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7
Eventful events
Event-making strategies in
contemporary culture
Britta Timm Knudsen and
Dorthe Refslund Christensen
Introduction
Let us consider two examples of cultural activity in which events play a key
role:
1
2
Our hometown of Aarhus in Denmark, with nearly 300,000 inhabitants, has
just been selected as European Capital of Culture for 2017, a nomination
that has already resulted in heated activity on regional and municipal institutionalized levels as well as within the local community, NGOs and artistic
and entrepreneurial enterprises. These are all working towards making 2017
a year bursting with events.
In recent years there has been a trend for bachelor students at Aarhus University
to
make
the
day
of
their
final
examinations
into
an
event.
Relatives,
boy-­
and
girlfriends,
best
friends
and
co-­
students
show
up
with
flowers
and
champagne
after
the
examinations
are
finished
in
order
to
celebrate
the
candidate’s change in social standing.
Although these two examples seem rather different, they are both part of contemporary event culture that encompasses economic interests, competitive strategies and everyday practices. A primary characteristic of contemporary event
culture is the tendency to create intensity (Lash and Lury 2007; Lash 2010),
engagement and awareness around all kinds of events, small- or large-scale.
Intensive or immersive environment-making are cultural strategies to engage and
involve actors and they could be, ideally speaking, performed by all kinds of
actors. Intense environments are a broad term that can cover everything from a
theme park, through a local historical medieval festival, to the opening of an
archaeological
site
to
the
public,
putting
a
scientific
process
on
display.
With
a
term from Pine and Gilmore (1999: 16) we can call that ‘ing-ing the thing’. A
secondary characteristic is that many people like ‘being part of the thing’.
In
the
first
example,
the
intensive
environment-­
making
takes
place
over
a
whole year. The hope is to engage large audiences in various activities in the
urban landscape during 2017, and also that the event-making may have a longer
term effect on Aarhus as a whole. Although the EU set up the European Capital
of Culture Initiative in the mid-1980s with the aim of making European cities
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B. T. Knudsen and D. R. Christensen
visible both to local populations and on a global level, the initiative has come to
be seen by the selected cities as an important branding exercise, and attracts a
wide array of local and not-so-local social actors and groups. The transformative
event thus becomes multidirectional and co-created from the very beginning.
In the second example the intensive environment is local, momentary, and
directed towards one individual. The producers of this kind of event are the
intimate group involved and the events reference other marker rituals – religious
(confirmations)
or
mundane
(birthdays,
big
exams)
and
big
graduation
events
that take place around the globe – and have the same components (sparkling
drinks,
flowers,
fine
dress
and
presents).
It
is
an
event
initiated
by
the
performers
themselves
and
it
shows
a
significant
feature:
the
appropriation
of
an
institutionalized public space, which acts as an interface between the institution and the
private sphere.
Both cases are examples of event culture as intensive environment-making
and both aim to create an event that has the potential to transform the various
partaking actors.
We
argue
that
culture
in
the
Experience
Economy
becomes
event
culture,
and
we
will
consider
event
culture
from
three
separate
angles;;
first,
as
a
descriptive
term used to depict important features of contemporary economic and sociocultural developments. Second, we look at ‘event cultural’ as an analytical
framing of the socio-cultural events we intend to analyse. Here we propose an
analytical framework that focuses on event-making strategies and their inherent
components as well as on the relationship between a cited matrix event and
event-makings. Third, we present a more normative view of the design and production of engaging events. This takes the form of an outline for a more handson method that may be used to analyse and evaluate event-makings in general.
Finally we offer three highly different examples of event-makings to try out our
method.
Setting the scene: contemporary event culture
In order to look closer at the new features in contemporary economic and sociocultural
development
in
the
Western
world
we
bring
three
sources
of
inspiration
together.
We
begin
our
investigation
of
contemporary
event
culture
and
position
our own endeavour by introducing three texts – namely, Pine and Gilmore: The
Experience Economy, Work is Theatre & Every Business a Stage (1999); Lash
and Lury: Global Culture Industry (2007); and Event Power, How Global Events
manage and manipulate (2013) by Chris
Rojek. These three books, which each
take a different view on the phenomenon of event culture, highlight three
important stances – event culture as a consequence of the pervasiveness of global
brands and new digital media, and event culture as a new arena for strategic
management.
We
believe
all
three
aspects
are
important
but
do
not
necessarily
see the event cultural turn as a victory for neoliberalism and cognitive capitalism
but believe higher levels of economic and cultural democracy could be the result.
From a business economics perspective, Pine and Gilmore focus on the shift
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Event-making strategies 119
1
from a service-oriented economy to an experience-oriented economy in which
2
future societies and their income will depend not only on their creative industries
3
to dream up experiences, but on the ability of all ordinary businesses and work4
places to engage their workers, clients and users via events. According to Pine
5
and Gilmore (1999: 30) they will need to stage experiences that engage costum6
ers rather than simply entertain them – experiences and the ability to engage
7
costumers thus become a competitive parameter for companies in this vision of
8
the new economy.
9 general, From a critical sociological perspective, Lash and Lury (2007: 7) agree that
10
in general economies are becoming more cultural; a global brand such as Harry
11
Potter is now not only a brand ascribed with symbolic value that differentiates it
12
from other brands (e.g. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars), but it is also an experience
13
disseminated through media, merchandise and physical sites such as cafés, train
14
station platforms and theme parks – in short, immersive environments (ibid.: 9).
