Street Punk - The Series

Street Punk - The Series is a documentary series about the history of Street Punk in London by Lost Data Media. They asked me to interview some bands and it worked out great. Check it out below.

The Evaluation and Process of “Making Space” 
Introduction 
“In this world of cruelty and exploitation… it is important to understand why a madrigal by Gesualdo, or a Bach passion, or a sitar melody from India or a song from Africa, Berg’s Wozzeck or Britten’s War Requiem, a Balinese gamelan or Cantonese opera, or a symphony by Mozart, Beethoven or Mahler may be profoundly necessary for human survival, quite apart from any merit they may have as examples of creativity or technical progress. It is also necessary to explain why, under certain circumstances, a “simple” “folk” song may have more human value than a “complex” symphony.” (Blacking, J. 1974) In filming Making Space I’ve seen an entire community based around music and activism rise from being an idea to becoming a movement with a physical home. What has connected these people is their shared passion for punk rock as a force for change and the power that the songs give them, in both listening and performing; “simple” songs with more human value than a “complex” symphony.   The following essay is the evaluation and process of Making Space, a film that I have made about DIY Space for London, “a co-operative community arts and resource centre run by its volunteer members in SE (South East) London” (DSFL, 2015). The space has been in the planning stages since early to mid 2012 and on September 9th 2016 will celebrate its first birthday as a fully functioning music venue, café, record store, activist meeting space, practice room and bar. My goal in making this film was to create an ethnographic study that would document the building of what promised to be an important artistic and political project and to try and grasp why this group of people have come together to build this space and create the music and activism within it that they do.  My first encounter with DIY Space for London was playing a fundraiser gig for the project, a very small affair at The Birds Nest in Deptford, a 30-minute walk from where DIY Space for London is now located on an industrial estate just off Old Kent Road, South East London. I remember thinking “this project is way too big, it’s never going to happen”, which stemmed from the fact that the entire project is volunteer run and fund raising seemed to be going slowly. So, following the project and being involved in it for the last year and a half has been a fascinating and quite inspirational experience. I have witnessed it grow from a very unlikely prospect to a reality, and have come to realize how absolutely vital it is for some sections of the London and UK punk scene, in terms of providing a safer space for people to express themselves, facilitating visibility for many groups of people and enabling the pursuit of many political and artistic ventures.   
Methodology 
I was initially concerned about studying DIY Space for London as an ethnomusicological subject, due to its location within London and its association with punk music; a Western pop genre. I was concerned that the subject wasn’t far enough from a pop music study or a musicological study to be considered ethnomusicological. My initial investigations showed me a nuanced subculture; a group of activists and musicians that were breaking away from the standard model of London’s music scene, demystifying what it is to play music and to be involved in a music scene, dismantling rock virtuosity and this affirmed to me that DIY Space for London was a worthy subject for an ethnomusicological study, as Rice states; “Ethnomusicology is the study of why, and how, human beings are musical… “Musical” in this definition doesn’t refer to musical talent or ability; rather it refers to the capacity of humans to create, perform, organize cognitively, react physically and emotionally to, and interpret the meanings of organized sound” (2014) Within this study I endeavoured to ask why, and how, the people involved in DIY Space for London built this venue in the first place. I also wanted to explore their motivations behind pursuing some of the projects that have come to fruition within the Space, both musically and politically. In a globalised world, cultures and art forms become geographically diluted, that is to say a Western genre such as punk has its own expressions in cultures all over the world, from South East Asia to South America to Scandinavia. The punk rock expressed at DIY Space for London isn’t just of a London tradition; spiky hair, leather jackets etc., but it has been filtered through an international expression of punk that is communicated fluidly via the internet, mail order fanzines and records, touring artists and, of course, London has one of the most diverse populations in the world; “Altogether, more than 300 languages are spoken by the people of London, and the city has at least 50 non-indigenous communities with populations of 10,000 or more. Virtually every race, nation, culture and religion in the world can claim at least a handful of Londoners.” (Benedictus, L. 2005) “Globalization promotes the meeting of musical cultures whilst simultaneously encouraging regional differences.” (Wai-Chung Ho 2003, 144) The way in which I decided to study this subject was an in-depth field study, in which I actively participated as a volunteer at DIY Space for London, I would be filming the activities and performances there as well as interviewing other volunteers, artists and people who used the space. These methods are more commonly used in ethnographic and ethnomusicological studies as opposed to sheet music analysis in musicology, for example. In a debate at City University entitled Are We