Global Tribe: Technology, Spirituality and Psytrance #books #travellers #trance #geekgirl

From the author: Graham St. John

This book has been a long time in the making, written in many locations, with respect and thanks due to many, and with the months counting down to publication this year I thought I would hook you up with the new Facebook page for Global Tribe: Technology, Spirituality and Psytrance (Equinox 2012).

global-tribe-book-cover

Book Synopsis.

Trance events have an uncanny ability to capture an era, and captivate an audience of travellers occupying the eternal theatre of the dance floor. As this book shows, the tendency within psytrance is to thwart the passage of time, to prolong the night, for those who adopt a liminal lifestyle. Amid the hustle and hubris of the psytrance carnival there is a peaceful repose that you sometimes catch when you’ve drifted into a sea of outstretched limbs, bodies swaying like a field of sunflowers in a light breeze. And you feel intense joy in this fleeting moment. You are the moment. You are inside the flow. You are all. Embodying the poetry of dance, you are living evidence that nothing lasts. And this is a deep revelation of the mystical function of trance. It is difficult to emerge from this little death, because one does not want the party to end. But it must end, even so that it can recommence-so that one can return to repeat the cycle.

The result of fifteen years of research in over a dozen countries, this book applies a sharp lens on a little understood global dance culture that has mushroomed all over the world since its beginnings in the diverse psychedelic music scenes flourishing in Goa, India, in the 1970s and 1980s. The paramount expression of this movement has been the festival, from small parties to major international events such as Portugal’s Boom Festival, which promotes itself as a world-summit of visionary arts and trance, a “united tribe of the world”. Via first-hand accounts of the scenes, events and music of psychedelic trance in Australia, Israel, Italy, the UK, the US, Turkey and other places, the book thoroughly documents this transnational movement with its diverse aesthetic roots, multiple national translations and internal controversies. As a multi-sited ethnography and an examination of the digital, chemical, cyber and media assemblage constituting psytrance, the book explores the integrated role that technology and spirituality have played in the formation of this visionary arts movement and shows how these event-cultures accommodate rites of risk and consciousness, a complex circumstance demanding revision of existing approaches to ritual, music and culture.

Contents

Ch 1. Transnational Psyculture
Ch 2. Experience, the Orient and Goatrance
Ch 3. The Vibe at the End of the World
Ch 4. Spiritual Technology: Transition and its Prosthetics
Ch 5. Psychedelic Festivals, Visionary Arts and Cosmic Events
Ch 6. Freak Out: The Trance Carnival
Ch 7. Psyculture in Israel and Australia
Ch 8. Performing Risk and the Arts of Consciousness
Ch 9. Riot of Passage: Liminal Culture and the Logics of Sacrifice
Ch 10. Nothing Lasts

Preorder book from Equinox.

Prologue on Facebook.

Science Graduates – Stop Explaining and Start Dancing! 2011 Dance Your Ph.D Contest #geekgirl @alexburns

_Science Graduates – Stop Explaining and Start Dancing! _  _2011 Dance Your Ph.D Contest :: Closes 10 October 2011_ 

The dreaded question: “So, what’s your Ph.D. research about?” You take a deep breath and launch into the explanation. People’s eyes begin to glaze over. At times like these, don’t you wish you could just turn to the nearest computer and show people an online video of your Ph.D. thesis interpreted in dance form?  Now you can. And while you’re at it, you can win $1000, achieve immortal geek fame on the Internet, and be recognized by Science for your effort.  This year, Dance Your Ph.D. is sponsored by TEDxBrussels. The creator of the best Ph.D. dance gets a free trip and hotel stay in Brussels to be crowned the winner at the TEDx conference on 22 
November 2011. http://gonzolabs.org/dance/

City Breaks calling #Melbourne b-girls & b-boys for a dance jam #hiphop #geekgirl

THE PUSH’S CITY BREAKS #3

City Breaks at Signal, Melbourne’s new hip hop dance jam session returns for the final instalment for 2010 on Sunday 12 December!