15
With
such
a
post-­
representational
blending
of
meaning
and
materiality,
meaning
16
is no longer interpretive but active (ibid.: 12). Some theorists view this move to
17
an Experience Economy as another step on the road to capitalism in which the
18
human
body
becomes
susceptible
to
bio-­
materialistic
influences
as
well
as
of
19
disciplinary regimes (Deleuze 1990; Massumi 2002; Thrift 2008).
20
Rojek
introduces
the
concept
of
event
consciousness
on
a
global
level
and
21
states that the world is regularly presented by the media as existing in a state of
22
perpetual
emergency
(Rojek
2013:
112).
And
it
is
likewise
postulated
that
the
23
individual is a capable, competent agent who could make a difference to global
24
affairs.
Rojek
states
that
there
is
nothing
wrong
with
prevailing
upon
individuals
25
to care – appealing to their emotions and compassions regarding poverty, hunger,
26
global pollution and the enforcement of human rights. But, he also argues, there
27
also has to be a way to ‘build a viable structure of transformative politics capable
28
of transferring meaningful economic and political power from the industrially
29
advanced world to the developing economies’ (ibid.: 113) or else it results in
30
megalomania.
We
aim
at
building
bridges
between
a
social
level
and
an
indi31
vidual level in order for sustainable long-term solutions to engage large numbers
32
of people.
33
We
thus
subscribe
to
the
new
logic
as
presented
in
the
three
texts
cited
above:
34
that both economy and culture operate differently now – they are more bio35
materialistic – than in the early days of mass-mediated consumption in the
36
1960s. Today the focus is on experiences and their ability to engage people –
37
you can now become immersed in products, which themselves can take many
38
forms (they are no longer just images to consume ‘and identify with’); they have
39
become mixed media-material environments that we sense, feel and do rather
40
than interpret.
41
Event culture is thus what culture becomes in the general shift towards bio42
materialistic ‘inner’ spheres in the Experience Economy. It shapes a horizon of
43
expectation for everybody: any experience is supposed to be an event (poten44
tially life-changing). Everybody can likewise perform or take part in events. But
45
what is an ‘event’? In this chapter we acknowledge a distinction between event
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B. T. Knudsen and D. R. Christensen
and event-making that might be of analytical use and offer a way to bring the
nature
of
the
event
into
a
societal
realm.
We
will
also
give
some
indications
on
how to perform and evaluate events through concepts such as ‘matrix event’.
Event: a philosophical and sociological term
In the following paragraph we seek out the main components of the concept of
event.
Let us begin by making a very important distinction between an event signifying something that happens (occurrence, or crucial point of no return), and an
event in an existential sense of something of importance to someone. Huge societal
events
such
as
9/11,
the
French
Revolution
in
1789
and
the
Holocaust
affect
and mean something to many people. But other events, such as a home ground
victory for the local football team, will only be events for those who are interested
in
the
football
teams
participating.
We
can
say
without
further
ado
that
it
is
not possible to detect a direct causality between an event and the event as ‘inner
experience’. So under what circumstances does something that happens become
an important event to someone? The characteristics and dynamics of the events
discussed below will hopefully help answer this question. But before we move
on to the examples it is important to highlight another distinction, namely the
one between planned and unplanned events. Planned events, with their high level
of risk management, may be considered as the cornerstone of event culture, in
contrast to unplanned or unforeseen occurrences.
The distinction between planned and unplanned events seems to divide the
literature on event. On the one hand, philosophers and historians such as Derrida,
Badiou and Jay argue that an event cannot be ‘predicted or planned, or even
really decided upon’ (Derrida 2007: 441); an event is something ‘that happens to
you’ (Badiou 2007 [2003]: 67); or events ‘happen without intentionality or preparation, befalling us rather than being caused by us’ (Jay 2011: 564). On the
other hand, sociologists and economists such as those introduced earlier in the
chapter characterize contemporary culture as event culture – some critically,
some embracing the new possibilities of crossovers between commercial and
socio-cultural spheres. Looking at these two perspectives it seems that the event
cultural focus on producing events all the time acts as a hindrance to ‘real’
events happening, as portrayed by event philosophers.
To the event philosophers, an event is primarily characterized by its sudden
appearance and hermeneutic openness, which seems to exclude the planned
events taking place within the Experience Economy. Such events encompass
global media happenings, extreme sport package tours, as well as carefully
planned tours to dark tourist destinations in order to feel the sadness of the place.
Staged events and experiences for sale seem to be in total contrast to ‘real’
events
because experiences involve encounters with otherness and open onto a
future that is not fully contained in the past or present, they defy the very
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Event-making strategies 121
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attempt
to
reduce
them
to
moments
of
fulfilled
intensity
in
the
marketplace
of sensations.
(Jay 2006: 407)
Despite such stark differences, we include the event philosophers in our discussion because their way of thinking about events is and should be an inherent
part of any planned event-making. Thus, we argue that planned events under
some circumstances can be existentially important to individuals, or become
important
on
a
historical
level.
We
also
argue
that
any
event-­
making,
as
petite
as
it might be, must feature the promise of being a potentially important event in
order to work and in order to appear appealing.
