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Producing Liveness: The Trials of Moving Folk Clubs Online During the Global Pandemic

S. Benford,P. Mansfield,J. Spence

Published 2021 in International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

ABSTRACT

The global pandemic has driven musicians online. We report an ethnographic account of how two traditional folk clubs with little previous interest in digital platforms transitioned to online experiences. They followed very different approaches: one adapted their existing singaround format to video conferencing while the other evolved a weekly community-produced, pre-recorded show that could be watched together. However, despite their successes, participants ultimately remained unable to ‘sing in chorus’ due to network constraints. We draw on theories of liveness from performance studies to explain our findings, arguing that HCI might orientate itself to online liveness as being co-produced through rich participatory structures that dissolve traditional distinctions between live and recorded and performer and audience. We discuss how participants appropriated existing platforms to achieve this, but these in turn shaped their practices in unforeseen ways. We draw out implications for the design and deployment of future live performance platforms.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2021

  • Venue

    International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  • Publication date

    2021-05-06

  • Fields of study

    Sociology, Computer Science

  • Identifiers
    DOI 10.1145/3411764.3445125
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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