How Was This Neighbourhood Built?
THE SOURCE
This space was built thanks to the members of Szukam techno - "I am looking for techno" Polish Facebook groups, that agreed to share their personal experience and opinions on online and offline techno community. On how they see themselves in this community and those particular Facebook groups specifically. The theme of the research was Neighbourhoods and this space is an exploration of the virtual neighbourhood concept based on the interest rather than geographical proximity (Elkins 1999) and was directed by participants' answers to the question: How do you FEEL, SEE and HEAR techno (whether it's music, people or culture).​
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In order to understand what this virtual neighbourhood is about, you need to SEE, HEAR and FEEL it for yourself during your journey through its various levels. You're going to learn that concepts of techno and rave are very fluid and individual, hence you may notice that these terms are used interchangeably, describing a broader phenomenon rather than a specific type of music.
Who Lives In This Neighbourhood?
THE RESIDENTS
This neighbourhood is where creative minds live and those are:
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DJs
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Dancers
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Event managers
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Techno enthusiasts ​
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Out of whom, in the Facebook groups, some act as:
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Admins (referred to as ADMINS in this neighbourhood) - they moderate the groups making sure that their rules are not violated.
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Mentors (MENTORS) - they can be contacted directly if you're a group member, open to talk if you're looking for support in the techno community.
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There were semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 of them via:
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Messenger chat
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Phone calls
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Emails
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The interviews as well as the observation of the Facebook groups took place between January and March 2021.
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Szukam techno Facebook groups are divided into 4 thematics:
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memes
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music
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streams
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events
Most of the interlocutors (residents) are members of at least two or more of these groups and you'll be able to meet some of them in person when on the tour through the neighbourhood.
What is important to recognise here is how residents themselves perceive the existence of the online Facebook groups. For them, they constitute portals to the physical rave community and cannot exist without it. Hence, this virtual neighbourhood is the representation, the intervention, that makes the combination of these two worlds, online and offline, visible (Deger 2016, 120). It also highlights the idea that "online worlds are simply another area, alongside offline worlds, for expressive practice, and there is no reason to privilege one over the other" (Miller and Horst 2012, 12).
How Does This Neighbourhood Look?
THE ARCHITECTURE
According to the residents, the two most important elements that make a neighbourhood are: familiar people and surroundings. That's why, the colours, shapes and descriptions that you'll find in this space are not accidental. They all have been referred to by residents when asked about the visual and conceptual representations of techno.
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As residents described it, techno is black and black is the source of all colour, so you'll find this space filled with a rainbow of colours. However, the prevailing tone is dark, so please put your screen brightness high so you can see everything clearly. The space is also dominated by flashing and flickering lights, so make sure to take breaks if you're not feeling well.
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Techno is a wave, a random constantly evolving shape, a square. Techno is cosmic and so is this space.
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Most of the audiovisual content, such as pictures, graphics and videos, that create this neighbourhood, were either shared by the interviewed residents or found during the observation of the Facebook groups. Unfortunately not all of it is featured as there have been only free, and therefore limited, tools used to build this space.
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The videos that you're going to watch are just a few examples of different sounds that can be found in this neighbourhood. They're there to create a fully personal and embodied experience for every visitor. Some of them are over 1 hour long, but there is no need to watch it all. You can skip through the long videos if you feel like you've fully immersed into the space already.
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