barbican
THE SPIRIT OF RAVE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN EPHEMERA
2.10.20
31.12.20 1
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PREFACE The exhibiton “One Last Dance” attempts to cover the relationship between Rave’s graphic design ephemera and the belief system of rave culture and examine the connection between the two. The exhibition and catalog displays a collection of photography and rave flyers produced between 1980s—2020.
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1960s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2020
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2.10.20 - 31.12.20 ONE LAST DANCE Chemical Influence
Briefest of Origins
Technology as Catalyst
The Rave Experience
Contemporary Mix
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“Dirty Old Man,” Love, Sons of Adam, Charlatans.
1960s—
Chemical Influence
Just when Rave Culture began to form and clubs and warehouses became sites of imagination, escapism and utopia, flyers for these clubs and nights began to reflect this experience and environment. The flyers became increasingly futuristic, mystic and psychedelic. These counter culture ideas of love and unity didn’t just start with rave. In the 60’s we saw counter cultures such as the “hippy” movement who believed that human beings should be connected through love and music. These “hippies” were usually against the new technological developments and saw it as unnatural and as a result dressed in a very loose and colourful way and abandoned their need for new technological devices of the 60’s. We can see this belief of love and unity in a natural, organic style in the posters and flyers of the 60’s which include the use of flowers, soft colourful tones and art nouveau patterns. In the 80’s we see the rise of dance music and rave culture where this concept of love, unity and music is still very much evident in their belief system but technology is incorporated 9
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“Before The Night” 1980 Photographer: Simon Burstall, Age 15.
1980s
Briefest Of Origins
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During the late 1980s and early 1990s the appearance of “Raves” began in the U.S. and in the UK. Raves are an all-night party (dances) typically held in empty buildings without permits or licenses such as empty warehouses. Dance music in the forms of Techno, Acid House or Drum and Bass were played by DJ’s at these events in a setting with elaborate lighting and thus the blocking of natural light. Rave goers would often consume alcohol and other drugs such as MDMA, amphetamines and hallucinogens. These Raves emphasised the experience of social bonding and togetherness, the party goers would experience “communal states of euphoria”. These themes, beliefs and hopes of the party goers are often seen in the artwork produced by members of this counter culture. This Rave artwork consisting of collaboration between clubs, light engineers, architects and trans-disciplinary art practices. One of raves most iconic ubiquitous visual assets is the party flyer.
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“Spiral Tribe” 1993 Derek Ridgers
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“A Que outside the Trip , London Astoria” 1993 David Swingdells 1998
1990s
TECHNOLOGY AS CATALYST
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Sloan points out that unlike the hippy generations these ravers grew up with technology “Ravers, having grown up in a world of exploding technology perceive that technology is the key to the future. Through technology, all humans can be united, information can be shared, and social change created. For ravers, the future is bright”. This new generation took technology in their stride and used this to their advantage when creating dance music and the artwork surrounding it, for example, the use of laser lights, holographic light equipment, computer generated sounds and visualisations of a technological computerised utopia. Wilson elaborates on this as “Underlying the rave doctrine was a reverence to and celebration of technology, and an implicit and explicit belief in “progress through technology.” Rave flyers emerged firstly just as plain, DIY typed black and white pieces of paper with basic information on events and club nights left around in the usual hangout spots or record stores. Harrison explains how these flyers transformed from hand drawn artwork to a digital form and therefore taking on a digital aesthetic “Almost immediately though, flyer designs began to incorporate computer-aided art, with Photoshop in ‘91.
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“ THROUGH TECHNOLOGY, ALL HUMANS CAN BE UNITED, INFORMATION CAN BE SHARED, AND SOCIAL CHANGE CREATED.”