All Ethnomusicologists Now, about the 2008 article by Nicholas Cook of the same name, Tore Lind of Copenhagen University, speaking of colleagues in other disciplines of music study, says; “Their major claim is, there is no truth (whatever that is) to be found in ethnomusicology’s meeting people, in talking to musicians, in interviewing audiences. People in the field say anything you want to hear, they may be wrong about this and that, they make stuff up to satisfy your desire for answers. They may reproduce and authoritative voice of the state, they might just have an opinion of their own. So ethnomusicology is just opinions… Is truth really on the agenda here? How do other music scholars lay claims to truth if they do? This is about what we want to know, I guess. If I want to know about audiences in the metal scene, I believe I get wiser going to shows, talking to fans. I’m well aware one fan does not represent all fans, and one musician does not talk for everybody else, but what I get is a vague idea, to begin with, about what goes on in their minds, other than what goes on between us at a concert, and from such vague ideas, from fragments of shared experiences, a fuller picture develops.” (Lind, T. 2016) DIY Space aims to be inclusive of women, people of color and LGBTQ people, and therefore I filmed and interviewed a diverse range of people for this project. When making this film it was vital to consider my own social privilege and how that would affect the story I told in this film. One of the key principles of DIY Space for London is that; “DSFL is committed to amplifying the voices of people who, outside of this place, do not always get heard as loudly, or whose experiences and opinions are all-too-often thought of as less important or valid.” (DIY Space for London, 2016) As a white, straight, cis-gendered male, should I even be making this film, or will my social privilege undermine an honest narrative of DIY Space for London? I became very aware that, in some filming situations I found it hard to interview people and in one situation, filming a feminist jam night, I was asked not to come back because my presence made two queer women feel uncomfortable. Of course this reaction is totally reasonable as the idea of that particular jam night was to create an atmosphere where people who are LGBTQ or disabled could have a safer space on their own to express themselves, but it gave me a lot to consider about how I could continue with the film and how it would be received. I decided to widen the focus of the film to include the development of DIY Space for London, from the initial fundraising period and the hopes and expectations that people held for the space, to the present day. I wanted to document the ways in which the venue demonstrated this “[commitment] to amplifying the voices of people who… do not always get heard as loudly” (ibid). I knew that in order to achieve this I would need to include a diverse range of voices within the project, but also that I must remain mindful and avoid fetishizing or exploiting any of the subjects of the film. As a volunteer, I’m always looking for ways in which I can be useful to the space, and recording events such as You Can’t Be What You Can’t See and First Timers documenting these vital projects and enabling a wider audience to become aware of these events. . It was easier to obtain permission to film subjects as part of these events, as the organizer was enthusiastic about the events being filmed. The same goal is shared by the subjects, organizers and myself in as much as we all want to communicate the message of the project with a wider audience, and we want to record these ideas for the future. The potential for issues to arise only occurs when considering that someone of my social privilege could be appropriating or coercing the message for their own gains, or distorting it through a privileged lens, which is something I aimed to avoid. “Researchers are increasingly questioning their positions of privilege and their relationships with powerful others, such as funders, policy makers, and their academic community, causing them to rethink what research they are willing to do and to pay much closer attention to how they ought to do it.” (Henderson, G. King, N.M.P. and Stein, J. 1999) I applied these concerns to my interview technique, asking very open ended questions such as “how do you feel?” and “why is this happening?”. As the title suggests, I was “Making Space” for the subject to express themselves more freely than if I had a very rigid concept of the narrative of the film, which I would direct through the questions. Sometimes I would have a list of points I want to be touched upon, for example, my interviews with Bryony Beynon, original instigator of DIY Space for London and organizer of First Timers and You Can’t Be What You Can’t See, I had a bullet point list which I would form question from in conversation, so what I came away with was a flowing explanation of the projects with history and tangents which I wouldn’t have been able to explore or understand without that freer kind of interviewing, whilst also allowing the subject to have more control over their input to the film.  “…in an ethnographic interview, the client, spouse, or parent has the opportunity to select the important information to share. The professional operating from an ethnographic perspective thinks, “I don’t know much about the parents’ point of view, so I need to encourage them to set the agenda” or “I don’t know what the parents want for their child. Let’s see if I can thoroughly understand their ideas about their child.”One of the great challenges of conducting any interview is to develop and maintain a comfortable, productive relationship. It is best to think of ethnographic interviews as a series of friendly conversations in which the clinician slowly introduces open-ended questions to assist the client or family member in sharing their experiences.” (Burda, A. Mehta, Z. Westby, C. 2003, 4-17) I always wanted this film to mirror one of the key missions of DIY Space for London; to amplify “the voices of people who, outside of this place, do not always get heard as loudly, or whose experiences and opinions are all-too-often thought of as less important or valid.” (imbid) and as a white, heterosexual and cis-gendered, male punk musician I am exactly the kind of voice that gets heard louder than others. Whether this film is understood that way by others or not, the process has certainly helped me to analyze my position and privilege in the punk scene in London. I’d like to add that I understand that the people who didn’t want to be a part of the film didn’t want to for various reasons including anxiety and fear of being misrepresented in the film. Also, by the end of filming and after over a year of volunteering with DIY Space for London I now feel a lot more comfortable and confident about letting my voice be heard in the film through the structuring and editing as I’m now a collaborator in the space and I’m filmicly exploring my own culture.  “1. Ethnographers can act as facilitators and cultural brokers for indigenous media makers; 2. Ethnographic filmmakers can become collaborators with the people they film; and 3. Ethnographers can filmicly explore their own culture" (Ruby, J. 1995, 78).  I began recording for the film in early summer 2015 at some benefit shows to raise money for DIY Space for London. At that point I was feeling out the job ahead, using the film as a way to understand the climate and help inform the decisions I would take in terms of what I would film and what direction I’d take the narrative and style.  This approach led me to get as involved as possible, my work and study schedules allowing. The absolute core of DIY Space for London is that it is a community and volunteer run venue. I felt that my best chance of access to the project would be to volunteer at DIY Space for London.  I began volunteering at DIY Space for London in the building stages. The building itself was a printer parts warehouse and completely empty. Over a period of around four months the space was transformed, and is now an accessible building that contains a record shop, a performance space, a cafe and bar, an admin office, a practice space for bands, a print room and a meeting room, and has gender neutral toilets. Before the opening I went to film a a gig at Power Lunches in Dalston, which was a benefit show to raise money for DIY Space, but I arrived very early and happened upon a meeting of the DIY Space for London Events Collective. I had the experience of being the in house promoter for another venue in South East London, and so I was asked for my opinion on how to price the venue hire, and I became a member of the events collective that night. This has meant looking after the events emails one day a week, attending Events Collective meetings once every two weeks, and volunteering at gigs. I volunteered in the capacity of promoter liaison, meaning that I would act as the link between the venue and the external promoter to make sure everything ran smoothly in terms of running times, making sure the curfew was met, ensuring the correct fees are paid and looking after health and safety issues such as making sure the fire escapes are clear. I continue to be a part of the Events Collective now. Once access was established and I began to build relationships with the other volunteers I was able to begin interviews, building my footage, and allowing that to inform the direction of my further research into DIY Spaces as a global phenomenon. Also, volunteering at DIY Space for London would be able to give me a real insight into the inner workings and motivation behind the people that operate the space and how it works in terms of its politics and organisational structure. I filmed as much as I could, accumulating some 30 hours of footage over 14 months. The footage was thematically broad and there were many bold and interesting characters to further investigate. In preparation for this project, I researched various ethnographic studies, one of which was Amir: An Afghan Refugee Musician's Life in Peshawar, Pakistan byProfessor John Bailey. Within this study, Professor Bailey follows one musician’s journey as a refugee from the civil war in Afghanistan to Pakistan and documents his life and activities as a working musician. I based Making Space on the same model of interviews interspersed with footage of performances. In my research I had decided that this form would best help me illustrate the ideas I had been forming about DIY Space for London and the film. The two films are quite different in content, in the sense that Making Space is focused on the concept of DIY Space for London, how it operates, why it has been built, along with an example of some of the work that happens there and there are many voices and perspectives in the film. These voices share opinions, politics and goals, but there are many of them as opposed to in Professor Bailey’s documentary, where the focus is very directly on Amir. I wanted the film to be representative of the space within more than just the narrative and demonstration. I felt that, with this film, I could also demonstrate some of the ethics and politics of the space in the production and direction of the film, and, much like the political projects that I have documented at DIY Space, use DIY Space such as First Timers, use visibility to promote these politics.   