Unighted
"Nachtplan" is an organisation that questions the current state of nightlife in the city of Leuven in diverse ways: writing articles, organising debate evenings and public events with local politicians.1 In September 2019 the first edition of a bi-annual "club experiment" was held to show the positive impact of night culture in practice. In that sense, Nachtplan plays an educational role for both young people and politicians and lobbies for a richer and more qualitative nightlife.
1. https://www.nachtplan.be
The proposed theme of the club experiment "the night as a safe2 space (related to inclusivity, gender equality, LGBTQIA communities, people of colour,…)" is a hot topic in the political dimension of club culture but little known in Leuven. Eventually, the title became "Unighted", widening the topic and showing the intention to interconnect. The programme consisted of an art exhibition, talks and a closing club night.3
Club Efemeer was invited to create a light scenography for the club night. However, as I'm highly interested in this topic (the political dimension of club culture is crucial to me), I wanted to intervene on an interdisciplinary level.
2. I prefer the term safer space.
3. “Clubexperiment No 1 - Unighted”. Nachtplan, 20 September 2019. https://www.nachtplan.be/clubexperiment-1-unighted
The "club experiment" consisted of an art exhibition, talks and a closing club night.
It was an opportunity to bring my field study and analysis into practice. Participating in the talk, I could also contribute to the contextualisation of my artistic research and disseminate my observations of the current practices as well as giving my personal opinion. Spatial composition and scenography can definitely contribute to creating a safer space, but not solely by itself. Preemptive and in situ communication and audience selection (through targeted invitations, promotion and ticket sales, for example) play a more clear, directive and controlling role. Having little influence on these aspects and the fact that some decisions on the spatial arrangement were already taken — the dance floor being located in my least favoured space — made me hesitant to accept the commission. Eventually, we agreed, knowing that we wouldn't necessarily create a safer space but that we could use the theme as a concept for the creation. Or see the work, a dance floor, as a participatory performative installation.
What follows is a visual overview of the conceptual and design decisions. Plans and pictures support the argumentation for (1) the initial, ideal spatial arrangement, (2) an experimental design for the less suitable location of the dance floor and (3) the executed proposal.
(1) the initial, ideal spatial arrangement
Front view and the lobby of the Sint-Pieters hospital, the location for the project. The building was built in the seventies and never completed due to overcapacity. Consequently, most of the building was never in use. Photographs: Alexander Dumarey, 2018.
The exterior and the entrance area use lighting as the primary scenographic method. The porch contains mercury-vapour lamps, giving the area in front of the door a cold blue and very bright appearance creating a contrast with the massive, dark body of the building behind the entrance building. In a lot of clubs similarly bright light sources (often floodlights) are used as functional lighting for security reasons and to execute the door policy, emphasising the liminal. In this case, it contrasts with the interior, dimly lit by luminaires with light bulbs, visible through the smoked glass.
There is no security check nor formal door policy for the event. The automatic sliding doors are a lucky, scenographic representation thereof. Once inside and beyond the cash desk, the corridor leads to a junction (which is also the centre of gravity of the building) connecting entrance, exhibition space, social space and dance floor.
Initial proposal: the central junction (✱) plays an orienting role between (a) entrance, (b) social space, (c) exhibition and (d) dance floor.
The junction plays an orienting role and is literally the crossing point between the different modes: transition (entering and exiting the club), reflection (the exhibition), dancing (the dance floor) and socialising (a seating area that doubles as a space to change costumes). This floor plan separates the functions we've cited in chapter 2 in different physical spaces, making a conceptual division. The bar and the dance floor share the same physical space, but due to its size and the spatial arrangement, they don't interfere. Instead of making directions clear by lexical elements or icons, distinct methods of scenography are used to guide the partygoer through the space: illuminated works of art in the exhibition space give a direct unobstructed view, while the social space is shaped by a set of scattered floor-to-ceiling fabrics, cutting up the space into various smaller spaces creating seating areas. The dance floor is accessed through two double doors, completely blocking the view. However, it's the sound that indicates the space, while an ongoing choreography of people entering and leaving the space activates the doors which act as acoustic filters.
