Tracing the lines of an electronic tattoo
The covert operation of Melbourne techno
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v16i1-2.19923Keywords:
electronic dance music, techno, social aesthetics, virtualityAbstract
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Melbourne, this article investigates the local techno scene and attempts to establish techno-cultural connections with its roots in Detroit. From a theoretical perspective based on the work of Jean Baudrillard and Kodwo Eshun, three aspects of techno parties are explored, each shaped by the intertwined factors of music, drug and environment. The first discussion considers the hidden and ephemeral fluctuation of the dance floor vibe within the context of an underground scene, which is juxtaposed with the ‘undetectible’ (Eshun 1998: 120) transmissions of early Detroit techno. The two remaining analyses assess the covert operation of techno through the analogy of electronic tattooing, applied first on the human and then on the urban body. The pulsating tattoo lines emerge from technological appropriations that dismantle and reconfigure urban reality, developing the complexities of the Baudrillardian virtual.
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Waltz, Alexis. 2010. ‘Berghain, the Centre of the World’. In Lost and Sound: Berlin, Techno and the Easyjet Set, ed. Tobias Rapp, 128–41. Berlin: Innervisions.
—1997. ‘Aesthetic Illusion and Virtual Reality’. In Jean Baudrillard: Art and Artefact, ed. Nicholas Zurbrugg, 19–27. London: SAGE Publications.
—2004. Fragments: Conversations with François L’Yvonnet, trans. Chris Turner. London and New York: Routledge.
Bennett, Andy, and Richard A. Peterson. 2004. ‘Introducing Music Scenes’. In Music Scenes: Local, Translocal and Virtual, ed. Andy Bennett and Richard A. Peterson, 1–16. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
Brewster, Bill, and Frank Broughton. 2000. Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey. Rev. ed. London: Headline.
Butler, Mark J. 2006. Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Chan, Sebastian. 1999. ‘Bubbling Acid: Sydney’s Techno Underground’. In Australian Youth Subcultures: On the Margins and in the Mainstream, ed. Rob White, 65–73. Hobart: Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies.
Connell, John, and Chris Gibson. 2003. Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203448397
Dow, Aisha. 2013. ‘Melbourne Ranked World’s Most Liveable City—Again’. The Age, 28 August 2013. Online: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/melbourne-ranked-worlds-most-liveable-city--again-20130828-2sprk.html (accessed 19 October 2015).
Eshun, Kodwo. 1998. More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books.
Fernandes, Sanjay. 2011. ‘Clubbing in Melbourne’. Resident Advisor, 11 February 2011. Online: http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1287 (accessed 19 October 2015).
Gibson, Chris. 1999. ‘Subversive Sites: Rave Culture, Spatial Politics and the Internet in Sydney, Australia’. Area 31/1: 19–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4762.1999.tb00165.x
Goodman, Steve. 2010. Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear. Cambridge, MA; London: MIT Press.
Grazian, David. 2013. ‘Digital Underground: Musical Spaces and Microscenes in the Postindustrial City’. In Musical Performance and the Changing City: Post-Industrial Contexts in Europe and the United States, ed. Fabian Holt and Carsten Wergin, 127–51. London: Routledge.
Harley, Ross. 2000. ‘Roller Coaster Planet: Kinetic Experience in the Age of Mechanical Motion’. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 6/2: 77–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/135485650000600206
Hegert, Natalie. 2013. ‘Radiant Children: The Construction of Graffiti Art in New York City’. Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge 25. Online: http://www.rhizomes.net/issue25/hegert.html.
Hennion, Antoine. 2003. ‘Music and Mediation: Towards a New Sociology of Music’. In The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction, ed. Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert and Richard Middleton, 80–91. London: Routledge.
