Updated abstract

“Jumbie , Jumbie dey … outta body back to yuhself! …”

The chant shook the crowd, threatening to uncork the bottled up energy of the masqueraders. This was our stomping ground and nothing could hold us back. We were ready to display ourselves, to play ourselves. The movements of the body could not be controlled as hips,waists, arms and legs pelted rhythmically to the sounds of the music. This ‘Jumbie’ character was ready to come out; every sense had brimmed and was now overflowing in a mess of sweat, feathers, rain and beads. Rushing forward toward the stage, I was hit with the vibrations of voices, music and gyrating bodies that left me speechless, breathless and removed. Floating out of body I could see the chaos of the streets below and the mass of open mouths singing, laughing and smiling. It was in that moment I saw the sweet revelry of an island that I felt more than ever I belonged to. I held this moment, wondering what it was, why it happened and when again I could soak up this joyous experience. It is with this thesis I choose to find the answers to these questions.

Ecstasy is defined as an overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement, Its origin comes from the Greek word ‘ekstasis’ which means to ‘stand outside of oneself’. Festival is an outlet for ecstatic revelation which is expressed through the people and the architectural domains they occupy. There are many different types of festivals but factors which remains common to all are: Voluntary participation, celebration in excess and its occurrences outside of ordinary life. This is present in the Carnival of Trinidad and Tobago where for two days a city and its people are turned upside down and inside out in the chaos of costumes, music and dance. It acknowledges and embraces the play world as both event and place and uses both the body and the city it occupies as its site. Built on this site are the costumes and the stages through which the epic culmination of ecstatic joy is experienced. The role and nature of these architecture domains and the bodies which occupy them are to be explored through a narrative which studies the transformation that occurs during the excesses of carnival and its donation toward that moment of ‘ecstasy’ and illusions of Utopia.