I considered taking the approach of focusing on one particular volunteer at DIY Space for London, Bryony Beynon, and having her words form the narrative of the film, however when I discussed this with her she expressed some concerns.Firstly, she is an extraordinarily busy person. At the time of the conversation she was working for Rape Crisis, running Good Night Out and Hollaback London; volunteer run initiatives which tackle and raise awareness around harassment in venues and on the street, and which also led to her being regularly interviewed on national news in relation to these issues. She was also playing and touring in the bands Good Throb and Efialtis, running Muscle Horse records, organizing gigs under the name Modern Hate Vibe, and writing about punk and gender academically. This was all on top of her work at DIY Space in which she was an instigator, cooperative member, and was volunteering in nearly every aspect of the space, until delegation became more sophisticated and less chaotic. Bryony was absolutely vital to the narrative of the film but when we spoke about focussing the film on her she made a very valid point; making a film about something that is, at it’s very essence, a collective effort, and then concentrating the story on one person, would be misrepresentative of the aims of the space and would give a distorted account of the ways in which the space functions. Therefore, I continued to film and to interview as many people as I could, and then reviewed the footage and extrapolated the most informative voices in order to create my own chronological narrative. By utilizing this method I hoped to provide a representative account of the different elements that combine to make DIY Space for London what it is today.  At the start of the filming process, during the period in which DIY Space for London was coming into being, there were various aspects of the space which were beginning to take shape. I knew that it would not be necessary to film them all, as they were not all going to be directly relevant to my study (for example, the bar or the screen printing room). Secondly, I knew that there would not be enough time within a 30-minute documentary to cover things like the practice room or the record shop (although during my time there I could definitely see an interesting project in following the creation of Tome Records, particularly in the context of a physical distribution hub for the artists that perform within DIY Space for London).  As the filming process continued my initial instincts were affirmed, and I focused on the symbiotic relationship between politics and art that DIY Space for London embodied.  Technical Challenges During the whole process of filming this documentary I was met with constant technical challenges. In order to get the interviews and live footage the environments were consistently noisy and with unpredictable light conditions. Also I often had trouble accessing the right equipment for shoots. Over time, as I gained more experience I was able to compensate for some of these conditions. I also purchased a Zoom sound recorder and extra battery units for my camera.  However, sometimes there was very little I could do in terms of the conditions I was working in. Nearly all of the documentary is based in either a building site or in or around a gig, so the tools and bands made sound an unpredictable factor in recording. Also, in a gig setting, there were times when there simply wasn’t enough light to create an image, so I’ve had to work on that in post-production using Premier to fix exposure. The disappointment was some of my key interviews were out of focus or over exposed, from filming early in the project. I’ve tried to fix this in post-production and sometimes using the audio over other, better footage that illustrates the points being made by the interviewee. It is my belief that the aesthetic of this film is representative of the subject matter. It is somebody making his first full length film about people trying their own arts and exploring their creativity for the first time. In that sense any aesthetic imperfections can be considered symbolic of DIY Space for London.   Analysis “DIY Space for London is a cooperatively-run social centre located in South London, just off Old Kent Road. During the day, they offer low cost creative facilities, meeting rooms and social space, and in the evening they offer space for screenings, talks and performances.” (Run Riot, 2015) DIY Space for London is made up of various different collectives, including the bar collective, the events collective, the co-op (dealing with licensing, legal matters, paying the rent, etc.) and the sound worker collective, for example. All of these collectives operate independently but in communication with each other, and all of them use consensus voting via Loomio (an organisation and communication website designed for group work) and biweekly meetings. My fieldwork was mainly focused on the events collective, a collective that focuses on the ways in which DIY Space for London is used and how it is represented. What acts and events are allowed to happen has political and social consequences for the community based around DIY Space for London, but political choices are made in every aspect of DIY Space for London’s operations.  