Garden of Unearthly Silent Disco

The Garden of Unearthly Delights pre-empted the Fringe this evening, opening with fireworks, fairy-lights and volumes of people in various states of attractiveness. Amongst all this was a fascinating display, a highly engaging activity, damn it, a piece of art - it was the Silent Disco. When you first stumble upon it, there is a brief moment of confusion. Fenced off from the rest of the crowd is a dance floor full of people gyrating in sync, in silence. Then you notice they are all wearing headphones, all tuned in to the same syncopating frequency. Amusing, surreal, endearing and enticing, its mesmerising to watch. It's not a sensation of deafness, for there are plenty of sounds - the milling crowd, the shuffling, the odd lyric from the mouths of the dancers. Rather there is a strange sense of incapacitation, like some sense you forget you had is no longer working. The primal 'group-think' part of your brain feels drunk and bewildered.

Then you fork over your $5 (plus $10 deposit on those radio headphones) and immerse yourself in it. Suddenly you're part of the group, and you get it. It being primarily an eclectic mix of Euro-disco-rock-pop-dance. As a bystander it was amusing to watch all those silly dancers, but on the dance floor you feel sorry for the bystanders, you chuckle at their exclusion. You are part of the group, and they will never understand. They may think it's funny to see you do the twist silently, but only you know it is actually the twist.

Many people take photos or record videos on their cameras, and in this exercise it becomes apparent just how unique the experience is. The footage would be much akin to film of a regular disco with the volume turned down, but the experience itself is vastly different. I'm of the generation that tends to place audio-visual recordings of events on equal footing as the events themselves, given that is how so much of our world is experienced. We snap and click away, eager to save what we fear our memories may cast aside. While it may seem that film can always capture the essence of an event (at least subjectively), in the case of the Silent Disco it is woefully inadequate. You simply have to actually experience it. This revelation was startling, the concept so eloquently tangible, far more so then many contemporary pieces of installation/interactive/performance art.

If you get the chance, don't hesitate to dive in to the Silent Disco.

Girls ready to hand out headphones when you enter.
(Thanks to Will and his not-as-crap-as-mine camera phone for the pic)