transmission
audiences are not passive. an experienced performer will acknowledge (in some manner) the audience. therefore, most performances are interactive. this (in very general terms) is what post-structuralism and intertextuality teach us.
just ‘turning up’ means you contribute to the performance. that’s not to say your contribution is significant. it simply means that you are never a passive, detached, or direct recipient of a works meaning/content. the location of your seat affects your view, and within that visual field your eye wanders. there is no ‘single’ audience perspective.
an artist/choreograper (author) may use audience actions to trigger pre-determined responses. this gives the impression of increased interactivity, but only the ‘right’ cues will be have an effect. the cues can be general (mirror movement) or specific (do x when you see y), but the structure (score, choreography) is already in place.
say we have a dance work in which the audience vote via text for what happen next. after a section of dancing the audience are given 3 options for what happens next. if this occurs five times the total number of possible sequences is 243 (3^5).
if the audience can select the order of a set (n) of sequences (without repetition), then the total number of permutations is n!. e.g. if a dance have five sections, there are 120 permutations (5!).
in both cases, the audience is responding to the structure. this is no more interactive than the audience of a ‘set’ work, or the call and response in a pantomime. (oh no it isn’t, oh yes it is …).
interaction is smoke and mirrors engagement. you (subserviently) learn the structure of participation or/and are blind to effect of your actions. the allure of the word leads to you believe you are ‘empowered’. the audience is always in a position on power, but all too often they (willingly) give it up.
ever tried to leave, or get on the ‘stage’ in a work that attempts to remove the barrier between audience and performer. your freedom to interact/engage is limited, and usually under the guise of ‘heath and safety’.
all interactions follow rules/structures; they can be predefined, or emerge over time. every performance setting has rules, and few people disrupt/challenge them.
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