating that attending events and taste in music, as in Bennett‘s (1999: 610-614) account of clubbing, involves fluidity and change over time, rather than homological or unified style. The common thread running through these movements is that of a ‗trancey element‘ to music that

Michael enjoys, although the specific styles of music he enjoys have changed over time.

The composition of the crowd is another important concern for Michael, who enjoys

‗diverse‘ or ‗freaky‘ crowds. Michael prefers to attend events where emphasis is placed on music, self-expression, ‗lounging‘ and socialising, as in the trance, doof and warehouse scenes. He finds a similar emphasis placed on music in the deep house scene and connections between doofs and the ‗lounging‘ and self-expression of regular club night V___. In contrast though, the deep house scene has a ‗cleaner‘ dressed up crowd than the ‗freaky‘ crowd of doofs for which Michael has a preference. The space of V___ acts as an intersection point for multiple scenes and forms of sociality

172 including the gay scene and sexual pick up that Michael usually tries to avoid – although as Michael indicates, V___ isn‘t about ‗any one thing‘. Nonetheless, all of these examples of distinctive although interrelated scenes that Michael sees as having something to offer in terms of crowd ‗diversity‘ or ‗freakiness‘ and ‗self-expression‘, socialising and ‗lounging‘ and ‗experimental‘ or ‗progressive‘ music stand in contrast to

Michael‘s understanding of other more ‗commercial‘ and homogenous music and events.

Paul, Nina and Michael‘s accounts indicate how the contemporary form of belonging of small social groups unsettles notions of unified, homological, politically resistant subcultural style. These accounts have in common an understanding of small social groups as subcultures, movements or scenes that refuse notions of conformity, the mainstream and commercial. However, these small social groups are characterised by internal differentiations in the form of multiple crews, crowds or tribes that form both alliances and tensions within broader, subcultures, movements or scenes. Processes of internal differentiation are both the pre-condition to the possibility of transforming the self understood through discourses of the alternative and experimental and the point at which the scene becomes commercially marketable - as Nina puts it as a popular ‗cross section‘ of tastes. There is a blurring of boundaries between mainstream and alternative through the constantly shifting alliances and tensions of internally differentiated subcultures, scenes or movements. Attending events is governed by musical taste and style. Although musical taste is fluid, changing over time, style becomes mobile and strategically enacted within multiple spaces and the selection of and attendance at events is mediated through small friendship networks and the familiarity of ‗regulars‘ in the crowd.

173

Friendliness, music and dancing are emphasised rather than sexual seeking or romance.

The internal differentiations of subculture, movement and scene into crews, crowds and tribes are dissolved in moments of ecstatic dancing and ‗lounging‘ that produced a form of mobile, temporary belonging to the something bigger of the crowd. These forms of temporary and mobile belonging are strategically negotiated. They are not unproblematically fluid or open to anyone, but are intermeshed in particular situations, relations and spaces and the product of the enactment of particular techniques. This is evident in the fluidity and mobility of belonging described by Michael and Paul that offers strategic negotiation of space but is at the same time limited in so far as acceptance is more readily produced in some spaces than others and differently depending on particular positions such as that of ‗newcomer‘ and ‗regular‘.

Music, friendship, crew and media networks, everyday and DiY Music, bonding and alternative economy Music held a special place in everyday life for participants including Ben, Paul, George,

Josh and Robin who were involved in events and alternative economy as musicians, DJs and event organisers. Paul explains that:

―…all the time I have people coming over to my house regularly just sitting, hanging out, mixing up or playing play station or…dole bludging or smoking pot…people…see each other as lovers or just pure hedonistic screw around sort of thing…a lot of the time it is a very sort of hedonistic sort of culture, it‘s raw, that‘s a lots of the reason why it‘s raw and there‘s stack loads of bisexuals, it‘s notorious for bisexuals and…just having good times with each other…people hook up…during the week or whatever it‘s a very bonding sort of culture…the music does that it bonds people

174 because…there is a link of affinity between each other somehow…and that keeps on going after you‘ve been at a party with other people.‖ [Paul]

Paul describes how sharing in the experience of participating in events creates a ‗bond‘, or ‗affinity‘, among friends through music that does not stop at the end of the event but permeates into everyday relationships where it bonds friends, and lovers, within the space of the home. For Paul who is a DJ, ‗mixing up‘ at home with friends is important and resonates with a theme of DiY in other accounts such as Ben‘s story of the important place of music production in his everyday life, although here articulated in the description of the ‗culture‘ as ‗raw‘ and ‗hedonistic‘. Paul describes his friendship networks formed through participating in events as ‗mixed‘ in terms of sexualities including ‗bisexual‘ and ‗straight‘ people, as in part a site where sexual partners meet, or as he puts it ‗pure hedonistic screw around‘.

―I…became friends with the people I go out with…I met a girl at university and went to this club and I bumped into another guy that…neither of us really knew but we ended up talking and…becoming really good friends and the three of us…kept going out to the same club and…the drugs and the vibe and we started meeting other people and because they were going to the club regularly as well we became good friends with them and…if you go out all night and hang out throughout the next day and then the day after…so we…became quite tightly knitted and so because…their friends and flatmates and workmates and other friends through university…we…ended up having quite a large…scope of people…but it was kind of the university students and then their friends and partners…it all comes from that. So my boyfriend I met through my university friend‘s ex-partner‘s friend…that they…brought along that night and ended up hanging out with us for quite some time so we got together. And the, my flatmate I met at university her partner is the DJ so the three of us…would connect up, got introduced to

175 friends that he regularly met at dance parties…so there‘s that social circle as well, just through partners and friends and because people keep going to different places and bringing different people each time you…get a wider scope of social circle…‖ [John]

―…swap emails and phone numbers…so when you go to…another event that you don‘t know whether they‘re going to it or…not you go ‗Oh hey let‘s go to this, let‘s go to this‘ and so… you…reinforce that bond so they become your clubbing buddies…‖ [John]

The space of events featuring a friendly ‗vibe‘ acts both to cement existing friendships and as a means of, as John puts it, ‗getting a wider social circle‘, through the convergence and extension of multiple smaller friendship networks. Crucially the process of selecting and attending events is shared - mediated through existing friendship networks. It is within this context of existing friendships, coming together in the event, that ‗social circles‘ are extended, including meeting sexual partners. This indicates that competently ‗inhabiting‘ the spaces of events involves entering into this space as part of a collective or shared experience with friends or regulars, as well as strangers. John‘s friendship networks extended through attending events and hanging out afterwards are connected through email and phone, inviting one another to subsequent events.

Inner west ―[Crowds are mixed in terms of] Everything from…look, dress, self expression…to class, race, not so much race I don‘t notice that too much, but class and sexuality…some parties where it‘s so diverse you can‘t see those distinctions…everybody‘s going for a more diverse, different look that‘s, it can transcend class and sexuality in a way…at doofs…looking at sexuality - a lot of the guys there, I wouldn‘t know if they were gay, queer, straight, bi or whatever…that‘s refreshing…it‘s…queer 176 orientated…sexuality isn‘t an issue anymore, everybody‘s so diverse it‘s not a question, it‘s just accepted…no one will look you up and down and think…‗What are you?‘…there‘s no assumptions…anything goes…it‘s refreshing being in a place where everyone‘s so different that you can‘t pick who‘s what... looking at class…a lot of the doof scene probably comes from the inner west like B_____ [central inner west town]…from uni students to…DIY‘ers…a bit activist based and don‘t want to join the rat race and are doing their own thing therefore a bit living in poverty…then again you get your…people coming over from the North Shore that are there and…from the Eastern Suburbs people who work…and they‘ve got…well to do jobs or med students or…people practising law – so I just did notice that there is that as well, and that, that‘s nice having that diversity…the party and music…bringing people from…different sexualities, different classes, different race – I don‘t know, maybe I‘m not looking for the race factor, but maybe it is…but yeah it…transcends a lot of…distinctions made up in our culture which is really good.‖ [Michael]

Michael describes how the crowds of doofs are diverse in terms of sexualities, look or style, self-expression and class. There is a strong connection for Michael between the shared local space of the inner west neighbourhood and events such as doofs that draw together regulars from relatively low-income networks of uni students, DiYers and activists, although there are also links with networks of higher income people who travel to events from the North Shore and Eastern suburbs who have well paid jobs or are studying medicine. For Michael, doofs offer spaces for convergence of multiple friendship networks and for the momentary ‗transcendence‘ of everyday ‗distinctions‘ in terms of sexualities and class. Michael understands this transcendence of everyday distinctions of sexualities through a discourse of queer (discussed in more detail elsewhere).

177 Inner city ―Generally most of my friends are friends of friends (laughs)…but when I get down to it they are all pretty much like I‘ve met a lot of my friends…anonymously and then found the connection later…I think...it has to do with where you live as well I moved here going on four years ago and um I spent about six months in the H___ and J__ N___ [inner eastern city suburbs] and then I moved to B___ A___ [inner city suburb] and it wasn‘t until I got to B___ A___ that…I met one group of friends and just meeting people in cafes and at venues in the neighbourhood linked me to a whole network of people that I guess it became very convenient to visit friends that live in the neighbourhood as well…‖ [Nina]

Nina details how local neighbourhood spaces of inner city suburbs were key to meeting networks of friends anonymously at venues or through other friends who lived in the neighbourhood. This suggests that despite the ‗difference‘ of crowds that Nina enjoys there is also something held in common by at least some of her friendship network in the form of shared neighbourhood space that includes the space of venues.

―I think people‘s definitely where they come from…you have definite suburban people like the Southern suburbs kids, I‘ll always recognise people from J____ shire I think just by the clothes they wear and the attitude they have, the kids from the Western suburbs. They‘re the same kids I guess, because once they get a little bit older a lot of them move into town and that‘s different, so it‘s not as much defined as their…younger experience…definitely geography or…you‘ve got your North Shore people that, I probably don‘t go to the same clubs as anyway, but tend to have a certain different attitude to people that are from…maybe a little bit more feral but live…right in the city…the harder edged kind of people…it‘s definitely where you come from and age which is the other thing that‘s gonna make a difference to the clubs and the people that are there, if not from age I guess a lot of times it‘s experience though as well, what kind of

178 people have had different experiences of music and so they‘ve chosen a certain style to be their main influence, it may change but you have people that only go to drum‘n‘bass, or only techno, or only house…and they‘re…you can tell that by…house people wear a certain type of clothes, they wear…nice kind of brand namey things that you can get at GP‘s like General Pants…and you have…harder edged feral people…that are more unique in the way that they dress…so yeah styles…‖ [Natasha]

Natasha makes sense of the differentiations involved in events that in some cases produce tensions in so far as people are not there for the same reasons, in terms of local neighbourhood spaces, styles, age, experience and ‗attitude‘. She contrasts those who live in the city (harder edged, older people, ferals who attend what she elsewhere described as ‗underground‘ events with a mix of music including techno and drum and bass) with those who live in the suburbs (younger people with a taste ‗only‘ in house music and glam, brand name style). In this account Natasha traces a trajectory of movement of younger kids from the suburbs into the inner city as they become older.

She feels a sense of affinity with the older ‗harder edged‘ attitude, ‗unique‘ feral style and mixing of music in ‗underground‘ events than the restrictions of the clean and expensive ‗glam‘ designer house style.

Media and crew networks ―…when absolutely stuck for info I consult Revolver [free street press] or flyers around the neighbourhood…that kind of printed information or…other than that just friends, word of mouth, I tend to, I see…groups of people at things, there‘s people that I just seem to run into who I don‘t really know very much about but I usually see at particular venues and we have things to share and stuff and I usually get the odd party invite thrown my way…usually there‘s just people that you generally know are a good source

179 of info. Yeah and at other venues like there‘s always promos for other things at venues.‖ [Nina]

―Largely through flyers and word of mouth…I have got a couple of friends that are DJs…it‘s like they‘re the walking talking flyer every time you meet them…they‘re always…so obsessed with…parties, so intricate into the scene that…all that comes out of their mouth is…venues, times, DJs…they give me the information even before it even hits the street or gets done up in a flyer…flyers where they‘re given to me at parties or you see up along J___ St. [main st. of central inner west town] that you see pasted up over the poles...‖ [Michael]

In these excerpts Nina and Michael discuss their use of free street press, flyers picked up at events, friends and regulars in selecting events to attend. For Nina, free street press plays a part in selecting events ‗if absolutely stuck for info‘, but is secondary to invitations from regulars and friends and flyers picked up from venues. As in John and

Nina‘s accounts, for Michael friendship networks and interconnections of these with organising networks or crews, or as Michael puts it friends who are DJs or members of crews and ‗walking talking flyers‘, mediate Michael‘s selection of events to attend supplemented by flyers picked up from events or seen in local neighbourhood street spaces. Both Nina and Michael suggest there are key people in their networks who provide such useful information and key spaces including venues and city streets where flyers circulate. The competent selection of events is collective involving these key people in networks and local neighbourhood spaces including the spaces of events.

The belonging of small friendship and crowd networks associated with dance events had its basis as much in everyday practices as in the spaces of events themselves. This is evident in the importance of involvement in production and consumption of music

180 outside the space of events, whether in the home among friends, or as part of Do it

Yourself music production linked to alternative economy. Competent inhabitation of the spaces of events involved entering into the space of events as part of a small friendship network or as a regular connected through familiarity with other regulars in the crowd. Cementing, extension and bonding of small friendship networks through shared participation in events permeated into everyday life forming the basis for ongoing connections. These connections formed both along and across everyday classifications in terms of sexualities and musical tastes with heterogeneous friendship networks acting as sites for meeting sexual partners. The belonging of diverse small friendship networks was mediated through the shared inhabitation of local neighbourhood spaces. This suggests that while the belonging of crowds may be mobile, temporary and involve mixing of diverse smaller networks, the connectedness of these smaller friendship networks through which larger belonging is produced has its basis in the common occupation of local everyday spaces. The spaces of the inner west and inner city suburbs were understood as neighbourhood, shared by those who felt a sense of belonging through their participation in dance events. This territory was characterised by a discourse of diversity. The selection of events to attend was mediated through friendship and organising networks and local neighbourhood spaces within which forms of media such as free street press and flyers were enmeshed and interpreted. Key people in friendship networks provided useful advice on events to attend. The basis of the connectedness of larger crowd networks is thus enacted within smaller friendship networks that share local neighbourhood and everyday spaces of the street, the pub, the café, the home, within which practices of friendship, sharing in music consumption and production, reading, speaking and sex are enmeshed.

181 Paradoxically, these forms of everyday connectedness both form the basis for and are enhanced through the production of larger crowd belongings.

DiY and activist networks - Alternative, queer, environmentalism, spirituality Mobile alternative space ―…94 or 95 there was an alternative X____ [cultural event] party that they had at H___…the B___ building there [large scale venue] and…that was a really good party…N___ [female DJ] and G___, J___ B___ [male DJ]…they definitely played and I think they might have even organised it as well…that was really cool they…had ah a couple of…dance areas and a tent in the courtyard and then the café there they transformed into a big dance floor as well…it was…really nice. I‘ve been to a few of the big X___ [cultural event] parties and…found them a bit too full on for me in terms of numbers and crowd…and a bit impersonal somehow so it was nice going to that because there was only a few hundred people, and quite intimate…they had a really nice chill out area with…curtains all the way around, big cushions on the floor, soft light in there…went there with a reasonably big group of friends…the music was really good and the crowd was really nice…quite alternative crowd…quite mixed it wasn‘t just queer people, there was kind of straight people as well…just a really friendly crowd…it wasn‘t pretentious and…people were there to have fun and there‘s something…political about it in that it was an alternative X___[cultural event] and it was around the time when the people who were doing the McX____[cultural event]…street stencils…that were all quite anti- X____…they were off-shoots of the queer community…sick of…ticket prices at X____ …it‘s like Sundance film festival and now there‘s…a rival film festival Slamdance, it‘s almost like the Avant Garde goes somewhere else…‖ [Matthew]

Matthew draws on discourses of ‗mainstream‘ and ‗alternative‘ in this account of attending an ‗alternative‘, ‗mixed‘, ‗queer‘ event. Matthew describes this event as being characterised by a sense of ‗friendliness‘, ‗fun‘ and ‗intimate‘ space, a smaller

182 crowd and transformation of a large institutional space through decorations and design into multiple dance and luxurious and comfortable ‗chill‘ spaces with ambient lighting, cushions and draperies. Matthew contrasts this with expensive ticket prices and large

‗impersonal‘ crowd of ‗mainstream‘ gay and lesbian community events. The

‗alternative‘ is mobile, responding to increasing commercial and official discursive regulation of the space of dance events by reconfiguring events elsewhere through use of low cost media, local neighbourhood and activist networks. This mobility resonates with rave‘s ‗politics of space‘ concerned with defence of the space of events (Pini

1997b: 118, 126-127) and the discreet organisation of ‗underground‘ house and free party events (Rietveld 1998a, b, McKay 1996, 1998).

New energy ―…the new energy that seems to be coming…we‘re just moving away from that elitist thing, I think it‘s a political thing…people…are…sick of mainstream boring bullshit…there hasn‘t really been that many avenues for intelligent switched on people to actually get together and do something…multimedia…seems to be the key to the new energy, because it‘s crossing boundaries and using all different…mediums…people are beginning to see that you can be really creative, really high tech but at the same time really earthy…I think it must have something to do with people being bored with the monoculture that has become our society so anything that‘s a little bit different is exciting and welcomed in a very friendly way…the energy is there because it‘s in opposition to the monoculture and the new medium that‘s happening the mixed media and the fact that you can combine complete cutting edge high tech stuff with down to earth basic bush doof…you feel empowered and…you feel like you can actually make a difference and change things…people are involved in the dance parties that I go to are often political activists…they really are the front runners that often do get laws changed…they‘re switched on, energetic people…tomorrow there‘s the big F____ the N____ [party/protest event]…I‘ll be there for sure

183 and that‘s all about…the traffic in Sydney is just outrageous the pollution is full on – so it‘s more environmental…often it‘s queer issues…against right wing sort of mindsets…gay politics…open acceptance…nobody likes a racist…it‘s just not something that‘s really a factor in my group anyway, although we don‘t have that many black friends or Asian friends…‖ [Kirsty]

Kirsty‘s story is filled with a new hope for the future or what she calls the ‗new energy‘ of events that contrasts with the ‗elitism‘ of previous events and the ‗monoculture‘ of everyday life. New energy is produced through multimedia that crosses stylistic boundaries. Doof brings together seemingly contradictory texts of hi-tech, earthiness, spirituality, activist projects for change and the ecstatic moment of the dance. Kirsty describes links between doof and activist networks concerned with the environment and sexuality. There is a strong ‗feeling‘ of ‗making a difference‘ and being ‗empowered‘ in this account. However, whether this optimism is translated into long term structural change as is claimed here is not fleshed out and is an issue requiring further study.

Catharsis ―…I feel it‘s only happened in the last…C___ G___ [party organisers]…did it but I wasn‘t really aware of C___ G___ back in the early days…I‘ve always got to look on a time line…to…get perspective because…when I was at uni I was an activist…but at the same time I went to raves and I noticed there was a distinction between, at raves they were very anti- establishment and underground and subversive…but there wasn‘t any type of real political edge to it…it was more utopian…rather than…real politics…but then moving into the…doof scene I noticed there was starting to be a bit of a political bent to it…seeing F____[party/protest organisation] how it‘s got a bigger, a lot of it‘s cultural stuff is to do with electronic music and dancing…and even…the odd party the one I went to the other week that‘s tying into other groups like the D___ Society [green organisation]…in B____[regional centre] the D___ Society would actually put parties on…to

184 raise money that would have been 95, 96, so it‘s not new…it‘s really good cause I was involved in activism at uni a big role of our perspective was…trying to get more people involved as possible in politics and activism and I think…the youth culture is very important but I…remember thinking it‘s not very appealing to young people from where we‘re coming from but that‘s why really exciting about the doof scene, it‘s not hardcore like always an ideology in your face, it‘s just OK lets look at the issues and if you want to subscribe to a party or an ideology or an organisation it‘s up to you…it‘s…a good gateway to a lot of people to look at the issues whether it‘s uranium mining or indigenous land rights or logging or…the motorisation of our cities…it‘s a great tool using that…culture to get people in…then activism…doesn‘t become boring and mundane. My only critique on it is it‘s not – it would be great to have a coherent, a bit more political structure to it like say N___ [party/protest organisation] it‘s great what they do but apart from raising awareness is it achieving any real benchmarks on the way?…all they can do is hope to drag along more people and I don‘t think Australia has the population and there should be more of a structure in their events to educate people why the problem‘s this and what we can do about it – it‘s more like ‗Yeh let‘s reclaim the streets, give it back to the community‘ this is what it could be like great, but at the end of the day they haven‘t really done it it‘s like more of a cathartic event for all the people involved which is great a lot of networks are formed and it‘s a great day but I just sometimes think that there needs to be something a bit more substantial long-term…‖ [Michael]

Michael presents this story as a history of different forms of events including early

‗utopian‘ rave, and party/protest events connected with activist networks and more recent doof and party/protest events. He argues that although the political ‗bent‘ of recent doof and party/protest events is distinctive it is not necessarily a completely new phenomenon, with links between early party/protest events and activist networks raising awareness about environmental and other issues. Michael presents the raising of

185 awareness and formation of networks as positive aspects of recent events acting as a

‗gateway‘ for further activist work although in contrast to the optimism of Kirsty‘s account Michael is critical of the lack of internal ‗structure‘ of such DiY organisations and events and limitations in terms of ‗long term‘ ‗structural political change‘ produced through events. He clearly articulates, however, the sense of ‗catharsis‘.

Matthew, Kirsty and Michael‘s stories provide histories of dance events characterised by contradictions and tensions. All three accounts share a common understanding of events as producing temporary, mobile space for transforming the self, bonding and extending existing friendship, organising and activist networks and raising awareness concerning issues such as sexuality and the environment. The form of power relations that characterises events in these accounts is predominantly one of instants of freedom and vitality produced through moments of ecstatic collective dancing and ‗lounging‘ within the temporary space of events. This production of collective vitality within events is situated within a broader context characterised by processes of commercial and legislative regulation of dance events. It is the commercial and legislative regulation of large-scale ‗gay and lesbian‘ and ‗straight‘ rave events characterised by production of a particular form of ‗gay and lesbian‘ identity and hollowing out of the ‗utopian‘ possibilities of rave, that is refused in these stories of alternative queer and doof events.

It is possible to trace the permeation of a sense of larger connectedness shared within friendship networks into everyday life. However, the extent of legislative or other structural change is beyond the scope of the current project and raises a question for consideration in future research.

186 Part Two - Not belongings

Social taboos, ‘looks’ and exclusions ―…it really was quite bad…because the whole feeling in the club was completely different, and it was really…pretentious…it was in the…second level in the cocktail bar and they…had this really bad…traditional camp dance music coming through and it was just awful (laughs), but that‘s…a phobia of…the N____ St. [inner city street] gay club…that we try to escape from and a lot of people in B___ A___ [inner city suburb] tend to escape from as well, just because it gets too pretentious and too stereotypical and so repetitive and dull, it just gets really dull…it‘s a completely different genre to…one off dance parties or doofs or clubs or…Club V___ that…operate on a bit different level and…they don‘t have that pretentiousness…when you go to one of those clubs on N___ St.…you‘re expected to be this sort of person and then if you‘re not then…you…know that you‘re facing this social taboo…‖ [John]

―…I like going to lesbian venues because you don‘t have that, you don‘t have that paranoia of…dominant male, out male syndrome of…getting watched or feeling paranoid…cause you‘re…in a friendly female environment…and a lot of my straight friends do the same for various reasons…So when you have gay and lesbian people the breadth of feeling that doubt and feeling gawked at…is reduced somewhat because people are somewhat more diverse and not quite as sort of violent in a way like violent in a social sense…we don‘t really find any homophobia or anything like that at dance parties…There might have been a couple, but…it wasn‘t really an issue, like no one really said anything…just stared at us or something, but it wasn‘t really an issue.‖ [John]

―I do have a problem with bouncers at clubs that are…on every night…since they…I‘ve had a few like instances with them not being allowed in because it‘s…or my friends haven‘t been allowed in because…they haven‘t been dressed right or stuff like that which is…a very common problem…with a lot of places on…N____ St. and in the city. Like at M___ [superclub]

187 there‘s a club at D___ U___ G___ [inner city area] there have been problems with bouncers there where people have been turned away because they‘re Asian…and where women have been turned away from gay clubs…and people have been turned away from clubs because they have been dressed too working class…which is a major problem…But you don‘t tend to have that at…clubs and doofs and raves…‖ [John]

In these excerpts John describes how N____ St. commercial gay clubs and predominantly ‗straight‘ commercial super clubs produce certain forms of identity, or as

John puts it, a particular ‗sort of person‘. There is a particular sense of ‗gay‘ identity characterised as not female, not Asian, not working class, not freaky or feral in style, but rather as male, white, middle class with clean and expensive style associated with

‗traditional camp dance music‘ and commercial club spaces of the inner city gay scene.

John elsewhere indicated that the predominantly ‗straight‘ inner city super clubs share a sense of these clean expensive and ‗camp‘ styles, or as Natasha elsewhere put it, ‗glam‘ designer label style. John feels he and his ‗mixed‘ networks of friends in terms of gender and sexualities who are interested in industrial, trance and ambient music and freaky and feral style do not really fit into these forms of ‗gay‘ or ‗straight‘ clubber identity and style. Those who do not conform to expectations of the ‗right‘ ‗sort of person‘ are excluded, or as John puts it face a ‗social taboo‘, denied entry at the door by security on the basis of dress or look. In John‘s account, women, Asian people and those who ‗look‘ too working class are excluded from these commercial and highly regulated club venues. As Malbon (1999: 62-68) and Thornton (1995:22-25, 110-115) have argued, these forms of regulation of crowds via exclusions at the door may be related to social hierarchies of status reproducing everyday inequalities within the seemingly ‗free‘ spaces of clubs associated with ‗utopian‘ discourses of inclusiveness and limiting belongings that are easier to access for some than for others. 188

Another important issue raised in this account is the feeling of not belonging that can occur inside an event as a result of what John describes as a form of ‗social‘ ‗violence‘ of being ‗gawked at‘ or looked at in a sexual sense – the ‗dominant male out syndrome‘.

