Blissed-Out Crowd of 1,500 Participates in Farmlab-Dublab 'Tonalism' Accidentally-On-Purpose Happening

A large and tranquil crowd of both curious newcomers and Dublab and Farmlab fanatics turned up Saturday night and into sunrise, Sunday morning, August 4-5, 2007, to witness the deejay stylings, video projections, and live music interludes of various members of the Dublab extended family.

Mellow revelers brought blankets, picnic baskets, and like the jazz cats used to say, big ears to Under Spring.

Following the conclusion of the all-night event, Farmlab Public Programs Director Irene Tsatsos e-mailed the following observations along to this blog:

"This event was a very compelling, very gentle, and accommodating way to reach out to another audience with interests that overlap Farmlab's. I had many conversations throughout the night with people who were drawn in because of dublab, but absolutely transfixed by Farmlab.



"From 2-4am I was at the front entrance, where I had many casual conversations with people who looked closely at what we had up and around; they were awed at what we have at Farmlab, were coming back for more information, more printe matter, more conversation. At c. 4am I moved to the kitchen to prepare the bagels and coffee, where a 15-minute action ended up taking nearly an hour. I and found myself at the counter, standing over a breakfast spread, repeating the Farmlab story over and over again to people who simply couldn't get enough information (or bagels).

"This event was really interesting to me because while dublab was the initial hook for this audience, the event was structured in such a way that allowed people to just come and hang out, to learn about Farmlab, to wander at their own pace, and, quite simply, have unstructured conversation.

"This is an increasingly rare opportunity in any urban context, especially among strangers, and with the expanding privatization of public space, I feel it's important to encourage any constructive form of public engagement. I like the idea that many in Saturday's audience will return at some point, with friends, during the day, perhaps to a [Farmlab Public] Salon, and simply hang out -- walk the Ramblas, check out the Garden of Brokenness, maybe have a picnic, etc.



"I spoke at length with an attorney from the Peoples College of Law, a law school with a progressive mandate; a recent UC/Berkeley grad, where she studied art and urban planning, who is now here attending LA Film School, and who was fascinated by the generosity of spirit of Farmlab; a professional hula-hooper (he makes his living doing this!) and so many others, quite a few who were new to LA, interestingly. All were inquiring about Farmlab, who/what it is, its history, etc. There was a lovely drum/vocal performance at the very end of the night, just before dawn, a really wonderful way to close down the event.

"As I observed this, I was reminded of Lauren [Bon's] overlapping circles on the [office chalk]board -- each of these wonderful Under Spring events is a circle, and where they overlap is where we find core Farmlab supporters. And as I thought about the potential range and variety of potential programs Under Spring, I was also reminded of the importance of this range -- that there are many paths to a single point."

Farmlab Photos by James Goodnight