🎭Performance Art Unit 7 – Audience Interaction in Performance Art

What's This Unit All About?

• Explores the dynamic relationship between performers and audiences in performance art
• Focuses on strategies and techniques artists use to actively engage spectators
• Examines how audience interaction can shape the meaning and impact of a performance
• Investigates the historical context and evolution of participatory art practices
• Highlights key concepts such as co-creation, immersion, and shared experience
• Discusses ethical considerations and boundaries when involving audiences directly
• Provides practical exercises and workshops to develop interactive performance skills
• Situates audience interaction within the broader landscape of contemporary performance art

Key Concepts in Audience Interaction

• Participation involves actively engaging audiences in the creative process or performance
  • Can range from simple actions (clapping, singing along) to more complex involvement (improvising, co-creating)
• Immersion refers to creating an all-encompassing sensory experience for the audience
  • Often involves transforming the performance space and blurring boundaries between art and reality
• Co-creation positions the audience as collaborators in shaping the content or direction of a performance
  • Requires open-ended structures and improvisation to incorporate audience input
• Shared experience emphasizes the collective nature of interactive performances
  • Fosters a sense of community and connection among participants
• Empowerment aims to give audiences agency and influence over the artwork
  • Challenges traditional power dynamics between artists and spectators
• Unpredictability is inherent in interactive performances due to the variable nature of audience involvement
  • Requires flexibility and adaptability from performers to respond to spontaneous developments
• Intimacy can be heightened through direct engagement and personal interactions with audience members
  • Demands careful consideration of boundaries and consent

Historical Context and Evolution

• Early 20th-century avant-garde movements (Futurism, Dada, Surrealism) challenged conventional audience roles
  • Incorporated provocative actions and audience confrontation to disrupt passive spectatorship
• Happenings in the 1950s and 60s further blurred lines between art and life, often involving audience participation
  • Artists like Allan Kaprow and Yoko Ono created open-ended, immersive environments that required audience engagement
• Fluxus artists in the 1960s and 70s emphasized playfulness, chance, and audience interaction in their performances
  • Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece" (1964) invited audience members to cut away her clothing, exploring vulnerability and trust
• Performance art in the 1970s and 80s often addressed social and political issues, using audience interaction to raise awareness
  • Suzanne Lacy's "The Crystal Quilt" (1987) engaged older women in a large-scale, participatory performance exploring aging and female identity
• Relational aesthetics in the 1990s focused on creating social situations and encounters as the basis for artistic experience
  • Rirkrit Tiravanija's "Untitled (Free)" (1992) transformed galleries into communal spaces where audiences could interact and share meals
• Contemporary performance artists continue to innovate with technology, social media, and immersive environments to engage audiences
  • Blast Theory's "Can You See Me Now?" (2001) used GPS and online interactions to create a city-wide, participatory game blending virtual and physical spaces

Techniques for Engaging Audiences

• Direct address involves speaking to or interacting with audience members individually
  • Can create a sense of intimacy and personal connection
• Physical interaction encourages audiences to use their bodies and senses to engage with the performance
  • Might involve touch, movement, or sensory experiences (taste, smell, sound)
• Improvisation allows for spontaneous, unscripted interactions between performers and audiences
  • Requires active listening, adaptability, and trust in the collaborative process
• Participatory tasks or challenges invite audiences to contribute their skills, ideas, or creativity
  • Can range from simple prompts (writing a poem, drawing a picture) to more complex activities (building a structure, solving a puzzle)
• Role-play and character embodiment allow audiences to step into different perspectives or narratives
  • Encourages empathy, imagination, and personal investment in the performance
• Technology and multimedia can facilitate interaction through digital interfaces, social media, or augmented reality
  • Enables remote participation, real-time feedback, and data-driven experiences
• Immersive environments and site-specific locations can create a sense of shared presence and heightened engagement
  • Transforms familiar spaces or creates entirely new worlds for audiences to explore
• Post-performance discussions and reflections provide opportunities for deeper engagement and processing
  • Allows audiences to share their experiences, insights, and questions with performers and each other

