Ain't no party like a Surveillance Party party!
The Sydney-based digital record label will bring their infamous live spectacular to Brisbane in January for Backbone's 2high Festival. Founding DJ/ Producer of Surveillance Party, Xan Müller relocated from Brisbane to Sydney in 2013 to establish the label and says their show at 2high focusses on a pertinent issue coming to rise in the modern age of technological supremacy.
“What we're going to do is we're going to do an exploration of the two parts of our name,” Xan explains. “So we've got 'surveillance' and we've got 'party', and what we're trying to do is combine those two concepts. The party we're going to be having is about surveillance and we're going to have cameras and video feeds, all sorts of stuff to highlight the concept of the population being surveilled.
“What it all comes down to for us is control, not trying to control a certain set of people, but give them the freedom to act responsibly in their own way. It's a real backlash against the nanny state politics and the police state politics that we feel Australia is in danger of falling victim to.”
Xan says Surveillance Party's ethos centres on a reactionary response to draconian lock-out laws imposed by state governments on entertainment precincts, as well as the increased powers afforded to police officers in order to enforce the restrictions.
“I don't know how the climate is up in Brisbane these days, but when I left the lock-outs had come into effect about 12 months before I left and when I got to Sydney it was a very 24-hour city compared to Brisbane.
“Then I've slowly seen that shut down really dramatically in the past 24 months and also seeing police powers increase, we've seen government security powers increase and we just want to make people aware of how much they're potentially being watched at all times and the liberation they can experience when they're able to avoid that.”
For Xan and the crew at Surveillance Party, balancing the ideal party atmosphere with the adequate health and safety measures required by law to host such public events has been the major challenge.
“We've spent a lot of sleepless nights trying to figure out how we're going to monitor and maintain these crowds without controlling people's freedom. What we came up with was what pretty much every good warehouse promoter does which is to create a strong sense of personal responsibility, put the onus back on the community but we also give them the tools to do that as well.”
These tools include what Xan calls Surveillance Party's 'pseudo-legal' framework, a collection of standard rules, the most important of which is #2: No douchebags (seriously, check their website).
“We do have our rules. Our framework involves including everybody, then if anybody is not enjoying themselves or not experiencing a party atmosphere then that's when they're out the door. That's the other aspect of it; there's 'surveillance' and there's 'party', that's what we're all about. You've got to be enjoying yourself.
“People should be free to experience a party any which way they want, certainly if they're feeling out of sorts or they're shy, that's totally fine and we expect everyone to interpret it in a different way. If you're not going to enjoy yourself, basically don't come.”
Surveillance Party takes place at Backbone's 2high Festival 17 January.