Events:
some
characteristics
and
reflections
The above-mentioned distinction is important for our work as well as the following distinction: thinkers who consider events as changing worlds (Badiou 1991
[1989];;
Derrida
2007;;
Jay
2006,
2011;;
Romano
2009),
and
thinkers
who
consider events to be much more mundane and everyday occurrences that happen
constantly (Simmel 1917; Deleuze and Guattari 1987; Massumi 2002, 2008).
What
relates
event
theorists
such
as
Derrida,
Badiou,
Romano
and
Jay
is
that
from their viewpoints events give rise to something impossible or not yet possible (the potential in the actual). The not yet possible is connected to what is not
possible to communicate and spell out in language but only possible to experience through the body. Jacques Derrida points to how electronic mass media has
the power to frame, name and interpret events, and to determine the extent to
which events are possible to frame, name and interpret. They are not events in
the existential sense. Events as truth – according to Badiou – is experienced as a
‘hole’ in established knowledge (Badiou 2007b: 58), and a new and changed
subject is born out of this experience.
Romano’s
eventual
hermeneutics
tends
towards
a
similar
understanding
of
events.
For
Romano
events
are
not
something
that
can
be
inscribed
in
time
but
something that opens time. Events cannot be understood in light of their prior
context, but only from the posteriority to which they give rise, as they are themselves the origin of meaning for any interpretation. An event ‘does not belong to
a fact’s actuality but to its possibility, or better, to the possibility of making possible, to possibilization’
(Romano
2009:
43).
This
means
that
an
event
has
the
potential
to
create
new
worlds
if
it
affects
sufficient
understandings,
practices
and
behaviours.
If
the
event
is
not
actualized,
it
does
not
open
worlds.
Romano
invents the category of advenant in order to designate the subject – not yet existing – for the new worlds an event give rise to: ‘ “advenant” is the term for the
human being insofar as something happens to him and insofar as by his very adventure, he is open to events’ (ibid.: 21). The category of advenant is crucial
because it determines that the humanity of being human, in the evential sense, is
experience and not essence (ibid.: 161). Here, experience is not some innerworldly fact, but rather the way in which an advenant advenes to itself by being
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B. T. Knudsen and D. R. Christensen
exposed
to
the
totally
other:
to
events
(ibid.:
162).
Whether
events
are
small-­
scale existential or act at a global level – Galilei’s invention of modern physics,
The
French
Revolution
of
1789,
May
1968,
Solidarity
in
Poland,
for
example
–
they open time and several paths become possible to follow.
This, however, is only one of several viewpoints on event culture; other
scholars prefer to understand events as everyday occurrences affecting bodies.
For the early sociologist Georg Simmel, and subsequent event thinkers such as
Deleuze
and
Massumi,
events
are
tightly
connected
to
moments
when
a
flow
of
energy and intense matter hits the individual body via a micro-perceptual chock
(Massumi 2008: 5). Early sociologists such as Gabriel Tarde, Gustave le Bon
and Georg Simmel offered an alternative to Durkheim’s sociology. These three
consider
the
social
not
as
a
substance
following
a
rational
logic,
but
as
the
fluid,
vital, moving and relational appearing inbetween individuals: ‘In accordance
with it, society certainly is not a “substance”, nothing concrete but an event: it is
the function of receiving and effecting the fate and development of one individual by the other’ (Simmel 2005 [1917]: 11). Event here designates a fundamental micro-perceptual evential logic of the social.
Continuing the material logic of the social, several thinkers start from more
explicitly phenomenological experiences and point to an event as an experience
of the energy of life. Deleuze and Guattari remind us that bodies are not screens
of fantasies of various becomings, but energetic and moving bodies of intense
matter (Deleuze and Guattari 1987). The event in Deleuze’s work is the becoming
one
with
the
infinite
power
of
life
that
flows
like
an
undercurrent
in
all
spheres.
Massumi,
who
is
heavily
influenced
by
Deleuze,
likewise
uses
the
notion of encounter (referencing Spinozean ethics) and links the event of the
affected body to openness (Massumi 2002: 35), which is rather different to
the premise underlying Badious’ work. For Massumi, events are not something
non-existent coming into existence – as described in Badiou’s work – but
something that happens all the time, effecting minor changes of orientation in
humans. To simplify, one could say that Massumi equals perception and event
and draws the existential consequence that ‘every perception comes with its own
vitality affect and that we don’t just look, we sense ourselves alive’ (Massumi
2011: 43). The feeling of being empowered by life itself is something continuous, like a background perception that accompanies every event, however
quotidian. ‘It is nothing less than the perception of one’s own vitality, one’s
sense
of
aliveness,
of
changeability
(often
signified
as
“freedom”)’
(Massumi
2002: 36).
Having introduced these various conceptions of ‘event’ we will now work
towards
a
definition
that
supports
the
current
discussion.
From
our
perspective
Massumi’s concept of event is too broad and Badiou’s is too exclusive, so we
suggest a combination of the two perspectives – a combination of everyday
occurrences and their eventual relationship to vitality affects and people’s feeling
‘aliveness’ that together can prepare or train a worldwide openness to megaevents which then have the capacity to enact change. Huge events, for their part,
usually need to make people feel alive in order to produce an effect.
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Event-making strategies 123
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For events to become ‘events’ they have to encompass this dual ideal: they
have to evoke events in their users – enhancing their feeling of aliveness – and
they have to open time for their users and ideally for mankind in general. Events
can point to and open a ‘not yet’ world beyond actual worlds.