Melbourne b-boys, b-girls, freestylers, funkstylers, dancers and anyone keen to watch the local crews jam, freestyle, train and battle it out should head down to the free session kicking off at 2pm!

Presented by The Push in partnership with City of Melbourne and KO Crew, City Breaks, aims to bring together the diverse hip hop and breakdance community of Melbourne who are currently creating impromptu performances in public spaces throughout the CBD.

The project aims to provide a safe and legal space for dancers to jam, collaborate, train and hang out!

The Push is a Victorian non-profit music organisation which runs a range of all ages, drug, alcohol and smoke-free events for young people to engage in the music and arts industries.

For more information contact The Push (03) 9380 1277.

What: City Breaks
Where: Signal, Flinders Walk, Northbank (behind Flinders Street Station
towards Sandridge Bridge)
When: Sunday 12 December
Time: 2.00 – 5.00pm
Price: Free

city-breaks

The Other Film Festival 2010 #Melbourne #candopeople #geekgirl

THE OTHER FILM FESTIVAL 2010

PROUDLY PRESENTED BY ARTS ACCESS VICTORIA IN ASSOCIATION WITH MELBOURNE MUSEUM
WEDNESDAY 25 – SUNDAY 29 AUGUST
THE AGE THEATRE, MELBOURNE MUSEUM
www.otherfilmfestival.com
off2010@artsaccess.com.au

Who said scientists can’t dance? Video Competition for chance to win $1,000 USD #verygeeky #geekgirl

“Dance Your Ph.D.” video competition is inviting applications from anyone who has a Ph.D. or is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in a science-related field to transform their research into an interpretive dance and submit it for a chance to win up to $1,000 USD. Finalists from each category will have their Ph.D. dance videos screened at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York City. This is your chance to prove to the world that scientists CAN dance!

http://www.facebook.com/danceyourphd
http://gonzolabs.org/dance/

Technomad, Global Raving Countercultures by Graham St John

Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures by Graham St John (Equinox, 2009)

Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures is the most wide-ranging and detailed of all the books on rave. More than the study of a musical movement or genre, Technomad offers an alternate history of cultural politics since the 1960s, from hippies and Acid Tests through the sound systems and ‘vibe-tribes’ of the 1990s and beyond. Like Greil Marcus’s Lipstick Traces, Technomad makes unexpected but entirely convincing connections between people, movements and events. Like Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, St John’s book introduces us to unknown heroes, committed geniuses and genuine revolutionaries. Beautifully written, with a genuinely international perspective on electronic dance music culture, Technomad is one of the best books on music I’ve read in some time.”
Professor Will Straw, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University

Book description:
A cultural history of global electronic dance music countercultures, Technomad explores the pleasurable and activist trajectories of post-rave culture. The book documents an emerging network of techno-tribes, exploring their pleasure principles and cultural politics. Attending to sound system culture, electro-humanitarianism, secret sonic societies, teknivals and other gatherings, intentional parties, revitalisation movements and counter-colonial interventions, Technomad investigates how the dance party has been harnessed for transgressive and progressive ends – for manifold freedoms. Seeking freedom from moral prohibitions and standards, pleasure in rebellion, refuge from sexual and gender prejudice, exile from oppression, rupturing aesthetic boundaries, re-enchanting the world, reclaiming space, fighting for “the right to party,” and responding to a host of critical concerns, electronic dance music cultures are multivalent sites of resistance.

Drawing on extensive ethnographic, netographic and documentary research, Technomad details the post-rave trajectory through various local sites and global scenes, with each chapter attending to unique developments in the techno counterculture: e.g. Spiral Tribe, teknivals, psytrance, Burning Man, Reclaim the Streets, Earthdream. The book offers an original, nuanced theory of resistance to assist understanding of these developments. This cultural history of hitherto uncharted territory will be of interest to students of cultural, performance, music, media, and new social movement studies, along with enthusiasts of dance culture and popular politics.

