If you’ve been online recently, browsing in search of something to fill an empty evening, you will probably have run across The Hot Mess Project, the intersectional arts group who are quietly shaking up Oxford’s nightlife. With an Instagram full of striking visuals and a Google drive full of digicam pictures from their club night collaborations with Phaser and Isis, it’s hard to believe the project began only last academic year. I (virtually) sat down with Mindy, the Music student behind the project, to reflect on this success and what it means for Oxford’s creative scene.
Cherwell: We might as well begin with the name – why ‘hot mess’?
Mindy: I wanted something fun, not too serious, and something that would encapsulate the energy of the project – but I basically own a pair of bright pink tights that say ‘HOT MESS’ on them, so the inspiration wasn’t too hard to find!
Cherwell: How did the project come about?
Mindy: I set it up at the end of Michaelmas in my first year (currently second year), after my conducting teacher suggested I run a small chamber concert to get some experience in the area. This, however, snowballed, and I basically added about 30 of my friends/acquaintances who I knew were creatively minded to a group chat on Instagram and pitched the idea to them. The idea being that I wanted to set up a womxn and queer-led collective to put on a large multimedia project at the end of the year. I was really pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm for it: even though only 20-30 people ended up staying on through the year, we did have about 60 people on the group chat at one time, and we’re still knocking about, so I guess we must be doing something right!
Cherwell: To my understanding, you’re an intersectional arts collective encouraging feminist creativity. Was the project begun to fill a conspicuous gap in the Oxford art scene?
Mindy: Definitely not! As said before it really just started as a single project scheme, but then we gained so much traction and it had so much positive reception from people – who did somewhat view it as filling a gap of sorts – and I decided to keep it going this year. And as part of that I restructured The Hot Mess Project a bit and gave it a more obvious set of principles in the manifesto, with one of the main being this sense of community. That’s what I feel Oxford has been missing – there are definitely some great societies that involve art, or drama, or music, all very separate and pretending to be fair and accessible, but if you speak to any involved in OUDS [Oxford University Dramatic Society] or OUMS [Oxford University Music Society] or the student mags it’s a different story. The reason we have a WhatsApp community for one is so that people can share the stuff that they’re working on more easily with like minded people who can opt in and out whenever. I don’t know if we’re filling a gap in Oxford, but I’m just happy to be a part of the scene in general and have people take notice!
Cherwell: The Hot Mess Project is also unashamedly political – you gave part of the profits from the Meet Me in the Bathroom club night to Oxfam Palestine, for instance. How important do you think artistic expression is in terms of politicising people and raising awareness? Are things like clubbing, dance nights, open mic poetry, or art shows inherently political?
Mindy: Everything is political! You can’t convince me that it isn’t – even the absence of political intention is political, because we are all affected by these political choices made by our governments, and the principles that have raised us to believe certain things (which are political even if not in relation to UK government politics). I think art is an amazing tool for raising awareness because it really does catch you out sometimes – as in someone might just being going to watch a concert, and then be moved in such a way that they’re reminded of their own humanity, reminded that others are robbed of this joy, and therefore urged to do something about it. And even in very obliquely political art there is so much emotion behind it because creatives are able to catch the human being of it all, which I think is really unique and special. Clubbing as a woman is a very political act in various different ways, but you can see the different ways in which people go out and dance indicating their differing political beliefs (trust me). Plus who doesn’t love going out on a week night and excusing it by saying it’s ‘feminist’!
Cherwell: What I find really interesting is that the Hot Mess Project isn’t specialised to one art form – you host everything from workshops to showcases – and is dedicated to increasing the collaboration between STEM and humanities subjects. What do you gain by having all these different disciplines in dialogue?
Mindy: It’s the play for me – by getting all these people together from different subjects/experiences/skill levels people are really inspired to play with their own art form in new ways, whether that be presenting scientific research through sculpture or working on musical improvisation in combination with a poet. And again I can’t stress enough how much community is key to my understanding of the arts. Without connection to each other and dialogue then how can we ever hope to learn new things about ourselves?
Cherwell: Oxford’s feminist scene seems to be blossoming at the moment, with the Cuntry Living zine, Bluestockings magazine, and you guys. Are you in conversation with the other feminist societies in Oxford? And why do you think this revival is happening now? Is it a new kind of feminism from what has been done before?
Mindy: I’m really hyped by the feminist scene in Oxford at the moment, not just because it seems like there are lots of societies to get involved with but because there are all these conversations happening in the normal world – like at the pub or with my mates. The feminist is no longer an outlier in public circles. The magazines are very busy so we haven’t had any contact with them really this term, and we’re still relatively new and do run things very differently to them, which I think can be hard to navigate for some. I cannot stress enough that we are not a publication! We’ve had a few convos with WocSoc, Kolour Theory, and Femsoc, which have been really fun – it’s interesting to talk with other groups about how they are trying to navigate the political mush that is Oxford (see our livestreams on Insta!). And we are doing a few more [collaborations] next term, including with Bluestocking. I’m not sure if it’s new feminism, or just what happens when people get to uni? Potentially both – the excitement of being able to really be yourself amongst a supportive community, plus the more extreme right wing stuff we’ve seen in the media lately – it’s fucking scary! So I think it’s a bit of community, and a bit of realising that we do in fact have a voice within that community to do things and educate others for the better to protect ourselves.
Cherwell: You guys also have a substack, along with what seems like every other person at Oxford. Why do you think there’s been such a growth in what is essentially social media for essay writers?
Mindy: Lol I’m getting rid of the sub stack; I did have interest from writers to do articles but for us it’s actually just a bit too clean (not hot and messy enough). I guess the idea is that it’s a less intense form of publication – you don’t have to pay to print! But also the move to long form content is really nice to see, and I guess, in a narcissistic way, it’s another form of a diary, but people seem incapable of doing things for themselves so the sub stack performance is a good alternative [and incentive] I guess. Plus there are just so many interesting things out there that talk about the world at large without being as intense or depressing as reading through the BBC website!
You can find The Hot Mess Project at @the.hotmess.project – their upcoming projects include a collection of STEM related work on a digital archiving platform, and a mysterious event for international women’s day which they’re describing in teasers as “BIG”, in all caps. After what I’ve learnt from Mindy, the Hot Mess Project looks set to be big, indeed.