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FOR RAVERS, THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT” 19
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“Dreamscape” Steven Perry 1991
One designer who’s work is an example of this idea of the experience being transformed into a visual representation is Steven Perry. Steven Perry designed flyers for 90’s UK raves such as Dreamscape, Fantasia, Life Utopia and Perception. These posters were designed in a later stage of the rave development which meant as Blair explains “while the muddy fields were replaced by urban, arena-style venues. Advances in printing technology and the sheer number of parties made for a competitive market and artists had to try even harder to be noticed with each design.”. This forced designers to be more creative in their flyer making and inventive to catch attention. This poster was for an UK event called ‘Dreamscape’, This poster shows the face of a woman being transformed from a virtual mesh to a human being. This poster highlights a principal of the rave belief system ; transcendence and technological synergy. Harrison highlights raves focus on transcendence and group rituals “Rave’s innovation lies in its extraction from culture of the essential: collective experience, festivity, and transcendence; and its exclusion of the superfluous “meaning” centers: politics, ideology, religion, race, ethnicity, even geography.”. In this poster we begin to see the creation of the mood and atmosphere of a Rave being represented visually with the black background and green mesh perhaps representing the green lasers seen through a dark room. In Rave culture sound and vision were equally important in the experience as Gilbert suggests “Vision encourages projection into the world, occupation and control of the source of experience. Sound encourages a sense of the world as received”. In this poster we begin to see this vision of rave as how it is experienced by the rave goers. Generally at least one aspect of the rave ideology and belief system seems to be represented in the flyers and artwork. 21
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“Infinity” Poster Birmingham 1990
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THE RAVE EXPERIENCE At a Rave event the use of laser lights and strobes allowed the rave goers to experience another world and atmosphere completely different to their day to day lives, with the combinations of visual tropisms and heavy beats this allowed the audience to transcend the usual and go into a world of neon lights, euphoria and human connection in-forced and curated by the team of artists behind the night. As Reynolds highlights this experience (684) “bombardment of noise and light, the 200 b.p.m. tempos and air-scything lasers, are designed to make the gabba kid feel like he’s actually inside a video-game.” The use of laser lights and blacked out rooms seemed to become a symbol and aspect of the visual language. We can clearly see this aspect of rave represented in the poster for RUSH where we see the outlines of a mans head shown through beams of light being projected onto him. Another narrative to take away from this poster is the idea that the crowd at the rave become part of the rave and what separates rave from the dominant culture clubs and cabarets at the time is that the people become part of it and what makes the experience of a rave is the crowd itself and the visualisation of them through the smokey room and the lights. Gilbert elaborates on this “ the customers at discotheques are paying their money to entertain themselves. It’s the people who are the real show at the discos— and they haven’t come to find fault.They’ve come to play.” Through the design of each poster this idea is generally communicated that each member will come and contribute dance and become part of a collective experience. 24
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“Sweet Harmony” Gary Haisman
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WE JUST USED TO LIKE: Jordan Kearns 2015 Glaway, Ireland.
These flyers could even differ in tone based on the sub genre of dance music being played on the night of the event. For example Harrison suggests that “specific flyer icons came to represent specific music genres to be featured at a rave: scary/horror images for hardcore, butterflies/toys for soft techno e-parties, “creamy” designs with lots of text for house, and psychedelic/ fractal illustrations for acid-oriented goa-trance.” These posters display some of the range of tones and themes the posters would vary, some posters would take a more serious approach in the use of blocky typography and moody photography and others would be more free spirited in their approach to typography and image making, generally suggesting a party that includes more toned down dance music. These early posters were quite influenced by the punk subculture that came before them with their initial use of DIY techniques and hand drawn illustrations. Optical illusions became a strong element of the visual language of rave flyers, similar to artwork coming from the 60’s hippy movement. The use of Optical illusions can generally be explained by evidence of drug use among rave goers and the link between optical illusion and strobe lights. As Blair suggests that these posters may have been seen in a context where raver goers would be leaving a rave under the influence or hallucinating and would see another level of depth in the flyers on their way home “I guess it was for the punters to ponder over and try to decipher on the way home, all bug-eyed n weary”.
