Urban Australia and Post-Punk: Exploring Dogs in Space

by David Nichols, Sophie Perillo

Overview

Richard Lowenstein’s 1986 masterpiece Dogs in Space was and remains controversial, divisive, compelling and inspirational. Made less than a decade after the events it is based on, using many of the people involved in those events as actors, the film explored Melbourne’s ‘postpunk’ counterculture of share houses, drugs and decadence. Amongst its ensemble cast was Michael Hutchence, one of the biggest music stars of the period, in his acting debut.

This book is a collection of essays exploring the place, period and legacy of Dogs in Space, by people who were there or who have been affected by this remarkable film. The writers are musicians, actors and artists and also academics in heritage, history, urban planning, gender studies, geography, performance and music. This is an invaluable resource for anyone passionate about Australian film, society, culture, history, heritage, music and art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789813297012
Publisher:	Springer Nature Singapore
Publication date:	01/21/2020
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	338
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

David Nichols lectures in Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne, with a focus on history, culture, community and place. His previous books include Community: Building Modern Australia (co-edited with Hannah Lewi), Trendyville: the Battle for Australia’s Inner Cities (with Renate Howe and Graeme Davison) and Dig: Australian Rock and Pop Music 1960-1985.

Sophie Perillo is an interdisciplinary performance artist, musician and writer. She has devised independent and collaborative performance works for Artist Run Initiatives, major galleries and festivals. She has performed in Melbourne bands The Ancients, PSA and Hi God People. Her research and writing is centred in gender theory, performativity and theatricality.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. Sam Sejavka.- 3. It Was Filmic.- 4. I Was In-Between Two Worlds.- 5. The B-Side of a Single.- 6. In My Mind the World Was Safer.- 7. Let's Go and Get in Some Trub.- 8. Everyone Was Interchangeable.- 9. ‘We’re the Most Fabulous People the World Has Ever Known’.- 10. It Was Never Pistols at Dawn.- 11. Bowie Queue.- 12. Excerpt from Comic Book.- 13. Rock Star in Space.- 14. The Intimacy of Distance: Re/reading Dogs in Space.- 15. ‘Someone’s Been Fucking Using This for Meat Again’: 18 Berry St and Melbourne Share Housing in the 1970s and 1980s.- 16. Berry St Revisited.- 17. The Ears and INXS: Mapping Parallel Universes.- 18. The Strange Life of Shivers and Its Place in Dogs in Space.- 19. The Fucked Room .- 20. Say Clitoris: Queers in Space.- 21. FunHouse.- 22. TikTok.- 23. Lowenstein Interview 2009.