In contrast to these experiences of exclusion, or of feeling uncomfortable, John articulates how doofs and one off events, Club V___ and a lesbian club offered different spaces to those of commercial nightclubs that were not characterised by ‗social violence‘ or ‗homophobia‘ but themes of inclusiveness of ‗diversity‘ and as he elaborated elsewhere, ‗liveliness‘, in terms of sexualities. Nonetheless, as with Nina and Michael‘s accounts (discussed previously), the sharing of local neighbourhood space of inner southern suburbs constitutes an important common linkage in John‘s friendship networks. ‗Mixed‘ events, including those discussed here by John, were either, popular and easily accessible, or ‗alternative‘ and ‗underground‘ employing discreet organising networks including free street press. Access was more likely to be negotiated as a process of ‗self-selection‘ (Thornton 1995: 113; Malbon 1999: 60-62,

68) that was at the same time collective involving friends as an important source of information about events. As Wright (1998: 237-239, 241) has argued, discreet organising techniques of underground events may elude police and media surveillance and create tensions in belongings in so far as events feature discourses of diversity and exclusions of those not already linked into networks.

Segregation ―I didn‘t find the crowd that friendly…everyone were in their own little…cliquey groups…I was there with a few girls and they wanted to dance in…the women‘s B___ [space] and they let me in there a couple of times but a couple of times too they said ‗No - you‘re not allowed.‘ it was

189 like they were occasionally letting boys in if they were with a big group of girls…which is fair enough…it was just that I happened to be there with more girls than boys and it was kind of a bit hard. So it was weird that segregation, it got to me a bit, I mean I understand it and I‘m fine with it and if it had been different circumstances I wouldn‘t have minded at all, it‘s just that I wanted to be with them and I couldn‘t get in there (laughs). It was like once you‘re in there you have to stay in there cause if you left you might not have gotten back in again so I went out to try and find other people, and came back and said ‗I was just in there‘ and it was like ‗Oh no sorry‘ (laughs).‖ [Mathew]

―…I go to more mixed things, sometimes…gay and lesbian events but usually they‘re full of straight people anyway so most of the things that happen these days are pretty mixed…that worries some people in gay community but it doesn‘t worry me because I think it…points up that people are more tolerant, or people are more inclusive than perhaps they were in the past which is why I resist segregation…dance parties…are definitely about meeting people and…connecting with people on all kinds of levels, a sexual level‘s a really big part of it…meeting people who are both similar to you and different to you I suppose it‘s about that, yeah…I know some people who would go to events as an assertion of their sexuality…that‘s people that are more involved in that culture…but for most of my friends…we don‘t really…I wouldn‘t go to an event if I thought it was going to be exclusively straight or something…if it was going to uncomfortable being there for me, but at the same time I wouldn‘t go to something exclusively gay either, and I think amongst my friends would be the same…it‘s [sexuality‘s] a big part of it but I don‘t think it‘s as big a political thing these days as perhaps it was in the past, especially with things like X____ and K___ O___ [cultural events]…I think probably in the past they were more politically oriented, sexually…these days it‘s a bit different.‖ [Matthew]

In these excerpts Matthew discusses attending and negotiating the spaces of a large- scale commercial ‗gay and lesbian‘ community event. Matthew recounts a sense of not 190 belonging in so far as he was refused entry to the women‘s only dance space of this event where his female friends with whom he had attended the event had gone to dance.

Matthew reflects on how this ‗segregation‘ of dance spaces on the basis of gender regulated the crowd mix allowing for the creation of a predominantly women only dance space through refusal of entry to male dancers who were unaccompanied by female friends (that other participants such as Sarah found to be liberating and safe and that in this sense Matthew could understand as ‗fair enough‘). However, at the same time this mode of regulation of space and crowd restricted Matthew‘s free movement through the event and interaction with his female friends, or as Matthew uncomfortably puts it, ‗I wanted to be with them and I couldn‘t get in there‘. Matthew understands this feeling of not belonging related to ‗segregation‘ on the basis of gender, and the

‗cliquishness‘ of male dancers in the main dance space where he also felt out of place, separated from his female friends, as speaking to the preoccupation with regulation of the ‗gay and lesbian‘ crowd mix via particular techniques including the use of security monitoring the crowd composition of particular zones internal to the event.

Matthew contrasts this ‗segregation‘ and official discourse concerning ticketing policy and pricing that is bound up with the production and regulation of ‗gay and lesbian‘ identity, with a sense of growing ‗inclusiveness‘ and ‗tolerance‘ of the ‗diverse‘ or

‗mixed‘ crowds of these events, that include ‗gay and lesbian‘ and ‗straight‘ people.

Matthew argues that far from reason for ‗concern‘ this ‗mixing‘ is the marker of a growing ‗inclusiveness‘ and ‗tolerance‘ that follows the earlier ‗political‘ articulation of sexual identity through these large-scale community events. Matthew describes how he feels uncomfortable at events that regulate crowd mixes through official discourses of

‗exclusive‘ ‗gay‘ or ‗straight‘ crowds. Rather, Matthew enjoys events that involve a

191 sense of belonging created through ‗meeting people who are similar and different to you‘ with sexuality being only one point of connection and differentiation, among others. It is the restrictive form of regulation of the mix of crowds that is at issue whether this is ‗exclusively‘ ‗gay and lesbian‘ or ‗straight‘ – the ‗exclusivity‘ involved in the articulation of sexual identity and policing of this via internal security measures and ‗segregation‘ and official discourses concerning ticketing policies and pricing. This is a form of regulation of the ‗being together‘ or ‗affinity‘ (Maffesoli 1988/1996) of crowds, at least at an official discursive level, which hinges on notions of

‗differentiation‘ and ‗distinction‘ in terms of sexual identity that ‗limit‘ the possibility of belongings. Regulation of the being together of friendship networks has particular implications in so far as selection and attendance at events, moments of belonging and not belonging and drug use practice were mediated through friendship networks.

Matthew and others, such as David and Sarah, indicated that their negotiation of the space of such events was mediated through friendship networks ‗mixed‘ in terms of gender and sexualities.

Restrictiveness ―…I consider myself bisexual but predominantly lesbian…I tend to steer away from, even though I identify as lesbian…I steer away from gay crowds…because…I find them a bit restrictive…I find the music a little bit restrictive (laughs)…and the fashion‘s a bit daggy (laughs)…I don‘t think I‘m like regular dykes either…they seem so…coupley…I have a particular play friend who we met really anonymously…I found out later that she‘s…a fetish person…even though that sort of crowd is interesting…I find people there get really obsessed with one thing whether it be fetish or whatever…it‘s like there‘s a whole lot of barriers in that kind of environment…it‘s almost like [the] more different everyone is the more belonging you feel or…the more easier it is to experience your own strength

192 of character, especially if you‘re going to be taking drugs…you don‘t want to…lose it and have to conform to any kind of stuff that you‘re not really into…‖ [Nina]

―I‘ve been listening to a bit of Six Foot Hick (laughs) and that kind of rockabilly…punk fusion…just cause it‘s got that sort of raw kind of screamy energy and…the latest V____ CD, Biftek…they‘re the latest things…Definitely not hand-baggy stuff (laughs).‖ [Nina]

In this account Nina articulates how ‗gay and lesbian‘ events feel ‗restrictive‘ to her in terms of fashion, music and the identity of ‗dyke‘. She recounts - ‗I don‘t think I‘m like regular dykes‘ - elaborating that she isn‘t ‗coupley‘. Nina indicates how she enjoys multiple forms of music that she elsewhere described as ‗alternative‘ rather than

‗commercial‘ or what Yellow Peril and Special K in an interview with local DJs

Gemma and Seymour (1996, 10 September: 34-35) have described as commercially marketed ‗gay and lesbian‘ music that Nina here refers to as ‗hand-baggy stuff‘. Nina describes how she feels out of place attending fetish events with her ‗play friend‘ as these events, despite being ‗interesting‘, become ‗obsessed with one thing‘ and in so doing create ‗barriers‘ between people. Nina understands her sense of being out of place in relation to experiences of finding belonging through ‗difference‘ in crowds.

The ‗conformity‘ or ‗restrictiveness‘ of events that become ‗obsessed with one thing‘ are Nina feels not safe places in which to ‗lose it‘ and explore what she elsewhere described as the different ‗sensory dimensions‘ opened up by drugs. Such a sense of

‗conformity‘ or ‗restriction‘, she suggests, would be confronting if on drugs.

Glam designer label house style ―…a couple of nights I‘ve been at K___ [super-club]…I never really enjoy coming to this nightclub K___, because I think it‘s the space, the shape of 193 the space, it always makes me feel like I‘m lost, I always walk around feeling really…‗Ohhhhh I don‘t know where I am, I don‘t know what‘s going on‘ state, whether I‘ve had drugs or not I feel really weird in there, even on the dance floor the main dance floor, I can never get into for some reason…maybe cause it‘s always really packed and there‘s…all this wide space around you and everyone‘s…crowded into the middle and there‘s just a few people…floating around on the outside…I never really enjoy it…I‘ve been and seen some really good DJs there but haven‘t been able to…really fully let go into it. The small room…there‘s a silver room in there where they have…drum and bass or…beaty music…I can get into…cause I guess it‘s a small padded room…it‘s more intimate, and more my kind of people that go into that room as well, the main area is usually really housey, a little bit cheesy unless it‘s…a special event night…everybody usually goes to K___, and it‘s very…glam…people walk around…with their brand clothes…very…stoic faced and…‗You can look at me but…don‘t smile, never smile‘, really cold…it‘s cold and it‘s uninviting in there.‖ [Natasha]

Natasha‘s account explores a sense of not belonging that she relates to the lack of a feeling of ‗intimacy‘ in the space of the main house based dance floor of a commercial super club – it produces a sensation of feeling ‗lost‘ and the crowd positioned in a close mass in the centre of the room leaving the edges occupied sparsely. The crowd are

‗glam‘, concerned with wearing the right ‗brand clothes‘ and presenting themselves as

‗cold‘ and ‗stoic faced‘ – articulations of what Natasha describes as house ‗style‘.

Negotiating this space is markedly different to Natasha‘s account elsewhere of her experiences of ‗inhabiting‘ (Malbon 1999) the spaces of drum and bass and

‗underground‘ events with a mix of music that she enjoys, marking a tension in the coming together of the ‗sociality‘ of these different events. Her enjoyment of what she elsewhere described as the shared ‗warmth‘ and ‗gluey emotions‘ of dancing with other people, looking around and exchanging smiles and jumping up and down and being

194 taken somewhere by the ‗freshness‘ of music that includes live components, is here not possible in a crowd that is so intent on being cool that it is ‗cold‘ and ‗stoic faced‘ and dancing is either cramped in the mass in the middle of the room or in the empty lost space on the edges.

Breaking the rule of friendliness ―…I‘m having a bit of a weird time with all that because I haven‘t had a boyfriend for a little while and I‘m just getting a bit older…a friend of mine on Saturday night said…‗sleaze on…start checking guys out‘…and I just said ‗oh look I‘m just not interested…I just want to have fun without trying to get on or anything‘ but I mean you can‘t deny the fact that the way people dress and that whole dancing element – I mean it‘s hugely sexual, hugely sexual and…I‘ve occasionally gone home with someone I‘ve met at a dance party…it plays a really big part but it‘s obviously not the central thing…guys are a bit weird. Like at this party last Saturday someone was telling me about this guy who they knew had a girlfriend and the girlfriend was at home and he was hanging around these beautiful girls and my friend knew the beautiful girls…and he was obviously trying to sleaze onto one of them and when he saw that he wasn‘t having any luck then he just…left and didn‘t really bother about the friendship that he‘d…established with this girl all he wanted was to get into her pants and I think that‘s pretty gross really…it depends, if you‘re in a full on gay crowd at a dance party well that‘s a different story altogether…the sexuality there is just totally at the fore and it really can be very full on sometimes, almost threatening occasionally really because it‘s so on the surface…I don‘t mind going to…predominantly gay events but there have been moments where the sexuality thing has been so to the fore that it‘s made me feel uncomfortable…sex isn‘t the number one object for me when I go out at all – it‘s having a good time.‖ [Kirsty]

Kirsty details a disruption in the rule of friendliness and everyone being there for the same reason - to enjoy the pleasures, paradoxically including the sexual pleasures – ‗it‘s 195 hugely sexual‘ - of music, dancing, crowds, drug use and meeting people, or as Kirsty puts it, ‗having a good time‘. The sleaziness of the guy talking to the ‗beautiful girls‘ constitutes a disruption or a moment of feeling uncomfortable – ‗I think that‘s pretty gross really‘ - in so far as he is more interested in sexual pick up than in the ‗friendship that he‘d…established with this girl‘. It is not meeting sexual partners at events, or as

Kirsty puts it, going home with someone after an event or the eroticism of dancing and dressing up that is problematic, but the emphasis on the ‗goal‘ of sexual seeking rather than on the ‗being together‘ of friendship. Meeting people competently in the space of events for Kirsty involves friendliness. Kirsty also describes feeling ‗uncomfortable‘ in the space of gay events where sexuality is ‗to the fore‘ or ‗too full on‘ and ‗almost threatening‘. These events again disrupt the ‗balance‘ of factors for Kirsty – her preference for emphasis on the pleasures of the moment or ‗having a good time‘ rather than on the ‗goal‘ of sexual seeking.

Clean, dressed up deep house style ―…if there‘s more of a mix, more of a diversity I feel more comfortable…you don‘t feel out of place…I think diversity in expression…may translate to diverse mindedness…so I feel more of an acceptance whether that‘s to do with anything from how I dance to my sexuality…I went to the H___ B___ M___ U___ party…deep house scene…I felt the crowd weren‘t as diverse and a bit more clean…scrubbed up a bit…I felt a bit…not at home as much cause the crowd was more homogeneous and clean and not as diverse…places like V___ and H____ St. parties, and doofs, there…seems to be more of a diversity…diversity makes it a bit more lively…‖ [Michael]

In this excerpt Michael describes how he feels more ‗comfortable‘ or ‗at home‘ in

‗diverse‘ crowds such as at doofs and warehouse parties in contrast to experiences of

196 feeling out of place within the ‗homogenous‘, ‗clean‘ and more expensive dressed up style of deep house events. Michael argues that a feeling of crowd diversity allows for a momentary dissolving of distinctions or differentiations among ‗cliques‘ or ‗scenes‘ through the adoption of diverse, feral, freaky or queer style that features an attitude open to variation and ‗liveliness‘ in self expression rather than an attitude of strict adherence to codes of stylisation that produces uniformity or sameness.

Hardcore – Suburban macho masculinity ―…the crowd there cause it was a hard set…I…noticed there were a few people I recognised and knew from…other H____ St. parties and doofs and maybe V___, but there was a noticeable presence of…‗What did my friend Jenny say?‘ Oh suburban hard knocks…oh no the Blacktown boys she was calling them she was saying they were from Blacktown and they‘re into hardcore…it‘s really like macho and masculine…there was one stage where B___ J___ [male DJ] came up and I actually got up to dance, it‘s pretty hard, and…he played a few tracks that I knew from a few years ago and I thought ‗Oh this is nice‘ and then someone yelled out ‗Put on some fucking hardcore‘ and I went ‗Oh No‘ so, so yeah a lot of factors…the…style of music, some of the crowd…like for instance I was there with someone and we were showing affection for the same sex but even though we weren‘t I just felt a little bit of…to that suburban macho element, I felt like you can‘t express yourself as much…or people may look at you…whether that was real or…paranoia on my behalf‘s another story...‖ [Michael]

In this excerpt Michael delineates his preference for diverse events, such as doofs or warehouse parties, in terms of experiences of feeling uncomfortable while negotiating the distinctive ‗suburban hard knocks‘ ‗macho‘ style masculinity and hard music of a predominantly male hardcore crowd. Negotiating a space dominated by this form of hardcore macho masculinity for Michael produced a feeling of being restricted in his

197 expression of same sex attraction for his partner. In this sense Michael is concerned over the restrictiveness of this stylisation of self – as hardcore – that does not have room for other forms of masculinities such as same sex attraction.

Commercial rave and ‘kiddies’ ―…when we first got there we heard that H____ St. operates on 3 or 4 levels, and on level 3 they had the B___ [name of party], but on the fourth level they had a rave, which was…interesting (laughs) and we didn‘t know that, I don‘t know if they didn‘t tell people that cause it would turn people off or something cause at the rave there were noticeably a lot of younger kids - 15 to 20…it was interesting because when we got there on the door they said ‗Oh B___ is $12 but if you want to go to the rave upstairs it‘s $30‘ and we paid $12 to get in but the back fire escape which connects both levels you could go up anyway so people were interchanging between parties, which was interesting because it was like a collision of two worlds…and personally that…brought up a lot of memories because I grew up in rave culture and here I am at these more I guess eclectic electronic events and here‘s my history…upstairs…but it was fine…the people I was with they were all part of the rave thing so they were all a bit like – ‗Oh God look at them‘…we even went upstairs just to pop our heads in…it just really felt like nothing had changed…the music was really happy hardcore, and hi energy…trancey stuff and it was just sweating and…people going off, and…that‘s OK but…give me back my couch for the night please (laughs). But…we actually…after H___ [female DJ] finished…the crowd, the 150 were there for B____ [party name] were…regulars…people that you knew and quite diverse from that…ferrally kind of…look to just like plain, I call it the old skool raver look, like it looks like they used to be ravers and now they dress a bit more sensibly cause they‘re older and more chilled out (laughs)…they‘ve either…moved out of the rave culture and they‘ve gone do I go really quirky and freaky and ferally or do I just…be sensible and….still have that bit of distinction about me but…not go too out there…so it was a mixture of those type of people…towards the end of the

198 night when H____ [female DJ] finished until the ravers were using downstairs as a chill out room, so where we were sitting it…got a bit swamped by them…when we started to – being the lazy socialites – when we started not having as many people come up and (laughs) and instead having these kiddie ravers we thought ‗Oh yeah let‘s go home‘ and that‘s probably around 4, 4.30 in the morning…it was funny as we left we got off the couch, a guy, a raver guy came up and said ‗Oh do you mind if we have the couch?‘ and we go ‗Yeah‘ and he just goes ‗God bless this couch in the name of rave‘ and I nearly said ‗Look along with Christ, rave was dead a long time ago‘ no but I didn‘t, I was friendly, they were friendly, I shouldn‘t bitch that much…so it was interesting…having the…fringe electronic people there and…having…a rave presence there, but it also made me affirm how ‗Oh I‘m so glad those days are behind me‘ (laughs)…the doof scene…it‘s…more social and more…interesting, it just feels more diversity…there‘s an array of little bits…all the guys are diverse, all the girls are diverse…a bit of variation.‖ [Michael]

In this excerpt Michael describes how he attended an environmental awareness-raising event at a multi-level warehouse space where a rave was occurring on one of the upper levels producing ‗a collision of two worlds‘ that was of especial significance to Michael and his friends who had been involved in the early rave scene. Michael describes moments of feeling out of place related to the presence of the younger or ‗kiddie ravers‘ in the space of the older crowd of an eclectic electronica event. These moments of feeling out of place or not belonging are related to the coming together of the different forms of sociality of these styles of events. The cheap entry price, mix of DJs and live components, awareness raising, ‗lounging‘ and socialising of the older and diverse freaky, feral, queer and ‗old skool‘ (or older and experienced) raver looks of the electronica crowd contrasts starkly with the expensive entry price, commercial style, happy hardcore, trance and hi energy music and ‗going off‘ dancing of a younger rave

199 crowd. These events involve markedly different modes of regulation of space and self- stylisation.

Michael refuses the sameness or homogeneity of the strictly enacted stylisations of the

‗clean‘ and dressed up deep house scene, the form of ‗macho‘ masculinity of the

‗hardcore‘ crowd and the concern with what he sees as pretentious ‗cool‘ stylisation of the ‗kiddie ravers‘. The distinctions that he makes regarding the ‗inside‘ of the

‗diverse‘ doof scene and its ‗outside‘ in terms of understandings of ‗commercial‘ and younger crowds are marked by issues of sexualities, age, experience, coming from the suburbs and the expense of particular styles. The ‗diversity‘ of the doof or warehouse scene is disrupted by the presence of the younger ravers and the sense of ‗comfort‘ and being ‗at home‘ especially in terms of queer, feral or freaky style and expressing same sex attraction found in doofs and warehouse events is not possible in the different, although related, sociality of the spaces of deep house, hardcore or rave events. The other aspect of the ‗outside‘ of these belongings is the space of the everyday where

Michael suggests same sex attraction is not ‗normalised‘ or ‗welcomed‘ as a form of

‗diversity‘ in the same manner as it is within the spaces of doofs or warehouse parties.

The rejection of these commercial stylisations marks one of the limits of the inclusiveness of the discourse of diversity in so far as there are certain attitudes and behaviours such as ‗misogyny‘, ‗homophobia‘ or ‗violence‘ that as Claude elsewhere explained are more difficult to include than others.

John, Matthew, Nina, Natasha, Kirsty and Michael‘s stories feature instances of not belongings that flesh out the limits of the temporary and unstable belongings of ‗mixed‘ events. Not belongings occurring in moments when the sociality of ‗mixed‘ events was

200 disrupted, in the space of ‗gay and lesbian‘, commercial house and rave events and in everyday life, were associated with strict modes of regulation of self-formation, requiring rigid adherence to codes of stylisation producing exclusions and segregation of crowds and restrictiveness in self-formation. In contrast, adopting a flexible relation of self to discourses of diversity and friendliness regulating stylisation of self associated with ‗mixed‘ events enabled moments of belonging. However, the fluidity of self invited by ‗mixed‘ events was held in tension with not belongings related to the broader context of everyday life and the spaces of other dance events in which such fluidity was not so readily accepted.

Conclusions

Stories of belongings and not belongings in interviews with partygoers were bound up with tensions between different modes of regulation of production of the space of events and of the embodied self. These different modes of regulation, as Foucault (1985/1992:

26-32) suggests, involved working on particular aspects of the self, complexes of discourses and knowledges, particular forms of relation with these codes, and specific techniques for working on and transforming the self to a particular mode of being. The tensions between different modes of regulation of the self and of the spaces of events can usefully be thought through using Foucault‘s (1983a: 221; 1988b: 18-19) notion of

‗governmentality‘ as the tensed points of intersection between ‗techniques for care of self‘ and ‗techniques of domination‘ involved in regulatory techniques of power that

‗structure the possible field of action of others‘. In particular, the idea of flexibility in the ‗attitude‘ or relation of the self in application of discourses guiding self-care, rather than strict definition of ‗right‘ and ‗wrong‘ conduct and adherence to discourses, is useful in thinking through these accounts (Foucault 1985/1992: 30-32; Deleuze

201 1988/1999: 100-101, 105-106). This emphasis on ‗attitude‘ and the ‗situational‘ and flexible nature of ethics of care of self applied in relation to specific ‗circumstances‘

(Foucault 1985/1992: 62, 106), or sets of techniques and competencies constituting sociality (Malbon 1999; Maffesoli 1988/1996), through which the pleasures and fears of events are regulated (Pini 1993, 1997c), contrasts with understandings of dance events in terms of individualising discourses of pathology, pharmacology, risk and deviance, as sites of danger and risk in relation to drug use and deviance, in need of intervention.

Belonging was most often understood in terms of a flexible and situational relation with a discourse of crowd and musical diversity that was interrelated with notions of alternative spirituality, DiY and environmentalism and pleasures and fears of drug use.

Techniques for the regulation of the space of events were small-scale involving small friendship and organising networks interrelated with low cost media networks including specialist columns in free street press. Crowds were drawn together largely through these existing networks. There was an absence of formal ticketing, dress or door policies with emphasis placed on a technique of ‗self-selection‘, mediated through friendship networks and shared inhabitation of local neighbourhood space. The implications of this are that the crowds are limited to those who are already in contact with existing networks through which the process of crowd composition is mediated.

This has the advantage of eluding police and media attention, although the discretion makes events more or less closed to ‗outsiders‘. Wright (1998) has argued that this can verge on a form of ‗inverse snobbery‘ involving ‗exclusions‘. However, despite the management of crowd composition through discreet organising techniques, the friendship networks of participants were diverse in terms of gender, sexualities, class

202 and age. Friendship networks were cemented in relation to sharing of local neighbourhood space.

Some instances of not belonging were characterised by encounters with people in the crowd who were seen as too young or too old, or too strictly adhering to scene stylisations such as the ‗macho masculinity‘ of the hardcore scene, or the disruption of alternative codes in relation to sexualities through ‗sleaziness‘ and the clean expensive stylisations of the younger rave crowd. In this sense, there was an ‗outside‘ to crowd belongings that created a seam of tension in the inclusiveness of the discourse of crowd and musical diversity. What was more important than the discourse of diversity itself as a precondition to an inclusive form of belonging was a particular form of flexible and situational attitude to codes of stylisation of the self and regulation of space. The possibility of inclusiveness was tied into the ability to hold loosely rather than tightly to discourses concerning stylisation of self and regulation of space. It was this attitude that in a sense created pockets of space for the exploration of something more than was available through an attitude of stricter adherence.

Not belonging was most often understood in terms of a sense of being required to adopt a relation of stricter adherence to a discourse of crowd and musical homogeny that was interrelated with notions of commercial and mainstream events and the articulation of forms of identity, including exclusively ‗gay‘, ‗lesbian‘ and ‗straight‘ identities and strict codes of scene stylisation such as house, techno, hardcore, rave or fetish.

Techniques for the regulation of the space of events included official ticketing, dress and door policies and external and internal security managing crowd composition in the queue at the door, or at doors to particular zones within events. In some cases, as has

203 been noted by other commentators such as Malbon (1999) and Thornton (1995), these forms of regulation of the spaces of events reproduced everyday hierarchies of status, or distinctions, through exclusions based on gender, sexualities, class and ethnicities. The techniques of self involved in events associated with experiences of not belonging, such as large-scale gay and lesbian and commercial house events, were closely related to the production of a musically attuned dancing body in so far as they placed emphasis on music, dancing, crowds and drugs. However, there were key differences. In some cases emphasis was placed on ‗gay and lesbian‘ crowd composition governed by official articulation of ‗gay and lesbian‘ sexual identity and segregated spaces in terms of gender that divided the ‗being together‘ (Maffesoli 1988/1996) of ‗mixed‘ friendship networks. In others prominence was given to articulation of colder than cool ‗stoic faced‘ and expensive ‗designer label‘ stylisations of the commercial house scene.