In the bar collective, for example, no products are purchased for sale without being recyclable. This was a common sense decision that was made very early on, however it is also a political one when taking into account the impact that the live music industry has on the environment, for example at festivals where thousands of people gather for days of hedonism, such as Burning Man; “Burning Man is the world's largest Leave No Trace event, the weeklong festival drawing 70,000 people to the Nevada desert has a major, albeit dispersed, environmental impact.” (Hughes, T., 2015) There are strides being made in the music industry to move towards environmentally sustainable practices, especially in areas such as live festivals in which the environmental impact on a small area in a short time is very noticeable. For example, Live Nation have partnered with UPS as logistical partners to bring down their carbon footprint;  “…we've helped them save more than 300,000 sheets of paper annually, preserving treasured forestland. Add to that, almost 3,800 metric tons in carbon offsets, equating to CO2 emissions from over 425,000 gallons of gasoline.” (UPS, 2015) In addition, many UK festivals are taking strides to minimize their impact on the environment, utilizing organizations such as A Greener Festival, which “[provides] information about how environmentally efficient methods are currently being employed at music and arts festivals and to provide information about how the impact of festivals on the environment can be limited at future events” (A Greener Festival, 2016) There is a trend towards environmentally sustainable practices in live music, however, it will always be a struggle against cost effectiveness. In an interview with Chris Little, part of the DIY Space for London bar collective and the cooperative he says that “doing things legitimately and sustainably is expensive,” but DIY Space for London is a nonprofit enterprise and so that doesn’t factor into their practices, and if nothing at the bar is stocked that isn’t recyclable then everything is recycled. Prices are kept as low as possible so that those in education, unemployed or on a low wage can have better, more affordable access to the bar. This is especially important as the tide of gentrification in East London heads South. In meetings there has been a lot of talk about gentrification, and how DIY Space needs to act as a hub for activism against gentrification, and how on the surface DIY Space could be seen as a symptom of gentrification to some. On the 10th of September, 2016, as a reaction to Southwark Council’s plans to regenerate Old Kent Road there will be;  “…a form-filling and letter-writing social where community members can come together to discuss the issues surrounding the council’s plans to redevelop the Old Kent Road and the effect it will have on residents and local businesses. There will be conversation, both informal and directed, along with free vegan food and coffee.” (DIY Space for London, 2016) An event such as this endeavors to give those in the local community, whose voices may be ignored in the face of money making projects, a chance to have a say in decisions that affect their own community. In addition, the offer of free food and coffee makes the event even more accessible for those who would not necessarily be able to afford to eat and drink in a cafe.   The sound worker collective actively seeks out, trains and employs a diverse range of people, such as women, LGBT people and people of color. This helps to diversify profession which is largely dominated by white, male heterosexual workers, and with antagonistic sound workers being derogatory and sexist towards female and beginner musicians a current subject of contention. In Gender and Indie Rock Marion Leonard reports of “…a live sound engineer who describes how she was barred from entering a venue because staff did not believe that a woman could be operating the sound desk,” (Leonard, M. 2007) for example. A recent incident involving a local queer feminist punk band, Little Fists, reaffirms why this is still a topic of concern in London; “We got on stage and started setting up, and were immediately berated by the sound guy to hurry up. Obviously we understand that on a packed bill time is of the essence, but we weren’t being slow by any means. As Soph was setting up the drums, the sound guy stood over her and aggressively asked what the problem was - she replied that she was having trouble lowering the hi hat stand, and he replied in a really patronizing tone “well, you’ll just have to play like that, won’t you?”… Ste had been concerned about how the amp had been set up, but again, the sound guy had refused to help or change the set up, so the guitar fed back for the entire set. Instead of helping with this, he repeatedly came on stage in the middle of songs to fiddle with the drum kit (for no apparent reason), blocking the cymbals and managing to unplug Vanessa’s bass mid-song.” (Little Fists, 2016) It’s the bands opinion that race and gender were a catalyst in this confrontation. DIY Space for London is completely run by volunteers, apart from the sound workers, who receive financial compensation because sound work is a professional and difficult job that requires an early start, work throughout the show and a late finish and can sometimes be stressful, especially if the donated equipment becomes faulty. The field work that I conducted concentrated on the events collective, and I found that I could contribute well to this collective due to my experience as a gig promoter. In terms of the running of the venue this was the area that was most focussed on music, and this was also the collective whose decisions would reflect the politics of the venue as a whole the most. The artists who performed at DIY Space for London would define DIY Space for London. As a member of the events collective I attend meetings and have access to the Loomio and the email accounts, which means that I am privy to conversations and sensitive information that is not accessible to the public. Therefore, in the following example which illuminates the ethical principles that form part of the DIY Space for London booking process, the people involved will remain anonymous. An experienced and well known London concert promoter who works high up in one company and runs a smaller subsidiary promotion company requested to use DIY Space for London for an up and coming band on a big record label, booking agency and management