Could clubbing (subculture) be observed as a micro-environment in order to find out how certain patterns of behaviour on a dance floor are telling stories about their wider contemporary cultural and socio-political systems? Bogomir Doringer in 2014 started filming different clubs from a bird’s-eye view with an aim to document variations of collective and individual choreographies worldwide. The collected footage initiated an interdisciplinary artistic research project that is using artistic and different scientific methods in studying the social phenomenon of clubbing. What is the choreography of the individual what is from the collective body?
Could we understand clubbing as a living system that regulates and stabilizes vitality and functioning of the collective and individual body, in regard to the changing conditions in society? Are social and political changes manifested and filtered through dance floors? Through the investigation of a variety of clubbing sessions and the creation of an encyclopaedia of international events, suitable clubs are selected to be filmed based on their curatorial and cultural interest or political agenda and so on.
The choreography in its broader sense is used to understand how relations among body movements are creating specific patterns of behaviour. From the scientific perspective, it is important to consider the individuals on the dance floor as cells constellations and further observe analogies with body movements. The research aims to rethink what is an individual in a community, what a community is, how it functions and how are relational and connective spaces between individuals lived, experienced, understood. It addresses the topic of dancing in time of urgency and investigates contemporary rituals that take place within clubs but also how they resonate with outside world.