Stories of not belonging were also characterised by feelings of being uncomfortable or out of place related to practices of overt, ‗too full on‘, or ‗to the fore‘ sexual seeking, pick up and sleaziness.

The emphasis placed on both the articulation of ‗gay and lesbian‘ sexual identity and the strict codes of stylisation of events can be read as part of a broader process of intensive commercial and legislative regulation or ‗government‘ (Foucault 1983a) of dance events and crowds as sites of danger and ‗at risk‘ populations in relation to drug use and deviance that has involved a fragmentation of the early scene (Yellow Peril

1998). This process of the government of spaces and embodied selves of participants in dance events is closely bound up with individualising discourses of pharmacology, pathology, risk and resistance. The articulation of identity, the strict adherence to codes of stylisation and refusal of such rigid classifications of embodied self and space

204 involved in appeals to a discourse of diversity are particular strategies in the struggle for spaces of momentary freedom and new modes of producing the embodied self within a broader context characterised by governmental power relations. Strict adherence to identity, stylisation or even the apparently inclusive discourse of diversity may create dangers of dominating or restricting the ways in which space is regulated and the self produced. It is the adoption of a flexible and situational relation to discourses of stylisation of space and self that opens momentary zones for experiencing something more. The next chapter considers these moments of freedom and vitality in more detail, providing an account of the contexts and techniques for producing the ecstatic self and implications for new forms of sexualities.

205

Chapter Seven – Ecstatic belongings

“…rave can be seen as providing a space for alternative kinds of connections to be made, connections based upon a certain unfixing of identity categories…it can be read as being organised around a kind of „non-identity‟. However, it still offers a sense of belonging within a whole. What we see within rave, then, is an unlikely combination between holism and partiality…women can temporarily engage within a kind of New-Age notion of a „whole‟, whilst recognising the context-specificity of this and the contradictions inherent within it.” (Pini 1997b: 126-127).

Introduction

This chapter considers stories of production of intense pleasures of momentary ecstatic belongings in events from analysis of interviews with partygoers. Taking up this theme from the previous chapter, where it was the pleasures of these instants of ecstatic belonging that were at the heart of large temporary crowd belongings, I flesh out how the pleasures of the ecstatic moment were regulated via techniques of belonging

(Maffesoli 1988/1996) and self-care (Foucault 1985/1992, 1986/1990b), adoption of a flexible relation of the self to discourses guiding self-formation and a particular attitude or mode of relation of self with self, with others and the environment. Through analysis of partygoers accounts of local ‗mixed‘ dance events, I build on cultural studies understandings of the ecstatic moment as produced through competent enactment of spatial techniques (Malbon 1999), or regulatory techniques of self-care (Pini 1993,

1997a, b, c). More specifically, I develop from Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work on women‘s experiences of rave, where the pleasure and freedom of the ecstatic moment

206 was characterised by tensions and contradictions. The chapter is divided into three parts. Firstly, I explore how moments of belonging and not belonging were negotiated via techniques of preparation and movement through the atmospheric zones of events.

Secondly, I examine the key techniques of release of self and enhanced responsiveness in dancing and ‗lounging‘ involved in production of ecstatic selves. Thirdly, I draw out implications of the ecstatic moment in which boundaries were temporarily dissolved in relation to sexualities. In particular, I consider the tension characterising accounts of the ecstatic moment in which new forms of sexualities were both freed up and irrelevant.

Part One - Negotiating belongings and not belongings

Techniques of belonging Moments of belonging and not belonging were negotiated via techniques that worked on the embodied self and space. Techniques of planning and preparation that came to be taken for granted, developed over time, through participating in numerous events, or mediated through friends who were experienced partygoers, were significant in selecting events to attend and ensuring that friends to go with, appropriate dress and drugs were organised. Moments of belonging were produced through, in resonance with Foucault‘s (1985/1992, 1986/1990b) work on self-care as a social practice and

Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on neo-tribal sociality, adoption of a flexible and situational relation of self to principles guiding work on the self and a particular attitude or relation of self to self, to others and the environment, described as open, responsive, friendly, non-judgemental and accepting. This form of attitude contrasts with the primacy of the relation of self with self of self-mastery, examination, testing and independent self-pleasure, although resonating closely with themes of mutuality, social

207 warmth, proxemics and relationality in Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) later work on Imperial

Roman self-care as a social practice. There are further close resonances with

Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on belongings produced through the adoption of an attitude of relationality and tolerance and enactment of rituals of mutual aid and shared ecstasy and vitality of neo-tribal sociality. Participants recounted how the sense of a bounded individual self-conscious self, exacerbated by anxieties of not fitting in and fears in relation to drug use, was released and the embodied self attuned and connected to music and crowd through practices of dancing and ‗lounging‘ enhanced by regulated drug use, meditation and memory. These techniques of self-care and transformation were concerned with the production of an ecstatic, amplified or connected body, through the careful regulation of the pleasures of music, dancing and drug use. They were at once personal, acting on the embodied self and collective, involving concern with the self-care and pleasure of other people and especially friends, easing entry into, movement through and out of the special spaces of events. The production of moments of belonging occurred seemingly effortlessly through the culmination of practices of ongoing work of these techniques on the embodied selves of the dancing and ‗lounging‘ crowd to produce the special safe and intimate feeling atmospheric space of events.

However, negotiating belonging began prior to entry into events and continued after events had ended. The techniques involved intermeshed with wider networks of communication including local street press, friendship networks and local neighbourhood spaces.

The transformation of self to an ecstatic way of being was bound up with tensions among multiple discourses. These discourses included texts of pleasure and fear in relation to drug use, diversity, queer, friendliness, Do it Yourself, environmentalism and

208 alternative spirituality through which participants understood events. These internal discourses were woven through in relation to the whole complex of individualising discourses and totalising procedures associated with the government of dance events as sites of dangerous drug use and participants as ‗at risk‘ individuals and populations in need of state intervention. These individualising discourses of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance limited and restricted the production of the embodied self to forms of individuality based on notions of fixed identity, sexual and drug use behaviour. Individualising discourses were tied into the history of struggles for spaces of freedom that characterised local dance events that become subject to and refused processes of commercial, legislative and police regulation as sites of dangerous drug use

(discussed previously in Chapter Five). Responses to this state and commercial regulation of events included the institutionalisation of professional, commercial organising techniques of large-scale commercial events and the discreet organising techniques of ‗underground‘ events. The articulation of highly specialised, strictly stylised forms of identities such as ‗gay‘, ‗rave‘ or ‗hardcore‘ were bound up with the regulation of events, struggles for spaces of freedom and fragmentation of the early scene along lines of musical genres.

Reading the current tensions in relation to strictly stylised forms of identity against this backdrop, the management and production of the ecstatic moment marks the dissolving of limits or constraints of processes of self-formation in terms of fixed and rigidly stylised identities and classifications such as ‗drug user‘, ‗gay‘ or ‗straight‘ and scene affiliations such as ‗rave‘ or ‗hardcore‘ and opens the possibility of something more – of variation and of connectedness. Accounts of the ecstatic moments of belonging produced through events contrast with stories of feelings of not belonging such as a

209 sense of alienation and separation in the everyday spaces of work or the street and in the spaces of the commercial ‗gay‘, ‗straight‘ rave and specialist nightclub scenes.

Preparations, atmospheric zones ―Well I must admit I was pretty into going that night. Unfortunately we left our run too late to buy the tickets and so we had to line up for 3 hours in the rain to get tickets…I…said ‗God I‘ve never done this before I don‘t think I‘ll ever do it again‘, I felt like a real loser but I knew that it was gonna be worth it and I had my heart set on actually going out for the night and we had everything else organised like we got the Ecstasy and all that organised so, and other friends of ours already had tickets…‖ [Kirsty]

―…it was an interesting set up. It was in the G____ Building at M____ [large capacity venue] and there was about 6 different rooms and it was just like a maze. It was set up like there were stairs and you had to go up stairs to get to another room and then there was little rooms all off the side it was really, really good…a lot of the decorations and that were from Reverse Garbage…it was techno-cyber-feral but it wasn‘t as hardcore as some of the raves I‘ve been to…it was really amazing, the use of multimedia and lighting…was really incredible it was a showcase event for multimedia…but I must admit going between rooms they had fluorescent lights which wasn‘t a very good thing at all because obviously you‘ve been sweating, you‘re red and sweaty and it‘s really a bit, a bit too light.‖ [Kirsty]

―…the vibe of the people there, everyone was very friendly…a really friendly atmosphere which…you don‘t often get in a lot of public gatherings…often…there‘s alcohol and that involved…or people…aren‘t as open and friendly and as willing to talk to strangers…I really like that kind of music…electronica but it‘s also manipulating electronica it‘s not just…‗doof, doof, doof‘…it‘s actually…being really creative and using different mediums…mixing electronica in with…musical instruments and fusing different forms altogether…‖ [Kirsty]

210 ―…each DJ had a different style, a different type of music so in that respect it was quite a mixed crowd had lots of gay and lesbian people and different…race and different spheres of life as well. So it wasn‘t a specific set style of music at a very sort of - cause some venues…have very a very specific sort of type…So if you have a neutral ground…like a G_____ building at the H___ of M____ then you can draw a mixed crowd when you have that and the style of music...‖ [John]

Kirsty and John describe their movement through the different atmospheric zones of a large convergence event. Kirsty details how she became anxious that she may not gain access to the event, that she was ‗outside‘ or did not belong, self-consciously feeling like a ‗loser‘ in the rain in the queue outside and at the same time experiencing a sense of intense anticipation and excitement. Negotiating pre-event anxiety and nervousness constitutes part of the emotional build up to the anticipated pleasures and excitement of the event. It also marks the beginnings of a process of ongoing monitoring of dangers, fears and pleasures and management of changes in the embodied self that as with

Malbon‘s (1999: 90-100, 185) ‗inhabitation‘, Pini‘s (1993, 1997c) discussion of techniques for management of fear and excitement of rave, and Foucault‘s (1986/1990b:

53, 101, 125) care of self, involved attention to and regulation of the ‗balance‘ of the embodied self via particular techniques in relation to situational factors including social relations, space, or environment. Kirsty describes the transformation of the everyday space of a large institutional building into a ‗techno-cyber-feral‘ ‗maze‘ through specially made decorations using recycled everyday materials, multimedia, electronica music that combines live instrumentation and electronic sounds, and the look and feel of multiple converging crowd networks to form the large festival style crowd. The feeling of this transformed space or ‗maze‘ is intimate, friendly and otherworldly, dream like, imaginary - in this sense a bounded and open, discreet and ‗empty‘ space (Maffesoli

211 1988/1996). John indicates that inclusion of different forms of music and a ‗neutral ground‘ or venue was a key factor in mixing up of stylistic and social boundaries in so far as multiple and diverse musical and dancing crowds were drawn to and moved through the range of dance and lounge zones of the event. He contrasts this with other club events that feature a stricter relation to musical and crowd stylisations. Entering into the space of the event for Kirsty is marked by the ‗friendly‘ vibe or atmosphere.

The crowd are both familiar and strange - including friends and anonymous although

‗friendly' and ‗open‘ strangers. The spaces in-between the ‗amazing‘ and ‗incredible‘ decorated, dark lit and musically demarcated dance and lounge zones are in stark contrast fitted with fluorescent lighting making the space ‗too light‘ uncomfortably showing off the red and sweaty dancing bodies usually safely held within the intermittently lit darkness and loud music of dance and lounge spaces.

Negotiating crowd belongings ―…because I‘m 33 I‘m beginning to start feeling a little tiny bit uncomfortable about going to these things because the majority of people there are…probably between 18 and 25…so I‘m starting to…think to myself ‗God I‘m not too past it, it‘s not too embarrassing is it?‘…the majority of people there were younger but at different stages of the night it was really amazing to see the different types of people…even though the majority were younger there was really all sorts of people there – there was older people, there were people that were obviously probably straight suburban people, there was you name it they were there I…saw this really old African woman at 4 o‘clock in the morning grooving down I saw at about 3 or 4 in the morning there seemed to be a huge influx of hardcore cyber-feral types that turned up…there was…lesbians, straight people, gay people, there was a couple of guys walking around in dresses there was just everything that you could imagine and that‘s why I like these events because you can, no one

212 really cares what you look like and even if you look like a full on nerd you‘re not going to be isolated by anyone…‖ [Kirsty]

―…a lot of people probably go there…to let loose and really get out a lot of bad energy that people have…from your working week…it‘s a way to let your hair down, shake your body, do some full on excellent dancing and…a general de-stress…a lot of people go there to socialise…I saw a lot of people…sitting down they didn‘t dance at all they were…chatting to people, making friends…it‘s…getting loose, having fun, meeting people…being part of a movement…people generally have a sense of…a union of a mindset when they go to these things…a feeling of belonging…that‘s very important because a lot of the people…are a bit freaky they like to wear…clothes…that make them stick out or…maybe they‘re just square pegs in round holes and at these events people can feel like they belong and there‘s no judgement…‖ [Kirsty]

―…there seems to be, aided by the drugs of course…a spiritual element to these things…internally, within yourself while you‘re listening to the music and the action of the drug and the fact that you‘re dancing…and you‘re with a whole heap of other people that are all dancing…it‘s very tribal and it‘s really very spiritual…the beat essentially is tribal and you just feel like you‘re communing in some kind of level that is something that you can‘t really explain or reach in your normal day to day existence and in fact is missing from our society…‖ [Kirsty]

For Kirsty moving through the spaces of the event, and in particular the look and feel of crowds, involves negotiating tensions between feelings of not belonging and belonging.

Moments of not belonging included instants of anxiety over gaining access to the event, intense fears concerning drug use (dealt with in more detail in the next chapter), feeling uncomfortable in the bright lights of the connecting hall spaces of the event and in an instant when the rule of friendliness was broken (discussed in the previous chapter).

213 Most importantly though for Kirsty, not belonging was bound up with issues of age. At

33 she is concerned that she may be too old to belong. Nonetheless, there is a tangible feeling of belonging and inclusiveness in Kirsty‘s account, produced through

‗inhabitation‘ of an in-between space of transformation and mystery. The familiarity of friendships is combined with the unknown possibilities of meeting strangers in the diverse crowd. The alienation and stress of work and everyday life are momentarily suspended and there is a sense of embodied and spiritual connectedness. This is evident in the description of ‗letting loose‘ of the ordinary self into an ecstatic ‗communion‘ with the unifying beat, the larger collective (external) and intensely personal (internal)

‗tribal‘ dancing and ‗lounging‘ body and the something more of ‗spirit‘ or ‗vibe‘.

However, despite the strong theme of ‗diversity‘ there is a complex tension running through Kirsty‘s story in terms of the composition of the crowd. There is a tension between the extraordinary or ‗freaky‘ and ‗nerdy‘ look of the crowd, its diversity in terms of age, sexuality, gender and race, and the predominantly young 18-25 year old

„mix‟. Despite this tension, belonging is for Kirsty still possible in this inclusive and accepting crowd. The ‗unity of a mindset‘ or friendly, open or like-minded, ‗accepting‘ and inclusive attitude involves a suspension of ‗judgement‘ and valuing of diversity. It is this shared attitude that in part allows for the production of a ‗feeling of belonging‘ or

‗being part of a movement‘ through ‗communing‘ with the unifying beat, the something more of spirit and the transformative effects of drugs and what is understood through a discourse of diversity as the difference or alterity of the dancing crowd, even if this crowd is predominantly younger in its „mix‟ or composition. Nonetheless, Kirsty identifies diversity in terms of age within her description of a ‗really old African woman at 4 o‘clock in the morning grooving down‘. The theme of transformation plays with and through and momentarily dissolves social classifications allowing for a feeling of

214 freeing up and negotiation of something more. Kirsty does not change her age although she does negotiate momentary shifts between different ways of being - forgetting her self for an instant while dancing in the crowd, or at other awkward moments thinking

‗I‘m not too past it, it‘s not too embarrassing is it‘?

As Malbon (1999) has argued, the extent to which dancers experience belongings is in part related to ‗competency‘ in enacting particular regulatory techniques. Foucault‘s

(1985/1992, 1986/1990b) work on self-care and development of the theme of social collectivity in Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on neo-tribal sociality allows an understanding of ecstatic belongings as produced through flexibility in the application of discourses guiding self-formation, adoption of an attitude of relationality and tolerance and the use of self-regulatory techniques and rituals of neo-tribal sociality in managing the pleasures of music, dance and drug use. Kirsty negotiates her sense of not belonging through adopting an open and non-judgemental, friendly attitude that is shared by the crowd and enacting particular self-regulatory techniques. These techniques include preparations such as selecting the event and organising friends and drugs beforehand (regulatory techniques specifically for drug use will be discussed in the next chapter), negotiating pre-event anxiety and instants of self-consciousness through momentarily forgetting or letting go of the everyday self and attuning the embodied self to music and crowd through dancing and ‗lounging‘ enhanced by drugs.

Part Two - Ecstatic belongings

Techniques for dancing-feeling - Release and responsiveness ―…the music is more important than almost anything, although music without people is kind of a meaningless thing…the music is what brings the people together in a big way…the music…is essential to overcoming the

215 alienation and separation that happens, that keeps people…isolated in their little identity boxes…when you‘re actually at the event it might, you might, the music might fade into the background and you might feel like the people or the substance you‘re on…is really…the essential factor, but if the music wasn‘t there then it would be hard to see what would keep everybody there…so that‘s…numero uno…that….there‘s a beat going on…‖ [Claude]

―I wouldn‘t be there if the music wasn‘t there, that‘s the whole…it‘s the beat, the music is there and then everything else happens around that…music is definitely the most important because it‘s what socialising comes from for me, you might listen to the music, you might talk about the music or you dance with people to the music and it stems from there…that is the…vibe creator…then it flows down to people and…people have responsibility to maintain a certain vibe or to…feel it…‖ [Natasha]

―…the music is…the thing that usually connects people…you often find friends on the dance floor, because you‘re enjoying music in a similar way and you…end up dancing near each other and you know when you find…a dance buddy because you‘re very on the same wave length and…you understand each other‘s physical being…‖ [Natasha]

―I like music whose structure and content (i.e. composition of sounds, beats, melodies) allow your body to experiment, because it‘s the movement and music combined that makes a large part of the sensory pleasure of an event for me.‖ [Jane]

In Claude, Natasha and Jane‘s accounts music is the key ‗mainspring‘ (Maffesoli

1988/1996: 144) through which the rhythm, pace and emotion of events shared by crowds is produced and consumed via a ‗technique of belonging‘ involving releasing the self and producing a musically attuned body, intensifying responsiveness to music and other people through dancing, ‗lounging‘ and regulated drug use. Communing in

216 the beat takes people out of their ‗identity boxes‘ for Claude and for Natasha is the root of socialising, listening and dancing. This ‗technique of belonging‘ (Maffesoli

1988/1996), as with other forms of dance, features a holding of a sense of passivity and activity, and a moving in-between the personal and collective, internal and external, reality and fantasy, being here and elsewhere (Gilbert & Pearson 1999: 106-107;

Malbon 1999: 91, 97). The ‗responsibility‘ to ‗feel‘ the beat, vibe or emotion of music for Natasha involves a form of passivity or what she elsewhere describes as the ability to ‗let go‘ or ‗give the self over‘ to music or the ‗dream‘ like state associated with events. This passivity is held during the activity of dancing that constitutes a form of momentarily personal and shared bodily ‗experimentation‘ and communication through which the self is transformed and friends are made on the dance floor.

―…you can have the friends…the drugs…the great crowd but I think the music really can make a crowd…how they interact with the DJ and how the DJ actually plays to them can make a huge difference…if…he or she, is being…a bit selfish or…not interacting really well then it can…flatten the crowd and…effect the way your drugs are working...‖ [Jen]

―…the DJs were really not exciting the crowd and not responding to the crowd at all…I don‘t mind going somewhere…if there are people getting into it then I can usually…join in even if it‘s not my particular type of music, but no one at all was enjoying the music and a lot of people were really angry about how bad the music was.‖ [David]

―…music is the drawing card…also the people that spin them. If you‘re gonna…play music, you‘ve got to have a good attitude, an attitude that people are gonna be drawn to, not drawn away…music is very powerful, it creates attitudes and consciousness…which keeps the whole subculture life

217 alive…if it wasn‘t for music then there really wouldn‘t be an intense experience of emotion to be carried out into daily life…‖ [Paul]

Jen, David and Paul valued DJs who adopted an attitude involving releasing the self, putting aside selfishness, or separateness that allowed them to connect with the crowd, respond to them, excite and work them, building up the atmospheric terrain to rhythmic and emotional peaks. David indicates that it is not the style of music that is important but the form of relation of the self with music, DJ and crowd. This holding of activity and passivity, release and responsiveness extends to the process of playing music and can be understood as involving DJs ‗reading‘ the dancing crowd who ‗re-write‘ music through the dance (Rietveld 1998a: 144-150).

The transformed or amplified embodied self – Dancing and lounging Dancing ―…when you take an E…you all of a sudden feel…light and your heart beats faster…the air around you is made of velvet and you just want to move your muscles need…stretching and that‘s very conducive to a good beat…when you‘re on this E and there‘s really good music your senses are just amazingly alive and you…feel like the music‘s inside you and it‘s really quite a very spiritual experience…it‘s not just with the music but it also helps with communication…Often if you just walk down the street…people are alienated from each other they find it hard to communicate and so this unfortunately but fortunately this is a way for people to communicate…‖ [Kirsty]

In Kirsty‘s account transformation of self occurs and is marked through changes in the body, emotions and atmospheric space and time, a feeling of lightness, the self almost becoming air, an increasing beating of the heart, a changing in the sensation of the air

(of the airy self, the self in air) – which becomes velvet - soft, smooth, warm, inviting,

218 inducing a new form of sinuous movement. A stretching of the self through the muscles into-through communion with the common beat, that the senses have come alive to – feeling the music inside the dancing body – an extension of the self that is not bound by usual dimensions and boundaries, a stretching inside and outside that is shared with and communicated through the dancing crowd. There is a sense of communion with the self, music, the dancing crowd and the something more of spirit.

―It was a beautiful spot, next to a river and very green. I think we lit a fire or maybe we just had torches, but I remember everyone, esp[ecially] Helen, looking very strange in the light. My acid was very nice...I felt very shiny and expansive, very free, dancing alone or dancing with Helen, and I was struck by the beauty of the one and only firework…The music allowed me to move in lots of strange ways which is, I guess, what excites me about good music. I was being quite wild and not repetitive, as can happen when the music is not of one consistent rhythm. After a short while I wasn‘t thinking about how to move, I let the music do its own thing with my body. With acid I find that lights and colours are intensified and everyone looks extraordinary and beautiful. My friends all had amazing eyes and amazing hair (the colour).‖ [Jane]

In Jane‘s account the self becomes ‗shiny and expansive‘, ‗free‘ and experiences of light, colour, other people‘s faces, responding to music through the dancing body become qualitatively different. There is a moment of not ‗thinking about how to move‘ where Jane releases her self into music - she says ‗I let the music do its own thing with my body‘ – opening the self to the ‗wildness‘ and non-repetitiveness of the dancing.

Through the acid a different appreciation of light, colour and other people is experienced where the ‗strange‘, ‗extraordinary‘, ‗beautiful‘ and ‗amazing‘ were enhanced.

219

The feeling of an instant of intense vitality in Kirsty‘s account, ‗your senses are just amazingly alive‘, and through drug use, enhanced responsiveness to music and communication with the dancing crowd is contrasted with the ‗alienation‘ and separateness of walking through the everyday space of the city street. In Jane‘s account there is a feeling of an instant of freedom, wildness, beauty involved in dancing on acid either alone or with a friend. The ecstatic moment is powerful, literally stretching the boundaries of the embodied self internally and externally allowing for momentary occupation of an airy or ‗shiny and expansive, very free‘ internal and external space or different appreciation of light and colour, of space that is fantastically elsewhere and tangibly here. In this sense it is immanent, embodied and of the dancing crowd and transcendent, spiritual, atmospheric. This moment is in some sense primal, as Jane puts it, ‗wild‘, or as Kirsty elsewhere articulated, ‗tribal‘, ‗earthy‘, and at the same time the manifestation of ‗vitality‘, ‗new energy‘, in the beating of the heart, the blood, the rhythm of the music, the ‗strange‘ movement of dancing bodies. Kirsty and Jane‘s accounts of the ecstatic moment resonate closely with accounts of the ‗elusory power‘

(Radley 1995 cited in Thrift 1997: 145-147, 149-150), ‗puissance‘ (Maffesoli

1988/1996: 31-33, 146-147), ‗playful vitality‘, ‗inhabitation‘, or ‗micro-power‘

(Malbon 1999: 147-151) of dancing bodies. In this approach, the embodied ‗play‘ of dance allows for temporary occupation of a space ‗elsewhere‘-here, an ‗as-if‘,

‗imaginary‘, or ‗alternate‘ world, or ‗alternate zones of experience‘, producing new ways of being (Pini 1996: 420; Pini 1997b: 118-119, 123-127; Thrift 1997: 145-147,

149-150; Malbon 1999: 147-151; Gilbert & Pearson 1999: 33).

