Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 3, No.3/Vol. 4, No. 1, Winter 2018/2019 | Page 11

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Example 2: DiY
Evangelos Chrysagis’ research on Do-it-Yourself (DiY) music practices in Glasgow
is another case in point. His ethnographic fieldwork brought into sharp focus the
sonic, visual and material assemblages playing an intrinsic role in DiY music-making.
The ideological underpinnings of a DiY approach to music-making as a form of resistance
to hegemonic authority are well known. However, while research participants
critiqued the status quo in the music industry, they neither resisted nor wholly rejected
relevant prescriptions and established practices; rather, they demonstrated an active desire
to inhabit, appropriate and put to use spaces, materials and norms pertinent to their
music-making. While such material assemblages did not become the focus of his research,
they were nevertheless invaluable sources of information about DiY practices as
they were integral dimensions of music events, the process of promoting gigs, as well as
releasing recorded music. The sourcing and production of materials by DiY practitioners
themselves also highlighted their practical circumstances, while underscoring the crossover
between DiY music and art in Glasgow: several members of the local DiY network
had an arts background, which constituted an essential element of DiY creativity, in turn
reflecting a multimodal approach to making music.
Apart from their practical role in music practices and attesting to a pragmatic modus
operandi and an ethos of multimodality, such forms of material mediation served another
purpose. As Chrysagis has shown (2016), printed promotional materials such
as posters and flyers, social media (particularly Facebook and Twitter), tickets, as well
as the production of various music formats (vinyl records, cassette tapes, CD-Rs and
MP3s) and associated artwork 1 had a dual function: they were effective technologies
of publicity expressing practitioners’ desire for public visibility and recognition, while
simultaneously promoting their obscurity. Perceiving these forms of mediation as both
enabling relationships between like-minded actors within the broader DiY network in
Glasgow, the UK and abroad, and safeguarding DiY’s ethical integrity by distinguishing
DiY practitioners from other music actors, can explain their paradoxical effect of (in)
visibility. It further points to the contested nature of such multimodal forms of disclosure
and concealment, allowing cultural producers to exercise their “right to opacity”
(Glissant 1997:189–194). As Chrysagis notes: “Instead of conflating recognition with
visibility or�in Glissant’s terms�transparency, the right to opacity invites us to consider
why deliberate concealment may sometimes be more empowering and beneficial
for particular groups or communities of practice” (2016:294).
The intense creativity surrounding DiY endeavors is always predicated upon collaboration;
it is what infuses DiY with its force but also pleasure�it is what makes it worthwhile.
Nowhere is this collaborative spirit more evident than in DiY’s material manifestations,
which stand as documents of collective efforts. DiY is event-based�indeed,
1 This is by no means an exhaustive list, which also included stage costumes and props, fanzines, websites
and amateur videos posted on YouTube, to name but a few.
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