Hey guys,
So to clarify, is the main focus going to be on
bouncers and exclusivity/inclusivity? I know were doing our own individual
research by interviewing bouncers (whoever can) with the same 5 questions and
then going to film us acting anonymously as the bouncers. This will give us
some insight into the unwritten rules of the exclusivity of nightlife and
hopefully the bouncers will be working at different types of venues/events. The
open mic night seems to go down a different path by looking at the impact of
the lyrics of different genres of music on an unsuspecting audience. I think
this is also really interesting, but we need to find a way to link this with
the other ideas we are looking into.
Also, I had a read of some of Erving Goffman's The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, suggested by Bernadette and found this
passage particularly interesting and think it could relate to our project:
‘At
one extreme, one finds that the performer can be fully taken in by his own act;
and he can be sincerely convinced that the impression of reality which he
stages is the real reality. When the audience is also convinced in this way
about the show he put one – and this seems to be the typical case – then for
the moment at least, only the sociologist or the socially disgruntled will have
any doubts about the ‘realness’ of what is presented.
At the other extreme, we find
that the performer may not be taken in at all by his own routine… the performer
may be moved to guide the conviction of the audience only a means to other
ends, having no ultimate concern in the conception they have of him or of the
situation.’
This
idea that Goffman has is that there are two approaches to acting in social
roles; the sincere approach, the individual who really believes that their act
is an expression of their own identity, and the other cynic approach, an
individual who sees themselves outside of the role they are playing, or acts
for the benefit of the people around them. Goffman also says that one
individual can alternate between these two approaches at different times or in
different settings. Jyoti’s experience seems to show the former approach in her particular
experience, however, the other, of acting a role for the benefit of others, or
putting up a front, is definitely something that occurs a lot in nightlife,
especially between different subgenres/cultures. We had an early on idea of
attending events of different genres to see the behaviours of the people who
attend these events, maybe mirroring the people there to see if you are more
welcomed could be a good idea? Just think that this is quite a political way of
looking into nightlife, but again we need to talk about how we can link it to
make sense as a project.
Sorry for the long post x
also, we should probably start using the blog for everything instead of the group chat. and try to use comment chains rather than static individual posts. we also need to talk about hiring camera equipment etc or Georgia is your friend lending it to us?
ReplyDeleteYeah we need to make sure we have camera equipment for next Tuesday and the open mic session to get good footage of it. Also maybe we could arrange to interview some people there about effects of the open mic and maybe just more generally about their nights out and the politics they encounter.
ReplyDeleteApart from interviewing bouncers as well think we could defiantly do with some more ideas of interventions to really test out the conventions and politics of nightlife.
I'll ask him if he's free next Tuesday/what he can lend us.
ReplyDeleteWhen else do we think we'll need to film (plus we'll need to think about lighting/location/etc)
I think exclusivity and inclusivity is the best path. It means we can apply our knowledge from the bouncers, with the reaction to the open mic. It's a good way to filter thoughts.
ReplyDeleteReally good spot with the quote- do you think we could use it for the presentation as a sort of academic basis?
I like the idea of attending different events and seeing how people welcome you etc. Im going to a metal gig on Sunday which is pretty male dominated- so was thinking how people may react that there is a girl there etc, plus i was thinking about maybe wearing something outside the norm of what you would wear to this kind of gig and see if people kind of accept me/ignore me haha. I think it kind of joins in with the inclusivity/exclusivity thing as well :)
ReplyDeleteexclusivity and inclusivity of the nightlife in London is definitely something we should go down.
ReplyDeleteEmile has an open mic on Tuesday 14th March, the plan is to go and record Emile reading something out of the ordinary in the space he's in. This will be a good experiment to really delve into inclusivity in certain nightlife spaces.