Contents

Take Off Your Skin (TOYS)

Take Off Your Skin (TOYS): A Replication Project
Produced by Melbourne Fringe + WELL Theatre + FULL TILT

Japanese dance artist Yasuko Kurono is a replication artist: she uses “clones” of herself to stage public-oriented dance performances [sounds quite trippy, huh]. Kurono, who has been engaged in events like these since 1999, wants Melbournites to join in one such viral performance event during the week prior to Friday 2 October:

“Be a part of TOYS – a large public art performance. Join 100 performers and 20 assistants as we take over the streets of inner city Melbourne for one afternoon. We’ll even dress and preen you for the occasion. All you need to bring is enthusiasm.

To join us:

1. Read the information here about the different performer and assistant roles.
2. Fill in the form to let us know which part you want to play.

Then we’ll let you know all the details shortly.

If you have any queries, contact Producer Kath Papas at Melbourne Fringe before you register phone 9660 9600 email kath@melbournefringe.com.au.”

Critical Path: Choreographic Research Centre

“Critical Path is a choreographic research and development centre for dance artists in New South Wales, Australia. Based at The Drill, a large rehearsal space on the harbour in central Sydney, Critical Path’s program offers:

• Space and support for artists undertaking their own research

• Intensive laboratories and workshops facilitated by national and international artists

• Masterclasses with artists from dance and other disciplines

• Mentoring projects for choreographers to build new relationships with peers

• Discussion events and opportunities for artists to share practice and ideas.”

Dancehouse presents Open Season

A season of multi-artform performances.

17 – 20 September, 2009

Curated by Dancehouse Artistic Director David Tyndall, Open Season brings together a four-day showcase of eight unique works by established and emerging Melbourne contemporary artists.

In June this year Dancehouse called for expressions of interest from artists of all disciplines – dancers, choreographers, writers, performance artists, musicians, animators or anything in between – for the opportunity to present their works as part of Open Season.

Eight distinctive and intriguing works have been selected and incorporated into two different programs running for two days each – Program A and Program B. Audiences will be treated to solo performers and groups, dance, 3D clay animation, wall paintings, physics, the sounds of birds, improvisation, paper bags, video projections, memories and of course, buckets.

Visit www.dancehouse.com.au

I left my shoes on warm concrete and stood in the rain

Presented by Dancehouse this evocatively titled new work is Gabrielle Nankivell’s choreographic debut as a solo artist and an exciting entry to the Australian choreographic scene.

I left my shoes on warm concrete and stood in the rain is a performance that examines struggle as an inherent quality of being human. The audience is invited to experience intense physicality and haunting words framed by Benjamin Cisterne’s (Bluebottle) design and a striking soundtrack by Luke Smiles.

Harnessing the imagination as a physical force, I left my shoes on warm concrete and stood in the rain is a visual poem for anyone who has taken the enchanting qualities of their broken world and built a fairytale as inspiration to survive.

Gabrielle Nankivell belongs to a generation of international artists that are creating work across multiple countries. Originally from South Australia, Gabrielle Nankivell has returned from working in Europe with the likes of Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus (Belgium), OX – with Jurij Konjar (Slovenia), Alexander Baervoets (Belgium), Aaben Dans/Thomas Eisenhardt (Denmark), Ballet Braunschweig (Germany), Thomas Steyaert (Belgium) and Raul Maia (Portugal). She has also worked in Australia with Garry Stewart’s Australian Dance Theatre.

Her goal is to ignite the imagination of audiences and create continuing avenues of dialogue on the topic of performance.

Venue: Dancehouse
Address: 150 Princes St, Carlton, Melbourne (Australia)
Dates: Wednesday 8 – Sunday 12 July
Time: Wed – Sat 8pm, Sun 5pm
Tickets: Phone/Door Full: $22 Conc: $18, Members: $15
Online: Full: $20 Conc: $16, Members: $12

Bookings: www.dancehouse.com.au or 03 9347 2860