Looks: Studio 54 and the Production of Fabulous Nightlife

Authors

  • madison alexander moore University of Richmond

Keywords:

Studio 54, fashion, nightlife, Andy Warhol, relational aesthetics, ethnography, velvet rope, disco, New York

Abstract

This article combines my experience as a party-host and nightlife-creator with a close reading of Studio 54 as a theatrical production. I call for a consideration of how the staging of nightlife functions as an art form, relying on the dual practices of creation and curation. I provide a close reading of the tightly-staged Studio 54 experience, focusing on the club's infamously tight door policy and production of fabulousness to reveal what scholars and ethnographers of nightlife can learn from approaching nightlife as an artistic production. This approach can also inform a nightlife-focused research agenda.

 

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Published

12-May-2013

Issue

Vol 5, No 1 (2013): Doing Nightlife and EDMC Fieldwork

Section

Feature Articles

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