220 Lounging ―We basically spent the whole night…sitting around and talking and usually dance a lot…but we actually didn‘t that night cause there were a few friends there we hadn‘t seen for a long time, so we…spent the night talking to them and going outside…it‘s a really mixed group of people – there‘s straight, gay and lesbian people there…really really relaxed, because you go downstairs and…they burn incense…and it‘s quite dark and it‘s lit with fluros…ambient music…it‘s a really mellow kind of place, and they never have…any high energy…it‘s quite alternative with it‘s music style…the good thing about it is that it has such a wide variety of people going and they‘re always really, really nice…it‘s not pretentious at all…it‘s really comfortable, they‘ve got bean bags and cushions and free video games…so when you go you‘re…quite relaxed, you go for a good time and everyone‘s really friendly and you can do your own thing, you can dance any way you want or go and meet people…in the sort of the lead up…the first couple of hours it‘s quite relaxed and it‘s sort of tribal kind of thing to it as well, lots of drums and Spanish and Latin American things…psychedelic trancey…at the beginning and then they go into…faster beats…but initially…it has that ambient feel to it, a lot more floaty...‖ [John]

―I thought that H____ [female DJ] was going to shape the night…cause she was back…the music was quite harder than I thought...cause when she went away it was very psi-trancey and Goa, and…bouncy smooth with a bit of a hard edge to it but when she played her set it was…really harder and faster which I was quite surprised…because of the state I was in I was happy to…sit on the lounge and…listen to it because…it wasn‘t as comfortable cause… it wasn‘t a packed packed venue because that weekend they had the J____ [outdoor party name] on which is on the B___ J___ [regional area] so a lot of people went up for that um so it wasn‘t as packed so you could get lost in the crowd and…create your little temporary autonomous zone (laughs) but…also…the rave element, I was…happy just to get into it from a lounge space (laughs) rather than…go and dance until you can‘t dance no more…the music was harder a bit more experimental and a part of me

221 thought…H____ [female DJ] she‘s been away for a while and she‘s going to come back with a really distinct sound, so she‘s gone for the really hard quirky…the other live bands they complemented her well cause they went from her spectrum of being really hard and experimental to…ambient sounds that had a bit, a lot of drum‘n‘bass like quick drum‘n‘bass…it was really diverse from ambient drum and bass jungle stuff through to like really I guess like not hard trance, hard - oh it didn‘t really have a style, which is I think that was probably what she was going for…bring something back that people haven‘t really heard of so they can‘t label it…it was good (laughs) even though…at times I was getting like ‗Come on H_____ [female DJ] play something smoother please‘ (laughs)…I think you can fit round 3-350, 400 even, but that night there was probably only 150, 200…which was sort of good, that‘s why I was quite happy to lounge, plus the E I had was…I hadn‘t had that type before, it was a Calvin Klein so it was a bit, I didn‘t really like it as much as the other stuff I‘ve had so I was quite happy just to…sit on the lounge with…my friends and partner and just take it all in, just wait for people to come up and entertain you (laughs), be a really lazy socialite, do nothing and just wait for people to come up to you…‘ [Michael]

John and Michael‘s stories feature the practice of ‗lounging‘ or relaxing. The self is transformed in John‘s account through an increased sociability or chattiness linked to the effects of E. John indicates that although dancing within this space does occur, and he has gone out to dance here before, on this occasion catching up with friends becomes the main focus of the event, that is complemented by the ‗relaxing‘ or ‗mellow‘ feeling of the lounge space with cushions and bean bags, video games, incense and ambient music. There is a sense of comfort created through sharing or communing with music and the diverse crowd. In Michael‘s account the stronger than usual effects of E and the relative emptiness of the dance space produced comfort in ‗lounging‘ and

222 socialising with his friends and partner. Nonetheless, listening to music still has an important place in the event for Michael.

John and Michael‘s accounts of the ecstatic moment in ‗lounging‘ or relaxing socialising and listening to music resonate with accounts of chill or ambient style events

(Gilbert & Pearson 1999: 93-95) and the idea of ecstatic experiences involving

‗withdrawal‘ rather than ‗intensity‘ (Malbon 1999: 111-112). Significantly, feeling music with the body and the intensification of the warmth of social relations related to drug use features in John and Michael‘s accounts. ‗Lounging‘ is an important alternate

‗spacing‘ (Malbon 1999) that was related to rituals of renewing and extending friendship circles, negotiating the too strong or intensely social effects of drugs such as

Ecstasy, lounge or chill zones or events, more sociable doof crowds and in some cases with the inclusion of older participants or crowd mixes.

Part Three - New sexualities

Safe spaces ―…drugs, music…people…and darkness…being in the night-time, where…you …feel protected and sheltered by the darkness and at the same time cosy with the people there and the drugs make everyone feel cosy, comfortable, relaxed, chilled out and being so out of it that you can just not worry too much…that‘s what some people do and then by being having that outlet that idea to walk into then you‘ve got…when you really open to discovering your sexuality and meeting people and…dealing with those issues that are inside your head…‖ [Paul]

For Paul the space of events is ‗cosy‘, offering a feeling of being held in the safety of darkness and the effects of drugs such as Ecstasy that increase a sense of euphoria and

223 closeness to other people facilitating ‗relaxing‘ that allows for exploring sexuality that would not be possible in other everyday day-time spaces.

Diversity – Welcoming queerness and freakiness ―…the important thing is that it‘s [sexuality‘s] not important at all…most events where I go to would be…completely non-judgemental about that…the most important thing is that it doesn‘t matter who…or what things you like doing with your body it‘s just everyone‘s there to have a good time.‖ [David]

―…if there‘s more of a mix, more of a diversity I feel more comfortable…you don‘t feel out of place…I feel more of an acceptance whether that‘s to do with anything from how I dance to my sexuality.‖ [Michael]

―…some parties where it‘s so diverse you can‘t see those distinctions…everybody‘s going for a more diverse, different look…it can transcend class and sexuality…at doofs…looking at sexuality - a lot of the guys there, I wouldn‘t know if they were gay, queer, straight, bi or whatever…that‘s refreshing…it‘s a bit…queer orientated…sexuality isn‘t an issue anymore, everybody‘s so diverse it‘s not a question, it‘s just accepted…no one will look you up and down and think…‗What are you?‘…there‘s no assumptions…anything goes…‖ [Michael]

―…this is maybe draw cards to events sexuality, but I like it as just another element of diversity…not so much like the J__ parties are a bit more like sexuality oriented with music a bit the harder side, but…doofs and H____ St. parties are pretty much…are basically queer friendly so I guess it‘s – it‘s not central, I don‘t think it should be central but it‘s good to have some sort of acknowledgement or acceptance or just diversity that will welcome that, that will embrace that just see sexuality as another form of expression through diversity…probably a lot of people there that are maybe exclusively

224 heterosexual…it may not enter their head too much like…‗Oh yeah everything‘s diverse here‘ but sexuality mightn‘t be one of the forefront concepts of what‘s diverse about the scene, probably because people that do have sex with the same people with the same sex…it‘s more of an issue because they‘ve had to grow up with issues like that so when they look at a scene…sexuality would probably be a factor in it more prominently than say someone who‘s been heterosexual all their life…but at the same time I think diversity, like I also think that in a way it‘s a bit of a queer fashion style that I think fits into the doof scene…in a way it‘s seen as just another form of expression and diversity and it just merges well…this is being…totally subjective, but…when I think other people in the doof scene see someone who‘s queer or who has that queer fashion look about them they‘re not looking at them…judging them by their sexuality or they‘re probably admiring them for their expression or their like more diverse look…so in that way there‘s an acceptance and it‘s not…sexuality doesn‘t have to be the forefront of…relations I guess or like just perspectives that other people give you – whether it‘s real or not I can‘t say but that‘s just generally what I feel and think…I have spoken to other friends that are especially quite…receptive of that and they pretty much agree…it depends what sort of party it is but like at many of the places I go to it‘s not really an issue – sexuality – it‘s just another form of diversity. I‘ve never been to any of those parties and felt that sexuality‘s been an issue – it‘s just…another form of expression…it‘s through the diversity it‘s…been normalised in a way…it‘s a bit of a paradox. I hate to use that word normal, but yeah.‖ [Michael]

These excerpts from David and Michael‘s accounts indicate the complex tensions, or as

Michael puts it the ‗paradox‘, surrounding belongings and sexualities in ‗mixed‘ events.

There is a tangible sense of belonging related to the attitude of the crowd involving suspension of ‗judgement‘ and ‗acceptance‘ where ‗diversity‘ in self-expression including a ‗queer fashion look‘, dancing and sexuality are valued while at the same

225 time ‗sexuality is not an issue‘, is ‗normalised‘ or ‗doesn‘t matter‘ due to the text of

‗unity‘ or communion with music and dancing-‘lounging‘ crowds as David says ‗it‘s just everyone‘s there to have a good time‘. Michael articulates that ‗sexuality is not an issue‘ for ‗exclusively heterosexual‘ people who may not have considered sexuality before, although diversity in self-expression including the ‗queer fashion look‘ and dancing are valued and welcomed. He elaborates, however, that for same sex attracted people sexuality is an important everyday issue that is temporarily ‗normalised‘ within the space of doofs, where ‗diversity‘ is valued. There is a sense of excess or slippage in-between the terms used to classify sexuality – Michael says ‗I wouldn‘t know if they were gay, queer, straight, bi or whatever‘ - referring to the possibility for something more than classifications based on ‗identity‘ within the space of events that resonates with accounts of the freeing up of a multiplicity of sexualities through the ‗whole body eroticism‘ of disco and the ‗not sexual, but orgasmic‘, or ‗autoerotic‘ sexuality of rave

(Dyer 1979/1990: 415; Pini 1997a: 167; Pini 1997b: 122-123; Gilbert & Pearson 1999:

99-107).

Michael indicates that the valuing of ‗diversity‘ in events was related to a discourse of

‗queer‘. Michael elsewhere articulated how the discourse of queer was intermeshed with a broader text of ‗diversity‘, or ‗freakiness‘, that encompassed more than only sexuality, referring to dress and musical taste. Michael cannot say for sure if the sense of freeing up of sexuality is ‗real‘ or flows beyond the special space of events – but importantly within events he and his same sex attracted friends feel a sense of acceptance and belonging. This tension between the feeling of ‗vitality‘ and questioning of ‗reality‘ of diversity or the ‗paradox‘ of sexuality ‗not being an issue‘ and being valued as another form of diversity constitutes limits of ecstatic and crowd

226 belongings, that as Pini (1997b: 123-127) has argued, may be ‗temporary‘ and characterised by ‗context-specificity‘ and ‗contradictions‘.

‘Enjoying each other’ ―A mixed crowd has the effect of feeling inclusive and non-judgemental; it has a freedom to it which allows me to feel comfortable to move and/or express my sexuality…crowds which are more straight or more male tend to be sleazy. Also, there is a difference in the way crowds tend to appreciate music. At one dance night I went to at Club G___…all the people danced facing the DJ and enacted a disturbing kind of worship for him, hands in the air as the music builds…At Club V___ on a Thursday night, by contrast, people dance facing each other and move about a lot rather than stay in one spot, like fans do at a rock concert. Sure the music is still creating the ―vibe‖ for people, but they are not solely focused on the DJ, they are enjoying each other too. I suppose I think of ―mixed‖ crowds as being diverse in style too…ferally people and coloured bonds t-shirted people and whatever, ages ranging fairly widely. Mixed crowds make for entertaining viewing! And going out to watch other people (in a subtle unobtrusive way) is all part of the fun of these events.‖ [Jane]

―For me it‘s important sometimes to feel that I could happily kiss a woman while out somewhere and know that there won‘t be people gawking – or men indulging their voyeuristic fantasies…I like to feel free to be expressive without having that expressiveness exploited…sometimes I find that freedom at women only events, although I enjoy mixed crowd events too. But having said that, expressing my sexuality is not always the most important thing when I go out, and also I see my sexuality as fluid and don‘t identify strongly with the gay crowd; I also like going to ―straight‖ nights just to be with friends, have a dance and drink. Probably the music is the most important thing about events for me, and indeed, crap repetitive top 20 hits at a lot of gay events have been what‘s put me off them. I guess I don‘t

227 go out in gay clubs for the music; I go there to be with gay/bisexual people.‖ [Jane]

Jane‘s account features a theme of slippage, excess or ‗fluidity‘ of sexuality valued and at the same time, ‗not always the most important thing‘ at events. Jane indicates that the space of events encourages forms of dancing that involve a ‗spacing‘ (Malbon

1999: 92, 94) of dancers so as to ‗face‘ one another on the dance floor, dance with one another and exchange a particular form of admiring looking, rather than facing in one direction towards the DJ who is ‗worshipped‘. As with accounts of rave (Pini 1993,

1997a: 165-166), clubbing (Malbon 1999: 82, 92) and house (Rietveld 1998a: 194-195), the crowd themselves, their look or style, feeling and response to music, DJs/performers and one another through dancing, spacing and exchange of looks, are part of the performance and consumption of the event, the form of looking becomes diffused, belonging to everyone and no one. Jane indicates that she does not mean ‗gawking‘, exploitative ‗voyeurism‘ or a look intent only on sexual ‗pick up‘, rather her looking on the ‗mixed‘ crowd and the type of look she recognises as a spacing of ‗mixed‘ events is

‗subtle and unobtrusive‘ located in collective dancing bodies facing one another - the crowd are ‗enjoying each other‘ and a feeling of ‗inclusion‘, suspension of ‗judgement‘ and ‗freedom‘. Jane, Michael and Kirsty indicated that part of the ‗fun‘ of going to events was both exchanging admiring looks and dances and dressing up in ‗freaky‘ ways, including a ‗queer fashion look‘, ‗admired‘ as another form of ‗diversity‘.

‗Freaky‘ and ‗queer fashion‘ looks were sexual in subtle and ambiguous ways. As

Michael indicates, the codes involved were hard to read in terms of classifications based on identity, as the looks involved were ‗diverse‘. For Michael, Nina, Jane, Natasha,

228 Kirsty and John, ‗mixed‘ events allowed for a freedom and fluidity and ‗refreshing‘

‗liveliness‘ in fashion, music, dancing, sexuality and drug use, including freaky, feral and queer looks, that were not afforded by the more ‗restrictive‘ codes of ‗sameness‘ and ‗cleanness‘ of commercial ‗gay and lesbian‘ or ‗straight‘ events. Such ‗freaky‘, feral and ‗queer‘ looks were not formally regulated through dress codes or door policies and in contrast to dance events marked by commercial ‗distinctions‘ and ‗cool‘, were not used as markers for overt ‗exclusion‘ (Malbon 1999: 62-69). These looks contrast with expensive designer club wear or the production and consumption of ‗sexy‘ and

‗glamorous‘ female dancing bodies within some club spaces, resonating more closely with the ‗playful ‗dressing up‘ of gay and early acid house events (Gilbert & Pearson

1999: 174-177). This form of dressing up involves a more flexible relation of the self to the guiding discourse of diversity (Foucault 1985/1992: 30-31).

This is not to suggest that events do not act as spaces where sexual partners meet, or where other forms of sexual looking or seeking or negotiations of spacings on the dance floor so as to avoid this, such as Jane and Sarah‘s accounts of protective group dances, occur. As Michael explained, V___ acted as a space for convergence of sexual networks. However, meeting sexual partners was predominantly viewed by participants as incidental to the pleasures of music, dancing, friendliness and drug use. This was apparent in descriptions of the sexuality of events as ‗just dancing‘ featuring forms of

‗admiring‘ or sensual ‗you‘re beautiful‘ looking and bodily communication and friendliness shared among dancers as a pleasurable end in itself that resonates with accounts of the form of sensual ‗looking‘ and ‗auto-erotic‘ sexuality of rave (Pini

1997b: 122).

229 ‘Just Dancing’ ―…well crowds is a huge one again. I hate gronky beer guzzling…mentality and I mean not that, I drink and everything but just that I really hate…that sleazy vibe from men and that…macho front which…they can give out and in certain things so for me…I can put it in the back of my head and just go off and ignore it and have a good time but…it does you know it‘s like it determines like we were talking about before…going to F__ D___ [temporary venue] and the crowd there because it‘s the H___ [special event]…are really open and really approachable so you can…talk to anyone and give a smile to…a chick and not feel as though she‘s gonna think that I‘m…trying to win on to her or anything…I really love that…last night we were going out and…dancing heaps just with this one girl who was…a really great dancer and…that‘s all it was…you can‘t often do that in Sydney I don‘t reckon…people immediately think you want something or they want something from you…and it‘s all a bit suss…that‘s…nice having that that open crowd…cause it‘s a real mix of people too and everyone‘s…spirits are lifted…going to a younger crowd like in B___ at the techno scene where they‘re all…18 to 22 and they‘re all dealing with that…the play on hooking up and…defining their identities and so they‘re putting on these big fronts and it…works against them because they end up…not being able to communicate with each other or…sizing everyone up and it becomes…snobby and disjointed…because they‘re young…and they‘re they‘ve still got a bit of attitude and it‘s not so drollway…I think it‘s boring…it just gets a bit ugly…if violence comes in…it‘s just not as happy and the drugs there are a bit harder…talking about last night again…cause the music was funky everyone was…scootin‘ around the floor and…bumping into people having a dance with each other and then they‘d scoot off and there was a real…vibe there but in B__…there‘ll be…this insane track on and…everyone‘s got their little one metre square box that they stand in, perfectly placed around…because the music‘s so hard they just, it‘s their personal interpretation and they just…bust the moves and don‘t even really look around…with whose around them…that does have a shit load to do with the music and…where the venue [is]…when you‘re

230 comparing Sydney/B__ it‘s just huge because of the different styles of music that they like and Sydney‘s very social and people go out for a night to have drinks and…there‘s no dancing styles it‘s just people breaking on down but…in B___…you can learn how to dance…you can go and take classes of how to dance at techno parties…So you go in and everyone‘s dancing the same. They‘re doing this weird…shuffle move on the floor and this sort of funky…blend of break dancing moves…people here are it‘s a bit more geeky and…carefree…they‘ll wobble their bums around and…laugh…[they‘re] just not so concerned with their appearances…‖ [George]

George‘s introduction to this excerpt is significant as he indicates that while he can negotiate ‗sleazy‘ and ‘macho‘ attitude this is perhaps not so easy for others and as he elsewhere explained, his girlfriend finds this to be more difficult to negotiate. Others such as Jane, Sarah, Robin, Kirsty and Paul indicated that negotiating ‗straight‘ or ‗gay‘ competitive or ‗to the fore‘ male sexual seeking was particularly difficult. George describes finding a dance floor friend through the non-verbal communication and sensuality of dancing. He contrasts the sense of spontaneous and ‗carefree‘ or ‗geeky‘ although pleasurable connectedness of the crowd at the one off event with the separateness of the crowd at B___‘s techno scene where the style of dancing is more rigid, the music and drugs harder and issues of identity and ‗hooking up‘ or finding sexual partners come to the fore. Both of these scenes are contrasted with moments of feeling out of place negotiated in relation to George‘s experiences of encountering a

‗macho‘ and ‗sleazy‘ attitude. This account features two different forms of dancing.

The admiring ‗looking‘ of ‗just dancing‘ where friends are made on the dance floor and non-verbal communication occurs at the one off event is contrasted with the classifying and judgemental ‗looking‘ of identity and sexual seeking of the B___ techno scene

231 where there is a sense of competition, separateness, lack of communication and possibility of violence. As with Jane‘s account above of ‗enjoying each other‘ George is describing a particular form of ‗spacing‘ or ‗inhabitation‘ (Malbon 1999) of the space of events where the dancing crowd look around at one another as they playfully dance.

Sensual and emotional intimacy and openness ―…sometimes you can be dancing to…an amazing track and you can…look across at someone and you may never see them again for the rest of the night and you do connect with that person just over that music and that can be…an amazing moment…just thinking ‗I know exactly what you mean‘…(laughs)…that can be a boy, a girl…a drag queen, it doesn‘t really matter, but you do at that moment have a connection, definitely…having drugs obviously can make you a lot more open and you can find a connection with someone with drugs that you may would never have one been given the opportunity to or be able to, be open and all that or feel that emotionally intimate with the person…probably the music and drugs would be the main thing…you do go to a party thinking well some of the people here are probably as open as me and…you do sort of well probably we‘ll meet some really cool group of people tonight. And quite often…most of the time…you do meet some…really cool people and I spose that‘s a connection as well, that you go with that as well – I‘m open to meet anyone...‖ [Jen]

―E is a great drug to take when you‘re seeing someone. It‘s so amazing to be kissing someone on the dance floor during the peak of your E, and to dance sexily or stupidly with that person in your own world. It‘s quite magic…‖ [Jane]

―That felt really, really good…dancing…sweating…we were almost in a circle… digging in the shoulders into the thumbs was just like ‗Errrr‘ [contented noise]…felt like this…closeness and…bonding…creating a sense of, what would you call it? An almost, a physical, sensual 232 intimacy…going beyond, well no, beyond gender‘s not the right the word…almost a bisexual sort of thing cause…there‘s guys giving each other massages…girls giving each other massages…my friend‘s girlfriend just came up behind her flatmate and they were hugging…moving, undulating in time to the music…‖ [Sean]

Jen, Jane and Sean‘s accounts indicate the pleasures of the sensuality of the dance floor that was not restricted to popular understandings of sexuality as ‗straight/gay‘,

‗masculine/feminine‘ and resonate with accounts of the ‗autoerotic‘ sexuality of rave events as constituting ‗safe‘ sexual practices in relation to HIV within the spaces of events (sex, drugs and ‗coming down‘ will be discussed in the next chapter) (Pini 1993:

49-50, Pini 1997 c: 163; Henderson 1993: 124-126; McRobbie 1993: 419-420). Jen recounts meeting with strangers face to face on the dance floor and the exchange of intimate, open and knowing looks that convey a shared sense of feeling the music and drugs or as she puts it ‗I know exactly what you mean‘. Significantly Jen describes how these knowing looks are shared with members of the dancing crowd across everyday social boundaries of gender or sexuality. For Jen, the sense of being ‗open‘ and

‗intimate‘ related to the connection between members of the crowd through music, dancing and drugs facilitates the possibility of meeting ‗cool people‘. In this account even going to an event with the attitude of being ‗open‘ to meet ‗cool‘ people is a form of connection. Jane indicates that kissing her female partner on the dance floor when on an E and being able to dance ‗sexily‘ or ‗stupidly‘ with her is ‗amazing‘ and ‗magic‘.

For Sean, there is a huge contentment associated with giving and receiving massages amongst his group of friends that he describes as almost ‗beyond gender‘ or ‗bisexual‘ in so far as usual social boundaries are dissolved. Significantly, Sean elsewhere indicated that within such a context, where friendliness and sensuality are emphasised

233 over overt sexual pick up, the possibilities of meeting sexual partners as friends are perhaps increased, or at least likely to occur with more comfort and ease, rather than a sense of competitiveness, or feeling out of place.

Conclusions

Moments of belonging and not belonging were negotiated via techniques, rituals, rules and discourses – constituting the sociality of events. These included techniques for

‗being prepared‘ through selection of events, organising dress, drugs and friends to go with and for movement through the atmospheric, spatial, temporal, and emotional zones of events. Moments of not belonging were associated with fear or anxiety in relation to drug use (dealt with in the next chapter) and self-consciousness related to aspects of self such as age and sexuality, musical taste, look or style. What was more important than the discourse of diversity itself as a precondition to an inclusive form of belonging was a particular form of flexible and situational relation of self to codes guiding self- stylisation and regulation of space. The possibility of inclusiveness was tied into the ability to hold loosely rather than tightly to discourses guiding self-stylisation and regulation of space and to adopt an attitude of relationality and tolerance. It was this flexibility in application of discourses guiding self-stylisation and the adoption of a relational attitude of openness, responsiveness and suspension of judgement that created pockets of space for the exploration of something more than was available through stricter adherence to guiding discourses or a focus on individual separate selves.

The key techniques of self involved in the production of belonging related to the creation and maintenance of a musically attuned dancing and ‗lounging‘ body through a process of release of self and increased responsiveness to music and crowd, in some

234 cases enhanced through drug use, or other techniques, such as meditation and memory.

There were particular forms of dancing and ‗lounging‘. These included a form of dancing where everyone danced with everyone else and a form of ‗lounging‘ associated with lounge spaces or ambient music as well as negotiating effects of drugs and in some cases the inclusion of older participants in crowds. The self was transformed in the ecstatic moment of dancing and ‗lounging‘ where internal and external boundaries were extended. In these ecstatic moments issues of belongings to crowds, differentiations in these internal belongings and in everyday classifications in terms of sexualities, gender and age were momentarily dissolved. In some cases the ecstatic moment was understood in terms of a discourse of alternative spirituality as a feeling of belonging to everything, or being at one with the universe; in others these moments were understood as opening onto a space elsewhere but here – sensory, emotional or fantasy dimensions of play, imagination and creativity.

Paradoxically, given the differentiations in crowds in some cases linked to everyday distinctions and moments of tensions in belongings along these lines (discussed in the previous chapter), these ecstatic moments of dissolving of crowd and everyday classifications were at the very heart of crowd belongings. The shared experience of dancing and ‗lounging‘ was more than anything else the key way in which participants in events were bound together through a sense of shared emotional community. There were limits to this form of community though, in so far as it was experienced temporarily in the seemingly timeless although rhythmically structured and spatially bounded and open ecstatic moment. There were limits in so far as the ‗realness‘ of the very tangible feelings of ‗freedom‘ and ‗vitality‘ or ‗aliveness‘ involved in the ecstatic moment was questioned. However, these tensions between ‗vitality‘ and ‗reality‘ in

235 stories of the ecstatic moment can most usefully be conceptualised building on Thrift

(1997), Pini (1996) and Malbon (1999), as an instant of ‗playful vitality‘ characterised by a form of transcendent and immanent power. Dancing, and in these stories

‗lounging‘, opens out an occupation of an ‗elsewhere‘ that is at once here, or an in- between space, where the embodied self is produced in particular ways that contrast with what is understood in these accounts as its more ‗restricted‘ production in other spaces. In the next chapter I consider the techniques regulating drug use in more detail

– drawing out how a particular mode of self-regulated drug use contributed to the production of the ecstatic moment and its implications for health.

236

Chapter Eight – Regulatory techniques for drug use

“These are circumstantial regimens, which demand that one take great care to determine the conditions that will least affect the whole combination of balances.” (Foucault 1986/1990b: 124-125).

“…the interplay of the care of the self and the help of the other blends into preexisting relations, giving them a new coloration and greater warmth. The care of the self—or the attention one devotes to the care that others should take of themselves—appears then as an intensification of social relations.” (Foucault 1986/1990b: 53).