(2) experimental design
Unfortunately, due to the preliminary decisions and the unavailability of the latter space, the least suitable space was assigned as the dance floor (b on the plan above). First of all, the acoustic properties of this space were problematic. Changing these properties require adding absorbing materials to diminish the reflections, a more advanced sound system or the combination of both, at the cost of hiding the original interior. Secondly, the dance floor becomes directly visible from the entrance (and even from the outside) which is very contradictory to the theme of a safer space. It also erases the dramaturgic element of disorientation and reorientation from the previous design. Furthermore, it is impossible to create a proper transition space. I consider the transition between being outside, in the streets, and being a participant in a club as a crucial ritual that needs a spatial and a durational dramaturgy. This is also the space where the partygoer changes costumes. Costumes worn inside the club are often radically different from the ones worn in daily life, especially in communities suffering from discrimination, (political) oppression, harassment, aggression, humiliation or self-censorship in everyday life.
It's clear that the assigned space has its limitations and lacks opportunities towards creating a safer space. Therefore the approach for the design is rather conceptual.
Conceptual idea: dividing the space in smaller entities, creating different atmospheres and a highly disorientating effect.
A radical idea was to divide the dance floor into smaller rooms, within each room a different atmosphere. While this is an exciting experiment, it is expected that it will cause irritation very quickly. Not only due to the presence of 'walls' (curtains or slit drapes), the disorientation or the fact that the participants are split up in smaller entities, but mainly because the DJ isn't visible for the biggest part of the participants. It would be only a matter of time until the participants start to turn the scenography around, creating lines of sight towards the DJ and dismantling the spaces. While this is valuable from a research point of view, using the participants (and the DJ) as guinea pigs and destroying/ruining part of their night or even kill the vibe entirely isn't a realistic option.
(3) the executed proposal
Executed proposal: two spaces, a main space and a intimate space, connected by the DJ.
Instead, a less radical but still unusual design was proposed and executed. The main idea of disconnecting the dance floor from the other spaces and splitting the space into smaller entities remained. The analysis of the lines of sight made clear that from a large area of the space (the corridor-like area on the left of the columns) the DJ isn't visible. Typically this area then becomes less crowded, creating a passageway (emphasising the corridor), resulting again in fewer people dancing there. For this reason, it's more appropriate to give this space other functions than dancing. The corridor was split into three rooms, divided by slit drapes: an entrance space with access to the bar and the main space, a small, dark seating area, that can transform into a small performative space and an intimate dance floor close to the DJ.
Photos of (a) the main space, with the intimate space hidden beyond the slit drapes on the left; (b) the intimate space; (c) view from the intimate space towards the DJ.
The main and intimate space sit parallel to each other and are also separated by slit drapes, creating a visual barrier while maintaining the accessibility. The long main room sits in front of the DJ with no difference in level, whereas the intimate room is relatively dark and has platforms on both sides. This setup invites the participants to perform for each other while being not too exposed. Further to the front, it's possible to dance next to the DJ. When brave enough, you can step from there into the main room, dancing on the platform in front of the DJ and the audience. This setup refers to cabarets where dancing often takes place on the bar, where stairs from the ground level (or from a room upstairs) lead to this in-the-spotlight position. In this composition, the DJ has a unique position, being able to look into both spaces and assemble them through music and as an embodied performing agent.
The lighting plan consists of no more than two ephemeral light fixtures.
Both spaces are also connected through light: two laser beams and haze which form ephemeral light fixtures. One of the beams extends to the entrance giving a visual guide and orientation from all the spaces. The lasers beams are static, in the sense that they can only change intensity and colour, in this case only red, blue, magenta (the combination of red and blue) and white. In essence, it's a setup with two static lamps, some haze and a smoke machine. The lights are operated live using drum pads and knobs to change intensities and colour mixing, next to some preprogrammed rhythmic behaviour. This is an ongoing experimental research, with few parameters, looking into the behaviour of the operator and the participants on rhythm, intensity and (in)visibility.
The space right after the event.
So, although the assigned space was not the ideal space, the executed design for the dance floor worked well. The spaces were used as intended, and also the small seating space did effectively transform into a small stage. I was confident that the slip drape between the "main space" and the "intimate space" would be taken down at a certain point. Surprisingly it was not ruined, but a girl tied them carefully together. However, the most heartwarming was the people, the crowd, the DJs and the community of young people, voluntarily spending their time (days before and hours after the event) to strive for a more diverse and qualitative nightlife in their city.
handsupload video
Photos of the event can be found in the Visual documentation section.