Social media, audiences, and audience co-creativity in\ud contemporary performance: Restoring balance?

Producers, technicians, performers, audiences and critics are all critical components of the\ud performing arts ecology – critical components of an ecosystem that have to come together\ud into some sort of productive relationship if the performing arts are to be vital, viable and\ud successful. Different performance practices developed in different times, spaces and\ud places do, of course, connect these players in different ways as part of their attempt to\ud achieve their own definition of success, be it based on entertainment, educational,\ud expression, empowerment, or something else. In some contemporary performance\ud practices, social media platforms, applications and processes are seen to have significant\ud potential to restore balance to the relationship between performer and audience, providing\ud audiences with more power to participate in a performance event. In this paper, I\ud investigate prevailing assumptions about social media’s power to democratise\ud performance practice, or, at least, develop more co-creative performance practices in\ud which producers, performers and audiences participate actively before, during and after\ud the event. I focus, in particular, on the use of social media as a means of developing a\ud participatory aesthetic in which an audience member is asked to contribute to the cast of\ud characters, plot or progression of a performance. Although diverse – from performances\ud streamed online, to performances that offer transmedia components the audience can use\ud to learn more about character, context and plot online, to performances that incorporate\ud online voting, liking or linking, to performances that unfold fully online on websites, blogs,\ud microblogs or other social media platforms – what a lot of uses of social media in\ud contemporary performance today share is a desire to encourage audiences to reflect on\ud their role in making, and making meaning, of the event. In this paper I interrogate if, and if\ud so how, this democratises or develops deeper levels of co-creativity in the relationship\ud between producers, performers and audiences