Introduction

In this chapter I focus on how drug use was regulated within the sociality of dance events and the everyday lives of participants and draw out implications for health. I provide an account of the regulation of drug use through analysis of stories in interviews with partygoers, set in relation to Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) text on care of the self. Regulatory techniques for drug use were closely related to the key ‗technique of belonging‘ (Maffesoli 1988/1996) of release and responsiveness of self in relation to music, dancing and ‗lounging‘, through which ecstatic, network and crowd belongings were produced and intensified.

Firstly, I consider how drug use was regulated through particular guiding discourses or principles. Through reading stories of drug use in relation to Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) work on care of self, I think through the production of a particular regulated way of

237 using drugs guided by a key principle of ‗balance‘ interrelated with a discourse of alternative spirituality. I then examine techniques of self-care through which drug use was regulated, unpacking how, in resonance with Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) understanding of self-care as a social practice, these techniques were enmeshed in small friendship networks and involved both work on the self and a concern for the self-care and pleasure of other people. I then consider instances when techniques of self-care failed, or were described as being in danger of failing, such as during the wearing off of the effects of drugs or ‗coming down‘, recovery, sex on drugs and injecting. I indicate how these instances were understood as being interrelated with disturbances in

‗balance‘, such as breakdown in the belonging of small friendship networks.

Friendship and crowd networks, within which drug use and sexual practice were enmeshed, were diverse and fluid rather than comprising distinct ‗populations‘ based on fixed notions of ‗identity‘ or sexual and drug use behaviour. Notions of ‗individual risk‘ were re-threaded in complex ways, along seams of tension between pleasure and fear, played out within the affinity networks of friends and crowds. Networks provided contexts for risk when rituals failed, but were at the same time, the site for production of a form of personal and collective ‗responsibility‘, involving enactment of techniques of self-care, intimately bound up with sharing in pleasures and concern with the self-care of other people.

Pleasure and fear

―I‘ve been to lots of parties high and I‘ve been to lots of parties straight and I usually don‘t, like I always I approach substances with a lot more…in some ways trepidation, because I feel like it‘s as likely to be a complicating

238 factor than as it is to be a conducive factor to having a good time. And so I don‘t…take anything too lightly when I come to drug use especially in a public place where there‘s likely to be lots of people and lots of factors beyond my control…the thing about being out in…a community event that has a fairly large drug focus that trying to make the connection to a good feeling through drugs if I don‘t have that connection with the people that I‘m getting the drugs from…is a lot more dubious…they could be saying that they‘re selling me LSD and it‘s just a piece of paper…so that can be disappointing or frustrating or just hard to get over the fact that you‘re not getting what you‘re told you‘re getting. So…it can really ruin the whole trip (laughs).‖ [Claude]

―I think I took my first E in about 1986 – I only ever do it maybe 2 or 3 times a year, I‘m not really hardcore about it at all, but um it sort of frightens me a little bit – it sort of frightens me how there‘s been quite a few incidents at dance parties where people have been shot or they‘ve OD‘d or something bad‘s happened and nobody seems to have cared and…that person may have died and so when we got there…and I finally met up with all my friends and we decided OK we‘d find a little quiet spot where to go and divvy up the pills and stuff on the way, just near where we were about to do it there was this young girl lying down on the ground with all these ambulance officers around her and they were feeding her oxygen and stuff and it was really quite frightening because it was just before I was about to take this E. And it was very much a downer of a vibe but I mean I don‘t think I mean people were necessarily thinking ‗Oh god you know put her somewhere else‘ but I think a lot of people were quite concerned. Nevertheless it didn‘t stop the party at all and I think she was OK and I mean what do you do I mean there‘s 3, 4 thousand people with a huge party…so you don‘t just stop the event because of that and who knows…maybe she was just dehydrated or something I don‘t know but that was definitely a very scary part of the night but at least at an event like that I really don‘t think that if something like that happened that people wouldn‘t do anything about it. I‘m hoping that that‘s the case.‖ [Kirsty]

239

Claude and Kirsty‘s accounts of the pleasurable effects of drug use and how these enhanced appreciation of music and other people at events through dancing and

‗lounging‘ were complex, involving a series of tensions between the intensification of belonging and fears of the spoiling of belonging due to the dangerous, adverse or potent effects of drugs. The excerpts presented here focus on the theme of fear. Claude‘s account draws attention to the key issue of quality that due to the illicit status of drugs is often tinged with uncertainty and anxiety. His account indicates the way in which drugs can be both ‗conducive‘ to belonging and the source of ‗trepidation‘, as a factor

‗complicating‘ the sharing of pleasure through which belonging is produced.

Elsewhere, Claude indicated that the changes produced in the embodied self through the potent effects of drugs could in some situations become overwhelming, associated with

‗anxiety‘ exacerbating moments of not belonging, characterised by feeling uncomfortable and out of place. Kirsty‘s story vividly shows how fears can be intricately woven into even the most intensely pleasurable experiences of events. In a sense, fear is bound up with the pleasure of drugs, due to the illicit status and indeterminable quality of drugs. There is a sense in which this fear for the collapsed girl is a more broadly reaching fear for self, for friends and for the crowd of the event, indicated in Kirsty‘s ‗hope‘ that were this to happen to someone else a member of the crowd would step in to help. What must be emphasised, however, is that unlike the understandings of fear and danger of popular accounts of dance events, awareness of fears and dangers associated with drugs does not cancel out pleasures. Rather, participants in events valued negotiation of such fear and what were understood as the

240 potent transformative properties of drugs through the regulation of drug use via particular techniques so as to avoid dangers and maximise pleasures.

Shamanism and spirit

―I think there is a lot to be learnt with drugs…they‘re very, very spiritual things…that‘s where the world needs to…look into it a bit more and realise the potential to…whether you want to call it mind expanding, I don‘t think it‘s that really, totally anyway…the Shamans…the native tribes with witch doctors used to use drugs to induce a state of trance which took them up into the world of the spirits where they were a spirit themselves and…dealt with the good and the bad if there‘s such a thing…I can relate to that…modern day society forgets a lot about that, doesn‘t really know much about that and the history of it all. Before I ever took drugs I researched it a lot about…what drugs did and mainly from a biased point of view…the books that I would read and I did have one book that was…the other side…negative draw backs…both books were both two extremes…the world really needs to know about the spiritual connection with drugs…but also…there just needs to be a more accurate, well not accurate exactly, but more open minded to what the negatives and the positives of drugs. Because I think there is just so much stigma attached that the stigma just steers people right away and ignores it totally…and as soon as the conformed society says…someone‘s spinning out or someone‘s having a good time, especially the adults…the older people…they think, they just seem to be so ignorant to it…a lot of the time…they just don‘t wish to have anything to do with it. And I think…there has to be more acceptance in some way but…with some principles behind that acceptance…‖ [Paul]

Paul‘s account features the discourse of Shamanism associated with a belief in the spiritual qualities of drug experiences that were used as a way to access the spirit realm and to solve problems and heal ailments by Shaman. In Paul‘s account, there is a

241 tension between the positive valuing of drug use in the discourse of Shamanism, and the need for appropriate information for contemporary use of drugs. Paul is concerned with producing a balanced account of drug use that has room for dangers and pleasures. He sees Shamanism as helpful in this respect but is suggesting that the very real risks associated with drug use require more than only a positive valuation of drug experiences, especially given the ‗stigma‘ associated with drug use. Nonetheless, Paul makes use of the discourse of Shamanism in negotiating his own drug use in relation to dance events and in providing support and advice for his friends.

Enhancing release and responsiveness

Enhancing music, visuals, lounging and dancing through the effects of drugs ―[Drugs open]…different sensory dimensions. I think particularly aural…things definitely sound different depending on what kind of drug, and also the loss of inhibitions, it can you know, relaxes, sometimes you need to relax before you can really appreciate something…the type of music determines the type of drug you might want to take (laughs) as in like chemicals versus marijuana or…if I was going to go to a blues thing it would probably be marijuana…if it was electronic then it would be chemical drugs…at every music event there‘s some kind of visual to go with the audio and that‘s…almost always been enhanced by drugs to the point where things are specifically designed for I mean audio and visual is designed for people who have consumed particular drugs…‖ [Nina]

―…Es are very social…if you‘re going with a group of close friends to a club I think it‘s a really good contact with E‘s, you‘re all huggy and lovey dovey and…you become you‘re very sensual and your barriers break down immediately all the…social taboos and you don‘t really care what you‘re doing and you‘re quite open…trips and marijuana are more associated with psychedelic trance because they‘re, it‘s that spiritual thing…it‘s more trippy,

242 and everything seems weird and everything seems adjusted and bizarre and strange but it‘s good at the same time…‖ [John]

―I never liked dance music before I went to my first party and the taking drugs was sort of like pulling an electric cord out of your body and plugging yourself into the music it really bonded you so you actually became the music…and that…was sort of like what you needed to open your mind to it and tune you in I suppose so I sort of thought it like…a radio or something and the drugs actually tune you into that sort of dance music frequency and you start to understand and it takes you on a journey…if you take Ecstasy or acid or speed it turns your whole body into a huge transceiver so that when the music hits you it hits your whole body and you really feel the music in every ounce of your body but you have to dance to it as well, you could stand around all night and you wouldn‘t get the same effect than if you‘re dancing to it because if you‘re dancing then you‘re moving to the beat and that helps you to become the music as well…‖ [Josh]

Nina, John and Josh‘s stories all indicate how the effects of drug use were understood by participants as enhancing the release of self and responsiveness to music and other people at events. In Nina‘s account specific types of drug use facilitate the state of

‗relaxation‘ of the self that is required for a new mode of increased ‗appreciation‘ of particular types of music and visuals, with marijuana enhancing blues and chemical drugs enhancing electronic music. In John‘s account E‘s intensify the sociability of

‗lounging‘ with a close group of friends in an ambient clubbing space while the spiritual and strange qualities of trips and marijuana enhance psychedelic trance music. For Josh drugs created an electric socket that allowed him to plug himself directly into music, but this relation with music was further intensified through the movement of dancing that took him into music, allowing him to temporarily ‗become the music‘.

243 Combinations and situations ―…I‘ll usually just take an E or some acid – one or the other – never mix the two. And then…what you usually find it‘s very common and what I do as well is usually because the drug is so full on, sometimes…your body is really tired…and the sun‘s coming up and it‘s always good to come down with a spliff. So everyone, most people including myself smoke a joint at sunrise and that seems to take the hard edge off the coming down and that‘s really nice…‖ [Kirsty]

―It depends what sort of event it is and where it is…for example…when it‘s an event or party up S___…I nearly always just eat a couple of mushrooms out of the fields which makes it really nice because it‘s just a natural product of that area…and it‘s much nicer than having something that someone‘s manufactured in a laboratory…everyone‘s got their favourites but my particular favourites are mescaline and…magic mushrooms and…MDA…I often have combinations of drugs…more so if there‘s an event in the city…or town where people are…having various drugs because it‘s the sort of culture where….people…snort drugs here and there whereas…out in the country I‘d rather just like drop a hallucinogenic trip like eat a couple of mushrooms or have a tab or acid and just…go on the same sort of trip as everyone and have a couple of joints later on…things tend to be more frantic in the town…often have a combination of…a little bit of MDA or a little bit of MDMA along with a little bit of cocaine…I…generally prefer taking small doses of combinations during the night rather than…taking too much of something and being…really sick…‖ [David]

Kirsty and David‘s stories both refer to taking combinations of drugs – each has their own repertoire and rhythm for taking drugs. Kirsty prefers not to mix E with acid but enjoys smoking a joint in the early morning at sunrise to ‗ease‘ the ‗come down‘ at the end of an event. David regulates his drug use dependent on the particular situation that includes type of event, location and the people he is with. Psychedelic mushrooms for

David are understood through a discourse of the ‗natural‘ as enhancing events with 244 outdoor locations and may be combined with joints in the morning. Small doses of combinations of MDA, MDMA and cocaine are for David linked with the party culture of the city.

Balance

―…I don‘t subscribe to the you‘re only having a good time when, or you only like this music because you‘re on drugs…the music is with me…all the time…from the moment I wake up to the moment…I go to sleep…I‘m not on drugs 24 hours a day (laughs). But as far as having the energy…the hours that the parties run to, being really sociable and relaxed they probably do have a large part…I…don‘t go to parties all the time on drugs I go straight but…you notice…usually only be there for…2-4 hours before you start getting tired and…a bit of a motivational decrease in wanting to…converse with people especially if they‘re on drugs…you‘re on a different plane. So usually if I want a quick relaxing night but I don‘t plan to be up all night I‘ll go, and I‘ll still get into the music just as much, I still dance, for a matter of fact when I was dancing straight at these parties…it feels like I‘m on drugs…cause, I don‘t know if that‘s pairing a bit of classical conditioning or pairing of me being at those parties on drugs and it‘s some kind of placebo effect coming through but…I have a good time anyway, it‘s just about…the quantity…sure that‘s a bit of more qualitative…experiences to the night but…quantity‘s a big factor as well, you just can‘t do it as long…it [drugs] has a large part, but…it‘s not critical.‖ [Michael]

―…people mostly go there for the whole experience not just to take drugs but taking the drugs is certainly a central part of it…‖ [Kirsty]

―…it ranges from people who are totally drug free…100% for the music and absolutely love it and won‘t talk to anyone all night and will just go to dance and be one with the music and there‘s other side, I know people who will go

245 just cause the music‘s the avenue to take drugs and that‘s where they take their drugs and the music is just…something that is a focus of but…drug taking is more the goal of the exercise and the music is just something that‘s…part of that whole thing…a nice balance of both can lead to…in the right circumstances, can lead to a good.‖ [Ben]

―I try not to work my life around events…so that I do have…that balance…‖ [John]

―…whether one is doing something totally mundane like washing the dishes or walking down the street or whether one is in a totally ecstatic party scenario…meditation gives a continuity and…awareness…that while all this change is taking place externally there‘s something that is constant and very dependable, nurturing, energising…that‘s always there…it can give you more clarity and insight and comfort in how you deal with the turbulent process encountered in life.‖ [Claude]

Michael, Kirsty, Ben, John and Claude‘s stories feature a sense of ‗balance‘ in relation to the placing of drugs and music in events and in everyday life. There is a concern with negotiating the particular ‗circumstances‘ of events and everyday life in relation to drug use, so as to maintain a state of ‗balance‘, avoiding dangers of excessive or too frequent use. The emphasis placed on feeling and responding to music through dancing or ‗lounging‘ can be read as counter-balancing the important place of drugs in events.

This concern with ‗balance‘ resonates with Foucault‘s account of ‗circumstantial regimens‘ of self-care that worked to ‗determine the conditions that will least affect the whole combination of balances‘ (1986/1990b: 124-125). The principle of ‗balance‘ was interrelated with a discourse of alternative spirituality. Balance is called for between the intensity and prolongation of the ecstatic moment on drugs, and short instants of ecstasy

246 possible through alternative techniques of meditation and memory, consumption of music and ‗mundane‘ activities of everyday life.

Rituals of sharing - Pleasure, self-care and social relations

Research and testing ―With…any drug that I take…because I‘m in the science side of things I usually read up about the chemical the active ingredient and about…what physiological effects it has and what the dangers of it are and the side effects…cause I just like to know for my own…information about the scientific side of it and…I‘m a bit lucky like that cause I can understand a lot of the technical details about the drug, but I also like to read up a little about the folklore of it…for example…mescaline it‘s a very complicated drug with a really long cultural history behind it. I do like to respect that a bit instead of just using it as a recreational drug…I do sort of respect that it‘s a really important part of somebody else‘s culture…So there‘s lots of…sources for information. One which I‘ve recently started to use a lot is the Internet…My main source however, having said all that, is a friend of mine…he‘s a wealth of information and someone who I rely on.‖ [David]

David‘s account emphasises a sense of ‗responsibility‘ for care of self and a concern with the self-care of others. He employs a technique of researching drugs before he takes them to find out about issues of quality, effects and the best ways to administer drugs. For David, who acts as a key source of information in his friendship network, research includes information from ‗scientific‘ sources, ‗folklore‘, or cultural sources, the Internet and friends.

―Now would just be Ecstasy if I know it‘s good quality. I would definitely go to the extent of buying a tester from a shop and testing it…if it‘s even hinting at not being good I wouldn‘t bother I‘d rather go straight…‖ [Ben]

247

Ben explained that he preferred to test his Ecstasy to give an indication of its quality before he would consider using it. He indicates that he prefers to attend events

‗straight‘ than to take bad quality drugs.

Getting ready ―…most people when they go to parties…a part of their ritual of leading up to it from anything from eating well to ‗What am I going to wear?‘ will be ‗Oh have we got the drugs?‘ I think that‘s pretty…largely a standard part of the ritual.‖ [Michael]

―…it was…quite the usual ritual…for getting ready…, whether that‘s just put on anything through to…my partner and I have got into the habit of trying to make the hair as freaky as possible and at the time I probably would have had a back Mohawk so probably twenty minutes was dedicated to hair (laughs) but everything else was…whack on.‖ [Michael]

―What did I do to prepare for it? Very little…packed warm clothes and food and stuff and got in the car and drove and with friends…What did I wear? Very practical clothing…if I‘m going to a big festivally thing I usually always wear extra pockets (laughs) like gotta get practical, and…water is essential and I have a kind of a strategy for…where I put things cause I‘ve always gotta have, back then at that time I was smoking so I had…cigarettes certain kind of little essentials and like a pocket knife, keys, always know where your keys are (laughs)…‖ [Nina]

Techniques for taking drugs included preparations undertaken to ensure the smoothness or seamlessness of the experience once it was underway. As the general and specific excerpts from Michael‘s account highlight, these preparations were spoken of in a taken for granted way as being part of the ‗ritual‘ of getting ready to attend an event that

248 included eating well, deciding what to wear, doing hair and organising drugs beforehand. Nina again speaks as though it is taken for granted that such preparations occur – they are not exceptional and seem just part of going to an event evident in her description of doing ‗very little‘ to prepare. Nonetheless when she elaborates explaining her preparations for attending an outdoor event these are actually quite involved. Taking water and warm clothes, a pocket-knife, and having lots of pockets was important to her ‗practical‘ ‗strategy‘. In both Michael and Nina‘s accounts, other people, partners and friends, are included in rituals of preparation that were both personal and collective.

Sharing pleasure, information, support and drugs ―…we made party bags for everybody…we made everyone a friendship bracelet, rolled everyone a joint for at some stage in the night, gave everyone like rescue remedy, gave them chewing gum and lollies and lolly pops and glitter…just something that would make everyone feel like we were part of a group and that…everyone would enjoy and get some use out of and make the night even more fun and more special.‖ [Jen]

―… [I] go and hang out with the girls at the big tent – they are making ‗party packs‘ with party poppers, rescue remedy, chewie, lollies, condoms and what not, tied up with a ribbon in a plastic bag.‖ [Field notes – Jan 2000]

These excerpts from Jen‘s account and my field notes from the same event highlight the personal and shared nature of rituals of preparation and drug taking and the ways in which these intersect with the atmospherics of events. Sharing information, support and drugs may work through friendship networks and create an important basis for

‗harm reduction‘ techniques, although there are a complex series of tensions involved in such rituals of preparation and use. There is a sense of collective responsibility in part

249 related to negotiating the dangers associated with taking drugs of indeterminable quality although I believe that this sense of responsibility is, as with Foucault‘s (1986/1990b:

53) care of self, both personal and collective at once, starting with the self but becoming enmeshed within and increasing the ‗warmth‘ of existing social relations. Jen and her friends‘ party bags and their mixed contents of items of personal care (rescue remedy, condoms) and transformation (drugs, lollies, glitter, bracelets) were part of the intensification or bonding of Jen‘s friendship group – as she puts it they made things

‗even more fun and more special‘. So there is a diffusion of ‗individual responsibility‘ and notions of ‗individual risk‘, however, this is not simply replaced with a submersion into a group dynamic that seems, although does not really, remove personal responsibility (Malbon 1999: 121). Rather, there are points of complex and tensed intersection of the texts of danger and ‗risk‘ with those of personal and collective responsibility and pleasure in the form of self-care techniques intimately bound up with the self-care and the pleasure of other people. In turn such techniques extend into and negotiate the atmospherics of events. In this sense my own reading extends Malbon‘s

(1999) analysis through, as Pini (1997c) has argued in relation to rave, acknowledging that such techniques may have health implications in the form of ‗self-regulation‘ of drug use or ‗harm reduction‘. In this example, participants did have self-regulatory techniques that they enacted in managing their own health.

―I sort of like the fact that you do it with people, whether it‘s one person or whether it‘s a group, you‘re somehow going to be on a similar plane to them, that‘s very much a ritual for me. Or sharing…having half each…getting ready to go out…having a line of coke or something is like – ‗Yes, OK, yeah this is the start of the night, this is‘…you put on some good music, and you have your line and then that‘s it…your night‘s started and

250 you‘re excited and you‘re hyped up and you‘re ready to go…and then a couple of hours after you have your pill or whatever then a joint‘s really nice like I always think ‗Oh I‘ll roll up a joint right now‘…‖ [Jen]

This account indicates how Jen has a particular and preferred way of taking drugs that involves sharing them with her friends, such as taking half an E with a friend so as to be

‗on the same plane‘. The rhythm of her drug taking is carefully paced to coincide with the atmospherics of events. She likes to prepare by having lines of cocaine at home while listening to music that marks the beginning of the special celebratory time of the event and serve to bring her into the special feeling of increased energy, excitement, intensified relation with music and friends and counteract her pre-event nervousness.

The beginning of the event itself is marked by sharing halves of Es with friends and after some time has passed, experiencing what Jen elsewhere called the ‗high‘ energy, or feeling, ‗openness‘ and ‗freedom‘ of the event. This feeling is punctuated with the rolling and smoking of joints when the time feels right. This account highlights the situational nature of the regulation of drug use within events that intersects with, and negotiates the atmospherics of events including their rhythm, pace and emotion.

Coming down/Recovery

Negotiating endings ―…might rock up straight and then…one or two in the morning take something, or maybe have something before you go to the party…the only time it‘s away from the party is if it‘s a follow on from the party like it‘s a recovery…if the club that finishes at 5 in the morning or 8 in the morning and then…you‘ve…come down before hand you might think ‗Oh take something else‘ so by the time it‘s finished you just keep going to another place and it does get a bit ridiculous like I remember talking to a friend and he was saying like - Gone are the days when you just go out for 4 or 8 hours cause he was telling me that the week before he had a three day epic and I‘m

251 like ‗Oh Hal, how do you do that you know?‘ Which…I‘ve done before…once every blue moon but that was probably the only time you take it away from the party when you leave and go to someone‘s place and they have got decks so…rather than being a zombie and…crashing…you don‘t want it to end so you might…take a bit of a pep me up and…continue…chatting and…hanging out, and maybe going to…a pub or another club for recovery…‖ [Michael]

Michael articulates how his rhythm of drug use is regulated to coincide with the pace and atmospherics of events and the related everyday space of the home or of recovery events. ‗Coming down‘, or the subsiding of the intense effects of drugs taken early in the night either prior to going out or shortly after arriving at an event, is negotiated in different ways. ‗Coming down‘ crucially marks the ‗ending‘ of the special time, space and feeling of the event. Michael indicates that ‗coming down‘ altogether may be avoided by taking further doses of drugs early in the morning so as to ‗keep going‘ at another venue as in the case of his friend who continued partying over a ‗3 day epic‘.

However, Michael is critical of this approach to ‗coming down‘ arguing that this extended prolongation of the party over 3 days is excessive and something he has done rarely and tries to avoid. Michael indicates that ‗coming down‘ may also be negotiated within the space of the home or that of a pub or recovery party where further doses of drugs may be taken with friends and music and socialising or ‗chatting‘ and ‗hanging out‘ are important. This account and others concerned with ‗coming down‘ feature different approaches to negotiating coming to the ‗end‘ of an intensely pleasurable event that may be tinged with emotions including fulfilment, hope and disappointment.

―…after that we went back to my house with the people we met at the club and we…sat around the whole next day and talked…and then everyone else

252 had to go to work and M___ and I went to…our friend‘s pool and sat around all the day just swimming in the pool and having saunas…‖ [John]

―We spent the whole of New Year‘s Day at H & D‘s flat in J___ [city suburb], smoking endless joints and listening to cheesy music. I had a shower, I felt confused and emotional, I couldn‘t eat much cos I felt queasy. We basically lounged about entertaining each other with inane chatter and laughing a lot…I left at about 7pm that evening after staying awake for about 32 hours.‖ [Jane]

John and Jane‘s stories both refer to the shared nature of ‗coming down‘ or the subsiding of the effects of drugs after events at home with friends where relaxing, resting, music and socialising were important. In Jane‘s account continued drug use featured in the process of ‗coming down‘, the winding down of which was eased and marked through shared smoking of joints. The rhythm and space of ‗coming down‘ contrasts with the intensified and extended energy of dancing and socialising of

‗lounging‘ within events, featuring a slower pace and the comfort of the space of the home that in these accounts includes swimming and showers. Jane‘s account articulates the fragility of this state where she feels ‗confused and emotional‘ and ‗queasy‘, although this is balanced through being in a safe environment with friends and the shared pleasures of ‗entertaining‘ one another.