label who were doing a series of showcase events around the UK and Western Europe. It looked like a good booking that would bring a lot of custom, this was fairly early on in DIY Space being open so money was more of a factor, and this was at a point the venue had only recently gained an alcohol license and still had fairly large debts from building materials, meaning that money was a particularly crucial factor at this time. The first issue came with this promoter’s affiliations with larger companies; DIY Space for London doesn’t accept any kind of corporate branding or sponsorship, so the first condition of this show going ahead would be that there wouldn’t be any visible link to ether of the companies the promoter works for. The second issue was that one of the volunteers recalled an incident in which this promoter had used abusive and discriminatory language to attack one of their friends. Valid points were brought to the table both in defence of and against the promoter. The person who brought the complaint clearly wanted this promoter banned from the venue, but the collective took various factors into consideration, such as that the victim of abusive language themselves was not willing to come forward and discuss the incident, that the incident did not take place at DIY Space for London, and that the way we responded to the promoter in this situation would need to inform the way in which we react to any similar situations in the future. The consensus decision was to move forward with the gig, as long as certain conditions could be met, illustrating that the allegation was taken seriously by the collective.  In order for the booking to be confirmed, the promoter was required to come to a meeting at DIY Space for London to discuss the incident and to ensure that they understand and support the accountability policies that are in place at the venue. The meeting was extensive and was used as a test case at the time to establish firmer policies at DIY Space for London, but the show was a success and the promoter has run many shows at DIY Space since. The vital element to resolving this situation was the accountability process. Bryony Beynon, who is a founding member of DIY Space for London and is also heavily involved in two prolific anti-harassment volunteer run initiatives, Hollaback London and Good Night Out, played an important role in the design of the accountability process the accountability process. In an interview with Hollaback London Bryony recalls an incident of harassment which she experienced whilst playing a gig, which explains some of her motivation behind working on these projects; “…a band I sang in playing at a packed gig in Reading in 2008 and an audience member, drunk and completely naked, literally swinging his dick around throughout the set, reached to grab my boobs as I played. I slapped him, and was terrified, there was silence, and no one stepped up, no one did anything, not one of the men in my band, no one in the audience. I remember saying feebly over the mic ‘I think we need to lay down some ground rules here’ and he looked at me and said ‘Ha, I’ll lay you on the ground!” (Beynon, B. 2014) The Good Night Out Project “…is the first coordinated London-wide campaign that tackles harassment in venues, pubs, bars and clubs.” (Hollaback, 2016) This initiative is part of a culture in which the idea of what is acceptable behavior at a gig is shifting, and certain promoters and venues are aiming to facilitate an atmosphere of support and safety which allows this queer feminist DIY punk movement to thrive. DIY Space for London is signed up to the Good Night Out project, meaning that volunteers have received training on how to deal with allegations of harassment, and posters are displayed which let members of the crowd know that they can report anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. By signing up to the Good Night Out project, creating an Accountability agreement and establishing an Accountability Working Group, it is clear that DIY Space for London aims to facilitate an environment in which inclusive projects can flourish. One example of this is Jam on Your Hands, a feminist jam night which was created by Jaca Freer. The motivation behind this night is to encourage people of any gender, race, sexuality or age to participate, regardless of their level of technical ability. In addition to this is First Timers, a project which was established by Bryony Beynon, in which people are given four months to form a band and then take part in a live performance, but members of the bands must meet certain criteria;  “1. One or more of us has never played in a band before 2. One or more of us identify as one (or more!) of the following: female, trans*, queer, LGBTQIA, a person of color 3. One or more us is playing something in this band that they have never done before.” (DIY Space for London, 2016) These projects take inspiration from the Riot Grrrl movement, which is a music scene that;  “…merged the early punk ethos of Do It Yourself (DIY) with feminist politics that developed from the increasing dissatisfaction with punk gender dynamics felt by many women involved in the D.C. and Olympia punk scenes in the late 1980s.” (Schilt, K. 2004, 116) When filming Making Space, I followed one of the band from the First Timers project through their practices and up to the gig. On the day of the gig I filmed a lot of the bands that played. I wanted to show more of this in the final edit of the film but that wasn’t possible due to time constraints. However, I did use songs by bands at First Timers that I recorded on the day as the soundtrack of the film to try and include more musical examples in this film and represent the DIY ethos of DIY Space for London. Demystification of rock performance was a consistent focus throughout