Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Practical; Drawing Ravers & Zine


Technique

I decided to take a step back form my research and essay and take a slightly different approach to the practical side of this brief. Though I had a practical proposal written down, as stated before it wasn't something I really felt confident in taking all the way through to a final publication.

When I sat down and thought about what had drawn me to this subject in the first place I found myself remembering the people that started and carried the rave movement through it's golden age. The community and spirituality of rave was one of the key factors that had drawn me to it in the first place; it was the PEOPLE that made this movement so spectacular. And so it made sense to get back to basics.

References // Further Research

While googling images of ravers to draw from, listening to the happy hardcore sounds that would often be played by the Hacienda, I came across a couple of black and white photos of DJs that in turn lead me to a few pictures from rave zines. Rave zines were something I knew of, but hadn't looked into directly for this project, which seemed a little strange given their relevance!

As I looked further into rave zines and images of people at raves, I found my images progressing in a much more beneficial route. It was finally as though my research and practical work were beginning to synthesise in a way that elevated my research into new unexplored areas.

The combination of text, some of which I was getting from rave zines and others I was writing down in response to what I was finding through research, seemed to work with one another quite well. I felt as though my work was finally starting to reflect the rave ethos and what I wanted to say about it. Though many theorists would disregard the rave movement as something largely superficial, I really felt as though it had a lot to say. It wasn't a movement that had necessarily SET OUT to make huge changes or defy authority, but by dancing to the rhythm of their own bass, had subsequently done so. The ravers held protests, formed communities, birthed mainstream dance music in clubs, practiced not merely tolerance but acceptance of people no matter their race, sexuality or gender. It was the people at the core of this movement who's stories I wanted to tell!




 getting personal

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