Friday, October 30, 2009
We ask that you now turn off all cell phones and pagers. Enjoy the show!
Technology in the Arts: "Corwin wrote a great post a month or two ago about the new technologies that museums have started to implement to increase interactivity with their patrons. I thought it might be interesting to explore the performing arts side of things."
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16 comments:
I had no idea that cell phones turned on during a performance in New York has been actually illegal since 2003. I always thought of it as a common courtesy rather that a cut and dry law, though I suppose a cell phone interruption during a performance is on par with unwanted second hand smoke in a restaurant. I find it very interesting that some venues are being more cellphone friendly, adding texting sections and trying to text audience members. But I find that use of a cell phone at all during a performance detracts from the show and ruins it for others.
While I think the idea of more audience interaction is always an interesting idea, I do not think that doing this through cell phones is necessarily a good idea. From what I can tell, most people have very annoying and disrupting cell phone ringers because they are hard to miss, and while a "silent" function does exist on most phones these days, the vibration of the phone still can create enough noise to be annoying. I just can not see a way that encouraging patrons to leave cell phones on during a performance wouldn't backfire.
Interactivity in shows would be great for Disney, but not in a serious drama. I feel it would only be a distraction. The examples the author gave at the end of the article would work just as well as a fact page on a playbill. There is no need to have it texted to you during a show.
When I was in Canada a while back at the Montreal science museum, they had a new show where the audience chose the direction the show would take by hitting buttons on the seat infront of them. Perhaps this could be intergrated in someway to have an audience text their opinion when given a choice on an actors decision, which would change the direction the show takes. For me, that would be a cool intergration, not a distraction.
I agree that finding a way to have audience interaction could add to a performance, but I also don't think that cell phones should be the way to go with it. I think it is clever how the one theatre mentioned in the article played a phone ringing over the PA before announcements started. I think sometimes people forget and don't even think about their phones, and this seems like an interesting way for them to subtly remind the audience to check that they are turned off.
I agree with TiffHunsicker that the cell phone sound prior to the show is a good way to remind audiences to turn off their phones. Many people seem to just forget that they have a phone with them and that it may be on, volume or vibrate. However, it may be interesting to incorporate cell phones into a performance. Bringing a new media or a new element to a show could be a nice push for theatre. While this may backfire for other "regular" shows, it would be interesting to see how someone could incorporate audience cell phones into a show.
Interactivity is something that is becoming more and more neccesary in the entertainment business. Disney is following it, music is and now theater is moving in that direction. Although I don't think using cellphones is the absolute best way to connect an audience, and make a show more interactive with facts about the playwright and story, but the general idea is something I really support. It creates a sense of control by an individual on the action taking place and since it is live it makes it even stronger connection then in music, film or disney rides. Theater needs to become more interactive or it will die like the other arts.
While I am all for interactivity, this seems a bit ridiculous. I am sure there is a use for texting and cell phones in the theater, but texting in the back row and texting performance notes during the show IS NOT ONE OF THEM. The theatrical community is moving toward actor and audience interactivity with the technology and the show itself. This is great, as long as one considers how this interactivity will change the show, because sometimes it is not appropriate. Like all art, there must be a creative, artistic reason behind everything that appears in the world. Just a random, unrelated note about interactivity in theater: wouldn't it be cool to have a scent designer on a show?
While I feel that interactivity during a show using cell phones might be a decent idea, more of me believes that this would just a distraction to the audience, and would provide a disconnect between them and the action on stage. A production on it's own should be able to support itself without resorting something like this. It should be the actors and the drama onstage that engage the audience, not some extra that they get to play with on their phone. While I'm all for interactivity in the theater, I don't think using cell phones are the way to go about it.
There may of course be some shows in which interactivity across cellphones is appropriate and actually adds to the show rather than a rather stupid gimmick, however for most shows this is not the case. Theatres are a place where is a performance is happening, the phones are OFF. Not silent, OFF.
