1. presentation
According to arts management guru Ben
Cameron, “audiences are plummeting but artistic
participants are blooming” as a result of new
technology and the internet. How does the
modern producer of live arts adapt?

2. Digital: friend or foe?
• Is there a threat of the internet on leisure time?
• 2012 Olympics, Jubilee etc.
• Many shows/performances & festivals are selling
out.
• ACE claim that paid theatre attendances have on
the hole remained fairly stable
• Increasing number of cultural institutions &
pioneer artists are using digital technologies in a
way that is starting to have a very real impact on
audiences & the artform.

3. Stats…
• 6.9 billion people
• 30% are on the internet
• 15% decent bandwidth
• Video games are outselling music and movie
sales combined.
• Demand for a 24-7 culture + Personalisation

4. • Facebook
Pro-ams & Spec-actors
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Birth of the
• Google plus
participatory society
since 60s
• Vimeo
• Tumblr
• Participation has
become an expectation.
• Myspace
• Bebo
• Websites
• Club penguin
• Music videos (youtube +
• Linked in
MTV)
• Forums
• Advertising.
• Second Life
• Explosion of creativity • Soundcloud
ouside of the official
• Spotify
sphere of the artworld.
• Last fm
• Pro-ams / spec-actor
• Mash ups

5. A New cultural
renaissance
• The internet’s left side of
the brain has been built.
It’s right side can now fully
develop creatively, to
enrich & stimulate.
• “new opportunities will
come to pass only if
control of the technology
is taken from the
technologist and given to
those who understand
human beings, human
interaction,
communication, pleasure
& pain. It is time for
engineers to go back to
engineering.” (Donald A.
Norman)

6. Art & Science
• Historically art & science are polarized.
• New computer technologies have become an
interface for their mutual coexistence.
• Computing + drama theory are intrinsically
linked through interaction & action.
• Laurel’s influential Computers as theater.

7. What is “Liveness”?
• What do we mean by a “live” performance?
(physical and temporal co-presence of audience
and performers).
• The idea of “Live” performance born through
advancements in broadcast technology /
recording methods.
• Live broadcasts
• Recorded live
• Online liveness & group liveness
• Real time

8. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR
PERFORMANCE?

9. 1. New formats in performance
practice
• One-to-one performance
• Virtual environments
• Telematic performance using both new & old
technologies (web-conferencing, purpose-
built software, telephone).

10. 2. Integration of ICT + other state-of-
the-art technologies in performance
• Wearable technologies, sensors, motion
capture technologies, sound manipulation
technologies, virtual environments, online
communities, web-conferencing, audiovisual
technologies, VJing, Web 2.0 technologies
such as social networking sites & YouTube,
microcameras attached to the body etc

11. 3. Use of ICT as means of heightened
connectivity, intimate interaction & affect.
• How do digital technologies effect our qualities of human interaction &
sociability? Are they enabled or disabled?
• Do computers turn humans into digital objects / avatars?
• “The digital tends to the specular, the solitary, the pornographic, the
onanistic, the commodity. Can we play responsibly with each other in the
digital domain?” (T.Warr)
• What are the rules of communication facing an invisible audience?
• Is the idea of a replacement of physical encounters by mediated
encounters an illusion?
• Could a new form of public assembly emerge from the new distributed
space-time configuration?

12. Conclusion
• It used to be that cave and campfire were two
separate places. Cave for eating, sleeping, and
caring for loved ones. Campfire for sharing a
sense of community. Now, the campfire is no
longer bound to a place. It is a feeling. A
feeling that could come about from Facebook,
YouTube, or twitter feed. Nor is it bound to
the presence of others.” (Warren Stringer).