Who is the Audience: A Study on the Construction of Auditory Society in the 21st Century
Research synopsis
Who is the audience? Is it a universal entity? Or is it a social, political, aesthetic (or imaginary) construct that abide by the times of ours? What are the peculiarities of the audience today that separate them from the audience in the past? Does the audience have power to change anything? Does it desire such power? What power does the audience have on the creation of art, particularly, of music and sound art?
This research project investigates the construction of the audience in the twenty-first century. Especially, its focus is on auditory society, which has emerged amid the advancements of information technologies married with consumerism and fetishised individualism at its another height, aptly coined as ‘I-Culture’ by Dyson (2005).
One the one hand, examining the ontology of the audience today is a socio-aesthetic project, untangling a fascinating amalgam of sticky topics like power, subjectivity, consumerism, imagination and fetishism. On the other hand, it requires us to expand the scope of our project into the history of the audience, taking a few key moments in its history as pivotal points that have shaped its structure, and into the role of technology (technê).
Research Team
- Suk-Jun Kim | Project Leader
Who is the audience?
