Intervention Ideas

I think that, if testing the hidden rules of leisure time is what we're still trying to do, this should be fairly simple to put into practice: We go to a variety of nights out and test the boundaries of acceptable behaviour (whilst obviously trying not to ruin anyone's night or just be dicks).

Nights out are the peak of leisure time; they're when everyone is supposedly at their most free, a chance for people to release themselves from the constraints of work and every day life. But is this really accurate, or is there something more to a night out?

People's behaviour is still shaped by very specific social codes and regulations based on factors such as culture, class, race etc during their leisure time. To fit in in different places you often have to adhere to unwritten dress codes, types of speech, ways of dancing, drinking, listening to music etc etc.

I would like to discover what rules different nights out/cultures consist of. The potential to explore the political implications of this comes not just from finding out what really dictates our behaviour in our leisure time, but also discovering  the political, social and historical origins of codes of behaviour present in the night out and why they are important to the mainetenance of the different cultures that are drawn to them. Do the members of different cultures have the only role in shaping the social norms involved in different types of nights out, or does capital (e.g venues or businesses) also play a role? Could surveillance such as CCTV play a role in constraining behvaviour through the use of an authoritative gaze?

I think that this has a strong link to the work of both Foucault and Baudrillard. It relates to Baudrillard's notion of the hyper real: are we ever really free as individuals to choose our own behaviour or is every day life, including the time we supposedly have to do whatever we want in,  increasingly dictated by the need to conform to pre-existing discourses consisting of certain patterns of sign and symbol that presuppose us as individuals as well as our actions? It relates to Foucault's ideas about power and discourse in that if our behaviour in nights out does have to conform to social rules, then these rules are enforced through the gaze of others which we then internalise. I'll put a link to some of both of their relevant writing in my next post.

I propose that a good starting point would be for us to come up with a list of things we could do at different nights out to be outside the norm for that particular night (e.g dancing, dressing or talking differently) and then go and try these things out. All we really need is a camera and a microphone. I liked the idea someone came up with of having certain things that we could say to people to gauge their reaction. For example, if I went to a grime gig dressed completely inappropriately and asked for a cigarette how would I be received? This would ensure a certain level of actual interaction with people at the different nights out. I also think it makes sense to go to each others types of nights out rather than our own when trying this to increase objectivity (by minimising preconceptions about the possible social rules of the night) and to avoid any deep personal embarrassment in places we frequent.

I've also literally just noticed the comments about going down the path of inclusivity/exclusivity so you can largely ignore my last post but I think this could easily include that too -the hidden constraints of leisure time certainly lead to certain people being included or excluded- so let me know what you all think.