Event and event-making
We
suggest
a
distinction
between
event and event-making in order to make the
concept of event work, and show how different levels of entrepreneurship, performativity, co-creation, original matrixes, experience, strategy and hope play a
part in event culture.
An event, then, is something crucial that happens to somebody, while eventmaking is action performed in order to make something happen or create a specific
reaction
following
an
event.
Event-­
makings
are
performative
practices
most
often derived from events, and aim to increase the potential of the ongoing event
as well as create opportunities for new events or sub-events.
To continue developing our argument for a difference and dependency
between the concepts of event and event-making, we will now show the three
key characteristics of event-makings that illustrate the importance of this proposed analytical distinction. All three components are present in all eventmakings, but in order to evaluate event-makings, the scale, depth and
co-creational potentialities of an event-making design need to be assessed
individually.
The
first
key
feature
of
event-­
makings
is
that
they
are
stagings of a desire for
transformation. In event-makings it is important to stress the subjunctive mode
and the simultaneous presence of the actual and the potential (Sjørslev 2007;
Butler 2004), which together negotiate the social meaning as in a ritual (Seligman et al. 2008). The events and event-makings we are engaged in analysing
range from catastrophic events such as 9/11, through to presidential inaugurations and royal weddings, to festivals, donation shows, online memorials for
dead infants, local events in department stores, Friday breakfasts in workplaces
and so forth. Our interest is in how events of any kind are used by individuals,
groups, organizations, businesses, nations, etc., to stage the subjunctive; that is,
provide the possibility of transformation. Event-makings encompass this duality
between the planned and the unforeseen, between the factual and the potential,
the extraordinary and the mundane. The goal of event-making is the attainment
of peaks. In this way event culture’s embracement of everyday life is a potentiality strategy that has as its ultimate goal the elimination of the mundane. Jens
Nielsen (2008: 50) has stated humans’ rather passive roles as recipients by
arguing that ‘It is not us that produces the event. It events us.’ He continues:
[I]t
is
the
collective
effervescence
that
roars.
We
are
not
in
charge
of
this
inherited, collective medium of realization and we do not know from where
it emerges and how we can affect it. It is us that are being effervescensed.
Not we that are performing the effervescence.
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B. T. Knudsen and D. R. Christensen
The feeling of effervescence is something that seizes control of individuals, we
agree, but the feeling of it is something we chase, stage and frame in order for it
to happen whether we practice bungee jumping, thanatourism, are passionate
football fans, or concert sharks. Humans turn to, or produce themselves, physical, mental and symbolic spaces and demarcations in order to get into a certain
mood,
find
happiness,
or
adrenalin-­
pumping
states
of
excitement.
These
all
represent a change from a more mundane everyday feeling of the humdrum. The
most important of such staging impulses is the ritual. Seligman et al. (2008: 7)
use
the
concept
of
ritual
to
help
deepen
understanding
of
event-­
making:
‘Rituals
produce a subjunctive “as if ” or “could be” universe and [i]t is this very creative
act that makes our shared social world possible. Creating a shared subjunctive
. . . recognizes the inherent ambiguity built into social life and its relationships.’
Ritualization,
though,
is
crucial
in
the
understanding
of
event
culture
and
the
analytics we will suggest in the following: in ritual humans produce, negotiate
and hybridize meaning, social norms, roles and relations – be it in classical rites
of passage negotiating social status like inititations, or in more secular ritualizations like lifestyle changes such as detoxings, etc. They experiment and play
with potential meanings, social norms and relations and they examine what these
are,
basically.
Ritualization
is
one
important
aspect
of
event-­
making
since
it
offers an experimental zone in which social meaning is suspended and reevaluated.
The second key feature is that any event-making refers to a matrix event, and
the stronger and more potent the matrix event is to the partakers, the more
powerful the event-making will be experienced by them. If inventions such as
the wheel, or democracy, or a historical event such as the Holocaust account for
matrix events, it becomes clear how such events can make it more likely that
subsequent event-makings will be of general interest and have a certain impact.
The matrix event, however, does not have to be historical in nature; it might also
be existential in the proximity of an event. The event is a key point of reference
to event-makings whether as a motivating or stimulating factor. The event is
framed
and
therefore
encoded
more
or
less
firmly
(Sjørslev
2007;;
Bateson
2000;;
Hall 1999). In event-makings humans imitate the event, lean towards it, point to
it and long for the event to reappear (or more exactly, keep alive the matrix event
and
the
feelings
surrounding
it
through
event-­
makings).
We
‘event-­
make’
in
order to correlate or undo the negative consequences of an event. A matrix event
is not necessarily an outlined event taking place in time and space; a matrix
event could be a more vague space of connotations, such as the Viking era.
The relationship between the event-makings and the matrix event is one of
mutual dynamism – actual event-makings are given legitimacy through the
matrix event and the event-makings convey prestige to the matrix event. The
more a matrix event is cited, imitated and performed, the more prestige it gets
according to the fundamental (Tardean) laws of imitation in society (Tarde
[1890], 2001).
Event-makings can cite matrix events with respect to materiality, relations,
and narrative layers, and they can involve references to certain actions/practices,
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Event-making strategies 125
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memories and experiential realms. One important requirement if an eventmaking is to produce intensity and peaks of interest is the ability to bring the
matrix event closer to the actual event-makers and/or to potensate their abilities
to develop appropriate social practices in response to events. To have eventmakers feeling touched by and close to a matrix event that maybe happened 200
years ago, or is happening on the other side of the globe, a whole range of multimodal media (material-digital) are used to produce liveness, presence and immediacy (Auslander 1999; Gumbrecht 2004; Marriott 2007).