Dangers of come down/recovery – Failure of rituals ―…there wasn‘t that much planning in looking at the party, I didn‘t know much about it…it was a spur of the moment decision rather than…stick your flyer on the fridge sort of thing and ‗Yeah I'll wait for that one‘…it‘s probably a lot of factors that‘s a result of…why I didn‘t enjoy it as much. One, was I hadn‘t slept from the night before. Two…it was spur of the moment, ‗Something‘s got to be happening at H____ St., it‘s a Saturday

253 night, let‘s go check it out‘, so we didn‘t really know what was going to be there…And three…there were certain circumstances happening in my life around friends and friendships…that were a bit ambivalent…and the fourth factor would be the party itself because…some of it was good but it was largely a hard party…And the crowd there cause it was a hard set you‘d get…I just noticed there were a few people I recognised and knew from…other H____ St. parties and doofs and maybe V___, but there was a noticeable presence of sort of what did my friend J___ say?…suburban hard knocks…the Blacktown boys…they were from Blacktown and they‘re into hardcore like it‘s really…macho and masculine…there was one stage where B___ J___ [male DJ] came up and I actually got up to dance, it‘s pretty hard…he played a few tracks that I knew from a few years ago and I thought ‗Oh this is nice‘ and then someone yelled out ‗Put on some fucking hardcore‘ and I went ‗Oh No‘…so yeah a lot of factors…style of music, some of the crowd that, like for instance I was there with someone and we were showing affection for the same sex but even though we weren‘t I just felt a little bit of…sort of to that suburban macho element I felt like you can‘t express yourself as much…personal stuff like not sleeping the night before, having a few friendship issues going on…we probably only stayed three or four hours.‖ [Michael]

Michael‘s story indicates a subtle difference between the ‗spontaneity‘ involved in events where ritual is enacted smoothly and seamlessly, effortlessly, where disciplines such as preparing to go out and negotiating the rhythm and atmospherics of events are undertaken unselfconsciously as a matter of course, and other ‗unplanned‘ events where the learned disciplines of ritual fail. In this case the failure of ritual is related to a range of factors including the ‗hardcore‘ music and the ‗macho‘ attitude of the predominantly male ‗hardcore‘ crowd and the feeling of self consciousness in expressing same sex attraction in this context, as well as ‗personal issues‘ such as ‗ambivalence‘ in friendships and not having slept after an event the night before. There were thus, as

254 with Foucault‘s care of self, a range of factors to be negotiated if the discipline of regimen or techniques were to have any impact on ‗determine[ing] the conditions that…[would] least affect the whole combination of balances‘ (1986/1990b: 124-125).

Significantly these factors pertain to the condition of the embodied self (a state of tiredness and self-consciousness), the environment of the event (hardcore music and

‗macho‘ predominantly male crowd), and everyday relationships (‗ambivalence‘ in friendship). Balance in the condition of the embodied self, environment and relationships is upset or disturbed in this account. This disturbance in balance that was in this case in part related to the prolongation of partying from the previous night spoiled the possibility of a sense of belonging in this event.

Avoiding come down - Memory and meditation ―…for me being it‘s few and far between now that I actually take them [drugs], I like them in that it can really separate just an average night out, to something really good and special…if there‘s enough time left in between then I know if I do take them I usually have a really good night just cause it‘s such a novelty…I also like the fact of the increased energy and to be able to stay up later, I think parties really after three is…when they, you really know what‘s going on and you can really feel more what the vibe‘s like and it‘s more intense and everyone‘s more fuelled then I like to be up for that instead of if I‘m just going out straight and having a dance, I‘m finding that‘s the time where…I‘m starting to taper off. So I like the energy, I like the change of perception with the music, it definitely can make me more at one with the music and I feel frequencies more different and the music can make me move, not me kind of moving to the music, I‘m like a slave to it which is a great feeling…But on the other side of the coin if I go out dead straight I can also do that but…If I‘m straight I‘d definitely have to say though, the music‘s imperative that it‘s good, if the music‘s bad then I wouldn‘t actually bother because the music, the interesting changes in the music is what would fuel me more. But I find once I get going I can go 255 back to…I‘ve got…a vivid memory of what it did feel like and I can feel what the music would have done to me otherwise and now I can actually use meditation techniques that I use daily I can take onto the dance floor and access…certain energies that…were saved…when your kid‘s crushed by a pipe or something…you could lift up super human weight and there‘s things that you can access and get into maybe a semi-trance state I can do through a certain technique which I find…really good as well…that‘s got a different thing on it…then you‘re into the clarity of it and that will keep me going for a while, I don‘t have the energy, the sustained energy, it‘s more of a short intense burst but…I can get into that way I usually probably have a few drinks to start just to loosen the muscles up and kind of just give you that little bit of confidence to just jump on the floor but…apart from that maybe just a few songs to warm up and then I find great pleasure from dancing totally clean as well…I can still feel the rhythm…if it was just a…normal night, it‘s often an option that I‘d take just for the clarity of it and knowing that I was going to feel really good the next day instead of crap.‖ [Ben]

Not all techniques for engaging with the pleasures of events involved taking drugs, although they were interrelated with memories of the feeling of taking drugs and in particular the ways in which the body becomes attuned and responsive to music through dancing via the increased aural, visual and tactile sensitivity and energy of the effects of drugs. For Ben, due to his closely regulated use, drugs have become a ‗novelty‘ and increase the sense of energy and attuning of the body to music such that he can become a ‗slave‘ to music. However, Ben is also able to access the memory of the feeling of dancing on drugs that he combines with meditation techniques to attune the dancing body to music when he is ‗straight‘. The feeling is momentary, shorter than the prolonged all night dancing and intensification of the ‗vibe‘ in the early hours of the morning associated with drug use and an option that avoids the unpleasant effects of

‗coming down‘. What is striking is the way in which both techniques either involving

256 drug use or involving the memory of drug use reworked through meditation are characterised by the same structure of a release and increased responsiveness of the self to music and other people, whether this is the short intense burst of ‗straight‘ dancing or the longer and more drawn out, intensified energy of experiences of dancing on drugs.

Ben articulates that techniques of memory and meditation offered a means to avoid the unpleasant effects of ‗coming down‘ and recovering. Techniques of meditation were bound up with discourses of New Age spirituality such as Shamanism and Yoga.

Sex and drugs - Negotiating heightened sensations and dangers

Sex and ‘coming down’ ―I have a few times used it probably just in a sexual context, like Ecstasy and that wasn‘t really planned cause it was like…I‘d been up all night let‘s take an E and go to recovery, but…then the E came on too quick and so we stayed at home having sex, and then that triggered other times, again, ‗Yeah let‘s just have this and have sex‘….so probably largely it revolves around parties like being there and maybe a small amount of times say just for sex.‖ [Michael]

Michael‘s account indicates that ‗coming down‘ in the space of the home is where sexual practice holds its place in the rhythm of events, rather than on the dance floor or lounge spaces of events themselves. Michael describes how in some cases the too fast effects of taking later doses of E to go to recovery have ended up with sex rather than going to recovery and that this experience opened up scope for other occasions of E use specifically for sex.

Sex, friendship networks and the space of events ―…there was two bisexuals at my place last weekend or the weekend before that were cracking onto each other, I actually set them up, two girls…it‘s

257 very frivolous actually, (laughs)…everyone is different, everyone‘s got their own way of dealing with it, most of the time as I said it‘s hedonistic, a lot of the time people just go home…either hang out with people or find someone and have sex a lot of the time or at least view those people as…possible people to be sexual partners…‖ [Paul]

Paul‘s story indicates the way in which even though events themselves are not geared towards seeking sexual partners, rather emphasising a rule of friendliness and sensuality on the dance floor, the spaces and networks of events and most crucially the related everyday spaces of the home and small friendship networks may end up incidentally being places where sexual partners meet. However, networks were diverse and fluid in terms of gender and sexualities and, as was discussed previously, networks were at the same time connected through sharing of local neighbourhood space.

Ecstasy and dissolving boundaries ―…especially on things like Es where people become sexually attracted to everything…if someone‘s…single and they‘ve meet someone nice then it‘s… inevitable…But that‘s the nature of Es…you become more sensual all of a sudden…you‘re touching everyone…it‘s kind of dangerous in a way as well because people like your clubbing friends who you don‘t you sort of only know from events…well when you‘re on drugs you suddenly, friendship starts to become blurred…and when you‘re on Es…sex and gender and everything just blurs and you don‘t really know so and you don‘t really care kind of thing. So if there‘s a certain danger I think of…having…sex with drugs in the sense that…if everyone‘s on Es in a dark room with lots of cushions…all hell can break loose…you just have to be really, really careful and…consciously aware of it…there are so many stories that I‘ve heard about where this whole group of friends have…had an orgy and they‘ve just all peaked and gone ‗Oh my God what have we done?‘…cause of all your social barriers have broken down, you forget that

258 in reality you‘re going to have all these problems and guilt again cause of that situation…sex becomes different you have…a different view on sex you become more open to different things and express yourself differently and the whole feeling of sex changes because your whole body becomes erogenous not just specific parts…you lose all sense of time so that…sex that you sort of you know last for half an hour to an hour can take up to ten hours for a go it seems to have lasted for a couple…that‘s…physically because you can keep going and because you don‘t realise because you lose all sense of time…when I do have sex on drugs it‘s usually after I‘ve been out…and so I‘m…pretty tired and I‘ve started to come down…it‘s multi- sensual in the way that you‘re tired and you‘re on drugs you sort of you close your eyes start you almost hallucinate in a way and things start getting quite strange and your subconscious comes through a lot in what‘s going on and sometimes you don‘t really know what‘s going on at all but it‘s kind of fun in the same way…it‘s a good experience…because your barriers are broken down, because you‘re more open to your partner…you‘re…multi- sensual so…anything from…a massage can just be amazing as opposed to you don‘t you‘re not sort of necessarily focussed on actually having an orgasm because it is like an orgasm in a way. And an E orgasm is really different to like an orgasm like it‘s extended and it‘s longer, and whether that‘s because of the drugs…I‘m not sure but it‘s completely different for me.‖ [John]

John suggests that E is associated with the blurring of sex and gender and an orgasmic state where the whole body becomes erogenous. The breaking down of sexual, gender and social barriers has implications in terms of a freeing up of sexuality and sexual practice through ‗multi-sensual‘ and orgasmic pleasures. There are also dangers in relation to blurring of the boundaries of friendships between strangers, regulars or friends who come together in events and the possibility of dissolving of everyday limits or boundaries in terms of sexual attraction and practice. The re-telling of ‗popular‘

259 stories of orgies among friends on E accents John‘s concern over the blurring of boundaries of friendship and the possible breaking of the rule of friendliness and sensuality in events. There is the danger of facing later consequences of momentarily stepping outside of everyday understandings of sexuality and sexual practice based on notions such as exclusive or even combined same or opposite sex attraction. The fluidity of the discourse of queer while ‗normalised‘ within the space of events may not be unproblematic in the context of everyday life. John articulates the form of sexuality associated with E in his own experience as a whole body eroticism that has room for a range of sexual practices – touching and massage become orgasmic and orgasm itself becomes ‗extended and longer‘.

Combining Ecstasy and speed and recklessness ―…whenever I‘ve had sex on drugs…it‘s been quite a varied experience…there‘s a lot of factors to do with that…anything from what drug you‘re on, how much, to…who the person is and what‘s going on in your life at the moment…speed on sex you go for longer and it‘s harder and Es more sensual and smoother and caressing but it still can go just as long but a lot of the times it‘s when I‘m on drugs it‘s a combination of the both but then there are other times where basically there have been too much drug use or there‘s…too many other issues going on where it just impedes performance…as far as the safe sex…personally because of my background [as a health professional]…I have got safe sex on my mind all the time whenever sex happens but I think at times depending where you are in your life as in stresses or whatever relationships, if you‘re on drugs and have sex it can I think it‘s a combination effect of maybe you may engage in more riskier behaviour, more reckless behaviour…I think drugs have a place in that but I‘m not sure if that should be the sole causative agent to…promote that risky behaviour…it has a big place in…making you develop more the…‗What the fuck‘ attitude…‗OK whatever‘, but that‘s not the only thing

260 I think it‘s got to be interacting with other factors that are going on in your life.‖ [Michael]

Michael‘s account articulates the relation between types of drugs and sexual practice, and as Claude and John elsewhere articulated, ‗you go for longer‘ on speed while E is

‗more sensual and smoother and caressing‘. Michael introduces a number of other important issues. He describes the use of combinations of drugs and specifically the use of speed and E together where the effects of ‗going for longer‘ and heightened sensuality are combined. This suggests that developing an understanding of the ‗folk pharmacology‘ (Ireland et al. 1999: 37-47) of drugs in relation to sexual practices of participants in ‗mixed‘ events must include a consideration of the combining of different types of drugs or polydrug use. Michael articulates the way in which ‗too much drug use‘ or broader life issues such as relationships may impact negatively on sexual performance. Michael indicates that ‗stresses‘ associated with relationships or other broader life issues when combined with the effects of drug use may be associated with development of a ‗what the fuck‘ attitude or a sense of ‗recklessness‘ and ‗risky‘ sexual practices in relation to HIV. This account again features the theme of balance in so far as a disturbance in relationships or in other areas of everyday life may affect the attitude of the self to the self and other people in relation to both drug use and sexual practice. Looking only to the pharmacology of drugs or the pathology of individuals in such cases does not do justice to the ‗conditions‘ and ‗whole combination of balances‘ involved or the techniques used to negotiate these such as reserving events for special occasions (Foucault 1986/1990b: 124-125).

261 Harm reduction outreach – Condoms and clean injecting equipment ―…it‘s really bad…because…people actually have to do that, they have to go get information I mean if they really want to find…detailed stuff about it because I mean most people really don‘t, there‘s some people that have knowledge about it, but a lot of people don‘t have a clue…and it‘s often junkies that get blood borne viruses and as I said there‘s quite a few of them…and…with the whole emphasis upon being…in a subculture there are a lot of people wanting to be natural so they won‘t use protection some of the time and that is often a source of contracting diseases like that, blood borne. And where would you get information?…the first place I would go, would be to K___ [community organisation] because they have approached me before, cause I‘ve been a promoter that‘s doing parties and stuff and wanted to help out and…they were just fortunate to meet me…the good thing that they did was provide us with condoms and which was really good and needles and stuff...‖ [Paul]

Paul‘s account details how the space of events may be used to circulate information and harm reduction outreach involving provision of condoms and clean injecting equipment.

The provision of outreach at events is another way in which techniques of self-care become integrated with, and negotiate the atmospherics of, events. The provision of outreach at doof events can be read as interrelated with the inclusion of information stalls and a discourse of environmentalism. However, Paul indicates that holding tightly to the discourse of ‗nature‘ was associated with unprotected sexual practice.

Sex and drugs - Implications for health Michael, Paul and John‘s accounts indicate silences and tensions in understandings of the place of sexual practice and sexualities in events. When asked about the place of sexualities in events and experiences of sex and drugs, participants had little to say. As was discussed in the previous chapter, there was a tension in understandings of

262 sexuality as ‗not an issue‘ and at the same time valued as a form of diversity. Sex was positioned outside events during ‗coming down‘ and events acted as a site for incidental meeting of sexual partners. Sex on drugs such as Ecstasy was associated with new forms of pleasures including fluidity in sexualities that although accepted in events were more difficult to negotiate in everyday life. This suggests that there are limitations in focusing on individual sexual and drug use identity and practice that could be perceived by participants as ‗not an issue‘ or outside the scope of events, or fluid sexuality that while accepted in events may be more difficult to negotiate in everyday life. Clearly, health initiatives could better work through the sociality of the space of events and the local neighbourhood spaces where friendship networks and sexual partners are linked.

Sexual risk associated with excessive and prolonged use of drugs, polydrug use and disturbance of relationships with friends can be understood as instances of destabilisation of ‗balance‘. Participants did enact techniques of self-regulation that managed the complex interplay of factors within which drug use and sexual practice were enmeshed. Such self-regulatory techniques and especially the guiding discourse of

‗balance‘, suggest a useful starting point for future health initiatives.

Injecting and networks

Injecting speed: Stigma, shame, trust and relationships ―…my partner, used to smack up speed…and I also know a couple of other people that used to do it as well…I didn‘t really like it at first. And you don‘t really hear about people who that smack up speed that like have lots of speed but it is becoming more and more popular. I‘ve never tried it personally…for the simple fact that I don‘t like the idea of injecting for starters, it seems like psychologically it seems too hardcore type of thing and I suppose the type of people who I‘ve seen who have had speed on a

263 regular basis it is like an addiction in a way and so it is quite upsetting…you just don‘t hear a lot about it, you always hear about people with heroin…I don‘t like it at all but that‘s only because I‘ve seen the bad side of it and it makes people, they have a totally different type of, if they‘re high if they have smacked up, they have a totally, they feel quite separate to everyone else cause in their sort of drug wise in a different place…when you‘re close to someone who does inject…you do get paranoid you know about that and I think there is also people are addicted to this drug, or to drugs…you have a trust problem with them because…it‘s sort of the psychological because…you hear a lot about the bad effects of injecting all these drugs…I suppose that…has an effect on you as well but you have a trust issue when you like I always want to know, if look someone‘s done it and when they‘ve done it and…if they are OK so that I know whether they‘re going to be alright…but also…it‘s hard to explain you just worry about it because you don‘t know what it‘s like and there are health issues and there are trust issues…associated with it like in respect of sharing needles…actually getting fixes and the hits and where they do it and…even simple things like the fact that a lot of the time they can‘t wear short sleeved shirts and so they‘ve got track marks on their arms and they can‘t go to job interviews, in the middle of summer unless they‘re wearing a long sleeved shirt or have make-up on their track marks…so that can sort of be like all these subtle little things that you‘re constantly aware of.‖ [John]

John‘s story highlights the importance of considering networks of people who use drugs, rather than focusing on individuals, or on models of populations, or ‗risk groups‘, defined through individual sexual identity, or preference, sexual, or drug use behaviour

(Richters et al. 1999: 25-28). Although John does not himself inject, his sexual partner used to inject speed. I want to draw out from John‘s account issues of trust in John‘s relationship and the stigma he describes as associated with injecting. John details that despite popular notions of injecting heroin and addiction, within his networks he has

264 experienced frequent injecting of speed. Injecting is associated with trust issues for

John due to his ‗worry‘ for the health of his partner and friends who inject. In particular

John details the complex factors concerning injecting and risk in relation to blood borne viruses that sits in tension with the stigma associated with injecting. John worries over his partner‘s possible addiction to speed, his possible sharing of injecting equipment, access to clean injecting equipment and to sources of quality drugs and safe spaces to inject as well as the stigma of negotiating everyday life when his body is marked with visible signs of injecting drugs in the form of ‗track marks‘. The stigma associated with injecting is clearly pervasive and something that becomes a constant focus of concern both within close friendship and partnership networks and everyday life. John further indicates that there is a sense of ‗separateness‘ associated with the high of injecting speed that disconnects people who inject to some extent from the forms of belonging favoured in events, and within his own relationship creates a barrier between him and his partner in so far as he doesn‘t know ‗what it is like‘ to inject speed.

―I had a bit of…a journey through my attitudes to injecting…to begin with…in the rave days I had a couple of friends who were shooting speed and at first…I had a freak out…‗Oh my friends, like don‘t‘…and then I got to…the health professional perspective…if you‘re going to do it don‘t do it by yourself, I‘d rather you do it in front of me in case something went wrong…and make sure you‘re doing it alright and so that was fine for ages and then last year my partner who I‘ve recently broken up with did have a problem with injecting…and I went through most of the relationship still from the friend health professional perspective…but he was very ashamed of it and as a result he didn‘t want to talk about it with me…and he was lying a lot, so a lot of deception and that was eventually the downfall of the relationship unfortunately…a lot of people associate injecting problems with heroin but it‘s not the drug, like I got, I also came to realise through my

265 partner how powerful the ritual of injecting was and it was hurting me so I became a bit…subjective and biased towards my views towards injecting as in…I‘d hear someone else out there injecting and I‘d just be like…‗Oh look…you‘ve got to get them to stop or…they don‘t look very well‘…I became a bit…less objective in my views…but I still do maintain that friendship and health…harm minimisation approach…having it so close to my life in a relationship has…I‘m still probably a bit shaky, still a bit biased…it‘s an emotional thing…but out of my friends that use it largely it‘s not a problem. I‘ve had basically probably four, five, six friends that do use and two of them it has become problematic, one of them had to basically leave the city and go home to live and get away from it all and she‘s doing fine now, she‘s enrolled in tech, and passing and getting on with her life, while the other one is my ex-partner which at the moment there‘s just I had to get out of contact cause there was…I actually encouraged him to…see a clinical psychologist, they‘re doing a trial actually at H___ [health organisation] reducing injecting use, and…reaffirmed that…don‘t do it for me, you‘ve got to do it for yourself…this is what they‘re doing and I left it with him and which he eventually did or is currently still doing but it just got to the stage where I just had to, it was messing me up a bit and I had to say…you‘ve got to do this on your own and I wish I could be there to support and I have tried to be but if I‘m messed up I can‘t give you good support…so that‘s why I basically had to…let it go.‖ [Michael]

Michael‘s story traces changes in his attitude to injecting from his initial ‗freak out‘ at his rave friends injecting speed to development of a ‗health professional‘/‘friend‘ ‗harm minimisation‘ approach, to his recent concern and worry over his partner‘s speed injecting. This account has resonances with the theme of trust in John‘s account of his partner‘s speed injecting, although for Michael the balance of his relationship is disturbed due to his partner‘s inability to talk or be open about injecting with him related to his partner‘s intense sense of ‗shame‘ at injecting. Michael recounts how

266 despite his concern and attempts to be supportive he broke up with his partner largely due to the detrimental effects of his partner‘s ‗lying‘ and ‗deception‘ concerning his injecting. Again it is important to emphasise that whilst Michael does not himself inject, his friendship networks include people who inject speed and heroin, such as his ex-partner.

Attitudes to injecting Attitudes towards injecting of other participants who did not inject featured an understanding of injecting as ‗dirty‘, involving risks of impurity or overpowering intensity as drugs entered the blood stream directly and ‗going too far‘, associated with risks in relation to addiction and becoming a ‗junkie‘, overdose and blood borne viruses.

While Paul who in a similar manner to John and Michael had had two female partners who injected speed and George who had close friends who injected speed felt that injecting was ‗going too far‘, they also appreciated the importance of injecting to those injecting - whether related to the ‗ritual‘ of injecting itself, as a form of easing the distress of family problems or as a choice of mode of administration. Nina and Sarah told stories of considering trying injecting that featured a theme of what Nina described as the ‗excitement‘ of the ‗penetration-pain‘ of injecting. For Nathan, the only participant who had tried injecting heroin a couple of times, this experience was understood largely through notions of ‗shame‘, the overpowering pain and pleasure of heroin‘s pharmacology and ritual of injecting, marking a crossing of a threshold opening the possibility of becoming involved in drugs as an all consuming ‗lifestyle‘.

Injecting - Implications for health Although only one participant had tried injecting and injecting was positioned as outside events and a more serious form of drug use, injecting and in particular people

267 who injected speed were included within participants‘ friendship networks and relationships with sexual partners. The heterogeneity and fluidity of networks associated with events in terms of age, gender, sexualities, sexual and drug use practice indicates limitations in health initiatives that focus on individual sexual and drug use identity and practice, such as ‗injecting‘ or the identity of ‗injecting drug user‘. The stigma and shame surrounding injecting acted as a significant barrier to negotiating safer injecting and sexual practice within relationships and friendship networks and placed strain on the ‗trust‘ involved in these relationships. Given the heterogeneity of networks and stigma and secrecy around injecting, health initiatives could usefully work through the sociality of events and the local neighbourhood that linked friends and sexual partners.

Conclusions

The stories of partygoers indicated that the key ‗technique of belonging‘ (Maffesoli

1988/1996) of release of self and increased responsiveness to music through dancing and ‗lounging‘ via which the ecstatic, network and crowd belongings of events were produced, was intertwined closely with techniques regulating ways of using drugs.

Drug use was understood in terms of discourses of pleasure and fear. Fears centred on risks in relation to the illicit status of drugs and their indeterminable quality, potent transformative effects, over dose, dehydration and blood borne viruses. However, the presence of fear and risk did not place the pleasures of drugs either under erasure or inevitably in service to overpowering and individualising texts of addiction, pharmacology, pathology and risk. Rather, there were multiple discourses through which drugs were understood.

268 Drugs were understood as enhancing release and responsiveness of self to music and other people through the ecstatic moment of dancing and ‗lounging‘ if regulated via techniques that as with care of self, monitored and maintained a ‗balance‘ of the embodied self in relation to a combination of situational factors including guiding discourses, space, time and relationships within events and everyday life (Foucault

1986/1990b: 124-125). The principle of ‗balance‘ was bound up with discourses of pleasure of the ecstatic moment and of the concentrated connectedness of alternative spirituality in the form of Shamanism and meditation. The ecstatic moment on drugs was prolonged and intensified, although it was recognised by participants that shorter instants of ecstasy were possible through alternative techniques such as meditation and memory and consumption of music in everyday life. The valuing of everyday and alternative modes of producing ecstatic instants allowed for a different placing of drugs, music and dancing in events – that ensured the ecstatic moment and especially ecstatic dancing was not overwhelming in its intensity but was rather ‗balanced‘ with everyday life, with other aspects of events such as socialising and music. Techniques of preparation included research and testing of drugs, rituals of getting ready involving transformation of the self through dressing up and acquiring drugs prior to events.

Regulatory rituals involved sharing information, support and the pleasures of drugs, avoiding the unpleasant effects of ‗coming down‘ through techniques of memory and meditation, and harm reduction outreach.

In contrast to understandings of drug use through notions of ‗deviant‘ subcultural identity and homological style, individual pathology and risk and potent pharmacology and ‗at risk‘ groups or populations, friendship and crowd networks within which drug use and sexual practice were enmeshed were heterogeneous and fluid involving multiple

269 forms of sexualities, sexual and drug use practice. Friendship networks operated as an important basis of techniques regulating drug use in the form of sharing of information, support and the pleasures of drugs. Regulatory techniques involved practices of self- care and pleasure that were bound up with the self-care and pleasure of others, increasing the ‗warmth‘ of existing social relations (Foucault 1986/1990b: 53).

However, it was within the context of these diverse and fast changing networks that rituals of self-care sometimes failed related to disturbances in the ‗balance‘ of the embodied self, rigid application of guiding discourses, such as that of ‗nature‘ in relation to sexual practice, or multiple situational factors. Situational factors included the atmospheric spaces of events, relationships with friends and partners, combined with the effects of too large doses or combinations of drugs and prolonged use. There is a complex relation between sharing pleasure, the production of belonging and techniques of self-care and mutual aid guided by the interrelation of multiple discourses.

Developing an understanding of how the pleasures of drug use are regulated within the space of dance events and the everyday lives of participants, and especially the key role of friendship networks and the principle of ‗balance‘ has particular implications for health. Health initiatives could build onto existing self-regulatory techniques and utilise self-regulatory discourses and states such as that of ‗balance‘, through which people understand and manage their own health, via working through the spaces of events and the local neighbourhood that connect friendship networks and sexual partners.