my field work. There is a concerted effort to make the stage a less white male dominated space in at DIY Space for London, both in projects based around encouraging women, LGBTQ and disabled people to perform and in the events collective where promoters would be encouraged to diversify their line ups;  “DSFL is committed to amplifying the voices of people who, outside of this place, do not always get heard as loudly, or whose experiences and opinions are all-too-often thought of as less important or valid.” (DIY Space for London, 2016) Punk, like many other communities and scenes, is a microcosm, and thus is not immune to the issues that exist within wider society. Existing research has noted experiences of misogyny, such as Reddington (2007) and Bradley (2012), and issues in relation to race (see Nguyen, 1998) within the punk community. Within this context, arguably being a woman, LGBTQ or a person of color on the stage (which can be considered a position of authority), is a resistant act; “…within punk, different interlocking oppressions that individuals face can inform the amount of power that someone might have in a scene, whose bands get promoted, and whose lived experiences get listened to and believed.” (Walsh, J. 2015) According to Liz Kelly’s groundbreaking book Surviving Sexual Violence (1988), there is a “Continuum of Violence Against Women,” which means that such violence exists on a spectrum. Acts such as street harassment on one end of the spectrum can facilitate an environment in which severe acts of sexual violence are allowed to take place on the other end of the spectrum; they feed into one another. The theory applies particularly to the patriarchal power structure of the stage in this respect; “All the different and varied manifestations of events, acts and behaviors must be located within the overarching gender order of inequality and domination, and understood as functioning to maintain that order (whether overt and personal, or hidden and structural)” (Women’s Support Project, nd.)An account of these “varied manifestations of events, acts and behaviors” is given by Jen Twigg, vocalist in The Ambulars;“’A thousand tiny paper cuts.’ That’s what my friend calls it when so many little injustices happen – you wouldn’t make a big deal about one on its own, but a thousand of them together are a gaping wound. Add them up: some bro cheerfully telling a rape joke to a room full of laughing people, women-hating graffiti on the wall of the bathroom in the bar you’re about to play, the door guy not believing you when you say you’re in the band, any man in any situation talking over you to the guys in your band. That intangible, sinking, isolated, feeling of trying to be accommodating while retreating a little bit further into yourself for protection every time.” (Twigg, J. 2011)During the field work process, I filmed an event called You Can’t Be What You Can’t See, I filmed You Can’t Be What You Can’t See; an event which was part of the First Timers project (along with beginner’s workshops for people who wanted to take up drums, guitars or become learn more about the technical aspects of sound). You Can’t Be What You Can’t See was billed as an event at which “A diverse range of DIY musicians will speak/ perform/ respond in some way… re: how their identity, or how their identity is read, intersects w their experiences of playing music” (DIY Space for London, 2016). In her introduction to the event, Bryony Beynon said;  “…it just helps, you know, when you can see somebody, like you, take the stage, someone like you take on some bullshit, somewhere, someone like you just being someone like you, up there, out there, unafraid.” The idea of this event is to share experiences of what it’s like to have the way your identity is read intersect with your experience in the punk scene or music industry, but also to increase visibility and inspire people to be more visible to inspire other people to be more visible. In her talk Kirsty Fife of Actual Crimes and Suggested Friends said;  “when you are brought up to believe you’re not really worth much, whether that’s through abuse, or institutional education, it gets really hard to write anything, and you can become full of self-doubt and sadness and give up before you’ve even started…I saw these bunch of queers playing in a basement and it completely blew my mind and I knew it was bullshit. It made me completely rethink what music had to be, and instead of framing it around being a musician and being good at playing stuff I saw it as a way for women and queers to take up space, and to make noise and be really visible and powerful.” Conclusion DIY Space for London is a feat of activism and a force for good, certainly locally in London but potentially nationally. It seems that at the moment DIY Spaces are beginning to pop up in places like Edinburgh, as an answer to the question that started DIY Space, “they’ve got one, why don’t we?” This is why I feel Making Space was a worthwhile venture. Documenting the building of DIY Space for London and communicating what can happen when people come together with the right skills, attitude and a common goal is a worthwhile message to communicate, and my aim is to inspire others to take on such a project in their city. I hope I’ve been able to reveal something in the characters of the people I have interviewed that the audience can relate to, and they can see themselves building something where they live, or even come and volunteer at DIY Space for London. Most vitally, I hope that some people can take away the message that musicality isn’t a talent or an ability, but it’s an essential part of being human, and that it’s possible to fulfil that side of them. Bibliography A Greener Festival. 2016. “About Us”. 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