Finally, the third key feature illustrates how event-making arranges for participants to co-create the event in order to have impact. This is crucial for planned
events to become events for the participants – to produce engagement and eventual impact on a certain social scale. In other words, event-makers have to plan
for the unforeseen to happen.
When
anthropologist
Edward
Schieffelin
developed
the
concept
of
performance
first
introduced
by
Victor
Turner
(1977;;
1982)
he
argued
that
a
performance
or
event
becomes
appealing
through
a
qualification
of
the
spectator
that
turns
him
or
her
into
a
co-­
creator
of
the
event
(Schieffelin
1993,
1998).
We
follow a similar argument: event-makings are staged forms of sociality with
declared intentions on behalf of their initiators, but they have the ‘imperfection
of meaning’ pointed to by Schieffelin (see also Sjørslev 2007: 12f.). Analytical
accuracy is needed here, as co-creation has become a buzzword in the Experience Economy. Bosjwijk et al. (2007) highlight co-creation and self-direction in
the new economy as having the capacity to fundamentally change consumers
into active citizens. In order for that to happen, we argue, it is crucial to investigate to what degree and qualitatively how, exactly, co-creation can take place
(see the chapter by Gyimothy and Jensen in this book, and their distinction
between co-optation, co-production and co-creation).
Outline of a method that can be used to analyse and evaluate
event-makings
The following paragraph serves the purpose of being a manual outlining of
important points in analysing and eventually producing intensive event-makings.
Event-making, modes and components
•
•
•
•
•
who
are
the
producers of the event-making?
what
genre
and
character
has
the
event-­
making?
Showing
or
telling
mode?
what
exactly
is
the
event
being
made?
And
what
kind
of
desired
transformation is being staged and/or performed?
what
strategies
are
used
to
create
intensity,
engagement
and
impact?
how
does
the
event-­
making
facilitate
co-­
creation?
How
does
it
prepare
for
the unforeseen?
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B. T. Knudsen and D. R. Christensen
Matrix events
•
•
•
•
is
the
event-­
making
part
of
an
event,
a
reaction
to
an
event,
or
part
of
a
series of events?
how
is
one
or
more
matrix
events
represented?
(narrative
layers,
levels
of
media-materiality, practices, memory, sensations, emotions, etc.?)
how
is
the
matrix
event
made
present?
Is
it
cited,
imitated,
remediated,
negotiated; is irony, pathos, play or criticism, etc., used, and by whom?
any
constraints?
Impact of the event-making, existential and socio-cultural contexts
•
•
•
•
•
who
or
what
is
transformed
by
the
event,
and
how?
does
the
event-­
making
have
long-­
term
or
short-­
term
impact?
(economically,
environmentally, politically socially?)
is
the
event-­
making
reaffirming
cultural
patterns,
negotiating
those
or
maybe
creating systemic change?
what
institutions
(ideology,
religion,
norm,
value)
are
reflected
and
influenced in the event-making?
are
cultural
modes
and
forms
reaffirmed,
distilled,
displaced,
invented
and/
or, are new forms of connectivity, community and network formations made
possible?
Three cases
Throughout the rest of the chapter we present three cases; the LA Green Grounds
network in South Central Los Angeles; Deportation Day: Live History Lesson in
Lithuania;;
and
the
first
inauguration
of
US
president
Barack
Obama;;
as
starting
points for discussions on event and event-making. The cases have been chosen
in order to stress certain elements and points in our argument, and to outline our
method above. They were deemed appropriate because they reference issues of
broad relevance – for instance human and urban sustainability issues (LA Green
Ground Network), acknowledgement of victims in the past (Deportation Day),
and
social
inclusion
of
ethnic
minorities
(the
first
inauguration
of
Barack
Obama), and because they offer different models of who comes up with the
enterprising initiatives, how they engage participants, and the social transformative scale of the event-makings. Thus, these cases offer especially good
event-­
makings
with
respect
to
the
difficult
issues
they
address.
LA Green Grounds, Los Angeles: a local citizens’ initiative
LA
Green
Grounds
(LAGG)
was
co-­
founded
in
2010
by
artist
and
designer
Ron
Finley and a group of activists in South Central, Los Angeles, USA. Finley
describes the group as a ‘pay-it-forward-kind-a-group’ (Finley 2013); that is,
when you have experienced the help and attendance from others in your community, you do not return something to them but multiply it by exposing others
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Event-making strategies 127
1
to the same kind of output. The following is based on studies on internet studies
2
of
various
websites,
http://lagreengrounds.org/,
http://ronfinley.com/,
and
Finley’s
3
TED talk (Finley 2013).
4
The purpose of LAGG is to ‘build gardens, with a focus on serving low5
income residents and others with scarce access to fresh, affordable food’ (LAGG
6
website). This is achieved through events called ‘dig-ins’ that are announced on
7
a web calendar updated by the group. At dig-ins, groups of people from local
8
communities get together and plant gardens for individuals who have asked for
9
help in starting their own ‘food forest’ in vacant lots (LA has approximately 26
10
million square feet of vacant lots, the equivalent of 20 Central Parks (Finley
delete:XX
11
2013: XX). For individuals the dig-ins serve as event-making of certain issues
12
related to their own lives and communities (see below).