270

Balancing ecstatic and everyday pleasures: Social

collectivity and self-regulation

Introduction

In this chapter I bring together themes discussed so far in developing an understanding of the sociality of dance events and health implications via analysis of stories, practices and spaces of local ‗mixed‘ dance events. I draw out the significance of this understanding of the sociality of events in the context of literature on drug use and dance events and Foucault and Maffesoli‘s conceptual work on modes of regulation of self-formation and discuss implications for health of this understanding of the sociality of events.

Foucault‘s work on self-care and Maffesoli‘s work on neo-tribal sociality offers useful ways of conceptually framing accounts of events. There are close resonances between ideas of modes of regulation of self-formation through techniques of self-care as a social practice and collective rituals of ecstasy and mutual aid of neo-tribal sociality and the production of an ecstatic and self-regulated self through techniques regulating the pleasures of music, dance and drug use. The understanding of the sociality of dance events developed here responds to gaps in pleasure in social networks literature on drug use where belonging is understood as the basis of risk-reduction and on self-care in contemporary cultural studies accounts of dance events that focus on the power of the ecstatic moment.

271 Through an interdisciplinary approach I bring together and rework the relationship between concepts of belonging, pleasure, the embodied self and self-care in the example of local ‗mixed‘ dance events. Analysis of data from ethnographic fieldwork, media review and interviews with partygoers indicated the usefulness of viewing events through the conceptual frame of self-care and sociality in which self-regulatory techniques both have a basis in and intensify social collectivity. Sharing in the pleasures of music, dance and drug use produced and maintained belongings that acted as the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care and application of the guiding principle of ‗balance‘ that regulated pleasures. This understanding of events has particular implications for health in so far as health initiatives may usefully build onto the particular social basis of techniques of self-care involved in events.

Summary of findings

Aim and research question This study aimed to develop an understanding of the sociality - shared rituals and rules - of dance events with ‗mixed‘ crowds to situate events in the context of everyday life and social processes and inform health strategies for drug use and blood borne virus transmission. I considered the question of how forms of belonging, embodied selves and practices of music, dance and drug were produced through the social relations of dance events and participant‘s everyday lives.

Social network and contemporary cultural studies literature This study evaluated and built on social network literature on drug use, contemporary cultural studies literature on dance events and conceptual work on different modes of regulation of self-formation. Social network literature on drug use centred on belonging as the basis of risk-reduction leaving a gap on the role of pleasure in producing 272 belonging and contemporary cultural studies literature on dance events concentrated on the transformative power of the ecstatic moment leaving a gap on self-care.

Through an interdisciplinary approach, I addressed gaps in the literature on drug use and dance. I thought through the relation between pleasures, belongings, the embodied self and self-care in the light of the work of Malbon (1998, 1999) and Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c). Malbon‘s (1998, 1999) work offers a useful way of thinking through the belongings produced through practices of dancing regulated via spatial techniques, understood through Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on ‗neo-tribal‘ networks. However, Malbon

(1999) understands regulation as involving an illusory diffusion of individual into collective responsibility - it was only in Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work where concepts of pleasure, belonging and self-care were usefully brought together. I took up and extended Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) understanding of the form of belonging and embodied self produced via women sharing in the pleasures of the rave, that acted as the basis for enactment of, following Foucault (1988b), techniques of ‗self-care‘, regulating drug use.

Concepts of self-care and sociality – The theme of social collectivity Through a close reading of Foucault and Maffesoli‘s work, I developed a theoretical framework, offering a means to contextualise participants‘ accounts in relation to broader social processes. Foucault and Maffesoli‘s work suggests that the contemporary era is characterised by interrelated forms of power relations regulating modes of self-formation. There are tensions and constraints involved in the regulation of self-formation through what Foucault (1983a) calls the ‗government of individualisation‘ featuring the operation of individualising and totalising techniques of

273 bio-power, governmentality and modified pastoral power relations that manage the health of free subjects and entail the possibility of resistance. The tensions and constraints involved in production of historically specific discourses on drug use and sexuality as the ‗truth‘ of the subject, for example in more or less ‗external‘ understandings of dance events as sites of dangerous drug use and participants as ‗at risk‘, can be read as tied into the operation of governmental power techniques. In contrast, techniques of self-care, work to transform the embodied self and forms of belonging, through a different mode of situational and flexible regulation of new forms of embodied, sensual, emotional and proxemic pleasures, guided through, more or less,

‗internal‘ texts (Pini 1993), or more broadly ‗disqualified‘ discourses, including New

Age spirituality, nature, holism, embodied pleasure and vitality. The space of dance events offers a site for convergence and tension between different ways of regulating the production of the self and belonging and between multiple ‗readings‘, or ‗texts‘

(Pini 1993).

The theoretical approach I develop through a reading of Foucault and Maffesoli‘s work, along with the recent work by Pini (1993 1997a, b, c), brings together and offers a rethinking of the relationship between concepts of pleasure, belonging, the embodied self and techniques of self-care, that is largely absent in earlier explanations of drug use and dance events. Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work focuses on women‘s experiences of rave events and new modes of femininity, while Malbon‘s work is concerned with the consumption of clubbing. Both Pini (1993) and Malbon (1999) identify drug use as an important question for future research and Pini (1993) indicates that, in addition to this, rave raises the question of how dance may produce new forms of masculinities. I develop from Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c) and Malbon‘s (1999) work through the example

274 of the sociality of local ‗mixed‘ events, as understood by participants in terms of gender, sexualities and musical tastes, in order to inform health initiatives in relation to drug use and blood borne virus transmission. The analysis I develop through conceptually framing events via a reading of Foucault‘s work on social practices of self- care and the extension of this theme of social collectivity in Maffesoli‘s work on shared rituals of sociality offers a way of understanding events as temporary spaces for sharing in pleasures that produce new forms of embodied selves and belongings that act as the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care, that regulate pleasures and increase the warmth of belongings.

Methodology – Ethnography, media review and interviews A qualitative method, involving techniques of ethnography, review of local media texts and interviews with partygoers, was appropriate for analysing the multiple stories, or discourses, local spaces and embodied practices of events. In particular, a qualitative approach offered a means to consider the interrelation of ‗internal‘ texts (Pini 1993) of pleasure, belonging, the embodied self and self-care and through reading these ordinary stories in relation to theoretical texts, situating events in terms of a broader context, that has been left out of accounts of dance events and drug use in the literature. To date, there has been a focus on belonging as the basis for risk-reduction in social network approaches, or on the power of the ecstatic moment in contemporary cultural studies, that can be read as tied into the disciplinary acceptability of questions of risk and risk- reduction in relation to health, and contemporary cultural studies re-workings of theories of subcultural resistance.

275 Findings from analysis of the data An interdisciplinary approach conceptually framing events through the theme of social collectivity in Foucault‘s work on self-care as a social practice and Maffesoli‘s notion of neo-tribal sociality, affords an understanding of how pleasure, the production of belonging and the embodied self and techniques of self-care, are interrelated, and situated within a broader context. Ongoing comparative analysis of qualitative data on the local and particular spaces, practices and stories of participants in dance events from ethnographic fieldwork, a review of media texts and interviews indicated that self- regulation of pleasures through which the self was produced as ecstatic and self- regulated had its basis in and intensified the forms of belonging associated with events.

Ethnography – Spaces and practices of dancing and ‘lounging’ The chapter on the spaces and practices of events, from analysis of ethnographic fieldwork indicated how the space of the event acted as a temporary zone for the coming together, intensification and extension of smaller friendship networks into larger crowd networks, through sharing in atmosphere, produced via the pleasures of practices of dancing and ‗lounging‘. These forms of temporary belonging mediated through small friendship networks were the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care, such as ‗lounging‘, that both regulated drug use and intensified belongings.

Media review – Exchanges of advice through reading and writing The interrelation of self-care with the belonging of social networks and practices of communication was examined further, through analysis of media texts, in which local

DJs provided advice to partygoers on how best to enjoy the pleasures and avoid the dangers of events. Advice offered a guide to producing the self as ecstatic and self- regulated through techniques and discourses.

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Interviews with partygoers – Network, crowd and ecstatic belongings The chapters on network, crowd and ecstatic belongings, developed from analysis of partygoers‘ accounts demonstrated the important place of everyday and ecstatic pleasures in producing belongings and freeing up self-formation. Analysis of partygoers‘ accounts indicated that the belonging of small friendship networks was produced through everyday pleasures of sharing in music and local neighbourhood space. Practices of reading media texts were enmeshed in the everyday belongings and local neighbourhood spaces of friendship networks. The everyday belonging of small friendship networks acted as the basis for the enactment of techniques of self-care that intensified, interconnected and extended smaller networks into larger temporary crowd networks, linked via sharing in the otherworldly pleasures and boundary dissolving of the ecstatic moment of dancing, ‗lounging‘ and drug use.

Partygoers‘ accounts featured a key technique of self-care through which ecstatic belonging was produced, involving releasing the self and increasing responsiveness to the pleasures of music and crowd, though dancing and ‗lounging‘. The freeing up of self-formation in the ecstatic moment and the temporary crowd belongings of events were understood through multiple discourses including key texts of diversity and alternative spirituality. However, analysis of partygoers‘ accounts indicated that the temporary belonging and freeing up of self-stylisation celebrated in ‗mixed‘ events was unstable and not so easily enacted, or accepted, in spaces, or instances, of stricter regulation of self-formation, in other dance events and the everyday, and disturbances in the rules of ‗mixed‘ events. These instances were understood as not belongings. There was a further tension between the space of events as temporary zones for freeing up self-formation and projects of long-term structural political change.

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Regulatory techniques The chapter on regulatory techniques, from analysis of interviews with partygoers, indicated how drugs were understood through discourses of fear and danger related to the indeterminable quality and ‗illicit‘ status of drugs and through a text of pleasure, as a means to enhance the intensity and duration of enjoyment of the ecstatic moment. In these accounts, enactment of techniques of self-care was guided through the key principle of ‗balance‘, interrelated with the discourse of alternative spirituality.

Techniques of sequencing and dosage of particular types and combinations of drugs, preparation, sharing the pleasures of drugs, information and support were enacted situationally so as to maintain ‗balance‘ in relation to the condition of the embodied self and the space, rhythm and activities of events, everyday life and relationships.

‘Coming down’ and injecting Partygoer‘s accounts featured an understanding of ‗coming down‘ as dangerous, due to the increased intensity and prolongation of the ecstatic moment through drug use and the possibility of having sex on drugs after events. Dangers of ‗coming down‘ were exacerbated by combinations and extended use of drugs. Partygoer‘s enactment of techniques of moderation, movement to the space of the home and a technique of outreach, interrelated with discourses of harm reduction, DiY and environmentalism, negotiated the dangers of ‗coming down‘. ‗Coming down‘ was avoided through enactment of techniques of meditation and memory, interrelated with the discourse of alternative spirituality. Participants described how their networks included friends and sexual partners who injected speed. Negative attitudes to injecting were associated with secrecy and breakdowns in trust in relationships that acted as a barrier to safer injecting and sexual practice.

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Small friendship networks In partygoer‘s stories, regulatory techniques for drug use were situated within small friendship networks, heterogeneous in terms of gender, sexualities, scene affiliations, sexual and drug use practice. Regulatory techniques started with work on the self, but involved a concern with the self-care and pleasure of others, intensifying the belonging of small networks. In partygoer‘s stories, breakdowns in small friendship networks were associated with disturbances in ‗balance‘ and the failure of techniques of self-care.

This indicates the close relationship between the belonging of friendship networks produced through everyday pleasures and the capacity to enact techniques of self-care, governing safer drug use and enabling the production of ecstatic and crowd belongings.

Dance events and concepts of social practices of self-care and collective rituals of neo-tribal sociality

I develop an interdisciplinary approach to local ‗mixed‘ dance events, through setting the stories of participants in events in interviews and media texts and my account of doing fieldwork at events, in relation to Foucault and Maffesoli‘s theoretical texts on care of the self as a social practice and neo-tribal sociality. This approach has room for the texts of pleasure and self-care absent in previous literature and allows the ordinary stories, local spaces and practices of events to be situated in the context of broader social processes affecting modes of regulation of self-formation. The findings of the current study from analysis of qualitative ethnographic, textual and interview data are significant, as they indicate the usefulness of thinking through dance events via the theme of social collectivity in Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) work on self-care as a social practice and the extension of this in Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on sociality.

279 Theoretically framing events through Foucault‘s concept of self-care as a social practice and Maffesoli‘s idea of collective sociality, allowed an understanding of how the belongings, embodied selves and practices of drug use, music and dance were produced, regulated and understood within ‗mixed‘ events and the everyday lives of participants.

Analysis of my account of fieldwork at events supported Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) notion of a connecting atmosphere and fleshed out how the connectedness of small friendship networks acted as a precondition for larger crowd belongings. Analysis of media texts indicated the important role of the DJ in writing specialist columns guiding production of ecstatic and self-regulated selves, through providing advice to partygoers, in resonance with Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) understanding of self-care as a social practice, enmeshed in social relationships and networks of communication. Analysis of partygoer‘s accounts indicated how, in these stories, forms of small friendship network, large crowd and ecstatic belongings were produced and how drug use was regulated through techniques of self-care and guiding discourses.

In the first of two key themes, partygoer‘s accounts of events indicated the usefulness of

Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) understanding of belonging produced through the ecstatic moment, and fleshed out how the ecstatic moment had its basis in the everyday belonging of small friendship networks. Partygoer‘s stories of self-transformation in the space of ‗mixed‘ events resonated with and built onto Pini‘s (1993) understanding of the freeing up of women‘s bodies through Foucault‘s (1988b) techniques of self-care, illustrating how events can, following Foucault (1986/1990b, 1978/1991a, 1983a), be understood as temporary zones of freedom for self-formation, including new modes of masculinities. Secondly, partygoer‘s accounts featured a theme of regulation of the

280 pleasures of drug use, through, what can be understood as techniques of self-care as a social practice (Foucault 1986/1990b), and shared rituals of neo-tribal sociality

(Maffesoli 1988/1996). In this example regulatory techniques had a basis in and intensified the social collectivity of small friendship networks and featured a flexible relation of self with a principle of ‗balance‘.

However, there are certain limitations on the application of Foucault‘s concept of self- care as a social practice and Maffesoli‘s understanding of sociality to dance events and drug use. There are limitations, in so far as this study focused on the specific example of local ‗mixed‘ dance events and the everyday social networks associated with events, rather than examining a broader range of forms of dance events and drug use networks.

It is thus important to acknowledge that the account of ‗mixed‘ dance events developed in this study is grounded in the stories of participants in interviews, local media stories of events and my account of fieldwork at events as researcher. The findings presented here are the product of the research process and time frame of the study, situated in this particular, local space, historical and social context. The belongings of small friendship networks produced through sharing in everyday pleasures acting as the basis for techniques of self-care regulating ecstatic pleasures that intensified and extended the belongings of smaller networks may have been related to the specific local context and characteristics of ‗mixed‘ events. The focus on ‗mixed events‘ characterised by discreet organising techniques, discourses of diversity and queer, and small friendship networks heterogenous in terms of gender, sexualities and drug use and sexual practice may not be representative of the broader categories of dance events and drug use practice. There is thus reason for exercising caution in applying these findings more generally, to other forms of dance events and drug use, in different social and historical contexts.

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It is important to acknowledge that the framing concepts of self-care as a social practice, and shared rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality, that I use to think through local

‗mixed‘ dance events in relation to health, are derived from a reading of the theoretical work of Foucault and Maffesoli. Foucault and Maffesoli‘s abstract theoretical concepts of techniques, rituals, discourses and rules, that produce and regulate the embodied self, belonging and pleasures are more or less distinct from the everyday concepts in participant‘s accounts, or stories of events. However, the interdisciplinary understanding of events developed by the current study does not aim to present the

‗truth‘ of dance events, but rather to open up understandings of dance events, through setting the everyday stories of participants in events, media texts and my account of fieldwork at events as researcher, in relation to theoretical texts, that situate them in terms of a broader context. In this way, the space of the event offers a particular site for the playing out of broader social processes, that resound in the multiple stories of events, and can usefully be understood through setting these everyday stories in relation to the work of Foucault on governmentality and care of the self and Maffesoli on neo- tribal networks. Considering the local spaces, embodied practices and everyday stories of events, at the same time, offers a means to flesh out the finer practical details of what are, in some respects, abstract and metaphoric theories.

Foucault‘s work offers a history of multiple ‗technologies of the self‘ (1988b) that, rather than providing a ‗solution‘ to current problems, usefully opens up the contingencies of present modes of regulation of self-formation for further analysis, indicating the possibilities and dangers of contemporary forms of self-care, such as the environmental, SM and gay movements. Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c) utilises Foucault‘s

282 (1988b) theory in thinking through the space of the rave as a site of freeing up of regulation of self-formation for women, through techniques of self-care, interrelated with texts of excitement and New Age spirituality. Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work offers a metaphorical understanding of modes of regulation of self-formation in the contemporary era, through the concept of shared rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality.

Malbon (1999) uses ethnographic data on the spatial practices producing belongings of contemporary clubbing, to flesh out the finer practical points of Maffesoli‘s metaphoric theory.

The findings from analysis of participants‘ accounts in media texts and interviews and my account of fieldwork at events, resonate closely with Foucault‘s (1988b) theory of multiple ‗technologies of the self‘ and Maffesoli‘s work on ‗neo-tribal ethics of aesthetics‘. The findings support the view of dance events as site of intersection and tension between restrictive regulation of self-formation through governmental and modified pastoral power relations and the freeing up of the production of selves and belongings through situational enactment of social techniques self-care, and developing from this theme of social collectivity as the basis for self-regulation, shared rituals of ecstasy and mutual aid of neo-tribal sociality. The current study develops an understanding of the nature of the relationship between concepts of shared pleasure producing belongings and embodied selves that in turn, act as the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care and application of guiding discourses, that increase the warmth of social relations, or belongings, through the particular example of local ‗mixed‘ dance events.

283 Analysis of ethnographic data on the spaces and practices of ‗mixed‘ events supported

Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) theory of belongings created through sharing in the atmosphere of particular spaces or activities. Analysis fleshed out in more detail the importance of specific contexts and forms of practices of ‗playful‘ dancing and ‗lounging‘ in producing connecting atmosphere and the key role of the everyday belongings of small friendship networks as the basis for larger crowd belongings. The findings supported

Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) understanding of self-care as a social practice, and the extension of these ideas of self-regulation requiring and intensifying social collectivity in Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996), work on the shared rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality, in so far as small friendship networks were the basis for enactment of the practice of

‗lounging‘, that both constituted a technique of self-care, regulating the pleasures of drug use, and intensified and extended the belonging of these small networks.

Analysis of DJs guides to ‗mixed‘ events in local media texts resonated closely with

Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) theory of practices of reading and writing as a form of self- care as a social practice, enmeshed in wider networks of communication and exchanges of advice. These everyday texts guided production of ecstatic and self-regulated selves and new forms of belongings associated with events, against a broader backdrop of processes of legislative and commercial regulation of dance events as sites of dangerous drug use. This supports the view, building on Pini (1993) and thinking through events in terms of Foucault‘s theory of self-formation, that dance events act as sites for the intersection of modes of regulation of self-formation in the form of governmental and modified pastoral power relations and situational and flexible techniques of self-care.

284 Analysis of the interview data provided a close focus account of the production of particular forms of small friendship network, larger temporary crowd and ecstatic belongings through sharing in everyday pleasures of music and local neighbourhood space and the ecstatic pleasures of dancing, ‗lounging‘ and drug use. Everyday and ecstatic pleasures were regulated through adoption of an attitude of flexibility in the application of discourses guiding self-formation via enactment of techniques of self-care that worked through, intensified and extended the belongings of small friendship networks. In partygoer‘s accounts, drug use was understood in terms of danger, fear and pleasure, as a means of enhancing the release and increase in responsiveness of the self through which ecstatic belongings were produced. Drug use was regulated through techniques of self-care, in the form of preparation, sharing in pleasures of drugs, support and information, guided by the key principle of ‗balance‘ in relation to the condition of the embodied self, atmospheric space, rhythm and activities of events and everyday life and relationships. Stricter regulation of self-stylisation was associated with moments of not belonging, in the space of other dance events, everyday life and during instances of disruptions in the rules of ‗mixed‘ events. The breakdown of the belonging of small friendship networks was associated with disturbances in ‗balance‘ and the failure of techniques of self-care regulating drug use.

The findings from analysis of interview data indicated the key role of small friendship networks and flexibility in stylisation of the self in mediating the production of ecstatic and larger crowd belongings and the enactment of techniques of self-care. Friendship networks and the adoption of an attitude of openness, friendliness and ‗balance‘ were the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care, negotiating the pleasures and dangers of drugs used to enhance release and responsiveness, thus intensifying and prolonging

285 the ecstatic moment of belonging. It was through the ecstatic moment of belonging that larger temporary crowd belongings were produced and the belonging of smaller friendship networks intensified. These findings from analysis of interview data fleshed out the practicalities of Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) metaphoric work – supporting the theory of creation of belonging through ecstasy, but grounding this, through acknowledging the basis of the ecstatic moment in the everyday social relations of friendship networks, the adoption of an attitude of openness and friendliness and the enactment of a technique of releasing the self and increasing responsiveness to music and crowd. These findings supported and extended Pini‘s (1993) use of Foucault

(1988b), indicating the usefulness of Foucault‘s work on social practices of self-care

(1985/1992, 1986/1990b) in thinking through the space of the dance event as a temporary zone of freedom for the production of the sexed embodied self and new forms of temporary and mobile belongings, in a wider context of restrictive regulation of the production of selves and belongings within governmental power relations. The findings, from analysis of interview data, indicated how the space of the event offered a temporary dissolving of everyday classifications and strict scene affiliations, freeing up of the production of the embodied self, in terms of both and neither, masculinities and femininities, same sex attraction and opposite sex attraction, understood through texts of fluidity, queer, freakiness and diversity.

The key finding, from analysis of the interview data, of the importance of friendship networks and the guiding principle of ‗balance‘, as the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care regulating drug use, indicated the usefulness of Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) understanding of self-care as a social practice that regulates pleasures to produce the embodied self as ecstatic and self-regulated, via working through and increasing the

286 warmth of social relations. In this view, responsibility is both personal, involving work on the self to regulate pleasures, and collective, involving concern with the self-care and pleasure of other people. This approach to drug use as regulated through social practices of self-care, and shared rituals of sociality, usefully extends the work of Pini

(1993, 1997a, b, c) and Malbon (1999), who argued that future research was required to consider the question of how drug use was regulated, in more detail. Malbon‘s (1999) argument that there is a dangerous and illusory diffusion of individual into collective responsibility involved in the sociality of clubbing is developed further. I build on and extend Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work where regulation is understood through

Foucault‘s (1988b) care of self as interrelated with rave‘s key texts of excitement and fear and the more widely circulating discourse of the New Age. Foucault‘s

(1986/1990b) theory of care of self as a social practice offers a means to think through the tensions involved in the form of responsibility associated with local ‗mixed‘ dance events. This form of responsibility is personal, starting with work on the self, and collective, involving a concern with the practices of self-care and pleasure of other people, increasing the warmth of social relations. Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) metaphoric theory of atmospheric, or emotional, proxemic and network responsibility is supported and qualified in so far as this atmospheric responsibility of the dancing crowd has its precondition in the connectedness of smaller friendship networks that enable the production of a connecting atmosphere.

Social network approaches to drug use that have most often focused on the networks of injecting drug users and gay men were extended, through thinking through of the forms of connectedness of social networks associated with local ‗mixed‘ dance events, as forms of belongings and embodied selves produced through sharing in pleasures

287 regulated via techniques of self-care. The complex picture of interrelation of unstable, fragile, mobile, temporary crowd belongings, fluid embodied selves and not belongings, that were mediated via smaller friendship networks, heterogeneous in terms of gender, sexualities, musical taste and sexual and drug use practice, developed in the current study, offers support to and extends the argument of social network literature concerning the limitations of assumptions of fixed forms of identity, sexual or drug use behaviour or unproblematic fluidity in identity.

Crucially, the findings of the current study corroborate the understanding of ‗mixed‘ events through concepts of self-care as a social practice, and developing from this shared rules and rituals of ecstasy and mutual aid of neo-tribal sociality, and the relationship between pleasures, belongings, the embodied self and techniques of self- care. This thinking through of pleasure, belonging, the embodied self and self-care was largely missing from previous literature. Social network approaches focused on belonging as the basis of risk-reduction, to the exclusion of pleasure. Contemporary cultural studies approaches focused on the power of the pleasures of the ecstatic moment to produce new forms of embodied selves and belongings, to the exclusion of self-care. The findings support the argument that self-regulation requires and intensifies social collectivity. This argument is fleshed out through framing concepts of self-care as a social practice, and developing from this, shared rituals and rules of neo-tribal sociality, that involve a strong relationship between pleasure and the production of belongings and embodied selves and the ability to enact techniques of self-care. Given the support for this argument that self-regulation of pleasures has its basis in and amplifies social collectivity, future studies cannot afford to leave out important parts of the story, in the form of pleasure and social modes of self-regulation.

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New forms of embodied self and belonging

The findings of this study contribute to broader theoretical discussions on how the production of forms of embodied self and belonging are regulated within particular relations of power, knowledge and discourse. The space of local ‗mixed‘ dance events offered a particular context for the playing out of broader social processes involving intersection of modes of regulation of self-formation that have more far reaching implications, as struggles over how the production of the embodied self is regulated come to be of especial importance in the contemporary context.

The identification of techniques of self-care, enmeshed in and intensifying the belongings of small friendship and larger crowd networks regulating the pleasures of drug use and producing the ecstatic and balanced embodied self, supports the idea that the space of the event offered a site for a form of freedom, ‗vitality‘ and ‗puissance‘ in

Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) terms, and in Foucault‘s (1983a) terms ‗resistance‘, and refusal, of more restrictive modes of regulation of the embodied self. This supports and extends Pini (1993, 1997a, b, c) and Malbon‘s (1999) understanding of the power of the ecstatic moment of rave and clubbing. The space of ‗mixed‘ events freed up stylisation of the embodied self in terms of masculinities and femininities, as well as same sex attraction and opposite sex attraction, and temporarily dissolved rigid scene affiliations.

