Abstract
I examine in this article how American DIY ("do-it-yourself") communities are established socio-spatially both as oppositional and subversive social spaces and scenes, and as emerging alternative and autonomous worlds that challenge and transcend the effects and implications of the normative private-public distinction in the US. I specifically analyze how these DIY spheres are organized around particular spatial discourses and spatial practices, policies, and interactions enacted at DIY shows that promote social intimacy, collective solidarity, diversity, and equality.
Furthermore, I focus on the tensions and contradictions that exist within American DIY spaces and scenes in regard to utopian and 'real' worlds, inclusive and exclusive social practices, and homogeneous and heterogeneous communities, as manifested through the tensions between private versus public nature of American DIY spaces and scenes. Based on my long-term ethnographic fieldwork research in various US locations, and particularly on the American West Coast, I argue that this tension is on the one hand both politically necessary and socially beneficial, since it enables the creation of counterpublic spaces, and with that also "new intimacies," and "new worlds" (Warner 2002).
On the other hand, however, it is also limiting and controversial for the political and social aspirations of American DIY communities. In the article, I delve into the history and theory of public and private spaces, as related to Western DIY music practice, and then continue with the analysis of my ethnographic data, where I pay particular attention to the publicness of the house, the body, and the scene, as related to American DIY communities.
In this regard, I specifically examine program and space policies, as well as dance and bodily practices, at American DIY shows, and further look at some of the social and political public engagements of American DIY participants.