Space, Performance, and the Oscillation of DIY Punk Publics
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Syracuse University SURFACE Theses - ALL August 2017 Getting Out of the Basement: Space, Performance, and the Oscillation of DIY Punk Publics Ryan L. Bince Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/thesis Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Bince, Ryan L., "Getting Out of the Basement: Space, Performance, and the Oscillation of DIY Punk Publics" (2017). Theses - ALL. 161. https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/161 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract This thesis takes the example of two scenes of activity—a punk house in Huntington, West Virginia and a 2016 DIY punk rock festival—to investigate the material-spatial influences that play out across the worldmaking performances of DIY Punk counterpublics as they oscillate across spaces that range from the intimate underground to the public writ large. Drawing on a mass of data including field interviews from punk house residents and fragments gathered from the festival and the internet, I render these scenes as radical activist worldmaking spaces that organize and prepare the international DIY punk community to do instrumental activist work. This work intervenes in counterpublic theory (Asen; Brouwer, Squires; Fraser) through an interface with geography (Blomley; Harvey; Mitchell; Staeheli) and performance studies (McKenzie; Taylor) by emphasizing space and mobility’s importance for the development of counterpublics and by pointing out the role of performance for understanding stylistically shared knowledges and counterpublic efficacies in general. Finally, this thesis draws on Lester Bangs to introduce a new counterpublic modality for thinking about enclaves that are primarily art communities and secondarily activist ones: the DIY punk party. Getting Out of the Basement: Space, Performance, and the Oscillation of DIY Punk Publics by Ryan Bince B. A. Ithaca College, 2013 Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Communication & Rhetorical Studies Syracuse University August 2017 Copyright © Ryan Bince, 2017 All Rights Reserved Acknowledgments Thank you to my advisor, Dana Cloud, who has challenged and encouraged me throughout my time at Syracuse University. Thank you to my committee members, Rachel Hall, Kathleen Eaton Feyh, Steve Parks, and Don Mitchell. Thank you to the Communication & Rhetorical Studies community at Syracuse University: Charles E. Morris III, Joanne Balduzzi, Art Hunt, Sarah Francesconi, faculty members, and my fellow graduate colleagues. You have influenced this project, my professional and intellectual development, and my personal development in more ways than you might realize. I am proud to have worked under your guidance and with your friendship. Thank you to Dylan Rollo for your smart and affectionate advice. Thank you to Codey Ryan Bills for your critical contributions to this piece and for providing snacks during our evening writing sessions. Thanks to Christopher House for asking me whether I had considered going to graduate school back in 2013. Thank you to Robert Sullivan and Donathan Brown for inspiring my interest in rhetoric and putting up with my unending streams of questions. Thank you to my partner, Lucia Smith, who contributed to this thesis in the form of enormous emotional and personal labor. There is nothing I can write here that would adequately demonstrate my gratitude for your support. Thank you to my sister, father, and mother for your unending love and encouragement. I promise I’ll come home soon. Thank you to Irene Thomas, Glenn Morris, Marilyn Rogers, Christine Almeda, and Larry Almeda. Quite literally, these words would not have been written without you. Finally, thank you to the wild and loving community of punks and artists who do the incredible work that I have only written about. Keep loving. Keep fighting. Hold on. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ iv Preface ................................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Short History of DIY Punk .............................................................................................. 4 Focal Objects & Research Questions ........................................................................... 10 Data, Methods, and Political-Ethical Commitments .................................................... 15 Performing Publics, Affecting Cultural Space .............................................................. 18 Counterpublic Theory ............................................................................................... 18 Geography and Public Space .................................................................................... 20 Performance Studies ................................................................................................. 23 Chapter Outline ............................................................................................................ 26 Chapter 1 - Public Punks in Private Pads: Mapping Modalities across DIY Punk Performances ................................................................................................................... 30 Situating the punk house ............................................................................................... 32 Conceptual Apparatus .................................................................................................. 34 Finding Funky Towne ................................................................................................... 38 Situating the punk house in the built environment ................................................... 39 The microeconomics of DIY punk lifestyle performances ....................................... 46 Funking Sh*t Up: Cultural Work at Funky Towne ....................................................... 52 Building Affective Alliances through Social Support: Successes and Failures ....... 53 Party Modalities ........................................................................................................ 64 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 71 Chapter 2 - “Follow your toes”: DIY Punk Enclaves Go to PIX Fest ....................... 74 History of Plan-It-X Fest .............................................................................................. 79 Conceptual Apparatus .................................................................................................. 82 Disengagement and Post –WWII Youth Subculture ................................................ 82 Performing Style, Performing Publics ...................................................................... 84 Mobile Modalities: DIY Punks Go Camping at PIX ..................................................... 87 Too Many Miles ........................................................................................................ 88 PIX Fest as an Instance of Counterpublicity ............................................................. 93 Departure Arrival .................................................................................................... 102 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 107 Conclusion - “The Nomads are Settling Down”: Mobility and Fixity across DIY Punk Networks .............................................................................................................. 110 Mobility and Counterpublicity .................................................................................... 115 Tactics in Tension ....................................................................................................... 120 Resistance—Accommodation ................................................................................. 121 Escape—Engagement ............................................................................................. 124 Performing Publics in Space ...................................................................................... 126 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 129 Vita ................................................................................................................................. 140 v List of Figures Figure 1: Sniffin' Glue Zine Page .............................................................................................................................. 6 Figure 2: Ramshackle Glory .................................................................................................................................. 55 Figure 3: Ramshackle Glory II ............................................................................................................................... 55 Figure 4: PIX Fest 2016 Pamphlet - Side 1 .......................................................................................................