Research Questions
'London Markets' was given as the theme for the 17/18 Msc Digital Anthropology Practical Project.
Inspired by Anthropological discussions about the digital image as an interface, I chose to explore e-ticketing for techno nights in South London.
I followed participants from the online purchase of the QR code (Quick Response Code) ticket, through to the scanning of the code at the door of the club. I sought to understand what kinds of sociality these matrix bar codes can facilitate, beginning as digital interfaces that store information both vertically and horizontally.
How do attendees communicate about ticket-buying? What kinds of gateways do the QR codes on their tickets provide? What other digital and social networks are these QR codes productive of?
Field work: Recruitment and Method
I chose my three key participants with the following criteria:
- Aged between 20-24
- Go out around once a month to a techno night in South London in a group of friends
- Have a set group of friends who they share music recommendations with
- Have a group chat on Whatsapp or Facebook with these friends
I recruited three key participants to whom I have given pseudonyms in order to protect their information: 'Harry', 'Joel' and 'Vicky'
Harry went to Phonox (Brixton) to see Midland play on 23/02/18
Joel went to Phonox (Brixton) to see Midland play on 09/02/18
Vicky went to Corsica Studios (Elephant and Castle) to see Pearson Sound play on 10/03/18
(After I recruited Harry, Joel and Vicky, it turned out that two of them planned to attend the same Midland night on separate days.)
I asked my participants to let me observe their WhatsApp group chats about tickets; to create a group playlist relating to their night out; and to create maps of their routes to the night.
I chose playlisting as part of my data collection because both clubs have a no-phones-on-the-dance-floor policy, and it turned out that two out of three of my participants already used group playlists on Spotify. If you scan the QR code on each 'nights out' page it will take you through to the Spotify playlists. To do this on an iPhone go to your Wallet, Edit Passes, Scan Code (scroll to bottom to find this option).
In addition to shared group playlists, a key insight I discovered was that all three participants were members of a page called 'The Identification of Music Group' on Facebook. It has over 90,000 members. This private page enables clubbers to post short audio or video recordings of tracks they have heard out in the hope of a track identification by another member of the FB group.
The findings of my research are displayed across this website in multimedia format. I asked my participants to send me some GIFs and music videos that they associated with the nights. In its totality, the website design seeks to evoke the stimulating and disorientating experience of being inside clubs like Phonox and Corsica Studios.
Unfortunately Wix doesn't have a feature that lets you set videos to autoplay, so please do click to listen to the tracks while you scroll through the nights out pages.
Here's a link to a map of my participants' journeys
