Research

Shut your eyes, and for a moment remember the best bar and beverage that you have ever experienced. What was it like? What made that experience the best? What elements collided to create your experience? Did you saunter with socialites and their "Grey Goose martinis, extra dry, shaken not stirred, with a zest?" Or was "slumming it" with a couple of Lone Star beers at your local dive more your style? Did go-go dancers rain from the sky under the stars of colored lights, or did the Johnny Walker Green Label simply rain from your own personal bar under the stars of your own back porch?

Regardless of the circumstances recounted, I'm willing to bet that many elements came together that evening to make the complete experience. For example, take the following items.

1. glass
2. ice
3. tonic
4. gin

combine.

1. gin and tonic

When mixed correctly, the action of combining of the separate and distinct entities creates a superior entity. In other words, if you mix the right things together, you will end up with something better than the sum of the seperate parts.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, mixology is defined as: the art of mixing drinks.

OPUS is an example of what I call Academic Mixology. Academic Mixology might be defined as: the reorganization, reclassification, and recombination of academic disciplines. Academic Mixology lives amongst dominant practices, emergent culture, historical reflexivity and technological augmentation. Academic Mixology integrates multiple disciplines. In the case of OPUS, these included art, architecture, fashion, music, film, social science, subculture and street culture. I collected images and works that would influence the production and would reveal the underpinnings of its Mix.

Images & Details