Homan, Shane. 1998. ‘After the Law: Sydney’s Phonecian Club, the New South Wales Premier and the Death of Anna Wood’. Perfect Beat 4/1: 56–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v4i1.28730
Kunzru, Hari. 2004. ‘Music is the Message (Jeff Mills is the prophet of Detroit Techno. Hari Kunzru spoke to him...)’. Mute 1/11. Online: http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/music-message-jeff-mills-prophet-detroit-techno.-hari-kunzru-spoke-to-him... (accessed 19 October 2015).
May, Beverly. 2006. ‘Techno’. In African American Music: An Introduction, ed. Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia K. Maultsby, 331–52. London: Routledge.
Melechi, Antonio. 1993. ‘The Ecstasy of Disappearance’. In Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in Contemporary Youth Culture, ed. Steve Redhead, 29–40. Aldershot: Avebury.
Merrin, William. 2005. Baudrillard and the Media: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity.
Montano, Ed. 2013. ‘DJ Culture and the Commercial Club Scene in Sydney’. In DJ Culture in the Mix: Power, Technology, and Social Change in Electronic Dance Music, ed. Bernardo Alexander Attias, Anna Gavanas and Hillegonda C. Rietveld, 173–94. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Peter, Beate. 2014. ‘Breaching the Divide: Techno City Berlin’. In Poor, but Sexy: Reflections on Berlin Scenes, ed. Geoff Stahl, 173–89. Bern: Peter Lang.
Pini, Barbara, Paula McDonald and Robyn Mayes. 2012. ‘Class Contestations and Australia’s Resource Boom: The Emergence of the “Cashed-up Bogan”’. Sociology 46/1: 142–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038511419194
Pope, Richard. 2011. ‘Detroit Techno and Dystopian Digital Culture’. Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture 2/1: 24–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2011.02.01.02
Poster, Mark. 2001. What's the Matter with the Internet? London: University of Minnesota Press.
Race, Kane. 2005. 'Recreational States: Drugs and the Sovereignty of Consumption'. Culture Machine 7. Online: http://www.culturemachine.net/index.php/cm/article/view/28/35 (accessed 19 October 2015).
Redhead, Steve. 1993. ‘The Politics of Ecstasy’. In Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in Contemporary Youth Culture, ed. Steve Redhead, 7–27. Aldershot: Avebury.
Reynolds, Simon. 1999. Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture. New York: Routledge.
Russell, Kristian. 1993. ‘Lysergia Suburbia’. In Rave Off: Politics and Deviance in Contemporary Youth Culture, ed. Steve Redhead, 91–174. Aldershot: Avebury.
Savage, Jon. 1991. England’s Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock and Beyond. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
Sicko, Dan. 2010. Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk. 2nd ed. Detroit, MI: Painted Turtle.
Siokou, Christine, and David Moore. 2008. ‘“This is Not a Rave!”: Changes in the Commercialised Melbourne Rave/Dance Party Scene’. Youth Studies Australia 27/3: 50–57.
Sweetman, Paul. 2000. ‘Anchoring the (Postmodern) Self? Body Modification, Fashion and Identity’. In Body Modifications, ed. Mike Featherstone, 51–76. London: SAGE.
Van Ree, Erik. 2002. ‘Drugs, the Democratic Civilising Process and the Consumer Society’. International Journal of Drug Policy 13/5: 349–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0955-3959(02)00112-3
Vitos, Botond. 2014. ‘“An Avatar…in a Physical Space”: Researching the Mediated Immediacy of Electronic Dance Floors’. Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture 6/2: 1–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2014.06.02.01
—2015. ‘The Dance Floor Experiment: Researching the Mediating Technologies and Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music Events’. Popular Music and Society. Advance online publication. Online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03007766.2015.1094903 (accessed 3 December 2015).
Waltz, Alexis. 2010. ‘Berghain, the Centre of the World’. In Lost and Sound: Berlin, Techno and the Easyjet Set, ed. Tobias Rapp, 128–41. Berlin: Innervisions.
Published
2015-12-17
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Vitos, B. (2015). Tracing the lines of an electronic tattoo: The covert operation of Melbourne techno. Perfect Beat, 16(1-2), 51-70. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v16i1-2.19923