Also I don't understand the point of texting night. If you want to communicate with people, go visit those people instead of playing money to see a show.
In a movie theater it's just as rude except your phone going off won't effect the movie. In a live theatrical event your phone can destroy the entire pacing of the show.
Don't bring theatre down to the level of text-addicts, make them learn a major skill in life: How to turn your cellphone OFF. not silent, OFF.
There were many aspects of this article that I found interesting, perhaps most so was the part of a theatre that played a cell phone ring before the show. It's just human nature to want to check to make sure it is not yours and that your phone is indeed off. I know for myself, whenever I hear a phone ring in a theatre or class, I instinctively check mine, even if I KNOW it is off. Not so much that I think it was mine that rang, but I just know how much I would hate to be "that guy"
I do not think that getting the audience to interact through their cell phones is a good idea. The theatre is supposed to be an engaging event as a whole. You are supposed to benefit from not only the performance but theatre going as an experience, which includes the place and the interactions with the people around you. I firmly believe that cell phones do not contribute to this interaction. More and more we pend so much time communicating and experiencing things through technology. connected to each other through intangible means, I firmly believe we must experience some things without needing to use a cellphone or other to keep us interested or takes us away from the experience at hand. Theatre is one of those things.
I hate the idea of texting the audience program notes. My problem with it is not the actually text, it's that once someone turns on their phone, they will get distracted by other things. I have an iPhone, like many many other people, and I know that once I turn on my phone to do one thing, I end up doing many other things like check my email, check other texts, check the weather, basically everything else. I also hate that light that phones give off once they're turned on. It is really distracting to everyone else around.
I always use my cell phone on vibrate. The ringer is usually either unheard, or wouldn't be welcome in the environment where I am at. I have texted during movies before and once or twice during a performance, but it is always a necessary situation that I need to let someone know something right away. It is interesting to read about New York's cell phone law. I never knew you could be prosecuted for texting during a performance.
Some people seem to be almost addicted to their phones. As someone only recently out of the classroom as a teacher I would constantly deal with students who insisted on checking their phones or texting during class (at least nobody tried to make a phone call), the eventual response was that the school administration issued a decree that any phone seen was to be taken and delivered to the office. Even that didn't make much of a difference. When asking people to be courteous doesn't work, and risking having their phone taken away doesn't either, it seems like we're dealing with a losing battle.
The FCC has decided that actively jamming cell phone transmissions is illegal, but there's still no law against enclosing the house in metal mesh (inside the walls, doors, etc.) to prevent the cell phone signals from ever getting in. Maybe if the phones are suddenly inert bricks inside the theater they'll finally get the message.
Wow, for something illegal, it is sure done a lot.
Anyway, in reaction to using cell phones as a tool within a performance... you are just asking for trouble. At least I know that if I have my iPhone in my hand... I am going to check it if it buzzes.
However, I do believe that interactivity is an interesting direction especially for the types of productions that Disney would do. Getting the audience to interact would bring a performance to more of a Disney land ride, than a theatrical performance. How I feel about that... I don't know...
Quantum Theater made an attempt two summers ago to incorporate cell phones into their production of Cymbaline. The venue was outdoors and the audience lit, so use of cell phone backlights were not as disruptive as in a darkened theater. I don't think cell phone use itself is disruptive: it's the light that the screen makes. The article notes this, but as technology gets more advanced, will there be some way to get past that hurtle? Can we incorporate some remote interaction with mechanical parts instead of LCD screens? I think it's worth a shot, it will just take some creativity.
I do like the trick of playing a cell phone ring over the sound system before the show starts. Movie theaters often employ the same trick and it's a quite a clever use of human psychology.
And using technology to "enhance" the performance isn't exactly right. If a company is using it for the sake of using it, then the question the article asks is legitimate; we should not use gimmicks just because we can. But if we figure out how to truly integrate our technological lives with our artistic ones, we could be on the verge of an incredible new performance art.
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