Involving the Audience in Music and Sound Events

Music has always been a communal activity. Yet modern Western concert culture has largely reduced audiences to passive observers. This talk challenges this convention by exploring how technology can help restore the historically participatory and collaborative spirit of musical practice. Drawing on anthropological perspectives, this presentation traces the evolution of the audience-performer relationship and asks: what are we losing? Can we get it back?

The talk will include attendees of music events (concerts, installations) in an active manner, from social musicking to co-composing. Together this ‘modern opera’ will be a multidisciplinary live experience where technology seamlessly integrates music, drama, dance, lighting and audience interaction. Lessons learned from deployments across multiple contexts will be shared, alongside a discussion of the design challenges, open questions, and future directions for audience participation technology in live music.