Dressing The Concourse
Quarter 3
Project 9
Scripting, Designing, and Recording the Ballroom Experience
My primary role includes organizing and making the event place through drawing out prototypes and designing the experience around the two types of people who make up the electronic music subculture of Ballroom. This is a process of speculating on possible venues and re-imagining existing architectural shells around Johannesburg through insertion of the proposed installations.
Here, the Old Park City Concourse is is dismantled, then redesigned through a series of 'queering' acts that include: engendering architectural elements to cater to gender identities found in the ballroom, scripting the experience around entering and using the concourse space, and also dressing (through insertion of additional rooms, seating, lighting and sound).
Renders of people and spaces in the Concourse Ball [moving images]
The Concourse Ball: Recorded Interactions on the Gateway Façade
Gif showing progressing states of the reimagined concourse
Actions, cues and considerations when queering the concourse
(Click on image for more information)
Folding and Scripting the Concourse according to three types of people found in the ballroom subculture
Un-Dressing The Concourse
Recordings of past ballroom events are projected onto the façade on the existing building on De Villiers Street (shown in the Un-Dressing page) as an act of opening the ballroom into the street, without physically endangering the participants inside the ballroom. The social and urban context is still physically violent towards the LGBTQ+ community, so keeping the physical barrier while exposing the inner functioning of the space is an appropriate measure.
This portion of the project reveals how the southern façade is reconstructed to suit the self-perceived needs of the new ballroom space, situated in downtown Johannesburg, across from a Christian church and daily market.
ReAddressing What Remains
Quarter 4
Project 9
Recording the Ballroom Experience, Continuous Archiving, Urban Intervention, Everyday LGBTQ+ Community Celebration
My secondary role will be to digitally record and document the installations and interactions that happen in/around them, using film and writing, to relay social and spatial narratives uncovered and created. These records will articulate the argument of what is missing, according to personal observations, as well as what the proposed installations are adding to counteract this issue, and simultaneously adding to the nightscapes of Johannesburg (Vale: 2017).
Singular, collective and interpersonal interactions found in the ballroom are reenacted and projected onto the installation pieces from the concourse ball, to be displayed at a third location, after the ball. The Metro Rail Rotunda on Leyds street, visible along Rissik Street.
ReAddressing the Remnants After the Concourse Ball
Urban Scale Intervention on Rissik Street and the Metro Rail Rotunda
The Grande Stair Projected Onto at the Metro Rail Rotunda
Concourse Arches as temporary Archive Installation on Rissik Street
The Grande Stair Projected Onto at the Metro Rail Rotunda
Concourse Arches as Temporary Archive Installation on Rissik Street
Side-by-Side Walkthrough of Concourse During the Concourse Ball and After
Park City Concourse in Johannesburg: Site Plan and Model Views