Editor's Introduction: Dance Culture in the Time of Corona

Payling, Dave; John, Graham St

doi:10.12801/1947-5403.2020.12.01.00

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Pacella et al 2021 ) and music phenomena of all sorts (e.g. Bakare 2020 ; Payling and St John 2020 ; Frenneaux and Bennett 2021 ; Stratton 2021 ) to more abstract and speculative (re)considerations of the existing business models and definitions of values in the art and cultural sectors (e.g. Banks and O'Connor 2021 ; Meyrick and Barnett 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A place outside the pandemic? An ethnographic study of live music events at St Gallen's cultural venue Palace during the COVID-19 crisis

Gligorijević

2022

Pop. Mus.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The multiple impacts of COVID-19 on the music-culture industry have been duly discussed in a variety of public discourses, academic and otherwise. However, there is still a dearth of studies that investigate alternative face-to-face practices of live music performance and organisation during the pandemic's significant constraints on social behaviour. The present work aims to fill this gap by offering an anthropological angle on live music practices during COVID-19. It specifically draws on fieldwork that I could carry out in the autumn of 2020 at a live music venue – ‘Palace’ in the Swiss city of St Gallen – owing to a ‘liberal’ handling of the COVID-19 crisis by the St Gallen authorities. This article documents accordingly the challenges and adjustments that Palace had to undergo during pandemic times from the perspectives of producers, musicians and audiences alike. The primary focus here is on exploring changes in the venue's management, programming, audience composition and especially the musical-aesthetic experience of the venue's pandemic-compliant gigs. Finally, the article draws on the musings of my interlocutors as to whether Palace was in their experience a place outside the pandemic, to tackle the larger question of how COVID-19 has affected people's perceptions of live gigs and urban nightlife more generally.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A place outside the pandemic? An ethnographic study of live music events at St Gallen's cultural venue Palace during the COVID-19 crisis

Gligorijević

2022

Pop. Mus.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Ethnographic Explorations of the Impacts of COVID-19 on Sociality and Spatiality in a Swiss Live Music Venue

Gligorijević

2022

JWPM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The globally experienced suspension of cultural life brought about by the COVID-19 crisis has been duly acknowledged and discussed in a growing number of publications, reports and online seminars, most often in terms of the impact of COVID-19 on the music/culture industry. Despite the worsening pandemic situation in Switzerland and elsewhere during the autumn of 2020, I happened to be conducting field research in the city of St. Gallen (in north-eastern Switzerland) where the authorities opted for a “liberal” handling of the health crisis. As a result, the city’s live music venue “Palace”, where I was doing my fieldwork observations, remained open to the public as late as mid-December 2020, albeit with shortened opening hours and with a dancing ban. This allowed me to gain first-hand fieldwork experience during the pandemic’s significant constraints on social behaviour. The present article accordingly addresses the ethical dilemmas that I encountered when operating in this “grey zone” of field research, while also documenting the challenges and adjustments that the Palace venue had to undergo during pandemic times from the perspectives of producers, musicians and audiences alike. The article specifically focuses on understanding and analysing changes in the experience of the Palace’s sociality and spatiality under social distancing rules. Ultimately, this work provides a different angle on the existing body of music-cultural research, which largely focuses on the cancellations and transformations of music events into virtual gatherings.

show abstract

Becoming Sustainable, Underground

Bottà

2023

JWPM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the pandemic summer of 2020 in Helsinki, UG (underground) outdoor parties were able to disengage electronic live music practices from profit making and the logics of cultural extractivism, offering a sustainable practice by and for the local techno music scene. In this article, the UG parties are understood as a learning experience, in which sustainability gave access to a different way to produce and consume culture, in particular thanks to: (1) safe space and pedagogy, (2) ecological awareness, (3) no-profit and community building, (4) music curating, and (5) randomness and exploration. The UG party scene moved outdoors, with no profit to be made, and mostly on public land located in wastelands, shorelines, and forests. This operation suspended cultural extractivism through means that had been previously developed, but that acquired a new dimension because of being performed outdoors. The physical borders of indoor private spaces, and their real-estate dimension, is the key issue in relation to music extraction. When played in public natural settings, with no clear borders or limitations, music is able to regain a political dimension. The mixed-methods approach I used here involves interviews, digital ethnographies and post-party on-site explorations and was based on a thoughtful reflection on how to overcome ethical research issues on one side, and the fear of contagion on the other. A scene as a local actor in times of crisis plays a significant role in keeping social practices alive, and in defining ways to overcome and learn from difficult times.

show abstract

Editor's Introduction: Dance Culture in the Time of Corona

Cited by 3 publications

References 1 publication

A place outside the pandemic? An ethnographic study of live music events at St Gallen's cultural venue Palace during the COVID-19 crisis

A place outside the pandemic? An ethnographic study of live music events at St Gallen's cultural venue Palace during the COVID-19 crisis

Ethnographic Explorations of the Impacts of COVID-19 on Sociality and Spatiality in a Swiss Live Music Venue

Becoming Sustainable, Underground

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About