Regan Lynch

Queer heterotopias in Melbourne’s party-performance communities

This project intends to research the ways queer people in Melbourne use party-performance spaces to temporarily create ‘alternative worlds’. Through interviews, attendance at events and through PhD Candidate Regan Lynch’s own work, the project aims to critically analyse the ways queer performance spaces are crated and maintained in Melbourne, and investigate why performance is a central part of the events held in these spaces.

Current theory valorises the potential of queer performance spaces to allow those within them to envision and embody alternative ways of being than are allowed or enabled in broader society. This liberative quality will be interrogated in a local context, focusing on the different aims and associated spatial practices of queer event-makers and performers in Melbourne.

Key terms: Queer, spatial studies, social studies, autoethnography, performance

Researcher Bio

Regan is a performance artist, PhD Candidate and DJ based in Melbourne, Australia. He completed his Undergraduate degree with First Class Honours in Drama at the University of Queensland, before moving to Melbourne to further pursue his interest in queer spaces and communities.

Regan has worked as as a performer, a director, a technical operator and a producer in Darwin, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Woodford Folk Festival, with his independent works featuring in such contexts as the ​Anywhere Theatre Festival, Darwin Fringe Festival, ​Midsumma Festival, Perth Fringeworld, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Wonderland Festival, the Brisbane Experimental Arts Festival and Metro Arts’ Creative Development Program.

ORCID number: 0000-0002-2110-6870