Case Studies: Successful Interactive Performances

• Marina Abramović's "The Artist is Present" (2010) involved the artist sitting silently across from individual audience members, creating intense, personal encounters
  • Over 1,500 people participated in the three-month performance at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
• Punchdrunk's "Sleep No More" (2011) is an immersive, site-specific adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, allowing audiences to explore a multi-floor, theatrical environment at their own pace
  • Audiences wear masks and interact with performers, discovering hidden scenes and narratives throughout the space
• Kaleider's "The Money" (2013) is a participatory game where audience members decide how to spend a real pot of money, exploring themes of democracy, collective decision-making, and social responsibility
  • The performance has been staged in various locations worldwide, adapting to local contexts and currencies
• Gob Squad's "Super Night Shot" (2003) involves performers filming a "movie" on the streets of a city, interacting with passersby and inviting them to participate in improvised scenes
  • The resulting footage is edited in real-time and screened for a live audience, blurring boundaries between fiction and reality
• Mammalian Diving Reflex's "Haircuts by Children" (2006) trains children to give haircuts to adult audience members, challenging age-based power dynamics and fostering intergenerational dialogue
  • The performance has been presented in schools, festivals, and community centers around the world, adapting to local contexts and participants
• Rimini Protokoll's "100% City" (2008) creates a living, statistical portrait of a city by bringing together 100 residents representative of the local population demographics
  • Participants share personal stories, opinions, and experiences, creating a collective narrative of the city's diversity and complexity

Ethical Considerations and Boundaries

• Informed consent ensures that audience members understand the nature and expectations of their participation
  • Provides clear information about potential risks, discomforts, or triggers
• Respect for autonomy allows participants to choose their level of engagement and opt-out at any time
  • Avoids coercion or pressure to participate beyond personal boundaries
• Protecting privacy and confidentiality is crucial when working with personal stories or sensitive information
  • Establishes trust and creates a safe space for sharing
• Addressing power dynamics and privilege is important when engaging diverse audiences
  • Considers how factors like race, gender, class, and ability might impact participation and experience
• Providing emotional support and aftercare is necessary when dealing with intense or challenging content
  • Offers resources, debriefing, or follow-up conversations to process experiences
• Culturally sensitive and context-specific approaches adapt to the needs and norms of different communities
  • Avoids cultural appropriation, stereotyping, or exploitation
• Collaborating with community partners and stakeholders can ensure ethical engagement and reciprocal benefits
  • Builds trust, incorporates local knowledge, and addresses community-identified needs
• Ongoing reflection and dialogue among artists, participants, and audiences can help navigate ethical challenges and refine practices
  • Encourages transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to feedback

Practical Exercises and Workshops

• Icebreakers and warm-ups help build trust, rapport, and a sense of play among participants
  • Examples include name games, mirroring exercises, and group improvisation
• Sensory awareness activities heighten perception and attunement to the environment and other people
  • Might involve blindfolded explorations, sound walks, or tactile experiences
• Storytelling and personal narrative exercises encourage vulnerability, empathy, and self-expression
  • Prompts can range from sharing childhood memories to reflecting on social issues
• Movement and embodiment practices explore nonverbal communication, physical presence, and spatial relationships
  • Can include contact improvisation, gesture work, or choreographic tasks
• Vocal techniques and singing exercises develop listening skills, harmonization, and collective voice
  • Might involve call-and-response, rounds, or improvised vocalizations
• Collaborative creation and devising processes foster shared ownership and investment in the work
  • Can include brainstorming, storyboarding, or collectively generating material
• Facilitation and active listening skills are essential for guiding participatory experiences and responding to group dynamics
  • Involves setting clear expectations, reading the room, and adapting to emergent needs
• Reflection and debriefing sessions provide opportunities for participants to process, integrate, and apply their learning
  • Can include journaling, group discussions, or action planning for future projects

How This Fits into Modern Performance Art

• Audience interaction reflects a broader shift towards participatory, socially engaged, and process-based art practices
  • Challenges traditional notions of authorship, spectatorship, and the art object
• Intersects with other contemporary art forms and disciplines, such as relational aesthetics, social practice, and community-based art
  • Blurs boundaries between art, activism, education, and social work
• Responds to changing audience expectations and desires for more immersive, personalized, and meaningful experiences
  • Taps into a growing interest in co-creation, interactivity, and user-generated content
• Leverages new technologies and platforms for remote, asynchronous, and networked forms of participation
  • Enables global connections, real-time feedback, and data-driven experiences
• Addresses pressing social, political, and environmental issues through embodied, collaborative, and localized actions
  • Fosters dialogue, empathy, and collective imagination around shared challenges
• Contributes to the democratization and decentralization of art-making, challenging elite institutions and gatekeepers
  • Empowers diverse voices, communities, and perspectives to shape cultural narratives
• Offers new models for artistic sustainability, impact, and evaluation beyond traditional metrics of success
  • Prioritizes process, relationships, and transformative experiences over commodifiable outcomes
• Pushes the boundaries of what constitutes performance, expanding the field into everyday life, public space, and virtual realms
  • Invites a re-examination of the role and responsibility of the artist in society