13
Moreover, the volunteers of LAGG ‘advocate for gardens, open space, and
14
general wellness in S LA and beyond [and] run wellness classes and hikes in the
15
Kenneth
Hahn
Rec
Area’
(LAGG
website).
The
group
attends
and
co-­
creates
16
other bottom-up initiatives working against food discrimination, hunger and
17
poverty and related poor life conditions and illnesses.
18
In terms of enterprising initiatives, the events and event-makings of this group
19
are
fine
examples
of
how
the
experiences
and
social
indignation
of
one
or
more
20
individuals leads to entrepreneurial behaviour that inspires others (the pay-it21
forward-structure). In his TED talk, Finley explains what led him to begin to
22
grow food in a park situated a way from his home with reference to two
23
important experiences. First, he saw people dying from curable diseases in his
24
neighbourhood as a result of obesity: ‘no access to healthy food; dialysis centres
25
popping up like Starbucks . . . wheelchairs bought and sold like used cars’ (Finley
26
2013).
This,
allegedly,
led
him
to
create
the
first
‘food
forest’
outside
his
home.
27
In this part of the narrative, Finley himself has the role of the Afro-American
28
who has risen above the masses. As artist and designer he has the resources to
29
lead
and
help
his
fellow
Afro-­
Americans
to
better
health.
This
first
food
forest
30
has become the matrix event that all event-makings which follow (dig-ins and
31
more) refer to, and was in itself a way of turning social indignation into entre32
preneurial event-making strategies for others to engage in. Second, Finley refers
33
to his legacy to South Central, where he grew up, raised his sons, and ‘refused to
34
be a part of this manufactured reality that was manufactured for me by some
35
other people and I am manufacturing my own reality’ (Finley 2013). In this part
36
of the narrative he is an Afro-American who chooses his own path, just as any
37
other (Afro-American) human can do. Growing food is the way to break the
38
boundaries and decide one’s own future, and, furthermore, also improve one’s
39
neighbourhood: ‘I have witnessed my garden become a tool for education. A
40
tool for the transformation of my neighborhood. To change the community you
41
have
to
change
the
composition
of
the
soil.
We
are
the
soil!’
(Finley
2013).
42
So,
when
you
‘DIG-­
IN!’
(the
LAGG
slogan),
you
actually
contribute
to
both
43
personal, physical, social and spiritual growth for yourself, your fellow humans
44
and your neighbourhood. The activities of LA Green Grounds are great exam45
ples of how interwoven events and event-makings are, on various levels.
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B. T. Knudsen and D. R. Christensen
If one turns to the socially empowering perspectives that are a dominant part
of LAGG activities and narratives – that is, the talk of making one’s own destiny
and turning one’s back on poverty, criminality and abuse – one important matrix
event
reveals
itself
to
be
the
history
of
American
slavery.
When
Afro-­
Americans
were held as slaves, they worked hard and tilled the soil for their masters,
without
benefiting
themselves.
By
digging
the
soil
now,
Afro-­
American
descendants and others are demonstrating a capability for taking control – digging for
their own sake and also to improve their neighbourhood’s life chances.
Although the abolition of slavery occurred in 1865, there are still many social
structures in the USA that mean inequalities continue to exist. The LAGG
project itself – planting gardens in vacant lots in poor neighbourhoods – is an
event-making strategy that turns a protest against the life conditions that many
poor and/or Afro-Americans are still subjected to, into a co-creational, entrepreneurial activity with a complex impact on several levels. The event and eventmakings aim at both creating better health conditions – by teaching people
in South East LA how to grow their own food and thereby offer them a route
to a more healthy diet – and, at the same time, through inscribing themselves
in the project, they can take control over their own lives in ways that transcend
the diet issue. You protest with your time and your shovel, so to speak; that is,
the mode of the event-making is doing
stuff.
You
‘DIG-­
IN!’
as
the
LAGG
slogan
says,
or
as
Finley
puts
it:
‘Plant
some
shit!’
(Finley
2013).
In
this
sense the event-makings refer to a referential event equating to the food
supply situation, the obesity rate and the constant openings of new health
centres, i.e., centres for dialysis. Additionally, the impact might lie in the ritualizing potential of the event-makings – by asking LAGG for help in establishing
a garden, each human is provided with a marker ritual that demarcates before
and after and points to a new lifestyle, i.e. producing their own food and thereby
starting a new way of living for themselves and their families. The impact
reflects,
therefore,
both
micro-­
and
macro-­
political
realities
and
a
complex
set
of
matrix
events
–
besides
the
ones
outlined.
All
the
events,
for
example,
reflect
personal suppression, poverty, obesity, and so forth. The dig-in might ‘only’
bring healthy cheap food; however, it might also transform the person’s life on a
larger scale.
The
first
inauguration
of
Obama:
a
crucial
event
that
engaged
at
a
global level
Empirical data was collected from the broadcast of the inauguration of Barack
Obama
on
20
January
2009
by
two
major
Danish
television
channels
(DR1
and
TV2).
We
followed
the
global
media
event
throughout
the
whole
day
on
both
national channels.
The inauguration of Barack Obama was broadcast as a media event, with the
television companies being responsible for documenting, editing and staging it.