The form of ecstatic and balanced embodied self produced through sharing in pleasures regulated via techniques of self-care that were enmeshed in, intensified and extended through small friendship networks, supports Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) idea that self-care is a social practice, involving a form of personal and collective responsibility, rather than separate, individual responsibility, or the merger of collective responsibility. There

289 was a responsibility to feel and respond to the collective sensuality, proximity and emotions of the space of events and to participate in the embodied activities of dancing and ‗lounging‘. Using drugs responsibly meant exercising caution, awareness of dangers, researching drugs, exchanges of information and support, that both regulated use so as to avoid dangers and enhanced the sense of releasing, or relaxing, and responsiveness of the self to the pleasures of the event.

This thinking through of social practices of self-care and collective rituals of sociality, that governed the use of pleasures producing the ecstatic and balanced embodied self, is important as it indicates how, despite the external view of dance events as spaces of dangerous drug use and participants as ‗at risk‘ individuals and populations, participants in events did enact techniques of self-care. This has wider implications, as the ‗internal‘ texts of the pleasures of the ecstatic moment in dancing, ‗lounging‘ and drug use and regulation of this pleasure through techniques of self-care guided by the principle of

‗balance‘, are more broadly ‗disqualified‘ (Foucault 1977/1980a), although interrelated with widely circulating discourses, such as alternative spirituality. Discourses such as that of alternative spirituality, environmentalism and queer, can be thought through as a form of ‗care for truth‘ (Foucault 1988a), refusing, or resisting, the restrictions of regulation of the production of the embodied self and community through universal application of institutional, medical, legal and religious knowledges, associated with governmental and modified pastoral power relations.

New forms of embodied self and belonging - Implications for health

It is the playing out of these broader processes of modes of regulation of self-formation, associated with particular relations of power, knowledge and discourse, that open out

290 questions of what will ‗count‘ as self, as community, or belonging and as care. These theoretical questions have particular implications for how health is managed by the state, institutions, communities, networks and individuals in relation to drug use and blood borne virus transmission, and in the interrelated areas of general health, the regulation of the labour force, of young people and of public space.

Social network literature offers an approach to drug use as a social practice, avoiding limitations of a focus on individual psychology, or behaviour (Neaigus et al. 1994;

Sharp et al. 1991), or enumeration of risk (Grund 1993), bound up with individualising discourses of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance, that produce understandings of people who use drugs as victims, deviants and vectors of disease (Grund 1993,

Maher 1997, Henderson 1993). Social network approaches to drug use among networks of injectors (Neaigus et al. 1994) and networks of gay men and women attached to

Sydney gay community (Southgate & Hopwood 1999; Richters et al. 1999), have argued that due to the heterogeneity of multiple and interrelated networks and situationally negotiated forms of identity that may not always correspond with sexual or drug use practice, there are limitations in health initiatives informed by understandings of ‗risk groups‘ that assume homogeneity of networks based on fixed forms of identity and sexual, or drug use behaviour. Similarly, Hillier et al. (1998), in a study of the networks of same sex attracted youth, argue that there are limitations in assumptions, both of fixed and unproblematic fluidity of identity, given the broader context in which same sex attraction is not widely accepted. However, the focus of social network approaches is predominantly on the connectedness of networks as the basis for risk- reduction, leaving a gap in understanding of the role of pleasures in producing and maintaining belongings.

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Contemporary cultural studies approaches to dance events have focused on the power of the pleasures of the ecstatic moment to produce new forms of belongings and embodied selves. Where self-care is thought through, it is in terms of an illusory diffusion of individual into collective responsibility (Malbon 1999), leaving a gap in understanding how practices of drug use are regulated through techniques of self-care as a social practice. Except in Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) work on rave, where it is argued that despite understandings of young people who participate in the pleasures of rave in the form of drug use and dance, as ‗at risk‘ and in need of state intervention, young people enacted techniques of self-care, managing safer drug use, that were bound up with rave‘s texts of excitement and fear and New Age spirituality. The current project takes up and extends Pini‘s (1993, 1997a, b, c) approach to dance events, through Foucault‘s

(1978/1991a, 1983a, 1986/1990b) work on governmentality and care of the self as a social practice and Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on neo-tribal sociality.

Foucault‘s (1978/1991a, 1983a) work indicates the dangers of regulation of the health of free individuals and populations through the ‗government of individualisation‘. The

‗government of individualisation‘ involves individualising and totalising techniques of bio-power, governmental and modified pastoral power relations that feature universal application of institutional, legal, moral, medical and religious knowledges restricting the way the embodied self is formed (Foucault 1978/1991a, 1983a). This restrictive regulation of self-formation associated with governmental power relations is played out in the legislative and commercial regulation of dance events understood, more or less

‗externally‘ (Pini 1993), as sites of dangerous drug use and participants as ‗at risk‘ individuals and populations, in need of state intervention, tied into individualising

292 discourses on drugs of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance. Assumptions of fixed identity, sexual, or drug use behaviour, tie the individual to fixed identity, or behaviour, as a ‗universal rule‘ (Foucault 1983a, 1984/1997c). However, notions of unproblematic fluidity in sexual identity, that may seem to offer a solution to the limitations of assumptions of fixed identity and behaviour, pose another danger, of ignoring the broader context in which fluidity in identity is not widely accepted.

The freeing up of the embodied self and the production of new forms of temporary belongings in events can be understood through Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) work on care of self as a social practice and Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on neo-tribal sociality, as a momentary refusal of restrictive forms of regulation of self-formation and a different situational and flexible mode of regulation of production of selves and belongings, through new forms of embodied pleasures. In this view, situational and flexible application of more or less ‗internal‘ (Pini 1993) discourses of embodied pleasure, vitality and the principle of ‗balance‘, tied into the more widely circulating discourse of alternative spirituality, guides regulation of the pleasures of drug use and dance, through enactment of techniques of self-care that work on the embodied self and increase the warmth of social relations, through a concern with the self-care and pleasure of other people. Participants in dance events can thus be understood as enacting techniques regulating the pleasures of drugs, music and dancing, producing the self as ecstatic, balanced and safe, and importantly, managing their own health.

Developing such an understanding of the sociality of events brings together concerns with pleasures, belongings, the embodied self and techniques of self-care regulating safer drug use, that address limitations in understandings of pleasure, in social network

293 approaches, and self-care, in contemporary cultural studies approaches. Thinking through the new forms of belongings and embodied selves produced through the pleasures of local ‗mixed‘ dance events, regulated through techniques of self-care as a social practice, and collective rituals of sociality, enmeshed in a broader context of governmental power relations, presents new implications for health.

In particular, I identify points at which social practices of self-care through which participants managed their own health could usefully be built on and points at which techniques of self-care failed. Findings from analysis of ethnographic data and media texts indicated that practices of ‗lounging‘ and exchanges of advice in local free street press constituted techniques of self-care. Findings from analysis of interviews indicated that participant‘s stories featured techniques of self-care and a key guiding principle of

‗balance‘ via which participants regulated practices of music, dance and drug use.

Techniques of self-care regulating drug use had a basis in the social collectivity of small friendship networks and the failure of these techniques was associated with the breakdown of the belongings of networks of friends.

‘Lounging’ Findings from analysis of ethnographic data on the spaces and practices of events indicated that the pleasures of the practice of ‗lounging‘ mediated through small friendship networks were equally important in the production of belonging as the pleasures of practices of dancing. ‗Lounging‘ constituted a technique of self-care regulating safer drug use through avoiding overheating and dehydration. In contrast to the emphasis on dance, in house, rave and club events, ‗mixed‘ events featured an equal emphasis on the pleasures of intensified sociability of ‗lounging‘, mediated through

294 small friendship networks. ‗Lounging‘ was interrelated with the presence of information stalls and outreach, and discourses of DiY and environmentalism. The practice of ‗lounging‘ offered a possible basis for promoting safer drug use, circulation of information and outreach.

Exchanges of advice through writing and reading Findings from textual analysis of local media indicated that DJs acted as key people in networks, providing advice to partygoers on how to produce the embodied self and regulate the pleasures of drug use, through particular techniques, via practices of writing on events. This writing featured discourses of harm reduction and alternative spirituality, an emphasis on the pleasures of music, dancing and crowd collectivity and advocated techniques of awareness of dangers of drugs, moderation, looking after friends and meditation. The role of the DJ, in providing advice to partygoers, constituted a social technique of self-care, offering a possible point for circulation of information.

New forms of temporary, mobile belongings and fluid embodied selves Findings from analysis of partygoer‘s accounts indicated how the production of new forms of embodied selves and temporary, mobile crowd belongings occurred through sharing in the pleasures of the ecstatic moment of dancing, ‗lounging‘ and drug use in which classifications were momentarily dissolved. The production of large crowd belongings and the ecstatic embodied self was mediated through, and involved the reanimation, interconnection and extension of the everyday belongings of small friendship networks. The belongings of small friendship networks were produced through sharing in the pleasures of music and local neighbourhood space, in which practices of reading media texts were also situated.

295

The ecstatic moment was produced through the key technique of self-care, involving releasing the self and increasing responsiveness to music and crowd via dancing,

‗lounging‘ and regulated drug use. The technique of release and responsiveness required adoption of an attitude of openness, friendliness, balance and flexibility in the application of discourses guiding self-formation. The emphasis on the pleasures of friendliness, sensuality and dancing and ‗normalisation‘ of fluidity of queer constituted a new form of sexuality, ‗safe‘ in relation to HIV transmission, within the space of events. However, the temporary, mobile crowd belongings and fluidity of the embodied self produced in events were characterised by fragility, instability and tensions.

Temporary belongings and fluid forms of self offered only a momentary refusal of stricter modes of regulation of self-formation of other events and everyday life and moments when the rules of ‗mixed‘ events were broken. These instances of not belongings can be thought through as bound up with governmental and modified pastoral power relations.

The production of fragile and unstable forms of fluid embodied selves and temporary, mobile large crowd belongings through the ecstatic moment of belonging to everything, mediated via the everyday belongings of small friendship networks, have particular implications for health. The interrelation of these forms of temporary large crowd, ecstatic and everyday small friendship network belongings and transformation of the embodied self, means that assumptions of homogenous ‗at risk‘ populations, or individuals, on the basis of fixed forms of identity, sexual or drug use behaviour, or assumptions of unproblematic fluidity in identity, would limit the effectiveness of initiatives promoting health in the context of local ‗mixed‘ dance events. Event

296 appropriate strategies for promoting health could better be informed by an understanding of the temporary and fragile large crowd belongings and momentarily fluid embodied selves of events, held in tension with not belongings, and mediated through the everyday belongings of small friendship networks.

Techniques of self-care and small friendship networks Analysis of partygoer‘s accounts of events indicated that the belongings of small friendship networks produced through sharing in everyday pleasures were the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care regulating safer practices of drug use. Drug use was understood through texts of fear and danger, associated with the indeterminable quality of ‗illicit‘ drugs, and, in terms of pleasure, as a means to enhance the intensity and duration of the pleasures of the ecstatic moment. Situational enactment of techniques of self-care, through sequencing and dosage of particular types and combinations of drugs, preparation and sharing in the pleasures of drugs, support and information, meditation and memory, occurred so as to maintain a state of ‗balance‘, in relation to the condition of the embodied self, space, time and activities of events, everyday life and relationships.

Enactment of techniques of self-care that worked on the self, but that were enmeshed in small friendship networks, regulated the pleasures of drugs and intensified the belonging of small networks, through concern with the pleasure and self-care of others, constituting a social practice. Small friendship networks that acted as the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care regulating drug use and mediating production of the ecstatic moment, were heterogeneous in terms of sexualities, genders, drug use and sexual practice and scene affiliation.

297

Sex and drugs - Health implications It was within the context of small friendship networks and the space of the home, while

‗coming down‘ after events, that sexual partners met and sexual practice occurred.

Failure in techniques of self-care regulating drug use and dangers associated with these, especially during ‗coming down‘, were in the accounts of partygoers, associated with combinations, or extended use of drugs, that disturbed ‗balance‘ and were related to breakdowns in the belongings of small friendship networks. Sex on drugs during

‗coming down‘ was understood as intensely pleasurable, and as dangerous, especially where there were breakdowns in belongings of small friendship networks, use of combinations of speed and Ecstasy, or extended use of drugs, associated with an attitude of ‗recklessness‘. The pleasurable dissolving of boundaries associated with Ecstasy use was at the same time understood as dangerous, as the consequences of lowering of sexual ‗inhibitions‘ with friends may not be easily negotiated in everyday life. Holding tightly to the discourse of ‗nature‘ disturbed ‗balance‘ and was associated with unprotected sexual practice. Pleasures and dangers of ‗coming down‘ and sex on drugs were negotiated through enactment of regulatory techniques of movement to the space of the home, moderation, outreach and alternative techniques of meditation and memory through which unpleasant effects were avoided. These techniques were interrelated with discourses of harm reduction, alternative spirituality, DiY and environmentalism.

Self-regulatory techniques and the key discourse of ‗balance‘ that participants utilised in managing sexual practice, and thus their own health, could offer a point from which to develop future health initiatives.

298 However, there were tensions in partygoer‘s accounts of sexualities and sexual practice.

Sexuality was understood as both ‗not an issue‘ and valued as a form of diversity, and sexual practice was positioned as occurring during ‗coming down‘ outside events, that although described as governed by the rule of friendliness rather than sexual pick up, nonetheless offered a site for incidental meeting of sexual partners. Given these tensions and as discussed above, the fragility and instability of fluid selves and temporary belongings, there would be limitations in basing health strategies on individual or fluid sexualities and sexual practice as these were understood by participants as ‗not an issue‘ and outside the scope of events, or not so readily accepted elsewhere. Initiatives promoting health could thus usefully work through the spaces of events and the local neighbourhood that acted as the sites of connection for friends and sexual partners.

Injecting and networks – Health Implications The networks of participants who used drugs such as Ecstasy, trips and marijuana, included friends and sexual partners who injected speed and, to a lesser extent, heroin.

Stigma and shame associated with negative attitudes towards injecting acted as a barrier to self-regulation of safer use and negotiation of safer sexual practice, especially in the context of sexual partnerships and small friendship networks. ‗Trust‘ and connectedness were broken down, in part due to fear of dangers of blood borne virus transmission, over dose and dependency and due to extreme stigma and shame associated with practices of secrecy and hiding of injecting. Practices of secrecy were at odds with the open negotiation of safe sexual practice and created barriers to self- regulation of safer injecting practices, in so far as injecting became a solitary, isolated practice, cut off from the support of relationships and friendship networks. Negative understandings of injecting can be thought through as, in part, bound up with the

299 broader context of governmental power relations and individualising discourses on drugs of pharmacology, pathology, risk and deviance. Given this stigma associated with injecting and the heterogeneity of networks health interventions could work through the spaces of events and the local neighbourhood that acted as sites where relationships among friends and sexual partners were cemented.

Due to the fluidity, mobility and heterogeneity of small friendship networks in terms of age, gender, sexualities, sexual and drug use practice, tensions in understandings of sexuality and sexual practice in events, and stigma around injecting, there would be limitations in strategies promoting health on the basis of assumptions of unified sexual identity, rigid classifications of sexual or drug use behaviour, or unproblematic fluidity in identity. Such assumptions could act as a significant barrier to self-regulation of safer drug use and negotiation of safer sexual practice through enactment of techniques of self-care. The more durable everyday belongings of small friendship networks and adoption of an attitude of flexibility and ‗balance‘ were important as the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care regulating safer drug use and mediating production of temporary and fragile larger crowd belongings and fluid embodied selves. When techniques of self-care failed this was related to disturbances in ‗balance‘ and breakdown in the attitude of flexibility and the belonging of smaller networks. Given the importance of small friendship networks and the principle and state of ‗balance‘ interrelated with the discourse of alternative spirituality as the basis for self-care, the belongings of these smaller networks and discourses and states of ‗balance‘, may provide a possible basis for event appropriate initiatives for promoting health. In particular, practices of sharing in everyday pleasures of music and local neighbourhood

300 space offer a possible means of circulation of information and advice, guiding the production of the self as ecstatic, balanced and safe.

Future directions

Tensions between the ecstatic moment and activism There are limitations on the findings, in part due to the time frame of the study, raising questions beyond the scope of the current study. Events offered a ‗politics of space‘

(Pini 1997b), concerned with defence of the spaces of events as temporary zones of freedom for the production of the embodied self and new forms of belongings. The extension of this concern to include activist projects of long-term structural political change, in relation to issues such as environmentalism and sexualities, constituted a distinctive tension in doof and queer underground events, raising important questions that are beyond the scope of this study. The question of the extent to which events act as a catalyst for structural political-economic change can only be considered through future research, over a longer period of time. Some participants were aware of the temporary and contradictory nature of the transformation of the self involved in the ecstatic moment. The freeing up and irrelevance of sexualities in the space of events was understood as both tangible and perhaps not ‗real‘.

Tensions between the absolute belonging invited by the discourse of diversity and limits on belongings Another limitation of the current study involves the limits of belongings invited and understood through of discourses of diversity that seem all inclusive. However, the temporary crowd belongings of events produced through the ecstatic moment of boundless belonging to everything had a precondition of adoption of flexibility in relation of the self to discourses guiding elaboration of ethical work on the self and an

301 attitude of relationality, openness and tolerance. Discourses of diversity were held in tension with a discourse of underground and the utilisation of discreet organising techniques that limited access to events to those already linked with existing friendship networks. Flexibility in stylisation of the self, although ‗normalised‘ within the space of

‗mixed‘ events, was associated with forms of not belonging in other spaces, where such flexibility was not so readily accepted, such as spaces of other dance events and everyday life. Flexibility was disturbed in moments when the rules of ‗mixed‘ events were broken. The new forms of embodied self and belonging associated with ‗mixed‘ events were characterised by particular possibilities and dangers. There was a possibility of temporary freedom in the production of the embodied self within the space of events within a broader context in which such flexibility in stylisation of self is not so readily accepted and may be the object of practices of exclusion and segregation.

This raises the broader theoretical question, for future research, of the implications of the production of new forms of embodied self through the freeing up of the relation of the self to discourses guiding the production of the self and adoption of a relational attitude, in particular, if it is possible to free up the way the self is produced without the danger of exclusions.

Conclusions

This study developed an account of the sociality - shared techniques and rituals, discourses and rules - of local ‗mixed‘ dance events, in order to inform event appropriate strategies to promote health in relation to drug use and blood borne virus transmission. Thinking through the stories, spaces and practices of events in relation to the theme of social collectivity introduced in Foucault‘s (1986/1990b) late work on social practices of self-care and developed further in Maffesoli‘s (1988/1996) work on

302 collective rituals of sociality, provided a useful understanding of the importance of the belonging of small friendship networks produced through sharing in everyday pleasures as the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care. Techniques of self-care both regulated safer drug use and intensified and extended smaller networks in the formation of fragile and temporary larger crowd belongings, through sharing in the pleasures of the ecstatic moment. The enactment of techniques of self-care required adoption of an attitude of relationality, openness, friendliness, ‗balance‘ and flexibility in the application of discourses guiding self-formation. The key principle of ‗balance‘ was tied into the discourse of alternative spirituality and that of fluidity linked with texts of diversity, freakiness and queer.

The fluidity and flexibility of the ecstatic and balanced embodied self and temporary intensification and extension of the warmth of smaller friendship networks into larger crowd belongings was not so easy to negotiate elsewhere, in the space of other dance events and everyday life and in instances of disruption of the rules of ‗mixed‘ events, associated with not belongings. Breakdowns in the everyday belongings of friendship networks were associated with instances of disturbances in ‗balance‘ and the failure of techniques of self-care and dangers in relation to drug use and blood borne virus transmission.

There is thus a strong relationship between sharing in pleasures, the production of belongings and the capacity to enact techniques of self-care regulating pleasures and avoiding dangers of drug use, that addresses gaps on pleasure in social network literature on drug use, and on self-care in contemporary cultural studies work on dance events. The production of new forms of fluid embodied self and temporary mobile,

303 crowd belongings in the ecstatic moment indicates that there are forms of momentary resistance and vitality, that intersect with and briefly elude stricter modes of regulation of self-formation in the space of the event. However, this fluidity and larger belonging of the ecstatic moment has its basis in the everyday belongings of friendship networks and the adoption of an attitude of openness, friendliness and ‗balance‘.

These key findings indicate that there are limitations in initiatives promoting health based on notions of fixed identity, sexual or drug use behaviour, or assumptions of unproblematic fluidity in identity. Rather, event appropriate strategies for promoting health could better be informed through an understanding of the sociality of events.

More specifically, such an approach would be able to work with the particular forms of regulated pleasures, belongings, embodied selves, relation of the self with the self, with others, the environment and guiding discourses, and techniques of self-care associated with events. Crucial to such an informed approach is an understanding of the everyday belongings of small friendship networks produced through sharing in everyday pleasures and local spaces and the attitude of ‗balance‘ and flexibility in self-formation that acted as the basis for enactment of techniques of self-care. Enactment of techniques of self-care guided through the principle of ‗balance‘ both regulated safer drug use and produced the pleasures of the otherworldly ecstatic moment and larger crowd belongings. The warmth of smaller networks was, in this way, intensified and extended, through connecting atmosphere, into the temporary and bigger belonging of the crowd. Initiatives to promote health could thus usefully build onto and work through the social collectivity of the spaces of events, small friendship networks and the local neighbourhood, that acted as the basis for and were intensified through self-

304 regulation of the pleasures of music, dance and drug use and maintenance of the

‗balance‘ of the ecstatic and everyday self.

305

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323

Appendix One – In depth interview schedule

Events

Could you tell me, in some detail, about an event you went to that you enjoyed?

Could you tell me, in some detail, about an event you went to that you did not enjoy?

(e.g. where it was, who you were with, what you were wearing, how you got ready, what you did when you were there)

Music

What is the place of music in events, for you? What do you think is the place of music in events for other people?

Drugs

What is the place of drugs in events, for you? What do you think is the place of drugs in events for other people?

Crowds

What do you think about the effect of different ―mixes‖ of crowds at events?

How are crowds ―mixed‖?

How do you think people who make up such ―mixed‖ crowds are connected with one another? (at events and outside of events)

324 Networks

Think of the different things you do in your life (eg draw circles around - attending events, leisure, work, education etc). Think of the people you are connected to. Can you describe who these people are and how you are connected with them? Are any of them connected with one another?

Do any of them also attend events?

Do any of them take drugs?

Drug use practice (at events and elsewhere)

Have there been any times when you have taken drugs?

Where and when do you like to take drugs?

Injecting practice

Do you have any friends who may have injected drugs? Have there been any times when you have injected drugs?

Sexualities

What is the place of sexualities in events, for you? What do you think is the place of sexualities in events for other people?

Sex and drugs

Do you have any friends who may have had sex when they were on drugs? Have there been any times when you have had sex when you were on drugs?

325 Information

Where do you get your information about events? (drugs, sex, blood borne viruses)

What would you do with the energy and time that you put into attending events if there were no more events?

Biographical details/Life pattern

Age

Ethnicity

Housing/Domestic arrangements

Education status

Occupation

Parent‘s occupation

Employment

Leisure

Children/family

Legal status/climate

Family, education and peer support

Spirituality/religion

How did you hear about the project?

326 Appendix Two – Invitation to participate in the

research

Calling all freedom seekers – bent, queer, bi, straight, in-between

freaks, ferals, dancers, chillers,

dis-organisers, decorators, DJs….

Do you like to lose-your-self-to-the-vibe at one off events, doofs, clubs or parties?

I would love to hear your stories of freedom, bliss, joy, celebration or whatever.

This study is about vibey events with mixed crowds and their health issues. I am interested in the ways in which mixing up music, crowds, friends, sexualities, dancing and drugs may contribute to the creation of vibey events.

Talk to me over coffee and cake. All details anonymous and confidential.

Call Kate on 9385 6397 for more info.

This project is being undertaken as research towards a PhD. in Sociology by Ms. Kate

Ireland under the supervision of Professor Susan Kippax, National Centre in HIV Social

Research, and Professor Ann Daniel, School of Sociology, University of NSW, Sydney

2052.

327

Appendix Three – A brief chronology of events in the

dance scene as reported in 3D World Magazine 1989-

1999

1989 Hordern parties with ‗mixed‘ dressed up crowd

1990 Legal crackdown on Hordern and warehouse parties

Closure of Hordern

Growth in club venues

Gay scene becomes ‗musically quiet‘ related to HIV epidemic

1991 Split of the scene - gay party organisers win court case to continue use of

Hordern, predominantly heterosexual warehouse and outdoor parties or

‗raves‘ – crowd includes younger generation of heterosexual party goers

and older party goers involved since 1989 and Hordern

1992 ‗Raves‘ getting bigger

Venues in industrial areas

Reports of violence and intolerance at some parties

Deaths of 2 people in car accidents after police closure of outdoor party –

tabloid headlines Dance craze that kills

Changes in Mardi Gras ticketing policy

1993 Queer clubbing

‗Free parties‘, one off and ambient/chill events

Party protest organisation Vibe Tribe

328 1994 Police and local council pressure lead to party closures

Musical divergence – happy hardcore at ‗raves‘, house at clubs,

development of multiple musical scenes - trance, drum‘n‘bass, techno

1995 Police violence at closure of free outdoor party

Ecstasy related death of Anna Wood

Closure of Phoenician Club

Drug Free Youth Dance Initiative

Police crackdown on parties in ‗non-legal venues‘

Club Kooky

1996 Party protest organization Oms not Bombs

First super club opens

Convergence between different musical scenes – Freaky Loops, Dung

1997 Promotion of ‗alternative‘ Mardi Gras party

Increased police powers to arrest youth

Continuing proliferation of different genres of electronic music

Dance Party Code of Practice

Changes in licensing laws

Ombudsman‘s report into police violence at free outdoor party closure

Party protest organization Reclaim the Streets

Freaky Loops

1998 Police and Public Safety Bill

Second super club opens

Freaky Loops

1999 New queer club night at super club

329 Freaky Loops

New regular warehouse venue opens – Regent St.

330