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Today this legacy and visual language of rave flyers has continued to influence the way dance music is visualised and graphic designers globally. As Gosling highlights “The sense of freedom and a wilful naivety in approaching graphics is what made the imagery of rave culture so pure, fresh, and enduringly striking.” These posters weren’t confined by a set of rules and explored many different styles and concepts for their design. An Example of an artist who’s work is greatly inspired by this era is Hansje Van Halem. Halem’s work is mirroring the psychedelic and cryptic typography of the rave flyers but with its own modern take on it with its use of complex patterns and forms. Halem is one of many designers who has found rave flyers to be extremely inspiring. In Berlin where a Rave scene still thrives clubs like the Berghain still continue to release monthly flyers about their events. Berghain’s club nights are known to include sexual activities along side the usual rave tropes and this is represented in their flyer work but in a slightly cryptic and non explicit way. This poster reflects the cut and paste method of the original rave flyers while also having quite a contemporary style to it. It delivers the message of suggesting the actives that might take place but it also symbolises the brutalist style of the music. 30
2020
CONTEMPORARY MIX
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Berghain, Berlin : Monthy Flyer
“THE SE
A IS WHAT RAVE CU
AND
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ENSE OF FREEDOM IN A WILFUL NAIVETY IN APPROACHING GRAPHICS T MADE THE IMAGERY OF ULTURE SO PURE, FRESH, D ENDURINGLY STRIKING.”
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DEKMANTEL BOGOTA: Festival Poster
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WE JUST USED TO LIKE: Jordan Kearns 2015 Glaway, Ireland.
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Jordan Kearns: 3 arena, Dublin, Ireland.
ONE LAST WORD
These rave flyers tell us more than just the information about theses raves but they can tell us about the dreams, wants and needs of a segment of society during this period. As Hebdige states “Style in subculture is, then, pregnant with significance.�, therefore each aspect of the flyers communicates something about Rave Culture. The type was bold and the colours bursting with neons, and the imagery which was like the sounds pervading the scene, all cut and paste together. Theses posters and flyers greatly reflected the intensity of the parties and reflected some of the ideas of these nights ; unity, oblivion and escapism. These flyers documents a whole era of unity, peace, love and the future. They are an artistic history of the Rave subculture as there was a lack of photography during this period due to the illegal practices. This era produced artwork that will forever narrate a subcultures belief system and prospects at that point in time.
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WORKS CITED
Sloan, J. John. “It’s all the rave: “Flower Power” meets “Techno Culture”.” University of Alabama of Birmingham. January 2000. Blair, Matt. “Airbrushed Dreamscapes: Rave Flyers of the early 90s” IfOnlyUk. Jan 15 2015. Web. Blake, David. “Pez - Meet one of Rave Culture’s most important Artists” skiddle. 13th Aug 2019. Web. Harrison, Summer Gioia. “Light and Sound Underground: A Study Of Rave Culture” Senior Honors Thesis, Texas A&M University. April 2002. Gilbert, Jeremy, and Ewan Pearson. Discographies : Dance, Music, Culture and the Politics of Sound, Routledge, 1999. ProQuest Ebook Central Wilson, Brian. Fight, Flight, or Chill : Subcultures, Youth, and Rave into the Twenty-First Century, MQUP, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central 40
Reynolds, Simon. “Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture”. Faber & Faber. 4 Jul 2013. Ebook. McQuaid, Ian. “Telling the true story of rave” I-D Vice. 24 Feb 2016. Web. Gosling, Emily “What Rave Culture Is Teaching Modern Graphic Designers” EyeOnDesign. 24 Aug 2016. Web. Alderson, Rob. “Celebrating the Flyer Art that helped Rave and Acid House Culture” It’sNiceThat. 6 October 2014. Web. Reyonds, Simon. “Generation Ecstasy: Into the world of Techno and Rave Culture” Routledge New York. 1999. Book. Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Routledge, 1991.
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