WP2: The Value of Collusion

Reflexivity Through Disclosure + Documentation:

Several research practices were imperative to transforming this project into a form of subversion to the overly exploitative mass media industries that monetize and distribute commodified culture.

I attempted to emphasize the importance and reverence of ethics in ethnographic media generation (Friedman, p. 16, 2021), due to:

• the malleability and ever fleeting nuance of consent (Shankar, p. 209, 2021)
• the common practice of othering based on the colonial gaze of academia, manifested as unnecessary ethnographic editorialization (Lutz & Collins, p. 315, 1993)
• a lack of self awareness due to cognitive biases (hooks, p. 275, 2015)
• relational proximity and cultural stake by ethnographers to subjects (Ruby, pp. 155–56, 1980)
• the intended and unintended romanticizing of institutions rather than interrogating the power structures that commodify culture (Rony, pp. 100–1, 1996)
• appraising higher or lower value to testimonials based on intersectional identities and professional roles (Moderbacher & Winter, p. 315, 2020)

With those caveats in mind, Behind the Crash Barricade is meant to serve three specific purposes with varying degrees of importance:

(In decreasing order of importance)

1. Provide cohorts with a platform to tell their own stories
2. Broadcast the non-linear paths to specific professional roles across the electronic dance music paradigm to people currently, or considering a transition into the space
3. The acquisition of benefactor support (in this context, a good grade; in the field, sponsorships)

Collusion vs Collaboration

Additionally, the nuance of collusion rather than collaboration was a foundational aspect of the Behind the Crash Barricade project.

Despite the traditional standard of ethnographers collaborating with subjects for their work. The disproportionate editorial power that ethnographers have over their subjects was a major concern.

Thus, co-authorship was attempted as much as possible to provide cohorts with the power to subvert in their own way when conveying their stories. This is what is meant by the discerning nuance of collusion, rather than collaboration.

Ulises

Music Journalist, Ulises Vargas, EDM.com

Ulises is one of my longest and closest friendships to date.

Originally meeting each other through a mutual friend, we inevitably became the closest thing to brothers outside of biology. While he enjoys the thrill and complexities of writing, I would rather kill myself than write for the rest of my life.

Early on, I introduced Ulises to the live EDM event world while he was in the process of completing his undergrad as a journalist. For context, we both worked in sales at different companies during this period.

Inversely, he was my introduction to knowing someone who took the plunge — so to speak — into the EDM music industry.

I could argue that his bravery to explore something professionally uncertain gave me the courage to try it myself.

E

Under Construction, Hollywood, October, 2023

E is one of my leaders at a venue in the Greater Los Angeles area.

While initially extremely intimidated by her serious and stoic demeanor, I was simultaneously blown away by her incomparable ability to multitask with a mind-blowing level of efficacy.

After our interview — which I was extremely hesitant to request for fear of getting shot down — I felt way closer to her.

It was both refreshing and exhausting to see how an industry can provoke change within someone in order to challenge antiquated power structures that disproportionately enable and celebrate power based on gender binary.

Ava

DJ / Music Producer / Actor / Scholar / Podcaster / Badass, Ava Lake, (@ava.lake b2b @elijahxthexprophet)

Ava is fucking awesome.

I met Ava at an afterhours event held by an artist I was tasked with covering for a term project in my Communications in the Music Industry course.

She did a b2b (back-2-back) set with her friend Elijah (in the far right frame in the photo above). And whenever she swapped out between their b2b tradeoffs she WENT FERAL (think crowd in front of the crash barricade at a music festival)! It was so freakin awesome.

Often people outside of the EDM music industry perceive that artists, their teams, and venue staff are in perpetual party mode. This is far from the truth.

I had gotten off work at 2:30 am and was really just going to show support for the artist I was covering and his team, so when Ava started getting into it every time her friend Elijah blended his track in, I was like ‘fuck yea’! This was due to two key components of her behavior:

1. She was getting hyped over her friend’s music choices
2. She was living in the moment and actually having fun up until it was her turn to blend in the next track (in which she was still able to groove while modulating the track)

Obviously, I complimented her after their set and asked if she was interested in contributing to the project to which she enthusiastically agreed.

The interview, despite the fact my stupid ass kept mispronouncing her name ‘Ava’ and not ‘Ah-va’, was really uplifting.

While all of my other interviews had pretty cut and dry, cathartic, sometimes melancholic attributes, Ava’s was nothing short of optimistic. She refused to let anything bring her even slightly down from always being excited for what was coming next.

I knew her interview was a special one because it hearkened to something that gets buried ‘deep, deep inside, deep down inside’ (allusion to the L Vega track intended) many of us in the EDM music industry. So much so that we forget why we started: because it truly brings happiness and fulfillment to us to share our culture with others.

Giving up isn’t an option when you are in love with what you do.

S

Burning Man, Digitalglobe / Getty Images

S is the person who set the foundation for the person I am today.

They were the person who introduced EDM culture to me through the underground rave scene of the early 2000s. They were the one who taught me not to give a fuck. And they were the one who showed me being yourself was cool as fuck.

Originally meeting in our high school years, S and I spent the second half of sophomore year and the last two years as party kids.

Post-high school, S and I got in the habit of sporadically catching up now and again despite pretty much living in the same city.

Typical busy life stuff.

When I finally got the idea to return to school at the age of 27, I did it with the intention of forging my own path after realizing I truly valued my work in the live EDM events industry.

By that point in time S had acquired their masters in Psychology and suddenly it clicked for me:

I can be a raver and a scholar.

S’s interview reconciled a part of myself that I had grappled with accepting. I realized that after a certain point in a person’s life, the only way to truly flourish was to embrace all the subtle and not so subtle nuances that culminate into the person you are today.

While S had decided that demanding recognition for their intersectional identities was no longer something they needed or wanted to do, out of a desired mutual respect for themself and for others.

I had decided that I was going to dedicate my legacy to proliferating our shared intersections as ravers and scholars.

Two completely valid ways of colluding to subvert hegemonic power, arguably with equal magnitude.

References

Friedman, P. K. (2021). Defining ethnographic film. In P. Vannini (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of Ethnographic Film and Video (pp. 15–29). essay, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

hooks, b. (2015). Is Paris Burning? In G. Watkins (Ed.), Black looks: Race and representation (pp. 275–290). essay, South End Press.

Lutz, C., & Collins, J. L. (1993). The Photograph as an intersection of gazes. In A. Cameron (Ed.), Reading National Geographic (pp. 311–339). essay, University of Chicago Press.

Moderbacher, C., & Winter, G. (2020). The life and work of Marquis Robert de Wavrin, an early visual anthropologist. Visual anthropology, 33(4), 313–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/08949468.2020.1791571

Rony, F. T. (1996). Taxidermy and romantic ethnography . In The Third eye: race, cinema, and ethnographic spectacle (pp. 99–126). essay, Duke University Press.

Ruby, J. (1980). Exposing yourself: Reflexivity, anthropology, and film. Semiotica, 30(1–2), 153–179. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1980.30.1-2.153

Shankar, A. (2021). Participation, reception, consent, and refusal. In P. Vannini (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of Ethnographic Film and Video (pp. 204–213). essay, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.