Berghain: Space, affect, and sexual disorientation

Abstract

In this article, I think of Berlin’s techno club Berghain as a form of relational aesthetics where encounters mediated by tactile sounds, labyrinthine architecture, and libido-enhancing drugs create an unusually porous sexual subjectivity. By sketching out some changes in the composition of the club’s crowd and drug culture – a shift towards aphrodisiac substances such as G and mephedrone – I argue that Berghain has become a specific pharmacolibidinal constellation. Especially the recreational drug G can be thought of as an unruly liquid that concretises queer theory’s preoccupation with sexual fluidity. Instead of nausea-inducing drugs in combination with same-sex erotica – a popular technique in so-called ‘aversion therapy’ – this is a ‘gay conversion therapy’ in reverse whereby erotic horizons expand and multiply through the combination of chemicals and a multi-sensory overload of pleasurable stimuli. Rather than thinking of sexual orientation as located inside the body, I suggest, we might think of it as located inside the building.

Here, there, everywhere: The relational geographies of chemsex

“…The first is what can be defined as a ‘short’ version because it lasts around 12 h. It often represents the ‘happy ending’ of a night out; for several participants this often involves clubbing, possibly in a place where there is a dark room or the chance to hook‐up. At the club (or before entering), various drugs can be used (cocaine, MDMA, mephedrone or ketamine in some cases; several participants have also pointed out the increasing use of ‘G’ in clubs, see Andersson, 2022a) to better enjoy the situation; while clubbing, participants often meet (new or known) people, hooking‐up (one‐to‐one or in group). This type of night out and encounter(s) at the club is the kind analysed by Slavin (2004) in Sydney.…”

Berlin's queer archipelago: Landscape, sexuality, and nightlife

“…In literary descriptions, the ‘wild’ parties in Berghain have often been compared to a ‘wilderness’ outside sexual binaries and categorisation (Andersson, 2022, pp. 454–455).…”

Monkeypox: A challenge for and to geographers

“…However, this work has been less common recently (Andersson, 2011). This is a mistake, given how the advent of new treatments for HIV and PrEP as a pharmaceutical prophylaxis to prevent HIV transmission (Brown & Di Feliciantonio, 2022), as well as smartphone technologies (Koch & Miles, 2021), the rise of certain drugs used to enhance pleasure and disinhibition in sexualised spaces (Andersson, 2022; Pienaar et al, 2020), and other factors have changed GBMSM's socio‐sexual cultures (Race, 2018).…”