deadbutante ball

context

a one-night southern-gothic masquerade: a continuous evening of djs and live performances inside a decaying-estate fiction the guests inhabited in costume.

constraint

the whole evening had to build to one scheduled moment: the midnight introduction of the deadbutantes. the music had to sustain the room for hours without peaking early, then land precisely on that beat.

intervention

a continuous dj and live-performance program, tuned to sit under the candlelight and fog rather than over them, pacing the room toward the midnight reveal.

outcome

set by set, the music circled the midnight introduction for hours. when the deadbutantes entered, it finally landed.

photography mirko clarke