Udruga za razvoj audio-vizualne umjetnosti
04/07 2023
Speculative design workshop Rave of the Ritualesque was organized by Metamedia Association in partnership with the Department of visual communications (UMAS) and in collaboration with Studentska udruga Pula and Klub Kotač. The workshop was held from 22. to 27. May 2023 in Studentska udruga Pula in Community Center Rojc, and was led by international designer collective Post Workers Theatre: Demitrios Kargotis, Dash Macdonald and Nicholas Mortimer.
Based on Metamedia’s origins as a dance festival, Post Workers Theatre hosted a week-long workshop and free party to examine the political potential and creative collectivism of rave culture. Looking at the radical history of rave(ing) as part of the struggle for rights and freedoms outside of the increased privatization and individualization of society.
The workshop referenced the history of industrial music and its relationship to work, from Detroit Techno and the collapse of the U.S. auto industry to Throbbing Gristle who used exaggerated sounds from working environments to agitate and confront industrial decline in 70s Britain. Asking participants to reimagine past industrial music to frame Pula’s contemporary service industry landscape we used listening activism, fieldwork, public engagement, and multimedia performance to explore how rave can become an enactment of a common struggle.
PWT identified key locations within Pula that have become symbolic of the region’s economic transformation; its history of being a key industrial hub, such as the Uljanik Shipyard, its demise, loss of jobs, and emergent service-based economy supported by precarious seasonal employment. Participants were asked: ‘What does hospitality sound like’ and were sent out into the city to make field recordings and gather diverse sounds as a way to confront the contradictions and complexities this question contains.
Through an intensive production process, participants learned how to use hardware samplers, modular synth effects, and digital editing software in order to construct sonic social documents in the form of rave music. Performances were then designed around foley sounds made from found objects which were woven into field recordings and interviews alongside dance music samples, creating a live theatrical experience at Club Kotać engaging with the city, its hospitality, and labour history.
The workshop resulted in five audiovisual performances that revolve around the notion hospitalityscape, and which were made by 20 participants who worked in five groups. These workshop outcomes were presented on the last day of the workshop, on 27th May in Club Kotač, and the program was followed by an afterparty Rave Cycle that hosted local DJs: Minolta, Disfonia, DJ Marino, and Beatriss.
The Carnivalesque
Authors: Ivan Đukez, Marija Mučić, Nabil Nazem and Adam Tuna
Mixing live performance together with recordings of voices and interactions from the city’s market, The Carnivalesque hypothesized the city functioning as a seasonal day-to-day performance, where tourists participate in an evolving carnival of hedonistic events and actions.
Paradox
Authors: Ema Čimbur, Maria Jovanovac, Marija Nikić and Nikola Stamenković
Paradox embodied the dissonant relation of tolerance and economic reliance between the local community and tourists. Field recordings of interviews from both groups begin to merge, translated into a dance choreography where orderly walking morphs into a chaotic mosh.
The Pyramid Club
Authors: Melina Marija Kiković, Hana Miličević, Mia Šabanović and Lara Vondraček
The Pyramid Club investigated the now closed Pyramid club, activating its sonic properties as a derelict building alongside interviews and online evidence of divided opinion over its time as a popular, local nightclub destination.
Uljanik
Authors: Fotina Duni, Sara Gurdulić, Esma Hajdarpašić and Nastasja Miletić
Uljanik investigated the once prominent shipyard in Pula, now insignificant to the city’s economic development. Interviews with current employees merged with soundscapes of a site once full of the sounds of work, industry, and economic stability.
Sweaty Buoy
Authors: Josh Coates, Milica Denković, Petra Guljaš, and Valentina Tamiazzo
Sweaty Buoy contrasted the experiences of local maintenance workers and the expectations of visiting tourists considering the tensions that occur when these groups meet, and how these tensions can be portrayed with music, found objects, and image theatre.
• workshop
Photography: Studio11
Design: Oleg Šuran
Collaborators & Volunteers: Margareta Blaži, Bruno Legović, Filip Macuka, Ariana Orlić, Anna Ružić, Saša Stepanović and Josipa Škrapić