PARTY SHRINES AND SACRED RAVES: �the construction of social power and its influence over the urban
NSW2001G VIVA VOCE PRESENTATION
Ram Shekar
Content of presentation
1 | Sinha’s ‘Marking Sacred Spaces’ | Exposition of Sinha’s argument |
2 | What are underground raves? | Singapore’s Rave Scene and it’s defiance to urbanisation |
3 | Raves, Religiosity and the Urban | How raves and ‘sacred’ religious sites hold power |
4 | Point 1 | Contestations of Sacrality as a form of power |
5 | Point 2 | (Un)balanced power dynamics : venerating spaces |
6 | Conclusion | |
Sacredness can be identified in everyday urban spaces where signs of the ‘sacred’ are embedded within the secular architectural fabric of Singapore.
1. Exposition of Sinha’s argument
The intersecting discourses on land scarcity, modernisation and urbanisation creates images of sacrality as being ‘out of place’ and corrosive.
This constructs a binary between the secular and the sacred. Which holds more power? Can they symbiotic?
How might politicising rave culture contribute to the discourse?
“We try to pick places that aren’t as familiar with the clubbing and event infrastructure in Singapore. For the most part, we try to occupy spaces with a story to tell, especially in Singapore where land is limited and predetermined by a systematic urban plan, our architectural history and heritage are getting replaced rapidly and we lose a unique breath of ourselves as it goes on […]”
2a. Singapore’s Rave Scene and it’s defiance towards urbanisation.
2b. Commonalities between sacrality and Singapore’s rave scene.
1. | 2. | 3. |
“[..] the city itself is infused with shades of sacrality and its inhabitants make ‘meaningful places out of contingent spaces” “these sites are ethnographically messy, colourful and energetic spaces […]”. pg. 485 | “[…] incorporation of sacred symbols in otherwise profane spaces challenge and problematise the simplistic ‘secular/sacrality’ dichotomy[…] these spaces are layered with shades of both secularity and religiosity, which find easy co-location in the same site.”. pg. 472 - 473 | “[L]ocation of a Hindu temple within the compound of an industrial space in Singapore are good counter-example(s) to the idea that modernity must be antithetical to religious sensibilities”. “[U]rbanity is not in and of itself oppositional and hostile to the sacred…”. pg. 469 |
Just like the ritual practice of religiosity, raves attract devoted techno lovers who particpate in the action of rejecting cultural homogeneity.
“Rave culture also celebrates an individuality often restricted elsewhere in Singapore's conservative society.”.
Queerness is celebrated in these rave spaces.
3. How raves and ‘sacred’ religious sites hold power
Haw Par Villa Rave I attended
back in 2022
Selection Bias
Sinha’s qualitative research focuses on certain religious groups (Hindus and Taoist practitioners) . This might exclude other religious perspectives that are relevant to understanding the full spectrum of sacrality in Singapore.
4. Contestations of sacrality as a form of power
Concurrent process of secularisation
Sinha’s analysis does not fully consider how secularisation is constantly evolving which inadvertently undermine the power of sacrality and devotees possess.
Underground raves in Singapore relish in the very fact they are not ‘visible’.
“[…] we aren’t very visible to the wider public. For quite a while our counterparts within the region and beyond aren’t very aware that there is a scene, let alone Singaporeans themselves.”
- Femalemag
“[…] urban dwellers relate to spaces in privileging their ‘use value’ rather than seek to ‘own’ them.”. pg. 484
“[R]eligious practitioners are comfortable with the notion of transitory spaces and temporary occupation of sites for the purpose of achieving specific religious outcomes”. pg. 485
In rave sites in Singapore such as basements, kopitiams, industrial buildings, carparks and arthouse cinemas are “always temporary” due to Singapore’s “sky-high rents” and “zoning laws”.
5a. (Un)balanced power dynamics : venerating spaces
Yet, despite bureaucracy as facilitated by urbanisation, underground rave culture and sacrality are still enduring social processes. This implies the power raves and sacrality have regardless of their transient nature.
Bottom-up approaches to assert power and agency.
Ground-up initiatives from the everyday individual simply constructing a makeshift altar at a hawker centre to a collective planning parties at unconventional spaces shows that material spaces are not solely defined by state-led planning or commercial interests but are also shaped by communities who infuse meaning in these spaces.
5b. (Un)balanced power dynamics : venerating spaces
The modern cityscape of Singapore is challenged by sacrality fragmenting cultural homogeneity through the assertion of sacred signs scattered around Singapore’s architectural fabric.
6. Conclusion
My sociological analysis is rooted in how rave parties value adds to the discourse on sacrality and crystallises how social power is constructed.
The politicisation of rave culture to represent alternative culture responds to capitalism, urbanisation and homogeneity. This then propels Sinha’s advocation and argument for sacralising spaces which share large commonalities.
Thanks!
Everyone needs something to believe in – be it techno music or a god.