Although numerous actors – ordinary citizens, global news media, the US
government
–
all
took
part
in
event-­
makings
following
the
election,
the
official
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inauguration and its immediate aftermath was an institutionalized power from
above reacting to a power from below (i.e. the democratic voting system).
Here we have an exemplary case of an event-making that was a reaction to an
event that took place in the near-past; that event being the election of Obama as
the
first
coloured
president
in
the
history
of
the
USA.
Inaugurations
are
political
marker rituals with a relatively stable structure. But despite the ritual surrounding the oath-taking at the National Mall in front of Capitol Hill (the symbolic
centre of American democracy), the inauguration of Obama was a multi-sited
and multi-perspective event-making. Nearly two million people were at the Mall
that day, and many more millions followed the broadcast event. But in order to
co-create the inauguration as an intensive environment to a broad range of participants, broadcast media, electronic media and mobile media devices were
important in locating and forming connections to the multi-spatial event-making
activities. From a media perspective it could also be argued that Lincoln’s bible,
the music (Yitshak Perlman and Jojo Mar), and the historically loaded material
of the place of the inauguration itself, all contributed to the event-making and
the actual event.
One of the main event-making strategies that broadcast media use in order to
engage and mobilize audiences is liveness (Marriott 2007). Audiences who were
at one and the same time both physically present, and absent, experienced crucial
moments together – the taking of the oath, Obama’s speech, the car drive
with spontaneous stops – as they happened. Full ‘liveness’ was demonstrated by
the ‘oath fumble’, and in the uncertainty over if, where, and when the new president would get out of the car during the ritual drive from Capitol Hill down
Pennsylvania
Avenue
towards
the
White
House.
The
‘as
life’
–
meaning
a
staged and framed presentation – was constituted by the many interviews with
Americans,
and
people
from
all
over
the
world
who
personified
ethnic
minorities, fans, national subjects, witnesses of history, etc. The ‘recorded life’ began
immediately
after
something
significant
had
happened
–
the
endless
loops
of
the oath-taking, sentences from Obama’s speech, the embrace between husband
and wife.
The event-making not only created audiences, it also featured participants
from all corners of the world who felt equal association with the event itself
regardless
of
origin
and
national
connection.
Parties
were
held
all
over
Washington;;
Americans
came
from
all
over
the
USA
to
Washington
that
day;;
American
embassies all over the world event-made; American immigrants took part; political
parties
in
Denmark
celebrated;;
Danes
travelled
to
Washington
to
‘witness
history and get inspired’ (Lars HUG, Danish song writer); Ukulele, the native
Kenyan
village
of
Obama’s
father,
held
celebrations,
as
did
a
fishing
town
in
central Japan named Obama – a rather ironic and humoristic play on names. The
primary mode of engagement in the inauguration was imitation
through
identification,
either
semantically
with
the
noble
cause
(the
fulfilment
of
the
American
Dream; that coloured people can become president of the most powerful nation
on
earth),
or
on
a
performative
level
(for
example,
Danish
broadcaster
DR
asked
the American embassy in Denmark to supply details of the menu and associated
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B. T. Knudsen and D. R. Christensen
recipe instructions for the lunch that was to be served to the president elect. This
information was posted on the broadcaster’s website so that visitors could
partake of a similar gastronomic experience). Most of the event-making was
American, but the inauguration was also a global celebration of democracy and
racial equality.
The inauguration of Obama features several matrix events – the link between
the
oath-­
taking
and
Abraham
Lincoln,
who
played
a
significant
role
in
the
abolition of slavery in USA; and, of course, the celebration of democracy itself. The
inauguration as event-making is a consequence of the democratic election of
Obama
as
the
first
black
president
in
US
history.
The
event,
in
the
sense
of
rupture
(Romano,
Derrida
and
Badiou),
occurred.
The
change,
in
the
form
of
an
Afro-American becoming president of the world’s premier superpower, came
true, and the subsequent event-makings celebrated that. A new world of possibilities opened up during this event – for Americans, but also for all peoples of the
world: the advenance of power and rights to minorities and rejected groups of
people suddenly seemed within reach during the event-makings. And the desire
to be part of an historic moment (as it was labelled by many journalists and
actors) is what one calls a celebration of a new world order on a subjunctive
level (‘what if?’). Or one could say that the enthralling force that this event and
subsequent event-makings wield, is the force of imagining and forming ‘a more
inclusive and better world’ for all mankind. It means that the USA, with this new
promise
of
all-­
inclusiveness,
not
only
confirms
its
status
as
a
soft
superpower
but expands this power to potential new allies. It is maybe the closest one can
get to a promise of or the potential for system change in peaceful democratic
societies performed by the voters (similar to May 1968).
Re-enacting history: event-making of the cruel past
‘Deportation Day: Live History Lesson’ is an elaborate restaging of a labour
camp re-enactment, which was performed nine times between December 2009
and March 2010 in Lithuania. It took place on a participatory level and took
several hours. The re-enactment is a distillation of the experience of a small
nation subjected to the communist regime that was forced upon it. And it is a
reaction to a matrix event that ended in 1990 with the independence of Lithuania
from the Soviet Union. This study is based on participant observation from 18
January
2010,
and
semi-­
structured
interviews
with
Ruta
Vanagaité
and
three
participants in the re-enactment.
The re-enactment took place in a 3,000 m2 two-storey relic from the Cold
War:
a
bunker
located
in
a
spruce
forest
25
km
outside
Lithuania’s
capital,
Vilnius. ‘Deportation Day’ was the brainchild
of
Ruta
Vanagaité,
a
local
artistic
entrepreneur, Lithuanian dramatist, and theatre critic. She obtained partial
funding from the EU on account of the production’s educational value. The
actors
co-­
producing
the
event-­
making
are
two
Russian
actors,
a
dog,
and
an
interpreter
translating
some
of
the
Russian
commands
into
English,
plus
the
natural settings and the historical traces. Young Lithuanians, as well as young
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European exchange students and tourists from all over the world, constitute the
group of participants.
The
scenario
was
fixed
and
there
was
absolutely
no
room
for
co-­
creative
participation since the aim was to re-enact the labour camp, not play at it. The
production was composed of sequences with iconic camp components – people
squeezed into small vehicles, the line-up, the interrogation, the forced labour
sequence (on the day of our visit (18 February 2010) it was snowing quite
heavily so women were expected to sweep away the snow while men used
shovels with only a bowl of thin soup as sustenance). The participants – tourists,
or in this case exchange students and Lithuanian students – played the roles of
prisoners. The re-enactment also included a post-re-enactment sequence in the
form of a staged store selling everyday commodities from the period of the occupation. The multi-modal media used to create intensity around the event-making
were the former bunker itself, as a natural relic in the landscape; uniforms for
the
inmates;;
mugs
made
of
thin
material;;
posters
and
small
figures
of
Lenin;;
soundscapes
of
shots
and
running;;
a
real
dog
(and
its
barking);;
two
Russian-­
speaking
guards,
the
use
of
the
Russian
language,
etc.
(Krees
and
van
Leeuwen
2001). The experiential meaning potential of this event-making design is obviously learning through embodiment: ‘I feel now what they felt’. ‘Deportation
Day’ has the potential to produce kinetic empathy towards the former victims of
forced labour camp internment. A Lithuanian girl, for example, was elected as a
target
victim
for
an
‘interrogation’
by
the
‘Russian
guard’
who
threatened
to
intern her mother too. After the experience she said that the situation had been
physically unpleasant for her, even though she knew it was all staged and fake –
the re-enactment may not be the event itself but it is equally not not the event
(Schneider 2011). This event-making attunes participants to feel as if they are
the victims of a totalitarian regime.
This historical event-making is one that uses a widely implemented method
of political repression and punishment in the Soviet Union and its occupied territories – namely the forced labour camp (gulag) that was used to intern convicts
and political prisoners between 1929 and 1953. It is estimated that ten million
people lost their lives as a consequence of the gulags – more than the number of
people killed in the Nazi extermination camps. The play is not representing or
citing one special event, but is more a distillation or a metonymical representation of a totalitarian regime. The bunker as an in-situ relic and the materiality
involved
(clothes,
cans,
posters,
the
Russian
actors,
etc.)
are
props
that
are
indexes of the represented past and thus have a heightened level of authenticity
and intensity-impact on participants. The play suggests a rather conservative narrative
of
collective
victimhood
(Wight
and
Lennon
2007)
and
thus
represents
a
selective memory of the past. It does not, for example, discuss any complicity
with, or even support for, the totalitarian regimes occupying Lithuania (Nazism,
and then communism).
‘Deportation Day’ claims
that
‘We
are
all
Lithuanians,
meaning
victims’,
and
although this reading of history is selective, something advenes nonetheless
in this event-making: (1) new alliances are created between former enemies
07 145 Enterprising ch07.indd 131
17/6/14 10:10:21
132
B. T. Knudsen and D. R. Christensen
(Russians
and
Lithuanians);;
(2)
new
post-­
Cold
War
global
communities
are
maybe formed through kinetic empathy (affect) assuming that everybody would
react the same way to being subjected to totalitarianism; and (3) a former Eastern
European country that has become a new member state of the EU challenges the
dominant European narrative which focuses primarily on the spectre of Nazi
Germany. ‘Deportation Day’ puts totalitarian communism on the agenda as a
central part of the European experience.
Conclusion
To make events – in the form of festivals, celebrations around artistic and cultural industrial launches, or as teambuilding exercises at workplaces – has
become a common tool in the Experience Economy. It is argued by several event
philosophers that planned events cannot be ‘real’ events existentially and/or
socially. Against this argument we posited that planned events can be eventful if
the
unplanned
is
allowed
to
take
place.
We
furthermore
suggest
another
important distinction for future research on events – that the above-mentioned
events should be called ‘event-makings’. For event-makings to become events
they have to install a qualitative change. They have to give rise to something not
yet possible; they have to open new possibilities for the world, its users, and,
ideally, humankind in general, to become different. In order to be events, eventmakings must encompass three characteristics – they must stage a desire for
transformation or they must take place on the initiative of citizens; they must
quote or relate to one or several matrix events; and they must have impact existentially and/or – but preferably both – socially. If social change is to have a
chance, high levels of co-creation are necessary.
Finally, we give three key examples of event-makings that address major
challenges today: sustainability, social inclusion of minorities, and the management of the past. Of the three cases, LA Green Grounds has the most potential
for being socially sustainable, because the desire for transformation is played out
in an everyday environment with a high level of user-generated content, a
considerable depth in matrix events (slavery, minority rights, etc.), and an
important impact both on an individual level in the form of capacity-building
and general empowerment of participants, and on a community level through the
creation of alternative markets, enhancing feelings of belonging, and solidarity.
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